Instagram Tutorial: 5 Basic Tips for Success

Learn these beginners' tips to make the most out of this social network, with Mina Barrio

Instagram is the social network for creatives, but we don’t always manage to make the most out of it. Why is no-one seeing my posts? How do I beat the algorithm? Do hashtags actually do anything? Anyone who uses Insta asks these questions at times.

Mina Barrio (@minabarrio), is a product photographer at Melon Blanc and an Instagram specialist. Her tutorial answers these questions and teaches you 5 Basic Tips to Triumph on Instagram. Don’t miss her expert advice!

5 basic tips to triumph on Instagram

1. Understand the algorithm

The Instagram algorithm is a mathematical equation with over 500 variables. It defines the position of the posts shown in your feed. So how do you know the best time to post so more people will see your content? Mina Barrio recommends using Facebook Creator Studio, a tool actually created by Facebook, because it allows you to view all the stats related to your account. Important tip! You can only access Facebook Creator Studio when you have a business or creator account.

Once you’re in the tool, click on Insights in the left-hand menu and then on Audiences. This tab is home to a function that summarizes when your followers sign in by day and hour. Don’t choose the exact moment when your audience is at its biggest to publish. This is because peak audience times are usually the last moment in a range, so it’s best to publish at the start of that range in order to reach everyone.

2. Hashtags

Loved and hated in equal measures, hashtags help you classify content. Are they good? Or bad? You can actually always use tags, so long as they’re related to your image, because the Instagram algorithm knows how to read image content and penalizes you when you use unrelated tags.

3. Interact with your followers

The algorithm rewards real relationships with your followers, after all Instagram is a social network. So Mina Barrio recommends answering messages from your followers and trying to connect with them, even though it’s virtual.

4. Great copy

The text or ‘copy’ that accompanies your photo and hashtags is another important ingredient for success. When you scroll down your feed, all you see is the first line or line and a half of text. You have to expand the text if you want to read more. So that first sentence is the most important. It’s what will decide if your followers want to read more or decide to keep scrolling. Mina Barrio advises making it as attention-grabbing and appealing as possible.

5. Stories VS Feed

Is it important to share your latest post in the stories? Mina Barrio recommends talking about your post from another angle, perhaps explaining the story behind the photo or commenting on why you created that post. You need to present the post in an attractive light and provide extra content to get your followers to want to check out the stories related to your post. It’s one way of beating the algorithm because it calculates that the longer your followers spend on your account, the more interest you are generating.

Love this video? If you want to learn how to achieve a professional feed by developing a coherent and stylish communication strategy, don’t miss Mina Barrio’s online course: Mobile Photography and Visual Identity for Instagram.

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