The Do’s and Don’ts of Recommending Products On Instagram

Instagram is among the most popular social media apps for content creators, influencers, and brands to showcase their work. To enhance the user experience and content discovery, Instagram recommendations were introduced.

Instagram recommendations are pictures and videos tucked into your main, explore, and reels feed from accounts you don’t follow. These recommendations are influenced by how fast a post captures the audience. In simpler terms, it means how many likes, and comments, a post garners within an hour of upload.

Recent interactions with the content creator also influence the recommendations alongside other random posts that caught the attention of the audience.

Related: The Ultimate Guide to SHEIN’s Affiliate Program.

Best Practices For Instagram Recommendations

Here’s how you can use the best practices below to get your Instagram content in front of the right audience.

1) Make your account public

As an influencer/content creator, you must own a public account. Instagram cannot recommend your content when people can’t interact with your account. Have you noticed that the promoted posts on your feed have high engagements; numerous likes and comments? The recommendations work with numbers. A public account is the first step in racking up those numbers.

2) Upload original content:

Repetitions are boring. Your audience is always ready for the next big thing. They want to see something different and unique. To achieve this, you have to post content that is very You, especially content you filmed or designed.

Creating original content separates you from your competitors, and increases brand worthiness. Posts that resonate with your audience also encourage more bookmarks and shares.

3) Use the reels feature:

Your content is more likely to be recommended when you use reels regularly. Here’s how to ace it:

• Make sure your videos fit the screen. The standard orientation for an Instagram reel is 9×16 vertical and borderless. It must be high resolution and the text should not cover the entire screen.
• The video should be short so it can be recommended. You stand the chance of losing your audience with longer videos. 90 seconds or less is the proposed length.
• First impressions matter! Your viewers should be invested within the preluding three seconds and you need to hold their attention from start to finish.
• Use Instagram for your reels. Don’t transport content that is clearly from another app i.e watermarked videos. It harms your chances of a recommendation.

4) Keywords are your friends

Using relevant keywords provides a gateway to visibility. Here are some tips:

• Choose an Instagram handle that shows relevance to the content on your feed.
• Your bio should contain keywords that sum up who you are and what your profile entails.
• Input keywords into your captions.
• Make use of hashtags, they are great for keyword optimization.

5) Collaboration Posts

The collaboration post is a new feature Instagram added, that allows two parties to have the same post on their feeds. Brands can work with influencers with a wide reach using this feature to get to their audience and in turn, the influencers meet the brand’s audience. A win-win for both parties.

6) Monitor your insights

To effectively manage your Instagram account, it’s crucial to take note of your insights. These insights provide you with a detailed analysis of your account’s performance, including metrics such as impressions and engagement on specific posts, reels, stories, and videos. By reviewing these insights, you can identify the content that’s performing well and the areas that need improvement.

Mistakes To Avoid For Instagram Recommendations

Now you know the steps to take to have your content discovered by your target audience. It is time to learn about the common mistakes creators often make👇🏼

1) Don’t Violate Instagram guidelines

There are a set of Recommendation Guidelines every creator must follow. A few of them include;

• Content that shows violence.
• Content that encourages the use of specific regulated products like tobacco.
• Content that is sexually explicit such as porn, see-through clothing, and so on.

If a creator violates these rules repeatedly, your account will be flagged. You instantly become ineligible for Instagram recommendations.

2) Do not disregard Community Guidelines

While the Recommendation Guidelines are only valid for Instagram Recommendations the Community Guidelines apply to all users of the app. If you break the Community Guidelines, your content will be taken down and if you repeatedly ignore the guidelines, your account may become ineligible for recommendations.

3) Don’t purchase Instagram followers

The worst thing you can do to your brand is to buy followers. You want organic growth because it gives you constant interactions. Meanwhile purchased Instagram followers are usually silent, they never engage with posts. No engagement equals no recommendation.

Related: How to Avoid Buyer’s Remorse.

4) Don’t neglect your relationship with your followers

Your followers are the heart and soul of your brand, so it’s super important to connect with them. Don’t ignore their comments! Take a few minutes now and then to check them out. It’s an awesome way to build a better relationship with your followers and show them you care. Trust us, it’ll make a huge difference!

The dos and don’ts in this post serve as your brand blueprint for Instagram recommendations. Using these will definitely help your content get more discoverable.