9 Ways to improve your Instagram presence
There’s a reason we keep talking about the importance of Instagram to your online marketing strategy. Instagram has 300 million daily users. 53% of which are between the ages of 18-29 years old. What’s more, ads on Instagram had eight times the ad recall on any other social network!! It’s easy to see why Instagram is projecting 8 Billion in ad revenue for 2017. While in-app advertising definitely should be part of your strategy, engaging with your customers is the other. Download our infographic here to make sure your Instagram profile is on point.
1. Make your profile appealing
a. Relatable username
b. Make sure you use a profile photo
c. Include keywords in your bio
d. URL link to a page on your website that makes most sense/sometimes your latest blog post
e. MAKE sure your profile is public, not private…. I see this mistake often
f. If you have created your account a business vs. person, then don’t waste bio characters saying what city you are in the bio
2. Take time to choose clear, high-quality photos.
A blurry photo is never attractive. Some of our favorite photo editing apps are; Enlighten, Color Story, Prisma, Afterlight, and VSCO.
3. Maintain a posting frequency.
Union Metrics analyzed the 55 most popular business on Instagram and found that posting two times a day is optimal. Frequently posting helps if you are trying to build a following, but I always say quality over quantity. What is annoying is there are no post scheduling tools that can post on Instagram. There are reminder tools out there, like Later, Hootsuite, and Buffer. But you still have to post manually.
4. Use hashtags appropriately.
Don’t make your account look spammy. Stick to five or less that are extremely applicable to the subject matter. I keep a list in my notes app on my phone. Also, this seems obvious, but tag your location!
5. Use captions
You need to tell the story of what’s happening in the picture. For whatever reason, Instagram has something against line spacing. We write out captions ahead of time in our Notes app and then copy and paste them into Instagram. Using an app like Notes allows you to space out paragraphs appropriately.
6. Partner up with a local business and run a contest.
These are a lot of fun and an easy way to see who is engaging in your neighborhood. Apps that make managing a contest easier? Iconosquare, Wishpond, and Vortigo. There are various packages, but for less than $50/month, you can run an Instagram contest and collect User-generated content.
7. Let a resident or employees do an account takeover.
They will get their followers to follow you and see what they are up to for the day! {Social proof + Leveraging their followers = win-win}
8. Take time to like and follow others accounts.
Seems obvious, but this is the digital version of community outreach. Identify your neighborhood businesses that are active on Instagram and be sure to interact! Especially if you are doing an event together, make sure the other business knows your target hashtags! You guys can help each other.
9. Don’t overlook advertising.
You can use FB’s ad platform to advertise on Insta. Promoted posts are great for brand awareness & new lease-ups! Also…just an FYI if you boost a post on Facebook and your Instagram and Facebook account are linked, the post will automatically be an ad on Insta!