In the early days, Instagram was full of funny videos of animals, inspirational quotes, and selfies and a few posts from businesses. But the situation is entirely different now. A large number of companies have started using Instagram because many features like Instagram Stories benefit businesses today. Instagram has turned out to be the most preferred visual marketing platform. Research data reports that more Instagram users engage with brand content than Facebook users. With that said, Instagram Stories have an unlimited potential to convey messages that become viral in a short period.
Most of the brands today use Instagram Stories, especially to promote new products. Posting a demo video of how a product works makes it extremely convenient for users to decide whether or not the product will meet their requirements. Marketers and brands of all niche could post a story of their products or services to make them famous. One more way to popularize new products is to buy real Instagram Story Views for the specific product videos that can hold your followers to watch the whole story video to generate sales.Now let us dig into some of the Instagram features that you might not have used so far. Be informed that the following techniques are already experimented and yielded positive results for many people.
Post replies for comments
Interaction is the key to constant engagement, and that is why Instagram made it possible for users to like and reply to comments. In such a scenario, it becomes 200% likely to engage your target audience with your profile. Also, you can initiate discussions through direct messages and participate in other discussions as well. Instagram also helps businesses such that they can hide comments that include offensive and annoying words. Users can also block negative comments and trolls by specifying a list of keywords.
Save Posts as Drafts
Images and videos included in posts can be saved as Drafts for later purposes like editing an image, Setting up hashtags, Insert attracting captions, and to tag people on posts when the need arises. To enable this feature, double-tap the back arrow. Now you will see two options, namely, “Discard” and “Save Draft”. Choosing “Save Draft” will save your post and can be viewed later. Business users can stay cool because this feature eliminates them from having to take screenshots of their images.
Instagram Live
Users can go live to stream videos in real-time through Instagram Stories. But remember, there is still not an inbuilt feature available to record or save the hosted session. Live videos will disappear once the session is over and cannot be posted to your feed to be viewed by your users. The following are the steps for broadcasting a live video:
- Swipe from the right of your account’s home screen
- Click on “Start Live Video” option to go live
A text “live” appears under your profile image to show your followers that you are currently live and about to post a story. The Instagram Live feature can be used to host live Q & A sessions, online tutorial classes, to show event experiences, etc. Third-party screen recorders can be used to record the live session.
Power Up with WordPress
Integrating Instagram into a business’ WordPress website will let your followers know that you’re active right now. The feature enables your audience to see any content posted directly on your site. The following are the steps to integrate Instagram with WordPress:
- Open the post to embed it into the WordPress website.
- Click on the three dots(…) at the bottom right
- Choose “Embed Link” to generate the embed code.
Now you can copy the embed code and paste into the WordPress editor where you want to display the Instagram content. One thing to note here is that anyone with the link can now view the content. And only your followers would be able to see the content if it was on Instagram alone. This feature is so simple that it does not require downloading software or installing plugins.
“Instagram Feed” Plugin
The Instagram-Feed Plugin was developed by the famous WordPress plugin development company, SmashBalloon, and has tons of customization elements. The best thing is the plugin inherits the colors, fonts, and styles that your WordPress theme follows that eliminates much of the work to be done. To integrate your geed, copy and paste the shortcode into any post or widget on your website. Below are some highlights of the plugin:
- In-built carousel feature
- Shortcodes for customization
- Filter posts by content type
- Photo captions, like and comments
Display a Badge
Instagrammers can now include a badge on their blogs and brand websites using the Instagram badge feature, enabling website visitors to view Instagram content and drive more engagement. Having a badge on your website can increase views on Instagram stories. The following are the steps to create a badge:
- Open your Instagram profile and choose Badges
- Select the desired badge and copy the code
- Insert the copied code in a text widget
Now you can notice that the link to your Instagram profile is displayed in the sidebar.
Wrapping Up
Like Instagram Stories, other features of Instagram, too, can generate more revenue for your business. Using the above-discussed features in some of your Instagram posts with the right consistency can captivate your audiences and improve your upshot.
