Social media and Instagram are an excellent tool to engage with your audience and grow brand awareness. No longer simply about photo sharing, these apps are fast becoming the go-to platforms for directing new eyes to your product or service.

Tip 1 – Optimization

The first step to growing on social media is to optimize your profile! Page optimization is about ensuring your Instagram profile contains the key information people need to know about your business or personal brand, what type of content you share or what you are selling. Another important part of optimizing your profile is including a link to your website or other important pages. A popular way of doing this is using Linktree to create a landing page that directs the audience to your website or other platforms.

Tip 2 – Picking an aesthetic

When starting or re-branding your Instagram page, it’s important to work out what aesthetic you want to go for. This will usually be determined by what your Instagram page aims to achieve. For example, if you are creating an Instagram page for a clothing brand, you would consider posting garments or street style images and if you had a travel blog, you would likely post scenery and landscape photos or videos. It’s important to consider a colour scheme or particular filter to ensure your content looks consistent.

Tip 3 – Regular posts

Posting quality content regularly is the key to building and growing a following on Instagram. The ideal frequency for posting to your Instagram grid is at least once a day or every second day, while stories can be more frequent. Data shows that the best times to post on Instagram for engagement are weekdays between 10am to midday and ideally no later than 7pm of an evening. Using hashtags on your posts can also be a good way to drive audiences to your page.

Tip 4 – Partnering with other brands

Reaching out to brands in your relevant industry and collaborating for a competition or giveaway is a good way to promote your brand and increase your followers. For example a beverage brand could partner with a glassware brand for a product giveaway, encouraging people to follow and share. This allows you to reach new audiences by sharing each other’s content. You can reach out to a brand you’re interested in working with through email to start a conversation.

Tip 5 – Engagement

Engagement is imperative on Instagram and it’s important to respond to comments and messages from your audience. Responding to positive messages or comments shows the audience that they are appreciated. If you want to respond privately to a comment, you can also send them a direct message or share your email address.

Tip 6 – Post stories

According to the experts, Instagram stories posted by business pages make up almost half of the most viewed stories. Stories are the perfect tool for promoting new posts and reaching a wider audience than your grid alone. Analytics show that customers regularly click links to products seen in stories posted by brands. You can also use stories to engage with your followers through question boxes or polls.

Tip 7 – Stick to your style

Decide early on in your social media marketing strategy what message or look and feel you are trying to get across to your audience. From there, ensure the content you are posting aligns with that. Your aesthetic needs to be authentic to your brand and should match the branding used on your other online platforms or products. It’s important to consider fonts and tones for posts or stories, that align with your existing branding.