Successful on Instagram: 5 tips for better performance

With over 2 billion users, Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms in the world. Not surprisingly, many companies want to be successful on Instagram. But often they know little about the effects of hashtags, captions or the time of the post. In the following, we have compiled a few tips on how you can be successful on Instagram with your business.

Successful on Instagram Tip #1: Use meaningful caption

Posting an image, we are faced with the decision every time: caption or not? And once we’ve decided on a caption, there’s still the question: how many characters? Instagram allows us a maximum of 2,200 characters, but does that also mean that images with captions that are as long as a brick will have the best interaction rate and reach?

Not always. If you first look at how other users handle this issue, it quickly becomes apparent that the middle ground can’t be bad. For example, just under 60% of posts have a caption that is 50-300 characters. Strikingly, only 1.1% of posts don’t have a caption, so it seems to be quite important to most users to generate engagement with the text. To be successful on Instagram, you should choose longer captions that catch the user. After all, the longer a user looks at a post, the higher Instagram’s algorithm will rate it.

But there is one exception: for users who have over 1 million followers, the posts without a caption get the most interaction – stars apparently no longer have to be creative to get a high interaction rate on Instagram.

Successful on Instagram Tip #2: Use the right hashtags for engagement

Many myths surround the use and impact of hashtags. No one but the platform itself probably knows how much they really contribute to success on Instagram. But does the “a lot helps a lot” rule really apply here?

One thing is clear: over 70% of posts use at least one hashtag. And that’s despite the fact that hashtags only really pay off in terms of interactions for two profile sizes.

• For small profiles with under 1,000 followers, posts with one to three hashtags get the most interactions on average.
• For very large profiles with more than 10 million followers, posts with more than 10 hashtags perform best.
• And what about profiles that have between 1,000 and 10 million followers? That’s where posts without hashtags actually perform best!

Amount of interactions through hashtags used

Successful on Instagram Tip #3: Choose a sensible time to post

The timing of when you publish your new post is also crucial to whether your post gets a wide reach or not. Most posts are published on weekdays – logically, most social media managers have weekends off. But to be successful on Instagram, you’d better post on weekends. That’s because posts published on the weekend have an average of 22.3% more interactions than those published Monday through Friday. Unsurprisingly, this means that on free weekends, many people spend more time on social media after all.

The best time can vary for each business and industry, so figure out their most important times for yourself. You can easily see when your followers are online most often in your profile under Insights.

Successful on Instagram Tip #4: Show more personality with Stories

Instagram’s Stories feature makes you look authentic and makes users feel like they’re closer to the action. To be successful on Instagram, let your followers be a part of everything:

• share personal thoughts
• make behind-the-scenes videos
• give tips on specific topics
• start polls
• share posts and stories from other users

Crucial to a successful Instagram profile is trust. This is achieved through an authentic appearance and regularity of postings. Users want to see personality, because then they can identify with your profile, which in turn arouses sympathy for your company. With the Story feature, this is exactly what is possible, so use it to be successful on Instagram!

We’ll tell you which other Instagram features you should know about for your business in another blog post.

Successful on Instagram Tip #5: Get more interactions through videos

Instagram launched in October 2010 as a photo-only platform. Today, Instagram is still visually appealing and thrives on photos and videos. So to be successful on Instagram, aesthetic images are very important. In the meantime, one can argue whether photos or videos are more present. One thing is clear: pictures are posted more often – but that may also have something to do with the fact that it’s easier to produce good-looking pictures than attractive videos.

However, if you look at the interaction rates, you’ll notice the following: Single images generate the fewest interactions. Carousels have on average 2.2% more interactions than single images. But here, videos are clearly ahead! A video generates 18.6% more interactions than a carousel and even 21.2% more than single images. Want to get more interactions? Then you should seriously consider videos to be successful on Instagram!

What are you waiting for?

Instagram is still a platform with great potential. But building a successful Instagram profile also takes a lot of effort and doesn’t happen overnight. To be successful on Instagram, it’s important to create value for the user. Post exceptional content that people don’t already see every day anyway. This catches the eye, increases the interest of the user and stays longer in the memory.

With our tips, you have gained a good overview of which levers you can test to be successful on Instagram. We wish you every success!

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