When Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in back in 2012, the consensus was Mark Zuckerberg had gone crazy. At the time, Instagram had only 13 employees and one little app… Jump ahead four years and Instagram had amassed 500 million users, up from 400 million a mere 10 months prior, as can be seen in this chart by Statista.
Despite this phenomenal growth, Instagram is only beneficial if you know how to use it. By following Instagram best practices, you’re able to harness the power of the platform and use it as a marketing tool – not just another social site.
1) Use high quality images
Instagram is all about eye candy so it’s important for you to consistently post high quality, visually-stunning content. Scroll through popular feeds with thousands of likes and views, and you’ll quickly understand how content is driving these brands engagement.
If you are going to import/upload pictures from anything other than your smartphone, then make sure to get the best dimensions for Instagram photos:
You can go about this is in two ways:
- One option would be to use a professional camera or other equipment to create your content.
- Another option would be to use edit your images using Instagram photo editing applications. Below are a few choices to get you started:
- Afterlight: This app will add an additional 59 adjustable filters, 128 frames, and 66 different textures to your Instagram arsenal.
- VSCO: This powerful app will allow you to adjust and edit your photos with themed filter packs, settings for saturation, warmth, etc..
- Whitagram: This app will add a white letterbox to your landscape and portrait photos which can make them square. Letterboxed images typically look great.
- Pic Stitch: This handy app will turn handfuls of photos into a collage that you can share on social networks or print out. With tons of layouts to choose from, you have unlimited possibilities.
- Aviary: This popular mobile app will add editing tools like frames, filters, and more.
- Lumify: This app is a powerhouse for Instagram video. It offer free video editing capabilities as well as the ability to add soundtracks.
- Hyperlapse: Create time-lapsed videos capture the changing of a scene. Great for tourism, hospitality businesses, outdoor recreation, event marketing, and other industries.
- Quick: This app makes overlaying text on top of your images a simple process.
- Bokehful: If you love the out-of-focus effect of bokeh, then use this app to add.
- Snapseed: This complete photo editor developed by Google for iPhone will get you crowd-pleasing results quickly.
2) Tell a story
They say “a picture is worth a thousand words” and this expression couldn’t apply more to Instagram. The platform gives you a unique chance to connect with your audience through visual storytelling.
By using visual content, you can create an experience for your customers, clients, or audience members where they feel engaged and valued. And, you can compel them to listen…
Example
Creating a story is easier than you think. If you’re creating content around an event, start with the planning and show what happens before, during, and after the event. By giving your audience a sneak peek behind what goes into making your event a success, you’ve let them become an insider. Follow up with a one-time Q&A session to further increase audience engagement.
This type of storytelling can be used for almost anything: develop a new product – provide ‘how to’ use it training, music/band promotion – show the day of the show or the band recording a song, book promotion – show the author at a book reading or signing party, selling a new instrument – show famous musician playing it. The scenarios are endless.
The one aspect you must keep in mind is Be Authentic! Typical social media users are quick to spot a fake.
3) Post regularly and during appropriate times of the day
It doesn’t make any sense to create and publish high quality content if you posting it when your audience isn’t paying attention.
CoSchedule did some research on Instagram posting and found the following:
- Mondays and Thursdays tend to drive the most engagement
- 3-4 p.m. typically drives lower engagement in a workday
- Off hours aren’t off limits
Union Metrics also did research and found that on average most brands post 1.5 times a day (but this data did not specify the relationship post frequency and dipping engagement rates).
It’s important not to get caught up in what others say, remember each brand is unique. My suggestion would be to start with posting two to four times a day and determine when and what works best for you.
Another suggestion would be use a social media calendar to ensure that a posting schedule is followed.
4) Engage your audience
Social media isn’t a one-way street for marketing. You need audience engagement and interaction to strengthen your brand. Here’s a couple of tips to get your audience to participate:
- Make time to like other people’s photos and leave comments, especially if your audience is tagging you.
- Follow the established leaders (in your niche) on other social platforms. The cross promotion and connection will make a difference in your understanding their success.
- Listen to the feedback and comments left by your audience. This type of feedback can be invaluable.
- Use marketing strategies that promote audience engagement.
- Use contests to drive engagement, help gain new followers, and keep your audience coming back.
- Be sure to post user-generated content, people love to be acknowledged and what better way than posting someone’s content on your network? This could spark more people to participate on your channels.
- Don’t forget to ask… Sometimes it’s as simple as asking your audience to repost images or use branded hashtags.
5) Use #hashtags
Instagram hashtags might be your best friend. They can help you get discovered, find content, and allow you to participate with trending topics.
Branded hashtags can also do wonders for your marketing strategy. Use hashtags to your advantage by developing specific hashtags relating to your brand, your event, your products, or your promotion. Promotion-specific hashtags are also a powerful tool for measuring the ROI of your campaign while also encouraging engagement.
Also consider tagging people, geo-locations, and trending topics.
6) Use Instagram analytics
Likes and followers are nice, but that’s not enough data to drive a marketing campaign. Analytical tools are the solution for making informed decisions. They can tell you what’s working, what needs improvement, and knowing when and how your audience is engaging with your content.
Here are a few things that you should pay attention to:
- Track post performance
- Monitor Instagram trends
- Track comments
- Track hashtag usage
- Measure audience engagement
- Identify influencers
There are many ways to succeed (and fail) on Instagram, but the key is to develop and follow best practices. They will allow you a much better chance of building a following that will drive conversions, build awareness, sway brand opinion, and most importantly – send traffic to your website.