Boosting our Instagram account rapidly

 Taking Beautiful Pictures

(And Other Options)

For all you can try and beat the system by approaching Instagram marketing in a smart and logical manner, at the end of the day there is simply no way to succeed without being able to create and share images and videos that people want to see. So how do you go about doing that? Taking and Editing Better Photos.

We’ve already talked at length in our previous series about the importance of selling the value proposition with your content – of promoting the ‘dream’ that will mobilize your troops to buy and subscribe. So I won’t go into that in depth here, other than to say that you should consider trying to tell a story with your photos. Don’t just take a photo of a scene or an object, show it just after it has been used, show it in action, or show it in a context that raises questions. 

Think about the Mona Lisa. People like it because there’s a story behind it: the smile. Try and get your audience engaging with your images through their thought processes and they will be more effective as a result.

Related to this concept is trying to create more dynamic compositions. Placing objects and subjects flat in the middle of a frame can look boring and flat. Instead, get them to look off into the distance at an angel, or use an upshot to make them look bigger and more dramatic. Think as well about creating depth: is there something of interest in the foreground, middle ground, and background? Where is the central focus point, and how does the rest of the image lead the eye there? Are there other objects are helping to provide a sense of scale? What is in the background, and what does it tell people about the scene?

All these things have an impact whether you are taking a photo of a pet dog, a computer, or an incredible vista from atop a mountain.

Lighting is extremely important too. The best lighting should ensure your subject is well lit, but also provide a little extra dynamism by creating shadows and highlights. For people, ‘Rembrandt Lighting’ means taking photos where light is coming from an angle from one side. This helps to create a more flattering profile.

Don’t shoot directly into the light, and don’t let your photos be over or under exposed. This is where it can be useful to learn just a little about the basics of photography, and the exposure triangle. You don’t need to be an expert, but knowing your shutter speed from your aperture will help you to create dramatic bokeh effects (a wide aperture and shallow depth of field will let you focus on an item in the foreground with the background blurred out nicely), to capture things moving quickly without too much blur (using a faster shutter speed), and to avoid a picture looking too dark when you shrink the aperture for landscape photography (which means tweaking the ISO thus making the sensor more sensitive to light).

A camera’s ‘Auto Mode’ will do all this for you, but as you advance, learning these basics will help a great deal. As will experimenting with your camera. Owning a good camera is of course a smart move. This doesn’t need to be extremely expensive, but if you can find a high quality DSLR, then that will serve you well. That said, the quality of phone cameras has increased these days to the point that you can take some incredible photos that are perfect for Instagram. As you develop, you may wish to invest in other tools as well: such as RGB lighting sticks (which can create some amazing possibilities), a white balance card, light boxes, back drops (particularly for product shoots) etc.

Shooting Great Video

For the most part, all the same things apply when creating the best videos. Video cameras likewise have options like ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. At the same time, you’ll need to keep your subject focused in the shot as they move around, try to minimize shakes by using optical or digital stabilization, etc. You should also consider whether you need your videos to be in 4K (which are more effort to work with and will only have a benefit for a small subset of your audience), 25-60fps etc. Sound and lighting also help to make your content more compelling.

Once more though, great video is more about the composition, the lighting, the story telling etc. Even more so than with photos, this is about what you film rather than how you film it. Editing will play a big role here though too…

Smart Use of Filters

Filters are one of the key features of Instagram that set it apart from other platforms and that helped it to grow in popularity in the first place. These are effects that can be applied to photos or videos and quickly make them appear more artistic. The key to successfully using filters, is not to go overboard. If you tap one of the filters and then hit it again, you can then tone it down slightly by dragging to the left. This is generally advisable as it means the photo won’t look artificial, but can still benefit from a little extra style and punch.

Keep in mind that it is commonly advised that profiles should aim to create content with a consistent look and that translates to over 60% of businesses using just a single filter consistently across all photos. This not only results in a more impactful profile page when viewed as a whole, but also ensures that followers know precisely what to expect.

How to Succeed on Instagram Without Taking a Single Photo or Video

At this point, some marketers might be feeling stressed. If you are a good looking, trendy young person, who is in amazing shape and has a natural charisma, then you might consider yourself perfectly suited to creating fitness photos. You can take your high quality camera to the gym with you, grab some shots, and be done with it. But what if you aren’t so confident in your looks? What if you’re not in good shape? Or if you aren’t confident with your camera? In those cases, there are still ways you can generate content for your account. Here are some examples:

Use Stock Footage

Head to a site like Envato Elements (https://elements.envato.com) and you can download stock photos, video, and music – even Photoshop Plugins and Actions. From here, you can then make the photos unique by applying an additional filter layer for example, or by adding text. A common setup is to post images of people standing in exotic locales and then add text on top that is inspiring or thought provoking. People love motivating content on Instagram!

Share Other Photos

Another option is to repost the content of others. This way, they get a free shout-out and more exposure, and you gain access to a free and steady supply of constant content! If you grow large enough, people will fight to get on your page, using your hashtags copiously!

Photos that you have acquired can be used to create an account as long as you ask permission or check the legality. This way, your account becomes a kind of aggregator of the best stuff within a certain niche.

Drawings

If you are an artist or designer, then you can share your designs on Instagram. There’s also a thriving market for comics on.

Instagram – one of the last few places where a web comic can be successful in fact.

Instagram Live, Stories, and More

We’ve discussed in depth the best ways to go about creating high quality images for your Instagram account. But Instagram has grown a lot since its inception to now include videos, live streaming, and stories. All these things provide new ways for you to interact with your audience and can help you to grow even faster. We’ll tackle each of these features in turn:

Stories

Instagram stories are posts that aren’t shown on the feed, but will appear at the top of the page next to a profile picture. Stories will then be shown for up to 15 seconds before moving on to the next one. They can’t be saved unless the user uses a screen capture, and they will only last 24 hours before they stop being available.

Essentially, this was a response to the success of Snapchat at the time – but has gone on to become successful in its own right. There are a number of unique advantages to using stories. For one, they allow you to reach a larger audience. Because they aren’t shown in the feed but at the top of the page, the engagement tends to be fairly high.

Another advantage of an Instagram story is that it can include images and videos that are less presentable and might not belong on your main feed. This is the perfect spot to show some of your daily life, without ruining the theme and consistency of your feed. This nature also If you haven’t posted a story in a while and you post one, then your followers will receive a notification. This is another great feature, as it means you can re-engage with followers who haven’t seen any of your content in a while  

Finally, Instagram Stories give you the option to add an action for swiping up – if you have over 10,000 followers, or if you have a verified Instagram account. That will then take the visitors to a link of your choosing. This of course has huge potential for directing traffic to a website, or directly monetizing your Instagram following. 

To post to your Instagram Story, tap the camera in the upper left, tap ‘Your Story’ above the feed, or swipe right from anywhere to access the camera. You can also share a photo from another app and choose to share it to your Instagram Story rather than your feed.

You’ll be able to write on the image, to apply filters and AR elements, and more.

Instagram Live

To use Instagram Live, you can access the camera as before but then choose the Live Setting and clicking ‘Start Live Video’. Anyone using the app at that moment who follows you will then receive a notification to watch, which makes this an excellent way to get eyeballs on your channel. They’ll be able to comment on your video too, or react.

Live has a ton of unique benefits, allowing you to share exciting moments with your viewers and to engage in a whole different way. It’s also a great way to show your personality and to let your audience feel as though they’re gaining unique insight that they wouldn’t get if they weren’t following you on Instagram – they ultimately will feel as though they know you a little better. Through Q&As you can answer questions about your business or products and this is a brilliant way to build trust too.

Just make sure to use this relatively sparingly when you have something genuinely interesting to share.

IGTV

IGTV is another new option from Instagram that incorporates video. This essentially allows users to record video in a more long-form format, lasting 15 seconds to 10 minutes. Verified accounts can run much longer – up to hours in some cases. The videos are all vertical in orientation and will be viewable using the Instagram app or IGTV app. While this is a relatively untested and young marketing tool, it has potential to grow – and the lack of competition there right now makes it a great way to gain a foothold early on.

Promotions

Promotions on Instagram are another form of advertising, and will allow you to reach a larger audience and convert that audience into sales. Promotions will appear very similar to organic posts but are different in a couple of unique ways. For one, they will have the word ‘Sponsored’ beneath your username, which will tell people that the image is paid. They also can include a call to action button, which means you can direct your visitors straight to a checkout or sales page. Of course these posts will also be given some additional ‘oomph’ to help them reach a wider audience than a regular post.

To create a promoted post, you’ll need a business account. You can then click on ‘Create Promotion’ which will take you to a page where you can select one of your previous posts – one of these will ‘become’ your promoted post. Choose a post and click the right arrow at the top of the screen. You can now choose a target audience and pay for your ad to remain promoted for a set period of time. This is a very simple way to market to a wider audience in just a few taps.

Ads

While you can use the new promoted posts option to quickly get word out about your business, another option is to go through the Facebook ads manager (www.facebook.com/adsmanager). This will let you create an ad that will target an extremely specific audience and with a number of controls. Create an ad as you normally would on Facebook, and then just choose Instagram as the location for it to be shown.

As with many other forms of marketing on the web, Instagram ads are charged on a CPC (Cost Per Click) and CPM (Cost Per Impressions) basis. You can set your max spend per click and in total, and you will then be entered into a ‘bidding war’ with other advertisers any time an appropriate slot becomes free. You can choose an even more precise target audience for a Facebook ad this way and get a lot of useful data and information back.

This is a more drawn-out process, but it gives you more control so whatever you decide, there are pros and cons. It’s also worth noting that Instagram ads typically cost a lot more than Facebook ads (as much as $3 per click!) but also have much higher engagement. And keep in mind that if no one clicks the ad, then you’ll be gaining exposure for your brand and not paying a cent.

Another Way to Promote

While you can pay Instagram to promote your products and your page, another option is to pay other creators. Contact Instagram influencers and request them to post a sponsored image with a shout-out, or even an Instagram story. This can be an expensive strategy: reportedly the going rate for these kinds of posts is $1,000 for every 100,000 followers. That said, by choosing the right influencer, you have the potential to not only reach a gigantic audience, but also to gain a large amount of good will. If someone hangs off of every word their favorite content creator says, and that creator then says how much they love your products or your brand, then this can be huge for your business.

Better yet, why not approach a smaller creator and agree to work together? Collaborate on a post or do an ‘ad swap’ (it’s like it sounds) and you can each get a boost to your audience for free!