How brands can use Instagram Story to generate Leads

The growth of Instagram and other social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn has meant a shift in the way brands market themselves. A brand may once have been able to reach out to customers on these media platforms, but they quickly found that their reach had become extremely limited. They may have had a few followers in a specific location, but these followers would inevitably have been people with whom they had nothing in common. This created a problem when it came to engaging with prospective customers: where could these people find the brand that they were looking for? The answer to this was an Instagram Story. A short video or picture slide show, hosted on the Instagram page of the brand, would immediately invite an audience to join the brand and experience what it had to offer.

So how does an Instagram Story differ from a tweet or a Facebook status update? The main difference is that a Story is more interactive and personalised than a message posted on another platform. A brand can use its Instagram account to engage with followers, answering any questions they may have and showing off their products and services in a manner not possible on other social media channels. For large companies, this may seem like an unnecessary luxury: after all, if they are spending money advertising on television or the internet then their main goal is to promote and grow their business. However, the power of social media can be harnessed for this reason, as it gives a brand a unique opportunity to interact directly with its followers.

In order to create a Story, a company will need an Instagram account and a quality photograph or video of their product or service. The brand will then decide which social media platforms they want to post their Story onto. The most popular platforms at the moment are Facebook and Google+ but there are other lesser known venues that could be used. These include pages like Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and StumbleUpon, which will allow Instagram followers to vote for the brand, making their Story popular and increasing its exposure.

Once a Story has been submitted to one or more of these platforms, it should begin to gain momentum within a relatively short space of time. There will be comments, retweets and re-tweets from users, who will recognise the value of the brand and will talk about it with others. This can be enough to boost the visibility of a brand. If enough people are talking about a brand then it can appear on the newsfeeds of many of its competitors, giving it an advantage over rivals who haven’t optimised their social media presence. This is one of the key advantages of Instagram; by keeping a large following, a brand can ensure that any post it makes on the site will be seen by hundreds of its Instagram followers, who can then share the post with their networks. How brands can use Instagram to generate leads will depend entirely on their approach and their strategy for engaging with their followers.

If a brand is simply seeking to attract followers who are likely to buy their products/services then it may be successful in this strategy. However, if a brand is attempting to market its products/services in a branded way then it may need to focus more on engagement and user interaction to attract the right users, who are likely to be interested in what the brand has to say. The best way of finding out how brands can use Instagram to generate leads is to log on to the Instagram website and search for the number of followers for a brand. For example, if Instagram has 30 million followers, then this would be a good figure to aim for.

The more Instagram followers a brand has, the better chance it has of attracting attention and encouraging conversations that can help to sell a product/service. For example, a fashion brand may find that a post on Instagram encourages followers to talk about the brand, or how great the clothes are, or perhaps just ask whether they would buy the clothes. Learning how brands can use Instagram to generate leads is therefore important, as even small changes can have a large impact on a company’s business sales.