Social media has changed the face of online marketing forever. Social media has made affiliate marketing a lot effortless compared to the old days' email marketing methods. It is now more personal as social media accounts cannot pretend to spam and the users can choose whether to subscribe and follow them online or not. However, the disadvantage is that social media comes up with new features now and then and sort of makes the old features obsolete, so you probably need to come up with new marketing strategies every time.
Instagram is one of the most globally used social media websites nowadays with about 700 million users logging in almost every day. It is necessary for businesses to stay updated for them to stay relevant in the competition and also measure their success and customer reviews. Social media grants this the most. With communication and community being the pillars of any social media, it is not difficult to make Instagram a place to build up a community of loyal followers.
The old vs. the new
No matter how much social media gains popularity, email marketing will always be more personal as it is a complete one on one session. However, unlike social media, where the audience gets to choose to follow or not through email, they get spammed. Of course, they may not respond. Social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other social media sites for that matter, usually takes a more impersonal approach. On these sites, you can post something that can be addressed to every one of your followers. However, with an email or newsletter, your business can target and approach the contacts personally with each having their first, and the last name included. Naturally, it demands more attention and possibly will result in a better outcome.
Changes in Social media over the years
Social media has changed a lot since its beginning. They have no included this personal approach and giving value to the customers. Posts on social media now have mention, reply and tag option where the page or business owner can directly respond to any comment you feel worthy. Also, most social media sites now have started including the inbox feature in them, where your followers can personally contact you, and you can choose to respond. Also, there is this new feature on Instagram and a lot of other social media sites where you can post something for 24 hours or host a live event or Q&A sessions with your followers. These types of things do add a lot more trust in the brand.
Getting success on Instagram
Like any social media site, Instagram has its own set of rules. Firstly, Instagram is a photo-sharing app, so visually appealing content will grab more attention. Secondly, Instagram functions mostly on hashtags where you write something relevant to your content and theme and add hash symbol “#” at the beginning of the term without any space or any other special symbols. Instagram treats this as a hashtag, and if you click on them, you will be taken to the main search option of Instagram search page where your recent posts will be shown at the top.
What should you keep in mind while using Instagram for marketing?
There is one thing you should remember is that Instagram is a bustling site and for you achieve followers and likes, you need to be consistent and relevant. No post stays on a top search on Instagram for too long, and once it gets lost in the vast sea of search results, there is no finding it. So make sure that your post gets all the attention that it can get within the few minutes of it being posted. For this use a reasonable amount of tags that are relevant to your content. Presently Instagram allows up to 30 tags. However, you can opt for 10-15 right hashtags for optimum results.
Additional help in getting more followers
When you start using Instagram or whether you have been using it for a while, you might notice that liking or following people usually results in them coming over to your profile and liking, commenting and sometimes even following your profile. This is basic human curiosity, and any form of social media thrives on this basic human tendency. However, with your business setup and busy schedule, it might not always be possible to personally like and comment and follow every profile that might be relevant to you. This is where Gramista comes to your help. It is an app that can be used to automatically like, comment, follow or unfollow fellow Instagram users. It is a paid service but paying a little as an investment for your business should not worry you too much, as the benefits you will reap will be worth it.
The advantages of email marketing over social media
However, emails are still sometimes more effective than social media. The reason you will even consider taking your business online is to be able to gather new potential customer and promote your stuff. Moreover, social media giants like Facebook or Instagram may make you feel that you can get all that you want from these sites. Moreover, now you can even promote your content using a business profile feature newly introduced by Instagram. However, these Facebook or Instagram ads will not assure you total traffic or view even with the paid promotion. You have no idea what every follower is thinking; you just get a general idea. However, with email marketing, you can achieve personalized responses and thus, get a more concrete analysis. However, the is greater, and you cannot possibly hope to reach as many people as on social media within a short range of time.
Conclusion
Both email marketing and marketing through social media such as Instagram has their advantages, and as a smart business person, you should opt for both to get the maximum result. Some even add their email newsletter link to their social media account for users to subscribe to it. Even Instagram allows one extra link to be added into your profile bio which can lead to more traffic or email subscription as well. So you should use one to help the other and vice versa.
Author bio: Harris is a leading blog writer and content marketing professional with thousands of real Instagram followers for his postings. Here he explains the uses and conflicts between email marketing and social media like Instagram and how you can use apps like Gramista to increase your Instagram followers.