Make a great Instagram post with 19 tips and expert advice

Instagram can be a difficult social media platform to use, at is very competitive - and users are not so prompt at following or liking new pages, especially some that they don't know.


How to make a great Instagram post that engages audience?

Instagram can be a difficult social media platform to use, at is very competitive - and users are not so prompt at following or liking new pages, especially some that they don't know.

Getting noticed can be complicated, and liking or following as many posts as possible is the best way to get your  Instagram account blocked   which is not the expected result!

It might not always be easy to upload great content, either in  Instagram posts   on the news feed, in Instagram stories, or to  upload videos to IGTV   the new television feed.

Therefore, we asked the community to get expert tips and advice on how to share photos on social medias like Instagram but also how to share videos and engage your audience - or get more IG followers for free. Here are their answers:

 Are you posting on Instagram, do you have ONE tip to share that makes a great post attracting followers, retaining audience, or getting comments?

Alexandra Arcand: choosing the right filter can make all the difference

Instagram is an app dedicated to photos, so of course if you want to make a great post on the site, your picture has to be interesting enough to grab people’s attention. So what’s the best way to ensure people are interested enough to stop and take a second look at your picture? It’s simple really, the answer is filters.

Filters have the ability to take a good photo and make it a great one. Choosing the right filter for the picture you post can make all the difference. It can take a nice looking shot of the sunset and turn it into something so pretty people want to share on their own page. Filters have the wonderful ability, if chosen correctly, to adjust highlights, lowlights, and colors within your photo so it can look it’s best.

Instagram already offers preset filters you can scroll and choose from, but don’t be afraid to explore other filter options as well. There are countless apps you can download, most for free even, that offer plenty of filter options you can apply to your photos to help them look their best.

It may take trial and error as you scroll through your options, but choosing the perfect filter for your photo can take it to the next level.

Your followers will be sure to notice, and you may even gain some new ones from the amazing content you’re sharing.

Alexandra Arcand writes for Insurantly.com and is an avid fan of social media. She enjoys seeing people’s beautiful photos, as well as creating her own through editing.
Alexandra Arcand writes for Insurantly.com and is an avid fan of social media. She enjoys seeing people’s beautiful photos, as well as creating her own through editing.

Jaime Huffman: remain engaged for an hour after you post

My number one tip for getting engagement on an Instagram post is to reward engagement. Within the caption of your Instagram post, which should have a decent length to it, ask your followers a question related to the topic of their post. People love sharing their opinions and will be more likely to comment. In order to keep this going, you should remain engaged with your audience for approximately an hour after you post, liking and responding to comments. This shows your followers that you're interested in their engagement, and the increased engagement tells Instagram that your post is worthy of showing to more eyes.

@charlestonblonde
Jaime Huffman is a marketing professional and travel blogger based in Charleston. Through her website, Charleston Blonde, she shares travel guides and Charleston recommendations, as well as helping local businesses through her social media marketing agency, Charleston Blonde Social Media.
Jaime Huffman is a marketing professional and travel blogger based in Charleston. Through her website, Charleston Blonde, she shares travel guides and Charleston recommendations, as well as helping local businesses through her social media marketing agency, Charleston Blonde Social Media.

Bailey Medearis: change the colors of the font or doodles to your brand colors

It's important to stay consistent with your branding on Instagram - including your stories! One tip to carry out your branding colors in your Instagram stories is to change the colors of the font or doodles to your brand colors. Once you are creating your story, (whether using the drawing tool or the text) you will see the spectrum of colors on the bottom of the screen. To choose any color, just hold down the white color circle until the full range of colors shows up! From there you can slide to pick your brand colors. Another tip to stay consistent is to use the same font throughout each story. The goal is to get people to recognize that the Instagram post is from your brand before they even read the name!

@socialknx
Bailey Medearis
Bailey Medearis

Janice Wald: watching videos keeps people on Instagram longer

My best Instagram tip is to include video. There are many reasons you want to post a video to your Instagram feed.

First, people love to view videos. I find I get more interest when I post a video. I can tell by the number of views the video gets.

Like with all your posts, you can send your video to your Instagram Story where it will generate more interest and more views.

Since watching videos keeps people on Instagram longer, Instagram will give your video priority visibility in people’s feeds.

Also, you can set up Instagram Stories to connect onto Facebook where your video will get more views and generate more interest.

If you have over 10,000 Instagram followers, you can include a Swipe Up link so people can go straight to your website.

Videos are easy to make. Many free tools are at your disposal. Lumen5 and Instasize are two video making apps that have a square size for Instagram. When you post to your Story, your square size isn’t a factor. Your video is still viewed just fine. Don’t forget when you send to your Story to add hashtags and Stickers for engagement as well as your Swipe Up link for traffic and sales.

People love engaging videos. They are more likely to share these with their friends.

Last, the Explore Section is full of videos. This is proof that Instagram prioritizes giving video visibility. If you want to land in the Explore Section, you stand a better chance by posting a video.

For all these reasons, posting a video is the best way to grow an audience, keep an audience, and engage your audience.

Janice Wald is the founder of MostlyBlogging.com. She is an ebook author, blogger, blogging coach, blogging judge, freelance writer, and speaker. She was nominated as the 2019 Best Internet Marketer by the Infinity Blog Awards and in 2017 as the Most Informative Blogger by the London Bloggers Bash. She’s been featured on Small Business Trends, the Huffington Post, and Lifehack.
Janice Wald is the founder of MostlyBlogging.com. She is an ebook author, blogger, blogging coach, blogging judge, freelance writer, and speaker. She was nominated as the 2019 Best Internet Marketer by the Infinity Blog Awards and in 2017 as the Most Informative Blogger by the London Bloggers Bash. She’s been featured on Small Business Trends, the Huffington Post, and Lifehack.

Andrea Gandica: repost collaborators / customers success stories and give credit

A great tip for your  Instagram posts   is to recommend collaborators and sharing customer success stories:

Repost their photos, giving them credit, these are more genuine and they’re also more engaging, encouraging them to share their own content as well and getting your more likes and engagement.

@officialmodelsny
Andrea Gandica is the CMO at Official Models
Andrea Gandica is the CMO at Official Models

Jessica Armstrong: hold regular quizzes and polls in your stories

One of the best tips I can give is by using both the stories to gain information in order to provide your audience with what they want to see.

By holding regular quizzes and polls in your stories you can engage with your audience, ask questions, and learn more about their wants and desires when it comes to your feed. Taking that information and putting it into your posts allows you to show your audience that you listen and will provide them with what THEY want to see and expect from your brand because they told you what they want. It increases the human factor when it comes to branding and getting to know your audience on a deeper level.

@cuddlynest
My name is Jessica and I am the PR and Social Media Manager at CuddlyNest, and was previously the PR and Social Media Manager at Glamping Hub.
My name is Jessica and I am the PR and Social Media Manager at CuddlyNest, and was previously the PR and Social Media Manager at Glamping Hub.

Abby MacKinnon: look at your metrics - look through your feed

When posting on Instagram, it's important to look at your metrics. Look through your feed and determine your most popular posts. What type of content did you post? What day of the week did you share it on? At what time? Then, recreate these trends.

For example, we get the most engagement when we post on Fridays around noon, which we only know because we took the time to look at our analytics.

Instagram makes this easy to do, and it even shares when your audience is most likely to be scrolling through the app. You'll see a considerable boost in engagement if you pay attention to these metrics.

Abby MacKinnon, Content Creator: Hoot Design Co. is a full-service marketing agency in Columbia, Missouri. If you need a website revamp, brand refresh, or marketing campaign, HDco has you covered.
Abby MacKinnon, Content Creator: Hoot Design Co. is a full-service marketing agency in Columbia, Missouri. If you need a website revamp, brand refresh, or marketing campaign, HDco has you covered.
@hootdesignco

Tania Braukamper: Know your audience – and don't assume

Knowing your audience is *everything* when it comes to Instagram. Let me give you an example. What's more captivating: a breathtaking photo of the Tuscan countryside at sunset, or a flatlay of some camera gear?

At Shotkit, our Instagram audience is largely made up of professional photographers and photography enthusiasts. So despite the beautiful shots we post of travel and weddings and wildlife, it's the pics of camera gear that generate the most engagement. Without fail!

Never assume. Actually get to know your audience, what they care about and what makes them tick. And craft your content strategy around that. You can't please everyone: so focus on providing amazing niche content to the audience that best fits your brand.

Tania Braukamper, Social Media Manager
Tania Braukamper, Social Media Manager
@shotkit

Marius Migles: posting quality content is essential

One of the best tips I have found from experience is to post quality content on Instagram. If you post quality content and have a good view on how to display your Instagram feed then you have done something extra than most Instagram accounts. This is essential if you want to have loyal followers and receive many likes.

Destination wedding photographer, capturing natural & emotional moments. Available worldwide!
Destination wedding photographer, capturing natural & emotional moments. Available worldwide!
@mariusmigles

Lauren: make sure to understand your audience, study your competition

Social media content creation is one of the most important parts of managing an account. Content is what is going to bring you engagement, reach, and more followers. However, behind posting, there’s a strategy to follow and a why behind the creation of the post.

Before posting any content, make sure to understand your audience, study your competition, and start to know with what content your followers are engaging the most. Get inspired with your favorite accounts, start seeing how they are managing captions, pictures, and what call to actions are they using for followers to interact. Add segmented hashtags, the more you put, the more chances they are that users will find your post. And last but not least, Instagram is extremely visual, make your pictures attractive so it would stand out, and make people engage with it.

Lauren, VP, Marketing, Swipecast
Lauren, VP, Marketing, Swipecast

Sidonie Smith: get really familiar with the anatomy of Instagram

My one tip is to get really familiar with the anatomy of Instagram. Instagram actually sets you up to really succeed at content creation because there are so many ways to catch people who have different interests. If you have photography lovers, or people who like long form captions, or people who just come on to watch stories or do interactive polls or IGTV. I used to think I would bug people if I showed up talking about a similar subject in my photos and captions and in my stories, but I remember when I was announcing the next musical I was going to be in I had a clip of my audition song and I posted it on my stories with a poll if people wanted to see more and then I put a little bit longer on IGTV about it, and then I wrote an open letter to the person who inspired me to do this show in my caption with a photo -- basically I talked about it everywhere you can on Instagram and I still had people saying, Oh! That's awesome, I didn't know you were doing this! So remember you're not getting on people's nerves, because the different parts of appeal to different people. So show up with similar content and that takes so much pressure off of content creation because you can stretch and idea a statement in so many different ways and reach different people in the world.

Sidonie Smith is in demand internationally as a stage actress, vocalist and violinist. The multilingual leading lady has starred in hit musicals such as Sister Act, Jekyll and Hyde and Jesus Christ Superstar the world over for the past decade.
Sidonie Smith is in demand internationally as a stage actress, vocalist and violinist. The multilingual leading lady has starred in hit musicals such as Sister Act, Jekyll and Hyde and Jesus Christ Superstar the world over for the past decade.
@_.sidonie._

Can Ahtam: make your posts as personal and as relatable as possible

The one crucial tip for Instagram success I would share is making your posts as personal and as relatable as possible for others to engage with.

This encompasses users to not only create a visually pleasing and interesting content but also a caption and hashtag list that go along with the visual without misleading or confusing the audience. Most people perceive engagement as the most amount of comments with respect to the likes they receive but I perceive it as also the amount of replies and dialogues you have in your comments section. I always take the time to acknowledge and reply to every comment I receive in order to communicate with my audience and foster ideas as well. Take this post as an example:

@canahtam

I've taken inspiration from the infamous InstaEgg and adapted it to situation and how poorly most of the world has been reacting to it with a single roll of toilet paper featured in the post. Tried to focus on today's issues and certain relatable elements in the caption as well in order to generate interest to the post.

My name is Can Ahtam and I am a Turkish photographer of 10+ years living in Los Angeles, California. I am an avid Instagram community member and you can view my work at @canahtam or on my website at www.canahtam.com
My name is Can Ahtam and I am a Turkish photographer of 10+ years living in Los Angeles, California. I am an avid Instagram community member and you can view my work at @canahtam or on my website at www.canahtam.com

Kimmie Conner: make your captions LONG and ENGAGING!

CAPTIONS: Make them LONG and ENGAGING! Instagram rewards posts that users spend more time on. So, naturally, having a longer caption with engaging content will keep users on the post longer and therefore attain more impressions.

Make sure that your captions have lots of juicy info that your followers would not only like to read, but also engage with! Try having bulleted lists with different tips for something, travel tips for a certain destination, makeup tips for a certain look, cooking tips for a recipe, or a funny story. Make sure to end the caption with a question that encourages followers to become a part of the conversation.

Kimmie is a travel blogger and photographer who has been gallivanting the globe for over 5 years. After stringing together an awesome agenda of traveling around between working different jobs in different countries, she is now a full time blogger and content creator living in Bali.
Kimmie is a travel blogger and photographer who has been gallivanting the globe for over 5 years. After stringing together an awesome agenda of traveling around between working different jobs in different countries, she is now a full time blogger and content creator living in Bali.
@immconn

Monina: don't neglect your Instagram stories

Don't neglect your Instagram Stories. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a Story is priceless. In the ever-evolving world of social media, the attention of your target audience is gold. Instagram Stories are fun and quick. And for many, it's the perfect amount of content. As a content creator, you want to connect with your audience. Here's where Stories can bring your blog to life. Share a glimpse into your personal life. Showcase a recent blog article by highlighting a quote. Get to know your audience by posting a poll. The better your Story is, the more people engage and come back for more.

Monina serves as community manager for Content Marketing Institute, where she brings together professionals from around the globe. With a passion for connecting people, Monina previously led award-winning initiatives for brands like Nestle and Sherwin Williams. She is a proud finalist for the 2020 CMX Online Community Professional of the Year.
Monina serves as community manager for Content Marketing Institute, where she brings together professionals from around the globe. With a passion for connecting people, Monina previously led award-winning initiatives for brands like Nestle and Sherwin Williams. She is a proud finalist for the 2020 CMX Online Community Professional of the Year.

Brianna Regine: post content that solves one of your audience problems

An effective way to retain an Instagram audience is to *post content that solves one of their problems. *If you don't know the pain points of your audience, your content will be ineffective and it will not convert into brand advocacy nor sales.

For example, BRVC's Instagram page attracts millennials who are either new or intermediate business owners, who seek insight on: how to improve their online presence, package all of their ideas into a brand that stands out from the crowd, and gain visibility. Therefore, our Instagram content consists of audio, videos, and graphics that inform our followers of methods they can apply to their social media marketing, brand's messaging, and campaigns that will inspire their existing audience to engage with the brand.

Brianna Régine, Founder/Lead Brand Strategist, Publicist & Business Manager, Brianna Régine Visionary Consulting, LLC
Brianna Régine, Founder/Lead Brand Strategist, Publicist & Business Manager, Brianna Régine Visionary Consulting, LLC
@brvisionaryconsulting

@valleytreemasters: take high quality, original photos

Our ONE best Instagram posting tip is to take high-quality, original photos. If you're trying to rank, the search engines (Instagram included) know if you're using a copied picture from Google Images or elsewhere, so make sure that your photos are either ones that you took yourself, or you bought from a photographer (that will not ever distribute them again to someone else!) This originality is something highly prized by Instagram and all of the other Socials &Search Engines, so make sure that your photos are super high-quality and original!

One way that our small business tackles this (on a daily basis) is to send one of our content creators out into the neighborhoods surrounding our office, and to take pictures of anything that relates to our business. For example, since we're in the tree trimming &removal business, our creators take photos of beautiful trees located in nearby parking lots and front yards. If we're doing digital marketing work for one of our clients that services a/c units, we'll take pictures of any air conditioner we can find, and write the story from there.

We found that in addition to publishing high-quality, original photos,the best way to write blog posts (& captions) is to let the image tell the story. If we were originally planning on writing a blog post about 'How often to trim your trees,' but the photo suggests a story about 'Why it's crucial to have your trees trimmed before a storm,' then we'll let our original photo guide the direction of our blogging. (Be loyal to your images!)

@valleytreemasters
Dan Riggs is an I.S.A. Certified Arborist tree doctor, owner of 4 service businesses in the Phoenix, Az area including Valleytreetrimmers.com,and is an expert Digital Marketing & SEO consultant for small businesses.
Dan Riggs is an I.S.A. Certified Arborist tree doctor, owner of 4 service businesses in the Phoenix, Az area including Valleytreetrimmers.com,and is an expert Digital Marketing & SEO consultant for small businesses.

Flynn Zaiger: make sure that you follow the best practices for great photography

The quickest way to get a significant amount of comments onto an Instagram post, is to make sure that you follow the best practices for great photography. After all: Instagram is a visual platform, and providing users with scroll-stopping imagery is step one in actually getting them to like and comment on your post.

First, you'll want to make sure that you follow the rule of thirds with your images. Place different highlights of the photo on the lines of either the first or second third. Second, ensure that your images have high vibrancy, and revealing colors. Lastly, a great way to create great photos is to play with your sense of scale. By lining up pieces that go from small to big, you can really emphasize the massive background pieces, and ensure that others understand just how much larger than life the parts of your photo truly are. Do all that, and you'll be well on your way to increasing the engagement for your social media account.

@online.optimism
Flynn Zaiger is the CEO of Online Optimism, a creative digital marketing agency in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Flynn Zaiger is the CEO of Online Optimism, a creative digital marketing agency in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Muhammad Faheem: keep uniformity with consistency and post engaging content

Keeping uniformity in your content niche with consistency and posting engaging content is the best way to attract and nurture quality instagram followers. Instagram is all about visual inspiration but an image is an umbrella term that needs to be narrowed down when it comes to Instagram.

Sharing original content such as images and videos enhances your visual presence on Instagram rather than using images from creative commons or from any search directories. If your followers stop by your posts then there is a high chance that they will read the caption and search for more content on your profile and that could lead a user to follow your page.

Nowadays brands get real instagram followers by using organic tactic such as hashtags. Instagram hashtags are still one of the best tools for driving relevant people to engageme on your posts and they instantly make your posts discoverable. If you include the right Instagram hashtags on your posts, you will likely see higher engagement. Smart and relevant hashtags will always be worth using. To attract people who are really interested in your posts, I recommend that you find Instagram hashtags that have under 500,000 posts on them (unless you have a bigger following or an actively engaged audience.

@purevpn
Muhammad Faheem is a Senior SEO Executive at PureVPN. He manages different landing pages and blogs of the company's official website. He likes t search new tech and trendy information regarding vpn and cybersecurity on a daily basis.
Muhammad Faheem is a Senior SEO Executive at PureVPN. He manages different landing pages and blogs of the company's official website. He likes t search new tech and trendy information regarding vpn and cybersecurity on a daily basis.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to make a great Instagram post?
In order to make a great post on Instagram, you need to focus on photos. If you want to make a great website post, your photo needs to be interesting enough to grab people's attention. Be sure to use filters to enhance your photos.
Where can I find a good Instagram consultant / Instagram expert?
Websites like Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr provide access to a wide range of freelancers and consultants specializing in Instagram marketing and consulting. You can browse their profiles, reviews, and ratings to find a suitable expert. Joining Facebook groups, LinkedIn communities, or Reddit forums focused on Instagram marketing can help you connect with experienced professionals.
How to get support from an Instagram specialist?
For support from an Instagram specialist, you can visit the Instagram Help Center. Explore Help Center articles. Contact Instagram support. To do this, go to the Settings section of the Instagram app, click Help, and then select Report a problem. In
What are some lesser-known tips for enhancing the visual and engagement quality of Instagram posts?
Lesser-known tips include using natural lighting, experimenting with angles and perspectives, incorporating storytelling in captions, and engaging with followers through comments.



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