In today’s age, social media has helped many businesses, serving as a marketing tool to connect them with their customers to grow and achieve their goals in a competitive market. When it comes to social media, there are so many platforms to choose from. Lets take a look at Instagram Live.
Despite the numerous options, Instagram has continued to serve as one of the most effective and powerful marketing tools to help businesses expand their digital presence, gather more leads, and at the same time grow their brand awareness as it is the second most accessed network behind Facebook and about statistics show that 71% of US businesses use Instagram.
Instagram has five main content channels:
· Feeds
· Stories
· Reels
· IGTV
· Live.
In this article, we will be discussing the pros and cons of Instagram Live, how it works, and how businesses can take advantage of this feature to take their brand to the next level.
Here’s How it Works:
- Followers will get a push notification every time you’re going live!
- Followers can comment on your stream in real-time.
- Followers actively using the application will see that you’re live as it will appear with a colorful ring around your profile at the top of their feed.
The Pros
1. Establishes Authenticity
Going live on Instagram allows your followers to see what you’re up to, making them feel more connected to your brand.
Followers tend to appreciate the authenticity and transparency that your business brings, so using a platform like Instagram and leverage the Live feature allows them to engage more closely with your business leaders.
2. Increases Visibility
Going live on Instagram means that your profile will get placed at the first circle of all stories on the home page when users open the app.
This allows your page to be visible to your followers and interact with you, increasing your brand’s overall user awareness.
3. Encourages Engagement
Instagram Live provides businesses with an excellent opportunity to directly communicate with your followers worldwide.
As a result, current and potential customers have the opportunity to feel more connected with the business and have room to engage further and truly learn about the brand at a deeper level.
The Cons
- Disappears After 24 Hours
Your Live video will disappear after 24 hours, which means that people who haven’t viewed it yet will miss out on your latest update. Nonetheless, you can always download and upload them straight to IGTV after it was gone.
However, it can only be uploaded at a maximum of ten minutes for unverified accounts, which is never a good thing, especially when you’ve shared important information that you don’t want to cut.
2. Technical Issues Might Occur
Instagram Live can be unpredictable with technical difficulties such as unstable connectivity, someone calling through the phone, or problems with the mobile software system, resulting in freezing or pausing your stream.
Technical issues can decrease your engagement and impact customer loyalty.
3. Live Can Be Of Low Quality.
When you have an unstable and slow Internet connection, the quality of your Live feeds can be affected, making the stream experience lag, and become choppy.
Low quality videos impact the user experience, often causing long loading times.
4. Drains Your Battery.
Whenever you do a Live stream, it significantly drains your phone’s battery and increases the chance of your phone dying. When you’re distracting and not aware of your current battery levels, you risk your phone dying mid-feed.
Keep in mind; it is always a better idea to engage with your followers as much as you can, so doing Live every once in a while, can make your followers or customers seem more connected to your brand.
Adding this to your marketing strategy and plan is also a brilliant idea to engage with prospects or potential customers.
Live streams can help you increase your brands’ visibility on the platform, allowing you to gain people’s trust and position yourself as an authentic and transparent thought leader.
How to Measure Instagram Live Success
- Growth Rate: This growth rate demonstrates how much your follower count changes over time. It helps you assess whether you’re gaining or losing followers.
- Likes: Engaged audiences tend to have an interest in learning more about you and your brand. They’ll often go to your profile and like your posts, as a result. If your shows no signs of increase after continuous live streams, this may be a cause for change in your strategy.
- Impressions: Instagram Live allows your business page to be visible to anyone on the platform the more you use it, so the more times your posts are visible in someone’s feed, the more people will notice and likely be drawn to your page and/or services.
- Reach: Reached is defined as how many people have seen your posts since they went live. Tracking your reach allows you to get an idea of what posts your audience finds valuable so that you can continue to create great posts.
- Comments: Seeing the amount of feedback your posts are getting is always a good sign. Although this doesn’t necessarily mean that the more comments you receive, the more profitable your business will be.
- Click-Through Rate: By tracking your page’s click-through rate, you will see that it provides insight into whether your content captures your followers’ attention and inspires them to click through it.
Interested in leveraging Instagram for your business? Let us help you develop a strong Instagram presence.
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