Instagram is becoming very popular these days. In this in-depth guide, you will learn top ways to use Instagram for business.
Instagram is one of the biggest social networks on the web to date. Acquired by Facebook back in 2012, the social platform has continued to improve and become more refined over the years. For those of you that aren’t sure what Instagram is, it’s a photo and video sharing service. You can view other users’ posts and interact with them (liking, commenting etc.).
We’ve asked the experts at Revive.Digital, specializes in digital marketing and web design in Essex to give us all the information businesses need to use Instagram effectively. In this post, you’ll find out everything you need to know about what features you should be used to post the right content at the right time.
With so many users on this service, it’s hard to ignore Instagram. So, steer into it, and use our guide to start using Instagram for your business!
If you’re wondering what all the fuss is over Instagram, then you’re probably not an avid user. However, the service totaled over 2.3 billion active users a month, according to data from Viralyft (2023). That’s not a number to be taken lightly.
The power of social media marketing and branding for a business can seem like a lot of work, but the payoff can be huge too. It’s fairly easy to use and lets businesses post content on their profiles.
This content takes the form of pictures and short videos (not exceeding 60secs), with captions attached to them. Visual content performs well on social media, sometimes more so than written posts. So, a solely visual platform like Instagram is a great way to market products and services to your audience.
The main feature of Instagram is sharing visual content on feeds, however, there’s so many handy tools and analytics in place to help you use Instagram more effectively for your business. If you want to be truly successful on the social platform, then you need to use all the features at your disposal. Here are some of our favorites to use;
A few years ago, Facebook integrated advertising features into their business user’s accounts. This allowed businesses to specifically target their chosen demographics and advertise on their news feed. Pretty soon after, Facebook copied these features over to Instagram.
Working similarly to Facebook, you can advertise posts and stories to selected audiences on Instagram. It’s a great way to target a whole new pool of customers. You can target age, gender, area, and more to reach your ideal demographic. This streamlines advertising and makes it feel worthwhile, as you’ll most likely be seen by a potential customer.
Users can share moments from their day via Instagram Stories. The photos or videos you upload to your story will remain active on the top of other users’ feeds and your own profile for 24 hours. These kinds of posts allow businesses to show what’s going on behind the scenes, with fleeting posts that show audiences the driving force behind the business. Stories are a great way of showing the human side of your business.
One tool available exclusively on business accounts for Instagram is the Insights feature. It displays analytics and data about your account. The demographics of your following, your reach, engagement on posts, and if you’ve gained or lost followers.
These are but some of these features, but Insights is an essential feature you should use. It allows you to analyze what type of content does well on your profile to help you maximize your time on Instagram. It’s key to monitor and track your success to know what works and what doesn’t – and with Insights, you can do just this.
Whilst these originally started on Twitter, hashtags have crossed over to other social platforms. You can add hashtags to stories, your profile, posts and reels on Instagram, meaning that your content is discoverable through the explore features. Users can follow hashtags of interest to them and use the search bar to find content relating to hashtags. It makes all your content more searchable so use them wisely. You can include up to 50 hashtags on a post (but aim between 5 – 10).
There are two surefire ways to boost engagement and interactivity with your posts on Instagram. What are they? Well, posting at the right time is the first. And posting the right content is the second. The internet knows what it likes, and content will appear when they’re online and quality content too. But we’ll go into a little more detail on each below.
Believe it or not, there is a right time to post on Instagram. The Instagram scheduling tool later found that businesses that posted around certain times and on specific days had higher engagement on posts. The optimum time for posting is between 11 am – 1 pm and 7 pm – 9 pm. This is when it’s more likely that users will be logged in to social media, scrolling through their feeds. This boosts your chances of getting posts seen and interacted with.
As for the days, I later found that the best days for content were Wednesdays and Thursdays, whilst Sunday was one of the days that content did not perform well (in comparison). So, what is the optimum time for posting? Wednesday and Thursday at lunchtime or early evening.
The kind of content users want to see varies, however, three main themes are consistent throughout the best-performing content on Instagram. The first is quality. Users want high-quality images and videos on their feeds. Avoid posting grainy, blurry or over-saturated photos with heavy filters on them. The second is human content.
As we’ve mentioned before, posting content that shows the workforce behind your business makes you more relatable. It shows the faces of a brand and business. Finally, users want content relevant to your company. Nothing will put followers off more than seeing content that doesn’t relate to your brand in any way. So, make sure it’s high quality and relevant – with some posts to show your human side too.
And that’s it! You are now ready to use Instagram for your business. Just remember everything we’ve mentioned throughout this post. Make use of all the features to hand, and they’re designed to help you improve your business’s Instagram account. And remember to post the right content at the right time – for maximum engagement. Now go and make your business’ Instagram successful!
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Sawaram Suthar (Sam) is a Founding Director at Middleware. He has extensive experience in marketing, team building and operations. He often seeing working on various GTM practices and implement best one to generate more demand. He is also founded a digital marketing blog - TheNextScoop.
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