Live Q&A: Ask Instagram Experts Anything, Hosted by Square Appointments

[katieand]

In December, Square Appointments integrated with Instagram to help you more easily turn followers into customers.  You are now able to add a Book button to your Instagram business profile, allowing customers to instantly book an appointment without ever leaving the Instagram app. (Click here for setup instructions)

We’ve brought over Instagram experts to answer any questions you might have on how to best use the business tools available on Instagram, or more generally, anything you might be curious about related to growing your business on Instagram. Our group of experts from Instagram’s Business team will reply to all questions right here in the Seller Community on Feb 28th from 3pm - 4pm PST. 

Example questions:

• How can I call attention to the Book button on my business profile?
• How do I grow my followers on Instagram?
• How many times should I be posting on my business profile?
• Do hashtags really matter?

*Note: We're accepting new questions until Tuesday February 26 at 12pm PST so add them before that time!

[katieand]

Hi @pazsintes - I found this resource about Instagram videos for you: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-video-specs-guide/#instagram

We ran out of time for @IGBizPartner to post about this, but we'll forward your question on to them! Thanks again for your question 🙂

[katieand]

Here are a couple of questions from Instagram! 

1. What's the top 3 things to considering when photographing what your business does?

2. Is the algorithm affecting business accounts negatively?

[IGBizPartner]

Question 1:

Don't overthink it. Don't worry so much about having beautifully produced images and videos; and you don't need to be a professional photographer to use Instagram. All it takes is phone and a little creativity. Use the tools (like filters, tags and stickers) that exist in the app to make your images more compelling.

Be focused. What's your account all about? Make it crystal clear what kind of content your followers can expect from you and be consistent. Is it inspirational photos? Tips and tricks? Behind the scenes images? All three? If you're having a hard time finding your focus, use Insights (available for free with your Business Profile) to learn what kind of content resonates most with your followers.

Showcase what you're most proud of. You may think your business isn’t “Instagrammable,” but using the whole platform (Feed posts, Stories, Live, and even IGTV) as part of your strategy allows for more experimentation. Stay true to yourself and your business and let your real personality shine. Encourage your customers to share their posts and Stories, so you can re-share on your account.

Question 2:

The algorithm does not differentiate between personal and business profiles. It depends on each business and we do encourage businesses to find their own formula (via free tools like Instagram Insights) for what works. We do not penalize businesses for being businesses.

We want people to see the content they care about, regardless if the content is from their friends or brands they are passionate about. So posts at the top of Feed will be from accounts people are most likely to interact with. Overall, the average Instagram post now reaches a much larger percentage of followers than it did when feed was chronological.

[IGBizPartner · Accepted solution]

Thank you all for the great questions—we’re really glad you took the time to participate.

We know growing a business and a presence on Instagram is exciting, but isn't always easy. We hope today's Q&A helped unlock some insights and ideas for you to put into practice with your business' Instagram presence! To wrap this up, here are 5 best practices to consider:

1. Be focused. What's your account all about? Make it crystal clear what kind of content your followers can expect from your account. Is inspirational photos? Tips and tricks? Behind the scenes images? All three? If you're having a hard time finding your focus, use Insights (available for free with your Business Profile) to learn what kind of content resonates most with your followers.
2. Use the whole platform. Be sure to incorporate Feed posts, Stories, Live, and even IGTV as part of your strategy. Don't worry so much about having beautifully produced images and videos. Stay true to yourself and your business and let your real personality shine. Encourage your customers to share their posts and Stories, so you can re-share on your account.
3. Insights, Insights, Insights. Instagram Insights lets you learn more about your followers and about how your content is performing with your audience. You can also view insights for specific posts and stories you've created to see how each performed and how people are engaging with them. TLDR, with Insights, you can learn more about who follows you AND what kind of content garners the more interaction.
4. Keep Stories Simple. Don't overthink it! Go face first. Give people something to do with interactive stickers and polls. Stories is a great way to show some of the unedited, in the moment aspects of your business.
5. Tagging is vital. From hashtags, Geotags, and even tagging the businesses and people featured in your content. Tagging helps increase the discoverability of your content. Looking to reach an audience who's passionate about a certain topic or in a certain location? Tagging is key to reaching the right people. Rule of thumb: be specific, not general.

We wish you the best of luck applying these best practices and can’t wait to see you unleash your creativity!