If you're already part of this large user base, or plan to join this group, know that it's possible to further boost your Instagram presence and use some tips and tricks to improve your results. Check these out. 15 tips for YOU to become an Instagram master and boost your brand on this social network.
1. Share more widely
Instagram is able to connect with a number of other social media services (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, and Flickr), allowing users to take advantage of this integration to share their images with people who don't have Instagram installed, for example.
To avoid filling all your friends' social media feeds with the same photo, know that it's possible to choose the sharing options for each photo individually, once you've established the necessary connections with those accounts on your profile.
2. Use hashtags like a pro.
The (correct) use of hashtags seems to be a problem for many users. Before you start using hashtags for every word in your caption, know that this won't get you anywhere. It's important to remember the basics: hashtags are keywords that help people find your images. With this basic principle always in mind, it's time to learn some extra tricks that can enhance the use of this feature. To begin, try using emojis in your hashtags.
A few months ago, Instagram announced that emojis could be included in the app's hashtags, allowing them to be used to search for them on the "Explore" page or even click on them in photo captions. Users can use an emoji or combine them, with or without text, simply using their creativity to make the hashtags even better. To give an idea of the scale of emoji use, a study showed that the heart icon was used more than 500,000 times during the months of April and May. Another tip is to add hashtags in the comments.
If you want to create a clean caption primarily for sharing on other social media platforms, simply add the hashtags you want in the comments. Don't forget that photo captions can now be changed. Another hashtag-related trick is adding them to the comments on other people's photos. This can be really useful if you're promoting an event and notice that some well-known people aren't including the official tags in their own photos, for example. See also: Instagram launches three new photo filters and hashtags with emojis
3. Easily manage a group account.
Some Instagram profiles are managed by more than one person, especially in the case of brands and companies. If you want to allow other people to post on a particular profile without having to share the password with the entire team, there's a trick you can use.
Create a shared folder on Dropbox or Google Drive and ask your team to upload photos there. With the help of a very interesting app, If This Then That (IFTTT), you can set tasks to be performed automatically, such as sending images to Instagram, for example. To do this, simply allow IFTTT access to the Instagram account in question. The app also lets you know who sent an image to the social network. Learn more about IFTTT.
4. Use Instagram only for editing.
If you really like the filters offered by Instagram, but don't always want to post photos on the social network, know that there's a simple trick to take advantage of this feature without uploading the image.
Put your smartphone in airplane mode and edit the desired image in the Instagram app. When you reach the image posting stage, your phone will not be enabled for upload due to airplane mode, but the edited photo will still be saved to your smartphone.
5. Apply more than one filter to the same photo using the official app.
Instagram filters are beloved by the vast majority of users – even with a plethora of free image editing apps available. But did you know it's possible to combine more than one filter on the same photo on the social network?
Using a very simple trick based on the tip mentioned above, it's possible to use Instagram to experiment by combining two or more filters.
6. Remove location tags from photos.
By default, your Instagram photos are geotagged to show everyone where you are. You can change this setting, but most people don't, and soon after, they realize that a beautiful picture taken at the beach has been tagged with the location of their living room sofa.
But if you do this accidentally, don't despair; after publishing the image, simply open it and click on the edit option to remove the location tag.
7. Remove unwanted photos from your profile.
If a friend tagged you in that awful photo from the night before, you don't need to call them and unleash your anger – at least not immediately. Just open the image, click on the photo where you were tagged, and then click on your username that appears in the tag. Several options will appear, and you can choose whether you want to completely remove the tag or just remove it from the "Photos with you" section of your profile.
8. Place a URL below your username.
To have a website address appear below your name in a photo, simply add the desired URL to the location field when posting your photo ("Give this location a name") and then select the "Create a custom location" option. That's it! Now the URL will appear in the location field of your photo, right below your username.
9. Link to your content
If you use Instagram as a promotional tool or as a complement to your website, blog, or something similar, you'll likely want to link to content from the image-based app.
However, the tip above only serves as a visual and non-clickable indication of the desired URL. An effective solution for linking external content on Instagram is to replace the website URL in your bio with a link you want readers to visit and politely ask your audience to click the link available in your bio.
10. Run two different Instagram accounts.
If you have two Instagram accounts and want to keep both logged in without wasting time switching login details every time you need to post or check something on the social network, know that there's a trick that allows users to do this. Unfortunately, Instagram doesn't have a native feature to manage more than one account, but third-party apps fill this need and allow you to add more than one account to the social network. The options cover iOS, Android, and Windows Phone systems.
The problem is that, in all cases, the other apps that interact with Instagram (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) will only interact with the original app, so you need to choose wisely which account to run in which app.
11. Change the style of your bio.
If you've ever wondered how people manage to add line breaks and other cool things to their bio, know that the trick is extremely simple: use Word, or another similar text editor, to write the text as you wish, and then paste it into Instagram.
12. Manage your direct messages.
The direct messaging feature on Instagram can often be quite useful, as it allows a select group of friends to receive an image privately, comment, and like it. However, some people may misuse the feature and become a real nuisance. If this happens to you frequently, know that there is a way to get rid of this type of follower.
Simply go to the Direct Messages menu in the Instagram app, select a message from the user you want to stop receiving images from, click on the three dots located in the upper right corner, and then click on "Ignore all posts from this user".
13. Instagram audiences engage more easily.
Iconosquare and Business Insider studies explored user motivation and demographics; other studies measured what Instagram has done. “Likes,” shares, and “regrams” (like retweets) help marketers investigate which of their efforts are engaging their target audience. All these actions taken by the targets are collectively called “engagement.”.
Instagram users are interacting with brands more and more, at a much higher rate than other social media channels. Socialbakers, a social analytics and research services firm, analyzed its Q4 2014 data and found Instagram's engagement rate to be much higher than Twitter's.
Socialbakers reports that 3,31% of users engage with each brand's post on Instagram.
An image on Instagram sent to 10,000 users receives 331 likes, shares, and—basically boosting marketing efforts—regrams at no cost. A tweet sent to 10,000 users, on the other hand, results in only 7 others pushing the content to friends and connections. Considering that many businesses have fewer than 1,000 followers, many posts get zero engagement on Twitter.
The gap between engagement on Instagram and engagement on Facebook is also huge. According to a November 2014 study by the research firm L2, Instagram users interact 18 times more on Instagram than on Facebook.
Powerful Forrester Research revealed a similar gap when comparing Facebook engagement to Instagram engagement in April 2014.
Instagram's engagement rate is much higher than Facebook's or Twitter's as of April 2014.
The authors of the Forrester study raise the possibility that Instagram's engagement rate is high because it is a relatively new platform, and yet, few brands are present. Fewer messages compete for the user's attention. Microsoft only signed up for an account in November 2014.
The Simply Measured Instagram 2015 study revealed that while more brands are signing up for Instagram, the number of viewers per post will decrease as consumer attention spans become more diluted. In Q3 2012, only 40 of the top 100 Interbrand companies had an Instagram account; however, by Q4 2014, 82 of the top 100 Interbrand companies did. These are the leaders in their sectors. Small and medium-sized businesses will follow their example.
The number of brands with 100,000 or more followers on Instagram has tripled since Q3 2012.
Takeaways: Final thoughts on Instagram Audience
14. Instagram's audience is young.
A study by Frank N. Magid Associates in December 2014, a study by Cowen & Company in November 2014, and a September 2014 study by AVG, cited in eMarketer, found that 441% of young people aged 18 to 16 had used Instagram in the previous month.
In comparison, only 181% of Baby Boomers (ages 45-60) and 101% of people aged 60 or older used Instagram last month.
Forty-four percent of Millennials used Instagram last month, preferring it to Facebook by almost 2 to 1.
The preferences of this 18-29 age group for Instagram over Facebook and other channels are surprising. This group greatly prefers Instagram to Facebook (with only 23% bothered to use Facebook last month), LinkedIn (19%), Pinterest (27%), and Twitter (33%). Newer social channels like Snapchat and Tumblr have captivated an even larger share of the 18-29 age group in the market. More evidence that young adults look where their parents aren't, even when it comes to social media!
While Facebook's growth has stagnated at (albeit an impressive) 71% of all internet users for both 2013 and 2014, Instagram's growth doubled from 2012 (13% to 26%) and increased by 53% in 2013-2014 (17% to 26%).
Instagram's audience numbers are surpassing Twitter's.
Key findings: With the majority of the Instagram audience under 30, it's no surprise that automotive, technology, and apparel brands are leading the way. Simply Measured Q4 2014 Interbrand study of Top 100 brands (basically, companies like Apple, GM, Microsoft, and 97 others) examined 6,293 posts from 82 brands on presence, engagement, content, and more.
Simply Measured in relation to month and brand type.
In 2014, 14 of the leading automotive brands were posting an average of 40 times per month. Ten of the top technology brands posted 15 times per month. Five of the leading apparel brands posted an average of about 45 times per month. And while only four of the leading media brands measured by the Interbrand 100 have Instagram accounts, those brands posted more than 70 times per month.
Marketers have been receiving the message that if the buyer is under 30, he or she is more likely to be on Instagram.
15. Instagram users are customers
Merchants began to get excited about Instagram when early studies indicated that the public seemed to be using the channel to make purchases. Users were sharing product photos with friends, commenting, liking, and receiving reviews. Unlike Facebook users who report that their main reason for using that channel is to connect with friends and family, Instagram users may have more than one business unit.
Instagram users are using the platform to gather information about products and services before making purchases. Image: Shutterstock.
Specifically, 701 out of 16,000 users in the 2015 Iconosquare study reported that they had already looked at a brand on Instagram.
While many marketers have used contests and giveaways to gain followers on other social channels, on Instagram, 62% of users follow the brand simply out of “love” for the brand. Forty-one percent follow or would follow to win perks and giveaways.
Finally, instead of being saddened by the intrusion, 65% of Instagram users report feeling flattered when a brand likes their post.
I hope this content has helped with your social media marketing, and if you need help increasing your online sales, count on us!
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