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Instagram Best Practices to Grow Your Brand and Engagement
Follow these Instagram best practices to improve engagement and grow your following.
Table of Contents
To have a successful and engaging Instagram presence, you have to do more than consistently post a few pictures. However, with the right tools and best practices, you can decipher Instagram’s algorithms and improve your return on investment.
“Instagram offers small businesses an accessible way to build a brand, reach potential customers and drive conversions,” said Sarah Remesch, digital and social media marketing expert and founder of 270M. “It is especially well suited for small businesses because it allows them to visually showcase their products and services and tell their story in a similar fashion as a microsite would.”
Follow these best practices to set your brand up for success on Instagram.
Top 10 Instagram Tips
1. Optimize your profile for search and discovery
Optimizing your Instagram profile for search and discovery is foundational for building an engaged audience. Start by selecting a username and account name that are clear, memorable, and rich with industry-relevant keywords. This increases your discoverability in both Instagram’s in-app searches and external search engines.
Business accounts should always complete their bios by including accurate contact information and activating action buttons like “Book Now” or “Order Food” to encourage user interactions. Additionally, enabling profile visibility settings allows Instagram to recommend your account to users with related interests, giving you greater organic exposure.
“SEO can be applied by including important keywords in your username, display name, bio and caption copy,” Remesch said. “Captions are also one of the best places to authentically include keywords. This not only helps Instagram understand what your post is about, which can affect where and how it is shown, but it also drives further reach to the audience who you are targeting.”
[Read related article: 12 Reasons to Use Instagram for Your Business]
2. Post at peak engagement times
When it comes to posting at peak engagement times, rely on the latest data to maximize impact. Research indicates that weekdays between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., especially on Mondays through Thursdays, according to Sprout Social. Posting early in the morning can also be effective due to lower competition and early user activity. Research from Later.com suggests some brands may benefit from posting between 3 am and 6 am.
Establishing a consistent posting schedule tailored to these findings helps solidify your visibility to both followers and Instagram’s algorithm, which boosts overall reach and engagement. Peak engagement windows vary by industry, so it’s vital to consult your Instagram Insights to discover when your particular followers are most active.
Industry | Peak Instagram Engagement Times |
Retail | Mondays at 11 am and 1 – 3 pm |
Education | Wednesdays from 10 am to 5 pm |
Food & Beverage | Mondays through Thursdays between 11 am and 2 pm |
Source: Sprout Social
Establishing a consistent posting schedule tailored to these findings helps solidify your visibility to both followers and Instagram’s algorithm, which boosts overall reach and engagement.
“Consistent posting is important because it helps businesses remain visible to their audience and signals to the algorithm that the profile is active while keeping the brand appearing in-feed regularly,” Remesch said. “However, posting frequency and cadence should be determined based on content performance data.”
3. Use Instagram Stories and Reels strategically
Using Instagram Stories and Reels strategically is essential for expanding your brand’s reach. Stories are perfect for sharing behind-the-scenes moments, product launches or day-to-day updates using interactive elements like polls and quizzes to drive audience participation. Stories live on your profile for only 24 hours and can include photos or video clips with music, text, GIFs or stickers layered on. Try livestreaming company events or doing employee takeovers for a day.
Reels, meanwhile, excel with short, entertaining or educational videos — especially when paired with trending audio. Instagram Reels provide entertaining short videos that can be funny, inspiring and educational. You can increase your reel’s visibility by using high-quality audio or music, keeping it under 10 seconds, adding the reel to your website, including relevant hashtags and scheduling your posts for when your followers are online.
4. Write captions that drive action
Effective caption writing is one of the most impactful ways to drive user action. Begin captions with a compelling hook, such as a question, surprising statistic or bold statement. Follow this with a concise story or message that adds brand personality and context. Close each caption with a clear and engaging call-to-action, such as encouraging users to comment, share, save or visit your website.
Integrate relevant keywords within your captions, both for discoverability and to help AI-driven features accurately index your posts. More specific hashtags or keywords will help your posts appear to consumers when they talk to Meta AI. Users can ask Meta AI to show them relevant posts on any topic and if the subject matter relates to your brand, you’ll appear closer to the top of their search results.
Above all, ensure your writing style and tone remain authentic and in alignment with your brand to foster trust and meaningful connections. Focus on telling a better business story through images, video and text, and seek connections with your audience. Be memorable. When followers feel an emotional connection to your content, they are more likely to engage and become a faithful social media audience.
5. Master the hashtag game
Limit your hashtag count to three to five targeted options per post, combining popular general tags, niche industry keywords and branded hashtags that represent your business. While Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags on a standard post, a wall of hashtags under your posts can look desperate and unprofessional.
Comprehensive keyword research using tools like Metricool or SEMrush is essential for discovering trending and relevant hashtags. Benchmark your choices against competitors and top-performing industry accounts, updating your hashtag sets as trends evolve. Hashtags can make the difference between your post rising to the top of a feed and being buried in a sea of other posts, so it’s important to learn which ones work for you and your brand. Overly generic or popular hashtags, like #holiday and #fashion, can send your posts into oblivion, as they will compete with millions of other posts. Instead, use industry- or brand-specific hashtags that are easy for users to find and help your content stand out.
In the past, Instagram users were able to follow hashtags, but this feature was done away with in 2024. While hashtags may play a diminished role in organic discovery compared to prior years, they are still valuable for organizing content and improving searchability, so choose them wisely and monitor their performance regularly.
6. Engage authentically in comments and DMs
Authentic engagement in comments and direct messages remains crucial for building trust with your audience. One of the best ways to build engagement on your posts is to be engaged yourself. Respond to customers’ comments as much as possible. This will help build your credibility by showing that you care about what your customers have to say and that you are using social media for a good reason.
“Comments are the front porch of your brand, so show up, say hello and be a real human,” said Jaci Lund, founder and creative director at Treebird Branding. “This is where relationships start.”
Promptly responding to comments and DMs each day signals that your brand values community feedback. Take care to personalize your responses, referencing specific details or using first names when appropriate. Stick to your branding guidelines to maintain a consistent voice.
Proactively starting group conversations, tagging relevant users and showing appreciation for constructive input can further strengthen your brand relationships. While Meta AI offers tools for suggested replies and moderation, ensure all interactions maintain a human touch and reflect your brand’s established voice. If you’re unsure of how to respond to comments, you can use Meta AI, which provides advice on what to say. You can even tag Meta AI in private or group chats for it to chime in.
7. Track metrics that matter
Tracking the metrics that matter is the backbone of any effective Instagram strategy. Using tools like Instagram Insights and your Professional Dashboard, focus on analyzing engagement rate metrics such as likes, comments, shares, saves per follower, and overall reach.
Businesses should prioritize monitoring story and reel views, follower demographics and growth, and the volume of website traffic generated by Instagram links. Consult industry benchmarks regularly to evaluate your performance. The table below shows Instagram engagement rates by industry based on data compiled by Hootsuite.
Industry | Instagram Engagement Rate |
|---|---|
Consumer goods & retail | 1.8% |
Dining, hospitality, tourism | 1.9% |
Finance | 1.8% |
Government | 3.2% |
Healthcare, pharma, biotech | 1.6% |
Construction and manufacturing | 2.8% |
Media & entertainment | 2% |
Real estate/legal/prof. services | 2.9% |
You can also create an Instagram business profile with different features than a personal account. You can include business information, such as a phone number and address in your bio; add a Contact button to your profile; utilize story highlights and covers; and access Instagram Insights, a tool that provides detailed analytics about your followers and engagement rates.
8. Collaborate with influencers and creators
When collaborating with influencers and creators, prioritize partnering with micro-influencers who maintain engaged, high-quality followings within your niche or geographic area. If you are considering Instagram marketing with influencers, it’s important to consider whom to work with very carefully. No two influencers are the same, and each comes with its own unique audience and areas of expertise.
“The influencer bubble is popping,” Lund said. “Trust is eroding because followers know most endorsements are paid. Instead, we recommend building real relationships with micro-influencers, especially ones with local or niche followings. They create more authentic content and drive higher-quality engagement.”
Scrutinize an influencer’s engagement authenticity — real interactions often matter more than large, unaffiliated follower counts. Set clear campaign goals and maintain transparency about sponsorships and expectations. Building ongoing, mutually beneficial relationships with creators is more effective and trustworthy than executing one-off campaigns.
9. Utilize Instagram shopping features
Instagram’s evolving shopping features create new opportunities for direct sales and customer conversions. Businesses should fully set up their Instagram Shop with accurate product listings and rich media tags to enable seamless purchases from posts, Stories and Reels. You can also add action buttons that allow you to engage consumers through services such as ordering food or making an appointment directly on Instagram.
Utilize videos, carousels and live demos to highlight products, and incorporate “Shop Now” or “Book” action buttons to simplify the buyer journey. With Instagram’s advertising program, you can create campaigns to attract users at all sales funnel stages as part of your Instagram marketing strategy.
10. Refresh content forms regularly
Keeping your content formats fresh and dynamic is key in today’s crowded social media landscape. A major Instagram faux pas is sharing multiple photos as individual posts one after the other. Instead, share them in a single post using the carousel feature. Instagram increased the Carousel post limit to 20 photos in a single post in 2024, but don’t expect followers to scroll through 20 images either.
Rotate between carousels, single-image posts, Reels and Stories to retain audience interest and stand out in feeds. Take advantage of newer aspect ratios and visual layout updates for your grid, and test multiple formats to determine what drives the most engagement with your followers. Consider varying your posting style. Try a Reel, Story or how-to post to keep your followers entertained and increase your chances of reaching new leads.
Regularly feature user-generated content, testimonials and customer stories to boost authenticity and cultivate community. User-generated content creates an engagement opportunity for users, reduces costs for your business and shows users that your brand listens to and values customers.
Try creating a branded hashtag that followers can use to submit content, then repost applicable and appropriate content to your business page for all to see. Some great examples of user-generated marketing campaigns are Starbucks’ #RedCupContest and Coca-Cola’s #ShareaCoke campaign. Just make sure to closely follow Meta’s Community Guidelines because Instagram’s AI moderation features will automatically remove anything that goes against these rules.
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