Sporadically scrolling through Instagram, randomly liking a few photos, and posting a close up portrait of your dog\u2019s face for the fourth time in a week works just fine for an individual using the platform.<\/p>\n
But you need to have a more deliberate\u00a0marketing plan\u00a0for Instagram if you expect to build a strong community and see real results for your business. Your strategy should cover four key things.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll want to maintain a regular posting schedule, but don\u2019t bombard your followers with too many posts. The smartest way to figure out what works best for your business is by\u00a0testing posts at different intervals and times and then tracking the results. Once you\u2019ve figured out the best cadence, a shared\u00a0content calendar\u00a0is the best way to keep track of what\u2019s going to be posted and when.<\/p>\n
Rotating through different content themes will keep things interesting for your followers, and help you achieve different goals. For example, a post-secondary institution aiming to increase awareness and attract new students might use contests, alumni stories, and campus life as its main content themes.<\/p>\n
Do you\u00a0use emoji\u00a0in your captions? Are there grammatical guidelines your brand follows? What hashtags do you use? What types of photos do you post? Are there visual cues that every post should adhere to? Your\u00a0style guidelines\u00a0should cover all of the ways your brand makes itself distinct and consistent. We\u2019ll go into detail about how you can define these things in the next section.<\/p>\n
These guidelines should cover how and when your business interacts with other accounts on Instagram, from liking and commenting on other people\u2019s photos to handling the incoming comments on your own account. Pro tip: Don\u2019t automate any of your engagement.\u00a0We tried it, and it doesn\u2019t work out so well.<\/p>\n
Finally, there may be non-visual elements to add to your Instagram brand, like common language or style for captions. A popular technique is the branded hashtag. This doesn\u2019t mean simply using your company name as a hashtag, this is about creating a hashtag that embodies your brand and encourages followers to share photos that fit that image.<\/p>\n
Take a picture, add a filter, and post away. Right? That might have worked when Instagram was in its infancy, but the platform has matured and now offers plenty of opportunity for businesses to share different types of interactive and attention-grabbing content. Here are some ways you can break out and get more creative with your Instagram content.<\/p>\n
Social media ads\u00a0have proven to be an effective means for generating new business, and Instagram ads are no exception. Whether your goal is to build brand awareness, get more website visits, or increase downloads of your mobile app, Instagram ads can help you access a huge, engaged audience. Learn how to make the most of them in\u00a0our guide to advertising on Instagram.<\/p>\n
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Sporadically scrolling through Instagram, randomly liking a few photos, and posting a close up portrait of your dog\u2019s face for the fourth time in a week works just fine for an individual using the platform. But you need to have a more deliberate\u00a0marketing plan\u00a0for Instagram if you expect to build a strong community and see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19,13,17,31,18],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":900,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions\/900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webigg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}