Initially created as an app for communicating through images, Instagram wasn’t considered a powerful marketing platform at first. But the idea was so successful that the app gained over a million followers in just two months.

After being acquired by Facebook in 2012, Instagram has become a powerful platform for business. Moreover, it’s a home platform for many e-commerce companies. Now, there are over 25 million business profiles on Instagram with 90% of the top 100 world-famous brands already having a successful Instagram account.

The number of Instagram users continues to grow. At the end of 2018, the number of active Instagram users reached one billion.

Furthermore, out of one billion Instagram users, 80 percent already follow at least one brand, which makes Instagram the ultimate marketing platform for any business. However, there’s one tricky obstacle to the success of your Instagram business account: creating content.

Why tricky?

It may seem like taking a pretty picture, using a filter and writing a catchy caption is enough, but it’s not. Instagram users are rather spoiled and saying that they’ve already seen it all wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Creating high-quality content is a prerequisite of the success of your Instagram account.

What Defines High-Quality Content?

There are five major traits for high-quality Instagram content:

• Visual appeal
• Informative value
• High-quality resolution
• Reliability
• Relatability

High-quality content is also up-to-date and something every follower can relate to because it follows the latest world trends. Followers want to see a brand that exists in the same universe they do and creates something they can and want to relate to. When you keep that in mind, every time you post on Instagram, you can be sure that you create high-quality content.

Let’s have a look at the ways high-quality content is created, what tools are used and some ways to engage your followers and grow your Instagram audience.

Exploring the Magic of Storytelling and Shared Experience

The best and the most genuine way to create high-quality content to attract your followers is to ask them to contribute. Use your Instagram audience to crowdsource content for your Instagram Business account.

Storytelling is one of the winning strategies for creating good content. Look at the latest trends: people love watching vlogs following someone else’s journey and experience. Stats support the desire of internet users to see more storytelling content: more than 90% of consumers want brands to make ads that feel like a story.

Using storytelling and asking your followers to share their experience is a great way to make your brand relatable. Your followers want to have a little sneak peek into how everyone else is using your product and what they have to say about it.

You can ask your followers to share their experiences and stories by either making a related post with a certain hashtag that would unite similar posts under one category or sharing a poll that asks a particular question.

Airbnb is a great example of an Instagram business account that loves to share the stories and experiences of their followers. However, storytelling format is not only a good fit for travel-related businesses, like Airbnb. You can always find a follower who has a great experience using your product, which is a good marketing strategy for your brand. Just don’t forget to give credit to your followers, thanking them for supporting your brand.

Starting a campaign where you share the experience of your followers requires the use of hashtags so that other followers will be able to track the updates. The best strategy here is not to create one or two branded hashtags, but to add multiple ones to increase the channels so that other Instagram users will be able to reach you.

Adding multiple hashtags to a post is a common strategy for social media campaigns, during which companies collaborate with their followers to create shared content. The Instagram algorithm is very friendly toward adding multiple hashtags to a post, or a comment section under it, helping it appear more frequently in searches and on the Explore page.

Tip: Make sure all the hashtags are relevant to your campaign and can be easily read and singled out. Also, try to create one or two hashtags that will help your campaign stand out.

Collaborating with Talented Influencers – No need to recreate the wheel!

Influencer marketing is an established marketing strategy that appeared thanks to Instagram. It is a great way to create high-quality engaging content without putting in any effort of your own.

Instagram users love following influencers for different reasons, including:

• Influencers try various products themselves before recommending them to the followers. This makes them a credible source of information about a certain product.
• Although influencers get paid for reviewing and promoting a product, they do it in a non-promotional way, giving honest feedback, which followers appreciate.
• They are sharing their unique experience using a product by telling a story, which is also appealing to Instagram users.
• Users tend to trust influencers more, as they also trust their honest opinion and experience. Thus, they will be more likely to purchase a product promoted by an influencer rather than directly from a brand.

Collaborating with the influencers is one of the key strategies for Instagram ads, as it makes an ad look non-intrusive and creates an image of a brand that understands the current trends on social media and supports independent creators.

People love the influencers they follow, and they will be more likely to trust your brand if you collaborate with their favourite influencer.

Surprise Followers with Contests and Giveaways

Your followers love free stuff! Having regular contests and giveaways is a great way to attract new customers to your Instagram business account.

Despite the fact that Instagram users are eager to participate in more contests and giveaways, only 2% of brands run these activities on a regular basis.

Contests and giveaways are generally intended to boost activity on a certain social media page. If you want to attract more followers to your Instagram business account, this is a sure-fire way and a good self-promoting strategy. These posts also get the most activity in terms of likes and comments.

Don’t disregard contests and giveaways as a strategy to attract more customers. You’ll give your customers what they want and boost their activity on your Instagram business account.

Valuable Content Creates Valuable Followers

When thinking about the ways to increase your follower base and attract new customers through Instagram, creating high-quality content is the best answer.

Instagram users are always looking for inspiration from brands, as well as value and visual appeal.

The platform offers many tools for brands to be creative with their content, including stories with an option to create polls and add creative stickers that help your stories stand out. The possibility to post carousels to upload both photos and videos in one post is also one of the most versatile Instagram features.

But it’s all about the value of your posts. As long as your content remains relatable and informative, you’ll be able to maintain high follower activity on your Instagram business account.

Need help creating content for your Instagram business page? Contact us.