CC BY
37
Section 2. Marketing
https://doi.org/10.29013/EJEMS -21-4-23-25
Bologova Anastasiya, Master in Enterprise management, The Faculty of Economics, Nanjing University of science and technology, China E-mail: [email protected]
BUSINESS PROMOTION IN SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE EXAMPLE OF INSTAGRAM
Abstract. The author considers the promotion of business in social networks, its effectiveness and possible results. Recently, such platforms as Instagram have obtained the status of one of the most efficient promotion channels. Statistics are provided to confirm the need to promote business in Instagram. The latter is considered as a marketing platform. The author also analyzes the content plan and the types of advertising in Instagram, indicating the advantages and risks of each one.
Keywords: promotion, social media, marketing, Instagram, target audience, e-business, personalization.
Instagram continues to grow as the forth most popular social network at the global scale. In July 2021, in terms of the number of active users Instagram (1.368 billion) goes after Facebook (2.853), Youtube (2.291) and Whatsapp (2.0) respectively [4], and the engagement rate exceeds that of Face-book by 1.78% (2.2% and 0.22%, respectively) [1].
50% of users who have seen a product or service advertised on Instagram make a purchase on a seller's website [5]. The same proportion characterizes people, who become more interested in brand having seen an ad for it [5]. 90% of Instagram audience follow at least one business profile [5]. 40% ofInstagram users prioritize this platform while purchasing products or services online. In June 2021, the number of business accounts in Instagram reached more than 200 million [3].
These statistics encourage business entities to present its goods and services in social networks and to use all the opportunities of the latter to increase
sales, customer loyalty and to achieve other business goals. This is typical for both B2C and B2B.
Such types of marketing as cold calls, banners on the streets, commercials on television together will not overtake the benefits ofpromotion in social networks due to the fact that the former items do not practically provide opportunities and scope for personalization. Furthermore, a number of people, who spend time in social medias, has increased as well as the social network screen time has done. Thus, the conversion rates will be higher both due to the quality (personalization) and the quantity (the number of the active users is almost equal to the population of China).
Instagram as a marketing platform rests on the fact that a human quickly catches visual images. This is beneficial for any business as people tend to remember something they saw rather than just read or heard. Statistics state that most consumers notice only the product picture without reading the descrip-
Section 2. Marketing
tion [2, 567]. Therefore, the business attracts the attention of a potential buyer through photos and / or videos. Furthermore, a client has a deep respect for the censorship policy of Instagram, which prohibits advertising of drugs, weapons, gambling, etc., as well as content with explicit content or one with a hint of it.
The typical interface of Instagram implies publication of posts and stories, comments, communication in Direct [6, 178]. As soon as Instagram was recognized as a marketing tool for business, it added such features as specifying the sponsor of a post, a personalized feed that is permanently compiled on the basis of user's actions, which are determined by the interests of the latter. These opportunities are applied to reach each person with the help of influencers or through an approximation to the ideal compliance ofthe product or service with the user's preferences.
As mentioned above, Instagram is developing both extensively and intensively. Its developers have recently introduced "masks", which turns into a business promotion tool that helps to attract more followers and increase audience loyalty. Such goals are achieved due to the fact that masks trigger a wave of user content. Moreover, if the user does not mark the developer of the mask, his or her followers can find out its origin of the mask, since it is automatically indicated. In addition, the masks of a particular brand are available only to its followers.
Instagram lets business entities conduct tests with different formats of ads, manage the marketing budget and collect comprehensive statistics for subsequent analysis necessary to improve the marketing strategy.
The modern marketing plan of Instagram includes following elements:
• a team of various specialists, including an SMM-manager, a copywriter and a designer;
• a business account with an address, the link to the website, contact details ofbrand representatives, a description of the company, where a competitive advantage is usually specified;
• content adapted to the target audience and the objectives of the brand's marketing strategy;
• all the necessary information that does not fit in the description is subject to publication in stories, the basic information is fixed in highlights (for example, the cost of goods and/or services).
Nature of Instagram content is different from that of any format, because it is not openly advertising: the emphasis is put on positioning information about the brand, the target audience's attention is attracted by publishing useful content that pushes the user to act in the interests of the business. In this sense, the content can be presented as educational, communicative, rep-utational, entertaining one, or news-related content [6, 176]. Educational content can be designed in the form of check-lists, while communicative one is focused on building communication with the audience in the form ofcomments and answers to them. News-related content runs about the publications informing users about the brand and its products whereas reputational one is specialized in publications related to understanding the client's problems and the company's attitude to them. As for entertaining content, it is presented in the format of playing with users.
Depending on the marketing goals of the business, there are six types of business accounts: a store, which represents a showcase page; a public account, which has the format of an online magazine that forms an attitude to the brand; a personal brand account; an informational blog, where content is based on text posts and communication with followers; a brand account, the purpose of which is to maintain audience loyalty and increase brand awareness; a mini-landing page that allows to achieve a quick conversion with minimal costs for creating and launching a page, as well as quickly catches the audience and encourages one specific action (buying a product and / or service, participating in an event, etc.).
Instagram business interface allow to track content statistics, making an emphasis on the following metrics: impressions (the total number of views of a publication (history or post)), coverage (the actual number of views, namely the number of people who
saw a publication), engagement (all audience activity, etc.), page visit (the number ofpeople who clicked on including clicks, likes, saves, reposts, marks, reactions, the business profile).
There are several Instagram advertising options, namely:
Option Advantages Risks
Buying advertising from influencers to appeal to the target audience in a personalized way the possibility of refusing advertising
Mass-liking and mass-following to attract audience for free It is time-consuming and does not guarantee the arrival.
Holding contests to quickly attract an audience mass-leaving after the end of the competition
Targeted advertising to achieve wide coverage of the target audience high costs
Almost all people of great public importance, such as celebrities, politicians, etc., have official Instagram pages, with a few exceptions. It happens not only due to the fact that Instagram provides great opportunities for the implementation of various goals related to attracting people's attention to certain issues, with the subsequent search for customers or like-minded people, but also due to the fact that the global information community considers the presence on Instagram to be reputational, so the latter increases the reputation of people and businesses in the eyes of users. Thus, business promotion in Instagram is attributable not only to profit considerations, but also to reputational ones.
Due to the great number of Instagram accounts, content is abundant, which provokes the problem
of the presence of non-unique content in the social network. It constitutes the scope of plagiarism. It is essential to be prepared for the fact that intellectual property may be stolen, because only the copyright holder can complain on the theft of the content.
Taking into consideration all mentioned above, the promotion ofbusiness in social networks, for instance Instagram, will help to establish or improve the quality of communication and interaction with the target audience, create or strengthen the brand image, and, accordingly, increase its awareness in the market. This marketing strategy meets the realities of the information society, whose life is tied to technologies. The most important advantage of social networks for business promotion is an opportunity to apply a personalized approach to marketing.
References:
1. Ahlgren M. 40+ statistics and facts from Instagram // WSHR.2021.- Aug 18.URL: https://www.web-sitehostingrating.com/research/instagram-statistics/#references/ (Access: 5.09.2021).
2. Fattakhova G. Instagram - a modern platform for the development and promotion of business // Science Time.- No. 11. 2015.- P. 566-568.
3. Get your business started on Instagram // Facebook.URL: https://business.instagram.com/getting-started?ref=igb_carousel/ (Access: 5.09.2021).
4. Global social networks ranked by number of users // Statista.- URL: https://www.statista.com/statis-tics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/ (Access: 4.09.2021).
5. Newberry C. 44 Instagram Stats That Matter to Marketers in 2021 // Hootsuite. 2021.- Jan 6.URL: https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-statistics/ (Access: 5.09.2021).
6. Rosenberg N. Instagram as a platform for brand promotion // Science. Society. The State. 2021.-No. 9.- P. 176-182.
