Instagram Courts Businesses With New Tools

Instagram is making its service more enterprise-friendly with new services like business profiles and user stats.

Business profiles allow users to be "recognized as a business on Instagram," the company said in a blog post. Users can contact companies, as well as get directions to their locations.

An Insights feature, meanwhile, will allow users to learn more about their followers and how they're using the company's profile page.

"Insights on Instagram give businesses actionable information about who their followers are and which posts resonate better than others—all from within the mobile app," the company said. "By learning more about the behavior and demographics of your audience, you can create more relevant and timely content."

Finally, Instagram will also offer a Promote feature that allows business users to turn their top posts into promoted ads. Business users can do so by choosing a post and adding a button for users to "take action." The ad will be promoted for any length of time the user chooses.

"First, businesses want the ability to stand out on Instagram," Instagram said. "Many companies, including a furniture store in San Francisco, shared that it would be easier for customers to email questions because comments are hard to track and take time to sift through. Second, businesses want a simple way to get insights. A retailer in Austin explained that many analytics are overwhelming and hard to apply to its marketing. And third, businesses want to reach even more customers. A do-it-yourself craft shop in New York City mentioned it's always looking for quick ways to fill seats in class."

Instagram's new business tools will be rolling out "in the coming months" in the US, Australia, and New Zealand, and will reach other markets by the end of the year.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.