Best practices, tips, and tricks for Instagram in 2019

1. Instagram
Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices

2. • Introduction
• Posting
• Key Settings
• Instagram Stories
• Highlights
• Instagram Live
• Insights
• IGTV
• Additional Apps
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Contents

3. Instagram now has over 1 Billion monthly active users, making it the third most used platform after
Facebook and YouTube. With an ever growing user base, Instagram keeps expanding what they
offer and last year wasn’t any different!
Last year we saw the addition of IGTV, new ways to interact with Spotify and Soundcloud, new
Instagram Story stickers, Live Stickers, and so much more! Let’s hop in on how you can most
effectively be using Instagram!
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Introduction
*stats via hootsuite

4. Instagram’s primary purpose is for posting photos or videos. Using either your own camera app, or
the built in Instagram camera. You can take photos or record a video up to a minute long. Choose
the size and filter, adjust the edit applications, add a caption, and you’re good to go!
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Posting
How it Works

5. Now that we’ve covered the basics, here are some tips to make your Instagram really shine!
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Best Practices
Instagram Posts
Check out The Daily Rind for more tips on perfecting your content
Before After

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• While Instagram can be used to post promotional
photos and videos from press materials to clips of
official music videos, this content doesn’t always
make for the best fan experience
• Aim for at 70% authentic, non promotional photo
and video posts. Fans get excited by candid insight
into the lives of their favorite artists
• Use the multiple photo/video feature to show a
plethora of content from events, tours, meet and
greets, and more
• Both Instagram and Facebook are making video
content a priority in their algorithm, embrace video
content
Best Practices
Types of Content
*image via @ninanesbitt

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• Be sure to take well composed, well lit
photos that catch the viewer’s attention
• Consider adding a theme to your photos
through color and filter choice to catch the
viewer’s eye and distinguish yourself in
their feed
• Try different angled photos to vary your
gallery layout
Best Practices
Quality Check
*image via @TheRyanWhitman

8. It’s best practice to upload photo and video natively to each social platform
• Though at times sharing content from your Instagram to Facebook and/or Tumblr can be a
great way to cross promote you platforms
• Both services have great Instagram integrations, and by sharing may let your fans know where
to find you
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Best Practices
Social Sharing

9. • Posts using features like location tagging and hashtags tend to over-index in engagement
• Hashtags help users from different communities find content they’d be interested in
• Try expanding your community with some of these:
• #TBT (Throwback Thursday): An older photo
• #OOTD (Outfit of the Day): Fashion
• #justgoshoot: Great for any high quality shot
• #colorgram: Great for any high quality colorful shot
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Best Practices
Hashtags

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• Tagging location on posts adds them to the
feed for that spot, boosting discovery and
reach
• You can tag cities, neighborhoods, even
businesses
• Try including venues for tour promo in
advance
Best Practices
Location

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• Tagging accounts on photos will add your
photo to their tagged section. This is great
for expanding your reach
• Tagging accounts in your captions and
comments will just notify the person you
tagged.
• Be sure to like a few comments and
reply to keep your audience engaged
Best Practices
Tagging Photos & Comments
*image via @jorjasmith_

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• Decide whether to be a regular or business
account – business accounts have access
to analytics
• Fill in all information
• The website field is the only place on
Instagram that allows a functioning
hyperlink for unverified account under 10k
followers. Don’t leave this field blank
Key Settings
Profile
*image via @dietcigmusic

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• In Options you are able to link to multiple
social media accounts through “Linked
Accounts”
• When linking Facebook you’ll link to your
personal account, and from there you can
choose to switch to your fan page
• While linking accounts is a good idea,
always post natively when possible
Key Settings
Options

14. Instagram Stories is a feature that lets you share all the moments of your day through pictures or 15
second videos that disappear after 24 hours. Just swipe left to open your camera, shoot, draw or
type, add stickers, and post! Your stories are then archived if you want to add them to a Highlight
later on.
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Instagram Stories
How it Works

15. • Just like tagging a post, type @ and the person’s handle to
tag them on your story
• Choose from an assortment of fonts, or freehand draw over
your story
• You can choose from different face filters and visual effects
such as: Boomerang, Superzoom, Focus, Rewind, Hands-
free, Type, and Music
• Film up to 1 minute worth of footage (split into 15 second
stories automatically)
• Select multiple pieces of content from your camera role
• Read more about interesting ways to play with the Stories
feature on The Daily Rind
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How It Works
Part 2

16. Now that we know the basics, let’s go over some ways to make your Stories engaging and…tell a
story!
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Best Practices
Instagram Stories

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• Poll: Get your audience’s opinion on Stories with Poll. Check out The Daily Rind for some fun Poll ideas.
• Hashtag: Have your stories join a community hashtag page by including the hashtag sticker
• Link: Verified accounts, or accounts over 10k followers, can add links to their stories, making it seamless to redirect
Instagram followers to products
• GIF: Add a GIF sticker to your story – or upload your own sticker to your GIPHY page to use
• Music: Add music by your artist or others up to 15 seconds long
• Location: Have your story join other stories taken in that location
• Questions: Ask your audience a question or tell them to ask you anything
• Countdown: create a countdown to an upcoming event – fans can then share your countdown on their story
• Emoji poll: create an emoji slider on your story so fans can show you how “heart eyes” or “fire” they find your story
• Read about optimizing your Stories on The Daily Rind
Best Practices
Instagram Stories (Instastories) – Stickers
*image via @runthejewels

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• Spotify: While listening to a song on Spotify, you can click the
share option button for the option to share the song to your
Instagram story
• Users can click the “Play on Spotify” option to listen on their
own
• Soundcloud: Click the share option while listening to a song to
share it to your Instagram Story
• This feature is not only great for showing off your catalogue, but
to also highlight fan created remixes
• Read more on this feature on The Daily Rind
Best Practices
Instagram Stories (Instastories) – Sharing Streaming

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• On your own post, or someone else’s, click
the share button for the option to add the
post to your story
• Make the post take up as much or as little
space as you want
• It’s best to have a call to action: new post,
click through, etc.
Best Practices
Instagram Stories (Instastories) – Sharing Posts

20. • Show off some of your best Instagram Stories
with the Highlight feature
• Create different buckets as an introduction to
your brand for new followers, and to catch up
older followers who might have missed
important Stories
• Check out The Daily Rind for more Highlight
ideas!
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Highlights
How it Works
*image via @theryanwhitman

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• Create highlights that make sense with
your brand: Tour, New Music, etc.
• Create and add custom Hightlight covers
for each Highlight bucket
• Don’t create too many – this feature should
show a new user who you are and what
you’re about as easily as possible
• Have multiple stories in a Highlight – build
out your stories
Best Practices
Highlights

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• Live allows you to connect with your
followers in real time
• To go Live just swipe right to open your
camera and tap the “Start Live Video”
button
• You can go live for up to an hour, and once
you finish the Live story from the app, or
you can choose to add it to your story
Best Practices
Instagram Live
*image via Instagram

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• You can request to join someone else’s
Instagram Live to create a joint broadcast
• You can share photos and videos from
your camera roll while you’re going Live
• Use the Sticker question during your Live
to as fans a question to have them as you
questions to answer
• Read more about Instagram Live features
on The Daily Rind
Best Practices
Instagram Live - Features

24. Instagram offers an array of stats for you on Instagram as a business account. To become a
business account you’ll need a Facebook Fan Page to connect your account to. Go to your profile
and tap the menu bar, tap settings, and then ’switch to Business Profile’.
Current Instagram breaks down their Insights into 3 categories:
• Activity
• Content
• Audience
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Insights
Measuring Success as a Business Account

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• Interactions – Measures the actions people
take when engaging with your account
• Profile Visits
• Website Clicks/Email/Anything else you
set up for your account
• Discovery – How many people see your
content ant where
• Reach – Number of unique accounts
that have seen any of your posts
• Impressions – Total number of times all
of your posts have been seen
Insights
Activity
*image from AdEspresso

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• How many post you’ve made this week
• Posts – measuring your posts by: Comments, Engagement, Follows, Impressions, Likes, Profile Visits, Reach,
Saves, Shares, and more
• Can view from 7 days up through 2 years
• Stories – measures by backs, exits, link clicks, along with all the same measurements as posts
• Can view from 24 hours, up to 7 days
• Promotions – measures visits to profile, how many people viewed the promotion, impressions, engagements,
demographics, and money spent
Insights
Content

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• Top Locations – by city or country
• Age Range – in general or by sex
• Gender
• Followers
• Hours – Average times when your
followers are on Instagram for that day
• Days- The days of the week your
audience is most active
Insights
Audience
*image from WordStream

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• IGTV is a beast of it’s own, you can either
access your channel through the IG app or
through the IGTV
• IGTV is meant for longer form, high quality
content
• Like Stories, all content should be vertical
• This function could be used for a series,
interviews, vertical music videos, acoustic
sets
• Check out The Daily Rind for more IGTV
ideas
IGTV
How it Works

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• Engagement
• Views
• Likes
• Comments
• Retention Rate – how much of the video
the viewer watched
Insights
IGTV
*image from later

30. Instagram has also created their own photo tool apps to help you create great content:
• Hyperlapse: Create your own time-lapse videos
• Boomerang: Make gif-like video posts
• Layout: Create photo collages and comparisons
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Additional Apps
Apps Created by Instagram

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Not in the Instagram family, Later is an
external app that allows you to plan, schedule,
and publish your content to Instagram. It’s a
great app for when you’re on the go, or want to
work on gallery theme
Additional Apps
Later

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Repost, another external app, lets you share
content from other galleries while still giving
credit to the original photographer. This app is
a nice way to give fans or partners a shout out
on your feed
Additional Apps
Repost for Instagram

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• Instagram is all about quality content. Editing really comes down to what works best for you. Here are some free
apps worth checking out:
• VSCO
• Snapseed
• Darkroom
• Afterlight
• Enlight Quickshot
• Lightroom
• Unfold – for Instagram Stories
Additional Apps
Editing Apps

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Thank You
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