How to be successful on instagram

Instagram has become one of the most popular and most powerful social networks today. If you have an account and want to use it to get more followers and generate income, we will indicate some details that you should know.

Optimize your profile

As in almost all social networks, the key to success is to create a profile that speaks well of you. Your general profile should contain, mainly:

• An image to display: try to use a quality profile image with good composition. A brand can use its logo or the image of its latest product to take advantage of advertising. If this is the case, be sure to use the same image on all social media profiles so that it is consistent and your audience can identify you more easily. It is important to mention that Instagram cuts profile pictures in a circle, so take care that the details within the image are not lost once the crop is made.
• A username: although, in addition to your username, Instagram lets you see your real name, it is always better to have a short and easy-to-remember username so that way your audience can easily find you.
• A description or biography: try to explain who you are or what your company does. This will make it much easier for people to take interest in what you do. You can accompany this description with a link to your website.

Create a calendar

On Instagram, people review the app only when they have the time to do so, so its “feed speed” is slower than on other social media. Creating a publication calendar is good because your followers’ feed is not saturated and because you can choose the time when the most audience is online. With this, you will be able to better organize the publications and make the most of your time.

Diversify your content

The perfect balance is to combine the personal, the informative, and the promotional. However, all posts should be relevant to the audience that follows you, taking their tastes and preferences into account.

Sometimes they can be behind-the-scenes videos of advertising campaigns and other times you can include scenes with a humorous or witty twist. Take care of the consistency of the publication times and try to captivate your audience, because if there is a long delay in the content, it is very likely that your number of followers will decrease.

Develop a style

All professional photographers have their own style. On Instagram, it is also very important that you develop a unique posting style. In this way, as with the profile image, your followers will be able to identify your work or product more quickly. Try to use the same settings when you edit and publish a photo. Sticking to a single color palette that reflects your brand identity can be a good idea in this regard.

Interact with your followers

Talk to your followers! Comments are perhaps the only method of generating feedback and trust us your followers will appreciate your reply. There is nothing more annoying than an account that does not respond to comments. The more you respond, the more participatory the conversation becomes. Also, as users, it always feels good to have person-to-person contact.

Remember that a social media strategy, if developed well, can generate unexpected added value to your business strategy.

When is the best time to post on Instagram?

Another important factor is the best hours to post on Instagram, which will help you get many “Likes” and more followers.

From the analysis of tens of millions of posts made by accounts in more than 70 countries, we know that the best time to post depends on the day:

The best hours to post on Instagram from Monday to Friday:

• 7:00 am. – 9:00 am. (transfer from home to workplace or study)
• 12:00 pm. – 2:00 p.m. (lunch hours)
• 5:00 pm. – 6:00 pm. (end of work or study day)
• 9:00 pm. – 11:00 p.m. (before bedtime)

 On Saturday and Sunday:

• 9:00 am. – 11:00 am.
• 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 pm.

What time zone to use?

If you already have followers, use the time zone where most of them are, for most of your posts.

Why? The more attractive your content becomes soon after publishing, the more people will show and share it on Instagram.

How to do it?

1. Make sure you have a commercial Instagram account
2. Open the Instagram app menu
3. Go to “Perspectives”
4. Go to the “Audience” tab and check which are the main locations of your audience

If you have a new account, use the time zone in which the majority of your target audience is located. If you are targeting everyone, use EST as it is a good balance between the US. USA (which has the highest number of users) and Europe.

Monday to Friday

On weekdays most users are online during the morning commute. Lunch hours and the end of the day are also peak times for Instagram activity.

9:00 pm. – 11:00 p.m. EST is the time that Instagram catches European users at the end of their workday. And most users in the United States are on their lunch breaks, which is great for accounts with a global audience.

Saturday and Sunday

Outings, parties, and hangovers over the weekend lead users to stay connected on their phones in the late morning. In the middle of the afternoon, it is also a moment of great engagement.

Keep in mind that many people go out to socialize on Saturday nights, so depending on your demographic, you may want to avoid posting on a Saturday afternoon.

Participation on Instagram is also notoriously bad on Sundays, so don’t prioritize the weekend on your content schedule.

All that said, these times may not be the best time to post to Instagram.

Why is it important to know the best times to post on Instagram?

The big debate over the best time to post to Instagram has to do with optimal engagement, and the response has changed as the Instagram algorithm has evolved.

Many online articles declare a specific day and time as official “Best Times to Post to Instagram.”

However, we know that the best times to post on Instagram vary completely for each user, depending on demographics and audience location, so the important thing is to find the right time for you.

Naturally, if you post a video when the majority of your audience is asleep, you’ll get fewer likes and comments than when people are awake and using the app.

The trick is to know your audience or a good part of it well and to know very well what is the moment of greatest traffic for them. It is also very helpful to consider the peak hours that we have indicated at the beginning of this post.