If you have a personal or business account, here’s what you can do to improve your content and interaction with your followers on Instagram. Why photo collages? Collages are perfect ways to tell stories through photos. Rather than posting each photo separately, combine those pictures to showcase different scenes of a related event. Why hashtags? People search for hashtags all the time. Instagram users who have attractive photos or videos and incorporate a few hashtags relevant to their posts have a higher chance of increasing their following and engagement. Why time-lapse videos? People’s attention spans online are short. They can take as little as one or two seconds of watching a video before deciding to move on. Time-lapse videos offer a way to hook viewers’ attention effectively while squeezing more footage into Instagram. Why edit captions? Including captions without mistakes and typing enough information makes you look like you care about your posts. You can also add and remove hashtags, or tag users in posts you want them to see. Why post at certain times of the day? Some companies study social media traffic and report these activity trends for each platform. Knowing when your potential audience is most active can generate more views and likes. You do have to stay on top of trends as these tend to change from year to year. Why track your stats? Iconosquare shows trends in your engagement. Use it to find out what types of content your followers like, and when they’re most likely to engage. You can also read and respond to comments and see which followers you lost. Why shoutouts? Shoutouts are a fast and effective way to grow an Instagram following. The only downside is that you have to keep posting other users’ content and telling your followers to follow them. In turn, your shoutout partner does the same. If people are engaged, you should see new followers start to trickle in. Why tag locations? Tagging a post to its location files it under the public page for that location. The photos that you and the millions of other users post can be searched by location. Depending on how popular the area is, you could get more exposure from people browsing it. Why keep up with trends? If you’re out of the loop with what people want on Instagram, your engagement could suffer. Things move fast on social media, so yesterday’s cool trend isn’t as cool today. Keep your content fresh by staying current. Why Instagram Direct? If you need to contact a user directly, Instagram Direct is more effective than leaving a comment on one of their posts. It’s also a preferred way to share content relevant to a small group of followers rather than everyone.
