- Total Number of Monthly Active Instagram Users: 1 billion +
- Total Number of Daily Active Instagram Users: 500 million +
- Instagram Stories Daily Active Users: 500 million +
- Number of Photos Shared to Date: 50 billion +
- Number of Businesses on Instagram: 25 million + (source)
With that sheer volume of usage for both personal and business, I realised that this was certainly a channel that I want to leverage for my businesses.
What is Instagram?
Instagram is like Facebook and Twitter in as far as it's a social media platform where users create, like and share posts - which appear in a newsfeed. The difference with Instagram is it's emphasis on visual sharing. You have to upload a picture or video in order to post and then can add text commentary.
You can follow key influencers on Instagram and interact with them and their followers by liking posts, commenting and replying and private messaging. And you can search for content or images for specific subjects by using hashtags.
Lifewire has a really useful introduction for Instagram in their blog post; What Is Instagram, Anyway?.
How Often Should you Post?
According to a post on Social Buddy (How often should you post on Instagram in 2019)
the optimum number of posts a day is between 1 and 3 - but this can differ between profiles.
They suggest that major brands are averaging 1.5 posts per day and recommend that you start by posting several times, slowing reducing the frequency to find your optimum amount. The most important thing being that you are consistent with your content, which is true of all content marketing and social media marketing.
They also recommend that you go with the “quality over quantity” approach, which again is true across all platforms and online content distribution.
What are Instagram Stories?
The idea behind Instagram Stories was for users to be able to share snippets of their day with their followers, quickly and easily. This could be as a series of images or videos, which would then become a slideshow when it has been posted onto Instagram. Instagram Stories only stay live for 24 hours and then they disappear - like Snapchat.
The reason Instagram users like Stories is that they are featured at the top of the home page, beating all other posts and the algorithm. Then if you are to add another part to the story, it gets bumped back up to the top of the feed. Instagram will even post a reminder in the feed about stories that are due to expire to give followers another prompt to see your story before it is removed.
You can read more about Instagram Stories on Louisem.com's blog This Is Why You Need To Use Instagram Stories Right Now
How to get Followers on Instagram
Now the point of social media marketing is to build an audience that you can connect to and share content with. In order to do this - you will need to get people to follow you. Easier said than done, particularly when you are fighting to be heard amongst the 1 billion other users.
A post on later.com has an interesting and detailed article, on this subject and provides 8 different ways to get more Instagram followers. [see blog post here; 8 New Ways to Get More Instagram Followers in 2019]
In summary these are:
- Making sure you have a branded and complete Instagram profile
- Using hashtags and location tags in your Instagram Stories
- Sharing selfies (apparently these really work!)
- Using Instagram Ads
- Cross-promoting your Instagram content across other platforms
- Creating a Custom Instagram Stories Filter For Your Brand
- Collaborating with leading brands to get exposure to their followers
- Creating relationships with leading influencers to be exposed to their followers
These are pretty basic tips, but they will be enough to get your started. I will be investing a lot of time into Instagram and will be more than happy to share my learnings, insight and successes as I go.
In the meantime, I hope this was helpful and I will leave you with a really useful Instagram Infographic from Social Media Pilot
Have a great day! 😃
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