Use Instagram’s New Features to Promote Your Business

As social media usage is prevalent nowadays, Instagram has always keeping updated and come out with new features to help businesses through this pandemic.

Before we introduce you to examples of how local businesses used Instagram to stay afloat, let us convince you even more of the importance of having a social media presence. The following are examples of what might happen to businesses that do not take action on achieving a social media presence.

7 Well-Known Companies Shut Down Due To COVID-19 in Malaysia

• Blu Inc Media – Sadly, Blu Inc Media is one of the oldest magazine media company that owned Malaysian Women’s Weekly, CLEO, Harpers Bazaar, Marie Clare and etc had ceased operations due to the challenges from the digital disruption and COVID-19 has hit them bad.
• BBDO Malaysia – An award-winning agency has also closed down its office in Malaysia and cut down some portions of staff in Hong Kong to keep the team small while concentrating ventures into Beijing & Shanghai said by the CEO, Jean-Paul Burge.
• Esprit – One of the largest fashion chains has recently announced that it will be closing 56 stores in Asia.
• The Kinta Riverfront Hotel – The hotel is closed due to financial problems exacerbated by the MCO
• G City Club Hotel – After 10 years in business, G City Hotel has decided to cease operations due to a drop in occupancy rate in recent years.

Facebook has launched a handful of new features to help with businesses on the Instagram platform during the COVID-19, which will allow users to show support for small businesses and also improved on content reach on social media to get the latest update as businesses deal with the fallout.

Instagram Stay Home & Thank You Stickers

Eversince the MCO started in Malaysia (18th of March 2020), Instagram has released two new stickers – Stay Home & Thank You—for users to use when creating Instagram Stories. By using these stickers, your stories will be shown on everyone’s Instagram Stories line-up, and will encourage users to spread around the positive message of staying at home to do our part as citizens in order to help flatten the curve.

Food Orders

In collaboration with a few big food delivery applications, food and beverage businesses have been able to link their delivery channels on their social media platforms to encourage customers to order food delivery (dine-in is no longer an option in most places). If you own a F&B business, consider partnering with GrabFood Delivery and FoodPanda Delivery to add this feature to your IG.

Supporting Small Businesses 

With the “Supporting Small Business” sticker, users can show love to their favourite small businesses, inviting their friends to do so too. Mention your business directly on your Instagram Stories with the sticker tagged to it to give your followers a preview of your account. Indeed, the “Supporting Small Business” sticker is a feature that will not only help your business stay connected with the online community, but will also help you to reach out to wider audiences.

Gift Cards Sticker

The Gift Cards Sticker made available on Instagram Stories encourages the buying of gift cards for yourself or your friends and family. At the moment, this feature can be linked with the Fave App and Beep by StoreHub (in Malaysia), so if your business wants to incorporate the selling of gift cards, you would not want to miss partnering with either of those two apps.

Launch of Shops at Instagram

Instagram has officially announced the launch of “Shops”, an online store where customers can have access to a business’s Instagram profile or Facebook Page, as well as their Stories and ads. As a business, you will be able to choose the products you want to feature from your catalogue and customise the look and feel of your shop. Customers can browse your collections, save products and place orders either on your website or without leaving the app (if you have enabled checkout—only in the U.S. at the moment).

Add Support CTAs On The Profile

Businesses can add a call-to-action to their profile, such as CTAs for “Gift Cards”, “Order Food”, and “Donate” in the form of clickable buttons. When users click on such buttons, they will be taken straight to their chosen platform to complete the purchase. These CTAs can be displayed on your business profile, next to the current clickable options (i.e. “Message”, “Contact Us”).

Instagram Had Grant Access To Direct Messages Online

Instagram Direct Message, also known as “DM”, is being used heavily by almost all Instagram users. Since DMs are also accessible on the desktop version of the Instagram site, you should leverage on DMs to respond to inquiries and comments from your audience easily and quickly.

New Download Your Data Feature 

On 30th March, Facebook announced the new data access tools for both Facebook & Instagram social media platforms. Instagram’s Download Your Data tool is available within the app: it shows you how you have been using the platform, including post likes, profile update, photo and comments. Furthermore, it tells you what categories of content you are interested in based on your behavior. Basically, it’s a good idea to look at and study your own data to get more in-depth insights for your content planning.

Whether you’re an ambitious consumer or brand, stay up to date and focus on improving yourself amidst the unpredictable COVID-19 pandemic. If you have an Instagram Business Profile for your business, check out the COVID-19 Business Resources section of your account from time to time to obtain the latest tools and updates to instantly grow your business and don’t forget to maintain your relationship with your Instagram followers.

 

 

Now that you have learned about the new features on Instagram, check out other useful articles at tinker society blog.