24 Tips and Tricks on How to Be Successful on Instagram in 2021

24 tips and tricks on how to be successful on Instagram. Would you like to start making money on Instagram, become an influencer, or use Instagram to promote your business? We have compiled tips and tricks based on personal experience, recent studies, and expert publications on how to be successful on Instagram in 2021. So let’s get to it.

What is Instagram and why does everyone want to be on it?

More and more businesses want to be visible on social media, and today’s younger generation can hardly imagine life without them. Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social networks, the second most downloaded app in the Apple Store, and the tenth most searched word on Google.

According to a study by Hootsuite, 63% of Instagram users open the app every day and spend an average of 28 minutes there daily. It’s no wonder that more and more brands are focusing on Instagram and the phenomenon of so-called Influencer Marketing is growing — even though last year the average engagement dropped on Instagram from 3% to 2%.

Is it hard to succeed on Instagram?

According to surveys, up to 95% of people who seek success on Instagram do not succeed. What are the most common reasons for failure?

They have no idea what to do on social media and are just experimenting. They have no plan
They lack patience and think their account will grow within a few weeks
They try to find a “shortcut” and buy fake likes and fake followers
They focus on a topic they have no connection to
They try to apply tactics from abroad that don’t work and never will work in their country

How much does success on Instagram cost?

Unlike Facebook, Instagram can still be built without having to spend money on advertising at all costs. The biggest investment, however, will be your time. And a lot of time. If you are serious about Instagram, keep in mind that there are no shortcuts and you will have to dedicate that time to the platform. Businesses should therefore not be afraid to invest in a quality manager or in promoting posts on Instagram — even a very small budget can help you develop the platform faster and build your brand.

Which profiles work best on Instagram?

It is well known that fitness guys generally gain fewer followers and fewer likes than fitness girls, so you should.. No, you should never think that way. You should never choose your niche based on what is most profitable, but based on what you truly enjoy. If you manage an account whose topic doesn’t interest you at all, you can’t count on success. Keep this in mind when choosing, for example, a social media manager.

The only thing that matters when choosing your niche is this: Pick one and stick to it.

Not every business belongs on Instagram

Instagram is talked about at every marketing conference, but that doesn’t mean your business has to be on it. If your target audience is 40+, you should probably consider other promotional channels — 71% of Instagram users are under 35. It also won’t be the best promotional channel for companies focused on B2B.

How to create a successful Instagram profile that stands out

It doesn’t have to be love at first sight, but you do need to make an impression. Your profile is your business card, and therefore you should put great care into optimizing it. What should you focus on?

Username
Name
Profile photo
Bio (description about you)
Link

1) How to choose a username

Most of you probably already have a name you want to stick with. But if you’re just getting started on Instagram, or you want to create a profile for your business, here are two tips:

Come up with a catchy name

It’s similar to coming up with a page name or brand name — you want something people will remember easily, and ideally something that connects to what you do. For example, when you see @dnescestujem, you immediately get that it’s a travel profile. The problem arises if after years you want to change your focus, like Cestology, who recently decided he no longer wants to be Cestology but Kryštof Paleta. Names tied to a specific place can also be problematic — @Terezainoslo comes to mind, and she’s now in Prague.

Your real name

A much simpler option is your real name, especially if your profile is about you or represents a business. If your name isn’t too long or already taken, there’s no reason not to choose it.

What everyone is curious about

I think it’s time I wrote somewhere why I’m on Instagram as Endijka. People often think I’m Andrea, because — how did Endijka come from Lucie? I’ve been using this nickname for over 15 years and it started in the game World of Warcraft. I use it on all social networks, and even though it’s confusing and I don’t recommend making up a completely different name, I’m sticking with it.

2) What name to choose on Instagram

Now there’s a tricky one — coming up with a name? You just put your name there and that’s it, right? That’s how the average Instagram user thinks, but you should go further. Instagram gives you quite a bit of space for your name, and you can use that to your advantage.

If you’re a fitness trainer, write Fitness Trainer Tomáš Novák. What good will that do? If someone searches for a fitness trainer on Instagram, it increases the chance that they’ll find you.

3) How to choose a profile photo?

For businesses it’s simple — use your logo to engrave it into people’s memory. But if your brand is tied to you personally, you need to think a little harder. Instagram is primarily about visuals, so treat it that way.

Your profile photo should say a cheerful “hello” and be immediately appealing to other users at first glance. According to a study by Photofeeler, a brighter photo is recommended, along with a big smile, and if your field allows it, formal attire is rated as more attractive in studies. You shouldn’t be too far away in the photo so that you’re still recognizable on smaller phones.

Remember that you shouldn’t change your profile photo too often — people will remember what it looks like and it makes quick identification easier, for example in Stories.

Just try it — can you picture the profile photos of your favorite Instagram accounts? When you change your profile photo, it can even lead to a short-term drop in views. Remember that it’s also a good idea to use the same photo across all your social networks.

4) Bio – What must not be missing from your description?

Make use of every single character out of the 150 that Instagram allows you. The goal is to explain who you are, what you do, and why people should follow you. Quotes are great, but at most people will understand that you like Churchill.

Instead, use the description to entice people to click on your blog or online store.

My description reads:

Traveler, ????@lukaskonecny and dog mom @karelcockapoo
?Online marketing and blogger
I write about how much our travels cost and how to earn money online ??

From that, you should understand that my profile will be a lot about traveling with my husband and our dog Karel. You’ll also find out that I work in online marketing and am a blogger. At the same time, there’s a call to action to click the link below, which leads to our articles.

If your main goal is to get users to your page, your product or project, challenge them to click. Simply write something like “Listen to my podcast” or “Download my free ebook on How to Make Money for Free” or “Read my article about zero waste”. Studies have repeatedly confirmed that these call-to-action words like “Listen”, “Download”, “Check it out” or “Read” really work. So why not take advantage of that?

Tip: Before you start writing your bio, browse through the profiles of your competitors or your inspirations from the same field.

How to create content that people enjoy

What to post, what to write alongside it, and how to get people to actually read it. In this section, we’ll look at a few tips on how to do it.

5) Be consistent

Much has already been written about a cohesive “feed”. In case you don’t know what a feed is: that’s what Instagram calls the archive of published photos you see when you open your profile. At first glance, a user should know what your profile is about. “But I’m interested in all sorts of things!” I’ve heard this response at training sessions a hundred times. And I always answer the same way:

It really is important that you stick to one topic. If you travel, people come to you looking for travel inspiration and don’t want to read a cake recipe. Save that for your Stories instead. It’s the same as with a blog (although there it’s more of an SEO issue) — there’s no point in running a blog where you write about travel, marketing, fashion, and occasionally throw in a recipe!

Your profile should be unified not only in terms of topic, but also visually cohesive. Most marketers and influencers use Lightroom (how to use Lightroom), but you can also use other apps or edit directly in Instagram (choose one filter and stick with it).

What not to do:

There are “artists” who run their photos through 20 different apps. You’re better off taking a course on Lightroom or buying presets from bloggers (pre-set filters), because Lightroom really can do everything you need. Editing one photo with 20 filters across various apps is a waste of time.

Tip: In the Preview or Buffer app, you can upload the photos you plan to publish and see how they look together.

6) What photos should you post?

Don’t publish photos and videos you’re not completely satisfied with. If you don’t have quality visuals, it’s better not to post at all. The optimal photo size for Instagram is 1080 x 1350 pixels (portrait orientation). Of course, you can stick to the classic square format, which works just as well. What I don’t recommend for marketers and brands is landscape format, as it takes up much less space on the screen and therefore has a lower chance of catching attention.

What to watch out for in your photos

Make sure it’s sharp
Make sure it’s clear to users
Make sure it’s relevant to your niche

Note: Quality content doesn’t always mean you have to shoot with a DSLR, have everything perfectly arranged and edited in Lightroom. Your feed can just as well consist of snapshots. However, I don’t recommend posting a cold product photo one day, reposting a photo from another user the next day, sharing a behind-the-scenes snapshot on the third day, and then posting a photo from a professional photographer on the fourth day. Remember to stay consistent and avoid what could be described as a mismatched jumble.

7) What colors work best!?

Repeated studies confirm that photos in which blue is the dominant color perform 24% better than photos where the dominant color is red or yellow. Then again, it’s no surprise — blue is the most popular color in the world. Similarly, photos with lighter tones are 24% more successful than photos that are dark.

8) Photo, Gallery or Video: Which Type of Post Works Best?

The latest study from Social Insider shows that photo galleries achieve the best engagement, ranging between 1.65% and 5.13% depending on account size. They achieve 0.25% – 0.51% higher engagement than videos and individual photos. The latter achieved the worst engagement in this study. What works for others, however, may not work for you. In the end, it always comes down to the quality of the content.

9) How and What to Write on Instagram

If you want to be successful on social media, you’ll need to be something of a copywriter. Emotions and wit rule on social media – especially here in the Czech Republic, where we can hardly do without humor. Write and publish only when you have something to say. Otherwise, it’s better to stay silent.

What Should I Write About?

Try to anticipate what people might be interested in, save the questions they send you, and help them with the problems they’re facing. If you’re running Instagram for a business, have the inquiries that come in via chat and email forwarded to you and keep them stored. These are the best sources for writing posts on social media and on your company blog. Take an interest in what your customers or followers are struggling with and talk with them.

Where to Find Inspiration?

Questions from customers and followers (email, chat, direct messages)
Discussion forums on the topic you write about
Interest groups on FB
Blogs on the topic
Competitors
Reviews

Tips for Beginner Influencers

Read what other influencers in your niche are writing, what works and what doesn’t
Don’t copy, but do draw inspiration
Be honest and authentic

If you want to improve your copy, I recommend downloading three e-books from the god of all copywriters in the Czech Republic. Well, I’m not sure whether Otto Bohuš is the god of copywriters, but his e-books are great, practical, and you can read them in no time. And most importantly – they’re FREE.

10) How Long Should Captions Be?

You’ve probably noticed that many Czech influencers specialize in captions that look more like essays. These can work brilliantly – if you actually have something to say. However, as studies show, less can be more. And this is especially true for business profiles.

According to last year’s Social Insider study, the best-performing posts had fewer than 10 words. However, this is a study from abroad covering posts in English, so take this information with a grain of salt. Different things can work for different profiles. Rather than counting words, focus on writing quality, valuable posts that people will enjoy. And experiment.

11) Why and How to Use Hashtags?

Instagram uses hashtags (the hash symbol before a word, for example #travel, #vacation, etc.) to categorize posts. So when you search for #sunset or #sunsetphotography, photos from users featuring sunsets will appear. If you add this hashtag to your photo, users can find your photo using it.

Furthermore, people can now “follow” hashtags, meaning that by choosing the right hashtags, your photo may appear directly in users’ feeds (the main feed where photos from accounts you follow appear).

If you’re new to using hashtags, you should know that they cannot contain periods (.), symbols (!?) or spaces. On the other hand, they can include emojis.

Hashtags can be the key not only to gaining your first followers, but also to so-called “power likes” (more on that below) and getting noticed by more influential accounts. Choosing the right hashtags is therefore crucial.

Tip: Whenever we develop a strategy for a client, we also focus on preparing relevant hashtags – thanks to this, we have already managed to achieve an impressive 10,000 impressions with the very first posts on a brand new account.

How to type the # hashtag? On Windows and MacBook

The easiest way is to use the right Alt key, also known as Alt Gr. You can find Alt to the right of the spacebar. Press and hold it, then press the letter X key.

On a MacBook, the #hashtag is typed by holding the right option key and pressing the number three.

12) How to choose hashtags?

Some hashtags are so popular that you’ll find millions of photos under them — for example, users have already published 467,757,079 posts under #travel. Such a hashtag is therefore not worth using at all, because photos are added so quickly that your post will get lost.

It also makes no sense to come up with your own hashtags like #goingfishing, under which you won’t find a single post. People neither use nor follow such a hashtag.

To start with, I recommend choosing hashtags that have somewhere in the range of 10,000–100,000 photos.

How to find relevant hashtags?

There are various tools for this, but in the end, the best one is already in your phone. Search on Instagram for a hashtag related to your focus area. If you’re into travel, it will be “travel.” Instagram will show you similar hashtags under “related hashtags,” and this way you can gradually browse through various hashtags until you’ve collected 9–15 hashtags.

When looking at hashtags, don’t just focus on the number of published posts, but also on what kinds of posts are published under them. They should resonate with the content you publish or plan to publish.

13) How many hashtags should you put under a post?

Instagram allows you to use 30 hashtags, but how many is actually the most appropriate is a topic of debate among marketers. It is true that hashtags help with organic (unpaid) reach, and thanks to them, other users can discover you.

However, some argue that 30 hashtags looks “spammy” and point to studies that confirmed that too many hashtags can reduce engagement. The most commonly cited “safe” number is 11 hashtags, but some claim you can use 2–8 hashtags in the caption and another 4–5 in the comments.

I recommend testing and testing, and eventually you’ll see what works best for you.

Tip: It doesn’t matter whether you put the hashtags directly in the photo caption or as a comment under your photo.

14) What about emojis — why you should use them

To use or not to use emojis? Although studies differ on how much using emojis increases engagement, the conclusion is always the same: Use them. And the more, the better. According to the latest data from Social Insider, posts with 25 emojis perform the best. Honestly, I’m not sure I’ve ever managed to fit that many emojis into a single post, or if I’ve ever even seen a post with that many emojis.

An older study by quintly from 2017 claims that it can increase engagement by up to 15%, while a more recent study by Social Insider from the second half of 2019 showed that photos with emojis in the caption have on average 26% higher engagement. For videos, the difference is even more dramatic. Videos with emojis in the caption have 70% higher engagement than those without emojis in the caption. Despite this, 50% of users don’t use emojis — so why not include them?

15) English or your native language — why do so many people make this mistake?

“I wrote my first post in my native language and it got the best response of all of them,” my friend told me, and I wondered whether she had been listening to me for the past three years. Write in English, something in Spanish, occasionally throw in a quote in French, and when I want to vent, write it in my native language.

Let’s be straightforward about this: Writing in English when most of your followers are from your home country is foolish. Yes, it’s foolish, even if you currently live in New Zealand or Canada and five of your work friends who don’t speak your language have started following you on Instagram.

“But Czechs speak English!” or “My friends speak English”. I don’t want to shatter your illusions, but many people have already tested this theory, and they always ended up finding that writing in Czech pays off more.

Yes, some influencers here write in English and then in Czech. But:

They are in a different situation than you
How do you know their followers wouldn’t grow faster if they wrote in Czech?

16) Insta Stories – What they are, how to use them, and why you shouldn’t underestimate them

Insta Stories, or stories that disappear on Instagram within 24 hours. This is a feature that spread to most social networks from Snapchat, and it is on Instagram in the Czech Republic where it enjoys the greatest success. The quality of your Stories can determine whether people will follow you long-term.

500 million users use stories every day (as we sometimes informally call them), and they are therefore becoming increasingly important for influencers and brands alike.

For creating Stories, I recommend the mobile apps Unfold or Mojo, with which you can create stylish-looking Stories in no time.

People love to play, and Instagram knows this very well, which is why it keeps adding more and more gamification elements. You can add polls, votes, and even countdowns to your stories. You can easily add music to the background, write something, or draw. Diana Zadáková has a great article on her blog about 18 (hidden) features and tips for Instagram Stories.

Tip: You can now also add polls when creating ads for Insta Stories, and the first statistics show a conversion increase of tens of percent.

17) Follow others

To gain your first followers, you need to follow others and build your own community of people.

Find accounts that have 10,000 or more followers and are thematically similar to your account. See who recently followed them. From these people, select those you will follow.

Choose people who have a photo of themselves as their profile picture; never follow people without a profile picture, as according to Brandon Gaille there is less chance they will follow you back. The chances are also reportedly lower with profile pictures featuring couples.

Before you follow someone, look at their profile, browse through the photos on their account, like them, and comment if something catches your attention. It’s a lot of work, but work that will pay off.

Never follow more than 20 people at once. Also, never frantically like multiple photos on one profile. Instagram will flag this as suspicious and block your account.

Remember that you are building a community of people, not just trying to force someone to click follow. You want to build a relationship with them – a virtual relationship – and just like real ones, it takes some work.

There will come a time when you are following so many people that you’ll lose track of it all. There is nothing wrong with unfollowing people who don’t communicate, don’t respond to your posts, and whose posts you don’t find inspiring either. It’s not within your power to maintain contact with everyone, and that’s okay.

18) Liking – spread the love

Instagram has long been able to detect when you use bots for liking. Moreover, users aren’t foolish either. Therefore, don’t use apps or bots. Instead, set aside part of your day to go through posts from those you follow and posts under relevant content, and like what catches your attention.

Avoid frantic liking – not only can Instagram block your account, but you also want users to pause and engage with your post rather than liking it during a frenzied Instagram spree.

19) Comment and get comments

If you want people to actively start communicating with you and commenting on your posts, you need to invest time and start communicating with them first. Don’t try to compete in how many photos you can comment “Beautiful photo!” on – read the posts and genuinely respond to what people are writing.

Again: Take the time and energy to do it properly. Don’t let it happen that you add a comment like “What an amazing place! Beautiful” to a post where someone is writing about getting robbed at that very place. Yes, it happens. And often. Of course, I’m not saying you should never tell people they took a beautiful photo.

How to get more comments

Take an interest in your followers’ opinions. Encourage them to tell you what they think, or how they handle things themselves. You’ll be surprised how much the right question can boost the number of comments. One of my first most successful posts ended with a question asking where they had the most expensive beer and how much it cost.

You can also arrange with friends and employees to comment on your Instagram posts. Note that comments should have at least four words.

20) Power likes

What you really want to get are so-called Power Likes. This means your post receives likes from accounts that are bigger than yours. How does it work?

The more people like your post, the greater its reach. You’ve probably already noticed that. If you’re liked by users with fewer followers and lower engagement, the reach only increases a little. But when large accounts like your post, your reach can skyrocket. Really.

It happened to me that an account which normally gets 500-1000 likes per photo received several power likes and the post gained 45,000 likes within a few hours. Power likes can get you into the “discovery” section of Instagram and long-term into the top positions of hashtags under “top posts”.

But how do you get power likes?

Use hashtags that influencers have created and use. There’s a good chance they are following these hashtags.
If it’s appropriate, don’t be afraid to tag large accounts in comments or captions (when you’re talking about them) — there’s a good chance they’ll reply and like your post
Comment on and like posts from large accounts, reply to them in Stories — become part of their community
Post when people are online (there’s no point publishing a post late at night when people are going to sleep), i.e. between 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM. If you want to know the best time to post for your account, check your statistics.

21) Giveaways and contests

Giveaways and contests are still popular on Instagram. Giveaway posts tend to receive 65x more comments and 3.5x more likes. The statistics speak for themselves: Accounts that run contests and giveaways grow 70% faster than those that don’t.

But how do you run a successful contest / giveaway?

The most successful contests are those that are simple and fun. Don’t try to come up with overly complicated conditions — that can put a lot of people off. Make sure your contests always comply with Instagram’s rules.

22) Collaborations with influencers / companies

Collaborations between companies and influencers can bring money to both parties, new followers, and higher average engagement. Since I’ve written a detailed article for companies on how to run a successful collaboration with influencers, here I’ll focus only on the influencer’s perspective on collaborating with brands.

A collaboration with a brand can bring an influencer a range of benefits beyond money. New followers, connections with other influencers, products for contests and giveaways, and prestige.

At the beginning, collaboration offers can be very tempting, with thoughts running through your head like: “They’re giving me something for free — I’ll take it!” That’s something most people probably go through. However, if you take on one collaboration after another, you become less attractive in the eyes of brands and in the eyes of your followers you’re just a walking advertisement. Don’t take on collaborations if:

A) Companies are turning you into cheap labor

This happens too. A company offers you goods worth 10,000 CZK, but the contract includes a condition that you write 8 articles, take 20-30 photos, credit them as a sponsor everywhere, and share everything they tell you to. Such a collaboration is definitely not worth it.

B) The product is completely outside your focus

When a traveler promotes a washing machine, it’s a bit strange, isn’t it?

C) You don’t like the product / brand

There is nothing worse than promoting a product or brand that you don’t like and that doesn’t suit you. Always reserve the right to return the product and not review it, and the same goes for services.

23) How to use shoutouts

Shoutouts — i.e. mentioning other users and brands — are a great way to gain more followers. Abroad it is common practice to pay an influencer for a shoutout, but I haven’t come across that here yet. However, to get a shoutout, you don’t need to do anything like that.

Set aside one day a week to share accounts worth following with your followers in your stories — it’s only a matter of time before one of those accounts returns the favor. Reciprocity works very well on social networks.

24) Plan and evaluate

Without planning, Instagram just doesn’t work. For personal accounts, I recommend using at least apps like Preview or Buffer (free for one account), where you can schedule posts in advance and see how individual photos look next to each other.

In a company, Instagram should not be a lonely channel where posts are made up day by day, but should be a solid part of the marketing strategy with clear, predefined goals. Posts should be aligned with other online and offline marketing activities and should be consistent both visually and in terms of content.

Tip: How we do it

We translate the company’s marketing strategy into a social media strategy, where we set clear goals
We create a thematic plan for individual months of the following year
We create sub-themes for individual weeks
We come up with and create posts always 14 days – 1 month in advance (as agreed)

Example:

January:
Topic: Almonds
Sub-themes for individual weeks:

Week: Almond Benefits
Week: Almond Milk
Week: Almond Butter
Week: Savory Almond Recipes

Evaluation

Although we want to build a community of followers, their number is not at all a telling metric for us. Does that contradict itself? No. You’ve probably heard of the case of an Instagrammer with 2 million followers who couldn’t manage to sell even 36 t-shirts. We want followers who have a genuine interest in our account — we don’t just want a number that looks good.

Far more interesting for us are numbers such as engagement or reach, the number of times our company’s hashtags were used, mentions, the number of saved recipes, purchases via Instagram, or discount codes that were shared through Instagram. The metrics that matter to you depend on your predefined goals.

If you are just starting out with statistics, those offered by Instagram itself will be sufficient. However, you can also find interesting numbers for free from Taggy.cz, Igblade or Hypeauditor. The biggest experts in reporting is the Czech company Socialbakers.

More tools to support Instagram can be found here

Promotion on Instagram

You can significantly boost the growth of your business account by sponsoring posts. If you have quality posts, you can reach thousands of people for just a few cents. On most accounts we manage, the cost per engagement ranges from 0.20 to 1.90 CZK.

I also recommend trying the Boosterberg automation, which sponsors new posts on your behalf according to pre-set rules. Set it up once and you don’t need to worry about it anymore.