Today we’re going to talk about Instagram and why you really cannot afford to not be on it. I am surprised daily in my job that there are folks who aren’t embracing Instagram. So let’s talk a little bit about the stats and why you need to be doing it. 

There are one billion monthly active Instagram users. 60% of them log in every single day. It’s growing five times faster than any of the other social media networks. The average U.S. user spends about an hour a day. 80% of followers follow a business. 71% are under the age of 34. 95% of U.S. Instagram users also use YouTube. I find this fascinating because of course it’s the year of video and it’s a great way to show the crossover. 

Your website, your social presence, everything you do, a lot of it relies on Google and how Google dictates that people find you. One of the best things you can do for your brand is to cross promote. If you have one or two or, ideally, three different websites that feed into your website, Google values it higher. If you have Pinterest traffic coming in, and Facebook traffic coming in, and Instagram traffic coming in, you’re going to rank higher and be easier to find. And when those things make a circle — like you write an awesome blog and post to Instagram and you pin it from Instagram, that makes a circle: Pinterest will drive to Instagram and Instagram will drive back to your website. It’s supremely effective. 

Instagram is completely visual, and it’s personal. It has a much higher engagement rate; people are much more likely to talk to you there. The engagement rate is actually four times higher than Facebook and ten times higher than Twitter. People feel more connected on Instagram and they feel like they know you. You can go “behind the scenes” of your business a little bit and get great engagement. And, of course, Instagram is free and it’s impossible to beat the “free” part. 

Instagram is a great place to be. You can display your expertise, post to your blog, put links back to your website, and pin directly from Instagram. There are so many benefits, but it comes down to this: It’s an excellent platform, it’s got a ton of traffic, it’s got a much higher engagement rate than other social networks. If you are not on Instagram yet you really need to consider it.