What’s one sure prediction for 2015?

If we’re talking about the Internet in general and social media in particular, it’s that visual storytelling will become a key marketing strategy for businesses. Whether it’s videos or still photos, having a visual component attracts more people to a web page than plain text alone can do.

Brad Gerlach from Local Mixed believes it is imperative to include a social media network that is image-centered in your local internet marketing campaign. And choosing Instagram first before venturing out to other visuals-based sites is what smart business owners do. Learn more what Brad thinks why you should look towards Instagram for your social media marketing in 2015 by reading below.

Why Instagram?

Because Instagram allows the sharing of photos and 15-second videos, and it is the fastest growing app in social media networking to date. While it might lag behind mainstream social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in the number of account owners, Instagram has posted the highest growth in active users as of 2014.

Instagram first launched in October 2010 and it’s app is available for iPhone, Android and recently, Windows phone. Users are currently equally divided between iPhones and 50% using Android phones, which allows small businesses a wide audience of user on different mobile devices. Windows phone owners will soon be catching up, but their market share is rather small.

At present Instagram has 200 million active followers, all of them on mobile, and more than 20 billion photos have been uploaded since its launch. In April 2012, Instagram was acquired by Facebook, a testament to its growing popularity and potential.

If the target market for your local business is the millennial demographic, it would be suicide not to have an Instagram account. Users of this app are largely young, with 90% of them below 35 years of age. These users are mostly urbanites and women, so keep this market demographic in mind.

If your products include fashion, food, travel or hospitality Instagram must be an integral part of your social media marketing for your brick and mortar store.

Instagram for Business

Instagram understands that it can be leveraged for businesses and introduced its Instagram for Business component. This component will help you begin turning Instagram into a marketing tool for your business. It teaches you the basics such as:

• Creating an account.
• Providing tips for using hashtags to enable people to find your photos easily and finding customers.
• Helping you in inking to your other social media account.
• Offering new tools for enhancing photos and how to advertise.

All you have to do to get started with Instagram.com and register an account. Once your site is active, go to Instagram for Business and create a business account by logging in and clicking “Support” at the bottom of the page. This will take you to https://help.instagram.com/ and you will see “Instagram Basics” on the left hand side. Once you click on it, you will see “Instagram for Business” on the 10^th row, on the left side.

The instructions are very easy, even for a newbie and you will learn how to optimize your account to promote your store. But if you’re not too savvy with social media usage and don’t want to go through the hassle of creating a profile, you can get the services of a social media marketing firm.

Regardless of your business, you need to look into Instagram in 2015 as part of your overall internet marketing strategy.