We’ve come up with eight ways to ensure you’re following Instagram best practices. Each social media platform has its own individualities and quirks. Though this makes them fun for the user, it can make operating each one effectively a real challenge for businesses. With these rules, you’ll be on track to a blue tick verification before you know it!
Even if you only have a logo and a website, you already have a base on which to build a professional, on-brand Instagram account. For example, Mantra’s Instagram account reflects the clean, professional look of our website – we let high-quality images and videos do the talking, followed by some text and our logo. If we were to post a funny meme or a very noisy photo tomorrow, it would just look completely out of place. That’s the kind of consistency you need to be aiming for.
There are very few foolproof ways to gain new followers on Instagram (other than paid advertising) but targeted industry hashtags are one of them.
For example, a quick search of #fitness on Instagram comes up with 158,805,535 posts. By using the right hashtags you can ensure your business will appear in the “discovery” section of the app. This means that users who have recently used the #fitness hashtag themselves will see targeted posts from people and businesses who Instagram believes have similar interests to them and may be worth a follow.
No one enjoys a one-dimensional relationship in any setting, and the same applies on social media. Your followers follow you for a reason, so from time to time it’s important to show them a little love. This can be as simple as scrolling down your feed and liking and/or commenting on a few photos. It helps to inject a bit more personality into a business.
Competitions are a great way to expand your reach amongst Instagram users. If you are a commercial business, ask followers to like a photo, follow you, and repost the photo on their account alongside a specific hashtag (e.g #ASOScompetition) to enter. It’s a really simple, easy way to reach a large audience quickly and gain new followers in the process, too.
This one factor seems to come up time and time again in all aspects of marketing, but it’s vitally important to know your audience.
For example, if your target audience is 18-24 year-olds then posting memes, boomerangs and emojis will all form part of a relevant narrative. However the same can’t be said for a corporate account aimed at 25-40 year-old business-focused individuals. Always keep your audience in mind before you hit that share button and think “would they like to see this? Is it relevant?”.
Post often enough to be relevant but within a realm that’s achievable for you and your business. Some people are online all day every day and therefore have no issues with posting two or three times a day,
However, others may prefer to post a couple of times a week and they struggle to create enough quality content to post more often. There’s no right or wrong answer regarding how often to post as every business is different. One thing remains a must however and that’s quality over quantity.
Nowadays bloggers with Instagram accounts have incredible influence over consumer behaviour. These are people who have spent years building up a loyal fan base, so by working with them, you are opening your business up to a wealth of new opportunities – including new followers, brand awareness, sales and more.
Earlier this year Instagram launched insights. These allow you to see statistics such as impressions (how many people saw your post) reach (the number of unique accounts who saw your post and account for the first time) and engagement (how many people liked and/or commented on your post).
Insights are a really useful tool for spotting trends amongst your posts, such as how using targeted hashtags affects the overall reach, and which posts tend to be the most popular and receive the highest levels of engagement.
It’s important to remember that not only is Instagram a free tool, but it can be an incredibly powerful one too. I hope this guide towards Instagram best practices helps you to get the most out of the app – and if you need any help, just ask!
If you’re interested in working with us at Mantra or just have a general question about digital marketing please contact us through any of the following networks –