When it comes to social media tools for Amazon sellers, the popular choices tend to revolve around Facebook and Twitter. But there’s a hidden weapon you might be missing out on: Instagram. It’s got plenty of features that can help you land more sales — but only if you use it tactically and smartly. And with eDesk’s help, you can climb your way to being the seller you always knew you were capable of being.
What’s So Good About Using Instagram Anyway?
For starters, it can be an excellent way to spread awareness and visibility about your line, especially if you’re selling a private label and want to drive more traffic to your site. We took a look at Iconosquare’s Instagram study from 2015 and found some interesting things you should be aware of.
- Instagram has surpassed Twitter in terms of monthly active users (300 million to 286 million).
- Of the 16,000 surveyed users in the study, 70% of them use Instagram for shopping purposes.
- 62% of those surveyed follow a brand because they love it, and 65% feel flattered when a brand likes their own post.
- The biggest demographic of Instagram users are in the 18-to-29-year-old range.
- The brands that ‘get’ who their users tend to post at least once a day, or 45+ times a month.
- The gender divide is tilted a little more in favor of women, with users comprising about 64% women and the rest men.
- But in terms of device usage, it’s pretty much a 50-50 split when it comes to Apple vs. Android.
- More users live in urban areas than rural ones.
Why Instagram is Such a Natural Tool for Amazon Users
What’s the first thing buyers notice about one of your product listings? The images. And what does Instagram specialize in? That’s right — images. It’s ridiculously easy, fast and simple to upload pictures to your account and use hashtags to link visibility even more, and you can get your message across in a way that doesn’t feel stuffy, market-y or like you’re trying to sell someone something.
There’s also room for creativity, too. When you create an Instagram account for your brand, make sure you have the following information in place:
- A link to your site in the bio. We recommend using a URL shortener so it doesn’t take up a ton of space, leaving that real estate looking clean and uncluttered. Try and use a URL shortener that lets you track where your customers are clicking from so you can market more specifically to them.
- An elevator pitch-sized description of your company. A neat trick to use is telling users to use a specific hashtag for their photos and you’ll feature the best ones/favorite ones.
- Links to other social media accounts you have.
- Use your company logo as your profile image.
- And remember, set your account to public so anyone and everyone can both see your images and follow you hassle-free.
Be Consistent in Your Use
For a lot of people, Instagram is a fun thing they use to attract attention and gain likes. But for you, the Amazon seller, you’ll need to use it in a slightly different way. Keep feeling free to add a bit of whimsy and casualness to your account, but make sure to maintain a consistent theme to your posts that reflect your brand/store’s identity.
Put out photos that only have to do with what you’re selling; save your beach photos for your personal account. While shoppers might be curious about the wizard behind the curtain, it’s not a good idea to reveal too much about yourself. Your main goal is driving traffic and increasing sales.
It’s also a good idea to focus on putting up good quality images. Play around with the filters a little bit, but try and keep pictures as clean and true to form as you can.
Instagram also lets you post videos. If you’re uploading it from your phone, just choose the video from your library. But if you’re uploading a video from a site, you’ll first have to convert it to MP4 format. There are plenty of sites and apps that do this for you.
When it comes to hashtags, use an app that tracks the most popular hashtags. Instagram will show you the number of uses if you start typing a hashtag in, but you’ll have to know what to start typing in the first place. Use a good amount, but not so many that it looks like the hashtag truck took a wrong turn on your page. About 6-10 is a good amount, and throw in one or two that are cute or funny.
Lastly, one seldom-used trick is using Instagram’s photo layout as a grid to create a larger image. Photos are shown three in a row, and you can ‘create’ a 3×3 grid to make one larger photo. Take one image and use a photo-editing tool to crop it into a 9-square grid, then post the photos individually. You’ll want to first post the photo in the bottom-right corner and move right to left, bottom to top, to recreate the original image. Use this sparingly because while a neat trick, it can be tiring if used too often. Plus, you’re using nine squares on a single image instead of 9 separate photos.
Another neat trick of Instagram is running a contest or giveaway. And if you do that successfully, you’ll have a lot more traffic and potentially higher sales coming your way.
