I usually have a hard time picking just one favorite, but when it comes to social media, Instagram is without a doubt my channel of choice. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Or is it a thousand likes?
Instagram tends to be underrated among the social media giants. Here are a few stats from the Instagram blog to put it in perspective:
- 200 million monthly active users
- 20 billion photos shared
- 60 million photos shared daily
- 1.6 billion likes per day
- Currently the fastest growing social media platform
And according to Forrester, top brands have 58x more engagement per follower than Facebook, and 120x more engagement per follower than Twitter.
Here are some little-known updates, features, tips and tricks to make your brand stand out on Instagram:
1. The Explore page has been improved, making it faster to find people you want to follow (and the Explore icon is now a magnifying glass). There are now two tabs when you open the Explore function: Photos and People. The Photos tab has not changed, but the People tab now shows you relevant accounts for you to discover.
2. Instagram has also added the ability to edit captions on your posts (finally!) So now, if you are reviewing old posts and catch typos or less-than-ideal captions, you can edit them to your liking.
3. One of Instagram’s features that many users don’t utilize is the Direct Message. You can get the direct attention of 1-15 followers by sending them a photo through a personal message. Just click on the icon in the top right of your screen and add recipients for your Direct Message. Imagine how you could surprise and delight a select group of your followers with this feature!
4. Don’t forget to tag other users and brands in your posts. You can also name the location (if your location services are turned on, it will offer suggestions around you). This can help tremendously with reach and overall engagement among the Instagram community.
5. Instagram is planning to roll out a new suite of tools to help brands understand the performance of their paid and organic content. These tools will focus in three main areas: account insights, ad insights, and ad staging. Account insights will allow businesses to see how their brand awareness is increasing through impressions, reach, and engagement. Ad insights will show how paid campaigns are performing with brand analytics for each individual ad delivered to the target audience. And finally, ad staging will let advertisers preview, save, and collaborate on ad creative for future campaigns.
Now, go and implement some of these ideas for your next gram! (And make sure you download the latest version of Instagram so you have the most recent updates and features.)
To stay up to date on all things Instagram, check out their blog here.
