Written by Ben Grant
Already in 2016, and by technological standards, it was a long time ago, 95 million posts were posted on Instagram every day. Today, the audience of this social platform has grown several times, as well as the number of published posts, respectively. Competition is becoming tougher, and user requirements for content quality are becoming increasingly exigent.
Everyone wants to stand out from the crowd, so in this article, we have put together the most appropriate tips on how to write a successful and highly conversational Instagram post.
Choose the Right Topic
So, where does writing a post on Instagram begin? That’s right, with a topic selection. Most likely, the topic of your profile is already determined by the type of business that you are engaged in, so you just have to narrow this specificity to a specific topic. There is an important rule — one post should reveal one topic, do not try to talk about everything at once.
And here is another important point. In order for your post to get good coverage and a good response among the audience, the topic of the post should be relevant. Plus, you need to associate this topic with your type of business. How to find this hot topic? The best way is to find a question that does not yet have an answer, for example on Quora or Reddit and try to come up with the most useful solution.
Make Your Visuals Look Great
Visual content is the main component of a post on Instagram. This is so important that Instagram simply would not exist without attractive pictures and photos. Now the Stories and IGTV formats have become popular, but now we are not talking about that.
So, the graphics determine more than 90% of the success of your post. It has long been scientifically proven that people in their majority perceive information visually. That is, the decision to read your post or not will be made at this level and at first glance at the picture.
Obviously, images downloaded from photo banks will not work. Moreover, many of them have been downloaded and used so many times that users simply recognize them and pass by. What could be interesting in your post if you didn’t even bother to create a unique picture, but simply downloaded it?
Therefore, here you can act in several ways. If you are developing a personal brand, then your photo in an atmosphere appropriate to the topic of the post will suit. If you are promoting a product, then it is obvious that you need a high-quality photo of this particular product. If you write entertaining or educational content, then you can create a cool image using special services such as Canva.
Check Whether Your Message Is Useful or Entertaining
You can write about what you think at the moment, about your feelings, about the behavior of your cat only if this is your personal Instagram profile and you just share the news with your friends. But if your task on Instagram is to promote business, then this approach will not work. Instagram is a surprisingly friendly platform for promoting your business, so hundreds and thousands of your competitors are doing the same thing and are thinking about what to write so that the post is effective.
Therefore, the most important element that should be in your post is the benefit. Or at least humor or entertainment. These are two basic tricks to catch users with. Before writing, answer the question — what problem does my post solve or at least will my audience be responsive to an entertainment post of this format? If you answered yes, then it makes sense to move on.
Write Without Stamps and Cliches
We will be honest — all users have long been tired of phrases like “team of professionals”, “high-quality service” and “fast delivery”. This is all, of course, good, and especially good if all this is about your company, but you cannot catch a modern user with this.
Therefore, if you write about quality, then confirm why it is high. If you write about professionalism, then strengthen your statement with statistics of achieved results. Words without confirmation no longer matter but are water or informational garbage. Needless to say, several posts in a row written in a similar vein will destroy the desire of your subscribers to read you further.
Check Grammar and Punctuation Several Times
There is an opinion that the Internet is a space free of rules, and many users really believe that grammar, punctuation, and logic are for academic papers that we wrote in college. And they are wrong. A proven, competent and logical post (which, yes, according to the best academic rules, has a beginning, the main part, and a conclusion) continues to work on the Internet in general and in social networks in particular.
Therefore, after you finish with the text, re-read it again. If you think you might have missed something, turn on a specialized plugin like Grammarly and you can catch some more errors even in the free tariff. And the best way is to re-read your text for the post with a fresh look a few hours after writing and then you will definitely see what else can be improved in your style.
Come up with Relevant Hashtags
Instagram hashtags are key ways to promote your post. You can safely do without them on Linkedin, or even on Facebook, but the unwritten Instagram rules oblige you to use hashtags. Moreover, it is necessary to do this as correctly as possible.
Before posting, consider which hashtags will be the most suitable. It is recommended to add selling, viral, geolocation hashtags to the post, plus hashtags that are directly related to your business and are used with different frequencies. Add a Motivating CTA
Very often, users read the post, like it and … did not understand what to do next. Therefore, you need to give them clear instructions. If your goal is to ask yours to take part in the contest, talk about it directly. If your goal is to attract users to the site, then duplicate the link, and by the way, add it to your bio. And act by analogy with other tasks.
Conclusion
These rules are very simple, but for some reason, not all companies follow them. Therefore, do not repeat the mistakes, make yourself a checklist of a successful Instagram post and follow it with every publication.
Ben Grant is a blog writer and LinksManagement contributor. He likes to discuss modern literature trends and books, as well as give personal tips on how to improve your writing style.