Is Instagram worth the effort?

SenseiSteve

SenseiSteve

HD Moderator
Staff member
I'm sitting here trying to determine if Instagram for business is worth my effort. I was reading an article on HootSuite where it stated, "Forrester has named Instagram the “king of social engagement,” citing the fact that top brands’ Instagram posts generated a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21 percent. That means Instagram delivered these brands 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook, and 120 times more engagement per follower than Twitter." I'm curious if that would relate to the web hosting industry as effectively as other industries though, for example - retail.

We did have one member here say earlier that they used Instagram successfully. What are your thoughts?
 
Steve, I am yet to see one successful web hosting Instagram account that is not only engaging, but shows that it can convert. Here is the thing with Instagram in general - it might be the "king of social engagement", but from personal experience of watching friends manage their businesses (sending their products to large bloggers, using product placement), it doesn't convert.

Instagram does not comprise of a tech-nerdy audience who like to talk about servers. Instagram was originally designed as a platform for bloggers and photographers. Today it remains to be the most active demographic. However, people have a very hard time following company accounts, because they know they are willingly signing up to clutter their personal feed with ads, because that's what businesses do on Instagram.
 
This is my honest and unpaid for opinion from a person in the demographic of people that dont engage in social media trends. haha I am probabably in a small percentage of people online. When i surf i find it annoying that i have to go to Instagram, Snapchat or for that matter Facebook to '' read more '' Since i am already at a persons or companies site/blog/forum/etc.. it irritates me that i always have to go to another site to finish reading or viewing a photo.

And as Artashes said "However, people have a very hard time following company accounts, because they know they are willingly signing up to clutter their personal feed with ads, because that's what businesses do on Instagram"

I am all for supporting people/companies online and will click on ads to help them, but places like Instagram, MySpace etc... have more ads than relevant content. When i come across a site such as this i do not return.
 
danielpmc said:
This is my honest and unpaid for opinion from a person in the demographic of people that dont engage in social media trends. haha I am probabably in a small percentage of people online. When i surf i find it annoying that i have to go to Instagram, Snapchat or for that matter Facebook to '' read more '' Since i am already at a persons or companies site/blog/forum/etc.. it irritates me that i always have to go to another site to finish reading or viewing a photo.
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Social media has to be used as a tool that compliments your business, not something that is forced onto your client. Having clients visit social media for more information is the wrong way to work it. It should be the opposite - deliver an exciting message that will be social in nature and engaging on your social media channel and draw people to your website. People who would otherwise never go looking for your website intentionally.

Companies just need to realize that people that use social networks actively is a different demographic than those who they serve day-to-day. But there are ways to convert some of them into customers if you make it an interesting story, find creative ideas to sell yourself as a solution to their problems.
 
It is confusing because nowadays there seems to be various demographics online. There does not appear to be any answer to the process of drawing visitors to a business site other than posting a link somewhere to be followed and intense marketing.

1. Some visit Social media and then click to visit websites.

and

2. Some visit Websites and then click to visit Social media.

and

3. Some find either type of site by random surfing or while searching for a particular subject.

and

4. Some surf the internet by clicking on links that appear to offer the info being sought.

There are only so many hours in a day and only so many dollars in the pocket. By using a business site plus social media along with marketing, this can be very time consuming and become expensive. And then add in the factor that social media sites rise and fall, sometimes quickly according to trends.

AHHHH, My hair is getting grey just writing about this!
 
I have been promoting our site on facebook, twitter, youtube etc. (mainly facebook) and never found effective yet. because for hosting companies it is very difficult to entertain users on the social platform to make a purchase on their site. because of most of the social users don't know about hosting/domains etc. I have personal not used Instagram much but i can say as per my experience it will not really so effective as well. It might be effective for some other companies or may be their methods to promote on the social sites are different from mine. If someone explains me how we can promote our site on the social networks effectively. i would be very appreciate :)
 
SenseiSteve said:
I'm sitting here trying to determine if Instagram for business is worth my effort. I was reading an article on HootSuite where it stated, "Forrester has named Instagram the “king of social engagement,” citing the fact that top brands’ Instagram posts generated a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21 percent. That means Instagram delivered these brands 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook, and 120 times more engagement per follower than Twitter." I'm curious if that would relate to the web hosting industry as effectively as other industries though, for example - retail.

We did have one member here say earlier that they used Instagram successfully. What are your thoughts?
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It depends on the industry.

For my wife, Instagram is gold. The business that she runs perfectly aligns with content you would find on there. For hosting...it works, but does take some more work to make it effective.
 
WPCYCLE said:
For hosting...it works, but does take some more work to make it effective.
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If you've come across a web hosting Instagram page that is successful (and effective!), I would definitely be interested in checking it out.

You've said it right - it depends on the industry and to me it feels like Instagram is leaning towards fashion, lifestyle, bloggers, celebrity kind of content. I don't think I have ever seen a single web hosting company that would have an Instagram channel.
 
Artashes said:
If you've come across a web hosting Instagram page that is successful (and effective!), I would definitely be interested in checking it out.

You've said it right - it depends on the industry and to me it feels like Instagram is leaning towards fashion, lifestyle, bloggers, celebrity kind of content. I don't think I have ever seen a single web hosting company that would have an Instagram channel.
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I cant agree more with you on this one. I really don't see a market here and honestly a waste of time. Alot of people that use instagram are usually in a younger age group and don't even have a thought about even getting hosting services.
 
As far as engaging the audience goes Instagram could turn out to be a good option, but I highly even doubt you can expect sales from a platform like Instagram. You should try to study your competitor pages and see if you can get an idea about the same.
 
James-A said:
As far as engaging the audience goes Instagram could turn out to be a good option, but I highly even doubt you can expect sales from a platform like Instagram. You should try to study your competitor pages and see if you can get an idea about the same.
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Instagram could turn out to be a good option, just not for web hosting. As any PR/social media management professional would tell you, it isn't enough to just have a channel and even post things from time to time, you need to know what and how and when to post it. It is your content that would make your audience engage and if it is plain pictures of your DC rack or servers, unfortunately, that's not compelling enough.

It is hard enough to make the content exciting for this industry. To make Instagram channel work (effective in bringing sales) is nearly impossible. If fashion/lifestyle/beauty bloggers or brands mostly struggle to convert posts into sales, you can't expect to sell web hosting via this medium.

In my view, you are better off spending all that energy, time and effort somewhere else.
 
People active on Instagram are very unlikely to engage in web hosting, they probably would hire someone to develop their website for them if they need a website, not develop one themselves.

And most developers have their own favourites when it comes to web hosting
 
I personally don't see how it would help most webhosting companies I guess if you post server pron on there it might get some people however it never hurts to give it a try.

Guess I should start one up for our company and start using it.
 
I am skeptical about the social media channels be it instagram or FB. People on these sites do not engage in buying anything. So it will be really hard to sell to these guys. These can of course be used for spreading some brand awareness though.
 
Might improve your SEO

You can link your Facebook and Instagram accounts and share a post on both. If you are already posting to Facebook, Instagram will not be any extra work. From an SEO standpoint, it might not be a bad idea. They both have an enormous amount of traffic, so it might help your ranking.
 
susansee said:
You can link your Facebook and Instagram accounts and share a post on both. If you are already posting to Facebook, Instagram will not be any extra work. From an SEO standpoint, it might not be a bad idea. They both have an enormous amount of traffic, so it might help your ranking.
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I think, it would be posted on their personal Facebook account instead of Facebook page???
 
CasualHost said:
People active on Instagram are very unlikely to engage in web hosting, they probably would hire someone to develop their website for them if they need a website, not develop one themselves.

And most developers have their own favourites when it comes to web hosting
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not agree, it depends on the users criteria, maybe your followers is student & housewife, that cant create websites

if our followers is webmasters/startup, you will get high convert sales
 
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