Some of your business will be gained via social media. We want to show you 10 ways to improve your Instagram feed.

How Instagram Hashtags Work

Hashtags allow users to search or follow keywords / hashtags. Adding hashtags to your posts will place it at the top of any search or followers’ feeds. BUT your post will only appear at the top until the next person posts with the same hashtag. You will appear at the top of a feed for seconds, minutes, or hours, depending on popularity.

Simplify Content Into Hashtag Sets

Use hashtag sets to simplify your posts into 3 to 5 categories.

Example: Linda’s Coffee Shop

Coffee
Food
Customers
Offers

Choose hashtags from a range of popularity. This allows your post to sit at the top for longer in certain areas, yes, these hashtags may not get many views. But your post will sit at the top for longer instead of being lost in a sea of #coffee posts.

600,000 to +1 million
300,000 to 600,000
100,000 to 300,000
-100,000

In our coffee shop example, Linda could choose

#coffee, #coffeelover
#coffeebrewing #coffeeadict
#coffeestory
#lattelovers #lattetime

Now each time you post, copy your chosen hashtag set, then add a few that relate to that specific image.

Use Meta’s Business Suite to improve your Instagram feed by saving hashtag sets on your device.

For example, you may post an offer for Mother’s Day, 10% off children buying their mum coffee and cake.

You use your standard coffee hashtag set, then add #mothersday #coffeeformums, etc.

Where Should Hashtags Go?

There’s a split in advice on this subject, first comment or caption. Many argue SEO improvements and/or aesthetic reasons for both positions. Instagram has finally cleared up this argument, hashtags belong in the caption.

3-5-hashtags-on-instagram-0 — Instagram post from @creators

How Many Hashtags Should We Use?

Instagram recently stated 3 to 5 hashtags (see image above) is the magic number. But a recent study conducted by High Seasons Co suggests 20+ relevant hashtags still give optimal performance.

Instagram’s recent advice might suggest the algorithm is changing. But for now (April 2022) this isn’t the case. Make sure you choose relevant hashtags, describe your image. Don’t use #coffee if your image is chocolate cake just because you’re a coffee shop business.

Imagine you are trying to describe your image to a person with visual impairment, what are the keywords you would use?

What Should We Post?

Content is king for why Instagram users will follow your account. Post the same old pictures all the time? It’s obvious and people don’t like it. Open Instagram and check your profile. Is it made up of the same colours, similar posts, recycled hashtags, etc.?

If it is, you may need to think about new content ideas, create a colour splash image, use Instagram filters, see what’s trending and how you could create a take on it for your business. Later.com produces a monthly blog article listing the latest instagram trends if you’re ever stuck for ideas.

Reels, Photos, Carousels, Instagram Live, Stories

There are a lot of different types of content you can post to instagram, what type you should post can depend on current trends. Currently unedited carousel photo dumps are trending, influencers everywhere posting photos of their raw everyday life without the glamour. Next week it might be pigeons (this is pure speculation from my part).

Reels is Instagram’s new baby, so reels are prioritised and will be easier to ‘go viral’. See what’s trending at the moment and recreate something similar for your niche. E.G. Linda wants to create a video of her setting up one morning, speed this up so it’s around 10 secs and set to a popular song. This gives her customers some insight into the shop.

Image Captions

Instagram is changing, they have placed a less focus on hashtags in recent years. More attention has been placed on captions and image content. Instagram uses advanced AI to scan and detect the contents of all posted photos, giving them a great understanding of what’s in your post.

Make sure your caption describes your image. Using hashtags to help, use a caption that engages your potential clients, and asks questions, not just statements.

E.g. What are you doing for your mum this Mother’s Day?

Research Competition

Every business should research their competition, regularly checking to see what’s going on. This is true for Instagram as well. Follow your competitors, see what hashtags they are using, and what posts do well.

Investigate indirect competition. What I mean is, a coffee shop in Wimbledon is not in competition with a coffee shop in Edinburgh. But, the Edinburgh coffee shop has 300,000 followers while Wimbledon has 100. See what is working for them, and will it work for you?

When To Post?

Your content doesn’t need to be posted the same day it’s created. Spend a few hours each month planning your content, create your content when you can, and schedule it.

Linda’s Coffee Shop Post Schedule–Week 2 March 2022

Monday – Photos taken of customers inside the shop. They mostly took these photos in the last few days of January.
Tuesday – Overhead cake recipe video part 1.
Wednesday – Mother’s Day promotion.
Thursday – Part 2 of cake recipe video.
Friday – Mother’s Day promotion.
Saturday – Latte art photos taken in February.
Sunday – Stop motion video created in December of different Latte Art

Using Business Suite, you can schedule months ahead. Leaving you to focus on your business and not on what the next Instagram post will be.

Followers, Likes, or Reach

Knowing which posts do best is a key part of dominating Instagram, there is no point posting images and videos that don’t work to at least some degree? Instagram gives analytics on likes and reach for each post plus followers for your account. The key stat is reach, you might have 10,000 followers, and each post gets 2500 likes, but if your reach is low, then no one really paid attention to your post.

Reach is how many people stopped and looked at your image, not just scrolling past quickly and pressing like. Reach tells any potential sponsor that your followers will stop and pay attention to their sponsored content if you are an influencer and will give you, as a business owner, a better idea of what photos and images work best for your company.

Meta Business Suite

Mentioned a few times in this article, A business Facebook and Instagram page gives you access to Meta’s Business Suite. Here you can schedule posts for both social networks, With no limits on how far ahead you can plan.

By leveraging Business Suite we are able to save our hashtag sets for quick access without copying from a note app.

Conclusion

We have discussed multiple methods to improve your feed. From hashtags to the images you might choose to use. What have you done and what has worked for you?