The Science to Social Media

When it comes to social media best practices, there is not an exact formula that works for every single account. Deciding which platform to use is the first step. For my personal interest project, I have created an Instagram account.

Instagram is one of the most popular social media networks around, but the audience is a little more narrow. It’s hugely popular with younger crowds, including millennials and Gen Zers.

I have been implementing Instagram best practices for this project. I am constantly engaging with the content in my feed to help further drive up my own engagement rate.

I use relevant hashtags to my post, so they aren’t “spammy.” “Use industry- or brand-specific hashtags that are easy for users to find and help your content stand out from the crowd. A good number of hashtags to use is seven or eight on any given post.” When posting hashtags I use the technique of pushing the hashtags further down the post, so they are not visible when my post is viewed. I want to avoid from looking unprofessional.

Another strategy I use to drive up engagement is tagging brands/stores/people in my content (posts, stories, reels). Quite a few times I have had brands respond to my content or even share it to their own pages!

I have also been trying to make more reels. I took two different approaches to reels. The first one I posted, I made natively in the Instagram app. The second one, I made through Instagram, but exported before posting and edited it on Adobe Premiere Pro. That reel did not get nearly as much engagement as the other approaches.

“The more people you reach with your Reels, the higher your chances that follower count and engagement rate will grow.” I noticed after the successful Reels I posted, my follower-ship and engagement has grown.

With my account, I try to keep my captions short. A majority of my content is geared toward U.S. Army Soldiers. They can use my content for their own recruiting purposes. Many use a third-party app to repost my content without having to adjust anything. I make sure the copy is simple enough that anyone can use the content.

Myself as well as other brands utilize research to determine when to post on social media. Although most platforms do not follow a chronological newsfeed anymore it is still important to post at certain times.

It is wise to post on social media when your audience is online. Most platforms popular times are in the morning and evening. Instead of reading the newspaper in the morning, or a book at night, people now scroll through their social media feeds.

For Instagram, an option outside the platform to provide the best times to post is Sprinklr. Sprinklr is a social media management tool that gives you a deeper look into your account analytics. Sprinklr can provide specific times and days of the week to help create a social media strategy.