Instagram for Business: 12 Do’s and Don’ts

Instagram is an excellent network for branding and visibility. You can share and curate images and videos to visually create an experience for anyone visiting your account. But as with all social media marketing, creating an authentic feed that continuously grows organically comes with its own set of rules for businesses.
In this post I’ll review 12 Instagram for business do’s and don’ts to help keep you on the path towards maximizing your Instagram presence.

The Do's

1. Post consistently

Social media marketing is a commitment. Post consistently to stay in front of your audience’s eyes and keep growth going. Try starting at three posts a week and go from there.

2. Use the link in your bio to promote specific posts or landing pages

Instagram gives you one link space, so use it to your advantage. When you have a new product, blog post, or landing page to promote, pop your link in your bio and create posts with a call to action to click on the link in your biography. If you have an engaged audience this can be a great way to generate a little more traffic.

3. Ask questions for engagement

Looking to get more engagement out of your audience? Don’t be scared to ask a few questions.
Let your audience weigh in on a new product color, or what your next e-book could be about. You may not get an answer right away - but don’t get discouraged.

4. Engage with others

Like and comment on content others are producing. Join in on conversations, follow hashtags, interact and make new friends.

5. Create a signature style/look

This one's a little tricky and will evolve over time – but creating and locking in a signature look and feel for your account is great for engagement and attracting eyes to your posts in an ever cluttered feed.
Decide how you want your account to come across visually. This means choosing colors, specific filters and giving photos a consistent look.

6. Plan

Think of your Instagram account as an extension of your brand - just as you would carefully plan any other initiative, plan your Instagram posts and images.
Carefully choose and edit your pictures, vary composition and test different captions.

7. Use industry relevant hashtags

Hashtags are used for searching, which provides you with an opportunity to get in front of new eyes. When choosing hashtags for your next post, think about how people might be searching for your content topic. Also consider how saturated a hashtag may be – targeting is the name of the game.
Instagram allows for 30 hashtags – use them strategically for growth.
Here are 2 of my posts to help you out with hashtags:

• Learn how to find the right hashtags for your business.
• Discover how to use hashtags for social media growth.

8. Share behind the scenes content

Snap some photos of your desk, take us behind the scenes at your awards ceremony, let your audience in on content they wouldn’t otherwise receive. This gives people another reason to follow your Instagram account.

9. Analyze your account

Stay on top of your Instagram analytics. Keep track of followers, likes per photo, number of comments and more with a few tools. Instagram announced that soon we’ll have built in analytics (so exciting) but until then, I’ve been using Squarelovin and Websta.me (which just got a revamp). I’ve got a few more Instagram analytics tools suggestions in this post.

The Don'ts

10. Over post

Just like any other network, you don’t want to annoy your audience with too many posts. Keep it to 1-3 posts a day (for most businesses) unless your audience reacts better to higher number of posts.

11. Use auto-commenters, or follow bots

Generic auto comments are so annoying, and getting followed over and over by the same person is just as irritating. You’re not fooling anyone – social media users are savvy to these interactions. You risk looking spammy, therefore deterring anyone from following you.

12. Post irrelevant content for the sake of engagement

Keep your posts brand-centric, or closely related to interests of your target audience (and followers). Context is everything, so even if you're going for more of an engaging post to boost attention, remember to tie it back to your brand purpose.

Bonus Instagram Tips

Create a test account

This may sound a bit outlandish, but creating a dummy account to test photos on is great for planning and checking if your new photo matches the aesthetic of the photos you already have in your account.

Iphone Text Replacement for Your Hashtags

This is a fun one I just recently discovered myself.
With the algorithm in place, getting the right hashtags on your posts is crucial. To help keep track of the hashtags you use more often, and save time when entering them, you can use the text replacement tools on your iPhone to store hashtags.
I've broken mine out into different categories, but I'm in the process of picking my 30 targeted Instagram hashtags.
Here's how to do it: Go to Settings> General> Keyboard> Text Replacement then click on the plus (+) on the upper right to enter your own replacements. Enter your hashtags under “phrase” and your shortcut phrase under “shortcut”
As you can see, you can enter a heap of hashtags under one test replacement term, saving you from having to manually enter them.
I hope these tips can help you sort out the Instagram for business world a little better. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below.