Top 5 Instagram Tips You Must Act on Now

Instagram is massive, and growth does not seem to be letting up. With exciting features like Stories, IGTV and others, Instagram users are as engaged as ever. As a brand, getting a decent Instagram or IG, as it is fondly known, following can be a game-changer for your business. From bringing in new leads to boosting your brand equity, Instagram done right is a great strategy for any business. To help you tick all the right boxes on Instagram, follow these five tips.

1. Bio Optimization

Your bio is your landing page on Instagram. Anyone coming to your profile will either be wowed by your profile or leave unimpressed. To ensure it is the former, create and add a professional and contextual profile picture. Next, fill out your description area with these three essentials: a branded hashtag that people can use to tag your business, a brief description of your business or a slogan, and a link that sends people to a landing page.

2. Keep Your Stories Fresh

Stories on Instagram are extremely popular. Because of the bite-sized nature of stories, people love to snack on them throughout the day. If you have not been publishing stories, you have been missing an opportunity to connect with your audience. The great thing about stories is they don’t have to be polished or perfect. As long as you publish interesting clips frequently, your audience will watch them faithfully.

3. Publish More Video

Right next to stories in popularity is video. While Instagram is primarily optimized for images, video has fast grown to be the second most popular type of content, after stories. While it is not always easy to create and publish high-quality videos on a regular basis, you can opt to shoot and publish selfie videos that you publish as-is. For this, all you will need is a phone with a good camera and a tripod. Shoot, edit and publish, all on your phone.

4. Set a Publishing Schedule

How often is often enough? It depends. Most major brands publish at least once a day so you can use this as a baseline. Before committing to this, think about what kind of content you plan to publish, how long it will take to create each piece and what your work schedule looks like. In general, it’s better to publish a few high-quality posts a week than a ton of average posts that lack any strong appeal. Be sure to include video and stories in your publishing schedule.

5. Add Calls to Action

Every post you publish is an opportunity to engage with your audience. In the post description area, think of what sort of CTAs you can add that will make the post more engaging and hopefully drive some leads to your website. Some ideas of what you can add are questions, hashtag challenges, tag-a-friend or invitations to click on a link. Whatever you decide to put, be sure to add something that will spur some action, as this is how you build engagement around your Instagram profile and brand.

Conclusion

Trying to figure out Instagram is something many small businesses struggle with. With such a massive audience and millions of businesses jockeying for their attention, you can feel like a small fish in a large ocean. Be encouraged, however, that the goal you should be shooting for is to create your pond (or lake) and become the biggest fish in it.