Instagram is the current social media platform king. According to Forrester, engagement which is measured by likes, shares, and comments – is also off the chart, boasting a rate of 4.21%. That’s 10 times higher than Facebook, 54 times higher than Pinterest, and 84 times higher than Twitter.
The landscape of Instagram is always changing and always evolving, it’s what makes the platform fun! But with that fun also comes the challenge of adapting. Marketing tactics that might have been a huge success on Instagram a few years ago might not be the best practice in 2020. Below are some tips and tricks to reach the people you want to target and build a strong brand.
1. Post Consistently
According to studies, the sweet spot is a consistent 1-2 posts a day. The news feed algorithm has really changed over the years. Typically the most engaging content from brand pages finds it’s way into the feed. Keep your feed fresh and relevant, and you have more opportunities to attract eyeballs to your content. Knowing when the best time to post on Instagram is is also critical especially when dealing with Instagram’s feed. You can find great what time your audience is most involved in your page analytics under the settings tab.
2. Choose the Right Hashtags
This area is where many companies drop the ball. Don’t make your hashtags too generic, #music or #fashion. Your post will face competition from potentially millions of others. Instead, use a mix of trending and industry-specific hashtags to find the best hashtag to connect with your targeted followers.
For the best results, research various hashtags. Look at the type of content and the number of likes on its top-performing posts—if your content matches up, you’ve got yourself a winning hashtag. Try to float between 3-5 hashtags per post.
3. Embrace Instagram Stories
The future is here! Instagram stories have become the most popular feature on the platform with 500 million users every day. Stories are becoming the main feature of Instagram more and more every day.
It perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise then that one-third of the most viewed Instagram stories actually come from businesses. That number will continue to grow every month.
Stories enable you to post a mix of photos and images in a single post that disappears after 24 hours. Pages can also create ‘Highlights’ and save their stories to bookmarked tabs on their main page. It might feel a bit awkward at first but the more you do it the better you’ll get!
4. Take the Time to Create Masterpieces
There’s a reason you don’t see low-quality blurry pictures in your feed, they don’t get exposure. Take better photos and curate an enviable feed! There are so many photo editing apps available in the app store to make your photos really stand out. When using public hashtags in order to compete with all of the other posts you have to make sure your photo can sit at the table.
Snap Seed is an amazing free app from the app store that gives you some amazing filters and a ton of editing tools. Just like anything else to do with Instagram, the more you use it the better you’ll get!
5. Host an Instagram Contest
Contests are a powerful engagement tool on Instagram, generating 3.5 times more likes and 64 times more comments than regular posts.
Largely overlooked by brands, only 2% of Instagram brand accounts run a contest. If you’re not well versed in Instagram it can be a scary task. This means there’s a huge, relatively untapped resource for marketers to capitalize on.
An especially popular contest type on Instagram is the giveaway. This involves giving away a product or service, and users enter the contest by following your account, liking the post, and tagging their friends in your post. If the giveaway is executed well, this can be a powerful tactic to boost engagement and brand awareness. This is a very successful tactic for new brands on Instagram with a low follower count. This is what sets apart the old school corporation brands from the new age social media brands.
6. Find an Influencer
Applied correctly, influencer marketing can generate incomparable ROI for marketers.
With its high-quality pictures and 200+ million users, brands are eager to collaborate with influencers and bloggers on Instagram in particular. Instagram influencers create posts with brand products, usually along with a detailed caption, then share them with their loyal Instagram followers.
A more cost-effective approach is to concentrate on micro-influencers.
Micro-influencers, or users with expertise in niche areas, but lower follower numbers than celebrities, tend to have better engagement rates and more targeted audiences. The content they post is often more authentic and unlike celebrities, they more likely to reply to comments and answer their follower’s queries.
Interested in finding an influencer to work with your brand? We can help, Contact Us today.
