5 Instagram Tips and Best Practices for Designers in 2020

Do: Tag or Credit

It’s always important to practice good etiquette, but especially on the internet. When you repost someone’s photo or content, make sure to tag them—both in the image itself and in the comments. This goes for User Generated Content, inspirational images, and projects with more than one collaborator. You wouldn’t want someone to post your work without crediting you, right? Right.

Besides, by tagging them in the image and the comments you make double-sure that you are doing your due diligence to make it easy for users to find them as the credit source AND you end up in that user’s tagged photos: win-win. Did you know you can now regram content from #Instagram to PLANOLY with a shareable link? Check out our blog on this new feature and learn how to add images to your PLANOLY grid so you can schedule + plan!

PLANOLY-Blog Post-Intagram Best Practices for Designers-Image 1

PLANOLY-Blog Post-Intagram Best Practices for Designers-Image 2

Don’t: Post and Ghost

What’s one of the best qualities of a friend? Consistency! The same is true for Instagram. Don’t get us wrong—we are totally behind needing time away from screens and taking a social media hiatus every now and again. However, when growing your personal brand or business it’s important to show up and engage with your following. This means being consistent with how often you post and interact with other users.

Posted a photo? Instead of posting and walking away, stick around to respond to comments or questions. This, along with interacting with the app more consistently, are helpful for your visibility. The algorithm (dun dun dun...!) uses interactions to determine what shows up in your feed the most so the more you are interacting with others (and vice versa) the more you’ll show up in each other’s feed.

Do: Be Thoughtful About Design or Tag Placement

Instagram is constantly rolling out new features that quickly changes the way things function—like where tags show up, how images crop in your grid, tap ahead and swipe away gestures on stories, etc. When designing, in or out of the app, be conscious of how these functions interact with your content. For example, the tag icon shows up on the bottom right corner of a photo, so you should make sure not to put your logo or other important text in that area (otherwise, it will be covered up by the icon until it disappears!).

If you’re adding content to your Instagram–like including an ‘@’ mention in your story–make sure to keep it large enough for users to tap and not too close to the right or left edge. Otherwise, they might not be able to follow the link and instead will be tapping to the previous or next story frame.

PLANOLY-Blog Post-Intagram Best Practices for Designers-Image 3

PLANOLY-Blog Post-Intagram Best Practices for Designers-Image 4

Don’t: Be Spammy

Yes, we did just mention consistency and showing up – but it’s a delicate dance. There’s a lot of imagery out there and you should never post to just post. Always remember quality over quantity!

Hashtags are a great way to engage with new audiences, participate in photo challenges, and get discovered by other followers, but too many are…well, too many. Yes, you should totally use hashtags but be discerning about which ones you use and don’t over do it. FYI: the limit on hashtags per comment on Instagram is 30, but it’s probably best to just choose a few!

Do: Be True to You

There’s room for everyone on the internet and that means there’s room for you too. Reposting and sharing inspiring content using a quality stock photo is a totally great way to lift up other creators and take a little stress off the need to constantly create newness, but the world also needs more voices like yours. Your point of view, your story, your unique take on something. Be you and don’t overthink it!

PIN THIS FOR LATER: