Ready to make your business shine on Instagram? 🤩
If social media is a party, then Instagram is the first one on the dance floor. It’s a fun, energetic, and exciting platform. (Not to mention a potential gold mine for your brand.) But if you dive in without a plan, you might end up the wallflower no one wants to dance with (we’ve all been there).
That’s why we’ve rounded up the essential do’s and don’ts of Instagram marketing. With these tips, your brand can stand out for all the right reasons…and your audience will be chomping at the bit to join the fun!
From setting clear goals to avoiding common mistakes, these do’s and don’ts will help you create a smart Instagram marketing strategy that gets you measurable results.
As with any other aspect of your marketing, you need to set some goals and determine your strategy before you start posting away on Instagram. After all, it’s tough to track the effectiveness of your efforts if you don’t first know what you’re shooting for.
Decide what your business objectives will be for your Instagram profile. Do you want to:
Whatever your goals are, defining them will help you figure out a strategy for using Instagram effectively. Then, once you have your objectives set, determine which tactics will help you reach those goals. Align each action (posts, Stories, Reels, ads) with a specific outcome you’d like to see.
Speaking of making a plan….Random or inconsistent posting will get you nowhere. For best results, develop a regular content calendar.
In addition, make sure to post when your audience will be most likely to engage with your content. According to Sprout Social, the best days to post on Instagram are Mondays through Thursdays, and the best times to post are:
However, this can vary based on your industry and audience. Keep an eye on your analytics to determine which days and times your audience seems to be the most active, and adjust your content plan accordingly.
When you establish a consistent posting schedule, you ensure better visibility with your followers and signal to Instagram’s algorithm that your profile is active.
So…what does “post consistently” mean?
While a lot of social research says it’s ideal to post on Instagram 1-2 times per day, it can vary by industry. Start by posting once per day (or even 2-3 times/week if that’s more achievable for you), and see how your audience responds. If it’s going well, try adding a second post a few days a week, see how that goes, and adjust from there.
A lot of social media success depends on trial and error. With constant algorithm changes and a wide range of differences among industry audiences, it can be tough to know what the right posting cadence is for you. Your best bet is to make a plan, stick to it for a while, watch your analytics, and adjust your plan as needed.
Get Our Beginner’s Guide to Creating a Social Media Content Calendar!
You know that feeling when a song you initially loved gets overplayed and now you hate it? Well, that’s what it’s like for your Instagram followers when you post too much. Even if they start out loving you, they could end up tuning out if they hear too much from you.
Stick to a consistent posting frequency and don’t post more than 2x per day in your feed. If you have more to say in a day than that, move some of your posts to your stories. That way, your audience still gets all the goods without feeling overwhelmed scrolling through their feed.
Keep your messaging fresh as well. Even if you’re promoting the same product, service, or event multiple times, make sure you switch up your wording and graphics so your posts don’t feel monotonous.
First of all, make sure your profile is an Instagram business profile, not an individual profile with your brand name slapped on it. A business profile offers SO many more features and metrics than a personal account does.
Then, make sure to optimize your profile:
Optimizing your profile like this increases your discoverability (both within Instagram and in Google and other search engines) and helps you build a more engaged audience.
Also, make sure your profile and your posts all reflect a consistent brand (tone, messaging, writing style, visual style, etc). Your Instagram presence should tell a clear business story, building trust and sparking meaningful connections through images, video, and text.
Story connects people emotionally, and when your followers feel connected to your brand, they’ll be more likely to engage.
It’s hard to know how well your marketing strategy is working if you don’t keep track of analytics! In your Instagram business profile, you can use Instagram Insights and Professional Dashboard to view relevant stats and metrics to help you analyze your account’s performance.
You can track metrics like:
These metrics can help you determine what’s working and what isn’t. A word of caution: don’t get too caught up in so-called “vanity” metrics like follower count—how engaged your audience is is much more important than how large your audience is.
Use these metrics to take note of what kinds of content your followers like and don’t like and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Engage in authentic conversations with your followers by showing the human side of your brand and responding promptly to comments and DMs.
Instagram (and social media in general) is not the place to use formal, corporate language. It’s the place to connect with potential customers authentically. In short: Social media is the place to be social!
Instagram is the perfect venue for showing off your brand’s fun-loving, candid side with personal stories, behind-the-scenes content, fun emojis, and genuine responses to comments and DMs.
Replying to comments and DMs with a friendly, brand-aligned tone is a crucial element of building trust with your audience. Respond to as many comments as possible, and all DMs (yes, even the negative ones!). This shows your audience that you value feedback and open communication with them.
And don’t just cut and paste generic responses—personalize them by using first names (where appropriate) and referencing specific details of the person’s message.
Just don’t do it. Buying followers may seem like a great shortcut to boost your numbers, but it will harm your reputation and won’t improve the most important metric on Instagram: engagement.
Fake followers only make you look fake…and like you couldn’t be bothered to build relationships with a real audience. That’s not exactly the kind of vibe you want to put out there if you’re hoping to find new clients.
And having tens of thousands of followers isn’t that useful if they don’t engage with your content. It’s much better to have fewer followers who actively like, comment on, and share your content.
In short: ignore the fake follower schemes and prioritize attracting real, engaged followers.
Learn 7 Ways To Grow Your Social Media Following Organically in this blog!
Keep your followers’ attention by using all the different content formats Instagram has to offer. Posting a mixture of individual photo posts, carousels, Reels, and Stories will help keep your content fresh and your audience engaged.
Using a variety of formats also gives you the chance to find out what kinds of content your audience likes and doesn’t like. Test different formats and keep track of analytics to determine what drives the most engagement with your followers.
Plus, different formats work for different kinds of posts:
And don’t forget about user-generated content. When customers tag you in posts about how much they love your products, share those posts with your audience! User-generated content, along with testimonials and customer stories, help boost authenticity and create community with your followers.
Surely you’d never do this, but it needs to be said. When you use a platform like Instagram, you agree to follow their rules. Like any platform, Instagram has rules that cover intellectual property, appropriate imagery, spam, illegal content, hate speech, bullying, violence, and more.
If you violate these rules, your content can be removed or your account can be disabled. Worse: it could alienate your audience.
So keep up-to-date on Instagram’s Community Guidelines, as well as changes in hashtag, content, and DM policies, to make sure your content and communication on Instagram follow these rules.
You can’t follow hashtags on Instagram anymore, but that doesn’t mean they’re no longer useful. Hashtags are still a valuable tool for organizing content and improving your visibility in searches.
But as with many things in life, hashtags are a “less is more” sort of thing. If your posts include a wall of hashtags, it can look a bit desperate and reduce your engagement. Instead, choose three to five targeted, relevant hashtags for each post, with some general tags, some niche industry keywords, and some branded hashtags that represent your business or your product.
In addition to using hashtags, you should also sprinkle SEO keywords and phrases into your post captions. Using specific, relevant keywords will make your posts more likely to show up in Meta AI searches. Make sure to do some comprehensive keyword research using a tool like Mangools or SEMrush before you post.
Missing out on the benefits of partnering with micro-influencers would be a BIG mistake.
Micro-influencers have smaller follower counts than a traditional influencer, but their audiences tend to be highly engaged. Those with local or niche audiences are especially great to work with, as they tend to create more authentic content that inspires higher-quality engagement from their fans.
Make it a priority to seek out and partner with micro-influencers within your industry niche or geographic area who share your brand values. Rather than doing a one-off endorsement with them, seek to build real relationships.
An ongoing, mutually beneficial relationship with a few micro-influencers will be more effective at reaching the right audience and earning their trust than a one-time deal with even the biggest names in social media. The goal here is creating authentic connections, not just splashy ads.
Hopefully this list helps give you a good idea of the best practices to include in your Instagram marketing strategy. One final piece of advice: Work with a pro. Working with a marketing professional not only helps take some of these details off your to-do list, it can also help you build a stronger, more consistent strategy for your Instagram presence.
If you’d like the advice of a pro in building your Instagram strategy, the Wild Fig team is here to help! Schedule a no-obligation, 15-minute discovery call to discuss your needs and learn about our offerings. From a fractional CMO that’s focused on your strategy to a team of marketers helping you create and post engaging content, we do it all…and we can’t wait to help you get started!