Instagram can be a daunting platform for beginners. The gram is being used more frequently than ever before by businesses, influencers and bloggers. Learning the simple steps of how to use instagram to your full advantage is very important. We have provided some hints and tips below so that you can become a real #instapro.

Instagram bio

Your bio on Instagram is the first thing a potential new follower and your existing followers will look at on your page. Therefore, it is vital to keep this updated weekly and make sure you are including exciting news or something unique that is going to attract followers and engagement.

The most important thing for having the perfect bio is to keep it updated, consistency is key.
Have a link in your bio to new products/ new blog post. If you have a new blog post up on your website, make sure you change the link to this frequently so that the link matches the most current blog post. If you have a sale make sure this is included in your bio. If you have introduced new products include this also.
Start getting your followers more involved by creating your own personal #hashtag.
Your followers can also follow the hashtag, so anything that gets posted with the hashtag will come up in their notifications.
Study your hashtags weekly, the top 10 interior hashtags change all the time and it is important to include a few in your bio if they are popular.

Instagram body

The body of your Instagram is important to let your followers know what you are all about. Again, consistency is key with this. To grow a following and to keep your followers interested, posting at least once a day is recommended.

Trends are important, try to have an ongoing theme for your posts. Colour scheme is also important.

If you want to be playful with your posts, combine a few products in the one post. This works well for reaching a wider audience.

Try to not include pictures that aren’t relevant. If you have a new blog and want to shout about it, post an image of a product that relates to the blog and then in your description say something like “link in bio for new blog”.
Keeping the body of your Instagram tidy and on-trend is a must.
Cross-post over Facebook, Twitter and Instagram but change the description in the text.
Post at peak viewing times.
Figure out what your audience likes the most.
Turn on post notifications for important Instagram pages that you wish to keep updated with.
Competitions are great for boosting your followers.
Tagging location is also important.

For your image description, encourage your followers to take action. For example “like this post if you are loving this trend as much as we are”.
Don’t forget to include relevant hashtags and tag people in your post.

Instagram Stories

Instagram stories are great for engaging with your followers. Once you have posted on your Instagram story, this is available for all of your followers to view for 24 hours and then it disappears. This feature also gives you a chance to be informal, fun and friendly with your followers. You can view who has seen your post and make polls and questions for your followers to answer. If your followers have any questions they want to ask you, then there is the ‘ask me a question’ option on Instagram stories as well. Here are a few top tips that work well when using your Instagram story:

Have a list of ‘shout-out’ bloggers. This then tags influencers and notifies them that you are loving their work. Communication with influencers could generate following and even a chance of a shout-out on their page and collaborations.
When posting on your story, Geotag is very important. Always make sure you are posting your location as this allows local users to find you and communicate with you.
Gifs, tagging and effects are always great for using on Instagram stories. You can be more playful on your story compared to the posts on the main body of your Instagram.

Update your Instagram story at least once a day with new trends, important interior news and anything exciting that you think will get your followers hooked.

Highlights

Instagram highlights is also a new feature. Look at this feature like filing away important information that you don’t want to lose. Your story highlights make your page livelier and allow your followers who may not have watched your 24 hour Instagram story to keep up-to-date with your news.

Discovery page

The discovery page allows you to discover Instagrammers that you may not follow but you could be potentially interested in following. This is detected by the people you are already following and the images you like/ comment on. Getting featured on the discovery page is a great way in generating followers. Communicating with influencers- commenting/ liking and following their pages will give you a better chance of being featured in the discovery page. The discovery page is also a great way to find potential influencers that you may want to collab with.

Things to do:

Like photos in your niche
Approach influences to collab by direct mail, this makes it more personal, friendly and less formal than an email.

Instagram Live

Instagram live is a feature you can use for going live for your followers to watch you and even join the live chat with you. This is something you can do if you are at a special event or something important that you want to let your followers know about instantly.

Instagram TV

Just when everyone thought Instagram couldn’t introduce any more features, they decided to introduce Instagram TV. Instagram TV is great for sharing videos. It is basically like the highlight feature but in video format. Look at it like a ‘vlog’.

Metrics

Here are some important Instagram metrics to track: