This blog wishes to acknowledge the contributions of HubSpot, Social Media Examiner, and SocialMediaToday, and disclose the use of ChatGPT, an AI language model developed by OpenAI, as a tool to supplement, enhance, and make suggestions in writing this blog post.
In the busy and evolving world of digital marketing, mastering Instagram can feel like navigating the busy streets of New York City. Whether you are a veteran social media marketer or a new beginner in the social media world, we understand the obstacles faced when keeping up with trends and relevant content in this erratic environment.
With roughly over two billion monthly users, Instagram has bloomed from a photo-sharing app into a meeting hub for brands, influencers, and everyday people. It has changed into a community where connecting, inspiring, and engaging has never been easier. Unfortunately, with great power comes great responsibility, and understanding the dos and don’ts can be the reason you either succeed or fail.
This is your survival guide for creating a successful Instagram platform. Through this guide, you will be met with what to do and not to do across your entire Instagram platform.
Dos
Post Consistently
Every successful marketer understands that consistency is key. Developing a content schedule that maximizes all metric use is an important piece to successful Instagram marketing. You want a schedule that aligns with your audience’s online activity. Regularly posting content keeps the audience engaged and your profile active.
Running trials for your content schedule allows you to find the sweet spot of when your audience is most active online. Once this time has been documented, you can then continue to tweak the schedule for full maximization of views from the audience. This single task begins a domino effect towards increased traffic, engagement, and conversions.
Use High-Quality Visuals
The task of using high-quality visuals provides a clean, organized look for any brand and produces that luxury feel to the audience. Instagram is a visual platform that demands investment in high-quality photos to reach success. These photos should be appealing to your audience and should also reflect your brand. You do not go onto Instagram and see top brands posting blurry, off-brand photos that have no business being on their Instagram.
If you don’t see successful brands post low-quality and irrelevant images, then why should you? Take notes from any brand you find successful and add those efforts to your platform for increased success.
The use of high-quality images portrays a state of professionalism and credibility to your audience. This act shows your care for the face of the brand and all social media platforms your brand is connected to. Your Instagram feed is a visual representation of your brand and its identity. You want your audience to know who and what your brand is by simply skimming photos from your Instagram profile. By consistently posting valuable images, your brand can maintain a positive perception. Studies have shown that using high-quality images generates more engagement and when pairing that with an influencer, engagement can increase tremendously.
Collaborate with Influencers
Influencers have become a vital part of social media marketing. The use of collaboration with an influencer can increase your reach and have your brand displayed in front of a new audience. These influencers have created credibility and a sense of trust between them and their audience, their voice has great power over their audience. Their followers will follow what they say so why not have them talk about your brand?
Collaborating with influencers can also introduce diverse and fresh content to your Instagram feed. Each influencer has a style, voice, and outlook that creates engaging content that grabs the audience’s attention. There are micro-influencers and macro-influencers that all your brand to scale the topic and pick a partnership that fits your budget. Taken from Maximizing Creator Content on Social Media: Tips from CEOs and Influencer Marketing Thought Leaders, the author states that Instagram has around 500,000 influencers; this means that there is an influencer for you, you’ll just have to find the right one. Check out more of this article and others just like it by following this link here.
Don’ts
Buy Followers or Engagement
Purchasing followers or engagement can seem like a great idea at the time but can damage your reputation in the future. Your audience is seeking a genuine brand and once they find out the brand’s attention is purely paid for, the trust between your brand and the customers will begin to deteriorate. Organic growth and genuine engagement are the most prized possessions and will show your audience that you care.
Hendrickson from 8 Common Instagram Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in 2020 states that “In the end, all these purchases end up doing, is having your audience ask why the likes are so low on a post when you have so many followers”. Although he does mention how to avoid these in 2020, the information remains valid for the present day. Having your audience question your authenticity can create large damage to your brand. To learn more about marketing mistakes to avoid follow the link here and see what else there is to learn.
Fake followers create an illusion of popularity and do not show true interest or support towards your brand. The same can be said about false engagement, the truth will be revealed, and your audience will feel betrayed. The bond of trust between your brand and your audience has now taken a hit and the recovery time after that could take a long time to recover. Your brand’s audience is your family, you wouldn’t lie to your family, would you?
Ignore Comments and Messages
Engaging with your audience is an important task that allows your audience to feel like someone is listening to them. No human likes to be ignored or to feel ignored, you want to display that your brand genuinely cares and when you ignore messages and comments, you are not portraying proper brand care. Engaging with your audience builds a stronger community and relationships with all followers. Whether you replied to them specifically or in a general way, the audience will see your efforts and know that your brand truly cares.
Responding to messages and comments demonstrates great customer service and impeccable customer responsiveness. Addressing important matters such as brand insight, sorting out issues, and addressing feedback promptly can increase customer satisfaction and create a reputable brand with great customer service. It will always be about making sure your audience is happy and engaging, therefore displaying fake attention towards your brand will do the opposite of keeping your audience engaged and happy.
Forget to Monitor Your Analytics
Viewing your Instagram analytics regularly allows you to track your brand’s performance to help you identify problem areas. This will provide the data that is needed to maintain a successful Instagram platform. Partnering with 3 Instagram Analytics Tools for Marketers, the author notes that “…it’s important to use analytics tools to see which portion of your Instagram audience is interacting with what content is performing best and which audience segments you may be missing”. To know more about Instagram analytic tools, check out this blog by Ana Gotter.
Forgetting to monitor can lead to missed opportunities and ineffective strategies. Staying aware of your analytics can create the line between failure and success.
If these analytics were to be ignored, you would find yourself not understanding the content that your audience is searching for. You are working towards creating the best content for your audience and if you don’t know what is working then you cannot fully obtain success. These analytics also help your brand to adapt to forming trends and changes in the Instagram algorithm. You can adjust your strategy accordingly by staying up to date on the information. Simply knowing engagement patterns, content preferences, and user behavior can increase your overall brand.
Misuse Hashtags
The misuse of hashtags on Instagram can harm your brand. It can affect your brand’s visibility, credibility, and engagement. Having content that has irrelevant or excessive hashtags can appear spammy and might decrease the reach of your brand’s posts. The focus should be on hashtags that are relevant to the brand, the post, and the target audience.
Hashtags are how you reach the target audience and others that are interested in specific topics or themes. When a hashtag is misused, it might attract the wrong audience that will decrease your overall engagement and provide a missed opportunity to connect with your target audience. Instagram also has the authority to penalize your account if a hashtag is misused. These penalties could be limiting visibility in search results or hiding content from hashtag feeds. Receiving such penalties can decrease your reach and obscure your ability to grow your brand’s audience organically.
Mastering the dos and don’ts of Instagram is an important task for all brands and individuals searching for success on the platform. With the use of best practices such as posting consistently, influencer collaboration, responding to comments, and monitoring analytics, you can find success within Instagram and overall, an increase in your brand’s success.
It is just as important to remember that Instagram craves a thought-out and strategic approach. Remembering to stay away from the misuse of hashtags and knowing the analytics of your brand can create the difference between failure and success. Practicing the wrong strategies and tasks can damage your reputation and keep you from reaching your Instagram goals.
Overall, success from Instagram involves a strategic plan and strong goals to work towards. Standing by your brand’s values, creating community with your audience, and striving to stay alert on the ever-changing world that is Instagram, you can reach the full potential of Instagram. Embrace the dos, avoid the don’ts, and watch your brand reach ultimate Instagram success.
Resources
By. (n.d.-a). 3 Instagram analytics tools for marketers. Social Media Examiner. https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-instagram-analytics-tools-for-marketers/
Kilgore, C. (2020, September 11). 8 common Instagram marketing mistakes to avoid in 2020. HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/instagram-brand-mistakes
OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (3.5) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com
OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (3.5) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com
Published May 9, 2022. (2022, May 9). Maximizing creator content on social media: TIPS from CEOS and influencer marketing thought leaders. Social Media Today. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/spons/maximizing-creator-content-on-social-media-tips-from-ceos-and-influencer-m/623083/
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