If you’re thinking of developing your brand’s presence on Instagram, here’s a couple of reasons why you should jump in head-first!

Whether you’re selling extremely comfortable athletic shorts, computer software, or ill-advised feet pics, Instagram has it covered. Heck, with over 800 million active monthly users on the platform, it’s kinda impossible to not reach your market.

Instagram has more than 60 million photos posted daily, plus, 1.6 billion likes given daily as well. So, who has Instagram completely figured out? How much are they posting? At what time of day? How can you be influential? All will be revealed, just keep reading.

1. Business Profile = Business Professional

You’ve heard, or maybe even asked, “Is this business casual, or business professional?” The same question can be asked for Instagram profiles. Your personal profile should be business casual, while your brand's profile should be business-professional.

How do you make the switch to a business profile?

Simply head over to the settings icon at the top right corner of your profile if you are on desktop. If you’re on mobile, you’ll have to click the three bars are the top right corner of your screen, then locate settings at the bottom of the next window. You should now see “Switch to Business Profile”, under your account options.

Voila! You now have access to free insights, analytics and stats related to the reach/impressions on your audience.

2. Free Tools, Free Tools, Free Tools

Insights allow you to view statistics like engagement data, impressions, geographics and more.

With Instagram business, you can even get demographic intel on your followers like their location, age, gender, and most active hours.

This free data is great because it not only allows you a deeper understanding of who your market is, but also how your marketing is actively engaging with your content.

Here’s our page, give us a follow if you’d like! And remember, for any social media marketing that you embark on, it’s a marathon NOT a sprint.

3. Make Some Sponsored Ads

Create sponsored ads and even control how much you pay for them. You just need to know how it works.

Instagram has a handful of advertising options. Stories, Photos, Videos, Carousel, and Collection Ads are all visual advertisements you have to choose from.

With Instagram's advertisements, brands now have the power to reach not only their followers but people who fit into their demographics as well.

When you have decided to sponsor an ad from your page, your visual will appear on timelines with a beautiful blue sponsored label. These ads even have the ability to receive feedback from the audience which can help you narrow down on exactly what your demographics want to see.

4. Be a Tease

Go ahead. It’s okay, really! People love suspense. Our craving for suspense is the reason why we have been given nine Fast & Furious movies, albeit, probably five too many. But, it is because of this human trait that product teasers work so well on social media.

Take this Supreme NYC teaser for their collab with Pearl Session Studios for example. Although Supreme is a globally recognized brand, the execution of this teaser is flawless. It delivers just enough compelling product visuals, partnered with the character Animal, from the timeless classic Sesame Street.

When delivering a teaser, you don’t want to be too pushy though. Deliver your content in a way that encourages excitement and dialogue amongst your followers. Be beauty and grace in the deliverance of your ad.

5. Repost Your Fans!

You work hard. So why don’t you relax, put your feet up, turn on Netflix and let your fans be creative for you?

Constantly creating content for your brand can be expensive and time-consuming. By outsourcing some of the creative work to the billions of talented and creative people of the world, you can save yourself time and money.

Here’s an example of GoPro taking a product users photo and re-graming it for their followers. This not only develops a sense of community but encourages others to create for a chance to featured.

Notice that GoPro tagged the user in the image caption. They go above and beyond by hashtagging a product feature and creating a call to action by saying, “Share your creative shots with us at…”

6. Branded Hashtags

Interactive, brand-focused hashtags can dramatically boost your Instagrams user engagement.

Calvin Klein has a prime example of a brilliantly branded hashtag. The #mycalvins hashtag has garnered over 740K posts.

This hashtag is so popular, they even have adorable little fluffy dogs partaking in the fun.

These hashtags allow your audience the ability to add to a collection of visuals related to that particular hashtag. They can even search for the hashtag, and related hashtags in the explore section of Instagram.

Just another way to collect potential images or videos that you can repost on your profile.

7. Post at The Right Times… But Not Too Much

You’ve worked so hard to get your first 100 or 500 followers, now tread lightly, you don’t wanna spook em’.

Over-posting is a thing, and it is a very easy way to turn off your existing followers. You just need to find the right balance so that you’re on your followers feed consistently, but not too much.

According to ExpertVoice, the best days to post by user engagement are Wednesdays and Thursdays.

The thing to remember here is that your target market might be different and engage more at different times. You can only gather this kind of data by posting and staying active on the platform.

The best times to post according to CoSchedule are between 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM, and also at 2:00 AM. The 2:00 AM time slot is designed for those night owls in mind who are either scrolling through their feed after a night out or the ones who just can’t get to sleep.

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