How to Use Instagram More Effectively

Let’s be honest - Instagram is fun for a scroll and can be really easy to get lost in. It’s a goldmine of potential for small businesses if you know how to tap into it. The trick? Knowing who you’re talking to, why they’re even on the app, and when they’re actually paying attention. Knowing a little bit about the algorithm and what tends to work for other businesses helps too. But with all of its bells and whistles, Instagram can be an overwhelming tool to begin using in your social media strategy. Since pretty much every strategy in the book can be successfully used on the platform, let’s dive into the details of Instagram and see if it’s the platform for you. And if you’re already using it, let’s talk about how you can use it more effectively!

Who, Why, and When

The first thing you need to know about Instagram (IG) is who uses it, why they use it, and when they are most active. If these three factors fit with your target audience, this is a great platform to add to your marketing strategy!

Who

Instagram is made up of 2 billion monthly active users with an almost even split between male (50.6%) and female (49.4%) users. The platform is most popular among younger audiences with over 60% of users being 18-34 years of age, 16% being 35-44, and 45+ making up less than 20%.

Why

SproutSocial mentions that having a cross-platform strategy is crucial for your brand to succeed (we strongly agree!) since, “a large number of users use [Instagram] alongside other social media platforms such as Facebook (80.8%), YouTube (77.4%), and TikTok (52.8%).” The top three reasons people use Instagram are:

1. Posting or sharing photos or videos (69.8% of users)
2. Looking for funny or entertaining content (66.3% of users)
3. Researching and following brands and products (62.7% of users)

When

A crucial part of any social media marketing strategy is figuring out when to post. The following times where users are most active are a great place to start, but make sure to keep checking your analytics as you keep posting because your audience’s most active times may end up being different!

• Mondays from 11am to 2pm
• Tuesdays from 10am to 4pm
• Wednesdays from 9am to 4pm
• Thursdays from 9am to 2pm
• Fridays at 11am

The best days to post are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and the worst day is Sunday.

Setting Up Your Account

There are three types of profiles you can create with Instagram: Personal, Creator, or Business. Personal profiles are for individuals, Creator profiles are for influencers, and Business profiles are for businesses. Pretty self-explanatory, right? Once you’ve created your Business profile you’ll need to set it up. Make sure your account name (for example, @flourishmktg), is easily searchable and your profile picture is something easily recognizable like your logo. Your Bio (the about you section on your main profile page) has a limited amount of characters, so make sure to keep it short and snappy. Use your tagline, make an announcement, or feature a promotion.

Here’s an important detail about your bio: Instagram doesn’t allow links in post captions, so your posts will need to point to the “link in bio.” You can include up to 5 links here, but that can look pretty messy. We recommend including only two links, with one being your website or a newsletter sign-up and using a tool like Linktree for the other, which turns your link into essentially a mini website so users can access many links at once. This allows you to promote multiple pages or products at any given time without your page looking chaotic!

Using Your Account

Instagram can be an intimidating platform to use. With seemingly endless ways to engage with your audience, the platform can easily become a full-time job. So we’ll say this before your eyes cross from all the content ahead: you don’t have to do everything at once. This goes for any and all platforms and marketing strategies! Pick one or two things at first and see how that goes. Taking this one step at a time will help you avoid burnout and keep your content consistent.

That being said, the many options here can make Instagram a genuinely fun part of your social media marketing strategy! There are three main types of posts for you to sink your teeth into:

1. Posts. This is the type of content users will only find in their main feed on the homepage of Instagram. These are usually image posts but can also be Carousel posts which consist of multiple images (or sometimes, videos) and usually get more engagement than a post with a single image. RivalQ mentions posts are a crucial part of small business marketing strategies as, “small brands with follower counts up to 10k can expect around 3x more of their followers to see their posts than their Stories.” You definitely don’t want to forget about posts in your full strategy!
2. Stories. Stories are vertical posts that appear in 15-second clips. These can be found at the top of the home page and disappear after 24 hours. According to SproutSocial, “more than half of Instagram users watch Stories on a daily basis,” and “50% of Instagram users have visited a website to buy a product/service after seeing it in Stories.” With this in mind, it’s easy to see why they argued in a different article that it’s one of the most essential types of content to include in your IG marketing strategy! There’s no limit to how many stories you can post in a day, but based on data from RivalQ, we recommend keeping your daily Stories to 7 frames or fewer.
3. Reels. Reels are vertical, full-screen videos that perform best when they’re shorter than 3-4 minutes. These appear in the main feed and additionally have their own tab where you can view reels in a TikTok-style feed where you swipe up to view the next video. According to SproutSocial, “Instagram Reels generate twice as much reach on Instagram compared to other post types,” and “53% of consumers prefer Instagram Reels over TikTok and YouTube Shorts for watching short-form videos.” 

There are so many options for your content that it’s important to remember not to pigeonhole your strategy into only using one. Just as we recommend using a variety of topics (jokes, quotes, sales, outside articles, etc) we recommend using a variety of these post types to find your audience regardless of what they interact with. Reels may generate twice as much reach overall, but your audience may prefer spending their scrolling time in Stories!

Create Engagement

There are many different types of content you can create to encourage engagement from your audience. In fact, there’s really only one topic that works better on Instagram than other topics. Hubspot mentions that, “35% of consumers actually prefer short narratives with a mix of photos, text, and videos.” These posts are basically articles that are translated for a more visual audience, using brief paragraphs and bullet points paired with visuals to tell a story in a few short slides. This topic doesn’t have to be limited to Stories; this and any other topic work with all formats on Instagram! Check out our blog for more social media topic ideas.

Engagement opportunities don’t stop at the posts’ topics though! There are several ways you can help encourage engagement on your page, and not all of them are limited to Instagram:

• Geotag Your Posts. If you have a physical location, this is a crucial element to your strategy. Geotags add a location to your posts which helps users find your business. Not only that, but Instagram takes all posts using a Geotag and lumps them together so users can see all the posts from that location. You can use this feature by simply adding your location to your post before you publish it.
• Make Posts Shoppable. If you sell products rather than services, you’ll want to take advantage of this feature. When you post about your products you can tag them the same way you would tag another profile! You’ll need to set up Instagram Shopping first, but once that’s all done it’s a breeze to make your posts shoppable.
• Exclusive Promotions. Exclusive promos work well for any platform, but IG’s Stories allows you to make promotions even more exclusive. Because Stories disappear after 24 hours followers will be encouraged to act quickly, stay engaged, and look forward to what you’ll post next. What an easy way to build brand loyalty!

General Advice

While Instagram has many unique features, most of your general social media advice is still applicable. The platform just offers more ways you can implement this advice!

• Use hashtags (aim for 3-5 and a mix of general and specific keywords)
• Engage with your followers
• Get creative with repurposing your content
• Keep an eye on your analytics
• Have a strategy outside of IG to grow your follower count
• Keep your profile information up-to-date

Instagram doesn’t have to be intimidating. Once you’ve gotten a handle on your audience’s habits and preferences you can fine-tune your process to get better results than ever! Start small, keep it fun, and tweak your approach as you go. With the right strategy you’ll not only grow your following - you’ll connect with the people who matter most to your business.

If you need help setting up your Instagram strategy, we’re here to help! Whether you need some advice or a full-fledged Roadmap, we’ll make sure you get started on the right foot. We’ll even help you learn if Instagram is the right platform for your business! Click here to schedule a consultation and we’ll help ease your social media worries.