Instagram is a visual network or the place to sell your brand through pictures and videos. Whereas uploading quality and videos that are relevant to your brand is crucial, you should know that just uploading images and videos is not enough, you will need to have a strategy in place.

Also, you need to stay up to date with latest trends on Instagram. With the growth of social media use, brands can reap lots of benefits from channels like Instagram as its user population continues to grow every day. According to Tumidolsky (2020), in 2019, about $20 billion was used to advertise on Instagram and Instagram stories alone were expected to make $1.7 billion in sales in 2020.

The growth trend is expected to continue into the future as more people join the platforms. To reap the benefits, you need to observe Instagram best practices.

Post High Quality and Engaging Content

Fory our brand to draw the attention needed to grow on Instagram, you need to post high quality images and videos. Users are more likely to open a professional image than a low quality one. So, you will need to share great visuals with your audience to get those views and likes.

Another thing you should note is to use color on your posts. According to a study, 92% of social media users identified color as an integral part when they are making purchasing decisions. Shoppers will subconsciously judge what’s around them within the first two minutes of the initial viewing. What it takes is highly engaging content which must be professional and beautiful.

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Be Creative With Your Content

It's very important that your content remains interesting to the customers. Don’t let your content become stale. You can do that by sharing different types of posts like having questions posts, promotional posts, and review posts. You can also survey your followers and learn what type of content they prefer.

For instance, if you post an IGTV video, ensure the first 15 seconds that are viewable on the feed counts such that your audience will want to watch the remaining part.

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Stay Up to Date With Instagram Changes

Instagram keeps changing its features, trends, and bringing new updates. So, you will need to be up to date immediately these changes are made to be able to capitalize on them. If your follower’s audience learns about the changes before you, they will consider you outdated, which is not a very good position with all the competitors on the platform.

Always stay ahead of your competition by following new trends. For instance, brands that embraced IGTV and stories, and learn how to use them effectively, are more likely to win over their audience.

 

Run Instagram Ads

By sharing stunning visuals and high-quality media on Instagram, you are better placed to attract an audience, and you combine that with Instagram ads, you will easily grow your following. According to Wordstream, Instagram advertising offers brands ever-increasing opportunities, helps build a following, and helps leverage higher engagement rates among others (DeFazio, 2021).

With its over 1 billion monthly users, Instagram is a perfect spot to meet your target audience and grow your brand. Also, you can now target Instagram audience with Facebook since its owned by Facebook. Instagram Ads was integrated with Facebook Ads Manager making it easy for you to run your ads especially if you used Facebook for adverts before.

Finally, the process of placing an ad is very simple now, so, in just a few clicks you will have your ad running.

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Use Hashtags

Toget more followers with your posts, you need to apply tactics that will increase your chances of being discovered. Use of hashtags is one best way toget your posts out there. When you include a hashtag(s) on your post it helps you participate with highly relevant topics. Not every hashtag will get you discovered, you need to look for relevant hashtags that has been used many times or is currently trending.

To know if the hashtag you want to use is relevant, use the explore page on Instagram and enter your hashtag, you will get data on how popular the hashtag you plan to use is. Its also advisable to create a brand hashtag and grow it by using it regularly especially through campaigns.

It will help your brand to be easily discovered on Instagram. According to (Arens, 2019) using @mentions can double your engagement on Instagram, because it sparks a chain of events of friends to notice your content.

 

References

Arens, E. (2019, August 8). 7 Instagram best practices to build your audience. Sprout Social. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-best-practices/  

DeFazio, A. (2021, February 15). 5 reasons why Instagram ads really work! WordStream: Online Advertising Made Easy. https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2021/02/15/why-advertise-on-instagram

Tumidolsky, B. (2020, November 27). 10 Instagram best practices you should be following in2020. Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-best-practices/

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Social media marketing