Getting Started with Instagram

If you’re just getting started on Instagram, or you’re not sure why your audience isn’t growing, then this is for you. According to Hubspot, Instagram Live has the highest ROI of any content format¹¹, so keep reading to make sure you’re on track for success.

In this Business Building Guide, we’ll cover the demographics of the site, tips for your images and alt text, as well as how to find the best time to post on Instagram.

In this PDF, there is a 1-page cheat sheet for creating on Instagram, that will help you remember the important steps every time you post on Instagram for your business.

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Who is using Instagram? Audience Demographics

According to the Pew Research Center⁷, in February 2021, 40% of U.S. adults say they use Instagram. This includes 45% of U.S. adults that live in an urban area, 41% of U.S. adults who live in a suburban area, and only 25% of U.S. adults that live in rural areas.

In the same report, among U.S. adults who use Instagram, 59% use it daily, and 80% use it at least weekly.

And, in April 2022, according to Statista⁶:

• The largest user age bracket is males aged 25-34 with 17.1% of total global users.
• More than 60% of Instagram’s user base is aged between 18 and 34 years old.
• For age brackets younger than 34, male users outnumber female users.
• For age brackets 35 and older, female users outnumber males.

Visually Consistent

According to Hootsuite², keeping your posts visually consistent and posting regularly can help you build your presence on Instagram.

Visually consistent images might share a color scheme or unique editing style² that makes them recognizable when users scroll through the app. Maybe you have a photo frame, watermark, and preferred photo filter; there should be something that makes your images unique.

Image and Video Sizes

Your images don’t have to be square, but they will appear square on your page in the grid, as well as in any carousels where the 1^st image is square. Likewise, all image or video carousels will be cropped to horizontal or portrait size if the first image is.²²

As for image sizes, the best size for a square image is 1080×1080. For landscape-oriented images, it’s 1080×566. And, for portrait-oriented images, it’s 1080×1350.²²

The video sizes are close: the square size is the same at 1080×1080, the landscape video size is the same at 1080×566, and the portrait size is larger at 1080×1920. Try and record at the same resolution and orientation that you want to use on Instagram.²²

Adding Links

Links that are in the post captions aren’t clickable. However, there are other ways to share clickable links.

In Stories, you can include a Link Sticker. In IGTV, you can include links in the video description. And, of course, you can add links to your bio/profile.

Instagram Stories

Stories are “photos and videos that disappear from your profile, Feed and messages after 24 hours, unless you add them to your profile as story highlights.”²⁰

In 2022, Hubspot reported¹¹, the ideal number of Stories to have up at once is 4-9¹¹ and that of those marketers who post to Instagram that responded, and 45% posted multiple Stories per week, 23% posted multiple Stories per day, and 23% posted 1 Story per day.

You can add a Link Sticker in a Story that people can click on to visit your website. One limitation is that you can’t add these stickers in ads.

Find out more about Stories here. You can add to your story by clicking on Story under the + menu.

Instagram Reels

Reels are up to 60-second videos to which you can add music, effects, and voice-overs. You can also control who can see your Reels and who can re-use your audio²¹. Currently, not all users can record a Reel, but all users can see them.

Find out more about Reels here. You can create a Reel by clicking on Reel under the + menu, if it’s available to you.

Accurate Alt Text

Alternative text or alt text is the text that describes the image for users who use screen-reading technology and for SEO¹⁹. It’s important to make this text as accurate and descriptive as possible.

Instagram does generate automatic alt-text for images¹³ but won’t do as good a job of you writing the text. Here are the directions on how to edit the alternative text for a photo on Instagram.

According to Accessible-Social.com¹⁹, you should write a plain, objective description to create an image in the reader’s mind. As for length, alt text should only be as long as needed to accurately describe the image.

Timing Your Posts

Using Instagram Insights, you can see when your audience is online. This feature is available for Business and Creator accounts⁹. Once you login through the app (it doesn’t work on the desktop), go to your profile, and tap the Insights action button. It is also listed in the upper right corner menu of the Instagram app. Once you’ve on the Insights Overview, scroll down in the app to see the chart of when your audience is online.

Try posting new content just before your audience is online, so that there is new stuff when they get online.

How often should I post to Instagram?

In 2022, Hubspot reported¹¹ that of those marketers who post to Instagram that responded, and 45% posted multiple times per week, 23% posted multiple times per day, and 23% posted 1x per day.

Instagram Insights

The only way to know for sure what is working is to look how your posts are performing. If you don’t have a Business or Creator account, here are the directions to setup a Business Account on Instagram.

Once you login through the app (it doesn’t work on the desktop), go to your profile, and tap the Insights action button. It is also listed in the upper right corner menu of the Instagram app.

At the top of the screen, there is a drop-down which will let you change the dates for the Insights you’re viewing.

Through this menu, there are Insights available for each of the following areas: Recent Highlights, Overview, Accounts Reached/Accounts Engaged, Total Followers, and Content You Shared.

You can also View Insights available under posts, videos, reels. For Stories and IG Live videos, swipe up on the video to view Insights for that piece of content.

You can find more information about what’s shown in Insights here.

Conclusion

Hopefully this guide has answered your questions about how to post on Instagram for your business. We’ve stuck to the basics with Instagram here. Once you’ve got that done, there is more you can do, like adding an action button to your page.

If you’re still not sure what content to post, check out 3 Ways to Create Blog Post Ideas, our series What can my business post about next month?, or a list like this one of ideas to post on Instagram.

If you need help with Instagram for your business, we can do that.

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Resources and Further Reading

1. Heinrich, A. (2022). Accessible Social. Retrieved May 25, 2022, from https://www.accessible-social.com/.
2. Streiling, N. (2021, June 29). 21 Instagram Best Practices You Should Be Following in 2022. Hootsuite. Retrieved June 21, 2022, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-best-practices/.
3. Cooper, P. (2022, June 20). The Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2022. Hootsuite. Retrieved June 21, 2022, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/best-time-to-post-on-instagram/.
4. Instagram. (n.d.). The Latest Best Practices for Instagram Shopping. Retrieved June 21, 2022, from https://business.instagram.com/shopping/guide-and-best-practices.
5. Read, A. (n.d.). Instagram for Business. Buffer. Retrieved June 21, 2022, from https://buffer.com/library/instagram-for-business-tips/.
6. Statista. (n.d.). Distribution of Instagram users worldwide as of April 2022, by age and gender. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/248769/age-distribution-of-worldwide-instagram-users/.
7. Pew Research Center. (2021, April 7). Social Media Fact Sheet. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/.
8. McLachlan, S. (2022, March 24). Instagram Demographics in 2022. Hootsuite. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-demographics/.
9. Instagram. (n.d.). View Account Insights on Instagram. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://help.instagram.com/1533933820244654.
10. Needle, F. (2022, June 6). When to Post on Instagram. Hubspot. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-often-to-post-on-instagram/.
11. Iskiev, M. (2022, April 19). The Hubspot Blog’s 2022 Instagram Marketing Report. Hubspot. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/instagram-marketing-report.
12. Instagram. (n.d.). About Instagram Insights. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://www.facebook.com/help/instagram/788388387972460.
13. Instagram. (n.d.). How do I edit the alternative text for a photo on Instagram?. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://www.facebook.com/help/instagram/503708446705527/.
14. Saraco, F. (2020, December 11). 20 Ideas for What to Post on Instagram. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://www.shopify.com/blog/what-to-post-instagram-ideas.
15. Instagram. (n.d.). About Action Button Partners. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://help.instagram.com/313280685976255/.
16. Instagram. (n.d.). About Action Buttons for Instagram Business Profiles. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://help.instagram.com/122793804938499/.
17. Instagram. (n.d.). How do I start a live broadcast on Instagram?. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://help.instagram.com/292478487812558/.
18. Instagram. (n.d.). How do I record a reel on Instagram?. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://www.facebook.com/help/instagram/2720958398006062/.
19. Accessible-Social.com. (2022). Alternative Text. Retrieved May 31, 2022, from https://www.accessible-social.com/alternative-text.
20. Instagram. (n.d.). Stories. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://help.instagram.com/1660923094227526/.
21. Instagram. (n.d.). Reels. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://www.facebook.com/help/instagram/270447560766967/.
22. Read, A. (n.d.). Instagram Image Size and Dimensions in 2021. Buffer. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://buffer.com/library/instagram-image-size/.
23. Instagram. (n.d.). About the Link Sticker for Instagram Stories. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://help.instagram.com/192168966243613.
24. Todorovska, M. (2022, May 17). 5 Ways on How to Post a Link on Instagram. Embed Social. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://embedsocial.com/blog/how-to-post-a-link-on-instagram/.