Running a successful Instagram profile begins with detailed planning and choosing of a necessary strategy. It is not enough to create and post a beautiful picture – if you want to promote your brand effectively and to get real followers on Instagram, it is essential to know the preferences of your target audience and to create a detailed content-plan and a calendar of publications.

Regular posting is a way to success

When choosing the time to post on Instagram, pay attention to the following things:

● when is your target audience is online – you want to be sure that your post will be seen by as many people as possible;

● in which time and on which days your posts get more likes and comments – this will help you to define the general time of activity of your audience and to modify your content plan accordingly.

According to general statistics, the best time for sharing the Instagram photos is off-work hours during the day:

● morning (7-9 am) – most of Instagram audience love looking through their news feed when they have just woken up, during the breakfast or on their way on work. Therefore, the content posted at this time will attract the attention of your followers;

● lunch time (11am-1pm) – after having worked for a couple of hours your followers will have a lunch break and probably will spend some time looking through their Instagram news feed;

● evening (7-9 pm) – after finishing of the working day your audience are likely to check their Instagram on their way home.

● night (23pm-1am) – some people like checking their social networks before going to bed. Additionally, this is not quite popular time for posting, and your post will be more noticeable.

Generally, social media marketers avoid posting at of 3-5 pm since at this time the percentage of the engagement is the least. However, do not avoid experimenting! Who knows, maybe this time will be the most productive for your account and in this time you willget more likes on Instagram?

Do not overload your followers with information

Generally, the pick of engagement among the followers are Wednesdays and Thursdays, and you are welcome to post on Instagram the most important things on these days. On Sundays the Instagram followers are less active being busy with spending time with their families and rest – you can make a break or post something entertaining.

We have defined the most productive periods for posting, and the problem arises – where to get such amount of content? Generally, posting a photo does not take a lot of time, but many serious brands conduct blogs on Instagram and they need to create the necessary amount of written content in order to give their followers some useful tips.

Relax – it is not necessary to post serious articles 4 times a day. Moreover, this will not be useful for the engagement of the followers since they need time in order to study your useful information, and they will not be content if you overload them. Therefore, it is recommended to interchange the useful, entertaining and selling posts and to post them in some particular time.

Day & Night Content. Is There Any Difference?

Let's say that you have already found your best time for posting on Instagram. Highly likely, you have chosen two intervals of time throughout the day: morning hours and late evening. What posts are more suitable for day and what for the night? Whether it has the sense to allocate two types of content? Now we will figure it out together.

In the morning, when people wake up and have breakfast, their mood is quite different than in evening after work. The main goal of a morning post is to greet followers and motivate them to have a highly productive and spectacular day. The purposes of evening posts are almost opposite: you wish people good night and offer them something discreet. That's why it's important to follow simple rules:

● Colors:
Day Posts
Bright and light. There might be a lot of colors in a day pic
Night Posts
Soft tones, probably darkened. A pic should look unobtrusively.

● Content:
Day Posts
Contain call-to-actions, dynamic plot or encourage a customer to buy something or participate in a daily contest.
Night Posts
May include a presentation of a new product or some facts about the company. The night is not the right time to call people to buy. A customer is not ready to take actions right now.

● Caption example:
Day Posts
“Hi everybody! Today we offer a 20% discount on a product X. Grab your chance before the day's out. We are waiting for you in DM.”
Night Posts
“Did you know that our product X can …? Read about 5 little-known facts in our blog” (+ a link to the blog article).

The examples of day & night posts:

Conclusion