Benefits of Using Instagram Live to Market Your Business

Instagram has become a great platform to use in your marketing strategy. In fact, 80% of Instagram’s 1 billion users follow business accounts. People love to see posts created, stories shared, and customers tagged. More and more companies are starting to use it to increase their brand awareness.

It’s a great way to showcase your products or services or simply show what your brand is about. Using this social platform has become a way for companies to interact with their customers or potential customers on a personal level. If it fits your company and what your purpose is, then having a presence on Instagram in 2019 can really increase your brand awareness.

Have you heard of Instagram Live?

If you’re familiar with Instagram, you’ve probably seen a few accounts that have “gone live,” or maybe you’ve tried the feature yourself. Instagram Live is a feature on Instagram that allows you to broadcast live to your followers, who can then interact with you in real time.

When you start a live video, your followers can choose to be notified. Otherwise, a purple circle will appear around your profile photo on Instagram to show your real story, where people can tune in. You can also pin the subject of your live video so people know what they are tuning in to. Pinned subjects will appear at the bottom of the live screen.

When people comment on your live videos and send likes, you can react to their messages and attract more listeners.

You can also save recordings of your live videos to your regular Instagram Stories so that people who weren’t able to watch in real time can watch them later when they have time.

Use Live View

You might be asking yourself, “Are there really any benefits to using Instagram Live”? The answer is, yes. Here are some reasons why you should consider this marketing strategy:

You’re increasing engagement: One of the keys to success as a brand is your ability to be highly interactive with your customers or prospects. By using Instagram Live, you’re creating a conversation — something like that. Everyone wants to feel like a highly valued customer, and engagement creates that feeling. You’re also giving your customers a behind-the-scenes look at your company. Interactions on Instagram Live can draw people in and keep them interested to learn more about your brand.

Instagram will give you more visibility: Using Instagram Live can help you grow your company’s reach on Instagram because live stories sit in front of regular stories and therefore have greater visibility. Live stories also have push notifications enabled, so if someone has notifications turned on in their settings, they will receive an alert that you’ve started a live video. This is a great way to get attention from your followers!

It’s authentic: Your followers can see you face to face! They are able to see real people supporting your brand. You are developing authentic conversations, and in today’s marketing, it’s all about authenticity and transparency. The platform maximizes the opportunity. Customers will appreciate how authentic and real you are. It’s more relatable.

How do I incorporate Instagram Live into my marketing strategy?

If you want to increase brand engagement, you should absolutely include Instagram Live in your marketing strategy.

If you’re not sure how to get started, here are a few tips: First, the strategy you use for Instagram Live depends on your company’s brand, the content you want to share with your followers, and what you want to sell or promote.

Set a broad goal that you want your live video to be seen everywhere. I say “broad” because it’s a live stream, so you really don’t know what’s going to happen!

Ways to incorporate Instagram live streaming:

If you’re promoting a product or service, going live is a great way to create a demo or tutorial for your followers so they can see everything firsthand and in real time.

Are you offering a limited-time offer on a product you’re promoting? Let your followers know (and build excitement!) by posting it in real time.

Conduct live Q&A so you can answer directly to the person who has a question, which in turn could influence someone to make a quicker decision about your brand, product, or service.

Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to engage with as many of your followers as possible, so it’s a smart idea to incorporate Instagram Live into your strategy and plan for when you want to go live.

If you’re looking to connect with your follower base and clients/prospects on social media, you should definitely test out Instagram Live. Adding it to your marketing strategy will show others that you’re willing to communicate in real time while being authentic and transparent. You’ll be able to gain visibility on the platform and gain people’s trust and loyalty in the process. It’s worth going live for your next big, company-wide announcement!