Top Instagram Tips For Startups

Constant Posting Of Epic Content
If you want to have a large following on Instagram you need to ensure you are posting high-quality videos and pictures all the time. It will not be enough to post periodically or once a week. It is important that you are constantly putting out new content that is high resolution and high quality. It is recommended that you post around twice a day every day and you can increase this to three of four times a day once your account has grown.

You will also need to consider upgrading your photo equipment if the pictures you have are not a minimum of 1080 x 1080 pixels.  You should also test different videos and pictures to see which create the most user engagement and continue to use those types of posts.  This will help you build a strong following of happy viewers.

It is not only still pictures and videos that you should consider.  Cinemagraphs which are also known as GIFs also work very well on Instagram. If you are running low on content to share you should ask for permission to share an image from an account with a large following. This would be better than not posting any content at all and helps you build a relationship with other Instagram account holders.

Your Captions Should Be Motivating And Captivating
Having the right caption for your posts can go a long way to increasing your following. The first task you need to do is consider whether your niche requires a long or short caption. 

You will then need to be consistent with the type of caption that you choose. When you write the caption there are 4 things that you need to consider. These are to captivate, to motivate, to inspire and to give the viewer an experience to live through.  While it may sound like a cliché to post motivating content on social media it actually drives huge amounts of user engagement. If you are not motivating your users’ everyday they will look at a different account that will.   There are many people who use short and clever captions combined with supporting hashtags. Other people take the longer approach to their captions and have the same success.  It is important that you choose a style and stick to it.   

Use The Correct Emojis
Emojis have become a popular form of communication on social media and in texts and you need to consider this. If you plan to use Emojis, and it is recommended that you do, you need to know how to use them correctly. It is possible to use an Emoji to substitute a word or allow for expressive captions that catch viewer’s attention.   One of the ways that you can do this is to replace a word with an Emoji than means the same thing. This will capture the attention of people who read on a visual level.

However, you have to ensure that you do not overuse them as they can add something to your posts, but cannot be the only way you communicate.

Do Not Over Post
It is important that you are consistent in how often you post and most people tend to post too little. However, there is the other side of the coin with people who post too often. Over-posting can quickly turn people off your account as you are constantly clogging up their feeds. It is important that you find the right frequency to posts and that you keep this consistent. Starting with 2 posts per day and increasing this to 3 or 4 is ideal.

However, posting more than this could become a problem for your followers. It is important that you grow the number of posts you make with the number of Instagram followers that you have.  If you have fewer than 100 followers only post twice a day, but when you have more than 1000 but less than 10,000 you should post three times a day.

Up to 50,000 followers should have four posts a day and up to 500,000 should have five or six posts.  When you reach more than this you can consider 8 to 10 posts per day.   

Use Hashtags Correctly
Hashtags are an important part of using Instagram and you need to use them correctly. You have to be strategic with the hashtags you use. Research has shown that using 3 to 5 hashtags per post is the best on Instagram. The hashtags you use will also need to be relevant to your posts. There needs to be a link between the hashtag and the post that you are putting up. Ideally, you should choose hashtags that describe what you are posting and you should never add irrelevant tags to your post.

You also need to be careful when using popular hashtags.  If a hashtag already has millions of posts your post is likely to be lost in the crowd and your chances of getting seen actually decrease. Two-word descriptive hashtags will have fewer posts and will help you get more viewers. These are also searched by people who are looking for exactly what you are posting.