With over 8 million business profiles on Instagram, this app proves itself as a hub for brands. Truth be told, Instagram marketing is a necessity in any social media strategy. But with all that noise, how can you be sure your practice will be heard? This blog will guide you through the process of making a winning Instagram marketing strategy, and ensure you reach your business objectives.
Keep reading to learn more about different tips and tricks to boost your social media presence. Here are the subjects we’ll discuss:
- Know and hack the Instagram algorithm in 2021
- More than cool pictures. Know the tools that will help you stay relevant in the app.
- Stories
- Reels
- IGTV
- Save for later
- Tools you didn’t know you needed to optimize your IG
- Later
- Canva
Know and hack the Instagram algorithm in 2021
Do you know how the Instagram algorithm organizes and displays feed posts, stories, the explore page, IGTV videos, and reels?
Here’s a list of best practices you should follow to make the algorithm work in your favor!
Nurture your engagement.
When it comes to feed performance, the algorithm prioritizes content that receives the most engagement.
According to Instagram, the most important factors for feed ranking are:
- Audience engagement
- Relevance
- Reshares
- Views (for videos, which is really helpful to know as you plan your content and captions)
Pro-tip: Although it’s not listed as a key engagement indicator at the moment, it could also be worthwhile to optimize your content for saves.
Be mindful of timeliness.
Not only does the algorithm pay attention to how much engagement your Instagram post gets, but it also looks at how long ago the photo was posted.
Instagram’s algorithm cares about when you posted, because it always wants to display the latest, most interesting posts.
Pro-tip: If you post at a time when your followers are most active, you give yourself a better chance of getting more likes.
It’s more than just cool pictures — know the tools that will help you stay relevant on Instagram.
Stories
If you want your story to be featured in your audience’s feeds, you have to earn it through engagement.
If you are an Instagram user, you might have noticed the first stories you can see at the top of your feed are from the people closest to you, and that’s not a coincidence.
Want to appear at the start of your audience’s feeds? The only way to get there through likes, comments, story views, reactions, or DMs. Encourage and incentivise your audience to engage with you, and be as personal and chatty with them as you can!
Pro-tip: Don’t slack off on posting stories — remember, you’re trying to appeal to a computer algorithm, and the computer likes consistency.
Keep it short, sweet, and entertaining.
Reels
Instagram Reels, Facebook’s response to TikTok, lets you record, edit, and share 15-second videos.
Although Reels and Stories are similar, Reels include a wider range of video editing tools, such as:
- AR effects
- Speed controls
- Combining multiple videos
- Aligning and trimming
Creating Reels is the perfect way to step up your Instagram game and get ahead of the curve! Using this new IG tool lets you record and share short-form video content that gets added to Instagram’s Explore feed.
As long as someone searches a keyword related to your Reel, it will be easier for people who don’t already follow you to find your content. And what lead is warmer than a person looking for your specific services?
IGTV
Here’s the thing about IGTV: All traction for IGTV is still organic as of the moment, so...
How can you give your IGTV videos and Reels the best chance of being seen by new (and existing) clients?
You can share an IGTV preview to your Instagram feed, increasing initial exposure and providing a positive signal to the algorithm.
Always share them to your main Instagram feed, and include several hashtags to boost their discoverability.
Keep in mind that you are not spamming your followers. When you share a post, only a small fraction of your community is likely to see your content.
Consider also reposting your content to reach as many followers as possible. It’s all about nurturing your relationships!
Save for later
The Instagram “save” function is a way for people to collect and save their favorite posts. All it takes is tapping the "bookmark" icon at the bottom right corner of a post. It gets added to Saved posts, so it is easy to find again.
Basically, the more saves your posts get, the more likely the Instagram algorithm is to position your posts within the Explore page and higher within people’s feeds.
What’s up with the IG Explore page?
Overall, the Explore page and the feed algorithm are quite similar — they both deliver content that Instagram thinks each user will be most interested in, based on that person’s prior interactions.
Keep in mind that the Explore page is a powerful feature that can help your spa gain ample exposure with minimal resources.
Tools you didn’t know you needed to optimize your IG
Creating strategies for Instagram can be exhausting. Posting promptly and making sure your brand is impeccable and uniform for all your content takes time — time that could be used to run your business. Luckily, there are tools and software that can make this quicker and easier for you!
Canva
If you’re new to design, Canva is going to become your new BFF. It makes it easy to use all the tools you need for creating designs that tell a story fonts, colors, images, templates, you name it. Canva has everything you need to create a proper visual brand — plus, it’s accessible and super intuitive to use.
Later
Consider using Later to plan and schedule all of your Instagram posts, captions, and hashtags in advance so you can be more consistent with your posting strategy.
Use this tool to storyboard your content, add captions or links, collaborate with your team, visually plan and schedule your content right from your desktop.
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