With over 500 million users, Instagram is one of the top social media platforms of today, providing a space for both individuals and brands to share their stories. Instagram is highly saturated with content for people from all sorts of backgrounds to consume, which makes it an incredibly competitive place if you’re trying to build your brand and get people on board with Instagram marketing.
There’s a definite way to go about it successfully, so we’ve put together our top tips on how to build your brand on Instagram.
Choosing the Right Content for Instagram
If you’re just starting out with building your brand on Instagram, it can be difficult to decide on the type of content that you’re going to be posting. We recommend sitting down and making a plan – ask yourself these questions:
- What do you want to get out of Instagram?
- When a user visits your profile, what is the next step you want them to take?
- What is your brand’s visual identity?
- What is your unique selling point (USP)?
If you’ve got a clear idea in your head of the answers, you’re on the right track. The key to planning your brands Instagram content is to ensure that the messaging about who you are and what your brand stands for needs to be consistent. If you can plan your content around the answers to these questions it’s a good way to start.
You may have been using Instagram for a while now, and if this is the case go through your posts and check which ones have been the most popular over the last year (most likes/comments). Try and pick up on if there are any trends around what is and isn’t working.
Another tip is to get some help from friends; your unique selling point should be apparent just from looking at your main page and grid. Ask your friends to define your USP by looking at your profile and check that it’s in line with your goals.
Making the most out of Instagram’s features
One of the reasons that Instagram is so successful is because it offers so many features; creators can be really flexible with the type of content that they’re posting. It’s a great idea to make the most of this so that your brand can reach different people, and it also allows your audience to really get to know you. When you’re posting, bear in mind that some people may prefer to check their stories rather than checking their newsfeed, so your content should be as accessible as possible.
Grid posts:
Your main grid is where most of your content is available – it’s the first thing people land on when they click your profile. First impressions count, so we recommend making sure your grid is aesthetically pleasing to look at and really demonstrates your brand identity. Static images are the basic type of posts for your grid – really simple and easy, you can post the image with a caption for your followers to see on their feed. Be sure to use lots of relevant hashtags on each post so that people browsing those hashtags can see the post and maybe even follow you.
A great way to boost your engagement is to post carousel images on your grid. This is where you share multiple images under the same post. It’s great to use the carousel to tell a story so that your audience is more inclined to swipe through the rest of the images.
Videos:
If you’re looking to post a video onto Instagram, there are a few ways you can do it. You can post a 60-second video to your grid or you can post a longer video to IGTV. IGTV videos also come through as a 60-second preview on your main feed which is a great way to entice people in. Alternatively, if you don’t want the video to be available on your grid, you can always post it to your stories.
Stories:
Instagram stories are a great way to get creative. Stories also provide the chance to interact with your audience, as you can run polls and host Q&As. If you’re eager to post stories regularly, we recommend planning in advance what you’re going to post. They only last 24 hours but they can be saved to ‘highlights’ on your profile for your audience to look at.
The best way to get ideas for all of these things is to get onto Instagram and start following successful brands and influencers that you admire. Get a feel for the type of content they post and how they use all the different features and see if any of this would be relevant for you.
Organising a posting schedule
The key to any social media platform is consistency. You’ll need to decide how frequently you’re going to be posting and from there make a plan for what particular days and times.
If you’re going to be posting a certain type of content to Instagram every week, such as videos, you’ll need to make sure you’re posting them at the same time consistently so that your audience knows when to expect them.
We do recommend interacting with your followers in between posts. Don’t just post and then switch off – stick around and reply to comments on your posts and be sure to like and comment on other people’s posts to start to build your community. If you put these tips into practice, you’ll be able to watch your audience grow. Good luck!
Our Exceptional Experiences content stream at IBTM World Virtual will be covering many different aspects of experiential marketing, with top speakers from brands such as Bacardí, Philips and Virgin Atlantic, on Day 3 of IBTM World Virtual. Join us online here.