How To Be Successful on Instagram: Our Top 9 Effective Tips

Over the years, Instagram has become such a huge marketing tool that every business and content creator is on it. And while this indicates great success for the platform, it makes it harder for brands to stand out. With every brand fighting for a share of voice in their industry, it’s difficult to come out on top. That’s why today, we’re zeroing in on how to be successful on Instagram.

How do you stand out? What strategies will knock out your competition? How can your content to reach your target audience? Every brand or influencer active on Instagram has to consider these questions when building their online strategy. Not only do they need to make compelling, exciting content. They also need to maximize their potential on the platform by utilizing its key features.

Are you ready to take the Instagram world by storm with your brand’s online presence? Keep reading to see our best tips and techniques for finding success on Instagram.

How To Be Successful on Instagram: 9 Ways To Make Your Mark on IG

There’s no one magic power move that allows you to be successful and influential on social media overnight. In contrast, success on Instagram requires implementing multiple tactics that culminate in one solid strategy for the platform.

Do you want to know exactly what you must do to make your mark on the world’s biggest visual social media platform? Here are nine crucial tips on how to start a successful Instagram account and let it thrive with flying colors.

1. Consistently Produce High-Quality, Relevant Content for Your Target Audience

According to Instagram’s internal data, 200 million users visit a brand’s page every day. And get this—two-thirds of these people don’t even follow those brands!

One reason people are compelled to check out a brand’s page even without following it is because of awesome content. If they see visually pleasing, relatable content that resonates with them, they may click on the brand that posted it.

So, make sure to put out content you know your target audience will love. Research the colors and aesthetics they enjoy, and then lure them in with those content styles. This helps drive traffic to your page and interest in your brand.

2. Incorporate Different Types of Instagram Posts Into Your Content Strategy

Don’t fall into the temptation of posting the same content format again and again. Create a more diverse feed by mixing up the types of Instagram posts you publish.

Regular photos and videos are okay. But once in a while, mix it up with carousel posts or well-edited Instagram Reels for refreshing content. Having different formats lined up in your content strategy allows you to reach wider audiences. That means more eyes on your brand, and businesses and creators thrive when they reach more people!

3. Boost Visibility by Using Hashtags on Instagram

Using hashtags on Instagram can help boost your visibility on the platform. By inserting tags related to your niche, you become more discoverable to users interested in those topics. Your posts will either come up in the hashtags they follow or on their dedicated Explore page as a suggestion. It’s a fantastic way to add pizzazz to your captions while reaching your target market based on their interests.

But it’s not just about visibility. Hashtags are also perfect if you want a higher engagement rate for your post. According to Adweek, Instagram posts with hashtags are 12.6% more engaging than captions without. So, if you want more likes and comments on your content, hashtags might be the way to go.

4. Run Paid Ads To Ensure Your Brand Reaches the Right Audience

If you have wiggle room when it comes to your marketing budget, consider running Instagram ads. Ads allow you to push out your content to users under a specific audience demographic and psychographics. That means you can ensure that the posts you work so hard on will reach their intended audience.

What’s awesome about Instagram ads is that you can choose an objective for each ad campaign. Brand awareness ads help boost visibility and reach to make relevant noise about your business. Engagement ads are served to users who are more likely to interact with content like yours. Finally, conversion ads are designed specifically to drive sales and website visits.

5. Engage With Your Followers in the DMs and Comments

Another hallmark of success on Instagram is when a brand has a solid, genuinely strong relationship with its fanbase. To do that, you should engage with your followers.

Reply to direct messages they send and comments they leave on your posts. This tells them that you value them enough to read and respond to what they have to say. Even the smallest acknowledgment and shortest of conversations can have a huge impact on your relationship with a follower. Plus, engaging in these ways with your fanbase boosts engagement rates, too!

Are you too busy to reply to DMs and comments? That’s super valid. We recommend working with a reputable social media management platform that can automate replies for you. That way, your followers can still receive relevant responses from your page when they reach out.

6. Use Instagram Stories To Interact With Your Followers

Another way to strengthen your bond with your followers is by allowing them to interact with you on Instagram Stories. This is something you can do through the many stickers available in the Story editor.

Add a Q&A sticker to let fans ask you anything. Put up a poll to see what your followers prefer over two options. You can even let them express themselves in a fun, easy way through an emoji slider! All these stickers drive engagement. Not only is that good for your place in the algorithm, but it’s also excellent for “bonding” with your followers online.

7. Maximize the “Link in Bio” Feature and Drive People to Your Site

One frustrating thing about posting on Instagram is that you can’t add a clickable link to your caption. Luckily, there’s still an effective way to drive traffic to your website via Instagram—the platform’s “link in bio” feature.

You can add your most important links to your Instagram bio to drive web traffic to those sites. Feel free to add links to your e-commerce website, the latest blog post, and other pertinent pages about you. Then, whenever you post something, include a CTA to click the link in your bio. This directs people’s attention to your website. It’s such a smart tactic for product promotion and boosting conversions!

8. Open an Instagram Shop for Easy Purchase for Potential Customers

If your goal on Instagram is to drive sales and conversions for your business, open an Instagram Shop.

Your Shop is your digital storefront that allows users to purchase products straight from your Instagram page. In your Shop, you can curate product detail pages to tell potential customers more about your offerings. You can also group these product pages according to different collections, like seasonal offerings or specific product lines. Then, at the touch of a button, they can check out and pay for their order without leaving the app!

Instagram Shops are awesome for streamlining the purchasing process, allowing you to successfully rake in more profits for your business.

9. Use Instagram Insights To Analyze Your Content’s Performance

Lastly, it’s super important to track your posts’ performance metrics to see how your content is faring. This is the only way you can know for sure whether your posts actually resonate with your target audience.

If you have a business or creator account, check your professional dashboard for your page’s unique Instagram Insights. Here, you can see metrics such as reach, engagement, view time (for videos), impressions, and more per post. You can also analyze page-level metrics, like your audience demographics and follower growth trends.

Then, use what you have learned to improve your overall content strategy. Look through each post’s performance metrics and keep an eye out for patterns and trends. Do your followers interact more with Instagram Reels than feed posts? Do they prefer shorter videos over long-form ones? What kind of aesthetic and overall look seems to be most effective in engaging your followers?

Take note of what type of content fares the best with your audience and which ones you can improve on. Then, tweak and optimize your content mix and aesthetic styles for the future from there.

How To Go Viral on Instagram: A Few Content-Focused Tips and Tricks

Everybody with an online presence wants to learn how to go viral on Instagram. Virality means fame, influence, high engagement rates, and people showing appreciation and support for the content you work hard on. Plus, going viral even just once can potentially introduce you to the world of influencerdom.

However, you need to work hard to get this kind of recognition. You might think it’s sheer luck when a “no one” turns into someone overnight because of a viral Instagram post. But it’s all about thoroughly planning your content and how relatable, exciting, entertaining, and culturally impactful it is.

Are you not sure what type of content can help you go viral on Instagram? We’ve got your back. Here are a couple of ideas for what posts might be able to drive high engagement and virality for you:

• Funny Instagram Reels: People love to laugh when watching short-form video content on Instagram. The more hilarious a Reel is, the more likely people are to share it with friends through DMs or Stories.
• Contests and giveaways: Giveaway posts encourage people to like, comment, and share your post in the hopes of winning a prize. Not only does this drive engagement, but it can also potentially introduce your page to new audiences.
• A fun Instagram challenge: Whether it’s a dance challenge or an artsy photo challenge, people love joining virtual activities and community trends. Mount a challenge you think your target audience will love and see how far it goes.
• Encourage user-generated content: If happy customers create content and speak authentically about your brand, you can attract more potential followers. It’s a terrific way to create genuine buzz about your products. Encourage user-generated content by incentivizing fans with freebies, vouchers, reposts of their content on your page, and more.

How To Post on Instagram: A Quick Refresher Course

Are you ready to post content that will lead you to Instagram success? It’s time to muster up the confidence to put yourself out there and publish your content for the world to see.

Do you need a quick refresher on how to do that? Here’s how to post on Instagram, step by step:

1. Open the Instagram app.

2. Tap the plus sign at the bottom of the home page’s screen. This is the New Post button.

3. Choose from the different types of content you can post at the bottom of the screen. These include posts, Stories, Reels, and Live.

For refresher’s sake, let’s say you’re looking at posting a regular post on your feed. Follow these next steps to get the job done:

4. Choose your image or video from your camera roll. To curate a carousel post, click the multiple photo icon on the center-right part of the screen. Then, choose all the media you want to include in it.

5. Then, click Next.

6. Add filters and photo effects to your content. Then, click Next.

7. Write your caption, and feel free to add any other post elements, such as location tags, music, and more.

8. Choose the audience for your post. On Instagram, you can choose between your followers and only your Close Friends list. If your Facebook account is linked to your Instagram, you can choose whether to also post it on Facebook.

9. Finally, click Share to publish your post.

Practice These Instagram Marketing Techniques To Find Success on the Platform!

Don’t let any automation tool or seller of fake followers fool you. Finding success on Instagram is no walk in the park. To win on the platform and create a strong presence, you must follow the Instagram marketing techniques listed above.

Take your pick from optimizing your profile, producing top-tier content, running ads, using analytics, cross-promotions, or audience engagement strategies. Better yet, incorporate all of these into your strategy to increase your chances of doing well on the platform. With perseverance and time, you will surely build the great online presence and loyal fanbase you’ve always hoped for.

But sometimes, knowing how to be successful on Instagram isn’t enough to get that initial boost of growth. If you really want to give yourself an advantage, work with Path Social.

Our team uses AI to assess your current page and find what type of audience you attract. Then, we push out your content to these kinds of audiences. That means your page will be exposed to more people who resonate with what you bring to the table. You’ll get plenty of new followers, allowing you to start on the right foot as you grow your page. Grow your Instagram community today!