Instagram, the quintessential Silicon Valley fairytale, is celebrating its 10th birthday today (October 6). From its humble beginnings of a simple photo-sharing social media app with 25,000 users on its first day, it has become a one-billion user juggernaut changing everyday life, disrupting industries, sparking trends, and creating brands and influencers. This is the Instagram era and we even have our own mantra: ‘pics or it didn’t happen’. To mark the Instagram milestone, here are five quick tips from Team G on how to make best use of the social media giant today. #1 Flash the hashtag A basic but essential feature for brand awareness, campaign promotion, localisation, and scouting your competition. For one of our clients, around 10-20% of impressions are gained by effective use of hashtags. #2 Round-up carousels First introduced in 2015, these get a better engagement rate with users in comparison to single images. Including a video is even better – just keep it to 60 seconds. #3 Consider ‘user intent’ Many brands fall into the habit of only pushing sales-oriented material. While this works well for many platforms, Instagram’s audiences rarely respond well to overly-commercial posts. Think about why your target audiences use Instagram and create engaging content that compliments their intent. #4 Vertical limits If you’re recording a video then record it vertically (or portrait). This is in contrast to Twitter and Facebook where horizontal (or landscape) videos work best. #5 Add a link in bio Unlike Facebook, you can’t add clickable links to your posts. However, you can add a link in your bio and signpost your audience to it in your post. Apps like Linktree can also be integrated to help divert Instagram traffic to landing pages. See here to learn about our social media services.