Tanya Ramavtar is well known for her social media expert specializing in Instagram marketing. She started her journey as a teenager with given time, she developed an interest in the field and now works as a consultant for brands and influencers. Tanya has a following more than 11,000 followers on Instagram (@tanyaramavtar)
How often should we post on Instagram?
Before talking about how many times a week should we post on Instagram. There are other important questions that one needs to address. ‘Is it for a personal branding account (such as Influencer) or for any brand’, ‘Do we know our target audience’, ’Are we clear about the messaging we need to deliver to the audience’ just like these there can be many questions which one need ask first?
Because a number of posts do not really affect the engagement or will get you, new followers. It is about the quality of content that we publish. But answering the question for beginners you can start with posting 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday Friday) or (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) or whatever suits you.
Do remember in any case most important thing is consistency. You have to be consistent with posting on social media.
Is Instagram good for business?
It can surely add value to your marketing efforts. It is easier for influencers to create content for the platform. But there are a lot of challenges faced by brands when it comes to creating content for Instagram, not only for Instagram but all social media platforms.
Brands need to remember that the audience is now aware, that they are smart. Try not to sell the product to them but create a message or content which is compelling. The content would want them to follow your account on any platform.
If you want to take an idea you can visit Zomato’s Social Media accounts. They have done really good work.
How to decide what type of content is good for Instagram?
There is no rulebook to decide what content would be best for your account. What matters is the quality of content that focuses on providing information, education, or entertainment to the target audience.
If you have that then it can be presented in the form of static posts, reels or stories, etc
Is there a quick hack to grow Instagram followers?
There are many tools available on the internet which can get you hundreds of followers within minutes. But doing that can really harm your social media account as accounts are penalized by the algorithm and I do not recommend doing that to brands or any Influencer.
Even if you buy the followers, it will make your page look good with numbers but there will be no engagement rate so what is the point. There are no hacks to gain followers on Instagram, the only thing which can help you gain followers would be Quality Content and Consistency with that Quality Content.
How can we increase engagement on Instagram?
As I have been saying the key is the Quality Content but to give a boost you can do a little exercise which can help you gain followers and increase your engagement rate Exercises like:
Collaboration with Influencers
Collaboration with other brands can help you both mutually ( Collaborate with a brand that has more following than you)
Engage with your followers by replying to them on the post
Focus on content that would encourage followers to comment on your post
Contests and Giveaways can help you but you need to be careful. These will you gain followers or increase your engagement rate but most of the followers you gain are there only for the prize they have a chance to win.
Any insight on the Instagram algorithm?
The team of Instagram is working daily to introduce new features or come up with a new update on the platform. As someone having an account on the platform it is necessary to be updated about these updates.
If you want to grow on the platform you need to change and evolve with the updates and be among the first ones to do so. As this will give you a boost over other brands or influencers. I believe it is common knowledge that your content reaches organically only 10% of your total followers on the platform.
So more comments, shares, and saves help you reach more audience hence helping you in several ways.
What can be a step-by-step strategy to market on Instagram?
We will not talk about how to create a profile on Instagram or what you should write in your bio. I am not saying that a good bio is not important but it is not as important as understanding your business and designing a strategy based on that. After you complete your basic steps then again everything depends on the quality of your content and how well you understand your audience and their requirements.
Understand your niche: Initially, it will be difficult but in the long run, it will definitely help you stand in front of your competition. We know battles are not won in one day.
Focus more on Videos: It is easier for influencers than brands but creating content around your product and services can help you reach the right audience faster
Captions: A good and Compelling caption can help users to have a better understanding of your message and maybe help enhance their interest in it
Collaboration: These can help you gain new followers or from each other
Engagement: Focus more on creating a valuable content strategy that would help you get comments, shares, and saves. It would really help your reach.
Which insights to focus on while doing an audit?
Most of the people on the platform focus on getting ‘Likes’. It would have been a great parameter to measure if it were 2010. A lot of changes around us in the last decade now algorithm focuses on many other factors as well.
Instagram focuses on Watch time of a video, Shares on a post, Saves on a post to measure the valuable content, comments for conversations, etc. There are many factors that we are not aware of. So we can focus on Watch Time, Shares, Saves, and Comments.
Likes are great they make you feel happy but I believe it does not make Instagram much happy.
When should a business induce paid marketing?
It entirely depends on the requirement and pockets of the businesses. If you are a business whose requirement is selling online or generating leads then it makes sense to jump to paid marketing on any platform. In that process do not stop your organic activity on the page.
Paid marketing can help generate leads or sales but organic helps your page, in the long run, to stay on top.
Hashtags: There are many questions around them, what insights can you give us on Hashtags?
Hashtags are good for promoting content on social media platforms organically. But to decide which Hashtags are good for that particular content is a task. Instagram allows you to add 30 hashtags but I believe rather than using quantity focus on quality which would help your content reach the right audience.
What mistakes one can avoid on Instagram?
Let us keep it simple and avoid the following:
Avoid hacks to gain followers
Avoid copying other’s content and try to create informative content with the knowledge you have
Avoid being inconsistent
What are the myths about Instagram which need to be busted?
A lot of people claim many things. Things I have heard the most are:
- Scheduling apps can decrease your reach and engagement
- Collaborations do not help
- Engagement with the followers may harm your brand image
Social Media Content calendars are helpful for social media platforms?
Yes, a definite yes. Every marketer, influencer, or a brand must follow the content calendar. It makes things a lot easier and accessible. Once you have created a content calendar for the month 80% of the work is already done.
Now you just have to create content and post it on the platform. Sometimes you create an entire month’s post and schedule it. I mean that’s just like a blessing when running a social media account.
Does the time of posting on the platform matter, if yes, can you share some insights with us?
There is no definite answer for that I have seen posting on times when your audience is active and there is not much engagement during that time but the engagement increased gradually after a few hours and at times after a couple of days.
I usually prefer the bracket of 6 a.m – 11a.m & 4p.m – 11 p.m. It works well for me and maybe some different times can work for other brands. There is one thing that I know works for everyone being consistent in posting content on your page.
Name some tools you would recommend?
There are plenty of tools available in the market some are free and others have paid subscriptions. People can use the following tools:
Canva for creating posts, videos, reels, stories, and many more things. It is very easy to use.
- flick. tech for hashtag and scheduling
- Hootsuite for scheduling
- Facebook creator is freely available in your Facebook account under publishing tools
- Trello for managing projects
Tanya also hosts podcasts on Spotify. The topics covered by her are diverse and she also invites some industry experts on her podcast. You can visit The Tanya Show on Spotify.
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