10 Best Practices For Instagram
For many businesses out there, Instagram is a game-changing tool used to help promote your business, display your products/services, and connect with your clients/customers. Want to know the best bit? It’s free!
But sadly, Instagram has its own unwritten rules that it abides by. One week your engagement can be incredibly high; the next, it could be at zero. Instagram can be an extremely daunting platform to use. But luckily for you, we’re going to discuss some of the best practices when it comes to using Instagram and help your business rise to the top!
1. Knowing your target audience
Instagram has over 1billion users, which is always on the rise. The only social media platform growing faster is TikTok (but we’ll get to that another time!). With so many people on one app, it can be hard to determine who your intended audience will be, but we can narrow this down by using two key questions:
- Who is your ideal audience?
- What are their interests?
Once you have this figured out, you can eliminate everyone who doesn’t fit and focus on your target. After all, you’re not going to make content for people who wouldn’t be interested in it, right?
2. Use a content calendar
Plan, plan, and plan some more.
Consistency is always key, but we’re all guilty of forgetting to do our daily posts! The ability to pre-plan and schedule your posts ahead of time ensures that you can keep up to date and never miss a daily post again! Think about some essential things when planning content:
- How often you want new content on your page
You don’t have to post every day to be successful but post often enough that people don’t forget about you. On the opposite end, make sure you’re not posting so often that people’s timelines are flooded. Unfortunately, this could lead to an unfollow or a mute. - Style consistency
Whether you’re using the same photo filter on your posts & stories or a curated colour scheme, make your content recognisable and on brand. - Organising your content in one place
Having your content and captions ready ahead of time saves you the trouble of scrambling for a new post. The better you plan your content, the easier it is to remember to post for holidays or special promotions. - Set aside time
Dedicate a set amount of time for content creation and scheduling. This can set you up for a whole month of consistent, on-brand, and engaging posts.
3. Set SMART goals
To gain traffic, a dedicated audience, and brand recognition on Instagram, it’s important to set S.M.A.R.T. goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely).
Of course, we all want millions of followers, but let’s start with your first thousand and grow from there. The key to gaining a new audience lies in keeping consistent, engaging content, starting a conversation, and making your followers want to share it with others.
Think about what you want to gain in your first month, your first six months, etc.
Keeping dedicated followers is equally as important as gaining new ones. By keeping content fresh, but on-brand the audience stays engaged.
Start with some beginner goals, such as:
- A consistent publishing schedule.
- Gaining your first 1,000 followers.
- Creating a brand hashtag.
- Lots of comments and likes on new posts.
4. Instagram stories
Instagram stories allow for great engagement with your audience. The 24-hour story means it’s a space for your brand to be a bit more creative.
Think about using the vote button, quiz button, and question/answer buttons. These interactive elements allow you to get to know your audience and give great insight into what your followers like. Lay these elements over brand photos or videos.
Great engagement can come from fun and interactive content!
5. Instagram Highlights
Instagram highlights are a great tool on your profile that displays important information conveniently. When we first find a new Instagram page, we usually head to their profile to see what they offer.
Make the most of your Instagram highlights with something you know the audience will look for. Users can easily interact with the page and become quickly informed by adding valuable information, such as weekly specials, featured art, cocktail menus, and job postings, to name a few!
6. Keep your bio simple
Your Instagram bio is a great insight into what to expect from your brand. With 150 characters or less and a profile photo, this leaves little space for large-scale information. And while you might want to get creative, we recommend going the opposite way!
Keeping your bio basic seems to be the current trend among big brands. Don’t be afraid to change it up by announcing important news or new information when needed.
Also, add your website or a featured link to get users exploring more about you.
7. Instagram adverts
The best way to let more people know about your brand is to run a paid advertisement. Instagram ads are a user-friendly way to showcase your brand to a new audience.
It’s no secret that beautiful content engages audiences. Think about investing more time in your advertising content, as this becomes the gateway and often the first impression for your audience.
8. Giveaways
Giveaways and contests are low-cost advertising methods brands use to grow their audience.
Think of a follow and tag your friend’s contest as if you were getting a recommendation from a friend. The goal with this type of advertising method is that your community of followers is doing the work to find more people who might like your product. If the prize is desirable enough, more people will want to enter.
A fantastic way to celebrate your audience growth is to schedule contests and giveaways when you hit new milestones. Think: “1,000 followers’ giveaway!”, this is a great way to show how excited you are about people supporting your brand.
9. Keep on top of your insights
An excellent tool for businesses is the Insights space on your business profile. Tap the Insights button to gain access to data about your followers, such as who your audience is, when they are most active online, and how to create content.
Once you’re on the insights page, tap the ‘your audience’ section to gain insight into your followers and audience.
This covers location, age, gender, and most active times. Under most busy times, you can see when the best time to post on Instagram is. From what day of the week to what hour works best. These screenshots below highlight some examples of what audience insights look like.
As you can see from the above images, the amount our audience appears online seems to be similar day by day. When you begin to break it down by the hour, we get a much better idea of when our audience will likely be online and most engaging.
And finally:
10. Have fun with it
Sometimes it can be hard having to stick to specific targets, so much so that it seems like all your creativity is being sapped out of you. That’s why it’s essential to enjoy the content you’re creating. If you’re not enjoying it, then you’re more likely to experience social media fatigue. Your activity will lessen, the quality of your most will go down, and what’s worse is people may unfollow you!
Keep it fresh and enjoyable for you too!
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