Instagram is one of the fastest growing visual social media app in the last two years, along with Snapchat and Pinterest.
The strength of this photo and video social sharing app has proven to be strong enough to compete in the social media battlefield. Not only does Instagram have the fast and simple photo-editing features that people enjoy, it also has over 200 million active users throughout the world. Its parent company, Facebook, has made the right decision when it acquired the company.
The result is predictable. Companies or brands around the world need to adapt their brand, marketing strategy and identity with this new platform while respecting the rules of engagement at the same time.
On 2013, Instagram made an important move by adding a video feature on its service for iOS and Android respectively. This not only pleased its user base, but marketers also found a more creative way to incorporate their products and services into social media marketing and deliver the company messages to their audiences.
As with any existing social media channel, there are a few strategies to think about and several practices to avoid for Instagram. Whatever activities or job-related ventures you are currently had, you can get bigger exposures by using Instagram’s phenomenal visual power.
Instagram in 2013
When the company was initially bought out by Facebook, the deal was received numerous skepticism and criticism. Since that time, both companies financial status have proved the critics wrong.
Instagram is not only a billion dollar company. More than that, it also accomplished some impressive metrics last year. More than 150 million users share 55 million pictures through the app on a daily basis. This activity is going to continue to grow in 2014 as well.
The top Instagram post goes to the longtime social media celebrity, Justin Bieber. Upon creating an Instagram account, the young pop star sensation immediately generate one million likes for his photo.
Hashtagging is the key to spark more interest on Instagram. The top performing Instagram hashtag was #love in 2013. Other notable categories hashtags to make the ranks included #tbt (throwback Thursday), #friends, #fashion, #food, and #selfie.
Tips and Tricks To Gain Success On Instagram
Getting familiarised with the social media etiquette comes with moderating the activity and the types of your posts. You need to get a full control over your posts. As social media marketing trends change from one year to the next radically so be mindful of the content you are going to share.
Moreover, here is the list of trends Instagram that you have to avoid:
- No more than one sixth of your photos should be selfies.
- Do not post more than twice a day.
- Pictures of food should not exceed 50% of your posts.
- Do not overuse the black and white filter.
- If you are handling company’s account, avoid uploading the pics of your baby, pet or personal matters.
- Limit the reposts of inspirational quotes.
- Stay away from using words like “babe” and “hipster”.
- Do not post pictures from more than one app.
- Use hashtags sparingly.
To succeed on the platform staying away from these practices will certainly give you solid and measurable results. Unlike any other time everyone now has unlimited and uncensored access to posting information about themselves, so balance your professional and personal life on social networks.
Conclusion
Now that you have learned the basic guidelines on Instagram, there is one important thing to consider. Each individual social media site has a set of requirements on how to get setup and what specifications go into creating an account. Growing followers is not an easy task, unless you have some form of celebrity status or you just bought the fake ones. Telling your own story is definitely start and being original too.
There is definitely nothing wrong about trying to get a lot of followers quickly. However, do not bother to use those “fast-followers services” since anything related to bad travels extremely fast on the web. It would be better if you put more efforts on building public trust and genuine followers than buying a fake one.