With so many social media networks out there to consider using, it can be hard to figure out which ones you’ll want to have a presence on. Depending on the brand, you may ultimately decide on 3 or 4 select networks that perform best with your targeted demographics. From there, however, it becomes an act of crafting a customized social content strategy for each appropriate network. Instagram has grown into a monster social media network over the past few years, rivalling the likes of Facebook and Twitter in terms of user dedication and a large user base. Having a precise content strategy for Instagram is vital if you want to succeed on the network; in the following article, we’ve put together the main components of what a successful strategy looks like for you to consider.

Vary Your Post Types

Instagram is a social network built around rich content sharing. While some text is always needed and definitely a mainstay of many other social networks, Instagram revolves around the sharing of photos and video to make an impression. It can be difficult to constantly share one form of media-rich content, which is a good reason why you should strive to vary up your post types. In another form of variance, it is generally a good idea to incorporate various types of subject material as well. This means that while you’ll obviously want to promote your brand from time to time, it is also a good idea to share various things just for fun – a great way to gain lots of shares throughout the broader network and meet new followers and fans.

Optimize Your Images

Getting the most out of your image sharing on Instagram is what the network is all about for successful brands. By pinging users with improperly formatted images, blurry photos or generic pictures that have not been filtered in some capacity, your photos are bound to perform less admirably than others of the same substance. There are a variety of apps out there designed to help crop and fit larger photos into the Instagram square resolution box, as well as ones that help you add more colour or change the overall ambiance of the photos in question. Framing apps are also popular because they allow for users to combine multiple photos for a common theme or scene into one aesthetically pleasing image.

Proactively Building an Audience

If you want to take growing your follower base into your own hands, then you need look no further than your competitors. By checking out their pages and going through their followers, you will be able to subtly increase the number of followers you have by engaging with these individuals’ pages. Instagram loves the use of hashtags, which makes it easy to find branches of followers through which to interact based on commonality. This not only will allow you to find various types of people to which you can promote your content, but it allows them to find you as well. Instagram posts consistently use hashtags as a way to take advantage of this effect, but the art of hashtagging is a complex one. You don’t want to be pinging users with hashtags that are too broad nor too narrow.