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5 Ways to Grow Your Business with Instagram

Instagram is a powerhouse for business growth and brand visibility. This visually-driven platform offers unparalleled opportunities for touchpoints, engagement, and customer connection. For businesses looking to thrive in the competitive social media space and grow their business with Instagram, partnering with a social-first digital marketing agency can be a game-changer. Explore five ways Instagram can fuel your business growth and why professional guidance is crucial for success:

1. Craft a Captivating Bio to Grow Your Business with Instagram

Your Instagram profile is your digital store front, and first impressions matter. A well-crafted bio should succinctly communicate who you are and what you offer. Use this space to highlight your business’s unique value proposition and inject a touch of personality. Remember, your profile picture and bio are often the first touchpoints for potential customers, so make them count.

The links in your bio is prime real estate – they are the only clickable links on your entire profile. Take time to consider the right links to drive traffic to your latest offerings, promotions, or content. A social-first agency can help optimize your profile to maximize its impact and conversion potential to grow your business with Instagram.

2. Content is King: Create Engaging Posts

Instagram’s visual nature demands high-quality, engaging creative and copy. This goes beyond just showcasing attractive images – it’s about telling your brand’s story visually. Experiment with different content types:

  • High-quality photos showcasing your products or services
  • Engaging videos that offer behind-the-scenes glimpses or product demonstrations
  • Carousel posts to share multiple images or tell a more complex story
  • Instagram Reels for short, entertaining video content
  • Instagram Stories for ephemeral, must-follow behind-the-scenes snapshots

A digital marketing agency can develop a content strategy that aligns with your brand voice and resonates with your target audience. They can also ensure your content is optimized for Instagram’s algorithm, increasing your visibility, reach, and ultimately your business’s growth potential.

3. Build a Community: Engage with Your Audience

Instagram is not just a broadcasting platform; it’s a community where users are driven to seek out brands that speak to their interests. Engaging with your audience is crucial for building brand loyalty and fostering growth. Respond to comments, participate in conversations, and use interactive features like question stickers in Stories and polls in feed posts.

Remember, engagement is a two-way street. Like and comment on your followers’ posts, and engage with other businesses in your niche or nearby (especially if you’re a local business – it’s a must to establish a local presence on the platform!). This not only builds goodwill but can also expand your reach to new potential customers.

A social-first agency can manage this engagement effectively, ensuring your brand maintains a consistent and authentic presence in the Instagram community – and taking the load off your plate!

4. Leverage Insights + Tools to Grow Your Business with Instagram 

Instagram offers a suite of business tools that can significantly boost your growth potential. These include:

  • Instagram Insights: Provides valuable data on your audience demographics, post performance, and engagement rates.
  • Instagram Shopping: Allows you to tag products in your posts and Stories, creating a seamless shopping experience for customers.
  • Instagram Ads: Offers targeted advertising options to reach potential customers beyond your current follower base.

Navigating these tools effectively requires expertise. A digital marketing agency can help you interpret your Insights data, set up your Instagram Shop, and create targeted ad campaigns that deliver ROI.

5. Stay Ahead of the Curve

Instagram’s features and algorithm are constantly evolving. Staying up-to-date with these changes and adapting your strategy accordingly is necessary for sustained growth. This is where the expertise of a social-first digital marketing agency becomes invaluable. They stay on top of platform updates and emerging trends – both so you don’t have to, and to ensure your Instagram strategy remains cutting-edge and effective.

To put it simply, Instagram offers immense potential for business growth, but harnessing this potential requires more than just regular posting. It demands a strategic approach, consistent engagement, and the ability to adapt to the platform’s evolving landscape.

Investing in a partnership with a social-first digital marketing agency can provide the expertise and resources needed to develop a comprehensive Instagram growth strategy. From content creation and community management to data analysis and ad optimization, an agency like All Points Social can help your business not just participate on Instagram, but truly thrive. Take a look at our social media management offerings and reach out to us today!

TikTok Ban & Your Brand: What You Should Know

In a rare show of bipartisanship, the Senate on Tuesday followed the House of Representatives’ footsteps by passing a bill to force the sale of TikTok by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance otherwise a TikTok ban will take place in the United States. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on Wednesday, leaving many to wonder what comes next. 

The answer: Not much just yet, but the future is murky. Here’s what the measure and potential TikTok ban mean for consumers and brands alike. 

@cbsmornings

TikTok has up to a year to be sold by its China-based owner — or face a ban in the U.S., after the Senate passed a foreign aid bill Tuesday night. The potential ban would shut out 170 million users and impact small businesses. #news #tiktok

♬ original sound – CBS Mornings

Why the concern over TikTok? 

First, some context. The legislation was instigated due to national security concerns over the wildly popular app’s Chinese ties. Security experts and lawmakers believe the Chinese government could use the app to spread propaganda to the 170 million TikTok users in the U.S., and/or look to ByteDance to share sensitive information about those users. 

That said, TikTok maintains it protects U.S. user data through an alliance with Oracle, which blocks data from being accessed overseas. (See: Project Texas). 

Is there a TikTok ban right now?

The newly minted law gives ByteDance 9-12 months to sell to a new owner. No ban will take place before the 2024 presidential election. Legal challenges are expected, so this process could take years to settle and ultimately go down in history as just a big flex by the U.S. 

If TikTok is banned, existing users will no longer have access or be able to upload new content. The app would also not be available to download in app stores.

tiktok ban

There are a lot of implications surrounding a new law that would force a TikTok sale or ban it in the U.S. Credit: tashatuvango – stock.adobe.com

Who is in the running to take over TikTok? 

It’s unclear, but whoever buys TikTok (if we get to that point) is going to need some pretty deep pockets. While ByteDance only needs to sell off the U.S. portion of its TikTok business to satisfy the law, it’s predicted that segment could be worth tens of billions of dollars. 

Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai need not apply: tech giants Meta and Google would likely be struck down as potential buyers due to antitrust concerns. There is some chatter that former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wants to build a group of private equity firms and other investors to buy TikTok. 

So, what does a TikTok ban mean for my brand’s account? 

Keep an eye out for news of a potential TikTok sale, and brace for the possibility of a ban. You can be proactive about your content by downloading it for safekeeping and eventually repurposing it on a different platform, like Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and X, which has said it’s now a video-first channel. 

In the meantime, think about cultivating and owning your audience through other means, like through an email marketing strategy. With the potential for compromised user data and privacy concerns on social channels, it’s certainly not a bad time to invest in other aspects of owned media.  

Another thing to consider is that if TikTok is sold to an approved buyer, it may not come with all its parts – meaning the algorithm that has made the app so popular and addictive might not be part of the deal. And that could be just as effective at killing TikTok in the U.S. as banning it would be. 

The Best Super Bowl Ads This Year

Super Bowl 2024 will be etched into history as “The One with Taylor Swift,” but that doesn’t mean the ads won’t get their fair share of attention. While many brands paid big bucks to get their 30 seconds of fame, these are the favorites chosen by the All Points Social team.

Super Bowl Ad with the Biggest Gut Punch: Dove, “Let’s #KeepHerConfident” 

This Super Bowl commercial starts strong, showing how tough young girl athletes are as they bounce back from stumbles and falls to “It’s a Hard Knock Life.” As Dove says, the knocks don’t stop girls from playing sports… low body confidence does. And then the music stops, and your visceral reaction begins. This is an effective launch of a campaign to boost the confidence of young athletes everywhere.

Super Bowl Ad That Produced the Most Tears: Google Pixel, “Javier in Frame”

Google’s Super Bowl spot hones in on one of Google Pixel’s latest AI-enabled features, Guided Frame, and masterfully demonstrates how it helps enhance the life of a disabled person – all while the audience views it through the eyes of someone with blindness or low vision. The tagline “Capture life, no matter how you experience it” is perfection. Cue the tears.

Super Bowl Ad with the Most Fun: Kawasaki, “Mullets” 

Sometimes, a solid Super Bowl commercial is all about having fun. Kawasaki nailed this with its homage to mullets – business in the front, party in the back – to advertise the new Ridge sport utility UTV. Let the good times roll indeed.

Super Bowl Ad with the Best Cameos: e.l.f. Cosmetics, “In e.l.f. We Trust” 

“Suits” was the most-streamed show in 2023. e.l.f. Cosmetics leveraged everyone’s favorite legal drama by dropping two of its characters into the courtroom of Judge Beauty (no other than Judge Judy) to litigate against overspending on beauty in favor of affordable, cruelty-free e.l.f. products. Joining Louis Litt and Jessica Pearson is a star-studded courtroom, including “Jury Duty’s” Ronald Gladden, Meghan Trainor, HeidiNCloset of “Ru Paul’s Drag Race,” comedian Benito Skinner (aka Benny Drama), and more. Shoutout to Donna (Sarah Rafferty) as the court stenographer. This just might become one of the most memorable Super Bowl 2024 ads.

Super Bowl Ad with the Most Slapstick Comedy: Reese’s, “Yes!” 

Reese’s cranked up the funny factor and focused on slapstick comedy as part of its new product reveal, the Caramel Big Cup.

Super Bowl Ad with the Most Uncomfortable Mirror of Reality: Pluto TV, “Couch Potato Farms” 

As prices for streaming services rise, more and more Americans are canceling their accounts and embracing a subscription-less TV and movie life. Enter Pluto TV, a free ad-supported streaming service that’s kind of like how TV used to be, but with many, many more channels at your fingertips. There is a non-monetary cost, though –the more free TV you watch, the more likely you are to morph into a literal couch potato.

Super Bowl Ad with the Most Compelling Puppy-to-Dog Storyline (and Clydesdales): Budweiser, “Old School Delivery” 

Budweiser’s Super Bowl commercial leverages its beloved Clydesdale tradition. This time, the Clydesdales help deliver kegs of Budweiser “the old-fashioned way” after a big snowstorm hits. But there’s a deeper layer of meaning to this spot in the form of the Yellow lab that greets the horses upon their arrival. Could it be the puppy from 2014’s “Best Buds” – arguably one of the best Super Bowl ads of all time – all grown up and reuniting with his old friend?

Super Bowl Ad with the Best Use of Weird Barbie: Hellmann’s, “Mayo Cat” 

What’s weirder than Weird Barbie? A cat acting as spokesperson for mayonnaise? It’s as good a guess as any. Hellmann’s captures Kate McKinnon’s trademark goofiness and well-documented love for cats in this very funny Super Bowl spot. It’s complete with a hilarious cameo by Pete Davidson.

Super Bowl Ad with the Best Big Game Punchline: UberEats, “Don’t Forget”

With this Super Bowl commercial, UberEats positions itself as the solution for when you forget all about dinner/errands and have nowhere else to turn. It shows various celebrities and people in real-life situations forgetting key aspects of their lives: Jennifer Aniston forgot working with David Schwimmer for a decade on “Friends,” Victoria and David Beckham can’t remember what the “Spice Girls” were called (“Paprika Girls?”), a person with a peanut allergy realizes too late that peanuts are the main ingredient of peanut butter, and so on. In the end, Usher says he wishes he could play the Super Bowl half-time show someday. It’s funny unless you don’t know who Usher is.

Super Bowl Ads with the Best Nod to Meme Culture: Dunkin’, “PopStar” and “The DunKings”

Once again, New England icon Ben Affleck stars in a “Dunkin'” Super Bowl ad. This time, the two-part ad storyline riffs off of the “Sad Ben Affleck” memes that make up much of the social media lexicon. Ben is fueling himself with Dunkin’ to fight back against his “Sad Ben” status by becoming a pop star. This Super Bowl spot also gets an honorable mention for the best use of celebrities to bridge the generational divide, with TikTok queen Charli D’Amelio showing Ben how it’s done these days.

Later, we see Ben’s efforts on display when his boy band, “The DunKings,” enters J.Lo’s recording studio. It doesn’t go well, but at least Matt Damon has Ben’s back.

So there you have it: All Points Social’s picks for the best Super Bowl 2024 ads. Some will be forgotten by Monday; others will become Super Bowl lore. Only time will tell.