Melanie
The Monday Morning. The Monday Morning Marketing podcast isbrought to you by Esther of IPA group, bringing premiere online promotion toyour business.
Esther
And Melanie of Stump Social Media training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. Now we're back with another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing podcast. Today we're talking about Instagram for business. Is it really worth it to have anInstagram business account? A bit of a controversial one there, Melanie.
Melanie
Well, I guess it might be if you're not sure you need anInstagram account. I know a lot of people seem to think, Well, if you're makingcakes or designing dresses, then Instagram is the obvious go to. And I wouldn'tdisagree. But there is a place for services and all types of products onInstagram as long as you think your audience is there.
Esther
Yes, that's always what we say for every platform. Make sure it's where your audience is because things, especially places like Instagram,can be a bit of a time suck if they're not the right ones for you because it's all about the image and it's all about the angle of the photograph and stufflike that. There are lots of pros and lots of cons to using Instagram, butlet's just say that your audience is there and you've already done your research and you're ready to kick off on your Instagram account. Where do youstart?
Melanie
Well, first of all, let's have a real think about the typeof audience that's currently there. Now, this is correct as of February 14,2023. Apologies if you're listening to this later. This could well mean thatthe shift has happened and it may not be what you're expecting. But as of earlythis year, almost 31 % of global Instagram audiences were aged between 18 and24. It's quite a small window there. 31 % were 18 to 24. Just over 30 % ofusers were aged 25 and 34. Slightly wider there. Finally, the overall age rangeof 35 to 44. There was only about 15 and a half %. So you've got to work out isyour age range in there and is it beneficial to you to use this platform foryour business?
Esther
Is.
Melanie
It going to be sufficient?
Esther
Yeah. And like Melanie just said, those stats, well, theysurprise me because I automatically think that a lot more of that age groupbetween 18 and 25, 18 and 30 are over on TikTok and are using differentplatforms. We know they're probably not on Facebook anymore. That's for the.
Melanie
Old foggy. I think they're on both. I think they're on both.I don't think they've picked one or the other. I think they're on both.
Esther
Well, we'd have to ask some of them, which they preferbecause there.
Melanie
Are.
Esther
Millions of people on Instagram around the world and there'sa market on it for everyone. Obviously, it's a lot of photographs and a lot ofpretty people and well taken photographs and the Reels that we've had Emma ontalking about. There's just lots and lots of things that you can do onInstagram that you maybe can't do so much on some of the other platforms likeTwitter, LinkedIn, etc. So it's a real place to show off your creative prowess.Right. So we've set up an Instagram account. So the first thing you have to dois go in and set it up as a personal account. Why would somebody then... That'show you start. Yeah, that's how you start. You go in, you set it up with emailaddress and your password and you pick your name and stuff. That's all set upas a personal one. Then there's the option to change it to a business account.What would encourage people to make it a business account for their business?Is it 100 % necessary?
Melanie
Well, I don't think it is 100 % necessary, but there aresome benefits, like most things. I only just did this with somebody a couple ofdays ago actually. They have Facebook for their business and Instagram fortheir business. They have slightly divergent clients, so they need to be a bitof both. They had a business page for Facebook and a personal Instagramaccount. We were just talking about scheduling and planning and looking atcontent overall. They would say, Oh, I'd love to know how to schedule to bothif I can. I see people doing it all the time. So for this particular client, itwas beneficial for them to convert their personal profile to a businessprofile, which you can then connect to Meta Business Suite, which is withinMeta that you can share and plan ahead for up to three months. It just seemedbeneficial for this particular client. Because our audiences are slightlydifferent, she's got quite a wide range of products that she sells and some aremore suited for the younger generation. So she's trying to hit them onInstagram and the older generation gets the other products which they see onFacebook.
Melanie
But it's not how you use it necessarily. It's the data andthe information that you can get from having business Instagram. Because youget access to all sorts of information and data that you can then plug and playinto your strategy.
Esther
Because I remember we had a client a few months back andthey were doing Reels every third or fourth post and one of them just wentviral. It just completely took off. But they were using a personal account.When I suggested moving to a business account, so that we'd be able to see theage group of people, the location of people who were sharing the Reel andliking the Reel and commenting on the Reel, they didn't want to. They didn'twant to because they had this fear that their organic reach would go throughthe floor. Is that something that you've come across before?
Melanie
I have. I've had people who have said, Look, I don't want tochange it. There's no need to change it. I have to agree, if it ain't broke,don't fix it. But then you just have to guess who you're hitting.
Esther
Well, somewhere in those cruacy, somewhere between 18 andlet's say 50 years of age.
Melanie
But you know, some of it is also you can, once you've gotyour customer, you can get that information when they sign up or buy theirproduct. Some of this could be captured in a CRM. It doesn't necessarily haveto be captured in your socials. But then all you get then is the people who'vereached the bottom of the funnel, not the people who've shown an interest inthe.
Esther
First place. But that's interesting too. You mentionedshopping a couple of times and people purchasing products. Only the businessaccount has shoppable posts. So if you are selling a physical or downloadableproduct, then you're going to need a business account to be able to have thetags for the...
Melanie
If you want to use Instagram Shop, yeah. But you can add alink tree link or a link in your personal account that takes people over toyour website or to your e-commerce shop.
Esther
Yeah. And I mean, with everything, like we just said, thereare pros and cons to everything. There may be a higher organic reach for apersonal page, but it can also be lower credibility. Maybe if people aresearching for a business and you come up as a personal account, then they mightnot take you very seriously. Also, there's more features that are available,not just the shoppable features and the scheduling features that Melanie talkedabout earlier. There is.
Melanie
A.
Esther
Wealth of features that have been designed for smallbusinesses to use Instagram. We've talked about the insights, we've talkedabout things like that. But there's also a contact button which you can put inyour account bio and that can have your email address. It's separate from yourlink tree or your link in bio that everybody talks about. You can put links inyour stories if you have at least 10,000 followers. You can do ads, you canboost posts. There's so many things that you can do with having a businessaccount.
Melanie
It's just a personal choice. I've seen people like you whohave started with a personal account and moved on to a professional accountlater. Only a couple of times in my 10 years have I seen people go back to apersonal profile just because they didn't feel comfortable continuing with aprofessional one. But it's horses for courses. There's no wrong way to do yourbusiness. At the end of the day, you've got to live with whatever decision youmake. We can guide, we can suggest, but it's something that you're going tohave to live with day in, day out. It really depends on how you want to use theplatform.
Esther
Now, bit of a controversial question coming in here. Shouldyou use your Instagram business account for personal photos and personalcontent?
Melanie
Well, I think it has its place. I actually have aprofessional account under my name rather than my business. So that means Ifeel I can literally put anything up regarding any of the many hats I wear. Butmy brand persona, I suppose, is mostly family orientated, supportive, nurturingthing. So I'm not afraid to put in a few photos of my cats or kids every nowand then, but it has to have its place. It has to have its place. InternationalCat Rescue Day. I've got two rescue cats, so I've put two pictures up of mycats just to highlight the importance of it. If anybody looked at my bio,they'll see I'm an animal and child advocate. I work in charities, volunteerfor charities. It's not going against my brand. It's part of me.
Melanie
It has its place, but I don't waffle on about my kids and mycats all day.
Esther
I think, like you said, it depends on who it is and what thebusiness is. So if it was a very strict business or very serious business, thenthrowing up fun, interesting things might throw their viewers off or theirfollowers off by going, Who hacked them? Let's not talk about hacking today.We'll do that another day. Any final words of wisdom?
Melanie
I don't know anybody who actually fully embraces using everysingle part of Instagram properly. Unless it's corporates. I suppose corporateswould do, but that's because they got the manpower, frankly, for it. But youknow what? You don't have to use absolutely everything. You don't have to useyour Reels, your stories, and your grid all the time. You have to becomfortable with what's going to hit home with your customers first and beconsistent because that's the only thing that makes social media work isconsistency.
Esther
That is so true. We'll leave it there for today, guys. Ifyou do have any questions about Instagram, personal use, business use, there'seven a creator profile. We didn't even touch on it today. But if you have anyquestions, do get in touch. Reach out to us on our socials, on our Instagram aswell, and just let us know what you think.
Melanie
And check out our shop.
Esther
Yes, keep forgetting to mention the shop. We have a shop onEtsy. So the link.
Melanie
Will be in the... Why you added a mouse mat, I don't know.It's really cute. But we have more useful things than that.
Esther
Yeah, there's loads of stuff. So you can go to our Etsyshop. You can find us on the Monday morning marketing podcast. You can find thelink on our socials to our shop and soon it'll be on the website as well. Justto remind myself.
Melanie
No.
Esther
Pressure or anything, Esther. No. So that's it for today,guys. We'll be back next week with more Monday morning marketing. Until then,bye.
Melanie
Bye. So we've now made you accountable. We've mentioned onthe podcast that you're going to add the page.
Esther
I mentioned on the podcast. I put my own feet in it. Goodwoman.
