Instagram is a powerful social media platform for many reasons. First, engagement is much higher than any other social network. A study conducted by Forester showed that Instagram’s per-follower engagement rate is 58 times higher than on Facebook and 120 times higher than on Twitter. Plus, many brands have joined this photo sharing app such as Starbucks, Nike and FedEx, so it looks like it’s here to stay. Another reason Instagram has grown so fast in popularity is because it lets users share their story only through visual content like images and videos.
But, as with any social media platform, the users that are getting the most out of Instagram are the ones who know how to put together the best Instagram posts. So here are the steps to follow to know what best Instagram photos to post.
Step 1:
The first step is deciding what exactly it is you want to achieve thanks to Instagram. Your goal could be to use it as a way to humanise your brand, or increase brand awareness, or build an audience for social proof, or website traffic or nurturing prospects etc…
Step 2:
Then, based on the goal you wish to achieve, decide on the different content themes you want to publish Instagram posts about, that will get you closer to your goals. For example, if you are a fitness coach who wishes to drive traffic to your blog for people to discover more of your content, you could have these 5 different themes:
- Motivational quotes
- Healthy recipes
- Health-related info-graphics
- Health and fitness tips
- Behind the scenes photos to humanise your business or brand
Motivational quotes are popular on Instagram and are top Instagram photos to share your values with your target audience. Recipes, info-graphics and fitness tips are good Instagram photos to post that will give your audience a taste of the content you share on your blog and entice people to click on the link to your blog to find out more. And behind-the-scenes photos of yourself and your clients are also good Instagram photos to post. They not only offer an opportunity for you to share your personality, have social proof of what you do and the results you can bring but also allow prospects to relate to you and your customers and therefore more likely to increase their interest for your business.
Alternatively, if you have a local business such as a restaurant, you could have these following themes:
- Display of dishes
- Local events
- Funny memes
- Customers
- Special offers
- Staff members
- Special occasions (Christmas, Valentine’s Day, etc…)
Displaying dishes from your menu are top Instagram photos that will allow you to advertise your restaurant. Instagram posts about your staff and customers will allow you to humanise your brand. Special offers are a fantastic way to reward your Instagram followers and posting about local events will make your content more relevant to your local customers.
Step 3:
The third step is doing your research. Find out who your competitors are, what they are currently doing and go through their best Instagram photos by typing in specific keywords in Instagram’s search engine. For example, you could type in “fitness coach” and check the accounts of all fitness coaches that are the most popular. This will give you an idea of what works and what doesn’t in your industry as well as help you come up with ideas for what Instagram photos to post.
Step 4:
The fourth step is taking pictures. To take the best Instagram photos, try using a quality camera or the camera on your phone rather than the built-in camera on Instagram. A mistake people make is not creating unique content by taking pictures and instead just share other people’s best Instagram posts. So start taking as many pictures as you can so you have enough content for the next few weeks or months. Remember, pictures must be simple and uncluttered, preferably with good lighting and not blurry, unique, artistic if possible and ideally spark emotions such as happiness, sadness, shock, curiosity, joy, surprise, etc… Avoid at all costs Instagram posts that act just as an online catalogue of your products or that are boring and ordinary.
For example, the coffee franchise Starbucks doesn’t just display their different types of coffees. Instead, they display original and artistic ways of serving coffee like this post for example.
Step 5:
The fifth step is editing your pictures. Instagram allows you to crop pictures, add filters and adjust brightness. So feel free to use these editing options to make your pictures stand out even more.
Step 6:
The 6th step is writing quality captions to enrich your Instagram posts. Captions can include the story behind the picture in a few words, emoji’s, hashtags, tags and calls to actions.
For more information on how Instagram can help fuel your business’ growth or promote your brand, contact MEWS today.
MEWS is a full service web development Internet marketing company and technology integrator founded in 2003, by leading industry consultants with previous technology experience.MEWS is an Internet services and solutions company with interests in website development – Mobile applications– domain name registrations - web hosting.