While most of us are used to hopping on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok for a few minutes of distraction, social media is a lot more than just funny cat videos and get ready with me (GRWM) vlogs.
What else are people doing on social? Research shows that they’re looking for things to do and products to buy. This means that if you’re a business owner, social media platforms are a great place to connect with new audiences, build a tighter community with current customers, and grow your sales through social selling.
In this post, we’re going to focus on Instagram. We’ll first cover how to use Instagram as a means of business growth, and then we’ll talk about the different tools your business can use to get the most out of the platform.
This is a chapter in our Ultimate Guide to Ecommerce Customer Service. When you’re ready, check out the other chapters:
How to use Instagram as a business tool
If you’re new to approaching Instagram from a business perspective, then you may be wondering what you can do with the platform beyond just displaying attractive product shots.
While brand identity and aesthetics are definitely important on a visual platform like Instagram, there’s a lot more that you can do to benefit your company. Most things fall into one of three buckets:
Marketing: Instagram is useful for visually displaying your product or services to current and potential customers, but it’s also a useful platform for building community and growing brand trust. In addition, Instagram’s ad program can help you amplify your reach, allowing you to find new customers and stay connected with current ones.
Sales: Social is quickly becoming a primary avenue for making sales. Instagram Shopping can be a great option for those looking to dip their toes into the channel, given that it has the highest ROI (33%) out of all of the major platforms when it comes to social selling within the app.
Customer service: Most social media marketers agree that social media is on its way to becoming consumers’ preferred customer service channel. If your brand is marketing and selling on Instagram, then it makes a lot of sense to support customers there as well.
The 21 best Instagram tools for business growth (2024)
Whether you’re looking to launch a stunning marketing campaign, promote an upcoming sale, or delight your customers with social media support, there is an Instagram tool on the market that can help you get the job done.
We’ve curated a list of 21 of our favorites to help your business make the most of your brand’s Instagram account.
Instagram scheduling tools
The first step to using Instagram for business is to start posting! These scheduling tools will help you plan out your posts and establish a regular posting cadence.
1. Buffer
Best free Instagram scheduling tool.
Buffer is a social media scheduling tool that allows you to plan, schedule, and post content across all major platforms.
Instagram support via Buffer is available for anyone with an Instagram creator or business profile. The platform lets you schedule and post grid content as well as reels and carousels. It’s also possible to draft and schedule stories and first comments (the spot where folks tend to drop hashtags and other important info).
Buffer’s free plan can be a good choice for small businesses who are just starting out with social. Teams who need more than one user seat or some of the more advanced features like analytics will need to invest in one of the platform’s paid plans.
Price: Free trial and plan available. Paid plans start at $5 per month (includes one channel).
2. Sendible
Best Instagram scheduling tool for agencies.
Sendible is another tool that will allow you to schedule Instagram posts and monitor and reply to comments.
What sets it apart from other options on the list are its features that are suited to agencies. With Sendible you can manage each of your client’s content in their own dashboard, keeping everything organized and free of mistakes. There are also approval flows to ensure that content is being previewed by the right people before going live and reporting dashboards so you can share insights directly with your clients.
Probably the most unique agency-focused feature is the option to private label the software for your agency. You can customize brand elements to match your business style and even create user accounts for your clients so they can manage their content through your account.
Price: Free trial available. Plans start at $25 per month (billed annually) and plans including private label options start at $270 per month (billed annually).
3. Planoly
Best Instagram scheduling tool for visual planning.
Planoly is a tool that helps marketers visually plan their social content across all major platforms.
Design the perfect Instagram grid with a planner that allows you to not only plan and schedule posts by date but to also view how each piece of content will show up in your feed. Use design tools like Canva and source stock photos for your content from sites like Pexels and Unsplash right from within the platform, making content creation a snap.
While it’s an awesome tool for planning across visual platforms like Instagram, Planoly isn’t the strongest option for audience engagement. You can only view and reply to the most recent 15-30 Instagram comments, depending on your plan, which may be limiting to those with a larger audience.
Price: Free trial available. Plans start at $11.25 per month (includes one social set and user).
Instagram customer service tools
If your customers are seeking support from your team through Instagram, then finding a support platform that offers IG as a supported channel can help your team provide better care.
4. Help Scout
Best Instagram customer service tool for direct messaging (DMs).
Help Scout is a customer communications platform that can help you manage conversations and deliver delight to customers across popular channels like email, live chat, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram.
All of your customer conversations are managed through Help Scout’s shared inbox, including your social media requests. Whenever someone sends your business a direct message (DM) via Instagram, a new conversation is created in Help Scout. This allows your support team to respond to the message just like any other customer request.
Responding to Instagram DMs via Help Scout is a much better experience than responding via the Instagram app. With its shared inbox you can assign customer conversations to specific people or teams, use saved replies to respond to questions more quickly, use rule-based workflows for the automation of routine tasks, and tap into AI features to help your team deliver even better support.
Help Scout also has other features to help your business deliver delightful customer experiences. Our Messages tool can help you foster customer engagement across your website or app. Docs, our knowledge base builder, can help you set up a help center in a matter of minutes, and our reporting dashboards can help you keep track of your team’s progress.
Lastly, Help Scout has great resources for helping your business make the most out of our platform. From robust documentation to free guides and classes, Help Scout makes sure you have everything you need to create customer delight, no matter which channel your customers use to reach out.
Price: Free trial available. Plans start at $22/user per month.
5. Dixa
Best Instagram customer service tool for responding to stories.
Dixa is a customer service platform that allows businesses to communicate across multiple channels — including social media platforms like Instagram — from a centralized agent hub.
In addition to Instagram DMs, Dixa users can also respond to story mentions (when someone mentions your business in their story) and comments (when someone comments on your story).
Outside of Instagram, the software has a lot of great features like collaboration tools, intelligent contact routing, customer timelines, a knowledge base builder, reporting features, and more.
Price: Free trial available. Plans including Instagram support start at $89/agent per month (seven seat minimum required).
6. Gorgias
Best Instagram customer service tool for responding to comments.
Gorgias is a help desk that focuses on the ecommerce space. It supports popular channels like email, live chat, social media (Facebook and Instagram), and WhatsApp and integrates with popular ecommerce platforms.
Much like Help Scout and Dixa, Gorgias has collaborative features, a knowledge management solution, and reporting tools. Instagram-wise, Gorgias is able to handle all contact types — DMs, comments, and mentions from posts and stories. This can be very useful for businesses that prioritize Instagram in their marketing strategies.
While Gorgias has a lot to offer, its ticket-based pricing structure may not work for companies managing larger volumes.
Price: Free trial available. Plans start at $10 per month (includes 50 billable tickets).