Essential Do’s and Don’t For Instagram Business| Third Wunder

We’ve spent years navigating the complex ebb and flow of the Instagram waters alongside our clients. From its immense potential to drive engagement, to building communities and elevating brands; there’s no shadow of a doubt you should be leveraging Instagram for your business. “But how?” Is the age-old question. Mastery of the platform truly is easier than you may think. It all comes down to the understanding and implementation of a few, key, best practices.

We’ve compiled our industry (trade) secrets into this ‘one-stop-shop’ guide to demystify Instagram once and for all!

Do’s

👍Use Product Teasers to Drive Engagement

Does the new Starbucks Summer Refresher have you daydreaming of your afternoon pick-me-up? Or is that fresh pair of Jordans warranting a live try-on after work? What do they have in common? These brands planted the seed and let your imagination develop the rest of the narrative. Taste, touch, smell, your senses are stimulated and intrigued by the unknown.

You can use the same tactics as these large brands. The secret is teasing your audience until they can’t help themselves but to buy. This is a gentle and long-term approach to influencing potential buyers. It is best achieved using positive and inspirational language, combined with enticing imagery and intermittent post frequency. The intention behind each post is to generate excitement and desire around your product or service. This approach works well in various industries and encourages followers to engage with your posts, even if they don’t make an immediate purchase. So go ahead and show off your products, but do so intentionally for optimal results.

👍Harness the Power of User-Generated Content (UGC)

Mountain Equipment Coop, a Canadian favourite, regularly shares their clients’ action shots; athletes hitting the slopes, families exploring our beautiful country and adrenaline junkies climbing to new heights! It makes a client want to live the same thrilling experiences of their fellow MEC buyer. Create demand for your product or service by sharing real, relatable people who love it!

Whether it’s coming from a loyal client or local influencer, user-generated content is a great way to increase engagement on your Instagram page with very little effort on your part. When choosing what is worth sharing consider if it aligns with your brand image, the size of the user’s following, and if it’s appropriate for your audience. Creating a branded hashtag, hosting contests and creating a sense of community amongst your followers will encourage UGC creation. By giving credit where credit is due when reposting, you incentivize your followers to continue to share their original content.

👍Engage with the Community you’ve Created

Schedule posts for next week ✅ approve copy for next month’s calendar ✅ send briefs to design ✅ …the list goes on and on. Liking and responding to comments is often overlooked and placed at the bottom of the to-do list. But interacting regularly with your audience has a worthwhile ROI (return on investment) on your time. Take the ‘apple a day approach’ to this task, ensuring comments and messages are responded to promptly. This level of responsiveness helps build a positive relationship with your audience, strengthening your community.

If you are looking to truly maximize your time spent on community engagement, be sure to have an established target audience and focus your energy on those individuals. By following these relevant accounts, liking and commenting on their posts, and responding to their comments on your posts, your company shows genuine interest in their content.

👍Manage Negativity in a Professional Manner

The only thing worse than being ghosted, is being ghosted publicly. Though receiving negative comments and messages can strike a chord, it’s important not to ignore the problem. Maintaining a professional tone and demeanor, even in the face of criticism is essential in nurturing the trust and respect of your community. Acknowledging a commenter’s concerns, validating their feelings, and responding in a polite and respectful tone is always the best approach. Deleting comments should be avoided unless they violate community guidelines or contain racist, sexual or offensive language.

👍Share Only High-Quality Visual Content

How do you ‘just know’ every piece of Lululemon attire will fit like a glove and live up to your every performance need? Whether you are a loyal client or have yet to hop on the bandwagon, you can inexplicably assume the quality of their product when browsing their digital channels. How do you ‘just know’? Their use of high quality imagery across all platforms doesn’t make them stand out amidst competitors, but instead allows you to focus on the message of the post itself, the quality is implied. Prioritizing the use of high-quality, visually appealing images that effectively showcase your products or services is the key to generating demand. When your images are visually appealing, they draw in the keen eye of your target audience, convey professionalism, and establish trust.

To step it up a notch, pay attention to the composition of your images. A well-composed image will create visual impact and tell a compelling story. Consider using the rule of thirds, leading lines, and framing techniques to create visually pleasing compositions that draw the viewer’s eye to your subject and create a memorable impression.

Don’ts

👎 Be a Hashtag Abuser

We don’t #speak with hashtags in our day-to-day interactions so why #write captions with them? Incorporating hashtags directly into the main caption of a post can make the description difficult to read and negatively impact the overall aesthetics of your content. It creates a cluttered appearance and can come across as spammy or inauthentic.

Nowadays less is more, the current algorithm prioritizes the use of 3-5 hashtags at the end of a caption. This will maximize searchability while maintaining a clean and engaging feed.

👎Post, just to Post

It’s easy to fall into the trap of jumping on all the latest social media trends. The possibility of going viral or being discovered by a new community is tempting, however this can be a killer for your existing community. When following your page, a client subconsciously expects a certain tone and content-type to be showcased. Posting just to post in order to stay ‘relevant’ can dilute your messaging and create inconsistency, eroding your brand’s credibility.

The most recent changes to Instagram’s algorithm suggest that posting multiple stories per day as well as one standard post daily is the new golden rule. Despite this recommended high frequency, Instagram still prioritizes relevant and engaging content. When you post content out of left field, you risk lower engagement rates in terms of likes, comments, and shares. Don’t waste efforts in places that won’t produce opportunities to connect with your audience and foster meaningful relationships.

👎Pitch your Audience

Whether we actually care about a 22-year-olds morning routine or not, we’ve all stumbled across one of these incredibly popular videos. But what makes them so engaging? It’s the fact that a relatable figure is taking you behind the scenes of their life and sharing their tips and tricks so you can live out the same idealistic morning. The intention behind these videos is to share their sponsorships and brand deals in a way that feels organic. We can learn a thing or two from these viral influencers into your own business practices on Instagram.

The subtle art of pitching on Instagram takes a delicate balance of product placement, informative content, and real-life use cases. The last thing you want is for the posts reaching your clients’ feeds to feel pushy and spammy. When you overly promote your products without providing value for your audience, your content will perform poorly in terms of engagement and reach. You should never lose sight of the main goal of having an Instagram presence for your business; building a loyal and engaged community.

👎Buy Fake Followers/Engagement

_happy_honey_89xx; no profile picture, no bio, 89 followings, 0 followers; we all know the drill. In today’s digital landscape, consumers are savvy and can easily spot fake accounts or engagements. Buying fake followers or engagement creates a false impression of popularity and credibility, which can ultimately erode trust amongst your audience.

The Instagram algorithm is designed to prioritize authentic and engaging content. For most businesses, it’s a slow and steady climb. By focusing on creating content that resonates with your target audience and by engaging with your followers, you can organically attract a loyal audience who genuinely supports your brand.

👎Copy the Competition

It’s been drilled into us since we were in elementary school; “cheaters never prosper” “Don’t be a copycat” and those same phrases still hold true to this day. Plagiarism or copying others’ content without permission, is a practice that should be avoided at all costs. Not only is it unethical, but it can also have serious consequences for your business.

Admittedly it is nearly impossible to produce truly original content. There are however ways to pull inspiration from others, all the while remaining authentic to your brand image. We suggest repurposing a meme, using a trending audio or adding a viral hashtag into the mix to stay relevant. When reposting or sharing facts and statistics, give credit where it is due by tagging the individual. Maintaining the integrity of your brand and trust of your audience should be at the heart of all your creative decisions.