Instagram 101 for Artists: Mastering Your IG Organic Strategy
Contrary to TikTok's widespread popularity, a recent study showed that Instagram is the preferred social media platform for users aged 16 - 34, so having a strong Instagram strategy is crucial when looking to build a dedicated fanbase and establish your presence on the platform.
Your success on Instagram starts with mastering your positioning and this involves understanding how you differ from other artists.
Over the coming weeks, we will dive into the world of Instagram with our “Instagram 101” series. These blogs will provide a powerful tool to help you understand, strategise and learn the fundamentals on Instagram.
Starting with the most important - your organic content strategy. Let’s break this down into sections:
- Your IG artist profile
- Understanding Instagram and its algorithm
- Content
- Building a community
- Measuring success and analysing your performance
Your IG artist profile
When fans click into your profile, the first thing they will see is your profile picture and bio. Similar to TikTok, choose a clear, high-quality photo that represents you and your artistic style and your bio should briefly introduce who you are, what kind of art you create, and a smart link (linktree etc) which links to your other social and streaming channels and website.
Choosing an appropriate Instagram handle is important for several reasons.
- It represents your musical identity and helps fans find and remember you easily.
- A good handle improves your chances of being found through searches.
- Ideally, it should match your other social media accounts for a unified online presence.
- A catchy or unique handle is more likely to stick in people's minds.
Be sure to set up a creator account, as with business accounts sometimes you can’t use original sounds.
Once your profile is ready, it's crucial to know how Instagram’s Algorithm works to ensure your content has the best chance of reaching the right audience.
Understanding Instagram and its algorithms
Instagram is changing its algorithm, promising greater visibility and reach for smaller-scale creators. This shift emphasises original content, aiming to reduce the dominance of reposted or repurposed content in users' feeds and the Explore tab.
Your Feed
When it comes to the Feed, Instagram considers recent posts shared by your followers, as well as posts from accounts you don’t yet follow that they think may be of interest to its users.
User interests are based on who they have recently followed, liked or engaged with. The more likely a user is to take one of the above actions, the higher in the Feed they will see a relevant post.
Stories
The main factors that Instagram takes into account when classifying Stories are your view and engagement history. Based on these factors, Instagram tries to predict how likely you are to land on a Story, and ranks them in order of appearance.
Reels
Reels are made to help users discover new things, meaning most of what we see on Reels is accounts that you don’t follow. Instagram’s algorithm is to provide Reels that it thinks users might like and that might be of interest to them.
Now let’s discuss what content you should be posting to trigger these algorithms!
Content
Content of high quality performs best, so begin by taking the time to learn effective photography and videography techniques that will help you create content that gets noticed.
Also, the ideal number of posts per week on Instagram in 2024 is between 3-5 combined with 2 Stories daily. Keep this in mind when creating!
Content organisation
You want your profile to be appealing and represent your brand.
- Organise your Story Highlights into interesting categories
- Have a cohesive, well-branded grid aesthetic (colour that reflect your artist brand)
Take the following artists as examples.
Mysterious hip hop artist from Canada who features Toronto and dark tones and across his IG not showing his face that often. Yet his caption states " you ain't even know me"
Queenly, hyper-feminine look with vintage-inspired fashion.
An irreverent, anti-conformist aesthetic with DIY fits, campy humour, and enriching colour palettes associated with his Golf le Fleur brand.
An alternative indie artist whose Instagram presence showcases a raw, earthy aesthetic, aligning with her musical style and genre positioning.
- Next, pin up to three strategic posts to the top of your grid to highlight what you want new visitors to see or know most about you. This can be cool partnerships, press releases, headline gig announcements etc, but don’t make it all promotional.
For example, Sabrina Carpenter has pinned 2 snippets of her latest music videos “Please Please Please” and “Espresso” and the announcement of her latest album “Short n/ Sweet”.
Another example is Irish trio Kneecap, who have pinned their official movie trailer, a highlight of their USA tour being sold out and the announcement of their debut album “Fine Art”.
Once you start to understand your fans and what they like to see on your page, you should now focus on engaging with them and building up that loyalty to them.
To reach new audiences
- Post both Reels and Carousel content
- Collaborate via influencer marketing or partnering with other artists who have a similar audience to yours.
- Research and identify popular and relevant hashtags in order to avoid spamming your posts with irrelevant ones. You can approach this in several effective ways:
Look at successful artists in your genre and note the hashtags they use.
Platforms like Ocoya, RiteTag, Hashtagify, or Instagram's own search function can help identify popular and trending hashtags.
Use a mix of popular music-related hashtags and more specific ones related to your genre or style.
Pay attention to hashtags your fans are using when they post about your music.
Develop unique hashtags for your music and tours.
Track which hashtags give you the most engagement and refine your strategy accordingly.
Building a Community
Social media is a two way street, if you want something, you have to give it first. By actively participating in the Instagram community, you can build relationships, increase your visibility, and attract more followers.
You can do this by taking the time to engage with fans and artists within your community by liking and commenting on their posts, joining in on music conversations and trends and simply responding to comments and messages promptly.
Engaging with your community not only helps you build relationships, but it also increases the likelihood of others discovering your account and following you. For example, we have over 500 talented artists not only using our platform but building relationships with each other and sharing their music on our discord channel, so make sure to put yourself in similar spaces to be seen and hurd, and build up a community of likeminded people around you!
Remember, Instagram is a social platform, so make the most of it by being social!
Measuring success and analysing your performance
- Check likes and comments - more engagement usually means that piece of content is doing well.
- Look at video views
- Track profile visits
- If you have a link to your music in your bio, see how many people click it.
- Use Instagram Insights - this free tool shows you basic stats about your posts and followers.
- Pay attention to DMs - more messages could mean growing interest in your music.
To analyse performances, simply compare these numbers between different posts. Look for what type of content (photos, videos, music clips) gets the most attention, and try to do more of what works!
By following all the above steps, you should be on your way to finding your audience and growing your fanbase. Make the most of what Instagram has to offer! Remember, it's all about sharing your art, connecting with people, and having fun along the way. Our app provides tips and actionable tasks to help you stay on top of your organic growth. You can always shoot us an email or dm if you need support or advise!
By Emily Heffernan
