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By now, you are probably aware of the powerful impact Instagram can have when it comes to creating visual content for businesses. You have most likely seen a couple of Instagram photos on a variety of platforms and unless you never thought about it, you decided to set up your own account. Did you also know that there's a lot more to Instagram than its amazing photo-editing tools? With millions of Instagram users the world over, it has managed to capture the attention of a huge number of brands, both large and small. So what's the worth of it for your business? Here are 5 crucial things I've learned from Instagram that could completely transform your business for the better:

It Connects You with Customers

Although most people think about such social sites as Twitter and Facebook when it comes to connecting with their fans and engaging online with their customers, these may not reap as much benefits for your business. You can send Instagram direct messages (dm) online that will help to boost up your business. Apart from that, Instagram has one of the most active user-base generating up to 120 times more engagement per follower than Twitter. Such engagement pretty much makes it the ideal platform on which to connect with and influence customers, build relationships from conversations and listen to their feedback. It's easy to get their input on a new project you intend to implement or a new product you wish to introduce to the market.

You Get to Learn What People Like

While you may not realize it, your target audience could already be sharing photos and discussing your product on Instagram. This is particularly true in such a case where your business has a physical location that consumers can visit regularly.

A great example of this is a restaurant. People love to share photos of their favorite dishes, and Instagram allows them to post these photos letting their followers know where they are enjoying the meal by tagging the location.

You Can Reach New Audiences

With Instagram, it's easy to discover new businesses, people and photos. Hashtags are one common way to discover new content. As is with other social media platforms, including a hashtag creates a link from which you can view a host of other photos that have shared content through that particular hashtag.

Using a hashtag makes it possible for you to be found by prospective customers. A business can create even create one, coining it to what their target audience can relate to to make it easier to reach them. Hashtags popular and unique to a town can significantly help you tap into the

support of local consumers. The Discover tab on Instagram also proactively helps in finding prospective customers by linking you to photos that help you connect to users relevant to them.

It Fuels Other Marketing Channels

One of the most amazing things about content you create on Instagram is that it can be shared easily across all marketing channels you may be using. From Instagram settings, you can enable social sharing to Twitter or Facebook such that your photos automatically share whenever you post them. Even if you don't intend to share the photos on the networks immediately, you can save them to your camera roll and access them easily when it's convenient for you to post.

Additionally, content shared on Instagram can be used in email marketing campaigns. If you happen to be a Constant Contact customer, Instagram can allow you to integrate your media into your photo library, enabling you to use the selection of tools offered to access your photos when you are ready to send your campaign.

Instagram Generates Sales

Creating high-quality, professional-grade images to highlight your services or promote your products has never been as so easy or as affordable. Such a visual platform as Instagram does more than just generate engagement; it also drives sales. In fact, according to a report from popular e-commerce platform, Shopify the average price tag for a sale referred from Instagram was found to be significantly higher than those on Facebook and twitter.

Yet, rather than filling your feed with product photos with a similar caption such as shop online' or buy now', finding a creative way to display your product and letting the images speak for themselves might work in your favor.