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Instagram is an image and video based platform that has changed from a “Maybe we

should” to a “Must-have” platform especially for retail brands and image-friendly lifestyle

businesses like food, restaurants, hotels, game lodges, clothes & fashion as well as

architecture, technology and design.

Facebook, the World’s No. 1social media platform, bought Instagram for a billion

dollars on April 9th, 2012.

800 million monthly active as at end of Sept 2017. 500 million daily active users.

20% of internet Users are on Instagram.

8 Million Business profiles.

It is THE platform for digital device, mobile/tablet usage.

Visual storytelling has more impact than ever to increase direct engagement.

Average monthly follower growth is 16%.

Average engagement rate 1.1%.

Note these Benchmarks: How does Your Performance compare?

Available Regional Stats provided by @NapoleanCat as at Oct 2017:

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Treat Instagram feed as a precious place for ONLY your best content.

Focus your posts on ONE BIG IDEA that educates, enriches or entertains (3 E’s) your target

audience.

Focus on Transformation not Information.

The best time to post on Instagram is off-work hours when people are more likely to see

your post in their newsfeed.

Most brands post 1 to 2 times a day on Instagram.

Monday and Thursday see some of the highest engagement.

Sundays seems lowest.

Try: 11am at the weekend; Lunch time and 6pm to 7.30pm weekdays

Test 8 – 9 am.

Video seems to get more interactions late evening, after supper.

Worst time may be between 3 to 4 pm.

Profile Title: 100 characters max.

Descriptive Bio allowance is up to 150 characters.

Cover who you help, how you help and, how followers benefit.

Add a link to a “Quick Win” Lead magnet.

S E T U P A B U S I N E S S P R O F I L E

Business profiles will only be open to those who have a Facebook Page for their business.

Go to your profile by tapping at the top of your screen on < Settings < Select the

Faceebook page your Admin < Switch to Business to acceess Insights ( ) & Business

Tools.

Business contact info will appear at the top of your Profile when users search for you.

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Similar to Facebook an algorithm shows posts to a sample audience to see how the

audience reacts to it. If the audience reacts positively to the post right away, the algorithm

will show the post to more people.

The types of engagement that the Instagram algorithm considers can include likes,

comments, video views, shares (via direct message), saves, story views, and live video

views.

The order of photos and videos in User’s feed is based on:

How Interested they are likely to be (this is measured by what content they engage

with and what HASHTAGS you use to define your content)

Relationship with the person posting (you will see people you care about and

interact with first).

How recent the post is.

T o o l s

Live Video (use Animations to have a bit of fun!)

Normal Camera

Boomerang is the Instagram App l to use to create a mini video.

When you open the Instagram phone app your main feed appears.

At the bottom of the screen:

Newsfeed

Shows up Live, Stories and Trending tags.

Click the Add button at the bottom to Add a new post

Shows your Likes, Follows etc.

View & Edit Profile

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Double click on an image to ‘Like’ the photo.

Comment by tapping and send a private message to that person on Instagram Direct.

Use @ symbol to Tag (@Mention) other User handles in your captions.

Use Hashtag # symbols for SEO and search.

Mention influential users to engage new audiences.

Tag a location for engagement growth.

Top Random Tip! Gingham is the most popular filter and attracts the most likes and

comments followed by Claredon.

To optimise Reach and get early Engagement, it’s important to consult your Insights and

post when the majority of your audience is online.

Group Message up to 15 people at a time.

To view someone’s Instagram Story, you simply need to tap on their profile photo, and

their story will appear full-screen, showing you all of the content they’ve posted in the last

24hrs, the content will play in chronological order from oldest to newest.

The best captions are conversational and intriguing.

The most successful posts have between 10-12 hashtags.

Links in comments and captions are not useful.

Instagram Stories is a feature that lets users post photos and videos that vanish after 24

hours to help Brands tell a story without over doing content in people’s feeds.

15 seconds is the maximum length of an Instagram Stories video.

“Add your Story” and select images from your Gallery or add real-time images/video.

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Unlike regular posts, there are no likes or public comments but you can view Insights.

Create a solid colour image ideal for cover or CTA:

Take a random image < click on the Edit button < Select a colour at the bottom < tap the

screen to place the colour dot in the centre < hold down for solid colour to appear < Add

Text, stickers etc. NOTE: Drag the colour dot upwards to see colour chart and select your

preferred shade. < Save and Add to your Story.

S t o r y t e l l i n g I d e a s

Tell a 3-part story:

Intro Middle Close

The Situation The Problem The Solution

Incident Action Benefit

Behind Scenes Climax Testimonial

The Problem Agitate the Problem Solve

Share images that take users inside and behind the scenes of running your business.

How To Tips numbered in a series.

Promote limited time offers.

Entice viewers with exclusive offers.

Countdown to Events.

Add# into the Image Text

Feature your story by posting it on your profile so it will appear within the feed by tapping

the upload button and edit as necessary.

“Hashtags are word(s) or terms that help people search for info online. They help connect

Content and People talking about the same topic, event or trending news.”

Hashtags act as a free way for small businesses to build brand awareness, establish their

authority in their industry and, they are yet another way social media helps compete with

larger companies for less.

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Hashtags should help your ideal target audience find your content, so do research to find

which hashtags are being used most frequently in your industry and by Influencers.

The most popular hashtags on Instagram are #Love, #Instagood, #Me, #Cute, #Follow.

Use keyword(s) that match your post and brand in your posts with the ‘#’ symbol in front.

Don’t use spaces and for more than one word, start each with a CAP to make reading

easier.

Hashtags should be remarkable, distinctive and relevant to your message but not gimmicky

with symbols and numbers that don’t meant anything.

Try to keep your hashtags short, sweet and easy to remember and search naturally.

Don’t hi-jack other brand hashtags!

Be sure to check your # is unique before you start posting. You can check how original

yours is or whether the # you want to use has got a ‘following’ on https://www.hashtags.org

If your business or brand name is not that well known to your audience, use a word or

term that represents you or your business. For example, a shortened Tagline will be more

meaningful to people than the name of a venue or product they have never heard of.

Posts with at least one hashtag get an average 12.6% more engagement.

11+ hashtags get the highest engagement on Instagram, according to Quicksprout.

Use your Brand hashtags consistently so when someone searches all your content will

show up. Plus if you include your website or Blog URL people can easily and seamlessly

continue their online journey and convert to a sale.

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I d e a l I m a g e S i z e s

P R O F I L E

P H O T O Display is 110 x 110px

O T H E R P H O T O Shared Image Ideal 1080 x 1080.

Max. 2048 x 2048 px

Lightbox Display 612 x 612 px

Thumbnails 161 x 161 px

Stories: 1080px X 1920px

Square Image: 1080 x 1080 px

Vertical Image: 1080 x 1350 px

Horizontal Image: 1080 x 566 px

Maximum resolution for uploads is 2048 px x 2048 px.

Photos taken by mobile will be imported at a low resolution i.e. less than 612 x 612 px.

Instagram is ALL about photos and video. Users may be amateur photographers but

Instagram makes everyone a professional photographer.

Instagram is more than putting a few images on a page; it's opening a window into your

brand.

Stylized images are what Instagram is built upon. Choose specific filters for your business,

and stick to them so you create a consistent look across your profile.

Take photos with the Instagram mobile camera for best results.

Whilst images don’t have to be professional, put time and energy into your images for

better engagement.

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Ensure you title your images with brand name and keyword to help the algorithm identify

the relevance of your content.

Photos, on average, get more likes (and overall engagement) than videos, but videos on

average, more than twice the amount of comments than photos!

Layout App for Android and iOS is a fun, simple way to combine multiple photos into

collage. Tap ‘All’ to see every photo on your phone and select up to 9 photos you want to

include and then select your preferred layout. Tap ‘Faces’ to see only the photos with faces

or “Recents’” to see up to 30 of your most recently used photos.

Instagram video can be 2 – 60 seconds long.

Instagram videos get 2 times the engagement of photos that any other social media

platform.

Instagram is becoming increasingly video-focused short videos less than 15 seconds are

especially successful.

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2 0 T i p s t o T a k e G r e a t P i c s w i t h y o u r S m a r t p h o n e

1. Rule of Thirds & gridlines.

2. Focus & Enhance subject.

3. Empty Space

4. Unique, unexpected angles.

5. Play with reflections.

6. Leading lines. Roads & hedges.

7. Mirror image symmetry.

8. Repetitive patterns.

9. Colour blocking apps.

10. Get up close

11. Capture small details & Sharpen.

12. Use natural light

13. Play with shadows.

14. Sunrise & Sunset

15. Abstract to capture essence.

16. Candid shots.

17. Ready to capture unexpected.

18. Have fun & Entertain.

19. Different Camera Modes.

20. Edit.

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User-generated content is a great way to create great visual content and, it saves on your

resources.

To increase your comment rate post images of things and situations your followers aspire

to in their own lives.

Use images that best represent your brand but display personality and mood. Search your

brand and contest #s and like / comment.

Showcase your latest products.

Announce an upcoming event.

Test User-generated content for better engagement.

Search and use trending hashtags for increased engagement.

Try joining a conversation using a destination hashtag e.g. ‘#ILoveFourways’.

Build an authentic partnership with an influencer and promote joint campaigns where your

Fans benefit from using both of your products/services.

https://sincerely.com/postagram Postagram uses gallery photos from Instagram or

Facebook on iPhone or Android device gallery. Send a message that will stand out to users

for special occasions or event reminders.

Free Trial: https://www.wishpond.com/social-promotions/

Use Contents to grow Followers. Instagram doesn’t have very many promotion rules.

Creating simple and fun competitions that encourage in-the-moment sharing on social are

a sure fire way to crack contests!

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Do these things:

1. Acknowledge that the promotion isn’t sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or

associated with Instagram.

2. Don’t inaccurately tag content or encourage users to inaccurately tag content.

3. Display your rules in the caption of your Instagram image - outline the

requirements, deadline and when winners will be announced; explains that the

contest is not affiliated with Instagram itself.

4. Run weekly contests to build momentum in your contests but wait a few months in

between each contest to keep things exciting.

5. Use friendly faces in images.

6. Make a great contest graphic that includes simple CTA’s and motivates with an easy

to see prize.

7. Track and adopt the popular hashtags users use in their posts associated with your

contests.

C o n t e s t I d e a s

Like Our Image by double-tapping on an image. Draw a winner randomly from the

Likes, and notify them through @mention, ask for their email to send details of

prizes which must be your products/services.

Photo Challenge Contest by asking users to post a photo related to your Business

on their account with your contest-specific hashtag. Drive users to your website by

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displaying the “entries” in a gallery page on your website. Use a contest app to

allow submissions to your website direct from Instagram.

In-Store Selfie Contest. Submit your ‘selfie’ using our product with contest hashtag.

Comment Contest by asking people to comment and Tag a friend on your photo to

be entered to win a prize and is a very handy tactic to get valuable feedback.

Emoji sharing contest asks for sharing their favourite emoji party combo in the

comments.

Public Voting contest motivates contestants to share their entry and Tag everyone

they know, so that they can win.

Pay to Play!

Initially, share Facebook Ads to your Instagram audience until you feel confident to

dedicate Ad budget to the platform.

Instagram is a very different platform than Facebook. Rather than posting your same

Facebook ad on Instagram create a unique Instagram Ad Set.

Focus on:

• Bold, beautiful, stylistic images

• Visually appealing (texture, colour, lighting, etc.…)

• Quotes over images

• Images with people

• Clever, witty captions

• Sparks emotion

• Hashtags

Always TEST and Tweak to find the sweet spot for your Audience and your Business!

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By using this report, you accept this disclaimer in full.

The report contains digital marketing information and due to the ever-changing digital marketing environment,

the information is not advice but merely a guideline and hopefully a shortcut towards better practice.

You should exercise your own judgement on the relevance and applicability of the information to your unique

situation, operating environment and capabilities.

Suze Bouwer and RedMatchstick© do not represent, warrant, undertake or guarantee that the information in

the report is 100% applicable to all users and readers; and may not be complete and, may be need updates and

therefore is subject to interpretation and therefore cannot predict any particular outcome or result.

Due to the dynamic nature of the digital marketing environment, this report is as current as possible but cannot

by definition be absolutely current and complete. Your own practice, continuous measurement, review and

adjustment should guide you to the most effective and rewarding implementation of RedMatchstick©

information.

We will not be liable to you in respect of any business losses, including without limitation loss of or damage to

profits, income, revenue, use, production, anticipated savings, business, contracts, commercial opportunities or

goodwill.

My Tips Cheat Sheet has been compiled for you following extensive research and the many sources are listed

here if you have the time to delve deeper.

http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Internet-Hit-3-Billion-Users-2015/1011602

http://www.fastcompany.com/3036184/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/the-best-and-worst-

times-to-post-on-social-media-infograph

http://louisem.com/how-to-use-instagram-for-business

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/run-an-instagram-contest-four-easy-steps/

https://www.omnicoreagency.com/instagram-statistics/2017

http://rickmulready.com/

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/good-pictures-phone-tips