If your brand has any product, service or a unique story to tell, Instagram is the best platform for you.
About 25 million businesses worldwide are now using Instagram for its branding, and more than 200 million people view at least one brand page per day. Instagram has become “the new habitat for brands,” where users can engage with brands, follows them to stay updated and businesses can achieve their goals in true sense. Today, from fashion brands to health and fitness to media houses each of them has carved a space of their own and is using Instagram for their businesses. In fact, fashion and beauty brands are the most engaged niches on Instagram.
According to a recent study, more than 98% of luxury shoppers carry smartphones, around 92% of brands and businesses have an Instagram account. It was also found that more than 81% of these shoppers’ are highly influenced by digital content and make their purchase decisions.
Here is how you can leverage Instagram for your business like a PRO in 2020, for deriving maximum returns from your Instagram account:
Combination of Video and images
We all know that videos are the most engaging forms of content consumption on the internet today, but we have to remember that images have not lost their charm yet. The best way to boost the visibility of the page is to use the combination of photos and videos together which makes a great impact on the audience to engage and connect with your Instagram profile. Whether your content is in the form of video or in the form of an image, just remember to provide value to your audience through all your creatives. Also try to make some engagement posts, which allow users to engage with your brand and helps in the organic growth of the page.
Long captions will work in 2020!
Usually, brands like to keep their captions short and crisp. In the past few years, it is seen that the average caption length on Instagram by different brands and individuals is around 140-150 characters. Earlier it was believed that posts with shorter captions work well and the longer captions do not perform well. But there is no clear proof of lower engagement rates for posts with lengthier captions. In 2020 it is seen that posts with longer captions are performing well and individuals & brands are trying to convey more value in the caption also. The total limit is 2200 characters on Instagram’s caption. Just remember caption content definitely matters!
Use the power of Hashtags
Hashtags still rule the game! The best way to allow your content to reach out to more people of your niche is by using relevant hashtags. It allows you to access to specific interest groups and marks your content discoverable organically. Studies show that posts with at least one hashtag get 12% more reach and engagement, hence, one should not shy away from using them. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags to be used in a single post.
Mentions are a necessary integral!
Not used by many, @mentions generally results in more reach and engagement. Generally, @mentions are used in caption part of the post; a solid caption with the mention works well to reach out to more people and increases engagement of the post and your profile as well. Stories on Instagram also allows @mentions, still not known by many!
Geo-tagging boosts engagement
The posts marked with a location get 78% more engagement when compared to the one without a tagged location. It allows you to take your Instagram presence a step further, as people discover you when they might not even be trying.
Call-to-Actions are important
A simple Call-to-Action like “Tag your friend who would love this” or “select the option you like most” would be ideal to help boost engagement on your post as it will allow people to comment and tag. And the simple algorithm of Instagram that everyone knows, the more engagement, the more your post will get viral. Instagram itself allows it to discover to relevant people.
Feature on the explore tag
The Explore Tab is a blockbuster! It is the best approach to keep your profile or page in the eye of your users even if they do not follow your account. Instagram tracks user activity and understands every individual user’s interests, then customize the Explore feed of an individual. It is one of the direct methods you can implement to create brand awareness on a large scale. It also results in increasing the number of followers of your page.
Interaction is key
With new updates on a regular basis, Instagram is providing different ways to interact with your audience. The polls and questions in the story section allow users to respond and interact with the brand. Going for different polls and questions allows you to know that what your audience likes, how they react to a new product, and their opinions on the products and services. It allows you to redefine your strategy to reach to more number of people. Nothing works better than interacting with your audience!
IGTV is a big hit
With video platforms like Tik Tok creating a great effect in the digital market, we can say that videos have their own appeal in attracting the audience. Instagram IGTV is a powerful tool that allows you to be featured on Instagram feeds organically. Earlier the challenges with IGTV video were that it only allows vertical videos to be featured, but now it has come up with the horizontal video facility as well, which allows more people and brands to post a video of more than a minute on Instagram. Brands need to leverage this and not leave a stone unturned to hit their target audience.
Every brand and business requires a social media marketing strategy to derive maximum returns from their social media handles. A well-executed optimization and marketing policy will allow your potential customers to engage with your brand’s Instagram page.
