Since it was launched in 2012, Instagram has become one of the most popular social media sites in the world. In fact, it ranks third, behind Facebook and Twitter, and has two billion active monthly users. This makes it the perfect place to launch your small business or build an engaged audience for your personal brand.
You can do this organically, but promoting your posts and profile can drastically accelerate your growth and help you to reach your target audience. Of course, great content also helps to improve the effectiveness of your promotions; knowing how to make posts that catch the eye is crucial.
Let’s explore how to promote yourself on Instagram, using official channels and your own work, as well as focusing on post promotion or profile promotion.
How to Make Great Instagram Posts for Promotion
Promoting your Instagram posts is undoubtedly one of the quickest ways to ensure that it reaches many people and makes an impact. To get the best bang for your buck, however, you still need to make great content. While there is no single definition of ‘good content,’ there are some basic principles you can keep in mind to ensure your posts are worth promoting.
Firstly, understand your niche and target audience; if you run a fitness account associated with a personal training business, your content should speak to that. Try to give your followers information and provide value for them, as well as promoting your services.
Secondly, remember that quality outstrips quantity. It’s better to post thoughtful, valuable content three times a week than inconsistent, filler content daily.
Finally, use hashtags appropriately; only use hashtags that are connected to your niche, account, and content. Don’t use hashtags just because they are trending; this may bring traffic, but it won’t boost your account positively, because the people who arrive will realize that your content doesn’t fit their interests and leave again (with a good chance of disliking your brand on sight as a result).
Keep these tips in mind and you will create content worth promoting.
How to Promote Instagram Profile
At the moment, there is no way to simply promote your whole profile through Instagram ads, but there are some workarounds for this. For example, you can create a post designed specifically to promote your profile or personal brand, and then promote that post. This carefully side-steps the fact that you can’t promote your whole account – and it actually makes great marketing sense.
Why? Because you can condense your message and services into one simple post that gives potential customers and followers all the information they need to decide whether your service is for them.
You can also use your other social media accounts to promote your main Instagram profile and business. This is done by sharing your post to other platforms such as Facebook or Threads. While that does require a little more work, especially when compared to using the integrated promotion features on Instagram and Facebook, this method has its benefits.
How to Promote a Post on Instagram
Whether you intend to make a specialist post to promote your whole account, or you want to give one post that you’re especially proud of a boost, the promotion feature on Instagram is useful.
Thankfully, it’s also easy to use. Before we get to that, however, let’s talk about what precisely the promotion feature is and what it does.
What is Instagram Promotion?
The Instagram promotion feature allows you to pay to have your posts emphasized by the platform and shown to more people. When you use this feature to boost a post, you guarantee that it will be seen by more users who don’t follow you. In essence, this is a micro-advertising feature.
When you use this feature, you can set your target audience and view insights that show you how your post performed. These two factors are particularly useful, because they indicate how effective your posts are at engaging your target audience.
How to Promote Posts on Instagram
So, you have a post you want to promote on Instagram. Follow these simple steps to create and launch your very first Instagram promotion:
- Open the Instagram app and navigate to your profile
- Find the post you want to promote
- Press ‘boost’ (you will find this on the right side of the post, between the image and the description)
- On the ‘Review Your Ad’ screen, set a goal, audience, and budget
- Choose a payment method
- Confirm and launch your ad
Your Instagram goal includes options such gaining more followers or getting more clicks on your ad link (if you choose this option, you will be prompted to add a link). The audience section lets you choose the gender, age range, location, and key interests of your target audience. For example, you could set your audience as women between 25 and 40 who are interested in ebooks if you are promoting a novel.
Your budget is set by choosing a daily budget and your advert duration. For example, you can set a budget of $10 per day for 7 days. This section will show you roughly how many people will see your promoted post based on your budget. Once you confirm your parameters and launch your promotion, it will be placed under review.
The review process takes roughly 24 hours on average. Once your promotion is approved, you will be notified.
FAQs
Can I use affiliate links in my promoted posts?
As long as your advert falls within the bounds of Instagram promotion guidelines, you can include any link you wish. However, it’s important to note that it is good etiquette to make people aware that you are providing an affiliate link, even though it will not cost them more to buy a product by using it.
Why was my Instagram promotion rejected?
There are many possible reasons why your Instagram promotion could have been rejected. During review, your promotion’s images, text, targeting, and positioning are checked to ensure that they are suitable, appropriate, and honest. The most common reasons for Instagram ads being rejected are:
- Containing explicit images or text
- Misleading or fraudulent claims and activity
- Breach of copyright
However, there are also instances where Instagram makes a mistake during the review process. If you believe your ad should have been approved, you can appeal the rejection and ask for the post to be reviewed again.
Can I promote the same post on Instagram and Facebook?
You can promote the same post on multiple platforms independently, but if you have a linked Instagram and Facebook account, you can also promote your post on both simultaneously. If you have linked accounts, you will be given the option to also promote your post on Facebook when creating your promotion.
