Instagram is a visual social media platform that enables photo and video sharing via its mobile app. Users can take, edit, and publish visual content for their followers to interact with thorough likes, comments, and shares.
With over a billion users, Instagram, bought by Facebook in 2012, has become a part of daily life. Over the last few years, this simple photo-sharing application evolved into a massive marketing and retail platform used by over 25 million companies.
Instagram Content Types
Unlike Facebook or Twitter, which rely on both text and pictures, Instagram’s primary purpose is to empower users to share images or videos with their audience.
Like other platforms, users post content and follow other users. Following other users means that their posts appear in your feed. People can see who you are following and who is following you. User can comment on each other’s post and message directly.
Posts
These are the photos and videos with a caption you upload to share with your followers. Followers can interact with your content by liking, commenting, saving, and sharing your post.
Stories
Stories appear in their own feed at the top of your profile page. They expire after one day and are often more casually used than posts. They are often used to expand on something featured in a post.
IGTV
Instagram TV (IGTV) is Instagram’s dedicated video platform that lets users post videos up to 15 minutes long (60 minutes on the desktop version). IGTV has a dedicated app for iPhone and Android, but you can also find it within the regular Instagram app.
Reels
Inspired by TikTok, Instagram Reels are short-form videos. They are featured in their own feed on profiles.
Instagram business accounts
An Instagram business account has all the features of an Instagram personal account but with the following additional benefits:
- Instagram ads. These are managed through the Facebook ads interface.
- Insights. Information on your followers, including gender, location and reach.
- Instagram shop. A shopfront populated by items tagged in photos.
- Company info. Contact info and call to action.
Instagram Shop
If you sell physical products, users can shop for your items directly on Instagram. If you have set up an Instagram shop from within your business account, products can be tagged in posts, and these will then appear in the Instagram shop. Like the Facebook shop, clicking on a product in the shop will take the user to the account holder’s website.
Instagram Ads
With an audience of more than a billion people, Instagram offers extraordinary reach for brands. 60% of users say they discover new products on the platform, and 75% of users act after seeing an inspiring post (Source: Instagram).
The platform has a young demographic, with the most significant percentage of users falling in the age range of 18-29 (55%), then between 30 and 49 years old (28%). Only 11% of users are 50-64, and just 4% are over 65.
Instagram advertising is accessed through the Facebook ads platform and offers the same targeting options as Facebook ads. As Instagram is a visual platform, ads also take the form of pictures of videos.
