What Happened
Instagram officially launched Business Profiles at the beginning of June after weeks of private testing, and now the company is ramping up the global roll-out of its latest brand-friendly features. The social network says it is fully rolling out Business Profiles, along with the two brand-oriented tools, Insights and Promote, in the US, Australia, and New Zealand in the coming months and will finish the global roll-out by the end of the year.
Why Brands Should Care
Instagram has been modeling its business-oriented products after its parent company Facebook, including Business Profiles (similar to Facebook Pages), Insights (Facebook Pages come with an analytics product of the same name), and the direct-response ads launched last year. Although new reports suggest that Instagram’s direct-response ads haven’t totally clicked with brand advertisers yet, the global roll-out of the business-facing tools shows Instagram’s determination in making its platform more brand-friendly. As Instagram continues to vie for the massive amount of ad dollars shifting from traditional channels, brands, especially those with an international presence, would be smart to take full advantage of these new business tools to engage with its 500 million monthly users.
Source: Wired