Best Practices for Posting to Instagram

Who doesn’t love Instagram?  I sure do!  Instagram is one of the leading social media platforms right now, just second to Facebook (psst: they own Instagram).  Its a social sharing conglomerate that combines so many of the amazing features that other platforms have, but are all in one place.  You can post photos, videos, captions, and directly connect with other users by following and using hashtags.

The straightforwardness of the Instagram platform makes it one of the most fun and easy social media platforms to use for the 300 million monthly users (as of December 2014).  Its not a coincidence that so many people are using Instagram to promote their business (or themselves) and generate income. Taking advantage of the exposure that Instagram can give, with over 75 million daily users, can be crucial to someone’s success on the platform.  I’m going to be sharing some tips with you in this post on best practices for posting to Instagram.

You can post photos, videos, captions, and directly connect with other users by following and using hashtags.  The straightforwardness of the Instagram platform makes it one of the most fun and easy social media platforms to use for the 300 million monthly users (as of December 2014).  Its not a coincidence that so many people are using Instagram to promote their business (or themselves) and generate income.  Taking advantage of the exposure that Instagram can give, with over 75 million daily users, can be crucial to someone’s success on the platform.  I’m going to be sharing some tips with you in this post on best practices for posting to Instagram.

Its not a coincidence that so many people are using Instagram to promote their business (or themselves) and generate income.  Taking advantage of the exposure that Instagram can give, with over 75 million daily users, can be crucial to someone’s success on the platform.  I’m going to be sharing some tips with you in this post on best practices for posting to Instagram.

1. Quality over Quantity

It’s not about how much you post when it comes to Instagram, but more so the quality of what you post. Posting frequently, as in at least three to four times a week at a minimum, is important to establishing your presence on the platform. However, more importantly, is that you are posting quality content that is not only attractive but useful to your followers. The reason that attractiveness counts is pretty evident considering Instagram is

The reason that attractiveness counts is pretty evident considering Instagram is a visually based platform. This really matters when others view your actual Instagram profile and can see a collection of your feed all in one place.  Most people don’t follow others without taking a look at their profile and feed and seeing if its appealing and engaging.

While you can include captions on your posts, most people scrolling through their feeds aren’t stopping to read them unless the visual element captures their attention.  Just like your blog posts, your social media posts should seek to excite and compel.  They should lead others to want to know more about you, which is one of the ways you organically build a following.

2. Keep the clutter out

As I mentioned previously, its so important to post frequently, but you don’t want to overload your followers feeds.  Overloading your followers feeds with too frequent posts will get you little engagement and a fast track your way to loosing followers.  You may have an amazing feed with amazing content, but too much of anything is never good.

[Tweet “Its important to post frequently, but don’t overload your follower’s feeds.”]

3. Not everything need to be shared

The common culprit of oversharing is huge on Instagram.  No matter how hard you try, you can’t get away from it.  The one thing you can do is make sure you aren’t doing it.  Use real discern in deciphering what should be shared and what shouldn’t.  This applies to both your photos/graphics and captions.  Remember Instagram is not your blog or personal online diary, its a sharing platform.

If you’re going through something in your life, don’t take to Instagram (or any social media for that matter) to vent.  Whatever you post, chances are you can never take it back.  Even if you delete it later, there’s a chance that someone has already taken a screenshot of it or shared it.  Once its out there, its out there and it especially matters if your rant or vent is controversial, can see viewed as offensive or is hurtful to someone.

[Tweet “Use real discern in deciphering what should be shared and what shouldn’t on social media.”]

4. Reposting is not your best friend

While reposting is favored on most of the other social media platforms, it isn’t so much on Instagram.  People prefer to see original content, so use discretion when it comes to what you repost.  Is it helpful? Does it serve to help your followers?  Is it attractive?  If you end up reposting a bunch of random reposts on Instagram, people will get the idea that you don’t have any valuable content to contribute.  You will end up looking like you’re just posting just to post, which we all know is the number no-no when it comes to posting on your blog or social media.

Be intentional about what you post and repost, because people will catch on really quickly that you are just throwing something up to have something up.  Another tip, if you love to repost, spread your reposts out between your original content posts.  In addition, don’t repost things back to back to back.  Again the same rule applies when it comes to clogging up your followers feeds with a bunch of reposts, as applies to your original posts.  Personally speaking, this is one of my biggest pet peeves on Instagram and is the one way to have me unfollow someone really fast.

[Tweet “People prefer to see original content on Instagram, so use discretion when it comes to what and how often you repost.”]

Using apps like Photofy and Pic Stitch are great ways to repost a lot of images by making them a collage.

So if you’re particularly inspired by many images you run across on Instagram, make a collage out of them and then post it.  This will save your followers from be overloaded by all of your inspiration.  You must ensure you’re crediting the sources of the photos or graphics properly within your captions.  Even in a collage form, the original posters need and deserve to be credited.

[Tweet “If you love to repost, spread your reposts out between your original content posts.”]

5. Make your posts pretty

Take the time to edit and crop your photos.  If you take a photo and the lighting isn’t good, put a filter on it or tweak the contrast and color before posting.  Instagram itself is constantly coming out with new filters that you can use right within the application on your posts.  They came out with five new ones this past December and three more late last month.

There are also popular photography and editing apps like VSCO, that have a variety of filters that you can apply to your photos to enhance them.

The entire purpose of Instagram is to be a fun sharing platform.  As long as your having fun on it, that’s all that matters.  It works the same way it works in real life, treat people the way you want to be treated.  Post things you enjoy and that other people will enjoy, be conscious of your feed and others, and of all publish high quality content.  If you’re doing those things at a minimum, I have no doubt that you will continue to get benefit out of Instagram.

Remember, its not about how many likes you get or followers you have, its about creating a community where those who appreciate you can connect.  Everything you post won’t get a ton of likes, that doesn’t mean that its not appreciated.  Don’t let the super perfect looking imagery of other people’s feed discourage you from posting the things you’re passionate about.

Be original and develop your own style and branding for your posts.  When someone looks at your profile feed and sees your all of your posts, you want them to get the right idea of who you are.  The tips I’ve shared are meant to help post better to Instagram, so that your feed will a true reflection and representation of who you are.

[Tweet “Be original and develop your own style and branding for your Instagram posts.”]

[Tweet “Up your Instagram game with these best practices for posting to it!”]

Listen to more about this topic on the Branded Bliss Podcast!

If you’re on Instagram, I’d love to check you out!  Leave your link in the comments!  If you’d like to follow me on Instagram, you can find me here. ?

Sources: DMR / Instagram Blog

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