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How much to boost instagram post


How to Boost Instagram Posts and Reels

What is Instagram promotion (a.k.a. Instagram boost)?

How to promote an Instagram post

How to promote an Instagram post or Reel in Hootsuite

What types of Instagram posts can you boost?

Instagram post promotion cost

Benefits of promoting an Instagram post

5 tips for Instagram post promotion

Do you have a great Instagram post or Reel you want more people to see? Are you looking to boost engagement on your existing posts? If you answered yes to either of these questions, then it might be time to promote your posts and Reels. Instagram promotion (a.k.a. Instagram boosting) is a great way to get your content in front of more people and rake in those precious likes, comments, and shares.

In this post, we’ll give you some tips on how to promote Instagram posts for maximum reach and impact. Plus, some top-secret industry tips you won’t get anywhere else.

Let’s get started!

Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

What is Instagram promotion (a.k.a. Instagram boost)?

Instagram promotion is the act of paying to have your post seen by more people. When you promote or “boost” a post on Instagram, it will appear in the feeds of users who don’t follow you. Promoted posts can also appear in the Stories or the Explore tab.

Instagram boosts and promoted posts are a type of Instagram advertising. You’ll have the ability to target your audience by interest, location, and more.

The benefit of promoting your post is that you can reach a larger audience and get more engagement on your posts, which can lead to more followers.

Promoted Instagram posts also give you insights into how well your content is performing and who is seeing it, beyond just your regular audience.

How to promote an Instagram post

To promote or boost an Instagram post, you’ll need to have an active Instagram Professional account. Once you have that setup, follow these steps. (And also watch our video, below!)

1. Go to your Instagram Feed and click the post you want to boost. Then, click Boost. Keep in mind, Instagram recommends only boosting posts with images smaller than 8 MB to ensure the best quality.

Not sure which posts to boost? We recommend boosting posts that are already performing well. You might also want to check out our guide to Instagram ad design to find out which types of visuals perform best as ads.

2. Next, fill in details about your ad like the Goal, Audience, Budget, and Duration. The goal is the results you hope to see from this ad while the audience is who you want to reach with your message. The budget is how much you’re willing to spend on this ad per day. The duration is how long you want your ad to run.

3. Once you finish these steps, click Next. If you haven’t already connected your Instagram account to a Facebook Page, you’ll be prompted to do that now. Choose an existing account or click Skip to move on.

4. Complete your boosted post by clicking Boost post under Review.

From there, your ad will be submitted to Instagram for review and begin running once it’s approved!

Want to see the exact process for boosting an Instagram post? Just watch the video below:

Did you know you can also create Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns directly through Hootsuite? Follow this guide to learn more.

How to promote an Instagram post or Reel in Hootsuite

If you already use Hootsuite to manage your Instagram ads, you’re in luck! You can boost Instagram feed posts and Reels directly from your Hootsuite dashboard.

To boost an Instagram feed post, follow this step-by-step process:

  1. Go to Advertise, and then select Instagram Boost.
  2. Select Find a post to Boost to see a list of your organic Instagram posts.
  3. Choose the post you want to promote, and select Boost next to it.
  4. In the Boost settings window, select the ad account you want Meta to charge for the boosted post, and select Save.
  5. Enter the rest of your Boost settings.
  6. Choose an objective (engagement, video views, or reach). Meta uses this information to show your post to people who are likely to take the action you want.
  7. Choose your audience. If you want to customize the audience, select Edit and specify which attributes to target, like location, gender, age, and interests.
  8. Choose whether you want Meta to promote your Instagram post on Facebook, or just Instagram.
  9. Set your budget and the length of your promotion.
  10. Select Boost on Instagram.

You can review the performance of your boosted Instagram posts in Hootsuite at any time by going to Advertise, and then selecting Instagram Boost.

  • Select an ad account from the list to see all Instagram Boost campaigns associated with it. From here you can see reach, amount spent, and engagement for each campaign.

You can also boost Instagram posts and Reels from Streams:

  1. In an Instagram Stream, find the post or Reel you want to boost
  2. Click the Boost post button below the preview of your post or Reel
  3. Enter your boost settings

And that’s it!

Pro tip: You can also boost Instagram posts from Composer and Planner. See the detailed instructions in our Helpdesk article.

Start your free trial. You can cancel anytime.

What types of Instagram posts can you boost?

You can boost any type of Instagram post, including:

  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Carousels
  • Stories
  • Posts with product tags

Boosted posts will appear in the Stories or the Explore tab. If you have an Instagram Professional account and Promote is available, you’ll see Boost Post as an option when you upload a post to your Feed.

Bonus: You can also boost Instagram Reels with a few clicks using Hootsuite. Watch our video below where we go over how you can promote your Instagram Reels:

Instagram post promotion cost

One of the biggest benefits of IG promotion is that the cost is completely up to you. Promoted posts can cost as little as $0.50 per click, and you can set a daily budget so you never spend more than you’re comfortable with.

If you’re unsure what kind of budget to use for your promoted post, try setting up a draft campaign in your Instagram Ads Manager. Here, you’ll be able to see Audience Definition and Estimated Daily Results metrics which will give you an idea of whether your budget settings will be sufficient to reach your target audience.

Benefits of promoting an Instagram post

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms with over 1 billion monthly active users. Of those users, 90% follow business accounts, which gives you an opportunity to reach a highly motivated audience.

On top of that, Instagram has high engagement rates with posts averaging around 1.94%. By contrast, Facebook and Twitter have engagement rates of 0.07% and 0.18%.

Promoting your content on Instagram can help you reach a larger audience, get more engagement, and encourage people to take action on your posts.

There are a few reasons you might want to promote an Instagram post:

  • To increase brand awareness: If you’re trying to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your products or services, promoting a post is a great way to do that.
  • To get more engagement: Promoted posts can help you get more likes, comments, and shares, which can lead to organic reach and new followers.
  • To drive traffic to your website: If you’re promoting a post with a link to your website, you can track how many people are clicking through to your site. Promoted posts can also lead to more sales or sign-ups.
  • To reach your target audience effectively: Instagram’s targeting lets you choose who sees your promoted post. You can target by location, age, gender, interests, and more to better reach more interested customers.
  • To collect data on marketing strategies: Every boosted post will come with data on how well it performed. You can use these metrics to see what’s working and adjust your strategies accordingly.

 

5 tips for Instagram post promotion

It’s easy to promote Instagram posts to get your content in front of more people. But as with any paid promotion, there are a few things to keep in mind to make sure you’re getting the most out of your investment.

Here are a few tips for promoting Instagram posts.

1. Use Instagram-specific features

While Instagram made its name as a photo-sharing app, today it’s so much more. Promote Instagram posts using all of the platform’s features, from Stories to Reels to Live.

The more you make use of Instagram’s features, the more chances you have of ranking in its algorithm. Not only will this help you reach more people, but it will also help you build a more engaged following.

2. Think about your target audience

One of the benefits of boosting Instagram posts is that you already have a built-in audience. But that doesn’t mean you should take them for granted.

Before you promote your Instagram post, take a step back and think about who you’re trying to reach.

  • Who are you speaking to?
  • What are their interests?
  • What kind of content do they respond to?

If you don’t know the answer to these questions off the bat, try digging into your Instagram analytics to see how your previous posts were received. If you notice your Reels get the highest engagement or that carousel posts have the most shares, promote those first.

Your Hootsuite dashboard contains all the information you need to tailor your promoted Instagram posts to your audience. Use Hootsuite Analytics to figure out what time of day to promote your post and measure the impact after its live.

3. Promote carousel posts

Research has shown that carousel posts increase engagement rates on Instagram. Static carousel posts can boost engagement by as much as 5%! Add a video to that carousel, and you’re looking at an almost 17% increase.

To make the most of this format, try creating a carousel post of 8-10 images or video clips. On the first slide, ask your audience a question or include a powerful call to action. This will entice users to swipe left to see the rest of your content.

Don’t forget, you can create Instagram carousel ads quickly and easily with Hootsuite! Plus, track, optimize, and grow your Instagram presence directly from your dashboard.

4. Make use of product tags

If you’re set up for Instagram Shopping, you can promote Instagram posts that feature product tags. Doing this will drive people directly to a product details page on Instagram, where they can learn more about the product and make a purchase.

This is an especially effective way to promote your products if you’re running a promotion. Promote Instagram posts with product tags to let your audience know that there’s a special deal going on, and make it easy for them to take advantage of it.

Learn how to set up Instagram shopping here.

Source: Instagram

5. Promote your best posts

Image and video quality is an important part of the Instagram user experience—and it’s also a major ranking factor in the Instagram algorithm.

That means, if you want your content to be seen by more people, you need to make sure that the images and videos you’re promoting are high quality. Promoting your best posts will ensure that, not only is your audience seeing your best content, but that it’s well-received. (We learned this the hard way after spending $100 to promote a post that didn’t really have anything to do with our usual content)

When you’re looking for posts to promote, consider the following:

  • The quality of the image or video
  • The engagement (likes, comments, shares)
  • The overall reach (how many people saw it)

Pick your best posts and share them with the world!

Manage Instagram alongside your other social channels and save time using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can schedule, publish, and boost posts, engage your audience, and measure performance. Try it free today.

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What Happens When You Spend $100 to Promote an Instagram Post (Experiment)

I’m no financial expert, but I know that $100 can get you a lot of things. For instance: $100 can buy a pair of jeans your mom will think are too expensive, or one hundred gumballs. Or, it could buy you some serious reach on Instagram.

To be clear, I’m not talking about buying an audience or likes. Here at Hootsuite HQ, we’ve been there, done that, and compromised our credit cards in the process. No, I’m talking about a more legitimate way to spend money: boosting Instagram posts to improve reach and gain followers.

Boosting posts is one of many advertising options on Instagram. You want eyeballs, they want your money, it’s a perfect storm. You’ve just got to set your budget, choose your target audience, and Instagram will deliver a post of your choosing directly to their feeds.

It’s an ad option that’s typically touted as a low-cost way to gain more followers and reach new audiences. After all, even spending $25 can allegedly help you reach an audience of thousands.

But it almost seems too easy, doesn’t it? Like a Sex and the City supercut, I couldn’t help but wonder: is boosting an Instagram post really worth the money?

And so, for our latest Hootsuite experiment, we’re putting the ‘does it pay to pay?’ question to the test. Please send your thoughts and prayers to my poor, battered Mastercard once again.

Hypothesis: Boosting Instagram posts will improve my reach and help me gain more followers

Methodology

Results

What do the results mean?

Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

Hypothesis: Boosting Instagram posts will improve my reach and help me gain more followers

Boosting is a simple way to increase the reach of an Instagram post. Sure, you could sit around and wait for the Instagram algorithm to deliver your sweet pics to your followers, or lean on Instagram hashtags to make yourself known. But there’s also a totally-above-board shortcut for achieving reach on the app: just give Instagram your cold hard cash.

I think it’s safe to assume that, yes, buying a boost for my post will result in reaching an audience beyond my existing followers. After all, Instagram is a professional and highly successful brand that relies on effective advertising to function as a business, so it’s very much in its best interest to deliver on their promise of exposure. There’s no reason to think they would just take my money and run.

Theoretically, then, boosting will also result in new followers for my account. But obviously, Instagram can’t make promises there, and users gonna do what users gonna do. (Pretty sure I read that in the terms and conditions somewhere.)

With those assumptions in mind, and with $100 burning a hole in my pocket, I got to work.

Methodology

Step one: I needed to choose precisely which post I’d be boosting.

My Instagram account these days is mostly pictures of my new baby because I am really leaning into my identity as “Unhinged Millennial Mom. ” But as much as I think my infant photography could give Anne Geddes a run for her money, it didn’t quite feel like boosting one of those shots was going to inspire strangers to mash that “follow” button.

Instead, I decided to repost a digital illustration from a few months back and boost that.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Stacey McLachlan (@stacey_mclachlan)

It had experienced some success at the time (with supportive comments like “​​i want all these ducks to be best friends!!!!” and “one of these is a chicken”), so there was reason to believe non-friends might be interested if it appeared in their feed.

Plus, I reasoned, by repeating content, I’d be able to see the exact difference between an un-boosted post and a boosted one.

I posted my duck drawing and threw $100 (well, $75 CDN, technically) into a boost. I did this through the app directly, but it’s super simple to do though your Hootsuite dashboard, too.

I decided to run the promo for five days, targeted at an audience similar to my existing followers.

My goal was to encourage profile visits, which hopefully would lead to new follows.

When the five days were done, I managed to take a break from my latest baby photoshoot (the theme? “Being adorable while asleep”) to analyze the results and see if that $100 was worth it.

Results

TL;DR: The boost helped my post reach much further, but the conversion rate wasn’t great. And — not to be all pity-party about it — I blame myself.

With $100 spent on a boost, my post reached thousands of new people: 7,447 to be exact. But… only 203 users tapped through on my ad. Of those visitors, only 10 of those became new followers.

Of course, this was still a huge jump from the original version of this I posted back in January. Other measures of engagement (like Likes and Saves) were higher with my boosted post, too.

Visits from Non-FollowersNew FollowsLikesCommentsSaves
Organic Post107010061
Boosted Post20310164718

I would be hurt by this abysmal return on investment, but it’s clear to me that the problem wasn’t the amount of money I spent: it was my content.

If I’m honest with myself, it makes a lot of sense that strangers wouldn’t be compelled to follow a feed that is primarily newborn photos and improv-show invites. In fact, they might have even been confused to find themselves looking at this sort of content after I lured them in with a wacky drawing of birds.

Basically, my $100 gave me a really great opportunity to be in front of a hyper-specific audience, and I blew it. I should’ve used an image that better represented what my “brand” was about. I also should’ve taken the time to write a compelling caption or call-to-action that would encourage people to click through to see more.

But that’s not to say it was money wasted: I learned at least $100 worth of lessons about using Instagram’s boost feature effectively.

What do the results mean?

Revel in my newfound wisdom!

Boosting is a hack for beating the Instagram algorithm

Even though Instagram has brought back the chronological feed as an option, the default experience on the app is guided by the Instagram algorithm. If your content doesn’t fulfill the elaborate set of parameters to appear at the top of a follower’s newsfeed, it might get missed altogether. By putting some cash into a boost, at least you can guarantee some people will see it.

Of course, if you’re on a budget, that’s not always an option. So maybe it’s time to review our tips for getting your Instagram posts featured on the Explore page?

Quality content still matters

Even if you had a million dollars to drop on Instagram posts, even if you reached every single person on the app, if you don’t have something compelling to share, you’re not going to keep their attention.

All a boost can guarantee is that people will see your post; it doesn’t guarantee they’re going to like it. Put as much effort into creating engaging, enriching content for your paid posts as you do your unpaid posts.

Need some inspiration? We’ve got 20 ideas to improve Instagram engagement right here.

Be accurate, authentic, and consistent

I didn’t really mean to do a bait-and-switch with this experiment, but that’s really what happened. Apologies to all 200-plus people who visited my account and were disappointed it wasn’t all duck drawings.

If you’re going to boost a post, make sure it accurately represents what a user is going to find when they click through. There’s no point in dangling an image in front of an Instagram user that’s unrelated to what they’ll actually experience when they follow you. A boosted post should be authentically a snapshot of what your brand or account is all about.

Get specific with your target audience

Reaching people is one thing; reaching the right people is another. Be sure you’re making the most of every dollar by honing in as specifically as possible on the ideal audience for your brand. Are you looking to target people in the same demographic as your current followers? Or do you have dreams of reaching a different type of viewer?

Either way, drill down into the details to help Instagram deliver your boosted post to the right feeds.

If you need help defining your target market, good news: we’ve got a worksheet to help you find your dream audience right here.

Another fascinating spending spree done, another valuable lesson learned. If you’re itching to see what else we discover from putting our social media accounts on the line, head over to read about the rest of our experiments here.

Boost your Instagram posts and manage all your social media in one place using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can schedule and publish posts, engage the audience, and measure performance. Try it free today.

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Grow on Instagram

Easily create, analyze, and schedule Instagram posts, Stories, and Reels with Hootsuite. Save time and get results.

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Promoting Instagram in 2022 - Marketing on vc.ru

Good afternoon! Lyudmila is in touch, a marketer at Altcraft. Instagram already has 1.3 billion users, photo and video content service is one of the top social networks in the world and continues to grow. Instagram brings money to brands and bloggers - it is the most effective platform for influencer marketing in 2020-2021. Bloggers earn up to $10,000 from one advertising post. Brands increase the audience, increase loyalty and sales - 90% of Instagram users are subscribed to commercial accounts.

62982 views

Instagram is a rapidly changing social network with unpredictable algorithms. There is huge competition here, but the question of how to promote Instagram for brands and bloggers remains relevant. We tell you what will work and what will not work in 2022: how to promote a blog on Instagram using free and paid promotion methods.

Before the start of promotion

It is useless to start development without strategy and account preparation. Therefore, first:

  • Set up an Instagram profile so that the user immediately understands what your account is about and what you offer.

What's important:

  • A name that matches the theme of the account.
  • Description in the profile header: USP, benefits, name (if the account is an individual).
  • Location, if you run an offline business or work in a specific area.
  • Link to the site or your other materials.
  • Page navigation in live stories: prices, location, FAQs and other information.
  • Clean your account from inactive subscribers if the profile has been maintained for a long time. Subscribers who do not respond to your content in any way are bad for promotion.

Example. Instagram sees: only 10 out of 1000 subscribers watch your content. The social network understands that the content is uninteresting and stops showing it. Subscribers by themselves are not an indicator of the success of an account, it is important to involve the audience.

  • Switch to a business account to get statistics and analyze audience reactions to content.
  • Prepare a development strategy. Any promotion is a plan and regularity. One-time actions will not bring results. Define goals - why do you need promotion on Instagram, what do you want to get: subscribers, sales, advertisers, or something else. Prepare a content plan with regular posts, stories and Reels.

Free promotion methods

Reels

Reels is a short video format (15-30 seconds) that Instagram launched worldwide in the summer of 2021. The social network also promised to promote the video format. Therefore, now Reels is the most effective way to promote your account for free. Social media gives Reels an outside reach. If stories and posts work for an existing audience (although posts also sometimes get into recommendations), then Reels has more opportunities. Getting a million views for an account with a couple of thousand subscribers is real.

Another advantage of Reels for promotion is the lifetime. Stories disappear after 24 hours, the post is shown for a couple of days, and Reels “spins” even after a while. Also, one video in Reels can “pull” others along with it: the social network sees that a particular video is interesting to the audience and shows the previously created ones.

Examples of Reels

Commenting

Don't confuse this method with spam comments for everyone. Popular, but meaningless, remains automatic commenting. With this method, there are situations when the inscription “what a beautiful photo” appears under the mourning post with a candle, or there are off-topic comments. You shouldn't do that.

Unsuccessful automatic commenting

How to gain followers on Instagram through comments:

  • Comment thoughtfully and to the point. Communicate in a friendly and honest way - try to make friends, and not advertise yourself.
  • Chat in the comments under the posts of personal accounts of ordinary users, bloggers and brands. A user with a small number of followers is more likely to notice you and visit your page. Major bloggers and brands are unlikely to subscribe, but other subscribers will see an interesting comment.

Hashtags

Promotion with the help of hashtags is a legal promotion method that is unlikely to give huge coverage, but it will still attract some part of the audience. Instagram has a separate search for hashtags and a subscription to them.

Which hashtags to set for promotion:

  • Thematic, which relate to your field, and localized, if you are tied to some territory.
  • The topic of the hashtag should match the topic of the post and photo, then Instagram better understands what your post is about and shows it to the right audience.
  • Do not choose high-frequency hashtags from 500 thousand. The more often a hashtag is used, the less likely your post will be seen.
  • Check the relevance of hashtags. If they were last used two years ago, they don't work.

An example of thematic hashtags

How many hashtags should I put? There is no single answer. Instagram allows you to add up to 30. But such a “canvas” does not always work. Irrelevant hashtags will reduce reach and minimize the effect of relevant ones. Therefore, experiment and do not copy the same hashtags from post to post - this is inefficient. Another social network may think that you are a robot and block your account.

Cross promo

This method will not fit the query "How to promote instagram from scratch". An account for cross-promotion or mutual PR should already have an audience.

What we do next:

  • We are looking for an account with a similar or related theme and with approximately the same number of subscribers.
  • We exchange content, for example, we make guest posts, live broadcasts or joint marathons.

An example of a successful cross-promo is a sportswear brand account launching a marathon of fast workouts with a fitness trainer.

Promotion on other platforms

If you are actively running another channel (Youtube, Yandex.Zen and others), invite the audience to subscribe to your Instagram.

Important! Users should understand why they need another account of yours. It is unlikely that subscribers are interested in watching the same content. Work with different formats and themes.

An example of such a promotion method from a blogger with a promoted Youtube channel with expert information. The girl offers to subscribe to her Instagram, where she shares her personal.

Instagram promotion on the blogger's Youtube channel

User Content

Works for brands and individuals who want to promote their account.

An option for a brand is to invite users to post a photo with their product and a special hashtag. Then the brand reposts these publications to its page.

For personal accounts, tag brands. Then there is a chance that the Instagram page will be reposted to the brand account. It turns out win-win - the user gets more coverage, and the brand gets more content.

Location

Adding locations to the account description and posts to Instagram promotion is an additional way. This is especially true for local businesses and events. Just put a location and wait for thousands of subscribers will not work.

Paid promotion methods

Targeted advertising

Instagram's official advertising is an opportunity to reach an audience with specific interests. If the algorithms themselves decide who to show your Reels or post to, then in advertising you set the audience yourself. Instagram offers to advertise in the feed, stories and Reels.

Examples of targeted advertising on Instagram: in the feed and in stories

Advertising is set up on Instagram itself or through the Facebook advertising account (if the account is linked to the page). For advertising on Instagram, goals are available: visiting an account, a website and increasing engagement - more messages. The audience can be selected automatically or configured, but the criteria are limited.

Setting up an advertising campaign on Instagram

There are more opportunities to designate an audience in the Facebook advertising account.

Possible goals of an advertising campaign in the Facebook advertising account

The downside of advertising on the social network is an impressive list of restrictions that are constantly changing. For violation of the rules, advertising is stopped, and sometimes the account is blocked without explanation.

Advertising with influencers

Influence marketing remains trending in 2022 as the blogging market grows. Therefore, Instagram promotion through opinion leaders is still relevant. Advertising among bloggers, famous personalities and experts is more trustworthy and is perceived as a recommendation of a familiar person. Advertising options for influencers: native (does not look like advertising) or direct.

Advertising with bloggers

How not to promote on Instagram

If to the question: “How to promote an account on Instagram”, someone offers cheating and giveaways, then run. Gray methods of promotion will not only not be useful, but will also destroy your account. Read about them and forget.

Giveaway

Giveaways are influencer contests in which you need to subscribe to the page and all giveaway sponsors in order to participate in the prize draw. Subscription is a prerequisite for the draw. This is how sponsors gain a new audience, but after the draw:

  • users unsubscribe because their interest is a prize, not a sponsor's page;
  • Instagram algorithms see a large number of unsubscribes and reduce profile reach;
  • it is difficult to save such an account.

Even during a giveaway, the gathered audience is ballast. Prize users are not involved in the content. For Instagram algorithms, this is a sign of irrelevant content.

Cheat bots and comments

Instead of live subscribers, you get fake accounts - bots that create the appearance, but in fact "drown" the account. For algorithms, the more subscribers, the more engagement should be. If the subscribers are bots, there is no activity from them. Instagram sees an uninteresting account and does not show it not only in recommendations, but also to subscribers. The social network also fights against bots and suspicious activity, bans accounts that are engaged in cheating.

Activity chats

They create the illusion of involvement, show social networks and other subscribers interest in the account. These are groups where users gather who like, comment on posts and watch each other's stories. The main disadvantage of the method is an irrelevant audience. If this method is still possible in an account from scratch, then after growth it will most likely harm - you will not see real involvement and interest in the content, so you will not understand how to improve it.

Mass following and mass liking

The essence of the methods is subscribing to multiple accounts that can be the target audience or/and likes to posts by different people. The goal is to draw attention to your account: the user will replace your activity and subscribe in response. But the methods are no longer relevant: users do not respond, but Instagram punishes for such promotion. The social network has a limit of subscriptions, unsubscribes, likes, comments, marks, and even the number of publications. For suspicious activity, the user receives a ban. If you resort to the help of automated third-party services, the risks of losing your account forever increase.

Summary

Start promoting your Instagram account by creating a strategy and profile packaging: a clear description and location designation.

The most promising free way to promote Instagram is to shoot Reels. Combine it with other methods: commenting, cross-promotion with accounts of similar subjects, use user-generated content and advertise your Instagram on other platforms.

Put thematic hashtags under publications and geolocations if the account is tied to a territory - these are additional free promotion methods.

To reach a larger audience, launch targeted ads or reach out to influencers who will remain a popular paid promotion channel in 2022.

Do not use gray methods of promotion: giveaways, activity chats, promotion, mass following and mass liking. Promote legal methods - this is a reliable and proven way.

How often to post on Instagram

How much to post on Instagram* to be successful? The question may have been relevant a few years ago, before the advent of smart tape, but now quantity does not play such a role as quality. Of course, posts should be published several times a week so that you are not forgotten. But do you need more? We talked to several SMMs to find out how much they post per day and why.

How many posts can be posted per day

The number of posts, from a technical point of view, is unlimited - you can post as many as you want. But there are certain limits, after which Instagram* can limit the actions on the account. In the past, the official developer blog published limits annually, but this practice ended a few years ago. According to the latest approximate data, the following numbers are obtained:

  • Posts - from 3 posts per day for new accounts and up to 10-25 for old ones. A new account is considered to be less than 2-4 weeks old, and an account aged from six months to a year is considered old.
  • Stories - you can publish up to 100 stories per day or up to 5 stories per minute.

As you can see, the limits are reasonable - if you do not spam content, it will be difficult to step over these limits and get a temporary block on actions. But if you miraculously exceed this limit, then before posting or any action, you will receive a notification in the application “Action unavailable”. Don't worry - the restriction will last a maximum of a day. The reason is that Instagram* algorithms found your behavior suspicious.

Scheduled posts will help to consistently publish content in all social networks

By the way, if you use our SMMplanner auto-posting service, there will be no problems - we work through the official social network API. You can post up to 25 posts per day with geolocation and hashtags. To do this, you will need to connect a business account, read more about it in the article “Guide to a business profile on Instagram*”.

How often to post on Instagram*

Knowing that we can post a lot of content, it remains to properly distribute it. Someone recommends posting one post a day, someone recommends doing it much more often. It all depends on the specifics of the account, which we have already discussed in the article “Content Publishing Rules: When and How Much”.

With the frequency of posting, on the one hand, it is important not to overdo it so as not to overwhelm subscribers with content, and on the other hand, to keep in touch and not get lost, which can happen if posts appear rarely.

Finding this balance is not an easy task and often comes from practice that is impossible without analysis. The number of posts per day depends on:

  • the industry and scope of the account;
  • account audience and preferences;
  • opportunities to post unique content.

We talked to three social media professionals who manage accounts in different areas to find out how they approach the number of published posts and stories.

For a blogger

A personal blog on Instagram* is a great opportunity for an expert or a specialist to tell about himself and find clients. Since people often follow a live person, they expect to see this person in posts and stories. Therefore, personal blogs often place a special emphasis on stories, and posts are rarely published, but always on an important occasion.

“I publish posts every few days on the principle: “the main thing is not the quantity, but the quality.” However, I make stories every day, visual content is still perceived by people better. Everyone has a different approach to the number of stories, I publish no more than 10 per day - I respect my time and the time of my subscribers.

A blogger can often publish stories and talk about his life - that's why people subscribe to him ", - Lisa Shamarina, interior designer and art critic .

As a result: 1 post every few days, up to 10 stories per day.

To the store

Often a post for a store is like a showcase that shows the quantity of goods. The more of this product, the more posts come out. But in general, the number of posts and stories for an Instagram store* is often determined in a practical way. To do this, you need to try different posting frequencies and see how it affects the audience activity statistics. After all, someone's buyers can be active, happy to leave comments and play games. And someone - in the mood to shop, they will save posts with goods and share them in direct.

“I have two accounts. The first is a small designer clothing store, and the second is a large retailer in the luxury segment. The approach to the frequency of publications, of course, is different.”

The more diverse the posts of a small brand, the better

“A small store posts posts every other day, but stories come out several times a day. I tried to post every day, but after a couple of weeks I realized that it was no use: the average number of likes dropped, and people began to unfollow. Therefore, I focus on Stories, where the audience actively responds and passes tests / games.

A large retailer has a larger audience of subscribers, so posts are released every day and several at a time. Of course, we also publish more stories, but the audience does not support games and all sorts of activities. But selections of goods (and the goods themselves) are often saved in posts, ”- Anastasia Kravtsova, SMM specialist and fashion photographer .

As a result :

  • For a small store - 1 post every other day, from 3 stories per day.
  • For a large store - 2 posts per day, from 6-10 stories per day.

Organizations

Organizations, institutions or public spaces often form the feed like a poster - inform subscribers about important events and activities. Or simply inform about their work and activities.

“We at Inostranka have come to publish one post a day, six days a week. This is due to the fact that, on the one hand, we want to show the life of the library to our readers as many-sided as possible (its “kitchen”, funds, archives, spaces), and on the other hand, we do not want to take content “from the ceiling”.

We respect our readers, we understand that they are busy people, and there is more and more information on the Internet - and very often it is quite the same type. Sometimes abundant posting enhances the uniqueness of the account, and sometimes the opposite. In some areas, it allows you to save information content, while in others, quantity harms quality and originality.

As for books and librarianship, it can sometimes take quite a lot of time to prepare a publication, because you need to carefully read the book, look up the archives (if we are talking about the history of the library), and study the context.

It seems to us that if we posted more often, then readers would stop seeing “Foreigner” in our publications, but would begin to perceive our account as another book blog.”

Content does not have to be released according to the content plan, especially if a special project or special promotion begins ( Valentine's Day post )

we prepare special projects for the holidays or publications dedicated to current news events.

Such periodic headings perfectly show the reader that the book is relevant everywhere and always (for example, literary heroes can suggest an idea for a gift for Valentine's Day), and this is the main task of our account, ”- Katerina Denisova, Leading Methodologist of the Department of public relations and editorial office of the website of the Library for Foreign Literature .

Total : 1 post per day, stories - periodically.

In conclusion

The examples above are not clear rules that all accounts in these niches need to follow. As you can see, each page on Instagram* has a different approach: some post often, some don't. Somewhere a bet is made on stories, and somewhere on posts. This leads to a simple conclusion: you can post often if you manage to make high-quality and unique content every time that will resonate with the audience.

Through a single "statistics center" you can see the selected account data and draw conclusions about the frequency of posting

Try different posting frequencies and look at the reaction of the audience. You can view the data in the statistics of Instagram itself* or use the DataFan interactive dashboard service - connect your Instagram account*, set up indicators on the board and follow the statistics in real time from any device. Read more in our article “How to create SMM dashboard reports for large clients and quick analytics”.

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