Building Relationships Through Instagram Posts

Information for this blog post was obtained from Hootsuite, Neil Patel, and Hootsuite.

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Are you looking to build a relationship with your audience through Instagram posts? Instagram is the number one media platform to do just that! Marketing on Instagram can help brands grow by reaching many target audiences that they may not have reached on other platforms. Instagram has different ways to post content, which gives companies multiple outlets to choose from when it comes to creating content for their brand. There are several aspects to the app that can help boost engagement with your audience and build meaningful relationships.

Why Post on Instagram

The Hootsuite blog, “The Complete Instagram Marketing Strategy Guide,” states that the average Instagram user spends twelve hours a month on the app on average. The same blog states that 62.4% of the users use Instagram to follow or research brands, products, or services.

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If you are like me, you like to feel a part of a community with the brands you follow on Instagram. As an active Instagram user, I feel more part of the company and their values when I build meaningful relationships with the brands instead of just interacting with the commercial content posts. Marketing on Instagram can be great for businesses looking for that connection with their consumers, and it can benefit the consumer as well.

When looking at the statistics for Instagram marketing, 90% of Instagram users follow at least one business, and with 2.1 billion users, that can be a huge help for businesses. Neil Patel’s blog, “Instagram Marketing Guide: 11 Tips That Actually Work,” states that Instagram is a marketer’s dream and breaks it down into four bullet points: narrative, reach, community engagement, and competitive lens.

Instagram shares a narrative through images. It is the platform for aesthetic posts, stories, ads, and more that bring the story of the brand to life. With Instagram being a widely used platform with two billion users, it is easy for brands to widen their target audience. Instagram also provides a wide range of community engagement and for brands to connect with their members through conversation and engagement. Lastly, the competitive lens provides access to competitors' share, what is performing well, and what isn’t. It is important to use those to your brand's advantage to see what is succeeding and what is failing.

Aspects of Posting on Instagram

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When you start posting on Instagram, it is important to convey a brand voice, not just through the written text but through the color, post type, and hashtags. Specific colors play an emotional role for viewers, so it is important to choose ones that convey your brand’s message. Choosing the correct post type is another aspect that should relate to the brand. With multiple choices for posting, like reels, stories, photos, videos, and more, you should make sure it aligns with your target audience and what content they prefer to see. Lastly, hashtags can grow your community, especially when the hashtags not only rank well but also relate to your brand and the message being communicated.

Neil Patel’s blog, “Instagram Marketing Guide: 11 Tips That Actually Work,” states that when using hashtags, you want to avoid generic hashtags, use established, niche-specific hashtags to help discoverability, and include relevant hashtags. The blog states that your brand should have an interactive branded hashtag, which can help get instant engagement. With an interactive branded hashtag, your audience can use it to post their user-generated content, and users can search through all the posts with that hashtag. Ultimately, this is a way of free advertising for a brand as anyone who uses the hashtags helps expose the company to more followers.

Tips for Posting Content on Instagram

The blog by Neil Patel “Instagram Marketing Guide: 11 Tips that Actually Work,” gives the top tips for Instagram marketing. One tip is to create sponsored ads that allow your brand to target your audience in many different content forms like photo, video, reels, carousel post, stories, and stories canvas. Another tip for posting content is to post at the right time and don’t over-post. If your brand over-posts, it can be a turn-off for followers. It is important to find a healthy balance between posting consistently and regularly, but not over-posting. The best time to post on Instagram is 4 am, but the worst day to post on Instagram is Saturday mornings. To find when your followers are most active, you should check the Instagram Insights.  

The Hootsuite blog titled “20 Instagram Post Ideas to Boost Engagement” provides twenty different content ideas that companies can use to create appealing content for their audience. Many of the ideas you have probably seen on other companies' Instagram pages, including reels, giveaways, picture carousels, influencers, tutorials, behind-the-scenes, and staying up with the trends.

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Some of the ideas may not be as well-known like building branded content relationships, posting save-the-dates, sharing user-generated content, and seeking creative input. When building branded content relationships, it can make it easier to boost your content on users' feeds by collaborating with other creators and expanding your brand awareness to others.

Posting a save-the-date for an event your brand is hosting is a way to build anticipation and awareness for your audience to prepare. These can be used for an Instagram live or an in-person event. Sharing user-generated content is an impactful way to build a relationship with your audience. This can be done by creating a hashtag for users to put in the caption of their content, and then the brand can share it and give credit to the user. Lastly, seeking creative input can be useful when brainstorming is slow going. There is no one who knows more about what consumers want than the consumers themselves, so don’t be afraid to ask your audience for what they want to see.

If you are a business looking to optimize your Instagram account, check out Alyssa Mude’s blog post, “3 Tips to Improve Your Business Instagram Account,” as it provides more information on how to optimize and analyze your metrics on Instagram.

Conclusion

Instagram is a widely used social media platform that not only connects people but also connects people to brands and vice versa. Posting on Instagram is much more than just promoting content, but it builds a relationship with your audience to engage them further into your brand. The platform has multiple channels of content that brands can post to, including photos, videos, reels, stories, and more.

There are also multiple types of content that brands can post, including but not limited to giveaways, behind-the-scenes, tutorials, and influencers. Brands can also create content that shares save-the-date posts for upcoming events, build content with other brands, and build relationships with those brands to share with their audiences, seek creative input from their audience, and share user-generated content made by their followers. Overall, Instagram is a platform that many brands use to market to their target audience, especially if their target audience is a part of the majority of Instagram users.

Resources

Golob, L. (2024, December 19). 20 Instagram post ideas to boost engagement. Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-post-ideas/

Instagram marketing guide: 11 tips that actually work - Neil Patel. (n.d.-b). https://neilpatel.com/blog/instagram-marketing-tips/

McLachlan, S. (2025, January 15). The Complete Instagram marketing strategy guide. Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-marketing/

Mude, A. (2024, October 3). 3 tips to improve your business Instagram account. The SMMU. https://www.thesmmu.com/post/3-tips-to-improve-your-business-instagram-account