We all live in a world where most of us can’t leave the house without our mobile phones. We can literally do anything on the go like shopping, watching movies and even accessing websites while driving (do not do this, though). In this era, we are now attached to social media, a place where we can connect (and reconnect) with other people in the world, including our family, friends or even our teachers. However, with the increase in the number of social media users, social media has now become a place to promote businesses or causes. When it comes to business, Instagram is considered as one of the best social media platforms that can give effective boost for business. Although Facebook is still ahead of Instagram in terms of the number of users, younger users tend to use Instagram instead of Facebook. If you are a business owner running your business social media campaign, you have to make sure your industry is relevant to the use of Instagram before reading this article because in this article, I’m going to tell you about how to use Instagram live video for business. Keep reading to learn more!

In 2016, Instagram launched its feature called “Instagram story” which enables users to upload a video or a photo that is only visible for 24 hours. Not long after that, Instagram launched another feature that enables users to go live on Instagram. While users who use Instagram for personal purpose don’t really gain anything from this except for viewers and fun live chat, businesses can actually gain from Instagram live. However, it also depends on how the business uses the feature. Below are the ways I have summarised to use Instagram live video for your business properly.

Use Instagram live for QnA sessions

If you manage your own Instagram business account, sometimes you might be overwhelmed by questions about your products or even complaints especially some of them have the same questions and complaints that you might not have time to answer it one by one. Going live on Instagram is your chance to answer your customers’ questions all in one without having to repeat yourself. Simply put, you can answer the same questions for everybody to see. Also, this is very helpful for your customers because they know how engaged you are with customers.

Use Instagram live as a part of giveaway event

Many businesses nowadays make use of giveaway events to attract both current and new customers. However, many of their customers may think that the giveaway event is not real and the business only chooses their employees as the winner. Now, say goodbye to that way of thinking because through Instagram live video, you can convince your customers that you are really choosing them as the winner of the Instagram giveaway. Here’s how you do this:

• Inform them about the live video that you are going to start one day in advance through Instagram story
• Don’t forget to tell them the time
• List the names of the participants
• Remind them again about the live an hour before you start
• Open the randomisation website while you start going live so you can show your followers how genuine the process is
• Write the names in the randomisation website
• Announce the lucky winners while still going live
• After you have finished going live, re-announce the winners on Instagram story

If you do it this way, you can convince your followers that you are really prioritising your customers and that this giveaway event is real.

Use Instagram live video to demonstrate your product

Some of your customers may still be confused with how they use your products properly. Through going live on Instagram, you can demonstrate the proper way to use your products. This can also give your potential customers a glimpse of how your product looks like in terms of size, colour or what your product contains directly because sometimes product photos may look different than how it looks directly, especially fashion products such as bags, shoes and even clothes.

There are actually many ways to use Instagram live videos, but one thing for sure; going live on Instagram as a business helps your customers in so many ways, be it in terms of reliability (convincing your followers that you are a real person who really sells products, not a scammer because scammers don’t dare go live and reveal their identity), usability, helpful tips and even tutorials. If you use it this way, you can basically master your social media skills for your business.