Instagram best practices continue to change in 2020. As new advertising, creative, and sales tools come online, brands are exploring more and more new ways to engage users. For breakout success in 2020, you’ll need to keep up with the latest trends and take full advantages of what Instagram has to offer.
Just consider what your brand is up against.
Last year, businesses spent roughly $20 billion to advertise on Instagram. That’s $5.1 billion more than YouTube earned in 2019. This year, competition for Instagram users’ attention and loyalty will only grow more intense. Instagram Stories alone is expected to earn $1.7 billion in sales in 2020—with 150% revenue growth year over year.
If you currently use or consider to use Instagram for business, best practices in this post will give you inspiration. Let’s explore these 10 best Instagram practices – key to improving your results in 2020.
10 best practices for Instagram in 2020
Instagram is the place to showcase your brand authority and personality using the latest and best tools and trends. Generic won’t cut it on this platform. If your presence is lacking, you’ll forfeit opportunities to connect—and lose out to other brands.
Here are ten ways to take your Instagram presence to the higher level.
1. Organizing a business profile
Organizing a business profile on Instagram is a crucial first step. You’ll be able to build your brand image, following, sales funnel and track data in ways a personal profile won’t allow.
To change your account from a personal profile to a professional one, follow these easy steps.
Once you’ve made the switch, you can:
- Include convenient call-to-action buttons, which visitors and followers can tap to contact with your brand.
- Earn a verification badge – a blue check next to your username from Instagram certifying your authenticity.
- Access real-time data you need to understand how well your organic content is working for you.
- Launch and track ad campaigns.
Soon, you’ll be able to see the impact you’re making and double down on what works to drive engagement, traffic, and sales. (We’ll explain in more detail below.)
2. Make your Instagram bio into perfection
In case you want your Instagram profile to appeal to users, you need curb appeal. With the limitation of 150 characters and a photo or logo, you’ll need to show the essence of your brand: who you are, what you offer, and why you’re unique.
Whether they’re comfortably established or trying to generate interest, many brands keep their bios basic. SeatGeek and Patagonia use few words but convey big ideas.
Like Sabra and HelloFresh, you can use your bio to promote contests, deals, product launches, and more.
If you’re an emerging brand, you’ll need to seem credible to earn trust. An Instagram verified badge can help with that. We recommend applying for Instagram verification. .
3. Make it easy to do business with you
Shoppable content is a must for Instagram marketers. Although in-app checkout is not widely available (still in a closed beta in the U.S.), you can tag and show your products in photos, videos, and Instagram Stories and expose your products to as many as 200 million Instagram visitors every day via Explore.
In the future, you can run shopping posts as paid ads.
If you’re in the health and beauty, food and beverage, or ticketing business, you can now add an action button to your business profile so users can book an appointment, reserve a table, or buy tickets without leaving the platform. You’ll just need an existing account with one of Instagram’s action button partners to take advantage of this feature.
4. Don’t let your creative get stale
The creative possibilities on Instagram are limitless. By experimenting with post types, media options, and editing tools, you can easily shake up your content routine and refresh your image.
- Try new content angles. Encourage your followers to take part in a survey or get their feedback on posts. Go behind the scenes, demo products, or walk users through step-by-step tutorials. Share your take on an important topic, or share your followers’ content as a regram post. Tell stories that amaze or inspire. Do whatever suits your audience and brand.
- Experiment with color and visual effects. Use the Lux wand and filters to give your photos a gorgeous look and feel. Play around with video enhancement features like the Create interface in your Stories camera, which offers stickers, templates, GIFs, and more. Strive to make your post eye-catching, unique and show your identity.
- Take advantage of the latest video features and tools. When you upload a new IGTV video, the first 15 seconds will be visible on your feed. For longer videos, you can post a 60-second preview in your feed along with an invite to watch the entire video. If your video is part of a series, viewers can tap on the name of the series to watch other episodes.