Sharing photos is now one of the most utilized functions for business and consumers on social media. Few social media sites have been able to capitalize on this trend as well as Instagram has. The photo-sharing app has already grown to 40 million users that generate 3.5 billion likes every single day. What’s even more impressive is that the app has only been around for 5 years.
Businesses understand that they need to be where consumers are. Instagram provides a platform that grants businesses access to millions of consumers everyday. It’s clearly important to the economy today. Yet if it’s so important, why does nobody understand how to use the app to increase web traffic?
If you Google how to increase web traffic through Facebook and Twitter, you’ll be overwhelmed with almost 200 million results. If you do the same for Instagram, Google yields just 9 million results. Why is there such a discrepancy? Why is nobody talking about Instagram? The app competes with the amount of users, but it seems that businesses are ignorant to its benefits.
Or perhaps businesses just do not understand how to use it correctly to increase web traffic. Here’s how you can leverage this app to increase your web traffic:
Provide Great Content
It goes without saying, but post only great content to win an audience and have them click over to your website. There’s a tradeoff to this, though, and its much easier said than done. Images need to be realistic to fit in with consumers. A post that’s too professional may create a disconnect with users, but just an iPhone picture may not be attractive enough to win them over.
The key is to post professional looking photos that are relatable to your audience. The photos and videos you post should tap into what’s going on inside the heads of your visitors. Strive to solve a problem in a single post.
To relate to your audience, try to humanize your business on Instagram. Businesses have difficulty connecting with consumers because people forget that corporations comprised of people. Instagram enables businesses to demolish this disconnect. Take a look below at how Bonobos’s recent post accomplishes this:
During a blizzard in New York City, many people were likely dreaming of a tropical paradise. Bonobos wanted to show that they’re just like their customers and wish for the same thing. The image doesn’t look like it was taken in a studio with a professional photographer. There’s no clothing in the image and no sales pitch. It’s simply just an effort to empathize with consumers.
What’s great about this image, too, is that the 450 likes is one of the most liked images on Bonobos’s profile.
What’s this all for? When you begin to post relatable content, you audience becomes loyal to you. They’ll enjoy seeing your posts and will check out your profile, follow you, and click to your site.
As a side note, never screenshot a post from another social media site and share it on Instagram. This just screams laziness
Focus On Video
These days, almost everyone has a high-quality camera that fits into a back pocket. It’s incredibly easy to pull out this phone — I mean, camera — and snap a picture to upload. What’s the problem with this? Too many people are doing it. TechCrunch reports that users upload 40 million pictures every single day.
As easy as it is to post a video, few brands and businesses focus their Instagram efforts around the latter. In 2014, Nike began posting awesome videos that were exclusive to its Instagram followers. The result? A 200% increase in followers3. Nike had 4 million followers on the social platform in April 2014 but now boasts 34.4 million. Although their conversion rates are unknown, many followers became website visitors and customers.
Just think about scrolling down your on Instagram feed. You see dozens and dozens on pictures that take less than a second to admire. You’ll decide to like, comment, or keep on scrolling. When you come across an occasional video post, you actually wait around for a longer period of time to watch the video. The videos are only 15 seconds long, but this is 15x longer than the average time you spend looking at a picture post.
If you want users to click on your website, the key is to get them to look at your posts longer than they look at others. Videos take more effort and may be more expensive to produce, but it’s definitely worth it. The results speak for themselves.
Regularly Change the Link in your Biography
What’s different about Instagram is that it’s tougher to provide a Call-to-action (CTA) than it is to do on Facebook and Twitter. Instagram doesn’t allow you to post a direct link to your site on a post. Rather, the only link you can provide is in your bio. Where businesses go wrong is by providing a link to just their website homepage. How boring.
Although it’s inconvenient that you can’t easily share a link with your followers, there is some beauty to this. Human attention spans are shorter than that of a goldfish, so a user that takes the time to click on your profile and your link will be a valuable visitor. You captured their interest, and now they’re looking for more interesting content from you.
The problem with posting just a link to your homepage is it wastes the time of the visitor. Instead of guiding them to somewhere in your website where you want them to go, you are leaving it up to them to decide. And rather than focusing on making a decision, they will likely just go back to looking for funny cat videos. Opportunity wasted.
Instead, the link in your bio should reflect your personal goals for your website.
Just posted a new article and want people to read it? Post the link in your bio.
Create a new product that you want people to buy? Post the link in your bio.
Want to collect more email addresses through a landing page? Post the link in your bio.
Aim to get discovered
Finally, here are the last few tips to help you get discovered on Instagram and drive exposure to your website.
Be sure to use Instagram hashtags. But definitely don’t overdue it. Buffer reports that the highest interaction through hashtags occurs on posts with over 11 hashtags. While interaction is great, you don’t want to annoy your existing followers with a post that looks like its click-bait. If you desperately need more interaction, go for the 11 hashtags. You’ll definitely gain more web traffic. But once you’re more of a veteran on the platform, shoot for no more than 5.
Leverage influencers. Instagram is now famous (or infamous) for creating a wave of online influencers. Thousands of individuals have built large followings by posting about specific niches. There’s an influencer for every topic. The easiest way to get more followers, likes, and web traffic is to use the audiences these influencers have. Contact them via direct message or email, and ask them if they’d be willing to promote you on their profile. Many will charge for this service and will post your content for only a few hours. Although this may not seem ideal, they’re just preventing their profile from becoming too promotional. It actually works out better for you, since post impressions sharply drop after 6 hours. If you have many followers and reach out to an influencer in your niche, you can cross-promote each other’s content for no cost.
Finally, if all else fails, consider paying for advertising on Instagram. The app just opened its advertising solutions to all businesses and websites, so it may be wise to jump on this opportunity.
Originally published at theamericanidealist.com.