Keep reading for more ways to optimize Instagram posts to wow your followers.
Add Videos into Your Posting Mix
Although Instagram’s algorithm doesn’t favor videos over still photos, the standard user does appear to favor video. Video consumption has increased by 80 % over the last year.
A bonus with videos is that anybody who stops to watch your video increases their average time interacting with your account, boosting your engagement stats, which does send Instagram’s algorithm signals in your favor.
Schedule Your Posts at the Best Times
You may upload some truly amazing images and write compelling text to accompany them. However, that won’t be enough if the bulk of your followers are sleeping at the time you make your posts.
This might be particularly problematic for businesses that contract freelancers to operate their social accounts for them. You don’t want your social media managers to public posts in their local time if that doesn’t match the behavior of your target audience.
There’s a simple, relatively cheap resolution to this problem. Simply use one of the social media marketing platforms to schedule your posts at the perfect times. Remember, though, that Instagram made life difficult for the platforms for a while, meaning that they initially didn’t look after scheduling within the platform. The best they could offer was to set an alarm to remind you to make the post physically. Things have improved since then for many of those platforms, although some are still awaiting Instagram’s approval before they can offer a full scheduling service.
One of the most essential reasons for utilizing scheduling software is that you could spread your posts across the day. While you hope that your followers will gain value from your posts, they won’t thank you for swamping their feeds with a cluster of posts made at the same time.
You need to be able to discover when your viewers are online from your Instagram insights. They may inform you the most popular days of the week and the most popular hours of each day for your combination of followers.
The key to Instagram success for brands is to post relatively consistently. Many successful brands publish once each three to four hours.
Use Relevant Hashtags
One of the best ways to increase the reach of your Instagram posts is to include related hashtags with every post. However, be sure that they connect to the content of the post. Instagram dislikes people repeatedly using the same combination of hashtags across their posts, and in extreme circumstances, allegedly shadowbans accounts that continue with this practice (although Instagram denies this practice).
The main goal of a hashtag is to help classify your posts then users can easily search. People search for a specific hashtag, and Instagram lists posts that include these hashtags.
In fact, there’s little point in using a hashtag that nobody uses. It’s essential to discover the balance where the related hashtags you employ are additionally fashionable. We’ve written an ultimate guide to making use of Instagram hashtags to develop your followers. In fact, marketers use hashtags for more than just easy looking. They also create custom hashtags for campaigns, to help group similar kinds of posts together.
Tag People in Your Images
One easy way that your posts can gain some discovery is to tag individuals in your images. You’ll be able to add the names and Instagram usernames of anybody in your photos. Instagram will notify these people that they’ve been tagged, and your post will turn into part of their profile. This means that both your followers and their followers will see your post.
Engage with Your Followers
Social media marketing is very different from traditional advertising. It’s not like television, radio, or newspaper ad, which you create, pay the medium for exposure and then wait for brand new customers. You can’t just make a social media post (on Instagram or any of the other social networks) and sit back. You need to engage with your followers and other people.
Your followers need some reason to follow you. They are not going to take an interest in your pots if you simply use Instagram as an advertising medium. You should come across as caring and taking an interest in them as people.
This means it’s essential to spend time and liking their posts. Make thoughtful comments when relevant. Also, ensure to reply to any comments people leave on your posts. Keep in mind, you are engaging with humans, and they expect you to deal with them with sufficient respect.
Also, make a point of including compelling captions to your posts. These make useful starters to drive engagement.