GoDaddy Launches Instagram Integration for SMB Users
In a move that’s indicative of the small business community’s increasing reliance on social media for organic growth and digital marketing, GoDaddy is launching a new Instagram product for its website builder designed to help its users attract and engage with customers across digital platforms.
The product feature, which was announced just this morning, is the latest in a string of updates designed to encourage GoDaddy’s small businesses clients to reconnect with customers they lost track of during the pandemic.
What the Instagram integration enables
GoDaddy Director of Product Management Christine Lee says the Instagram integration will make it easier for businesses to schedule, administer, and monitor their Instagram accounts. The feature is being built into GoDaddy’s marketing dashboard.
“We want to make it easier than ever for small business owners to scale their marketing efforts,” Lee says. “For example, when there is an important message to share on multiple platforms, GoDaddy offers a centralized way to post not only on Instagram, but also on Facebook, Twitter, and Google My Business. This saves time and allows business owners to focus on what matters most to them: running their business.”
With the new integration in place, GoDaddy’s business users will be able to preview and post images directly to Instagram, as well as share products for sale within Instagram posts. They’ll also be able to keep track of Instagram comments and views and schedule posts for the future.
Helping SMBs with a challenging task
Nearly four in ten Americans (37%) say they use Instagram, either online or on their mobile devices, making it one of the most important social media platforms for business marketers. Young adults, and particularly women and Hispanic Americans, are among the most likely groups to say they use Instagram regularly, according to Pew Research.
Unfortunately, surveys suggest that struggling with social media marketing is something that’s almost universal within the SMB community. According to Visual Objects, 93% of small businesses say they face at least some social media challenges, with generating high-quality leads and gaining new followers being two of the biggest obstacles to success.
Lee says GoDaddy’s new update is meant to simplify the social media posting and managing process for small business owners who are already overwhelmed with the day-to-day tasks involved in managing a business during the pandemic. Business owners will find new content suggestions in the GoDaddy dashboard, which have been designed to help grow their social followings and bring in more customers.
“This is the latest addition to the set of social media accounts that can all be managed easily and efficiently from one dashboard,” Lee says.
The updated dashboard includes tools that small businesses can use to evaluate which content is most effective across social media platforms. That means that rather than writing and editing content separately for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google My Business, users can create their posts once, adjust images to include logos and filters, and publish their updates from the GoDaddy dashboard. GoDaddy will also provide templates and stock media for its clients’ use.
“Over the last year, small businesses faced many hurdles to stay afloat, with many creating websites and transitioning their business online for the very first time. As part of moving online, small business owners also relied more heavily on creating engaging social content to stay in touch with customers and keep new business rolling in,” Lee says. “Now more than ever, busy entrepreneurs need ways to save time and simplify how they manage their marketing activities.”
Stephanie Miles is a senior editor at Street Fight.
