If you’re not thinking of your feed theme or an overall Instagram aesthetic in your social media marketing, then you’re missing out!

It’s not just about having a great-looking feed, but it also helps with your branding and may even help you come up with something awesome when you’re running low on what to post to Instagram.

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So, how do you pick or decide on an Instagram aesthetic?

Looking at other accounts for inspiration is research, but at the end of the day, your aesthetic should be about you and/or your brand.

You can ask yourself these questions when deciding on an aesthetic…

• What kinds of posts do I want to share?
• What colors or color palette do I like?
• When people look at my feed, how do I want them to feel?
• What do I enjoy photographing and posting?

Now that you have some idea of Instagram aesthetics, you can adapt and make your own! You’ll need to make sure your posts have a consistent look for that cohesive Instagram aesthetic you’re aiming for.

Here are some tips to keep up with your new Instagram aesthetic…

#1 Use Similar Filters

Editing tools like Instasize have a wide selection of filters that can help you achieve the Instagram aesthetic you’re looking for in a jiffy.

Want to go for something moody? How about bright and minimalist? Maybe something more vintage and rustic? There’s a filter for that!

The great thing about filters is that you can still customize them depending on intensity. You can even adjust photo settings like Brightness, Contrast, and Shadow to make a good photo great, and ready for your feed.

If you use the same filter on every post, it will give your content the consistency that creates a successful Instagram aesthetic.

 #2 Plan Ahead

It’s impossible to keep up an awesome and well-curated Instagram aesthetic when you’re posting on the fly.

You want to make sure every new post fits well with your current feed, and nothing clashes or look repetitive. On Instagram planners like Hopper HQ and Instasize, you can reorder your photos to see how they all fit together on your feed:

If you want to have consistent updates, you may also want to take multiple photos that are perfect for your aesthetic and bank them to keep up with your posting schedule.

 Read more about planning the perfect grid here

#3 Take Inspiration From Others

Finding your Instagram feed aesthetic doesn’t mean there’s nothing new to learn. Explore other accounts, always keep your eyes peeled for inspiration.

How do your favorite Instagram accounts execute their feed aesthetic? How do they frame or crop their shots? How much do they edit? How strong was the filter?

The only way to up your Instagram aesthetic is to constantly improve it. Instagram is always changing and new trends always arriving on the platform. You can always do better when it’s time for the next post!

#4 White Borders

Sometimes using white space between feed rows can make not only your feed pop, but also your individual images.

Consider resizing the aspect ratio of your photos to 4:3 or 2:3, and placing them on a white background, so that when they are posted, each row of your feed has a white (or any color of your choice) border of separation.

You can find out how to do this, and more, in the guide below:

 Find out the correct Instagram image dimensions here

About the author: 

 Natasha Ponomaroff is the Senior Marketing Director of Instasize, content creating tool kit for anyone editing photos and online content on mobile. A weekly contributor on the site’s blog, Natasha tracks social media trends and updates the millions of creatives who are currently using Instasize to curate awesome online content.

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Now an almost $2 billion industry, Instagram influencer marketing has taken the social media world by storm. In recent years, Instagram users around the globe have begun making a living from paid posts and collaborative marketing campaigns.

The app offers the perfect space for brand ambassadorship, with influential users authentically recommending products and services to their loyal audience. With the influencer space estimated to grow to a $5-10 billion industry by 2021, it’s clearly a marketing force that isn’t going anywhere…

We’ve compiled all you need to know about Instagram influencer marketing and the way it works into this simple guide!

Contents:

1. Instagram Influencer Marketing: In A Nutshell
2. Why Instagram Influencer Marketing Works
3. How Much Do Instagram Influencers Cost?
4. What Makes An Instagram Influencer?
5. How To Work With Influencers On Instagram
6. The Future Of Instagram Influencer Marketing

1. Instagram Influencer Marketing: In A Nutshell

People who have built a large and engaged following on Instagram are known as ‘influencers’, due to the fact that their followers idolise them and respect their opinions. They may have acquired a loyal following due to their lifestyle, their job or hobby, the clothes they wear or the stories they tell.

The pool of influencers is vast and diverse, meaning almost any brand has the potential to utilise Instagram influencer marketing for their industry and target demographic. 

The emergence of Instagram influencers opened up huge opportunities for businesses looking to authentically market their products to their target audience, and thus the ‘paid post’ phenomenon was born.

In the early days, it might have been enough for a brand to send an influencer one of their products as a gift, in return for them posting about it on their profile. But this changed with the rapid growth of the space, as influencers realised they could not only gain free products, but actually charge brands for grid real estate on their profile.

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2. Why Instagram Influencer Marketing Works

Influencer marketing allows brands to reach their target audience in a way that feels far more genuine than traditional advertising.

Rather than businesses selling directly to consumers, they are building relationships with influencers who can sell for them. Instagram influencers have a strong and loyal relationship with their followers, as they share many aspects of their lives with them. This leads us to feel like we know them personally, so when an influencer we like recommends something, we listen as we would if it were a friend.

For example, if you follow a travel blogger for their beautiful photos or funny captions, and they post about an airplane pillow that gave them the best night’s sleep on a long haul flight, you’re more inclined to remember the brand and buy it for your next holiday because you like and trust them. Makes sense, right?

With 800 million active users, Instagram has become the platform of choice for influencer marketing. 72% of users said they have made fashion, beauty or style-related purchases after seeing something on the app, proving its power in the digital marketing landscape of 2020. 

72% of Instagram users said they have made fashion, beauty or style-related purchases after seeing something on the app, proving its power in the digital marketing landscape of 2020. By @Nicola_HHQ
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3. How Much Do Instagram Influencers Cost?

To give an idea of numbers in the Instagram influencer marketing world, Hopper HQ’s annual Instagram Rich List disclosed just how much money the top influencers and celebrities can earn from a single post.

Kylie Jenner bagged the top spot, charging over $1 million for a product-related post on her Instagram profile. Considering the 21 year old wiped out $1.3 billion of Snapchat’s market value with a single tweet earlier last year, her influence — and that of her whole family — is certainly not to be underestimated.

The amount an influencer can charge per post will vary depending on a number of factors, including follow number, engagement rate, and industry.

Elle Cuthbert-Edkins, our Customer Success Manager here at Hopper HQ, spoke on the BBC about the current state of Instagram influencer marketing. She emphasised the importance of engagement over follower number, explaining that “we’re typically seeing brands work exclusively with influencers who have a 10-20% engagement rate”, ensuring that the followers are truly interested in what the influencer is posting.

Engagement rate = no. of likes and comments ÷ no. of followers

'We’re typically seeing brands work exclusively with influencers who have a 10-20% engagement rate' @Elle_HopperHQ on influencer marketing
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From our Rich List methodology and data, we found that many collaboration deals are worked out by 100,000 followers. For example, the beauty industry charges on average £162 per 100,000 followers for a single post. For many influencers that have followers in the millions, this level of sponsorship enables them to make a living from Instagram.

Check out the Hopper HQ 2023 Instagram Rich List to see which celebrities and influencers topped the charts across all industries

4. What Makes An Instagram Influencer?

There’s no strict criteria for being classed as an Instagram influencer. Any user who has a fairly high, engaged following — of people who actually care about what they do — will have an influence over their audience and is a valuable marketing proposition for brands.

If you’re a social media manager looking to start Instagram influencer marketing, do your research to ensure:

1. Their follower demographic is well matched to your target audience
2. Their following and engagement is genuine

Due to the existence of bots giving out likes and comments on users’ behalves, as well as the ability to buy followers, some Instagram accounts may look like influencers, but actually don’t have a loyal following or any real influence at all — we call them ‘ghost followers’.

Generic comments such as ‘’ or ‘Awesome shot!’ are likely to be from accounts using an engagement bot, so if these are the only kinds of interactions on an influencer’s posts, it’s likely that they don’t actually have the influence they’re making out.

NOTE: these bots will comment on posts of users in a chosen target demographic or using certain hashtags in order to increase brand awareness and get more followers. It makes sense, however they have become very easy to spot and don’t actually start genuine conversations! 

Another important indicator of a good influencer is that they are responsible with their partnership choices, truly taking into consideration their followers’ interests and ensuring they only do sponsored posts with brands they believe their audience would be likely to engage with.

Going hand in hand with this is that the influencers make their own content for a brand, hence why it’s often referred to as a ‘partnership’ or a ‘collaboration’, rather than them simply posting a photo the brand sends them.

Building an engaged following is hard work, and a good influencer will not want to post anything that looks alien to their audience or their feed. When strategising an influencer marketing campaign, it’s therefore important to make sure your brand image complements the influencer you’re looking to reach out to!

5. How To Work With Influencers On Instagram

If you decide that Instagram influencer marketing is the right step for your business, the first thing to do is set your budget. It’s an expensive game, and with influencers charging per post and for Stories, a whole campaign can set you back a long way.

With a smaller budget, you will be looking for micro influencers to promote your brand. These are influencers with a relatively smaller following (1,000 – 10,000) but who have a high engagement rate on their posts.

It is a far more cost effective option for smaller businesses, and micro influencers can have a great deal of influence over a specific audience. On a larger budget, you can think about bigger influencers, but try not to be fooled by vanity metrics such as number of followers and focus predominantly on engagement rate.

Once you’ve found people you think could be perfect, do your research as we mentioned above. Ensure they have a genuine following and a trusted, loyal community. See if they’ve worked on influencer campaigns in the past and look at the kinds of products or brands they promote, this will help to inform if they would be a good fit for your company.

As well as this, take a read of their comments to see if your target demographic are engaging with their content. And finally, check out which type of posts they’re excelling at (i.e Stories, video, gallery posts) to help inform your campaign. 

Then reach out to them! Micro influencers are likely to manage themselves, so contact them through the email on their profile or send them a direct message within Instagram. If you’re looking at a larger influencer, they will probably have an agency who manage their campaign requests – this is typically listed in their bio.

When approaching agencies, ask for the influencer’s rate card and explain your brand and the campaign brief you have in mind. Go into as much detail as possible (i.e budget, how many posts, the type of content etc) in order to best manage expectations on both side of the collaboration.

If you’re looking for inspiration, check out this report of the best performing brands in influencer marketing last year!

 Importantly, treat your working relationships with Instagram influencers as partnerships. Remember that they know what their followers engage with best, and to trust them in the content creation process!

6. The Future Of Instagram Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has had its fair share of criticism in recent years. Consumers have felt misled as a result of being unaware somebody they follow was getting paid to recommend certain products.

This has led to a huge push for transparency among influencers. Hashtags such as #ad and #spon have become standard in a paid post caption, in order to distinguish the sponsorship deals from ‘genuine’ recommendations. Instagram also created their official ‘Paid partnership’ tag, which sits above a post to inform users that a brand is collaborating with that influencer.

While on some levels this takes away from the authenticity that made Instagram influencer marketing so successful, influencers also feel a loyalty to let their followers know they’ve earned money from a post. 

At one of our events last year, ‘The Power Of Influencer Marketing in 2018’, our panelist Harry Hugo, Co-Founder of The Goat Agency commented on the problematic nature of these CMA regulations, due to the fact that it’s not universal across other advertising channels or promotional sponsorship deals.

He gave the example of Neymar walking on to the football pitch wearing Nike boots as a result of his multi-million dollar sponsorship deal. A notice does not appear on our television screens to tell us the boots are being marketed to us, and the suggestion of such would seem ludicrous.

Therefore it’s one rule for traditional methods of advertising, and another for Instagram influencer marketing, and it will be interesting to see how the regulations change as the space develops.

Read the other top takeaway from our influencer event here

At Hopper HQ we work with hundreds of influencers all over the world, and always encourage them to only accept partnerships with brands and products they truly like and would use themselves. False promotion eventually becomes obvious, meaning the influence the person actually has shrinks.

As a digital population we are developing ‘ad blindness’, meaning we’re essentially becoming immune to marketing. The fact that we click ‘Skip Ad’ on YouTube the second it becomes available, and even pay for the privilege of not being sold to with services like Spotify Premium highlights this.

Consumers are becoming more and more savvy when it comes to advertising, and it’s no different with Instagram influencer marketing. As the industry gets more and more concentrated, brands and influencers will need to think outside of the box to keep creating highly engaging marketing campaigns, and we can’t wait to see them!

Is there any other areas of influencer marketing you’d like to know more about? Let us know in the comments!

Hopper HQ is a social media scheduling and management platform that frees up time for the fun creative stuff! Named in the Top 5 Most Popular Social Media Marketing Software list 2018. Start your 14-day trial today.

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Why plan your Instagram feed?

In recent years Instagram has become a primary marketing platform for businesses, to the point where Instagram profiles are as valuable as company websites.

Despite people finding new Instagram accounts via Reels or single posts  — from hashtags, locations and tagging  — once they land on a profile, it’s the 9 grid Instagram layout that makes a lasting impression that gets you scrolling for more.

Brands, influencers, and creatives need to therefore make sure their Instagram posts look good when placed all together on their Instagram feed using an Instagram grid planner!

A consistent Instagram feed theme can really affect the overall impact of a profile, which is important to bear in mind when planning your Instagram marketing strategy.

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How to plan out your Instagram feed with an Instagram layout planner

Here are some tips for creating a great Instagram layout and using the Hopper HQ Instagram grid planner.

Step 1: Find a theme for your Instagram feed aesthetic

There are many kinds of Instagram themes, but the one thing they all have in common is consistency.

This requires discipline and planning when it comes to content creation and curation, which is why it’s no easy feat!

While you look through the following suggestions, use our no-account-needed Instagram grid planner to map out your perfect feed.

Themes will vary depending on the industry and the type of content you’re publishing, but here are a few ideas to get the ball rolling:

1. Pick a color palette

There’s something incredibly satisfying about an Instagram account with a clear color palette.

It looks clean, stylish and well-curated. Using a color palette theme will require an Instagram grid planner to ensure a seamless transition from post to post. If you don’t have a naturally artistic eye, you can use a color palette generator in order to browse color schemes and see the kinds of colors that complement each other in photographs.

You can either stick to one color throughout or use a color palette to transition through various colors as you scroll! There are many possibilities, and once you decide on a color scheme you can create content accordingly.

2. Use white borders or frames

Another way to create a stand-out Instagram layout is by placing your photos and videos in white borders or frames to create a pattern.

This became a common trend back when Instagram only supported square posts, as a hack to not have to crop your portrait and landscape posts! Now it is simply a thematic decision to make your Instagram feed look more like a photo album or brochure.

Again there are a number of ways to implement white borders, whether it’s small squares, portraits, landscapes, or a mixture!

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3. Create an Instagram grid pattern

Many brands use a variety of content and photography types on Instagram. Whether it’s flat-lay product shots, typography quotes, or UGC — you can incorporate the different forms of content into your Instagram layout!

This could be in the form of a checkerboard or horizontal/vertical lines and gives you the chance to be creative without restricting your content choices too much.

Another way of utilising the grid to make your profile stand out is to make all 6 or 9 squares into 1 bigger image when combined.

If you choose to do this make sure the individual squares work as individual posts, as that is how they will appear on your followers’ feeds!

Here’s an example:

Aldi UK is the master of this; their Instagram profile looks like a never-ending table but each post focuses on a specific food item.

Remember: if you choose to create an Instagram theme like this, you will always need to post in threes, so that the layout stays intact. This is when an Instagram grid planner is necessary, as you can line up your posts into the grid theme and make sure the pattern matches up!

Step 2: Use an Instagram grid planner to create your layout

At Hopper HQ, we built our own Instagram grid planner to help you perfect your Instagram layout at the same time as scheduling your content for the coming weeks!

The Instagram grid planner on Hopper HQ allows you to see what your Instagram profile layout will look like once all your scheduled posts have been published.

This is incredibly useful if you’re trying to create one of the Instagram layouts discussed above.

You can drag and drop your posts around to test the best combinations and layouts before they are sent to your Instagram account.

The Hopper HQ grid planner makes the process of creating a beautiful Instagram feed much quicker and easier. Regardless of your layout, colour palette, or pattern, you can use the Instagram grid planner to ensure no posts clash and ruin the pattern you’ve spent so long creating.

With Hopper HQ, you can bulk upload up to 50 photos and videos in one go, scheduling them as far in advance as you see fit while ensuring your grid feed remains consistent and striking.

You can choose to preview your Instagram feed with Reels or preview image posts separately to get your feed looking exactly how you want it.

We believe this Instagram grid planner is a game changer for social media marketers! Say goodbye to the test Instagram accounts you were using to check for your Instagram feed cohesion, and visually manage all your content in one place.

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Will an Instagram grid planner come to the Instagram app itself?

Back in 2018, Hopper HQ received insider reports of an internal Instagram grid planner feature in beta mode to certain users. We were able to get our hands on exclusive screenshots of how it looked:

Sadly, this feature only seemed to reach testing mode on Instagram, as it was never officially released in an update!

This does however show that Instagram is clearly thinking of ways to help brands, influencers, and individuals plan their feed aesthetic and ensure their posts match the content already on their profile.

We’re certainly keeping our eyes peeled for a new Instagram grid planner feature release.

Curate the perfect Instagram feed with Hopper HQ

The Hopper HQ Instagram grid planner lets you easily drag and drop your upcoming posts to curate the perfect Instagram feed. You can choose to review your Instagram feed with or without Reels to keep that Instagram aesthetic on point.

 Try out the Hopper HQ Instagram grid planner for yourself and enjoy many more features by signing up for a free trial today!  

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In a world where we instinctually reject a lot of advertising (‘Skip Ad’ on YouTube) and even pay to not be marketed to (Spotify Premium) — Instagram Stories offer a saving grace.

It’s like a conveyor belt of consumption: you get on it by innocently clicking on a photo of your friend’s dinner. Before you know it you’ve tapped through 30 people’s Instagram Stories, watched 5 adverts, swiped up to see links from influencers’ wardrobes, and you’re not sure where the last 20 minutes of your life went.

Once you’re on the conveyor belt, it’s hard to get off.

The addictive design of Instagram Stories has us stuck viewing them for longer than we ever plan to. We don’t know what’s coming up next, and it’s easy to keep clicking through rather than exiting.

I’m not basing this on my personal experience alone. Instagram Business insights show you how many people clicked forward on to the next Story from yours, and how many left the conveyor belt. Looking at Hopper HQ’s account, on average 80% of users ‘Forward Tap’ through Instagram Stories rather than ‘Exit’, proving that people like to stay on for the ride.

Instagram Stories therefore lock users into watching things they didn’t even know they wanted to, which is why it’s the perfect place for businesses to be. Don’t believe us? Check out this infographic for 30 amazing business case studies!

Without further ado, here are 14 things you can start doing on Instagram Stories now to raise your brand’s profile, grow engagement and convert more customers!

Instagram Stories lock users into watching things they didn’t even know they wanted to, which is why it’s the perfect place for businesses to be!
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P.S for more tips for your business Instagram account, check out:
 How To Create A Winning Instagram Marketing Strategy 

Contents:
1. Announcements
2. Collaborations 
3. Highlights 
4. Polls 
5. Questions 
6. Reaction Slider 
7. Countdown 
8. Links 
9. Templates 
10. Location Stickers 
11. Hashtag Stickers #⃣
12. ‘New Post’ 
13. Contests 
14. Live 

1) Announcements

Due to the instant nature of Instagram Stories, they’re a great way to share company announcements such as new products, new staff members and general updates!

These moments are a brilliant opportunity to post behind-the-scenes footage of the company that wouldn’t necessarily earn a spot on your main profile. Your followers will feel like they’re privy to the latest info, as well as getting to know you and the business. You can add multiple photos to your Instagram Story to make it more engaging for your followers.

These personal insights could be anything from packaging a new product to playing a prank on a colleague. They will help convey the human side of your company, and consequently boost brand awareness and engagement!

            
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2) Collaborations

Instagram Stories offer a great way for brands and influencers to collaborate!

You can team up with a relevant business you think your followers could benefit from getting to know, or perhaps a customer who happens to be an influencer. I’ll give you an example…

Content curators Quuu are a start-up operating in a fully remote team, and so their Instagram account concentrates on all aspects of remote work and co-working!

During the month of February, Hopper HQ were working remotely from Thailand, and we saw a great opportunity for a collaboration. We prepared ‘A Day In The Life Of A Remote Team’ to feature on their profile, and their team put together a series of video tips for staying productive while working remotely, which we posted on our Story.

This gave both businesses some new exposure, and was generally a lot of fun to produce! Similarly, we could’ve posted a Q&A interview with Quuu, or mutually shouted out/promoted one another.

Just a heads up, some of these kinds of collaborations might be paid for, particularly if they involve influencers! Even so, there’s loads of different ways you could collaborate over Instagram Story, so think about how your business could benefit from it.

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3) Story Highlights

Instagram Story Highlights have been a game changer since they were released in December 2017.

For regular users they act as a personal show reel of ‘best bits’. But for brands, being able to pin Stories to the top of your profile essentially acts as an extension of your bio.

As a business you can utilise highlights to tell people that land on your page who you are, what you do and why you do it, as well as displaying your product or service! Create Stories for the purpose of being Highlights, with an eye catching cover they’ll transform your Instagram page into a brochure!

These are both great examples of companies utilising Highlights in their Instagram marketing! They have attention grabbing covers, and provide so much more content for users to look through, ultimately keeping people on their page for longer.

4) Polls

Gone are the days of boring customer questionnaires, get your answers with just a tap!

Using polls in your Instagram Stories is a great way to drive interaction with your followers. You can use them for market research, customer feedback, or just to get to know your audience and have a bit of fun!

The possibilities with polls are endless, and it’s possible to think of highly relevant creative campaigns specific to your brand or target demographic!

For example, Swell (whose Instagram game is fantastic – check them out) have used polls to share important information with their audience in the form of a quiz:

We think brand client interaction on Stories is a trend that will only get bigger! As Instagram keep releasing features to encourage real conversation and brand loyalty. Bringing us on to our next suggestion…

5) Questions

The questions sticker made it possible for brands to invite their audience to ask them any burning questions, as well as ask their audience questions themselves!

This is such a great feature for building a community and encouraging customer interaction. By showing they care about their customers opinion, and also that they’re present to answer questions positions a brand as reliable, human, and kind — which in turn engenders customer loyalty!

Here are two different examples of how to use the questions sticker on Stories, either open forum, or specific feedback:

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6) Reaction Slider

A fun addition to Instagram Stories, allowing users to respond to the content of your Stories. ]

Interactions on Instagram Stories all feed back to the algorithm about how good content is and how engaged users are with it. It’s therefore a good tactic for brands to use reaction sliders to boost their engagement rate!

Most of the time, brands use this feature with heart eyes, to gage how much their audience like a product. However, there are many creative ways to utilise the slider on your Instagram Stories, check out the example below from Colour Pop Cosmetics:

7) Countdown

A recent addition to Instagram Stories, the countdown sticker is a great feature for brands to promote competitions, sales, and announcements.

Users can set reminders for the countdown deadline, and brands receive this data so they know exactly how many (and which) of their audience are most engaged!

This data is another great feature for helping build community, and we can see Instagram continuing to develop these kinds of features in 2022.

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8) Links

 Sadly, this feature is currently only available for accounts with 10k followers or more.

If you belong to that lucky group of businesses, then you get to include external links in your Instagram Stories!

As we all know, Instagram doesn’t allow functioning links anywhere but the bio (they’re trying to keep us on their app, and it’s working) so to have them in Stories is a serious bonus. The link will redirect users to a browser within Instagram, meaning when you cross off you’ll pick up right where you left off.

Make the most of this feature by including clear call to actions in your Stories: ‘SHOP SALE NOW’, ‘START FREE TRIAL’, ‘BOOK TODAY’ so people know where they’re heading when they ‘Swipe Up’.

9) Story Templates

You might have noticed an emergence of Story Templates being used by influencers and on-trend brands on Instagram Stories last year. These are nicely designed templates that can be screenshotted and completed by users, predominantly so their followers can get to know them. For example:

As you can see, these templates are branded by the influencer who designed them. When their followers screenshot them and fill them in on their own Instagram Stories, they are essentially doing their marketing for them.

There is a great opportunity for brands to get involved here! Think about your target audience and the things that they engage with. Then make a Story Template in your company branding for them to complete and share. Fill it in yourself too, as it’s a great way to give your followers some more information about your business or company culture.

 Anyone who makes a template off the back of this blog, I’d love to see them! Drop me a tweet (@Nicola_HHQ) or send them direct to @hopper_hq on Instagram!

10) Location Stickers

Instagram is all about community and bringing people together over shared interests. Increase the discoverability of your Instagram Stories by always tagging locations!

They will be added to that location’s official Story, and therefore people that don’t follow you will be able to watch them. Such a quick and simple trick that will get you far more impressions on your Stories.

11) Hashtag Stickers #⃣

Similarly, hashtags in Instagram Stories work to the same effect, meaning that your Story will be added to a larger Story compiling every Story using that hashtag (that was a mouthful).

Do your research on which hashtags are most used by your target audience and your competitors and include these in your Stories! Check out our All In One Guide To Instagram Hashtags for more info on hashtag strategy!

Instagram is all about bringing people together over a shared interest
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12) ‘New Post’

Due to the current workings of the Instagram Algorithm, it matters how fast your Instagram posts get engagement (read more here). As a result, more and more users have begun promoting their most recent post on their Instagram Stories, usually blocking out the thumbnail to entice people to click on to their profile to see it.

Those with over 10k followers can link to the post with a CTA to ‘Swipe Up To Like’, encouraging higher and faster engagement. This trick must be working from the huge amount of accounts doing it right now, so go give it a try on your business Instagram!

            

13) Contests

Got a great product or service to give away? Create a bit of buzz by hosting a contest on your brand’s Instagram Story!

The good thing with hosting competitions over Stories is that there’s only 24 hours to enter, creating a sense of urgency for your followers. Photograph or video the prize and include rules for entering, i.e ‘reply to this Story with your email address to enter’. You can then collate all the data to randomly pick a winner after the competition has ended!

You can also use Instagram Stories to promote a competition being run on your main profile! As a result of the current algorithm, many of your followers might not see a post announcing a giveaway.

Use Stories to tell your followers and push them in the right direction to enter! Using hashtags such as #giveaway,  #contest and #competition will make your Story discoverable to people that don’t follow you, and therefore increase your reach!

14) Live

Instagram Live offers a great way for businesses to drive engagement! Prepare for it in advance so you can let your followers know it will be happening and promote it elsewhere.

The more viewers and engagement your Live video gets, the more likely it is to be featured in ‘Top live’ on the Explore page, so it’s good to try and get as many people tuned in as possible. This will also give you and your colleagues time to plan what you’ll be doing and saying during the live stream!

If you’re wondering what kinds of things your business could use Live for, the possibilities are endless! Many brands use Live to unveil new products or features, document events, film interviews, hold Q&As with their followers or offer limited-time discounts.

Instagram are trying to push Live to become the next big thing, so they help promote it by notifying your followers that you’ve started a live stream. Live videos also hold pride of place at the top of the Stories bar! This means your video will be the first thing people see when they get on the Story conveyor belt.

Parting Words

With over 300 million people on the Instagram Story conveyor belt every day, it’s a no-brainer to include in your social media marketing strategy. Utilise the temporary and laid-back nature of Stories to show off how awesome your company and product/service is!

Happy posting

 Do you use Stories in any other ways? I’d love to hear about what works for your business! Leave a comment or tweet me @Nicola_HHQ!

Utilise the temporary and laid-back nature of Instagram Stories to share how awesome your company is!
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Hopper HQ is the Instagram scheduling tool that saves social media managers and agencies time. Start your 14-day trial today!

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People who manage multiple social media accounts and channels know the importance of planning and scheduling in advance, and use a number of tools, apps, and software to help them manage the workload. Instagram management is particularly time consuming as it has such a visual focus. Social media managers don’t only need to perfect their copy and community engagement, but also their content, colour palette, and overall feed aesthetic!

When redesigning Hopper HQ, we wanted to focus on how social media managers work, and how we can make that workflow even easier and more creative. We’re excited to introduce Hopper HQ’s new look, and announce some highly anticipated features to make Instagram management easier than ever!

1. Visual planning — like an Instagram mood board

Instagram is a visual platform, so your dashboard for Instagram management should be too! Welcome to the new look of Hopper HQ, a clean interface which puts your content at the focus…

3. Boost your Instagram engagement by adding Location Tags

Insta gram posts with a location receive 79% more engagement than those without. Until now, locations had to be added manually after posts had been published, but we’re excited to finally announce that this feature is now available on Hopper HQ! You can add location tags to all of your scheduled photos and videos, streamlining your Instagram management and saving time.

Whether it’s your town or city, or the specific office building you’re in, add locations to all of your Instagram posts to improve engagement. Same goes for the location stickers on Instagram Stories, as you will increase your reach as people view the location Story.

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4. Save time by scheduling your Carousel Posts in advance

Carousel posts are a great way to deliver more value to your followers in a single post. They’re particularly beneficial for grouping a series of similar photos, of an event for example, or a product photoshoot, as well as showing before and after images. If you frequently post long video content, you can also use carousel posts to exceed the 60 second limit and continuing the video by swiping left!

Basically what we’re saying is, the possibilities of carousel posts are endless, and they’re a necessity for any brand to explore in their Instagram management and planning. Carousel posts have been our most requested feature on Hopper HQ since Instagram released them in 2017, so we’re very excited that they’re finally here…

 

Upload up to 10 photos and videos for your carousel on Hopper HQ, crop and edit quickly and easily with our editing software, and schedule away!

5. Find relevant Instagram hashtags using #Hashtag Explorer

Using the right hashtags on Instagram is essential to reach your target audience and increase engagement on your posts. Creating a hashtag strategy is a vital part of Instagram management, and often finding new and relevant hashtags is time-consuming part of the research.

Save time swapping between your computer and mobile trying to discover hashtags suggestions! Using the hashtag explorer on Hopper HQ, you can browse hashtags related to ones already in your caption, as well as track their popularity on Instagram. Easily add and remove hashtags in your caption or first comment, and we’ll publish them alongside your post.

For more Instagram hashtag tips and tricks, check out our all in one guide!

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Another sure fire way of increasing engagement on Instagram is by mentioning other users in your captions! Whether it’s a customer, a brand partnership, or just a shout out, mentions notify other accounts of your post. This is likely to result in fast engagement, which is important because the Instagram algorithm favours posts that receive likes and comments quickly after being published. As well as engagement, mentions also contribute to building a community and starting conversations with people in your target demographic, which are both huge parts of Instagram management.

Hopper HQ now recommends Instagram users as you type, so you can quickly find the account you’re looking for, as well as make sure your mentions are going to notify the right people!

7. Perfect your posting consistency with a visual content calendar

Second to what you’re posting, one of the most important factors of Instagram management is how often you’re posting. There’s no right or wrong answer for how often brands or influencers should post on Instagram, as long as it’s consistent, and not spammy.

The easiest way to prevent against rushed or ad-hoc posts on Instagram is to create a content calendar. This way you know exactly what’s going out when, and it’s easy to notice any gaps! Using the new Hopper HQ calendar you can clearly see your scheduled posts in either a monthly or weekly view…

In order to increase engagement on Instagram, make sure you are posting when your audience are online and active! Connect your business Instagram account to our free tool to find out the best time to post on Instagram for your followers…

Happy posting!

Hopper HQ’s newest features and interface will save heaps of time on Instagram management, as well as make scheduling a creative part of any social media managers’ week! Test it out yourself with a free 14 day trial. Let us know if you have any more feature requests, we’d love to hear from you

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Fashion brands are leading the way in terms of performance on Instagram. They are known to be getting significantly more interactions and followers and dominate engagement on the platform. Many small fashion brands run entirely out of Instagram, without established stores or sometimes even websites.

It is a known fact that you can generate more interactions and gain an impressive number of followers on Instagram provided you get into the habit of posting exclusive, exquisite, and truly eye-catching content, whether they are videos or photos.

If you are a small fashion brand trying to make your presence felt on Instagram, you must follow some fundamental rules in order to stand out…

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Rule #1: Use Only High-Quality Images

This may sound obvious, but Instagram is the realm of mind-blowing pictures.

Experts believe that photos should have 3 basic elements to prove their quality: 

High-Resolution:

You must make sure that you are posting only high-resolution photographs on your Instagram fashion account. You should use DSLR cameras to click the pictures for your Instagram account.

Choose a camera with the right functions so that the quality of the images is unquestionable. High-resolution of pictures is supposed to be everything as no one would like to engage with hazy and low-quality images.

Your small fashion brand could stand out from the rest by posting high-resolution pictures taken by you or even professional photographers using an old-school camera.

Your Photos Must Act as a Vehicle to Convey Your Story:

It is true that a picture could speak volumes. Photos that are successful in conveying a story are getting the maximum engagement on this powerful social media platform. Your pictures must be relevant and relatable!

All Your Photos Must Complement Your Theme:

All smaller fashion brands must use pictures that complement the overall theme of their Instagram account. Your pictures could be treated as separate and distinct pieces but your entire feed must necessarily appear as one single organic outfit.

This implies that all the pictures you post or share on Instagram must flaunt a signature look and should be edited in the same manner. You may consider using tools such as Snapseed, VSCO, etc. You could choose Photoshop, or Lightroom, etc. for editing pictures on the laptop.

Rule #2: Work With Influencers 

Influencer marketing is tremendously prevalent on Instagram and is continuing to grow. You must leverage the power of influencer marketing for your small fashion brand on Instagram.

If top brands do not hesitate to use this kind of marketing, why are you not utilising the worth of influencers in the world of fashion? You must understand ways to go ahead with a successful influencer marketing strategy. You must ensure that the influencer you are choosing along with his precise audience is actually relevant to your brand. Just some of the core elements of a successful influencer marketing strategy.

You must try your best to boost engagement but do not chase followers. Today everyone can buy real Instagram likes and followers. You could make sure that an influencer is genuinely an influencer by assessing his engagement rate.

For tips on how to incorporate influencer into your strategy, check out:

The Simple Guide To Instagram Influencer Marketing In 2020

Rule #3: Use The Instagram Algorithm 

Despite it changing the rules for engagement, it is possible to use the Instagram algorithm to your advantage.

“One thing we know about Instagram’s algorithm is that posts with high engagement rates show up first on followers’ feeds. There are a number of ways to achieve these high rates. It also seems that the longer people look at your posts, the more successful and high-quality Instagram detects them to be.” (Source)

But how could you compel your followers to go on lingering on your Instagram posts for a reasonably long period?

You must compose catchy and truly captivating captions which could be a few lines. Moreover, separate paragraphs using dots for making them more reader-friendly. You may also use carousal posts and videos so time-spent on post is increased.

Rule #4: Make Sure That Your Feed Is Shoppable

Often people are attracted to your display window showcasing some eye-catching designs yet many people simply pass by and do not initiate the shopping process. Instagram would be working in a similar fashion. It is firmly believed that you need to come up with the Shoppable and make your small fashion Instagram account Shoppable right from an initial stage. You may consider generating a call-to-action for all your potential customers by incorporating a clickable link into your bio that would be taking your followers directly to your website. You may consider using effective apps and software for making products on your pictures buyable. Followers could purchase from your Instagram feed thanks to the latest Shoppable function on Instagram. You need to be careful about Instagram shopping and avoid overselling.

Rule #5: Go Behind-The-Scenes On Your Instagram Stories

Your Instagram posts must be perfect and you must always focus on the authenticity & accuracy of information. However, you must never feel scared of revealing the real you.

You could use perfect pictures for telling your brand’s story on Instagram Stories that would disappear after just 24 hours. As such your focus could be more on sharing your experiences and moments through behind-the-scenes photos.

Successful small fashion brands on Instagram share sneak peeks and insider info by posting short videos and stories that act as engagement tonic.

Check out:

14 Ridiculously Easy Ways To Use Instagram Stories For Your Business

Rule #6: 

Do you have adequate content to share on Instagram that would last a month or so? Do you have a wide variety of posts to successfully experiment and derive which type actually works for your fashion brand? Do you know what posting schedule or frequency to follow? Are you measuring your Instagram success using KPIs?

In other words, you must necessarily have a clearly laid-down Instagram marketing strategy that is ready for implementation right at the beginning of your Instagram journey!

For a full guide on how to create an Instagram marketing strategy, read this.

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Conclusion

You must realise that if you do not have a clear plan of action for your small fashion brand, you cannot achieve success and all your Instagram efforts would not be paying off.

It is critical to enter the Instagram-gaming arena fully prepared with a well-defined and clearly chalked out plan. You must know all the fundamental rules of the game and understand what it takes for leaving an everlasting imprint on the minds of your target audience! Good luck. 

Guest Author: Pete Campbell

Pete is a freelance fashion designer who runs his own blog. He is pretty experienced in the social media circuit and knows the secrets and tricks of his trade. He recommends taking the decision to buy real Instagram likes for boosting your number of Instagram followers and overall online presence.

The post 6 Rules Small Fashion Brands On Instagram Must Follow To Stand Out appeared first on Hopper HQ.

Our best practice guide will keep your social media ad strategy focused so you maximise ROI, as well as give you some top tips to implement across your Instagram and Facebook ads…

Refine Your Social Media Ad Strategy

Much like any social media marketing strategy, you need to outline a detailed plan for your social media ads before diving into the content.

It helps to go right back to the beginning when thinking about this:

1. Begin with the business objective
   What do you want the ad to achieve? Clicks to your website, profile views, increase in followers, sales through Instagram etc. Defining this objective will give you a clear idea of what the call to action on the ad will be.
2. Then outline the audience
   Who is the target demographic? Develop customer personas so you have a really clear idea of the person you’re creating the ad for.
3. So you can decide on the social platform
   Based on your intended audience, which platform is best to meet your objective? You can use Facebook Audience Insights to see how audience behaviour differs on each platform. For example, if users are more likely to go on to shop from Facebook ads, campaigns with purchases as your objective will be best suited there.
4. And then the ad format
   Facebook and Instagram both have a range of ad formats, including video, photo, carousel, and story. Based on audience and competitor research, product type and industry, you will have a clear idea of which format is best for your objective.

From here you should be in a confident position to start creating your social media ads! Check out our top tips for Instagram and Facebook below to level up your ads and see fast results

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Instagram Ads: Top Tips

Guess what? 83% of Instagram users say they discover new products and services on the app.

So it comes as no surprise to hear that Instagram currently have over 2 million monthly advertisers on the platform, because what business wouldn’t want a slice of that action?

With a plethora of Instagram ad formats to choose from, you’re guaranteed to reach your target audience in the right way by following these top tips…

#1 Use 4:5 ratio

This is a super simple but highly effective Instagram ad tip! In order to dominate the most real estate on your audience’s feed, create photo and video ads using 4:5 ratio (1080 x 1350).

Not only will it occupy the whole phone screen, it will take longer for people to scroll past, giving you more time to grab their attention.

#2 Consistent visual branding

By this we mean, make your ads look native to your feed and your audience’s feed. In 2020, ad blindness is a bigger thing than ever, with social media users becoming more and more immune to adverts.

This means that if your ad is highly recognisable as an advert – i.e a big red square containing 50% SALE in bold letters – people are more likely to scroll straight past.

The trick is therefore to make your ads look natural to both:

• Your Instagram feed
  By maintaining your brand colours or feed aesthetic.
• Your audience’s feeds
  By keeping inline with content they are likely to see normally from accounts they follow.

#3 Use music on Story ads

Did you know that 60% of Instagram Story ads are watched with sound on? Ensure any video Story ads you create have a catchy and standout soundtrack.

#4 Create video ads

According to a number of marketing studies, videos perform better and are preferable to consumers. They are also preferable to businesses, as they give brands more of an opportunity to grab attention (thanks autoplay) and convey their message.

Video ads can be landscape, portrait or square, and have a limit of 60 seconds, however it’s very rare that anyone would watch a video ad to the end, so the first few seconds are key.

#5 Use stickers, GIFs and text in Story ads

Following on from our point about ‘ad blindness’, due to the ephemeral and informal nature of Stories, anything overly polished and high quality will instantly stand out as an ad.

Many brands use the native features of Instagram Stories – such as stickers, GIFs and font – on their ads to make them fit naturally into their audience’s scrolling patterns.

A great benefit of this strategy is that you can draw attention to the ‘Swipe Up’ link using GIFs or stickers.

Similarly, you could work with influencers on your Instagram Story ads to make them even more authentic, as users are less likely to instantly notice it as an ad and scroll past. Check out how @mojo.video have implemented this strategy:

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Facebook Ads: Top Tips

Facebook naturally dominate the ads space on social media. Their ads platforms are extensive and yield great results, but it can be hard to know where to start. Luckily they have heaps on information on their business site, and courses to help you get the most out of advertising on the platform.

Once you’re familiar with Facebook ad formats, you can decide which will work best for your business objectives. Then you can try and implement some of these tips…

#1 Think mobile-first

A simple but important tip is that all your Facebook ads should be optimised for mobile, as that is where the majority of your audience will be viewing them.

That means vertical content, emojis and high-resolution images!

Not only do vertical videos and photos mean that users don’t have to rotate their phone screens, they also dominate the most real estate on the mobile news feed.

#2 Utilise carousel ads

Carousel ads allow up to 10 photos and videos in 1 post – and the best part is they each have their own link and call to action. This is great for brands wanting to display multiple e-commerce products.

Time on the ad is likely to increase, as there’s more for users to look at. It also increases likelihood of someone clicking through, as the chance of seeing something that sparks interest is higher than on a single image post.

#3 Create video ads

As with our Instagram video ad tip, video ads also perform better on Facebook!

Facebook Blueprint’s advice is to shoot your video ad vertically (coming back to our mobile-first point). They also recommend keeping it to 15 seconds max, but aiming to grab attention within 3 seconds.

Also bear in mind when creating your Facebook video ad that 85% of them are watched without sound, so text and subtitles are necessary!

#4 Test and iterate

The advanced setup of Facebook ads manager means you can run tests to see what performs best with your audience. Then you can do more of what is working and stop ads that are not performing.

To optimize Facebook ads, test everything from images, copy, ad format, and placement to narrow down the most effective ad for your objective.

Check out this guide on Facebook ad testing for optimal results.

#5 Make your call to action stand out

Regardless of ad format or content, the key of a good Facebook ad is a clear call to action. You want the viewer to instantly know what to do when they see your ad: whether it’s to ‘Shop Now’, ‘Sign Up’ or even ‘tag a friend’ in the comments.

You can feature your CTA in many places on a Facebook ad:

• Copy
  The news feed description that will appear above the ad
• Headline
  The headline on the URL of the ad
• Content
  The text on the image or video within the ad
• Button
  The CTA button on the ad

Without repeating yourself, you can utilise each of these features to convey the desired action of the person viewing the ad. A clear understanding of your target audience will help with this, as you can write in the tone or style that would appeal most to them. You can also get creative with the CTA and add a dynamic QR code within the ad image; All Sure steps to maximise ROI.

The post How To Create Successful Social Media Ads appeared first on Hopper HQ.

Social media is a staple area of digital marketing for businesses of all shapes and sizes, industries and audiences.

However, with updates and new releases making it an ever-shifting landscape, brands need to keep up to date with the latest developments and changes to the space in order to benefit from their social channels.

Apply the practical advice in this guide to help strategise your social media marketing plan for 2023…

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1. Social Media Marketing: The Basics

In 2023, it’s estimated that 3.5 billion people will use social media networks worldwide. That’s almost 40% of the globe’s population. With those kinds of figures, it’s no surprise that businesses put so much effort into social media marketing.

If you’re just starting out on your social media marketing journey, I recommend you check out our Social Media Marketing Glossary for a full list of definitions to bring you up-to-date with all the jargon!

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing refers to business activity on social media platforms which contributes to marketing objectives such as brand awareness, website traffic, and customer acquisition.

This activity is predominantly in the form of content —such as text, images and videos — but also includes community engagement and paid ads.

At the heart of great social media content is the audience’s desire to share it. When your audience share your content, they become your channel of distribution.

Whether it’s tagging a friend in an Instagram post or retweeting something to their audience, content that is highly relevant and visually attractive is likely to receive high engagement and shares.

What is the most effective social media channel?

There’s no straightforward answer to this, and social media marketing isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.

Different social media channels generate better results than others for certain business objectives, and the content published will also vary depending on these factors.

For example, a video on Facebook is unlikely to be more effective for driving business audience traffic than an article on LinkedIn, and so on. The great thing about this is that you can utilise the different social channel’s purposes for different kinds of marketing campaigns, ensuring the content is highly tailored for that platform and audience. More on this in the strategy section!

(As you can see, there’s immediately a lot to consider when it comes to social media marketing, so it’s no wonder companies have whole departments dedicated to the cause…)

What are the benefits of social media marketing?

As mentioned, the specific business outcomes of social media marketing campaigns (such as sales, traffic etc) will depend on what objectives you set in the first place.

However, there are other general benefits that come from brands being active on social media, such as:

• Being more discoverable
  If you’re posting content on a number of social media channels that’s tailored to your target demographic, you’re naturally likely to be discovered by new potential customers.
• Having valuable conversations with customers
  It’s no wonder so many companies use Twitter for customer support, or run Q&As on Instagram Stories. Social media marketing offers a personal and informal way to get to know your audience.
• Recruitment opportunities 
  Social media marketing makes it easier than ever to share company culture and the people behind a business with the world. This not only increases customer loyalty but also helps when it comes to hiring brilliant new people!
• Building a community
  No matter your industry, social media marketing helps to connect you with your target audience and other relevant businesses.

With every app-update comes more creative ways to enhance your social media marketing and hit those KPIs.

The benefits are endless, and the more you learn about what platforms and content work best for your objectives, the more you’ll get out of social media marketing!

2. How To Create A Social Media Marketing Strategy

Now we’ve covered a brief overview of what social media marketing is and how it can benefit your business, let’s move on to the practical bit.

Before diving straight in with a few tweets and Instagram posts, all social media marketing activity needs to start with a strategy.

NB. If you’re already well set up with social media marketing and have your strategy in place, you can probably skip this part and head straight to our top tips for 2023!

#1 Set your objectives

As discussed, you can’t plan which channels to use or what kind of content to produce until you determine your business objectives. i.e what do you want your social media marketing to achieve? 

Deciding these targets in advance will:

• Save time and resources
• Ensure you’re not producing content ‘for the sake of it’
• Help you establish the key metrics to track success

These objectives will naturally vary business to business, which is why there isn’t a blanket answer for ‘what works best’.

Write a list of everything you want out of your social media marketing activity, and then prioritise them in terms of value for your business. Once you have your core objectives decided, you can proceed with the next steps…

#2 Outline your audience

Just as it’s important to outline why you’re using social media marketing, you also need to clarify who you’re trying to reach. This will help to determine which social channels will be most effective for your objectives.

For example, 72% of teenagers are on Instagram, whereas the majority of Twitter users are aged 18-29. Depending who your target demographic is, you might decide to prioritise a certain social network over another.

Clearly outline your audience demographic, and go into as much detail as possible: age, gender, location, hobbies, interests, challenges they face, where they hang out, what other brands they like – the lists can go on and on.

Determining these characteristics will ensure you use the best social networks to reach them, and also cater your content to best reach your objectives! See how it all links up?

#3 Market research

Analysing your competitors’ social media marketing activity is an important and valuable part of your strategy. After all, their target audience is your target audience. Spend some time researching:

• Which platforms they’re most active on
• What kind of content they publish
• How much average engagement they get
• What hashtags they use
• What tone of voice they use
• What kind of conversations they have with their audience
• What call to action they promote

The list goes on…

Taking the time to do this social media marketing analysis will put you in a good position to decide which platforms are best for your audience and objectives, as well as help you get to know your target demographics’ behaviour on social media.

#4 Prioritise social networks

With all of the above strategising, you should now have a pretty good idea of which social networks are most valuable to your business.

All social channels can benefit all businesses in some ways, but you will spread yourself too thinly by trying to be highly active on all of them.

Instead, prioritise which networks are the most effective for your audience and business objectives, and focus on producing different kinds of content to maximise results.

If you sell a consumer product which lends itself well to visual marketing, Instagram should be the obvious choice. Contrastingly, if you are a B2B service provider you’ll probably find Twitter or LinkedIn more effective.

Find out how to verified on Twitter here.

#5 Set brand guidelines

This an important step for any social media marketing strategy, particularly if you’re working in a team.

Brand guidelines should cover all details regarding brand activity on social media – and should be clear and accessible to everyone with access to the social accounts.

Outlining these details early on in your social media marketing strategy will ensure everyone is on the same page, and help you create a consistent and recognisable brand persona on social media.

Here are some things you’ll want to consider including in your social media marketing brand guidelines:

• Brand voice
  What kind of tone/language do you use? Is it the same on every platform?
  
• Use of emojis
  How formally/informally do you want to be perceived? 
• Use of hashtags 
  Which hashtags do you always use on each social network? Which do you want to avoid?
• Protocol on interacting with audience 
  Who is responsible for replying to comments and messages? Do you reply personally or as the brand?
• Banned words/topics 
  There are some things you never want your brand to talk about on social media – even if it’s obvious to you, avoid any potential faux pas by outlining them in the guidelines

These are just a few examples – but the list will go on depending on your brand and how many social networks you’re using in your marketing.

Remember, however you decide to portray your brand on social media, the important thing is that you stick to your guidelines! You want your audience to feel a familiarity that will engender loyalty, so ensure your activity across all social networks is consistent.

Missguided have a very clear and recognisable brand voice on Instagram which is well aligned with their target demographic:

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HAPPY 1ST DECEMBER BABES #missguided #christmas

A post shared by MISSGUIDED (@missguided) on Dec 1, 2018 at 12:00pm PST

#6 Plan your content

Now comes the more creative part – deciding what type of content will best achieve your objectives on each social network. This may vary depending on resources, but predominantly involves weighing up:

• Photos
• Videos
• Graphics
• Articles
• Livestreams
• Stories

It’s hard to know where to start, so try and think about your target audience and really get to the heart of what matters to them and what they’re most likely to react to.

If you’ve carried out your demographic and competitor market research thoroughly, this hopefully won’t be too difficult a decision!

All of these content options have sub-categories to consider, for example, if you decide that Instagram photos will make up the majority of your content, you’ll need to think about:

• What the photos are of
• What style they are taken in
• Colour scheme and feed aesthetic
• Who will take them
• Where they’ll be taken
• Using user-generated photographs

A lot of these details will take shape as you get going and learn what your audience best respond to, and it’s good to adjust your content accordingly!

#7 Use a content calendar

Social media marketing is a huge task, especially when you’re active across many different channels. Without sufficient planning, it’s easy to post sporadically or neglect certain social networks.

The best way to stay on top of all this content is using a social media marketing calendar, so you can see how frequently you are publishing and ensure posting consistency.

Using a content calendar, you can plan ahead for big events or milestones, brand announcements, or relevant social media holidays!

#8 Schedule social media content

If you want to save yourself hours of time and generally enhance the quality of your social media marketing, you need to schedule content.

Using an automated management and scheduling tool like Hopper HQ, you can bulk upload your photos, videos and text posts for Instagram, Facebook and Twitter — and set them to be published in the weeks ahead!

Scheduling social media content in advance improves efficiency, keeping everything in one place and freeing up more time for content creation and other creative aspects of social media marketing.

For practical advice on how to get started, check out our step-by-step guides for how to schedule posts on Instagram and Facebook!

#9 Track your metrics

Last but definitely not least! One of the most important aspects of social media marketing is that you track the metrics and KPIs linked to your objectives for each social network.

It’s all well and good putting out excellent material and engaging with your audience, but if you aren’t listening to the numbers you won’t learn what works best. You might think a Facebook campaign is brilliant, but if it doesn’t do what it was meant to, then it’s a waste of time and resources.

By tracking key metrics you can develop and optimise your activity and become excellent at social media marketing!

With business social media accounts, you have access to insights such as reach, impressions, engagement as well as information about your audience demographics, such as age, gender and location.

Whether you’re just starting out with social media marketing or are looking to reconsider your strategy, follow those 9 steps to skyrocket your presence across social media networks and smash those targets!

3. Hopper HQ’s Top Social Media Marketing Tips For 2023

Now you’re feeling ready to dive into social media marketing, here are some of our top tips for your strategy in 2023 for Instagram and Facebook…

Instagram

The most engaged social media channel in the world, Instagram is a necessity for brands of all shapes and sizes. The Instagram algorithm is constantly evolving, and consequently changing the game for social media marketing.

With competition higher than ever, brands needs to keep up to date with new features in order to grow an engaged following on Instagram.

 More info on the Instagram Algorithm here

#1 Post user-generated content

Instagram is first and foremost about community, and one of the best performing types of post on the app is user-generated content.

This is when brands share photos taken by a user on their business profile, and is a great opportunity to acknowledge customers while spreading brand awareness.

User-generated content has a 4.5% higher conversion rate on Instagram, proving its value for businesses. UGC is really a win win for consumer and brand for a number of reasons…

Benefits of User-Generated Content on Instagram:

• Community building
  By acknowledging and encouraging customer’s posts about your business, you’re interacting with your audience and building a community!
• Customer loyalty
  Stemming from this sense of community is an increase in customer loyalty. If you’re taking the time to engage with your customers and share their content on your profile, they will feel happy and fall in love with your brand that little bit more.
• Free content
  A huge perk of UGC is that your customers are essentially doing your social media marketing for you! 75% of users find UGC more authentic, and finding ways to humanise your brand on Instagram is always a win.
• Increased reach
  UGC often receives higher engagement than branded content, meaning the algorithm will receive the nod that it’s a strong post and increase its reach. Similarly, the person who took the photo is highly likely to share the post or tag friends in the comments!

The king of user-generated content on Instagram is undoubtedly GoPro, with almost 100% of their content being taken by athletes and explorers in their community!

They’ve made UGC align so perfectly with their brand, showing that it’s not just about the camera, but about where you go and what you do with it.

Their Instagram profile has become a travel and adventure inspiration feed with their product at the core, all thanks to user-generated content:

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One month left in 2018. Where will you go? • @girl_lovinglife threw rules to the wind + set her imagination free to capture this #BucketList view in France. Show us how you’re closing out the year by uploading your shots on gopro.com/awards. • • • @GoProFR #GoProFR #GoPro #December #Mediterranean #2018 #NewYear #Coastal

A post shared by GoPro (@gopro) on Dec 1, 2018 at 6:53am PST

But it’s not only products that can utilise UGC on Instagram! Websites such as Booking.com share photos of incredible travel destinations taken by the Instagram community, making their feed a haven for anyone with a dose of wanderlust.

Similarly, Parkrun share their members’ running posts to tell their stories of fitness and positivity. These are great examples of brands thinking outside of the box, celebrating their community, and using UGC to make their social media marketing more meaningful.

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“parkrun no 41 at Severn Bridge parkrun: Blustery and tough going up!” Pete Johnson #loveparkrun #parkrun

A post shared by parkrun UK (@parkrunuk) on Dec 5, 2018 at 3:00am PST

How to use User-Generated Content on Instagram:

Sounds good right? You can make the most of this social media marketing strategy in 2023 by sharing photos your community are posting!

Create a brand hashtag for your business profile and encourage your followers to use it so you can find all relevant UGC on Instagram.

Remember: you need consent to repost somebody’s content! Drop a comment on the post asking permission to feature it on your profile – this is also a great chance to chat to customers and get your brand personality across!

#2 Post when your audience are active

This may sound obvious, but is more important than ever as the Instagram algorithm continues to change the way we use the app.

The faster an Instagram post gets likes, comments and shares, the higher the algorithm ranks it as a piece of content, revealing it to more of your audience and giving it an organic boost.

The easiest way to ensure fast engagement on your posts is to publish them when the majority of your followers are online and actively using Instagram.

The team here at Hopper HQ built a free tool to make finding your best time to post on Instagram as easy as possible – simply follow the link below and connect your business Instagram account!

#3 Plan Instagram campaigns around social media holidays

A tip to increase the reach of your Instagram posts is to utilise hashtags that will be getting a lot of attention in a short space of time, such as global events (#Superbowl), social media holidays (#NationalCoffeeDay), and time-limited trends (#ThrowbackThursday).

Thankfully, we live in a modern world where everything seems to have a commemorative day of some kind, and so there’s plenty of opportunities to make the most of the boost in traffic no matter your industry!

Take a leaf out of this hotel’s book, who utilised #NationalPineappleDay to create some fun and unique content relevant to their business:

 

 

 

 

 

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Shades on, blue skies, no worries. What better way to celebrate #nationalpineappleday! #westinmaui #nationalsunglassesday @blinnkphotography

A post shared by TheWestinMaui (@thewestinmaui) on Jun 27, 2018 at 1:46pm PDT

Never miss a hashtag opportunity! Sign up to Trending to get the week’s social media holidays and trends straight to your inbox every Monday morning

#4 Make the most of Instagram Stories

Stories were a complete game changer when Instagram introduced them back in 2016, and they have not stopped developing valuable features since.

If you decide Instagram is the primary network for your social media marketing, Stories need to be a part of the plan. They are incredibly diverse, and the 24 hour time limit allows brands to be a bit less regimented with the content they put out.

You can do a lot design-wise on Instagram Stories directly, however, if you want to take it to the next level check out these free Instagram Story templates.

Here’s just a few things your business can try out on Instagram Stories:

• Go behind the scenes
  The beauty of Stories is the personal and authentic nature of them. Use the casual format to show your company culture and let your followers into the world of your business.
• Questions
  Use the questions sticker to run an anonymous Q&A with your audience, or to gain customer feedback.
• Polls
  Similarly, encourage follower interaction and feedback with the poll sticker.
• Story takeover
  Collaborate with an influencer, or another brand with the same audience as you, and try out a Story takeover.
• Tag locations
  Get your Story featured on a location Story by using the location sticker! This will increase your reach and could result in more followers.
• Go live
  Plan a livestream via Instagram Story – whether it’s an event, a Q&A, a sneak preview or something else – Live Stories are naturally featured higher up in Story feed.

For more in-depth Instagram Story tips and examples to help your social media marketing, check out:

 14 Ridiculously Easy Ways To Use Instagram Stories For Your Business

#5 Run an Instagram contest

An Instagram contest is a great social media marketing tactic as they bring in tonnes of likes and comments on a post.

By making the requirement to enter involve ‘tagging a friend’, you also draw lots of new users to your profile, increasing your reach and spreading brand awareness!

There are a number of ways to run an Instagram contest, and the type of competition and prize will naturally vary based on your business. The majority of Instagram contests are in the form of ‘giveaways’, and may be a bundle of products, an experience, or a voucher.

Around Christmas time, many brands are utilising the festive season to host daily giveaways and drive a lot of new users to their profile in a short space of time. This strategy links back to tip #3 and is a great example of planning campaigns in advance for time-sensitive trends!

 

 

 

 

 

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It’s Day 6 of Revlon’s 12 days of Beauty, and we want to help you revive your #skin before the celebrations truly begin! So that’s why we’re giving you our whole range of prep + prime products… to help for the festive #party week! … To #WIN Day 6 of Revlon’s 12 Days of Beauty: 1⃣ Like this gram 2⃣ Tag 3 friends in the comment below 3⃣ Make sure you’re following us @revlon_uk Winner will be announced tomorrow Competition open for the UK ONLY ! Link in bio for T&Cs #giveaway #competition #12daysofbeauty

A post shared by Revlon UK (@revlon_uk) on Dec 6, 2018 at 12:00am PST

For more info and practical tips on how to include Instagram contests in your social media marketing, check out our 5 Step Guide!

Facebook

With over 2 billion monthly users, Facebook remains the biggest social media platform on earth.

As a result, their features for businesses when it comes to social media marketing are incredibly advanced. Despite it being more and more difficult to get organic engagement on Facebook, there’s still plenty of ways you can increase your reach and grow a community on the social network…

#1 Video

Video content is a winner on Facebook. With the platform aiming to become a true hub for video streaming and compete with the big television providers, its focus on video will only grow in 2023.

If you’re looking to use Facebook in your social media marketing, get planning some captivating video content! The possibilities are endless with video, and provide the opportunity for creative freedom.

Regardless of budget and resources, there are many ways to make engaging video content: whether it’s professionally filmed in a studio, intentionally informal on mobile, stop motion or animation – it can work on Facebook!

Most importantly, Facebook video is the best form of content to boost your brand and send you on your way to hitting those objectives we talked about…

The key to creating successful video content for Facebook is to make it instantly captivating. The fact that videos automatically play in News Feed when you land on them is a great opportunity to capture your audience’s attention – although you only have a few seconds!

Remember that a huge proportion of Facebook users watch videos on the app without sound – so make sure to annotate and subtitle all your video content to keep people watching.

You can also use overlaid text to highlight your call to action in your video. What do you want people to do after they’ve watched it? A CTA is particularly important if you’re planning on your video content being a Facebook Ad, as it will help drive users towards your website.

So in your 2023 social media marketing plan, don’t miss out on the opportunities Facebook video provides!

#2 Go Live

Following on from the power of video on Facebook, going Live should be another strategy in your social media marketing plan for 2023.

As with all new features, Facebook promotes accounts using them in order to encourage more users to do so. You’ll notice that ‘Live’ is the first option in the status bar, and you sometimes get notified when someone ‘goes Live’.

All of this demonstrates Facebook’s desire for people to utilise and watch their Live content (another indicator of their plan to become a leader in the streaming space). This is great for businesses, as your content is less likely to get lost in the sea of regular post and videos on the site.

Use the opportunity of Live to stream an event, a product launch, run a Q&A, or share behind the scenes going ons at the business! You can also ‘Bring a friend’ to a Facebook Live video, which is a great feature to run a mini webinar or interview.

#3 Facebook Groups

Facebook is a platform for communities, and in a world where we’re rejecting advertising more than ever, Facebook groups offer a saving grace for individuals looking to share knowledge and support one another.

I know I said all social media marketing activity needs to be linked to business objectives, but that doesn’t always mean sales. An important aspect of social media marketing is community building and brand awareness, and so any activity helping meet these goals is highly valuable.

There are two ways you can utilise Facebook groups to get to know people in your target demographic and establish yourself in the space:

1. Make a community Facebook group related — but not exclusive — to your business
2. Join already established groups and start conversations

The former is naturally more groundwork, but can be very rewarding if you gain a lot of members. The second is great for market research and will ultimately put you in a good position to start your own group.

The most important thing about brand behaviour in Facebook groups is that it’s not self-promotional. The whole purpose of this kind of social media marketing strategy is that it’s community first rather than sales first.

Activity needs to be authentic and human in order to position your brand as a friendly, trustworthy source. Once you have built a relationship with members, you can share your content in a way that is genuinely helpful rather than overly promotional.

#4 Think shares, not sales

Following this line of thought, the key with Facebook content is to have ‘shareability’ at the forefront. The aim is to have people tagging their friends in the comments of your posts and sharing it on their profile.

Whether this is done by being entertaining, informing or thought-provoking, the important questions to ask when planning your Facebook content are: ‘would I watch this?’ and ‘would I share this?’.

One of the most effective ways of increasing your reach on Facebook is by your audience tagging people in the comments. This will not only show your post to the new people tagged, but also to their friends on News Feed.

Often, a brand’s post will appear on your Facebook feed with the preface: ‘[Friend] commented on this post’ or ‘[Friend] was tagged in a comment on this post’. This kind of sharing is invaluable for your brand’s Facebook content, and will mean your posts are seen by far more eyeballs than usual.

A great (and low-cost) way to encourage tagging and sharing is with branded memes appealing to your target audience. Don’t just take my word for it! Look at the difference in these 2 Facebook posts from In The Style:

This post is not a direct sell: it has nothing to do with their products, offers, or even fashion. However, its content is relevant to their audience, and they have included their logo, so when it gets shared, their branding will be shared with it.

Contrastingly, a post including a discount and a clear call to action did not perform anywhere near as well:

These examples show how the social media marketing game has changed, and highlight how shareability needs to be embedded into all Facebook content your brand is producing.

#5 Promote to a lookalike audience

One of the most important and tricky aspects of Facebook ads or promoted content is testing out different target audiences. Facebook offer a great feature called ‘Lookalike Audience’ to help you reach an entirely new group of people who share characteristics with your existing customers and target demographic.

You can choose your source audience based on data from the pixel on your site, email addresses, or Custom Audiences you’ve used in the past on Facebook. Regardless of where these source users are from, you can choose countries to target with for the lookalike audience – and one source audience can produce up to 500 lookalike audiences!

For more information on Facebook Lookalike Audiences, check out their help centre guide!

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There you have Hopper HQ’s top social media marketing tips for Instagram and Facebook!

I hope you utilise the information in this guide to smash your 2023 objectives out of the park, and would love to hear from you if you have any comments or questions!

Hopper HQ is a social media scheduling and management platform that frees up time to focus on the fun creative stuff! Named in the Top 5 Most Popular Social Media Marketing Software list 2018. Start your 14-day trial today.

The post A Guide To Social Media Marketing 2024 appeared first on Hopper HQ.

With Instagram continuing to grow, 2019 has seen the highest amount of money for paid Instagram posts to date.

In a recent statistic from Facebook, 83% of Instagram users say they discover new products and services on Instagram, so it’s no wonder the influencer and sponsored post industry is still on the rise.

Just as we did in 2017 and 2018, Hopper HQ have produced the official:

2019 Instagram Rich List! 

Based on internal data, agency rate cards and public information, you can now find out just how much your favourite Instagram stars are earning for their #spon posts…

The Top 10

#1 Kylie Jenner

 140 million followers
 $1,266,000 per post

Kylie Jenner still tops the charts in 2019, having become the youngest self-made billionaire of all time this year according to Forbes.

#2 Ariana Grande 

 159 million followers
 $996,000 per post

Ariana Grande has knocked Selena Gomez from second place since last year.

#3 Cristiano Ronaldo

 173 million followers
 $975,000 per post

While Ronaldo remains the only man in the top 5 and only European in the top 10!

#4 Kim Kardashian

 143 million followers
 $910,000 per post

Kim Kardashian just keeps growing, having gained 40m more followers in the past year alone.

#5 Selena Gomez

 153 million followers
 $886,000 per post

For a long time, Selena Gomez was the most followed celebrity on Instagram, and she topped the 2017 Instagram Rich List. However, with the rise of the Kardashians and other pop sensations, she’s fallen 3 places since last year.

#6 Dwayne Johnson

 148 million followers
 $882,000 per post

Keeping his place at #6, Dwayne Johnson is the only male actor in the top 10.

#7 Beyonce Knowles

 129 million followers
 $785,000 per post

Beyonce has dropped 2 places since 2018 but is still firmly in the top 10.

#8 Taylor Swift

 119 million followers
 $748,000 per post

New to the Instagram Rich List this year, Taylor Swift joins the other queens of pop Ariana, Selena and Beyonce in the top 10.

#9 Neymar da Silva Santos Junior

 122 million followers
 $722,000 per post

Neymar has slipped one spot but remains the only other sports star in the top 10 besides King Ronaldo.

#10 Justin Bieber

 115 million followers
 $722,000 per post

Justin Bieber has made his way into the top 10 this year, and is the only male musician there.

Check out the full 2019 Instagram Rich List here – featuring the highest earning social media stars across:

Celebrity, Beauty, Fashion, Fitness, Food, Lifestyle, Sport and Travel.

The post The 2019 Instagram Rich List — Who Earns The Most From Sponsored Posts? appeared first on Hopper HQ.

But with so much travel photography on Instagram, it’s getting harder than ever to stand out. Using the right hashtags will help your travel posts stand out and get more likes.

Grow Your Audience With #Hashtags

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This list of travel hashtags will help you choose the correct hashtags for different kinds of travel posts! Simply copy & paste the hashtags most relevant to your content…

 More hashtag strategy tips: All-In-One Guide To Instagram Hashtags 

1. Most Popular Travel Hashtags
2. Luxury Travel Hashtags
3. Adventure Hashtags
4. Beach Hashtags
5. City Hashtags
6. Solo Female Traveller Hashtags
7. Family Travel Hashtags
8. Honeymoon Hashtags
9. Travel Video Hashtags
10. Schedule Hashtags in Advance

1. Most Popular Travel Hashtags

These are some of the biggest and most used travel hashtags on Instagram! While they’re a sure-fire way of reaching new people in your audience, we recommend using a handful of these high volume hashtags mixed with smaller, specific travel hashtags.

#Travelgram #Travelholic #Travelbook #Traveller #Travel_Captures #Instatravel #SeeTheWorld #TravelTheWorld #TravelAddict #Travellingram #TravellingThroughTheWorld #TravelIsLife #TravelWithMe #TravelCouple #WorldTraveler #MyTravelStory #WanderingSoul #TravelMoments #JustTravel #Globetrotter #NextDestination #LetsTravel #HappyTraveller #TravelTips #TheBestDestinations #TravelInspiration #TravelJunkie #WorldExplorer

2. Luxury Travel Hashtags

For the high-end traveller showing us the most beautiful hotels and spots across the globe! Luxury travel dominates a large space on Instagram due to celebrities and travel influencers sharing their most lavish trips. If you’re sharing luxury travel content use these hashtags to get more likes:

#LuxuryTravel #LuxuryHotelsWorld #LuxuryTraveller #BespokeTravel #LuxuryVillas #LuxuryTrip #TravelLuxury #DreamHoliday #LuxuryEscapes #BestResorts #VacayGoals #DreamDestination #LuxuryHoliday #LuxuryWorldTraveller #LuxuryLifestyle #LuxuryTravelDaily #LuxuryLocation #NeverGoingHome #LuxuryVacation 

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3. Adventure Hashtags

If hiking in the great outdoors is more your cup of tea, there are thousands of Instagram users who are with you! When posting outdoorsy content, use these adventure hashtags to reach the right people:

#LifeIsAnAdventure #AdventureTime #Adventurer #ExploreTheWorld #GoExplore #SeekAdventure #GoPlaces #NotLost #HikingAdventures #AdventureOn #StayAndWander #GoneOutdoors #Adventure_Culture #ChooseAdventure #GetOutStayOut #AdventureAddict #AdventureInspire #AdventureTillWeDie #AdventureThatIsLife #RoamThePlanet #AdventureSeeker #NeverStopExploring #EarthOutdoors #FindYourAdventure

4. Beach Hashtags

Sand, sea, sun and salt…can only mean one thing! Our Instagram feeds are full of white sand beaches and crystal blue oceans, and these are the top beach hashtags for your travel Instagram:

#Beaching #BeachLife #SandAndSun #SaltyAir #PalmTrees #SeaWaves #LifesABeach #Beachscape #SunsetBeach #BeachBabe #Beachy #BeachVibes #OceanVibes #SaltEscape #BeachHairDontCare #BeachBum #Aquaholic #SeasTheDay #BeachDaze #BeachDay #SandInMyToes #SaltySoul #BeachTherapy #RestingBeachFace #BeachLiving #BeachLifestyle #LifeByTheBeach

5. City Hashtags

From the coast to the capital, share your city travel photos on Instagram with these city hashtags. Remember to always include the place names of the cities (and anything else) you’re visiting! This way fellow travellers will be able to find your posts and learn from your tips.

#CityBreak #CitySightseeing #LoveThisCity #CityTrips #CobbledStreets #CitySights #CityTravel #Siteseeing #ExploringTheCity #CityView #CitiesOfEurope #BeautifulCity #CityLove #CityShot #CityWalking #CityScene #Cityscape #CityCaptures #CityExplore #CitySunset #CityLights #CityAtNight #CityLife #AmazingCity 

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6. Solo Female Traveller Hashtags

Instagram offers a great community for women travelling alone! Many travel influencers and bloggers are solo female travellers, and have set up trending hashtags to connect other women travelling and exploring by themselves…

#TravellingSolo #SoloTravel #TravellingAlone  #Wanderer #SoloFemaleTraveller #SoloFemaleTravel #TravelGirlsGo #SheIsNotLost #SheWhoWanders #JourneyOfGirls #TravelGirlsHub #DameTravel #WeTravelGirls #TravelGirlsGo #WomanTraveler #WomanTravel #GirlsWhoTravelSolo #GirlsTravelDiary #WomenWhoTravel #WomenWhoExplore #Travelette #SheExplores 

7. Family Travel Hashtags

If you’re travelling with young ones, you’re not alone! Many families take to the world with their children and document their adventures on Instagram. Use these family travel hashtags to get your posts in front of the right audience:

#FamilyTravels #TravelFamily #FamilyVacay #TravelFam #FamiliesWhoTravel #ParentsWhoWander #FamilyTravelTribe #TravelMadFam #GoWithNugget #TravelBrood #LoveYourTimeTogether #TravellingWithKids #LPKids #ExploringFamilies #FearlessFamTrav #TravelMum #TravelDad #FamilyAdventure #LitteTraveler #OurTribeTravels #KidsThatTravel 

8. Honeymoon Hashtags

Travel couples are big news on Instagram. When else do couples treat themselves to a trip as big as their honeymoon?! Expect paradise water bungalows and rose petals…join in with these honeymoon hashtags for Instagram:

#Honeymoon #HoneymoonDestination #HoneymoonTime #HoneymoonTrip #Honeymooning #HoneymoonTravel #Honeymooners #DreamHoneymoon #RomanticPlace #HoneymoonVibes #RomanticGetaway #HoneymoonBungalow #JustMarried #InParadise #HoneymoonInspo #HoneymoonInParadise #OverWaterBungalow #MrAndMrs #HoneymoonIsland #TravelBuddyForLife 

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9. Travel Video Hashtags

Drones, GoPros and  advanced mobile editing software make travel videos a huge content area on Instagram. More and more influencers are sharing posts and IGTV videos of their travels, despite the max time limit making it a challenge to cram an entire trip into a 1 minute video. Here’s a selection of travel video hashtags you can use on Instagram:

#TravelVideo #TravelVideography #TravelVideos #TravelVlog #TravelVideoDiary #TravelVlogger #VlogTravel #Drone_Countries #DroneWorld #DroneNature #DroneVideography #StreetVideography #TravelDocumentary #TravelMoments #TravelCapture #TravelFootage

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Hashtag Tips

When hashtagging, it’s important not to overload or spam your posts with hashtags that don’t work and could result in you getting shadow-banned.

The trick is to use a few generic and a few niche specific hashtags to give you the best reach – just make sure they are always relevant to the photo, video or story you’ve posted.

Check out our All-In-One Guide To Instagram Hashtags here for more tips!

For more top Instagram hashtags by niche, take a look at our other guides:

Top Photography Hashtags 
Top Food Hashtags 
Top Fitness & Health Hashtags
Top Fashion Hashtags

Schedule Hashtags In Advance

By scheduling your posts in advance together with your chosen hashtags, you will save time growing your Instagram account! 

With Hopper HQ you can:

1. Search for the most popular hashtags
2. Add hashtags to your caption
3. Add hashtags to your first comment
4. Schedule your post and first comment in advance
5. Set and forget – Hopper HQ posts automatically for you!

Here is Hopper HQ’s hashtag search and selector in action:

Try Hopper HQ free for 2 weeks and start saving time today!

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The post Top Travel Hashtags To Grow Your Instagram Account appeared first on Hopper HQ.