Users interact more with image based content than they do with any other content form on social media, and 40% of people respond better to visual information than plain text. That makes Instagram a great choice when deciding on which social media platform to spend your time.
If you’re planning to engage on this platform, be prepared to do the following 5 things consistently.
Top 5 Instagram Best Practices
Put your URL in your bio: this is the only place you can add a link, so make sure it’s here. To encourage traffic to your website in captions, mention your “link in the bio”.
Share only high quality images: users can tell when you’ve put thought into every photo you post. The accounts that see the greatest success go the extra mile to produce high quality visual content.
Use hashtags: unlike Twitter and Facebook, adding on relevant hashtags to Instagram posts boosts visibility of that post.
Brand-related hashtags: Whether it’s your company name like #Nordstom or a campaign like #recyclepods, generate a hashtag and encourage users to post with it. If you have handbags, ask users to take a picture of themselves sporting your bag and tag it. Let your fans do the promoting. Which brings us to #5...
Engage & Respond: make time to like others’ photos and leave comments, especially if your followers are tagging you with your brand hashtags. As a bonus, taking the time to listen to feedback can prove invaluable.
Even More...
If you’re struggling for ideas of what to post, think of Instagram like your brand’s lifestyle magazine. Let the photos tell a story about your products and who you are as a company.
Monitor your brand related hashtags.
Create and follow a consistent branding theme. Instead of putting your logo on everything, and calling it good - use consistent lighting, filtering and formatting. Find what formatting works for your brand and be consistent.
