How to market on instagram 2019

How to Launch or Revise One in 10 Steps

(This post contains affiliate links. Read my full disclosure.)

Why does every business need an Instagram marketing strategy today? Not only is Instagram a social media network that marketers can’t afford to overlook anymore, being the second largest social network with over 1 billion users, the time has come to make it an integral part of every business’s marketing strategy, even B2B companies that have neglected to engage with its users. Simply put, those 1 billion people present huge marketing opportunities to businesses. According to Instagram Advertiser statistics , users are engaging with brands on the network in exactly the way that marketers want:

50% of Instagrammers follow a business
60% have learned about products and services through Instagram
75% have taken an action, like visiting websites or looking at products after seeing posts

While Instagram is not for every industry, there is one which has been very successful: Ecommerce.

Table Of Contents

Why Instagram Marketing is Key to Ecommerce Marketing
Understanding The Instagram Algorithm (background info needed for success)
Step 1: Define your objectives and make a plan for your Instagram marketing strategy
Step 2: Audit Your Competitors (content, hashtags, followers, engagement)
Step 3: Set Up Your Instagram Business Profile (bio, link in bio)
Step 4: Determine Your Instagram Content and Brand Style
Step 5: Create a schedule
Step 6: Do some hashtag research
Step 7: Publish pictures
Step 8: Leverage Instagram Stories
Step 9: Experiment with Instagram Reels
Step 10: Don’t forget to follow your fans
Step 11: Proactively follow people in your target audience
Step 12: Proactively engage with people
Step 13: Celebrate your fans
Step 14: Publish User-Generated Content from Your Fans
Step 15: Engage with Nano and Micro-Influencers and Build an Instagram Influencer Marketing Program
Step 16: Utilize Paid Social to supplement the organic growth of your Instagram marketing strategy
Step 17: Check your stats and optimize your Instagram marketing strategy using PDCA

Why Instagram Marketing is Key to Ecommerce Marketing

A decade ago, Instagram was a place for young adults to hop on and share heavily-filtered images with their friends and family. Since that time, Instagram has grown to be a truly massive marketing platform, boasting people and businesses from all walks of life. Small boutiques can use Instagram, as can billion-dollar companies and influencers, and regardless of their size, they are able to interact with and directly reach their customer bases. For this reason alone, Instagram marketing is absolutely vital to e-commerce marketing and provides one of the easiest ways to deliver marketing materials to audiences.

E-commerce is commerce conducted entirely online, which can limit some of the ways you can properly market your business. The scale of e-commerce is often much smaller than standard business models, as well, which can further limit your marketing abilities. Instagram posts provide a perfect way to create audience-fueled content that shows off who you are, what your business is all about, and how your products can most effectively be used.

In your marketing, quality content should be your primary focus; even if you post multiple times each day and engage heartily with all of your followers, that will eventually grow tired and uninteresting if you are not producing high-quality content. From using a branded hashtag to encourage growth and engagement, to offering clickable links to a well-thought-out and well-designed site, to creating individual posts that use the best possible images and text, your followers might come for frequency of posting or influencer marketing, but will stay for the quality.

Understanding The Instagram Algorithm (background info needed for success)

Simply leaping into Instagram posts does not mean that you will immediately know how to create compelling content that improves your value and your interaction with your audience.

To effectively utilize Instagram marketing, you must understand how the Instagram algorithm works, and how you can use it to your advantage. While Instagram feeds used to be simple enough, showing posts according to the time they were posted, as the platform grew, its algorithm grew more complicated than the time of day posts are created.

Today, the exact algorithm associated with Instagram and e-commerce veers away from chronological posts and focuses far more on consistently using a popular hashtag, interacting and engaging with followers, and creating content that is considered relevant in your industry or niche–all of which can be boosted or hampered by the period of time during which content is posted.

To make sure that your posts are seen more frequently and your marketing reaches as far as you need it to, there are several important things to keep in mind, including the amount of interaction you and your followers engage in, the relevance of your posts in your niche (including using a relevant hashtag), and how similar your content is to the posts of people who are currently following you. Adhering to these basic strategies offer a great start to getting your e-commerce Instagram marketing account up and running. As a business owner, it is part of your job to evaluate how you can reach a wider audience by creating a marketing budget and social media strategy.

If you’re looking to improve your visual identity AND get more value from social media, here are 17 steps to help you launch or revise an Instagram marketing strategy:

Step 1: Define your objectives and make a plan for your Instagram marketing strategy

Just like with any social network, the first thing you need to do to get your Instagram presence off the ground is to sit down and draft a plan for branding and content themes. Don’t start publishing photos just yet. Your social media results will only ever be as good as the strategy behind your effort, so put in the legwork to reap greater rewards down the road.

First, decide on your goals. Are you looking to:

Promote products?
Build brand awareness?
Engage fans?
Grow your audience?
Get new customers?
Build relationships with influencers?

Ideally, your Instagram marketing strategy will achieve all of these things, but you’ll need to know what’s most important so you can align your image choice and publication strategy. If you want to promote products, you need to share pictures of the items that you sell. If you want to grow your audience, you need to share pictures that will grab people’s attention and make them interested in learning more about your business, and consider how you might combine collecting an email address with your marketing efforts.

Determining your goals will also help you decide what types of images are most appropriate for your strategy (professional photos, candid pictures, videos, memes), and how often you’re going to share each type.

Next, you will need to establish the visual identity you want to create on Instagram, your own unique “visual voice.” It should align with your existing branding, so customers will instantly recognize the images you share as yours. If your visual identity is artistic, you might want to go with bold black and white images and play with tools to better edit your Instagram photos . For something softer and relaxing, stick to paler color schemes and apply muted filters. If you want something energizing, mix a clean white space with bright pops of color.

In other words, however tempting it might be with the plethora of Instagram apps that exist out there, don’t go crazy with filters and photo editing. Make guidelines for your content and be consistent with the pictures you share to effectively maintain follower growth and create organic posts.Note: If you’re looking for a primer on social media strategy in general, make sure you pick up my Maximize Your Social book.

Note: If you’re looking for a primer on social media strategy in general, make sure you pick up my Maximize Your Social book.

Step 2: Audit Your Competitors (content, hashtags, followers, engagement)

While it may seem strange, you should take time and devote some energy to looking into your competitors and evaluating what it is that they do with their own marketing efforts, and how their techniques might be applied to your own business. Evaluate the hashtag/s your competitors are using, the type of content they are creating each week, who their followers are, and what their followers are most likely to engage with. If, for instance, your e-commerce business offers crystal bracelets and earrings, and a competitor selling the same product consistently uses the hashtag “#crystalbraceletsforemfreduction,” make sure you begin including that hashtag in your own marketing efforts and posts.

Your audits can be as simple or as involved as you prefer. You can keep track of your competitors’ content, hashtags, follower numbers, the times per day that they post, and engagement habits via an excel sheet, or you can simply view your competitors’ Instagram accounts on a regular basis and keep yourself familiar with what they are up to and how you can employ their best business practices.

If you are unsure of yourself when it comes to marketing, you can glean marketing tips and developing marketing goals based on your competitors’ content plan and content performance, while maintaining a commitment to generating original posts.

Step 3: Set Up Your Instagram Business Profile (bio, link in bio)

When you set up your instagram, make sure you are setting up a business account, rather than a personal one. Although you will not be penalized for using a personal account as a business, business accounts are able to link to products and other sites, include contact information and links, advertise the posts you put up on Instagram, and receive insights about your posts, your Instagram stories, and your followers, including engagement rates. Having these tools at your fingertips is essential to use Instagram marketing effectively, because it allows you to evaluate where you’ve gone wrong, where you require further improvement, and where your posts are performing as you’d hoped.

Sorting through your Instagram insights allows you to sort through reactions and views to your Instagram Stories, evaluate the types of content that garner the most shares, comments, and likes, and helps you weed out potential customers from people who are simply hopping onto their social media platforms for a quick cruise-through, rather than engaging with or committing to purchasing from a brand or business. This can be a simple first step, as it does not require you to have a single piece of content or a target demographic. If you are stuck, consider making this one of your first steps.

Step 4: Determine Your Instagram Content and Brand Style

The types of content you create will greatly inform everything that you do, and will even determine how you use Instagram Stories and other features associated with the platform.

To effectively use Instagram to construct user-generated content to market your materials, improve engagement rates, and connect with your audience, you must determine what type of content you will create, and how your brand will be styled. Although your every post does not have to look identical, you should make sure that your Instagram Stories, posts, and Instagram live streams all adhere to the same basic formula and appearance.

Content and style will vary from one brand to the next, and creating guides for your content plan will help direct your steps for your brand and maintain a consistent appearance. Make sure that every piece of content and branding plans fall within your budget, and are geared toward raising engagement rates, solidifying the appearance of your brand, and helping your company along. To make this easier, you can create specific templates for your brand and modify them according to your needs. From your product launch to your weekly factoid post, make sure there is some consistency for your existing and potential followers on Instagram.

Step 5: Create a schedule

The next step is to settle on a posting schedule. How often are you going to publish content as part of your Instagram marketing strategy? Again, you need to be consistent to be successful with social media like Instagram. Avoid dumping a bunch of pictures online all at once, and then going weeks or months between updates. You need to have a regular presence on your followers’ Instagram feeds to stay top-of-mind and achieve any marketing results.

What can you realistically commit to? One photo a week? Two per week? One every day? I recommend to all of my clients to publish consistently at a minimum of once a week and only increase the frequency once they have a several-week stockpile of images or they are achieving great engagement as a percentage of their followers.

Create a schedule based on your strategy, and stick to it. Perhaps that means alternating product pictures and candid shots of customers, with memes and videos every fourth share.

If you have a bunch of great pictures stockpiled for Instagram, great. Resist the temptation to publish them all at once. Spread them out over the course of weeks, months, or even a year to get the most mileage out of them. Get some tools to help you manage content distribution. AgoraPulse and Tailwind are a couple of social media post scheduling software apps that can help you stay on top of your account with minimal day-to-day management.

Step 6: Do some hashtag research

If you want to grow your Instagram presence, it is an absolute Instagram best practice to use hashtags. A study by Simply Measured found that Instagram posts with at least one hashtag get 12.6 percent more engagement than those without any.

Results like this prove why hashtags are so important for building a successful social media campaign on any network. The difficult part is finding the right hashtags. You need something that is going to get your images in front of more members of your target audience.

A couple of approaches to zeroing in on the right hashtags for Instagram include:

Looking at what your competitors are doing
Looking at what your customers are using
Looking at what influencers are posting
Looking up keywords related to your business to discover similar keywords that are trending

You can also try hashtag research tools to find related terms that can help you get in front of your customers.

Step 7: Publish pictures

The next step is to actually publish a picture on your Instagram account. Follow the guidelines you set up in your Instagram marketing strategy to determine which kind of image you should use, how to filter it, and which hashtags to use.

Don’t worry about followers just yet. It’s a good idea to have some content on your Instagram account before you start following people. Otherwise, they might look at your account and think it’s spam. You will get more followers if you have something published first. In fact, I recommend you have at least 6 to 9 – if not 10 – images on your account before you start following others so that it shows you are actually active on Instagram.

Step 8: Leverage Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are extremely important in improving engagement rates, making your brand seem more approachable and personable, and encouraging your audience to come back for more. Instagram Stories are used to create Instagram insights and Instagram analytics for this reason; the way that you engage with your followers via your Instagram can play an important role in how consistently your followers engage with your brand, and how relatable your content appears. Instagram Stories can be used to show your followers the behind-the-scenes of your business and brand just as easily as it can be used to show your followers where and how to purchase your products or services. The swipe-up feature on Instagram Stories is extremely helpful for e-commerce store owners.

Through Instagram Stories, you can offer guides, product photos, and “day in the life” moments with yourself or your employees. Instagram stories can be used to repost photos you’ve been tagged or mentioned in, direct followers to all new posts you create, and present a kind and engaging face for your customers to interact with.

Step 9: Experiment with Instagram Reels

Instagram reels are relatively new to the social platform, but have become immensely popular. In a vein similar to TikTok videos, Instagram reels allow you to create content that adheres to a specific format or challenge, in order to engage with other brands, companies, and influencers in your industry. Instagram reels are a great way to encourage active users to engage with your brand, and provides a zero-budget way to create entertaining videos for your audience to consume and enjoy. While they may not show up in Instagram analytics in quite the same way as Stories, they can be an incredible way to have fun with your marketing approach, show off your willingness to engage with followers and trends, and have a good time while promoting your brand.

Instagram reels offer visual content that is more engaging and appealing than a simple post. If you have used carousel posts as part of your marketing strategy, think of reels as the video version of carousel posts, in which you are able to deliver multiple shots in a single video and create these fun little videos to share with your followers from time to time.

Step 10: Don’t forget to follow your fans

Although it’s not necessarily the fastest way to grow your audience, it’s smart to follow your customers as well as employees. These people are already your fans. They already know you and support you. They will like your pictures and leave comments, providing genuine engagement as you build a larger following online.

Most companies look outside for influencers to jump start engagement, but it’s always smartest to start with those who have the greatest brand affinity for your business!

Step 11: Proactively follow people in your target audience

Next, follow some of the people who you want to follow you: Members of your target audience and influencers in your industry. This might include other companies in your space that you admire, experts in the field, or anyone else with a large following. The best part? This simple practice does not cut into your daily budget!

Why do this when your Instagram marketing strategy goal is to build a following – not be a part of someone else’s? It’s a good practice. It’s networking. You need to follow other accounts to gain followers. It’s also an opportunity to get into the same social media circles as people who might be in your target audience, so you can get on their radars and connect later on.

This is social media, after all, made for businesses and not people. Those businesses that engage more like people would will do better, hit their marketing goals, and improve their engagement metrics.

Step 12: Proactively engage with people

That brings us to the next point: Engagement. Any successful Instagrammer will tell you that in order to grow your following, you need to interact with other people. Like a few photos every day and comment on other people’s pictures and videos regularly.

Do this to people you follow as well as others you don’t know (you might find them through hashtag searches or Instagram’s discover function). It’s a way to get on more people’s radars. If someone sees that you’re liking their pictures and leaving genuine comments, they might check out your profile and follow you back. Immediately, this means you’re growing your audience. Ultimately, it could turn into more customers.

Step 13: Celebrate your fans

Even as your Instagram following grows, don’t forget about your most loyal fans. Share photos from events to give a behind-the-scenes look at your business. Post pictures of customers and tag them. Consider reposting photos from fans that are aligned with your content strategy. These little shout outs will keep fans feeling connected to your brand as you expand.

Step 14: Publish User-Generated Content from Your Fans

The visual content aspect of Instagram as a social platform is part of what makes it so appealing. Although your captions certainly matter as part of your branding, it is the sight of your regular posts and stories that truly drives your marketing plan and engagement rates. One way to improve your engagement and boost your visibility among your followers is to publish user-generated content from your fans and followers. From posts detailing a follower’s experience with your products, to fan-generated content created for a giveaway, letting your followers know that you see and hear them can be a valuable way to improve your audience’s perception of you, and expand your reach.

User-generated content will vary, and not all content can be reposted. Stories, for instance, cannot be reposted, while carousel posts can be reposted easily. You can even link to a blog post in your business account’s swipe-up feature. Publishing user-generated content from your fans can do wonders for your scores in your analytics tools and is an important part of the content strategy for virtually every e-commerce platform.

Step 15: Engage with Nano and Micro-Influencers and Build an Instagram Influencer Marketing Program

Although having a hashtag strategy and definitive brand is important, most e-commerce marketing efforts are not complete without some type of influencer marketing effort. Nano and micro influencers can help get your brand name out there, from a name and face that people trust, which helps your brand reach more people and potentially increase traffic and engagement rates. Posting at optimal times is important, but engaging with influencers in real time can be even more vital to developing a winning marketing strategy, and welcoming new followers (and potentially new customers) to your platform.

If you are gearing up to reach out to influencers to promote your brand, consider setting up a dedicated program for your brand or business. Most influencers want to know what they are getting into up front, whether that means knowing the type of post they are expected to create, the number of mentions they are expected to deliver, or even the type of Instagram Stories content they are expected to provide, and knowing what you’d like from your relationships with influencers will ease this process. You can look over other brands’ standard practices with influencers or develop your own unique strategy, but make sure you create some consistency in your influencer expectations.

If you want to give your Instagram account a boost, consider promoting your pictures through paid Instagram ads that show up in the feeds of your target audience. Social media has become pay-to-play for most social networks, and even though Instagram still provides relatively high organic Instagram engagement, at some point you might find that you must promote your content to see the results you expect.

It’s true that promotions usually provide an immediate boost to social media results. To make those results stick, it’s important that paid content appeals to the specific audience you’re targeting and provides enough reason for them to follow you after seeing it.

Step 17: Check your stats and optimize your Instagram marketing strategy using PDCA

Even though you’re just kicking off a new Instagram marketing strategy and it will take some time to gain traction, it’s critical that you keep track of stats like:

Number of Followers
Number of Likes per picture
Number of Comments per picture
Volume of website traffic generated from Instagram
Leads generated from Instagram
Amount of sales generated from Instagram

After you have published enough posts to collect a healthy amount of data, take a step back and compare the results with the content you published. Look for patterns between the images you published, the captions you used, and the results you gained.

Do videos get more likes? Do you gain followers after posting a picture of your events? Are bright pictures more popular than black and whites? Do certain posts generate more website traffic, leads, and sales than others?

With this information, you can hone your Instagram marketing strategy and zero in on the approach that will generate the best results on Instagram. As your audience grows, so should the success you see from your social media marketing efforts.

Need more advice? Check out my video below!

Hero photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

How do you create a marketing strategy on Instagram?

Here are the steps on how to create an Instagram marketing strategy:

1. Determine your goals, theme, and visual identity of your Instagram then create a plan out of them
2. Check your competitors and evaluate their techniques and marketing efforts
3. Create an Instagram business profile
4. Know your brand and content style
5. Create a schedule
6. Familiarize yourself with Instagram features and use them as leverage

How effective is Instagram marketing?

As of this year, Instagram has an estimated advertising reach of 928 million — making it an ideal platform to advertise. Instagram marketing is effective because you can reach out to a big audience. Moreover, 80% of Instagram users are following at least one business account. This year, reports show that the platform generated $15.5B revenue. The numbers alone explain how effective Instagram marketing is.

How do I promote my business on Instagram?

Check these ways on how you can promote your business on Instagram:

1. Create a product catalog and sync it with your Instagram business account.
2. Sign up for Instagram shopping.
3. Start tagging your products on your Instagram posts, stories, and feed.
4. Post user-generated Instagram content.

What is an Instagram content strategy?

Instagram content strategy is vital because it is the key to the success of Instagram marketing. It helps you determine your goals, identifies your content style and theme, plans a post scheduling, and develops a plan that will work best for your target audience. More than those, an Instagram content strategy keeps you on track of your goals and numbers. Thus, giving room for growth and improvement.

How do you get 1K followers on Instagram in 5 minutes?

In reality, it is impossible to get 1,000 followers on Instagram in 5 minutes unless you or your posts have gone viral. This may cause your followers to instantly increase but if that’s not the case, it won’t happen. Other people use applications that promise to gain instant followers but it is not recommendable. Having fake followers especially as an influencer, will not help you.

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Business account promotion on Instagram

There will be a new site here soon! There will be a new site here soon! There will be a new site here soon! There will be a new site here soon! There will be a new site here soon! There will be a new site here soon!

Keeping a business blog among a qualified and solvent audience is a unique feature provided by the social network Instagram. Today, almost all small business participants are represented on the site; for effective promotion, there are initially the necessary tools here. Business promotion on Instagram is no longer a luxury, but a necessity, especially for such areas of activity as:

Organization of holidays and outdoor events. nine0003
Catering services, food delivery from cafes, restaurants.
Selection and sale of cosmetics.
Sale of accessories and luxury items.
Tourism and travel.
Household goods, interior items.
Sale of furniture.
nine0002 Marketplaces, online stores.

This list is by no means complete. Any promotion of a business account on Instagram will be successful if you can provide users with quality content. In this article, we will look at how to make your page on a social network an effective tool for promoting your business.

Article content:

How to start promoting a business page on Instagram?

Self-configuring a business account: step-by-step instructions

Creating content for Instagram
The subtleties of business promotion on Instagram
Ways to promote a business account on Instagram
Why is unqualified account management dangerous?
Conclusion
nine0012

How to start promoting a business page on Instagram?

To register an account, you will need a phone number, email address or a Facebook page. Through your personal Facebook account, you can then set up all advertising campaigns. You can switch your business account to personal and vice versa at any time.

Setting up a business account on your own: a step-by-step guide

To increase the number of sales, company management should pay attention not only to the advertising promotion of a business account on Instagram. First of all, it is important to pay attention to setting up an account - it must meet all the requirements that guarantee attractiveness and usefulness for a potential buyer:

Instagram user avatar is small and round. Therefore, standard avatars from other social networks will not work. It will be optimal to create a new, appropriate image for the channel, which displays the direction of the company.
Be sure to fill in the profile description - it should be concise but informative. Companies often indicate here the main direction of their activities and contact details. nine0003
It is important to choose an account nickname that also reflects what your company does. Optimally - type of activity + name (for example, Restaurant Abazhur).
Specify an active link to your other page (also place a link to your Instagram profile on the company's website).
In the settings, specify the feedback methods - the corresponding button will appear on the page, allowing the user to call the account owner or send an e-mail. nine0003

Your business account is now set up and you are ready to post your first post.

Creating content for Instagram

Competent content creation is the most important step towards effective promotion of your Instagram account. First of all, it is advisable to get acquainted with competitors in the niche and their pages - you can find them through a hashtag search. This way you will get an idea of how you can effectively promote your business. Of course, we are not talking about plagiarism - content (both graphic and text) must be exceptionally unique, but competitor analysis will help in choosing potential topics for posts, their design, etc. Over time, you will be able to create your own content plan, following which you will be promoting a business account on Instagram. nine0003

Keep in mind that visitors only see the first 70 characters of a post's text in their feed. Therefore, try to interest your audience from the very first words. So that the text is not homogeneous, do not forget about formatting - break it into paragraphs using spaces, the first sentence can be made a heading.

Instagram is a social network, so emojis are very appropriate here. They both add emotionality to the text and separate or highlight the semantic blocks of the text. At the end of each text, try to make a call to action: for example, to follow the link and place an order, or leave a like and a comment. The appeal should be selected taking into account the direction of the post - it is educational, entertaining, image-building or selling. nine0003

The subtleties of business promotion on Instagram

Consider the main tools for promoting pages on Instagram that will make your business account more informative and attractive to the audience:

Don't forget the hashtags. They help both you and users to structure information. Well-chosen hashtags allow users to find your account and follow it.
On the Instagram page, you can post not only images, but also videos. Their duration is limited to 60 seconds, but during this time it is realistic to show the merits of the company's service or product. If you need more time, upload the video to IGTV, a resource for posting videos up to 15 minutes long. Subscribers will see the first minute of the video directly in the feed, after which they will be able to continue watching through IGTV. nine0003
Geotagging is indispensable for promoting local businesses. Such a tool will help you find and attract users from your region.
Do not forget that people come to Instagram for the sake of communication. It is imperative to conduct a dialogue with customers, answering their questions openly and honestly, as well as conducting polls and promotions on the page.
Stories is an account promotion tool that cannot be ignored by any business today. Stories disappear 24 hours after publication (here, for example, it is effective to post ads and express offers), have a higher degree of engagement than regular posts, because they interact with the visitor interactively. nine0003

Enter in your content plan the date of publication, the type of content, hashtags used, and also track the reaction of users - for example, the number of likes, reposts, comments. It is also advisable to create a stock of photos and videos in advance for posting in your account.

Ways to promote a business account on Instagram

The peculiarity of Instagram is that a personal account can be turned into an active online store at no additional cost. It will carry out both sales and communication with existing and potential customers. nine0003

Business promotion on Instagram is possible in several ways:

With an advertising campaign through Instagram or Facebook. A method called targeted advertising is available to all business account holders. On the personal account page, statistics of impressions and reach of posts, as well as all information about your subscribers, will become available. It is possible to select the audience to which your account's ads will be shown, specifying the desired age, gender, city and country, and the interests of subscribers. nine0003
Another good way to promote your business in a social network is to order advertising from famous bloggers. Users trust the bloggers they follow, and such ads look unobtrusive and organic. Digital Info has a database of proven popular bloggers, by contacting the company you can get the most out of working with them.
Also, the promotion of a business account on Instagram will become more effective if you use contest mechanics that increase activity on the page. These can be drawings of gifts for a repost, promotions like invite a friend - get a discount on a service from a company, etc. nine0003

The best way to advertise on Instagram is to contact professionals from the Digital Info advertising agency. Self-adjustment without skills often leads to the fact that the entire budget is drained, and such advertising does not bring proper results. The company's specialists have extensive experience in setting up targeted advertising, as well as promotion in social networks in general - by applying for the services of Digital Info, you can not be afraid for the reliability and effectiveness of promotion. nine0003

Why is unqualified account management dangerous?

When planning to promote a business account on Instagram, it is not difficult to come across advertisements for various promotion services. Unskilled specialists who take up business promotion on Instagram have an arsenal of dubious means. But there is a nuance - the administrators of the Instagram site are actively fighting against cheating.

Since the end of 2019, the rules prohibit any automatic activity in the account, be it greetings, page views, likes, etc. Any such method will become a direct way to blocking an account, at least for a certain period (usually from a day to a week), as a maximum - forever. nine0003

Agree, it's a shame to waste all the efforts spent on promoting a business account. The same applies to spam offers on Instagram. This method will not only be ineffective and unethical in relation to site users, but will also block the account.

Buying users on special exchanges who are ready to subscribe to an account and put likes for a small fee - a method allowed by the Instagram administration, but it will also be of little efficiency. You will get the desired number of subscribers, but there will be no activity in the account (and even more so - potential buyers) at all. nine0003

For high-quality business promotion on Instagram, contact professionals from the Digital Info agency. This is a guarantee that user cheats, third-party applications and other ineffective or prohibited methods will not be used in the advertising campaign. You will get a live, active audience interested in your services.

Conclusion

Business promotion on Instagram will not completely replace promotion through other channels, but it will be an effective addition to it. Instagram can become a launch pad for a business, a tool for promoting an online store and increasing traffic, a platform for communicating with customers, as well as a way to increase brand loyalty and awareness. nine0003

Remember that it is not easy to promote your account on your own.

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Entrepreneurs' opinions about business promotion after blocking Instagram

Olga Takmazyan

talked to entrepreneurs

Author's profile

After Instagram was blocked on the territory of Russia, the daily coverage of the site decreased from 33% of the population to 20%.

It became impossible to launch targeted advertising, the business lost one of its main sources of traffic.

Six business owners told why Instagram became their main channel for promotion and what they are doing after blocking it.

The Instagram social network is owned by Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned in the territory of the Russian Federation

Tinkoff The magazine spoke to entrepreneurs in April to record their first reaction. And in the fall I contacted them again to find out what had changed in the long run.

“Don’t be shy to present your product to stores and marketplaces”

Lena Medvedeva

ceramist and creator of the Nezhno Ceramics project

Nezhno Ceramics is a St. Petersburg brand of ceramics that appeared in 2017. The main product is sculptures and vases, which I design myself. A team of 6-7 people works with me: foremen and administrator. I take over the functions of SMM, marketer and photographer. nine0003

Until mid-March, Instagram was the only social network where the brand was present. He brought about 90% of all orders. The remaining 10% came after publications in the media and from interior designers or after master classes.

The Instagram social network is owned by Meta, an organization whose activities have been recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

At the same time, I almost did not invest in promotion, I did not buy advertising from bloggers either. In five years, I spent a maximum of 3000 R on the target. But I invested all my time in product development. I set myself the goal of creating a product that I want to talk about. Buyers often take pictures of our ceramics and post them on social networks - this is how a new audience will learn about us. nine0003

The Instagram social network belongs to Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned in the territory of the Russian Federation

In addition, interior designers often use our sculptures for projects and filming. They tag us on social networks and publish photos in interior magazines. This would not have happened if we were making basic plates or vases.

‎In addition to focusing on the product, I paid a lot of attention to posts: I shared meaningful information with subscribers, spoke in detail about the project, and filmed a video of the sculpting processes. After one such video, a thousand people subscribed to the account. nine0003

Lately, I've started using the workshop for workshops and co-working - independent work with clay. Also, our space is often rented for filming: it is located in an old building with high ceilings and looks very photogenic. The content that guests make also promotes our brand.

/stolyarka/

How I opened and closed the carpentry school in Voronezh

In our workshop, we have a coworking format: when guests work with clay on their own and can ask the craftsman for advice

Thanks to word of mouth, 37,000 people have subscribed to Nezhno Ceramics all the time. On average, we have 50 orders per month. More often they buy small vases for 7,000-8,000 R, but sometimes they order large sculptures for 100,000 R. Renting a workshop brings about another 10,000-15,000 R per month, but we do not seek to expand this direction: constant shooting will distract from work. Now they come to us a couple of times a week, and that's enough.

Our audience can be divided into three types:

Buyers who appreciate the comfort of home are interested in interior design, but do not do it professionally. This audience has grown a lot during the pandemic, when everyone was sitting at home and equipping their space. As a rule, these are people 27-40 years old, mostly women.
Interior designers who buy ceramics for clients or their homes.
B2B clients: restaurants, public spaces.

In addition to buyers, our Instagram has many followers who are not yet ready to buy, but love our ceramics and support the brand. Since our product is not cheap and not essential, there are almost no spontaneous purchases: the audience can take a long time to make a decision. nine0003

The Instagram social network is owned by Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

In 2022, we planned to reach a Western audience and launch a target, but we didn’t have time: on March 14, we blocked Instagram. At first, they gave up, but there was a glimmer of hope that everyone would learn how to use a VPN.

And so it happened: our audience basically remained. There is a feeling that VPN services are not used by older people who were not tied to social networks and spent little time on them. Since this is not our target audience, engagement remained the same. nine0003

About 200-300 people unsubscribed from Nezhno Ceramics, but this happened after I expressed my position on events in Ukraine in the brand account. Later, it became more difficult to speak out, but many brands and bloggers began to support us. Bloggers who love us began to actively talk about Nezhno Ceramics in social networks. In addition, we announced discounts up to 20% by March 8th. The campaign lasted a week and a half, during which time another 500 people signed up for us, and the number of sales increased by 3-4 times. April was not so successful: sales fell by 20-30%. nine0003

In May, June and July sales traditionally decreased by 40%. This happens every year: summer is the low season for selling home goods. Master classes are also not as interesting to the audience as they are in autumn and winter: in the summer, many people leave the city.

Only after autumn I will be able to analyze the dynamics of sales, but, in my opinion, there is no serious decline: 99% of requests still come from the blocked social network.

On the contrary, people seem to live more actively, absorb everything more greedily. nine0279
Many people have not gone into austerity, rather they have become selective in their purchases: they are more willing to buy goods from local brands, with a small serial number or unique ones.

After the blocking of Instagram, many began to resurrect Vkontakte. I led a group there about 10 years ago, even before the creation of the ceramics brand. Perhaps I will resume publications in it and design the store. But I doubt that our Instagram audience will come there. I asked my subscribers in stories: while everyone is sitting and praying on VPN. Some are mastering Telegram. I also started my telegram channel, but never published anything: there is no time to run it in parallel with Instagram. In addition, this platform is more suitable for developing a personal brand. nine0003
The Instagram social network belongs to Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

Perhaps I don’t even need Telegram: in the spring, many were afraid to lose each other and subscribed there. But now users are tired of the flow of information and have begun to unsubscribe from channels. On average, a person is subscribed to 5-7 channels in Telegram, while on Instagram there can be 200-300 subscriptions.
The materials we worked with are either unavailable for order or have risen in price by 2-2.5 times. We are currently looking for a replacement0002 Now I am still engaged in the social network: in order to keep the engagement not falling, you need to make more efforts than before, for example, sharing not only work, but also personal.

We do not have the task of attracting a huge number of audiences: due to the foreign policy situation, problems began with the supply of materials. We cannot take many orders without understanding when new batches of clay will appear.

The whole business strategy has turned into tactics: we live for today, the planning horizon has narrowed to a week. The issue of entering Western markets is also on pause for the time being: we cannot accept payments from foreign banks and logistics is practically frozen. nine0003
So far, I don't see an alternative to Instagram in terms of audience and work mechanisms. One of its main advantages is that it is an international platform. It is convenient to find new trends there, follow the work of Western artists and ceramists, and get inspired by ideas. A local site cannot have the same benefits.

The Instagram social network belongs to Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

We found ourselves in a more favorable situation than new market players: after five years of work, the brand began to work for us. nine0003
For those who are at a loss, I recommend to be open to cooperation, collaborations, associations. Many sites that used to sell European brands are ready to work with Russian ones. Do not hesitate to contact stores and marketplaces and present your product to them.

We have not worked with marketplaces yet: Nezhno Ceramics is a high price segment, I think it is not very suitable for Wildberry or Ozone. In the future, I plan to enter niche marketplaces with a narrower audience. nine0003
“VKontakte audience is not in the mood to buy”

Victoria Lantyukhova

co-founder of the vintage furniture restoration studio Zanovo Studio

Our studio is engaged in the restoration of furniture to order and the sale of restored items. The project was opened with my friend Svetlana in Voronezh in 2019.

For two years there were only masters in the team, and we managed social networks ourselves: I wrote posts, since I have a journalistic education, I bought ads from bloggers and set up targeting, for this I took three-month courses. And Svetlana is a photographer, she shoots and fills the account with visual content. Since July 2022, an SMM specialist has been working with us: he fills social networks with content. nine0003
Until mid-March, our main channel for promotion was Instagram. About 10,000–15,000 R per month were spent on advertising with bloggers and targets. This brought good results: since the fall of 2020, the number of our subscribers has grown from 4,000 to 16,000. In addition, we reached a stable 8-10 orders per month with an average check of 50,000 rubles. whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

We did not consider other channels: we were completely satisfied with Instagram. Since January 2022, we have started creating a website: we have mounted a video course that we sell on the website. nine0003
Even before the blocking, we duplicated all the content in the Vkontakte group, but it was more of a testing ground. Several times we tried setting up a target there to see if it worked. They spent insignificant amounts: 500-1000 R. The channel was ineffective: in two years the group grew to 150 people, no more than 30 subscribers came from the target.

The target audience of Zanovo Studio is people aged 30-45 with an average income and above average, more often women. There are many Muscovites and Petersburgers among our clients, since furniture restoration is an expensive and not the most popular area for the regions. Another audience is visitors to our master classes. These are people who want to do something with their own hands, find a new hobby. Among them are many who are engaged in intellectual work. nine0003
/zabytoe-staroe/

How I restore old furniture
Vintage chairs we have restored
All of our clients are active Instagram users. When it was blocked, I thought: how good that we have collected the site. Then she created a channel in Telegram and a page on Yandex Zen.

The Instagram social network belongs to Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

At first, Telegram was needed in order not to lose contacts and agreements. And then we came up with the idea of launching a paid private channel, where we would consult, show restoration techniques and filming processes. We launched this channel on April 1 by subscription — 800 R per month. nine0003
Tried to promote a channel in an adjacent community dedicated to Scandinavian interior design. We paid 1100 R for placement and got 50 new subscribers. In addition, 3-5% of our audience moved there from another social network. In the summer, we invested about 5,000 R in advertising in Telegram communities, I consider the decision successful: the audience is alive, there are buyers. As a result, by August we had about 200 subscribers. There were about 10 sales in total, but it's hard to tell if they came from ads in channels, from old social networks, or from a website. nine0003
In the spring, she posted a large text on Yandex Zen with a link to Telegram. About 200 people read it, and three of them signed up. Since then, I have not been doing Zen anymore.

Vkontakte is by far the most unproductive channel for promoting our project. From April to August, we had several orders from there, sometimes we receive requests for a calculation of the cost of restoration.

So what? 09/27/22

VK apps disappeared from the App Store. We are looking for alternatives for Vkontakte and Mail.ru

In the spring, about 300 users joined the Vkontakte group. But subscriptions are not the same as purchases. I have a hypothesis that the audience on Vkontakte is not set up to buy there. Posts with restored furniture that can be purchased do not arouse interest. The comments often say that prices are too high and that old furniture cannot cost that much. Our project is designed for an audience that appreciates vintage and understands it. We probably haven't found our clients there yet.
Armchairs from Moscow that we have updated
While VPN services are working, we continue to run Instagram. Advertising for bloggers has been suspended: it is interesting to see what will happen on the site without paid publications. From observations: the number of subscribers continues to grow. Some notice us in the recommendations feed, others from hashtags.

The Instagram social network is owned by Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

Stories coverage has fallen: before they were watched by 1500-2000 users, now - 1000-1700. Revenue remained almost unchanged: in March there were slightly more orders than usual. A similar situation was at the beginning of the 2020 quarantine. I think people are making purchases they've been putting off. They are afraid that prices will rise, and they will not have time to buy what they have long wanted. nine0003
Now, several months after the lockdown, not much has changed. Instagram still brings 90% of sales, Telegram is in second place and Vkontakte is third. We are not promoting the site yet.

The Instagram social network is owned by Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

The promotion tools on Instagram have, of course, changed. Now we only post rils — this format is promoted by site algorithms. We don’t buy ads from bloggers, but our clients mark us in their posts, and subscribers also come from there. In the near future, we plan to organize giveaways on Instagram: this will also attract a new audience. nine0003
“Revenue increased by 40%: many people started buying what they were saving”

Dmitry Gubin

co-founder of the brand of designer fabrics Mojd

Mojd is a family-owned fabric design workshop from the Leningrad region, which started in 2016. We produce textiles and wallpapers with prints inspired by northern nature and folklore. The workshop was opened by my wife, artist Lena Gubina. She invents prints, writes posts on our social networks, and is responsible for production. I'm in finance and advertising. nine0003
Since we have several products, the audience is also heterogeneous. Scarves with our print are bought by girls aged 25-40 who love unique accessories. Curtains are more often purchased by women with children who make repairs or renovate the interior. And the third narrow audience - B2B - manufacturers who purchase our fabric and sew products from it: pillows, tablecloths, upholstery for furniture.

When we first launched, the main platform for promotion was the VKontakte group. We invited friends to it, agreed with other communities on mutual advertising. At the same time, they opened sales on Etsy, but there were few buyers there. nine0003
In 2018, we started Instagram, and it immediately became the main platform, bringing at least 90% of sales.

The Instagram social network is owned by Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

At first, they used the then popular "mass following" for promotion - they subscribed to other people. Programs that automate this process cost about 500-600 R per month and brought from 50 to 100 new targeted subscribers per day. Later, the admins of the social network began to fight against mass following, and we took up marketing. nine0003
I hired several targetologists, watched their work and learned. For example, I came to the conclusion that in our case it is more efficient to launch an ad with a call to subscribe to a social network, rather than go to a website. Another insight is that advertising on recent posts is most effective. This helped to additionally display posts as recommended and increase viral coverage due to the internal mechanics of promoting the social network. For the last six months, I have been setting up the target on my own.
Fabric cushion with Mojd 9 print0002 I have tried several times to collaborate with influencers whose audience is similar to ours. I can not say that it brought a significant result. For example, a blogger with an audience of 10,000-20,000 subscribers could only attract 50-100 new people to us. But there was an impression that the audience that came from bloggers treats us very warmly.

Gradually, the number of our subscribers grew to 25,000. I spent 10,000-15,000 R per month on the target. For bloggers, if we translate barter into foreign currency, about 10,000 R every three months. The target launched in 2020 brought us the greatest growth. nine0003
In parallel, we continued to maintain a page on Vkontakte. We duplicated the content there, and tested the target six months ago. With the same settings that I used on Instagram, an advertising post on Vkontakte received a reach of 50,000 people, and there were only 100-150 clicks. Due to low efficiency, I did not begin to study the site and forgot about it until the spring of 2022.

The Instagram social network is owned by Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

When Instagram was blocked, I made a second attempt to set up ads on Vkontakte. And I saw different results: the personal account and settings became almost identical to Instagram, the conversion rate with the same budget is 10,000-15,000 R per month is the same. In April, our group had about 5,000 subscribers, now there are more than 17,000. Vkontakte began to bring 50% of sales.

The rest comes from Instagram, which we continue to maintain in the same style and with the same frequency, but without advertising. A small percentage of the audience comes from search engines, from where they go to our site. nine0003 “Moid” means “fairy tale” in the Komi language
The blocking of the social network and the economic situation had almost no effect on revenue. Usually it fluctuates in the range of 300,000-350,000 R per month, increased by 40% in March, and returned to the previous level in April. I think this surge was provoked by panic: many were afraid of the price increase and began to make purchases that they had previously postponed.

We are not afraid of a complete blocking of Instagram. We really like this social network, it is suitable for selling textiles, since the emphasis is on the picture. But now we have become stronger in the idea that the main thing is to concentrate on the product. If it is of high quality, unique and in trend, the audience will notice it on any platform. Therefore, now we do not pin all our hopes on Vkontakte: this social network will not exist, another one will appear. nine0003
The Instagram social network is owned by Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

Perhaps everything will roll back a little and the value of publications in magazines, exhibitions, markets, the presence of an offline store or showroom will return. Social networks as a sales channel can fade into the background. Anticipating such a scenario, we are thinking about cooperation with designer markets and opening a showroom.

Instagram became a fast promotion method a few years ago, and many brands have relied on it. I know companies that have no website, no other social networks, no showroom, only Instagram. nine0003
Brands that have poured all their resources into one channel have suffered the most.

Now we have to approach promotion more comprehensively and from different angles. Explore all possible channels and not stop at one. Recently, the popularity of marketplaces has increased. We responded to this trend and went to Ozon with silk scarves. About 50% of sales of scarves occur through the marketplace, the other half through our website. I recommend all manufacturers and sellers to study this channel and analyze whether the product is suitable for this platform. nine0003
On July 1, we launched a showroom in St. Petersburg, participated in the designer's market. We plan to go to another market in the fall. Now the most interesting thing for me is advertising from bloggers in various social networks. Recently, we agreed with several people about barter advertising. We expect that each integration will bring us about 100-300 new subscribers.

“Bloggers give subscribers, not buyers”

Evgenia Khokhlova

founder of the Ovechkinson children’s toy brand

Ovechkinson is a Kostroma brand that I created in 2020. I sewed the first toys myself, although I had not sewed before, I am an artist. Now there are six people in my team, including me: two woodworkers, a seamstress, sometimes a second one is involved, and my husband Dmitry, who is engaged in promotion and packaging design. He is a designer by profession. I also collaborated with a translator who helped dub posts in English for foreign audiences.

Promoted her brand through six channels:

Immediately after the launch, she created a page on Instagram. My husband's brother, an SMM specialist, helped with the promotion. He set up targeted advertising. They invested in it from 5,000 to 10,000 R per month. Target began to bring us more than 90% of purchases.

We worked with bloggers: they often found us themselves, bought our product and shared their impressions with subscribers. One such post or story attracted an average of 400-500 subscribers to us. Later, we started working with major bloggers on a barter basis. For example, with Masha Gorban and Masha Anokhina, each of them has more than a million subscribers. The target showed a greater effect than advertising from bloggers. Subscribers rather than buyers came from the latter. nine0012
Promoted Ovechkinson by participating in major seasonal festivals in Moscow.

I tried to post my works on Pinterest, but they were immediately copied. I was approached almost immediately by entrepreneurs from China, who offered to move production there and scale it up. I refused: quality is fundamentally important to me, I personally check each product. And streaming production is likely to have a negative impact on quality. Besides, I never had the goal of making Ovechkinson a big business. nine0012
Promoted the brand on a special marketplace for craftsmen Oozor. There are great conditions for participants: no need to pay a percentage to the marketplace. Since the site has high attendance, a steady flow of orders comes from there - monthly revenue - 20,000-30,000 rubles.

Another channel for promotion is articles on Yandex Zen. This is a free and effective channel. From there, I get high-quality feedback and better understand what our audience is interested in: this can be seen from the responses. nine0012

The Instagram social network is owned by Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

I also planned to launch an Etsy store, but then the portal froze all Russian accounts. I hope that someday we will conquer this site as well. Promotion through all channels has consistently brought results: for the past six months, revenue has averaged 160,000-170,000 R. About 100,000 R goes back into business.
Our mobile is a hanging toy above the cot
The first two weeks after blocking Instagram, we had a recession: in March, revenue dropped to 70,000 R, and then everything leveled off. Revenue in April even turned out to be higher than in previous months - 300,000 R: people in general began to buy more.

The Instagram social network is owned by Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

We have started work on the site, we plan to launch it in a couple of months. They also started a group on Vkontakte, where they invited all Instagram subscribers. We haven’t tried launching a target there yet, but sales have already begun: I think some of the previous customers have switched to Vkontakte. On average, sales there bring us about 30,000 R per month. nine0003
I began to visit the blocked social network less often: it does not always work for me even with VPN. Sales there decreased by 15%.

I used to think that the social network sells my toys. But this is an illusion: the product sells itself, regardless of the platform.

Before blocking Instagram, all sales were from there, now there are buyers from Vkontakte, and our income has generally stabilized. For example, in August, our revenue amounted to 200,000 R. In addition, we stopped spending money on targeting, reduced the cost and simplified the packaging of products, and thereby reduced costs. nine0003
The Instagram social network belongs to Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

Customers who are really interested in buying contact me themselves: they find a group on Vkontakte, my WhatsApp. I am convinced that a person who wants to purchase our handmade mobile will look for it in any social networks. Our audience is lovers of something special, unique. These are aesthetes who will not agree to cheap analogues from China. Our mobiles cost 12,000 R, so they are mostly bought by people with above-average incomes. nine0003
If all VPN services are blocked, this audience will have to go somewhere. And since there are few options, most likely, many will resurrect Vkontakte.

/list/vpn-services/

What to use to bypass blocking: 7 VPN services

I think you need to be flexible and follow your audience.

The more perspicacious managed to spread straw for themselves: they continued to lead groups on Vkontakte, even if another social network brought results.

“There are no my people on Vkontakte”

Daria Popova

founder of the Surepka linen clothing brand

The brand was born in 2019 in Stavropol, and then moved with me to St. Petersburg

My audience is people from 20 to 50 years old. 80% women, although there are unisex clothes in the collections. Most buyers do not work in the office, but are engaged in creative work: photographers, freelancers. Many of the big cities, but love nature. 90% of buyers from Russia and 10% from CIS countries, Europe and America. Currently, due to the foreign policy situation, we cannot accept payment from foreign customers. nine0003
My main platform for promotion has always been Instagram. At first, she advertised products with the help of repost contests. The winners were given certificates or finished products. Contests brought in the most subscribers.

The Instagram social network is owned by Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

Integration with bloggers was an excellent tool. Periodically, I found those who were of interest to me and negotiated with them about barter advertising. It was chaotic and unsystematic: sometimes the integrations happened twice a month, sometimes once every few months. nine0003 Materials have risen in price by 30-50%, and since May 5 we have begun to raise prices
Once I tried to buy advertising for money, and not by barter. I paid a symbolic amount of 5000 R, and it paid off tenfold. 300-400 people subscribed to Surepka, some of them made purchases. Not all integrations have been so effective. Sometimes it seemed that the blogger had a large and active audience, but, probably, it did not really coincide with mine.

I started doing targeted advertising only in 2021. I invited several targetologists, paid them money, but there was no result. And only in November 2021, I met a professional who squeezed out excellent results from relatively small investments. She did not manually set the target, but instructed me how to do it. I paid the targetologist 6,000 R per month, spent about 10,000-15,000 R on advertising itself. By the end of December, the number of subscribers grew to 10,000, by March - up to 11,000.

Until recently, I did not believe that Instagram would be blocked: it seemed to me that this was too big a market and blocking was not reasonable. Therefore, I did nothing to somehow help myself and foresee such a scenario.

The Instagram social network is owned by Meta, an organization whose activities have been recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

telegram channel. nine0003
When it became clear that the social network continued to work with VPN, I continued to maintain an account there. But it turned out that it was inconvenient for many to enter the social network, and coverage began to fall. I duplicated the content on Vkontakte and invented a new format for myself in Telegram. This attempt to sit on three chairs continues to this day.

Telegram is not very convenient for the store, so for now I keep it in the format of a diary: I write down my thoughts, share my feelings.

VKontakte is a return to the past, which I strongly resist on an emotional level, because I don't like the design and layout there. Although there is a store that is quite convenient in terms of functions. The main problem is that my people are not there. 10% of my active subscribers moved there from another social network, but there are still few active users there. Everyone came there to post, but there was no one to watch the content. nine0003
I keep posting stories on Instagram. On a bad day, they get 1000 views, on a good day they get 2000. But on Vkontakte, a good day is 50 views, 90% of which are random people. This is very depressing. For a month of active attempts to maintain three sites, I burned out. Instagram is still the main source of orders, but I understand that other sites should not be abandoned.

The Instagram social network is owned by Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

It is still difficult to talk about how the blocking affected revenue. We have seasonal goods: in spring and summer, sales are 40-50% higher than in autumn and winter. For example, last August, the turnover was 500,000 R per month, and in the winter months it was 200,000-300,000 R.

I think that a loyal audience, for whom the brand is really important, will follow it to other sites. Perhaps she will not be so active because she is not used to these social networks. But if clothes are needed, customers will buy. nine0003 10% of our customers are abroad: now these orders are on pause
If all VPN services are blocked and we cannot access Instagram, this "core" of 1000 people will remain with me. Another question is that now it will be difficult to find new clients: advertising has been limited on Instagram, I have not figured out advertising on Telegram and Vkontakte yet. Perhaps those very loyal 1000 people will help me.

The Instagram social network is owned by Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned on the territory of the Russian Federation

At the beginning of the work on the brand, I had difficult situations.
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