I N S T A G R A M
Powerful, visual, trendy, and engaging.
This and much more could be your Instagram when done properly. It’s very hard to stand out, but mastering Instagram can give you the opportunity to build your brand, create customer engagement, and even sell by using this amazing visual platform with more than 600 million active users.
Is Instagram The Right Choice For You?
So as not to waste your time reading an article about Instagram, let’s get to the heart of the issue: finding your target group.
Sometimes you may think that your type of business isn’t visually appealing and you have nothing to post. But the opposite is often true — aim to be unique, authentic, and creative and you may find your products and brand have a hidden value. In today’s world, nothing is more important than standing out.
Aim to be unique, authentic, and creative. In today’s world, nothing is more important than standing out.
Find More Followers
# Post new, interesting and engaging content
Instagrammers appreciate aesthetic quality, visual storytelling and authenticity. Your images and videos should be professionally composed and artful, and attention paid to presenting your ads so as to be visually engaging.
# Stand out and inspire
Instagram posts should be current, trendy and exciting. You need to continuously attract, delight and surprise your audience. The aim is to engage with people by unveiling something exclusive and inspirational.
# Use the right hashtags
Use hashtags that are popular but not overused (for example, did you know that for more than two years the most popular hashtag has been #Love?).
# Use the right filters
The most popular filters are: No filter (normal), Clarendon and Juno. Mayfair, No Filter and Inkwell drive the most interaction, while X-ProII and Valencia have the most likes.
# Post consistently and at right time
The rush days are Monday and Thursday and the best times are between 8–9 am and after 5 pm.
# Steal your competitor’s followers
Seek your best competitors and try to engage with their audience. You can for example start to follow them, like their photos or add your own comments.
Instagram Formats
# Image
You can use a square image (recommended size: 1080 x 1080 pixels) or landscape image (recommended size: 1200 x 628 pixel) to improve your reach. The possible formats are .jpeg or .png. You can use filters or adjust the image according to your own preferences.
# Video
Instagram limits videos from 3 secs — 60 secs. Maximum resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixel and the maximum file size is 15MB. If your video is larger than 15MB, you can compress, trim or split it to separate parts. There are filters available also for the videos.
# Carousel
This multiple image feature is very engaging and dynamic and has huge business potential. It’s a great opportunity to highlight multiple features of the product, offer step-by-step tutorials, inform customers about what happened at an event, or give them insight into how something is made. Choose the first image carefully as it’s the most important one and it’s quite helpful to use some call to actions such as “swipe” in the image’s caption. You can use a mix of pictures and videos here.
# Stories
This includes disappearing pieces of content like photos and videos. This function is very similar to Snapchat. Stories will appear in a bar at the top of your feed. You can draw on a photo, add stickers, or even include text. They will disappear after 24 hours and will no longer be available, so it’s great for advertising exclusive or timely events/offers. You can mention other accounts in the story by using @username and it will also send them a notification.
Advertising on Instagram
So, why should you advertise on Instagram? Instagram has the most engaged and targeted audience out of all social networks. An independent research on social networks found that consumers are 58x more likely to engage with branded content on Instagram compared to Facebook, and 120x more likely compared to Twitter.
To begin, it’s good to start with promoting a post you’ve already shared on Instagram. You can choose to reach people according to their Location, Interest, Behaviors or Demographics. You can also create custom audiences according to your preferences.
Don’t forget to track your performance and be consistent on all your channels to provide comprehensive shopping experience.
