Instagram has the fastest-growing user base amongst all other social media applications. Almost 98% of fashion brands and 100% of automobile brands are now on Instagram. That being said, there are over 25 million business accounts on Instagram. Yes, competition is intense.

The visual aesthetic is crucial for the platform. Brands plan the content at least a month in advance. This gives room to create and schedule posts.

I will tell you how to organically increase your brand’s Instagram visibility and reach, there’s always paid promotions to help otherwise.

Advance planning

On an average business post 28 times per month, this means one post per day. To start with your plan, figure out your brand tone and its visual aesthetic. Although this seems like a lot of work, a good content plan will attract your target audience.

There are various tools/apps available to schedule posts. This way you can be on top of things without the pressure of posting every day. Whichever tool you choose to work with, be sure that it follows Instagram guidelines. Make a monthly content calendar, which should include all content ideas. Diverse content is vital; no one prefers to see repetitive posts.

Aesthetic

Once you are sure of all that you want to post, we come to the visual and most important aspect of Instagram, your feed’s aesthetic.

While deciding an aesthetic for your feed, you can play with,

  • Colors – This is very important, you have to choose a set of colors you want people to associate your brand with. This doesn’t have to limit your color options, you can choose from a palette and then play around with its tones. Brands like Canva use a rich intense color palette and post similar colors on their feed. It’s important to choose a tone of color for your feed. This makes your feed pleasing to the eye and makes people spend more time on it. More time spent on the feed = more exposure for the brand.
  • The frame of your picture – What is in your frame and how appealing does it look on the feed, you have to make sure that all the frames in a row are with a similar aesthetic and not clashing with each other. You can look up Lacoste’s Instagram page and see a clear similarity of the frame of their images.  You will have to pick a style for your feed, like minimalism, pop, etc, and incorporate elements from them perpetually.
  • Text – If your brand chooses to post content images of text, make sure they are in the brand’s colour/s and on a light background. Reading texts on darker backgrounds strains the eye and people don’t prefer it.
  • Filters – Instagram, back in the day was most famous for its filters. Filters help with the overall look and feel of an image and help with making the feed look cohesive.

Relatable/Share-Worthy Content

Instagram’s new algorithm is as messy as it can be, the only thing that can help you get out of this mess is posting content that people either share, save or interact with. The more interaction a post has the more visibility it gets.

Reels

The newest addition to the Instagram family is “reels”. Reels can be either 15 seconds or 30 seconds long. Posting reels with music that is trending on the app helps the reel attract a large audience. Keep in mind to make high-quality videos, to compete with established brands and influencers.

Instagram announced in Feb 2021 that it will not promote reels if it has the Tik Tok logo on it. Though a complete rip-off of Tik Tok you will have to make fresh content for reels if you don’t want your reach stalled by Instagram’s bots.

If you don’t want to ruin the aesthetic of your by posting reels on it, don’t fret, Reels don’t have to be displayed on the main feed page. There is a separate tab for reels where you can display them. This doesn’t affect the visibility of your content whatsoever.

Instagram also made a few changes while introducing Reels. They created a whole new page dedicated only to Reels, which makes Reels an important tool for visibility on Instagram.

Influencers make the most money out of Reels, anywhere from $75 to $100 per reel.

Hashtags

You can use tools or just Google which hashtags get the most likes or interactions for your category of business. Though hashtags don’t seem important, they still are one of the most important aspects of Instagram. Hashtags make it easy to find content on Instagram, that’s why many big brands choose to make their own hashtags on all their posts. Don’t be in a hurry while picking out your hashtags, think of them as keywords you select for your website. Research about which hashtags are most used for your business. Try incorporating them in your posts.  

Time

Time is crucial, no this isn’t life advice, it’s just Instagram advice. Instagram gives you insights into when most of your followers are online. Use this information to schedule posts at the same time. Posting on time gives your post maximum visibility. You can use the audience tab in your insights section to see the best time. Time varies for different businesses and geographies.

Stories

Reshare your posts on your stories because the Instagram algorithm doesn’t show posts in chronological order anymore. This means you have to make sure that the post is everywhere so that people don’t miss it.

Stories are temporary and you can be more flexible in terms of color and theme for it. There are various things you can post on your story like

  • Behind the scenes
  • Funny video content
  • Announcements
  • Repost your feed
  • Quick updates

Stories are viewed by over 400 million people every day. It makes your business feel more approachable and fun. Stories that you would like to showcase even after 24 hours can be put up in your highlights section.  Stories can also be linked to your website, though only accounts with over 10,000 followers are allowed to use this feature.

To sum it up, take time to find out a visual tone and theme for your brand. Always plan ahead, and keep in mind relevant content. Make a list of competitors and assess their work to understand what content fairs well.  Research your ideas well to create content that will help your brand reach its maximum potential.

This is a guest post written by Semil Shah, Chief Marketer at Shrushti Digital Marketing

According to his team, Semil Shah can take any digital marketing profile to the next level. With over 15 years of experience in the SEO world, he is a certified SEO specialist, who mainly focuses on growing businesses. He is the Chief Marketer at Shrushti Digital Marketing. In his free time, you will catch him either listening to podcasts or trekking in the jungle clicking some really cool pictures.

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