Instagram Widget: Why is it Necessary for Your Business?

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Instagram has always been a popular choice for marketers. Even before it was bought by Facebook for what now seems like the bargain price of $1 billion. Nowadays, it’s more relevant than any other social network for certain audiences. It’s rapidly become one of the most important social networks for both B2B and B2C marketers across the globe.

Why is instagram good for business?

Despite its popularity, only few brands are using it to its full potential.  It is still rare that businesses actively build Instagram into their campaign sites and email marketing strategies. That’s a shame, because Instagram is full of high-quality content about brands and the lifestyles that they enable. In many cases, people are already going out of their way to create content that portrays your company in a positive light.One of our favourite ways to integrate Instagram with a website is to use an Instagram widget (also called an “Instagram wall”). It pulls posts from the network based on a specific set of search terms and then allows you to embed it in a virtual gallery. Used correctly, Instagram widgets can be an effective way to boost dwell time and conversion rates on a website. So if you’re not already using them, you’re missing out. Here are just a few reasons why.

6 Reasons Why You Should Use an Instagram Widget for Website

  1. Harness UGC

User-generated content is like gold dust for marketers. Every time someone posts a photo on Instagram which features your brand as a part of it, it puts it out there in front of new people. On top of that, people naturally trust people more than they trust companies. So if someone sings your praises with an Instagram post, it’s a much more valuable testimonial than anything you could ever write about yourself. Just bear in mind that people can say negative things about you, too! That’s why many people choose to moderate their Instagram widget so that they can manually approve posts before they join the feed.

  1. A picture’s worth a thousand words

They say that a picture’s worth a thousand words, and there’s a reason for that. Images can convey a huge amount of information. By using an Instagram widget on product pages or on campaign sites, you can show your products in context. Writers have long been advised to “show, don’t tell”, and now they can do just that. It can also augment written copy to create a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

  1. Turn a static page into something dynamic

Static pages are webpages that are always the same and which are never updated. For example, if you never change the ‘about’ page on your website then it’s essentially a static page, rather than something more dynamic like the front page of your blog. Search engines (and visitors) tend to prefer more dynamic pages because they can come back again and again and pick up something new every time.

Embedding an Instagram widget into a static page is a great way to make it a little more dynamic. And it can also increase dwell time on pages for both new and returning visitors.

  1. Make email campaigns stand out

Over 2.5 million emails are sent every single second. This means your marketing emails need to be something special if you want them to stand out in people’s inboxes. An Instagram widget can be built into your email templates by default. It will automatically update itself with every new send. In fact, it’s a good idea to integrate the two approaches by using your email communications to encourage people to create content with a specific hashtag for a chance to appear in the next email.

  1. Spice up events

If you’re hosting a real world social media event then you can set up a screen and use an Instagram widget. It will show posts using the event’s hashtag in real-time. This then encourages people who see the screen to share posts of their own and can help you to gather a vast amount of user-generated content over a short period of time. For bonus points, provide visitors with a fancy dress booth or similar props so that they have something more to post than just a standard selfie.

  1. Make the most of influencer outreach

For brands who like to work with bloggers, vloggers, celebrities and other influencers, using an Instagram widget can be a great way to get some more value out of your outreach efforts. For example, if you’re sending bloggers free samples then you can ask them to use a specific hashtag that’s only known to them. Then, when you set up an Instagram widget that displays the results of that hashtag, it’ll only show posts from the influencers that you’ve specifically sought out because you wanted to work with them.

Conclusion

Instagram widgets for website are useful because of their sheer versatility. You can use them to show your company’s latest posts. And most importantly you can also use them to show user-generated content that increases brand engagement and conversions. For example, if you’re a bookseller then you could create galleries that showcase some of the best places to read. If you’re a travel company then you could use Instagram website widget to create galleries. For each of your major destinations with specific Call-to-Actions that prompt visitors to book their holidays! Remember that visuals are an important part of the marketing mix. By adding widgets to emails, blog posts, websites and more, you can boost engagement with just a couple of lines of code. If you want to moderate the images before they go live on your website, that’s okay too.Ultimately, Instagram widgets are just one of many tools that are available to modern marketers. Even though they can generate impressive results, they’re often underused.If they’re used correctly, instagram widgets can increase website engagement and even boost conversion rates. As always, it’s important to test, test and test again, but that’s true for everything. So what have you got to lose?
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