Instagram Live has taken the ‘Gram world by storm. Instagram Live is a fantastic feature that lets you broadcast live videos straight to your feed. This is a super fun and exciting new function, although going “live” can be daunting and scary for business owners, particularly if this is an unfamiliar tech area for you or if you are new to the video game
WHY Instagram Lives will scale up your business and HOW you can start today.
Instagram Live is a brilliant way to connect with your audience, your customers, stakeholders, your hub and your people. You can have conversations on a real-time basis and in a super engaging way. Answering questions, discussing topics and furnishing your followers with information INSTANTLY is king. Likewise, gathering queries, concerns and feedback from your follower base like gold.
The Instagram Live feature notifies your followers when you are live and appears at the top of the screen within the Instagram Stories section on a user’s feed. This means YOUR Instagram Live will get priority over Stories and are shown first in sequence, levelling up your visibility.
Five innovative ways to use your Instagram Live feature, today:
- Engage with your followers with a live Q&A! This can be related to your services, brand ethos, brand story, product or an event. Promote your Instagram Live Q&A beforehand with a countdown sticker on stories to give a sense of urgency. Interact with your followers further by requesting questions in advance.
- Collaborate with a relevant person from your industry. This could be a colleague, a brand or even a friend with a similar target audience to you. This will massively increase your reach and is a fun way for people to drop by and get involved in the conversation. Collaborations can also be cross promoted pre and post Instagram Live, on both accounts – win win.
- New product or service drop. Why not introduce a new collection, product or service by hosting a Live and talking it through. Instead of relying on your email marketing or press releases to promote your newest release, put your face and personality at the forefront of your brand and do it yourself! Use your Live as an opportunity to detail any key features and what makes your product/service stand out. This is a great way to build and maintain a personal connection with your audience on a deeper level, while driving people to your website or platforms.
- Go Live at events. This could be anything from your own business event, industry seminars, influencer events, PR junkets, seminars and panels… anything that is informative, relevant and exciting for your audience to watch and see. If you are going to post about the event at a later date on your feed, go Live and let your followers be there with you. This allows a behind the scenes perspective and generates online engagement for your brand.
- Give tips and tutorials. Just like any other content, Live videos can be used for tutorials or guides. The best way to showcase a new product is by making a ‘how-to’ video explaining and educating its use. Short and snappy tips give your brand a purpose and reason for followers to return your brand. Easy, digestible information is a MUST if you want to keep your audience attentive in the blackhole of scrolling.
Are you maximising your Instagram features?
In summary, if you haven’t thought about Instagram Live since 2016 when it broke the internet, now is the time to start incorporating this awesome feature into your marketing strategy. It’s a fun and simple way to promote your products, services, brand’s social presence and engage with your followers in real time. If you have any questions about levelling up your Insta-marketing, please get in touch with CLS founder Chrissy S, or check out our marketing focused articles.