Instagram marketing, advertising and trends 2020 - step by step

Through the article we will discuss Instagram marketing step by step and current trends.

Instagram is breaking into the top among the most important social networks. It is used by more than a billion people worldwide. Half a billion use it every day. Instagram is a network that achieves personal interaction, much more than Facebook, and interesting and aesthetic content that by far avoids politics and negativism (into which Facebook is deeply entangled). Think carefully about how you can use Instagram to market your brand. If you are already using it, consider whether you can increase the budget you spend on it.

Let’s take a look at some more official statistics that are valid globally in 2020:

Two million companies advertise on Instagram – join them!

How to create an Instagram account

If you are a company and do not yet have a business profile on Instagram, create one now. You need a mobile app to set up a new business account on Instagram. To download it to your mobile phone, open the Google Play Store or App Store on your iPhone and search for “Instagram”. Then click the Install button. After installing the application, press Open.

The Instagram app on your phone will open. Click Create new account. Enter the email through which you want to manage your Instagram account or enter the phone number to which you will later receive information and notifications.

Then enter your name and choose a password. You also choose your date of birth. Click Next or change your username, as it was created automatically. So by clicking on Change username you can change the username, check if any of the desired usernames are already occupied. So try different names and choose the most appropriate username.

In the next step, you can choose whether you want to connect Instagram to your Facebook profile, which means you’ll be able to search for friends via Facebook who also use Instagram and share your posts on both Instagram and Facebook with a single click.

Graphic display of the first three steps of creating a profile on Instagram.

In the next step, you can also add your phone contacts using Instagram. Add a profile picture to make it as clear as possible, as it is visible in a very small format, for example it is barely visible on the timeline, so it’s good that your profile picture is just your face on a white background or something so that people know that it’s you. You can also choose to post your profile picture as your first post.

Click Next. In the last step, you can explore the links that are recommended. And turn on notifications.

Congratulations! You have created a new account.

To turn your personal profile you just created into a business one, follow these steps:

You can turn the personal profile you just created into a business one – follow the steps above.

Then go through the categories and choose the closest category that matches your business, as this will be quite important when people are looking for you, or people who are looking for you will find you faster and easier if you optimize your profile correctly.

So we choose a category and now we can start creating. An important part of the business profile is also the possibility of a quick contact, which will appear on your profile next to the Follow or Following button and Message. The Message option therefore brings the visitor to Instagram Direct where they can send you a message.

While the additional option of contact (via email or call) directs the visitor to just that and he can start composing an email or call you with one click. So the first step is to revisit the Edit Profile on your profile and click Profile Display.

Two options are displayed, namely Display Category Label (i.e. to display the category in which you work) and Display Contact Info (the Contact or Email button is displayed). Check both options.

In the Profile Display category, check both options – Display Category Label and Display Contact Info

The picture bellow on the right shows an example of a profile with the option of a quick contact (only the e-mail address was entered when logging in, so contact is only possible via this. If you also enter a phone number, the button will be renamed Contact and two options will be displayed message and phone call). In the picture on the left is a business profile without the possibility of quick contact.

Example of a profile without and with the quick contact

Then the profile will be changed to a personal profile, which means that under your name there will be no category in which you work, advertising options and quick contact options won’t be available.

Connect your Instagram profile with your Facebook profile

To use the Creator Studio on Facebook to create posts on Instagram and review communication in Direct messages, you need to link your business Instagram profile to your Facebook page (of course, you need to be its administrator). If you did not already do this in the initial steps when you created the profile, follow the next steps.

Visit your personal profile on Instagram (your profile picture icon in the lower right corner of the screen). Tap the burger menu icon at the top right and go to Settings> Account, select Linked Accounts.

On Instagram, click the burger menu icon on your personal profile …

… and in Settings > Account, choose Linked Accounts.

Select your Facebook page and log in with your username / email and password. Now your Facebook page and business Instagram profile are linked.

In the continuation of this article, we will not describe the basics but some novelties that have recently been published and affect the strategies of how you will tackle the use of Instagram for your marketing.

Posting and commenting on Instagram via desktop or laptop

A great relief when creating posts is a new option that you can now post to Instagram directly from your desktop or laptop. However, not on instagram.com, but via your Facebook page, which you link to your business profile on Instagram.

You can comment and send messages in the Inbox section, where if you have previously linked a Facebook page to an Instagram business profile, the Instagram option appears under Messages and also under Comments. So you can reply directly to messages and comments there.

You can create posts on your computer with Creator Studio. You can access it in the main Facebook menu via Publishing Tools> Tools> Creator Studio. When you get to the Creator Studio, you will see the option to choose between Facebook and Instagram in the top menu. If you click on the icon with the Instagram logo, Creator Studio will open in the colors of Instagram, with the option to post directly to your Instagram profile.

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You will be able to add links to products to your Instagram posts

A great novelty that is currently only valid in the US and a few other countries. It will allow you to tag the products that you have in the Facebook catalog in the post. I recommend that you regularly monitor this link (https://www.facebook.com/help/instagram/321000045119159), where the countries where this feature already works are presented.

Instagram can delete your profile

Another novelty that you need to pay attention to is that Instagram has embarked on a kind of cleaning of the platform and has greatly tightened its requirements for safe and fair use of the platform. So in this context, I do not recommend any external gadgets that help you get followers or share content. At the same time, pay special attention to the content so that it complies with the rules.

Let me point out here that the rules of Instagram do not allow you to post pictures used by others and this also applies to various memes, pictures with verses and similar. Therefore, if your account is intended for business use, I recommend that you use only your materials.

Of course, one such violation will not delete your account, but any violations detected are also in your account history, which means that notifications of violations are accumulated, which also affects the level of health of your Instagram profile, so this then affects the success of your posts.

How does Instagram's algorithm work in 2020?

The next factor to keep in mind every time you post an update is, of course, the algorithm that decides the success of your posts.

Instagram’s algorithm still works according to the principle introduced in 2016. Until 2016, posts were displayed in a chronological order, but with the increase in the number of users, this only meant that users (according to Instagram) also missed 70% of posts.

Previously, we only had to worry about publishing at the right time, but now a good reach is influenced by a ton of different factors. Given that the Instagram algorithm is constantly refreshed, it is necessary to regularly monitor in which direction everything is going. Of course, Instagram doesn’t release all the bug fixes. But we can manage to extract something, either from their statements or from monitoring their actions.

One of the good and also the most important novelties is that Instagram now allows posts to experience a longer lifespan. It happens that the posts are not necessarily dead (they no longer have reach) after only one or two days, but the best ones can also experience a response on the fifth or sixth day, which is of course very well appreciated from us in marketing. It means that one very good post a week can allow us constant traffic of visitors and it is no longer so necessary to produce content every day. From this I conclude, that the trend on Instagram is going into the direction of quality posts.

Otherwise, it is not entirely clear what we need to do for the publication to reach its climax. The first condition, of course, will be that it will be visible to as many people as possible. Instagram has stated that it displays absolutely all posts, and their order depends primarily on the user himself in terms of how relevant the content is to his interests and how he has reacted to posts from your account in the past.

All of this leads us to the realization that it’s best to stay with the basics: create the content of posts that your followers want to see, track responses, and prepare new posts based on the most successful types of posts.

Guidelines for a achieving the best rating of Instagram's algorithm in 2020

Instagram users are used to top-notch photos and videos. Therefore, they will not respond to your post unless the content is at the highest possible level. And this, of course, will also be noticed by the algorithm. If an individual follower does not respond to the post a few times, the posting algorithm will no longer display this Instagram profile.

So, even if you think that the photos / videos are already at a high enough level, to increase your success in 2020, I recommend that you consider how to upgrade, spice up and refine the content.

Posting in “Instagram Stories” won’t bring you a direct impact on the algorithm, but the point of Stories is to post more general content for which it’s even better that they’re not specifically planned but show what’s happening to you throughout the day. This way you will not run out of material and you will maintain a presence in the user’s consciousness. Of course, the publication of Stories must be well prepared. Include various interactive elements to increase follower response. The more they respond, the more of your posts they will see.

For a better rating of the Instagram algorithm, post as many Instagram stories as possible

Video is the best format on all digital channels. Also on Instagram. Fortunately, Instagram users prefer shorter videos (up to one minute). Post longer videos on IG TV, where they will also have a longer lifespan. Because we’re focusing on how the algorithm works in this article, an interesting video of course makes followers stay on your content for longer, which is exactly the signal the algorithm is looking for.

The same as Stories, live streaming has no direct impact on the algorithm, but when you go live, this is communicated by Instagram itself to your followers via notifications. So it’s obviously in Instagram’s interest to report live. Thus, the overall experience of the platform is also more natural. Above all, with live videos, make sure you address topics that are important to your followers and that you really know a lot about.

If 2/3 of the success of the post depends on the photo or video, the key 1/3 definitely depends on the text of the post. A good text should first attract attention, explain the benefits / dangers and invite users to respond. Say everything that stands out right at the beginning so that the text is visible before you need to click to see the full text of the post.

Guidelines for a good Instagram algorithm score in 2020

In Instagram posts, take Twitter as an example and tag as many other Instagram users as possible related to the topic. The goal is to encourage them to respond, comment, which is also seen by their followers, and the response to the post increases immediately.

Add up to 30 hashtags to each post. However, research shows that Instagram users respond best to posts with only 9-15 hashtags. This means you need to figure out which hashtags work best for you and use only those.

You can use the Flick tool to help with this. With it, you will find the hashtags that get the most response and have the least competition (https://flick.tech/).

Flick.tech tool for analyzing #hashtags

Giveaways always attract users. The most effective formula for attracting people to participate in giveaways is: Follow, Tag a friend, Comment. Everyone on Instagram is used to these requirements and they fulfill them without thinking. Profiles that use giveaways grow up to 7x faster than profiles that don’t use them. But you have to be careful when choosing a prize: always give only what you produce or sell. If your services or products are of greater value, only give as a gift a certificate for a certain percentage discount of the value. This way you will avoid the bounty hunters.

In the tab Insights follow the activity of your followers and post on the hours when they respond most to your posts.

Cooperation with microinfluencers is a good strategy to draw attention from a narrowly defined target group. Microinfluencers do not have tens of thousands of followers. But more than the mass, it is important that the positioned at the top of a narrow niche and through them you address people who are interested in specific content. Quality over quantity is a formula for success on Instagram as well. Because it doesn’t only matter how many followers you get but how active they are. And follower activity is what interests Instagram’s algorithm.

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