The 10 Best Ways to Use Instagram To Stand Out from The Crowd
The 10 Best Ways to Use Instagram To Stand Out from The Crowd
Why Instagram?
Instagram has quickly become one of the most important and popular social media platforms on the market. Many businesses, content creators and personal users have come together to create a platform worth sharing on.
The social media platform offers many different functions to allow you to be successful. You can create a business profile that gains you access to many different insights, allows you to put your business information up front and centre and you can add a call-to-action button right on your profile! How handy is that?
Instagram helps build an audience for your brand, it helps to sell products and allows you to engage with your audience creating customer loyalty. Does your business have Instagram? Well, there are many things Instagram can help you do that is worth downloading it for:
- Instagram puts a face and personality to your brand
- It increases your reach
- You can sell products directly through the app
- You can collect user data
- And so much more...
Why Is Following Best Practices Important?
Instagram and its algorithm can be quite challenging. There are many guidelines, best practices and tips available to you for getting the maximum reach out of your experience with the app. It’s important to review these guidelines because going in blind is never a good idea.
Especially since the app is constantly being updated, you will want to be in the know of how you can stand out from the crowd and make the best possible case for you and your business on Instagram. Without best practices, your Instagram can get lost in the crowd.
Instagram Marketing Best Practices
One of the most important things to remember when using Instagram is to be committed to it. Engagement and reach unfortunately do not happen overnight, but when following the best practices, you are more likely to see results faster. You need to please the algorithm while also pleasing your followers. A healthy balance is needed to be successful.
Here are the best Instagram marketing practices your company should be following to stand out from the crowd and appease the algorithm and your consumers:
- Post consistently
- Post content that only connects to your brand
- Tell stories
- Use Instagram to boost website traffic
- Apply SEO
- Use influencers (and be selective when choosing them)
- Engage in the comments
- Size your images properly
- Learn the optimal posting times
- Utilize your brand guide on posts
Post Consistently
You want your brand to stand out and be recognizable. The last thing you want is for your picture to show up on a follower's feed and they ask themselves “who is that”. In order to eliminate this issue, post consistently. Create a schedule and stick to it.
It is important to not over post. Sharing multiple photos in one day or oversharing multiple images in one week can be irritating to your followers.
Find that happy medium, track it and stick to it.
Post Content That Only Connects to Your Brand
The golden rule is quality over quantity, and this relates to the type of content you are posting. Your followers want to see images that reflect your brand and only your brand. Something that when they look at it, they think of you right away.
Ask yourself when you are posting: How does this relate to our brand? Will my followers like and engage with it? Will my followers know that this post is about my brand right away?
Utilize the analytics and insights sections of your business profile. See what content best performs on your page and work around that.
The higher the number on your post, the better interaction it gets by your users. Take that information and create more posts like that.
Tell Stories
Your followers don’t want to be at the end of your sales pitch, they are on Instagram to engage with interesting and unique content, not necessarily there to buy a product. Remember when you're posting why users are on Instagram. Many of them are there to see people’s stories. Therefore, many people share their lives on Instagram, it’s all about storytelling.
Share a genuine message with your followers. Focus on telling stories through the images, videos, GIFS and text you share. Look for connections with your audience. When followers feel an emotional connection to your content, they are much more likely to become loyal followers and eventually loyal customers.
Storytelling is one of the most important parts of marketing. Bringing out the emotion in people and creating a connection is key. Especially on Instagram where many businesses are just posting because they think they must, if you are telling a story you are much more likely to stand out in Infront of all the other brands out there.
Use Instagram To Boost Website Traffic
Instagram's business profile allows you to include a clickable link in your profile bio, use this as an opportunity to showcase your website. Your website can help connect stories together, give more information to your followers and push your product after they made that unique connection with you.
You may utilize link building sites like linktr.ee to get more out of your one shot at sharing a link on your profile.
Apply SEO
Apply SEO best practices to your Instagram page. The SEO best practices fall into your account handle and your account name. Your Instagram handle should be short, memorable and applicable to your business.
Your account name should reflect your industry and account handle well. When people search for your business on Instagram, it is typically your account name that will show up, so make this one memorable.
Use keywords in your Instagram text as well. Keywords will help you stand out from competitors and start to create a brand voice for your Instagram.
Use Influencers and be Selective When Choosing Who to Work With
Using influencers is a great way to spread your reach and engagement on Instagram. It is also a great way to create meaningful stories for your brand and business that consumers will love to see and hear.
Be picky when it comes to choosing influencers to work with. Each influencer comes with their own unique audience and areas of expertise. Using influencers Iis very handy as you can reach many people with just one post and it creates the opportunity to reshare the content to stories, feeds and direct messages.
This is where your brand story and knowing how it translates comes in handy.
Engage in the Comments
One of the best ways to connect with your audience is to engage in not only the content you post but on followers' content as well. Respond to customers’ comments as much as you can, this will help build credibility to your name.
Stick to one consistent brand voice in the comments so people know that it is truly you responding to them. Engaging with customers makes them feel connected to the brand and this in turn will make them more loyal to you.
Size Your Images Properly
When posting content, it is important to pay attention to best practices for sizing images and videos. Instagram allows three different image orientations – square, landscape and portrait. It is also nice to have a mix of content sizes in your feed to help highlight certain pictures properly.
Learn the Optimal Posting Times
One of the most important best practices is proper posting times. Your followers want to see new content on a regular basis. If your brand only posts occasionally you may start to find a drop in followers over time.
In addition to this, you will want to focus on posting during your optimal times, this is when your audience is most active. This can vary from industry to industry, but there are some general times of the day and week when users are most active on Instagram. According to Instagram's global engagement chart, Wednesday and Thursday late afternoon has the best engagement time whereas, the lowest engagement is on Sunday. You can also investigate your insights to see when your audience is most active.
Post during these optimal times to get the best results on your posts.
Utilize Your Brand Guide on Posts
Your businesses’ brand guide is extremely important. Sticking to this will help customers and followers will know exactly who you are without giving it a second thought.
Stick to your brand colours, your social logos, your brand voice, typography and iconography. By doing this, you are helping to paint of picture of your brand that is unique and consistent.
Best Practices How to Increase Your Engagement on Instagram
Your engagement on Instagram is measured by likes, shares, and comments from your followers. If you do not have a sound Instagram page by following your Instagram best practices it can be very hard to get engagement on your profile and posts.
By following the best practices above, you set yourself up for success however, it can still be hard to get that much-needed engagement on your posts. Why is that? If you're following all the best practices why are you not seeing the numbers, you want to see? Well, that’s because Instagram, although a very big platform, does have competitors, just like your business. So, how do you get your consumers to engage with you on the platform you want them to?
Instagram is a great platform to share stories. Create an engaging story for your brand and roll with it. Here are some tips to help you increase your engagement on Instagram:
- Post consistently
- Tell stories, not sales pitches
- Choose the right hashtags
- Use SEO where you can
- Use Instagram Stories
- Add CTA’s everywhere you can
- Host Contests or Giveaways
Conclusion
Many businesses are on Instagram but are they using it the right way and for the right reasons? You cannot just use Instagram because everyone else is, there must be a reason and story you must portray that to your followers.
Instagram is a great way to create and spread brand awareness. It connects with your consumers at a deeper and different level than any other social media platform strictly because it is so visual. This gives you the unique opportunity to showcase what your business is about in a visual and creative way.
Many followers look on Instagram to learn about your business. So, your profile should be reflective of that.
In order to be successful on this very popular platform, you must follow the best practices outlined in this post. It can be hard to get lost in the crowd especially if you are not following the best practices that will give you optimal views and engagement.
Social media best practices can be quite taxing on a company. Especially with algorithm changes and updates to the platform, it can be hard to keep up to date with everything. We understand that social media is extremely important and that it takes up a lot of bandwidth from a company.
If you are looking to expand your social media strategy and want to incorporate these best practices for Instagram, reach out to us at [email protected], we can help you out.
Sources
https://www.business.com/articles/instagram-best-practices/
https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/instagram-best-practices/
