6 Tips for a More Successful Business Instagram

6 Tips for a More Successful Business Instagram

6 Tips for a More Successful Business Instagram. Instagram has more than 800 million users per month and can boast a very high level of their engagement.

However, following a recent algorithm change, it has become increasingly difficult for companies to gain new followers. But all is not lost, and it is important to respond to every change with a new approach. In addition to algorithm adjustments, Instagram is introducing a number of innovations, which is why it is necessary to adapt new strategies that will lead to better user engagement.

Before we present specific tips on how to improve your presence on Instagram, it is important not to forget the first basic rule: quality content is key. You must be sure of the quality of the content you publish. If your posts do not provide value to your target audience, you will not achieve success.

Another common mistake is companies’ constant pursuit of high numbers of followers. However, this is not as important as their engagement (the number of interactions your content receives). Statistics show that the effective lifespan of a post is approximately 3 hours, so reactions that occur shortly after publication are crucial.

1. Basic Principles for Working with Business Instagram

There are basic rules that apply to working with Instagram, which should be a matter of course for any activity with a business profile:

• Choosing the best time to publish. It is enough to study the statistics of your account, where you will see data on when your profile is most visited.
• Maintaining an active profile is a key rule. You should publish regularly at least once a day.
• Interaction with other users is important both from the perspective of the Instagram algorithm and from the perspective of communication with your followers.
• Collaborate with partners. Mutual support on social networks will help you gain new followers. It is enough to tag your partner’s profile @partnername in posts. Your business partner can then share your post and you will reach his followers’ awareness as well.
• Using live streams is very popular. You can speak directly to your fans, introduce news, services, products, or broadcast live from an event.
• Working with videos should also be part of your Instagram activity. Instagram is a social network focused on photography, but videos have become very popular recently and surpass photo posts in terms of appeal. However, you must not forget that videos on Instagram have specific requirements for length. Classic videos must not exceed 60 seconds and Instagram Stories 15 seconds. The video format is also important, where for example Stories use vertical video. It is advisable to combine video and photo content.
• Use of analytical tools. You cannot create strategies without knowing the measurable results of your Instagram activity. You can track statistics of interactions, profile visits, web clicks, post reach, view count, favorite posts, and user data such as gender, age, location, and which days and hours your profile is most visited.
• Use of cross-posting is a very effective tool that costs you no investment. It is enough to cross-share your post across other social media accounts, for example on Facebook, and it will result in organic support for visits.
• Sharing posts by others with your company/brand hashtag. If you use a special hashtag for your brand, you can share a post by users who used your hashtag or tagged your profile directly, using the “repost” app.
• Run contests. It is very popular to work with contests. You can either announce a contest on your profile directly, or cooperate with bloggers or influencers who announce contests on their Instagram accounts. This can be great advertising for your company, especially if the influencer has a large following and extensive fan base.
• The success of your post will also be supported by tagging the location where you are currently located, or the location your post relates to.

These first principles cannot be ignored in any Instagram strategy. Instagram is a social network, so it is important to keep in mind how important interaction and communication with your audience is.

You can support your Instagram account here

2. Make Use of Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories, used by more than 250 million users every day, are rightfully ranked among one of the most powerful tools for 2018. The organic reach of classic Instagram posts is declining, while Instagram Stories reach is growing.

Instagram Stories will help you maintain communication with your followers and keep interest in your brand. Stories have become a true interactive business card of Instagram profiles. They are an effective way to present your brand to potential followers by telling your interesting stories.

Instagram Stories not only help maintain interaction with existing followers but also help reach new potential customers. You can attract them by adding your geolocation or using appropriate hashtags.

If you have reached 10,000 followers or have a verified profile, you can add clickable links to websites in your Instagram Stories.

3. Focus on Quality Storytelling

Focusing on content care and quality storytelling is one of the most important points of a successful Instagram strategy. This rule may sound trivial, but care for your profile in terms of style and theme is more than important. Instagram’s popularity is growing, and with it comes increased presence of companies and competitors. Overall, the level of business profiles is improving and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to capture users’ attention with a growing amount of information. At this moment, it is truly essential not to neglect care for your profile.

The fact that first impressions are key is a well-known fact. However, it’s not enough to just take nice photos and create an engaging composition from them. Your photos and videos must communicate something. Storytelling and the value of the message are elements that trigger action in the user to follow the profile. These are the essential motivational elements that encourage users to act, which will determine whether the user will follow you or not.

That is why it is very important to create a consistent history of your brand through a profile that is aesthetically interesting and has the power to transform random visitors into loyal followers.

Instagram profiles are becoming your home pages because more and more people prefer to search for specific brands on Instagram rather than Google. Your profile is a reflection of your brand. Your future followers want to know exactly what to expect when they follow you.

4. Choose the Right Hashtags

Hashtags were a much-discussed topic last year. Due to repeated overuse, the system considered them spam, which caused engagement to decline. Currently, the situation has normalized, but it’s still good to follow basic rules for working with hashtags.

First, you need to understand the purpose of hashtags. Choose categories with some purpose. Further, you need to ask yourself where you want your Instagram content to appear and why it should appear under these hashtags.

Too generic hashtags like #sport or #saturday won’t bring much value to your pages because they don’t describe the purpose of your account and its target market. Among hashtags used by millions of people, it is much harder to stand out and reach the top positions. Generally, specific hashtags work better because they support users who are connected by some topic or state. Hashtags should be derived from the post content.

Instagram has been giving hashtags great weight lately. The very fact that it is now possible to follow hashtags, add them to Stories, or search posts by hashtags simply shows the power of this tool. All recent innovations support hashtag visibility.

A recent update is also adding hashtags to information in your bio. Besides choosing the right hashtags, your bio/profile should contain quality and engaging information that makes it clear what you do and why people should follow you. The bio description should call for action.

The number of hashtags is also very important. Too many hashtags will harm your posts. A recent algorithm update will support visual posts with up to 10 hashtags.

5. Promote your account outside of Instagram

This is an old but very effective rule. You should promote your Instagram account outside of Instagram as well, using other social media channels, on your website, in newsletters, on blogs and especially in interviews or advertisements in various media.

You can support your Instagram account here

6. Use paid advertising

Instagram is undergoing algorithm changes that lead to a decline in organic reach of posts. If you want to succeed on Instagram, you should start using paid advertising as well. It is important to set a goal in line with the content you publish and make sure it is sufficiently attractive. If you look around the Instagram environment, more and more companies are using sponsored content.

You can also manage Instagram advertising through your Facebook account. Both platforms are interconnected.

Instagram is becoming a social network that, due to its popularity, has attracted many companies to its environment, from small businesses to large global players. With increasing competition, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out. This shows how essential it is to follow updates. Only then can you keep up with the competition and succeed on Instagram. Instagram will continue to introduce new features. Carefully monitor all news and incorporate those that are applicable to your business into your strategy.

You can support your Instagram account here