There is a lot to learn from every social media platform, and it becomes even more important if you want your business to stay relevant. As you build your business, knowing the best social media practices like Instagram truly showcases your social media presence. This write-up is all about Instagram best practices, Instagram practices for business.
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Instagram Engagement
Instagram remains the advertising heartthrob of social media. And we are not surprised, since 13% of Earthians are on it, and 80% of them are addicted to brands.Â
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According to Forrester, Instagram user engagement based on likes, shares, and comments is around 4.21%, which is 10 times more than Facebook, 54 times more than Pinterest, and 84 times more than Twitter.
But in this rapidly growing social media age, even with such impressive stats, challenges are still popping up that affect Instagram’s marketing potential. It is mainly due to decreased user engagement rates and competitors eating into the share, such as TikTok. Nevertheless, proactive advertisers are finding ways to increase Instagram user engagement. If you are a beginner in digital marketing, and want to gain expertise, check out our digital marketing courses from top universities.Â
Being active on Instagram means so much more than just uploading your brand photos and videos. Planning your approach with best practices for Instagram in mind is critical to increasing users.
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Since Instagram is visually-driven, you must show off how your business stands out visually.
Proper understanding of your audience and business are keys to promote, advertise, and engage on Instagram. You must have the answers to the following questions before you strategize:
- What do users like most about our business?
- Who are we trying to reach?
- How are our competitors performing on Instagram?
- What advertising strategies have worked in the past?
Below you will find a few of the ways to ensure your advertising campaigns continue to blossom.
Instagram Best Practices for Business
1. Be Consistent
Businesses need to be active in order to lure followers and increase engagement rates – but how much?
Studies say to have 1-2 posts a day. This keeps your feed fresh and on top and grabs more attention. When to post is also crucial and critical with Instagram’s algorithmic timeline.
Many experts prefer posting around 8 AM – 9 AM or 2 PM – 5 PM for your first post to even 5 AM for your second; this inconsistency can create genuine confusion for content planners.
2. Don’t educate – tell genuine stories instead
Instagram is flooded with mediocre brand posts that forget social media as a platform to showcase visual inspiration. You should capture the audience’s attention through images, video, and text, not lame messages. To increase user engagement rates, be a storyteller that has captions, videos, Instagram stories, and profiles.
People nowadays crave for emotional connection, and storytelling is the medium you can have that emotional connection. The emotional connection has a great chance to engage with your brand and business.
Read about: Top 10 Benefits of Social Media in the Digital Era
3. Maintain the strong brand value
Creativity, consistency, and clarity are the three pillars for corporations aiming to expand business on Instagram. An unorganized, disoriented approach doesn’t work.
Focus on key items such as profile presentation, style pattern creation, which keeps the images up-to-date, and owning the use of a hashtag. Interaction with followers is a must to build the rapport.
By proper designing and planning, you can present a consistent and positive brand to your Instagram users.
4. Ensure a visually consistent Instagram feed
Instagram is all about visualization, and the more you have visually-driven content, the more the user engagement.
For the images, try to use the numerous filters and upload candid shots that do not have high editing. Try to be consistent in your visual feed, stick to 2 or 3 editing styles.
5. Use relevant and trending hashtags
Selecting the most relevant and apt hashtags for your Instagram posts makes your posts appear at the top of the feed.
Hashtags must not be generic – such as #christmas or #diwali; otherwise, your post will compete with numerous others. Instead, try mixing the latest trends and the industry-specific hashtags to come up with the most relevant hashtag to connect with your Instagram audience.
Once your business is in the limelight, try to create a branded hashtag. Using a branded hashtag makes your business discoverable and creates a strong network of users.
Check out:Â Strategies to drive traffic from Instagram to website
6. Post-user-generated content
User-generated content on Instagram is the key to any business success. User-generated content involves followers themselves with the brand.
User involvement increases if the user-generated content is visually-driven.
7. Stay up-to-date with Instagram changes and updates
Instagram is constantly evolving, and you must be there when new trends, features, or updates are live. In the past couple of years, Instagram has updated its interface and added new features such as IGTV and Stories.
Also Read: 17 Fun Social Media Project Ideas & Topics For Beginners
8. Be data-drivenÂ
Identifying where you are among the competitors has profound benefits. By using one of the Instagram analytics tools, you can:
- Track post-performance
- Monitor Instagram trends
- Track comments and hashtag usage
- Measure audience engagement
- Identify influencers
- Report across multiple profiles
Instagram analytics tells you what is working and what is outdated. Gradually, you can build your database to track and measure performance.Â
9. Strategize to use Instagram traffic to increase the website traffic
Instagram traffic helps boost visits to your page. Maximize the traffic with promotional offers that encourage followers to click through.
10. Collaborate with micro-influencers to create authentic brandingÂ
Instagram influencer advertising has become increasingly popular, allowing the business to work with key thought influencers in their domain and push business to a wider audience.Â
11. Create Instagram contests
Contests are a powerful mechanism on Instagram. As per studies, contents generate 3.5 times more likes and 64 times more comments than regular posts.
12. Frequently use Instagram Stories
Instagram stories are the most popular feature, with 600 million users every day. There is a possibility of stories replacing feed as the main feature.
13. Use lots of emojis
The power of emojis surpasses images, too—especially on Instagram. As per a study, emojis are used by 92% of the online population.
14. Promote Instagram channel on other social media
Spread your Instagram channel on every social media platform such as FB. Ensure on FB you have a clickable link to your Instagram page.
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15. Add Call To Actions (CTAs) everywhere
Instagram followers love Instagram ads but ensure you have that likeliness converted into business growth by using a powerful Instagram call to action.
Must Read:Â How to leverage Instagram for your e-commerce website
Wrapping up
There are several ways to succeed and fail on Instagram, but by using a few of the Instagram best practices, you have a great chance at keeping your users happy and addicted.
If you wish to explore and become an expert in Digital Marketing, check out MICA and upGrad’s Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing & Communication. Become an expert in social media marketing, content marketing, branding, marketing analysis, and PR.
