Recession-Proofing Your Company With Instagram Marketing

Since the initial coronavirus outbreak in early February, the United States economy has been in a state of recession. With consumers being quarantined at home for longer periods of time, business owners are scrambling to find ways to make it through this difficult economic time. However, astute business owners are taking advantage of the downturn to expand their operations, with many focusing on Instagram as their primary channel for doing so.

Instagram is now much more than just a place to share photos. Many companies now rely heavily on Instagram as a marketing channel because:

• Insta has more than a billion regular users.
• Over 500 million Instagram Stories are viewed every day.
• Over 13% of Instagram’s audience is American.
• Daily platform usage by users averages 53 minutes.
• The popularity of Instagram has risen to second place, behind only Facebook.
• Sixty percent of regular users log in at least once a day.
• Discoveries have influenced the purchasing decisions of 80% of Instagram users.

Although it may seem counterintuitive, reducing your digital marketing and sales budget during a recession may not be the best strategy.

Your competitors may be cutting back on marketing and sales activities, so now is the time to expand your reach by using platforms like Instagram for business.

Here on the blog, we discuss:

• How the use of social media was instrumental in the economic recovery of businesses during the Great Recession of 2007-2009.
• What Instagram marketing is and how using Instagram for business can help you during a recession.
• The best way to utilise Instagram for advertising purposes.
• The role influencers can play as an Instagram advertising service.

In addition, we’ll demonstrate how an Instagram marketing service can serve as a source of income even in a down economy.

The Great Depression and the Revolutionary Force of Social Media

One of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression hit the United States between 2007 and 2009. Named “the Great Recession,” it was triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis and its subsequent impact on the U.S. housing market.

Distrust in large corporations and a decrease in discretionary spending are all results of the Great Recession. In order to maximise their income, people became more discerning in their spending habits. For this reason, a growing number of businesses have turned to social media as a means of connecting with their target audience.

When compared to the heyday of broadcast advertising, the meteoric rise of social media as a promotional tool was unprecedented. It developed into a method through which customers could communicate with brands and brands could be held accountable. Businesses that did not adapt to the social media era fell even further behind their competitors.

After an economic downturn, social media marketing proves to be the most successful strategy, according to research published in 2011. This resulted from the 70% of consumers who said they used social media to learn more about a company’s brand or a specific product. Around 50% of those customers made a purchase in 2008.

It is difficult to avoid comparisons between the current recession and the economic crisis of just over a decade ago, despite the fact that the causes of the two recessions are different. There was a severe impact on businesses during the financial crisis. Businesses were started less frequently, thousands of small businesses had to lay off employees, and some were even foreclosed on.

Instagram: Why Your Business Needs It.

Instagram is still one of the most widely used social media sites, years after it first gained widespread attention. Given that posts with images receive 650 percent more likes, comments, and shares than those with just text, it’s clear why Instagram should be a top priority for businesses even in tough economic times.

Even with the advent of competing visual platforms like TikTok and Snapchat, Instagram continues to grow and dominate the social zeitgeist. By releasing Instagram Stories for companies in 2016, Instagram was able to further separate itself from Snapchat. With the launch of Instagram Reels, the visual powerhouse plans to do the same thing with a video-sharing feature that is widely predicted to surpass TikTok’s equivalent. With TikTok leaving the U.S. soon, it’s clear that Instagram is happy to fill the void left by the video app.

So, why would you use Instagram for marketing? Because even in a down economy, it remains one of the most popular social media platforms and can have a profound effect on your company. Here you’ll learn everything you need to know to set up an Instagram account for business purposes and start using Instagram to promote your company.