Instagram is a continuously growing platform. Now with 600 million users, the social media network constantly adds new features to keep users on their toes, including Stories and live video, and even ads and insights for businesses.
As a brand or business, it’s important to take advantage of Instagram’s growth and use it to reach your audience and create an engaged community. But if you’re struggling to get started or need inspiration to boost your efforts, then we’ve got a webinar recap for you!
SEJ Executive Editor Kelsey Jones joined SEJ ThinkTank on March 8th to discuss how businesses or brands can gain more engagement on Instagram. She shared best practices for Instagram and presented real examples to draw inspiration from to grow your online presence on the social media platform. Here is a recap of the webinar she gave, including a video recording and her slides.
Key Takeaways on Getting More Engagement on Instagram
During the webinar, Kelsey gave a 40-minute presentation then took questions live from the audience. To get the most out of her presentation, I highly recommend watching the full video.
Here are a few takeaways:
- Instagram is a visual platform so design is everything. Visually demonstrating what people care about or what matters instead of what you want to showcase is going to get you engagement on Instagram.
- Hashtags help you attract followers, grow your community, and research trends. Here are a few ways to utilize hashtags:
- Use popular hashtags on your posts to get more follows and likes.
- Comment on posts using related hashtags to get more engagement.
- Look at what’s most popular and create content around it.
- Instagram is a reciprocal network so follow to get followed. Here are a few tips on how to find accounts to follow:
- Follow accounts in the People results/tab after doing a search for the top hashtags in your industry.
- Target local businesses by looking under the Places tab after doing a search.
- Explore related hashtags to find more accounts to follow.
- Engage with your audience by leaving thoughtful comments. Show gratitude and answer questions.
- Track all brand mentions, including misspellings and “wrong” hashtags.
- Create an editorial schedule and be dependable. Look up applicable holidays related to your brand, think about when your target audience will start talking about it, and create content around that.
- Giveaways and promos can generate a lot of engagement.
Resources From Kelsey’s Webinar
- Canva: Free image editing tool
- Pablo by Buffer: Free image editing tool with a great Creative Commons database of images
- PicMonkey: Free image editing tool
- Photoshop: More expensive but with advanced editing features
- GIMP: Free software similar to photoshop
- Pixlr: Free image editing tool
- QuotesCover: Tool to create quote images
- Buffer: Automatically schedule posts on Instagram
- Instagram Search Engine: Free hashtag research tool that shows you popular hashtags people are using on Instagram after typing in an industry term
- Hashtagify: Gives you a graphical format of the top ten hashtags related to your key term
- Hashtags.org: An alternative to Hashtagify if you want even more suggestions
Watch the Full Video
Watch the Video Recap
View Kelsey’s Slides
Join Us For Our Next Webinar!
Insights From 1,200 Consumers: How Reviews Drive Local SEO Success
Join us as we unveil, for the first time, insights from GatherUp’s November 2024 survey of over 1,200 Americans on their attitudes toward reviews and how these impact the buyer’s journey.
