5 Instagram Best Practices to Grow Your Following

With more than 1.16 billion active monthly users, Instagram is a powerful platform for connecting with customers, promoting your Farm brand, and staying top-of-mind (which can lead to increased orders). Good news for you, 90% of all Instagram users follow at least one business account. Whether you’re just getting started or looking for ways to up your Instagram game, we’ve outlined five best practices to incorporate in your Instagram strategy.

1. FILL OUT YOUR BIO

Before getting started, the most important factor to driving your Instagram following is having a business account. A business account establishes your Farm as a business. It gives you access to features including insights, ads, shopping, the ability to display contact information, and a call-to-action (e.g., a link to your website or Farm store) directly on your profile. These tools are critical to driving brand awareness and establishing your Farm on the platform. If you already have a personal account, switching to a business account in settings is easy.

When it comes to your Bio, you only have 150 characters to make a first impression, convey your Farm brand, and let people know why they should follow you. Don’t leave it blank! This is your first opportunity to engage your audience (and potential customers), giving them insight into your mission and how to get to your website. Keep it simple but informative. 

Are you stuck? Start with the basics: Who are you? What are you doing? Where are you located? Why are you doing it? A business account gives you the ability to include a clickable link (to your website) and display a physical address - don’t forget to fill these out! It’s free (and clickable) real estate.

2. CREATE VISUALLY COMPELLING CONTENT

Instagram is a visual experience, so of course, the quality of your pictures is of utmost importance. There is no need to be a professional photographer, but your photos and videos need to be in focus, well-lit, and well-composed. Above that, your posts need to be compelling to engage followers (and attract new ones). When in doubt, you should always have a purpose and tell a story. At Barn2Door, we often refer to the 3 E’s - educate, entertain, and e-commerce. Teach followers something new about the Farm, share a laughable moment from your workday, and promote your seasonal or specialty products, motivating followers to “click the link in bio” to access your Farm store. There should be a balanced mix of these three categories of posts throughout your feed. Utilizing user-generated content (or posts from followers about your Farm) is another quick and easy way to post great content! 

With a great photo should come an even better caption. Your voice is just as important as your brand. Most people tend to scan captions, so it’s important to keep them short and engaging. Experts say the best caption length is between 138 - 150 characters. If you have more to say, make sure the extra words are worth it but try to place the most important information within the first two lines of the caption.

Try a posting schedule of 2 - 3 times per week.  Any less and your followers will interpret your account as inactive, and they may stop following you. That being said, you won’t benefit from posting more than once a day. Too many posts will feel like spam to your followers. It’s all a balance!

Read: How To Take Better Farm Photos

3. BE SOCIAL & FOLLOW ALONG

Instagram is “social,” so make sure you are engaging with your followers (by responding to their comments) and following other accounts on the platform. Find a restaurant in the area, a popular food blogger, or maybe follow someone who frequents your local Farmers Market. If you enjoy someone's post and have something to say, leave a genuine comment. Being active on the platform allows you to make your Farm visible in a non-promotional way and makes your account more discoverable by others. Set aside time in your week (during lunch or on a coffee break) to scroll through your feed and engage with the community you’ve built.

4. USE #HASHTAGS & STORIES

Hashtags are a critical way to increase your visibility and discoverability on Instagram. A hashtag is just a “topic” or “subject” that anyone on Instagram can choose to follow.  For example, #FarmFresh has over 1.5 million posts. The people who follow that hashtag care to educate themselves on Farm fresh products. A good rule of thumb is to use hashtags relevant to your Farm and specific to what makes your Farm unique. Avoid using hashtags that are associated with follows or likes (e.g., #like4like). A good balance is to use between five and nine hashtags per post, any more and it can look like hashtag stuffing. 

A unique platform feature is the use of Instagram Stories. Stories provide an opportunity for you to connect with your followers and build relationships with Customers. Since they disappear after 24 hours, the content should be more spontaneous and less planned than permanent posts.  Tell a story (have a message in mind), provide value (give a quick educational video about your Farm’s products) or use a call-to-action (CTA) to shop your Farm store. Stories are also a great place to share user-generated content - giving a nod of thanks to your Followers.

5. KNOW WHAT WORKS

It’s hard to improve something when you don’t know how well it’s performing. Having measurable results can tell you precisely what works and what doesn’t. Use Instagram’s free analytics tools to track your follower growth rate, engagement rates, follower demographics, and more. Trust us, we all focus on the total number of followers, but your follower growth rate will give you critical information on how well your content performs. Engagement rates like comments and likes are another good indicator of what your followers want to see and what you should post more of. Lastly, having access to information like age, gender, and followers’ locations will help you tailor your messaging, product mix, and when the best times to post are!

Remember, it takes time and consistency to grow an Instagram following. Be patient because it won’t happen overnight. With just 15 minutes a few times a week and a little planning, you can build the audience you want.

At Barn2Door, we’re proud to serve 1000’s of Farmers across the country by helping them increase sales, access more customers, and save time. If you’re curious about how we can help your Farm implement successful social media strategies, watch this 5-minute video.