Why Now is a Great Time to Add New Energy to Your Instagram Strategy
Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media sites out there. With more than 500 million active users a day, and expecting to add almost 27 million more by 2020, Instagram holds many opportunities to connect with your audience and make positive impressions.1
In 2018, 71% of people ages 18-24 used Instagram compared to only 37% just five years before. Here’s another interesting fact — one-third of those users have used their mobile devices to buy something online.1 In 2019, nearly 25% of Facebook (owner of the Instagram platform) ad revenue is expected to come from Instagram, and that number will continue to grow.1
Now is a great time to revisit your Instagram strategy to make sure you are positioned to grow with the platform. Adding new energy to your Instagram presence will help you capitalize on the opportunities this growing social network presents.
Content Strategy and Planning
More than 100 million photos and videos are shared each day on Instagram, so that means you need to have really great content to captivate your followers and stop them from scrolling right past your post.1 Here’s a few tips for adding new energy to your Instagram post content:
- Photos showing faces typically perform better.
- Negative space is a good thing — a busy photo is not.
- Hashtags! Using the same hashtags for your brand helps create brand recognition and helps your content be found through search on the platform. Research has shown that posts with 9-12 hashtags typically receive more engagement.1 So hashtag away!
- Leverage video any way you can. It’s powerful in grabbing Instagram user’s attention and promoting interaction. Quick Fact — 1 in 4 ads on Instagram is a video.1
- Including a location when appropriate can boost a post’s performance.
Creating great content is important, and so is posting consistently. Posting daily is ideal for increasing growth in likes, followers and interaction but is not always feasible. If daily posting isn’t realistic, try to shoot for 11-20 posts a month.
Timing can also be an important consideration for adding energy to your Instagram page. There are a lot of factors that go into determining the best times to post, and these will vary among unique audiences. It is important to get to know your social media audience, however, here are a few general takeaways from some broad-level research conducted by HubSpot that may help you zero in on the best posting times for you:
- Posts on Thursdays between 5:00 am and 11:00 am perform better than any other day-of-the-week/timeframe combination.1
- Peak times of Instagram engagement include 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm on weekdays and 11:00 am – 3:00 pm on the weekends.1
Influencer Marketing
Instagram has played a key role in the rising success and popularity of influencer marketing. In a world where customers seek out authentic content and are looking for brand experiences, influencer marketing can be a great way to bring a new energy to your Instagram account.
Influencers can build awareness and recognition for your brand with a specific target audience, and demonstrate why your product or service is the right choice in the consideration stage. In fact, influencer marketing can be relevant and effective in any stage of the marketing campaign funnel.
Incorporate a Paid Strategy
As we mentioned earlier, Facebook’s revenues from Instagram advertising are growing, because companies are finding success advertising on the platform. Boosted posts can increase followers and post engagement, and paired with strategic creative, can bring a new energy to your Instagram presence.
Leverage Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories are also becoming more popular as companies are finding success with the Snapchat-like feature. Stories allow a company’s post to be visible at the top of followers’ news feeds for 24 hours, and then they disappear. Stories can help in combating Instagram’s Facebook-like algorithm in selecting the posts that are shown to followers, positioning content at the top of follower’s feeds. Instagram Stories can be a great place to share behind-the-scenes content, page-takeovers and timely news.
Instagram is going to continue to grow. If you’re interested in taking your “gram-game” to the next level, now is a great time to incorporate some new strategies to maximize your business’s presence and results on the platform.
