Finally! Everything you need to know about Instagram for Business

It's here, folks. It's finally here. Instagram analytics for your business! Since Instagram's inception in 2010, it's been a platform for people to share snapshots of what places they're visiting, things they're doing, or food they're enjoying. And for businesses, it's become a platform to show behind-the-scenes glimpses of how products are made, and to delight your current customers with exclusive content. Since being acquired by Facebook in April of 2012, the platform has become more friendly for users and marketers alike. While many people were paying attention to Instagram's latest update, when they released their Instagram Story feature, many people (marketers included) may have missed what launched earlier this year...

In late May, Instagram introduced Instagram for Business. Similar to Facebook Insights, businesses and marketers can now view their post's engagements, audience demographics and peak engagement hours broken down by the hour or day. But there are a couple other goodies we found that every marketer should know. In this blog, we're covering three Instagram for Business features that will help you connect with your prospects and customers.

1. New 'Contact' button on home page

While Instagram has always allowed businesses to include their website, phone number and address in their profiles, the new 'Contact' button located on the home page of your business' Instagram account is much more user-friendly. By touching this button, users that visit your business' Instagram account can now call your phone number (that is listed in your profile), send an email through their preferred account or find directions to your business. That's why it's imperative to make sure your information is up-to-date; otherwise, who knows how many leads you might lose!

2. All the information now available to you in your Instagram Insights tab

As mentioned earlier, the information found in the Instagram Insights tab follows a similar format toFacebook Insights. This will show you how many followers you gained within a week's time frame, your top-performing posts and when your followers engaged with your content. Within each of these sections, you can dig a bit deeper to see the number of impressions, reach and engagement. Or view your audience's demographics and what days or hours they most frequently engage with your content.

3. How to promote posts directly through Instagram

Last, but certainly not least, you're now able to promote your Instagram posts directly through the Instagram app. While you could have technically, kinda, sort of done this previously through your Facebook Ads Manager account, it was hassle to set the ad up and report the results from the ad. However, with Instagram for Business, you're now able to click on any of

your posts and promote them directly through the app.As opposed to the 13 different ads you can promote through Facebook Ads Manager, you can currently only set up two types of post promotions: 'Visit your website' or 'Call or visit your business'. No matter which ad you decide to run, you might notice that it has some of the same elements as Facebook Ads Manager. When creating your Instagram ads, you can create your target audience or use Instagram's suggested audience, choose your call-to-action and set up your ad's budget and schedule. The only difference between these two types of ads is that one will ask you to put in a URL link and the other will have you choose whether you want visitors to call you or get directions to your business.Excited about what Instagram for Business has to offer? Check out their quick tutorial to make sure your Instagram for Business account is set up properly. After you get your accounts set up, putyour content-creating cap on and get ready to wow your loyal customers – and hopefully attract a few new ones along the way. And if you're more of a visual person, check out our YouTube video down below for a quick walk-through on how you can access the information discussed in this blog.