Instagram is one of the most popular social networks where people can upload pictures and videos into their feeds for others to see. The platform was launched in 2010 and it is currently considered the highest-ranked social networking site in the globe with more than two million subscribers. Refer this blog to learn more about Instagram and it’s features like Insta Navigation, Instagram insights, and etc.
Instagram has a strong emphasis on pictures, and in this context, individuals can post images/videos of superb quality that have been adjusted and perfected through certain applications. Also, it facilitates people to interact with those who follow them i.e., liking, commenting, and sending messages directly to others.
Apart from being a social media platform, Instagram has proved itself to be a significant marketing tool for businesses. Through this, the business can also sell its products or even create leads and generate sales just like many other businesses used it.
Creating an Instagram account
To set up an Instagram account, one needs to give their name, email address as well as a desired username. Also, you may decide to link your Instagram page with some of your Facebook accounts.
Then, you can set up your account after which you can upload images and videos. For this, just click on the “+” sign at the bottom part of your screen and choose the photo or the video that you wish to send. Thereafter, you modify your photo/video with Instagram’s built-in filters and editing tools.
After you finish your photos or videos, you can put a caption together with some hashtags. One of the best ways to gain more readers and exposure is through hashtags because they enable one’s posts to appear in search results linked with these tags.
See Also: How to Unblock Someone on Facebook and Messenger
Let us look at the features of Instagram:
Posting
Photos and videos: They enable users to post images or videos they have taken and share them with their friends, followers, and other contacts. It has inbuilt editing features for photos and videos that make them easy to alter and filter with a twist.
Stories: Short and temporal pieces of information known as stories last only a day before disappearing. It is possible to attach photos, videos, text, and stickers in stories.
Live video: People can share some live videos with their followers on the platform. People can also save live videos to Stories after completing their broadcasts.
See Also: The Crucial Role of Video Editing in the Success of Video Production Companies
Viewing
Feed: It’s a timeline of postings from every account that the user follows.
Explore: On the Explore page will find different forms of content for example, there are photos or videos from the most famous pages, together with the other content, which Instagram considers to them, as being interesting.
Profile: A profile shows all the posts a user has posted and the bio alongside other details.
Interacting
Liking: By clicking on the heart icon, users showcase their liking of their followers’ posts.
Commenting: On the other hand, users tap a speech-bubble icon under the post and make their comments.
Direct messaging: Tapping the airplane symbol on top of the screen enables users to directly message their followers.
Groups: The main objective of grouping is for the user to be able to meet people sharing similar interests as they do. They may also form a group and post photos and videos for other participants.
See Also: How To Get More Instagram Likes
Business Features
The features available for business on Instagram are many. These features include:
Business profile: Business profiles have more advantages than personal ones including intelligence, shopping tags, and ads.
Insights: Businesses gain insights through information about their audience, engagement levels, and performance metrics. And you can also analyze the performance of your stories using insta navigation feature.
Shopping tags: Businesses now use shopping tags, which allow business owners to ‘tag’ any product mentioned on their post so that followers can understand what they are looking at and where they can buy it directly on Instagram.
Ads: The ability to run ads is also available for businesses on this social media platform to target a particular group.
Other features
Instagram also offers several other features, such as:
Hashtags: Users can arrange their posts using hashtags thus they become easily found by other people interested in that particular topic.
Filters: Instagram uses many filters for editing photos and videos.
Geotags: They can also tag a location where the post was made.
Notifications: This means that users will be able to get notifications of likes, comments as well and other activities occurring on their accounts.
Settings: Through these, users regulate their privacy to control what they see on Instagram.
See Also: How To See Who Views Your Instagram Profile?
Some special tips for the effective use of Instagram:
1. Be consistent
Of all the ways to make effective use of Instagram, one of them is being consistent. This entails posting your blog frequently and engaging with your followers.
You will determine how frequently to post based on your objectives and customer base. A business might also have to make several posts daily. For a personal user, one could suggest posting less often. However, endeavor to post at intervals in such a way that your followers can determine the periods during which they should expect content from you.
2. Employ various types of content.
Instagram encompasses different media types such as photos, videos, stories for 24 hours only, and live videos. Utilize all these alternative forms to maintain novel and interactive content.
However, stories have grown in popularity even though photos and videos remain top of the list among people’s favorite kinds of posts. Using stories, you can reveal some insider information about yourself and thus provide private access to your daily activity.
You can also interact with them in person through live video. For example, live video can be used during Q&A sessions about products, for informal discussions with subscribers, etc.
3. Interact with your audience
One additional significant trick to take advantage of on Instagram is engaging with your audience. This entails replying to comments and direct messages as well as liking and commenting on other users’ posts.
Asking a question from one’s audience demonstrates that you are concerned about their thoughts, as well as their willingness to create healthy connections with other people. This also increases your engagement leading to an increased number of followers and reach.
4. Use relevant hashtags
Using hashtags is one of the best ways to make sure many people see your posts. Using relevant hashtags ensures that your posts will appear in the search results from those hashtags.
You can use Instagram’s search bar and third-party tools like Hashtagify. me to identify relevant hashtags. In addition, it is important to select both conventional as well as trending hashtags to draw larger groups of people on Twitter or Instagram.
5. Create high-quality content
Of course, you have to make quality content in order not to be limited by this tool only. Make sure your photos and videos are well-lighted, balanced, and aesthetically pleasing.
Do not forget to write some catchy captions for your posts too! The captions you incorporate in your video files should also be brief but interesting and explanatory of the content within them.
6. Promote your Instagram account
For you to build more followers on our Instagram account, we have to promote the same. Some ways of doing this are through posting on other social media platforms, cross promotions, or even paying for adverts.
Additionally, visiting industry events where you can give away business cards with your Instagram handle is another way of promoting your Instagram account.
7. Be patient
Creating a good reputation for your social media accounts is indeed time-consuming. Do not expect to have millions of followers in a day. Instead, simply concentrate on producing great content, engaging yourself with your followers, and monitoring your progress through Instagram Insights and a feature called insta navigation.
Gradually, you will realize that your followers are increasing while your engagement rate is also going up.
Now let us talk about a special feature called Insta navigation:
Insta Navigation is one of the options within Instagram Insights, which indicates how people swiped through your stories via Instagram. That is, it gives the record of how many hits on “Back,” “Forward,” “Next Story,” or Exit.
Businesses, as well as creators, can use this information to assess their Stories and find weaknesses using insta navigation feature. For instance, if many users stop watching your Stories early on, you may find out that the content has poor engagement and relevance.
Improving Your Instagram Story through Insta Navigation.
Here are some tips on how to use Insta Navigation to improve your Instagram Stories:
- Pay attention to your exit rate: Many people leaving Stories before they finish could indicate that your stories lack the necessary relevance and engagement. It would be a good idea to try out different content types and formats.
- Use backtaps to your advantage: Backtaps option in insta navigation feature will reveal the extent to which people would like to see more of such or similar kinds of postings. If you notice many backtaps on some news story, generate other similar stories.
- Use forward taps to keep your viewers moving: However, forward taps help you realize whether many people want to see more of your stories in general. Watch out for many forward taps, and try to create connected Stories that people do not want to stop viewing.
- Use insta navigation’s next story swipes feature to see what your audience is interested in Subsequent left swipes of stories tell whether other people have an interest in watching more of your stories, or if they’d rather see another story. Look out for a swipe of lots of next stories and reduce your Stories to be brief.
- Track your metrics over time: It will also allow you to observe your stories’ history and spot common patterns.
- Compare your metrics to other users: You can use Instagram’s tool, Instagram Insights, to determine how your Stories stack up with those of other businesses within the same sector. This will allow you to determine places where you need to make improvements. #
- Use A/B testing to experiment with different content formats and styles: Using the A/B testing you should be able to try out various kinds of content to establish that which captures them most.
- Get feedback from your audience: Get to know what people like or do not like in your Stories. By so doing, you may be in a position to provide information that will be engrossing as well as applicable to your listeners.
