This week, let’s dive into some of the best Instagram best practices to get more leads out of your Instagram account.
From the moment the platform was launched, Instagram has since evolved far beyond being a fun way to share photos.
With its ever-growing popularity amongst the younger generation, constantly evolving features, and powerful engagement elements, Instagram has become a focus for social media marketing by various businesses.
Even HoopJumper has been on the Instagram trend for a while now, making posting on the platform a huge priority in our social media marketing efforts.
Don’t get left out. Take advantage of Instagram’s powerful marketing capabilities for your business by taking a look at the 7 Instagram best practices we’ve gathered to bring your business to the next level.
Instagram Best Practices #1: Consistent Branding
It all starts with the page. Long before you even start making posts, you need to take a look at your Instagram page and ask yourself questions like:
- Does my page’s colors match my business colors?
- When someone visits my IG page, do they immediately recognize my brand?
- Does my IG page perform like an extension of my website?
There’s something satisfying about an aesthetically pleasing Instagram page. But more than just looking great, you also need to make sure that your page reflects your brand.
Remember, your goal is to use your Instagram page to get people visiting your website.
Brand consistency doesn’t just rely on the colors and images you use on your Instagram page. Your videos’ tone should also reflect the brand that your business carries.
Instagram Best Practices #2: Consistent Posting
Posting consistently has always been, and will always be crucial to an Instagram page’s success.
How many times should you be posting on Instagram? According to RivalQ’s 2021 Social Media Benchmark Report, the average brand posts on Instagram about 4 times per week, but the top brands are posting every day of the week.
And if you’re thinking, “that’s too much effort to post everyday!”, we understand your sentiment. But consistency in posting isn’t just about the number of posts you make – it’s also about the type of posts and when you post something in a day.
Studies show that the best time to post on Instagram varies depending on the industry a business is in.
This is where Instagram insights are best used. For the first few weeks, you’re more likely to be experimenting on the best time to post, but by observing the insights, you’ll be able to determine a more consistent schedule.
Once you’ve figured out what works, stick to that schedule to maintain steady engagement. Make use of tools that will help you stay on track like content calendars or social media scheduling platforms.
Instagram Best Practices #3: Audience Priority
Even outside Instagram marketing, prioritizing what your audience is interested in is essential to maintaining a successful page.
Your audience drives everything on Instagram, so it’s only natural to produce content that caters to their interests and desires.
To do this, you need to understand who your audience is, and what kind of content they love to engage with.
Start with your audience’s demographics. What is the average age and gender of audiences that follow pages in your industry? Where do they live? Similar to building a buyer persona, you should also develop an audience persona for your Instagram posts.
Make a comparison on what you know about your audience versus the content that you put out and see which of the content is resonating well with your audience.
If you are starting from scratch, don’t be afraid to ask your audience what type of content they want to see. Use questions or polls in your Instagram Stories to get their input.
Instagram Best Practices #4: Creator Leveraging
According to the 2022 Instagram Trends Report, which surveyed Gen Z users ages 13-24, four out of five agree that social media and other online celebrities have more influence on culture than traditional celebrities. The report also found that “83% believe that creators have as much influence as online influencers, if not more.”
There is a subtle difference between traditional influencers and content creators, but this difference is important to note
Traditional influencers typically use their personal brand to influence their audience to purchase products, while content creators are solely focused on creating content.
Gen Z’s inclination towards authenticity shows why digital creators have garnered more credibility than traditional celebrities or influencers these days: it’s all about being real.
Creators are able to seamlessly incorporate products into their content which gives them a natural and relatable vibe.
With all that has been said, how can you then leverage creators for your social media marketing strategy?
The answer is simple: creators love to generate content, and you need to be consistently posting.
If you want to try out leveraging creators for your business, consider micro-influencers. While the industry definition of a micro-influencer varies, a micro-influencer is typically considered someone with a following anywhere between 10,000 and 50,000.
If you don’t have the budget or a product to create a full-fledged influencer marketing strategy just yet, take advantage of user-generated content by staying tapped into the accounts your audience is interested in.
Instagram Best Practices #5: Video Content
Although Instagram started out its fame as a “cool” and “hip” way to share photos online, it soon evolved to include videos (via “reels” and IGTV content) to catch up to its competitors like TikTok and YouTube.
In 2022, the best type of content to produce on Instagram is video. Video is now a top priority for the platform and the interactive element is not showing signs of slowing down anytime soon.
Now that Reels are being shown in the main feed and can be easily discovered while scrolling through the Explore page, you’ll have a greater chance of getting your content discovered and engaged with if you post video reels.
While we’ve found that photos, specifically carousels, were king in 2021, Instagram’s focus on video elements is a sign that video should be incorporated in your Instagram marketing strategy in 2022.
Instagram Best Practices #6: Meme Posting
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past decade, you know how powerful memes are in capturing attention.
Although memes started out as a way for people to share funny content, business owners soon caught up and found this to be a way of subtly marketing their services.
Instagram users love to share and view memes. Who can blame them? Funny and timely content can capture the attention of your viewers simply for being on trend
Memes have become such a staple in social media marketing practice that almost a quarter of posts done by business pages every week are composed of memes.
Instagram Best Practices #7: Social Listening
There is always merit in listening to what is going on around you, especially when it comes to your brand and industry.
You should take into account what your competitors are doing, as some of them may be in a particular trend that you might miss out on if you didn’t check out their Instagram page.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of time observing every single competitor, especially if your industry has a multitude of competitors to choose from.
The key thing is to identify four to five competitors that are doing really well, and taking a scheduled look at their pages to see how well they are doing. There are metrics that you can get by simply looking at a competitor’s page publicly.
You can also invest in tools like RivalQ whose sole focus is to listen to your competitors. Platforms like this alert you when the competition has a breakout post or even changes their Instagram bio.
You can also use their tools to track brand mentions, trending topics, and hashtag research so that you’re always tapped into everything your target audience is interested in or talking about.
Final Thoughts
Managing your Instagram page is not going to be a walk in a park, but if you follow the above best practices we’ve gathered for Instagram, you can be sure to turn your page into an asset for your business.
With your busy schedule ahead of you, you may feel like you have very little time to even put some work into this.
Don’t worry. HoopJumper helps busy professionals like you manage your social media accounts and execute social advertising campaigns quickly, saving you months of expensive trial and error.
Avoid wasting precious time and money on lackluster Social Media Marketing.
Check out our Social Media packages today and get started on boosting your Instagram marketing.