Whether you're an individual looking to build a personal brand or a business aiming to reach new customers with your social media marketing, TikTok offers an unparalleled opportunity for growth. Its algorithm is designed to give even the smallest accounts a chance at viral fame, making it a democratic platform for those looking to make an impact.

While a large number of followers doesn’t equate with success as a creator, a follower count is a currency and can determine many things, like how much you can charge for brand deals and the TikTok audience you can reach.

In this article, we'll provide actionable tips and strategies to help you grow your TikTok following. So whether you're a TikTok newbie or looking to take your account to the next level, read on for insights to help you achieve your TikTok goals and reach potential followers.

Why follower growth on TikTok is important

While it's not everything, a strong following on TikTok opens up more opportunities for creators looking to grow on the platform.

Thankfully, it's achievable thanks to TikTok's unique algorithm that levels the playing field, allowing even small accounts the potential to go viral.

Here’s why growing your TikTok followers is essential:

1. Increased visibility and reach: With a larger follower base, your content is more likely to be shared and recommended by TikTok’s algorithm, reaching a broader audience. This visibility is vital for brand recognition and expanding your influence.
2. Enhanced credibility and authority: A significant follower count can enhance your credibility. It signals to new viewers that your content is valuable and worth following, helping you establish authority in your niche.
3. Monetization opportunities: Follower count directly impacts your earning potential on TikTok. Brands are more likely to collaborate with influencers who have a substantial following, as it guarantees a wider reach for their products or services. Higher follower counts can lead to lucrative sponsorships, brand deals, and other monetization opportunities.
4. Community building: Growing your followers helps in building a loyal community. Engaged followers are more likely to interact with your content, provide feedback, and become advocates for your brand. This community can be a valuable asset for sustained growth and support.
5. Data and insights: A larger following provides more comprehensive analytics. Analyzing your audience’s demographics, behaviors, and preferences can help tailor your content strategy more effectively, ensuring higher engagement and growth.
6. Competitive edge: In the competitive world of social media, having a substantial follower base gives you an edge over others in your field. It can open doors to exclusive events, collaborations, and opportunities that smaller accounts might not access.

Finally, a large following on TikTok can boost your presence on other social media platforms. Cross-promotion becomes more effective, allowing you to grow your audience across different channels and solidify your online presence.

1. Know your target audience and create for them

TikTok is a melting pot of cultures, age groups, and interests, with over a billion active users. From Gen Z to Baby Boomers, the platform has something for everyone. But if you're looking to grow your followers, it's crucial to understand who you're creating content for.

Creating generic content and hoping it sticks is like throwing spaghetti at the wall. Knowing your audience allows you to make your content more engaging.

• Start by diving into your TikTok analytics. Look for patterns in the age, gender, and location of your followers. Are they mostly teenagers interested in fashion? Are they millennials who love travel? Once you've identified your audience, think about what they would like to see and how they would like to be engaged.
• Create content that speaks to them. Once you know your audience, the next step is identifying your niche. For example, if your followers are into fitness, a video about your workout routine would be more impactful than a random dance video. Always ask yourself, "Would my target audience find this valuable or entertaining?"
• Don't be afraid to experiment. Test different types of content to determine what gets more engagement; this is a strategy many TikTok influencers have succeeded with. For instance, if you're unsure whether your audience prefers comedy skits or how-to videos, try posting both and see which one gets more likes, shares, and comments.

Knowing your target audience is not just a one-time activity – it's an ongoing process. People's preferences change, and the TikTok algorithm evolves. Keep an eye on your analytics, listen to your audience, and be ready to pivot your content strategy when needed.

2. Watch and participate in trends

Trends are the lifeblood of TikTok – they come and go like the tide, but when they're in, they're in. Participating in trending challenges or using trending sounds can catapult your video onto the For You page (FYP), TikTok's main feed and recommendation algorithm, exponentially increasing your reach.

TikTok trends are more than just viral moments; they're opportunities to showcase your creativity, reach a wider audience, and even go viral. But remember, trends are time-sensitive. The earlier you jump in, the better.

Keeping an eye on the FYP is a good start, but don't stop there. Follow popular creators and influencers, check out trending hashtags in your niche, and pay attention to the sounds that are being used repeatedly.

Not every trend will align with your brand or interests, and that's okay. The key is to adapt trends to fit naturally with your content. For example, if you're a fitness influencer, you could turn a popular dance trend into a workout routine.

While it's tempting to jump on every trend, it's important to maintain your brand's authenticity. Ask yourself, "Does participating in this trend align with my brand's values and aesthetics?" If the answer is yes, go for it. If not, it might be best to sit this one out.

Trends are a double-edged sword. There's always a chance your take on a trend could flop or, worse, backfire. However, the potential rewards – increased visibility, more followers, and higher engagement – often outweigh the risks.

The key is to use them wisely – participate only if they’re relevant to your content. Keep your finger on the pulse of what's trending, but never lose sight of who you are and what your brand stands for.

3. Cross-promote with other TikTok creators

Collaborating and cross-promoting with other creators can introduce your content to a new audience, doubling your reach with a single video. But it's not just about the numbers – it's about community building and creative exchange.

TikTok offers unique features like duets and stitches that make collaboration easy and fun. A duet allows you to create a side-by-side video with another creator, while a stitch lets you clip and integrate scenes from someone else's video into your own. These features offer a seamless way to engage with other creators and their audiences.

Not all collaborations are made equal. Partnering with influencers or creators who share your target audience and values is important. Do your research, check their engagement rates, and reach out with a well-thought-out proposal. Some other dos and don'ts of collaboration include:

• Do have a clear agreement on the content and message of the collaboration.
• Don't collaborate with someone whose brand conflicts with yours.
• Do give credit where credit is due.
• Don't force a collaboration; it should feel natural and authentic to both parties

A successful collaboration can be the start of an ongoing relationship. Consider creating a content series or challenge together or cross-promoting each other's merchandise or upcoming events. Cross-promotion is a win-win situation when done right. It can help you break out of your follower bubble, enrich your content, and even lead to incredible friendships. So go ahead and reach out to that creator you admire – you never know where it might lead.

4. Start a content series

While one-off videos can be fun and engaging, there's something to be said for the long game. Starting a content series on TikTok can offer a sense of continuity that keeps your audience returning for more. It's storytelling at its finest, a strategy that can pay off in spades.

A content series is a popular format on social media platforms and is essentially a string of interconnected videos that revolve around a central theme or narrative. It could be as simple as a "Tip of the Day" series or as complex as a serialized story. The key is consistency in the theme, tone, and posting schedule of your content.

Steps to creating a winning content series

1. Define your plan: The first step in creating a content series is planning. What's the overarching theme? How many videos will it include? What's the call to action? Sketch out a rough outline and start filling in the details. Remember, the content should be engaging and intriguing enough to make viewers want to see the next installment.
2. Figure out the hook: Every good series has a hook or a reason for viewers to tune in to the next episode. This could be a cliffhanger, a question left unanswered, or a challenge posed to the audience. Use this hook to keep viewers engaged and coming back for more.
3. Post consistently: Once you've started your series, stick to a consistent posting schedule. Whether daily, weekly, or bi-weekly, consistency helps build anticipation and keeps your audience engaged.
4. Don't be afraid to pivot if something isn't working: Use audience feedback and analytics to make data-driven decisions. Maybe your series needs a new angle, or perhaps it's time to wrap it up and start something new. Be flexible and willing to adapt.

Starting a content series is a commitment, but it's one that can offer significant rewards. It can help you build a loyal following, boost engagement, and provide a structured framework that makes content creation a breeze. So go ahead, start that series, and take your TikTok game to the next level.

5. Use hashtags and create captions related to your niche and audience

Hashtags aren't just a trendy add-on – they're a powerful tool for discoverability on TikTok. Using the right hashtags makes it easier for your target audience to find your content, thereby increasing your chances of gaining new followers and boosting engagement.

Selecting the right hashtags is a balancing act. The recommended number of hashtags is three to five hashtags per post. You'll want to include a mix of general, niche-specific, and trending hashtags. General (but relevant) hashtags cast a wide net, niche-specific ones attract a targeted audience, and trending hashtags can give you a shot at viral fame.

In addition, if you've built a significant following or want to establish stronger brand awareness, consider creating a branded hashtag. This can serve as a rallying point for your community and make tracking user-generated content related to your brand easier.

Some tips for using TikTok hashtags include:

• Use relevant hashtags that align with your content. Check TikTok’s Creative Center for potential hashtags to use in your content.
• Keep an eye on trending hashtags and participate when relevant.
• Don't spam your captions with irrelevant or overly general hashtags.
• Don't use the same set of hashtags for every video – mix it up for different kinds of content and to reach different audiences.

Hashtags and captions are more than just afterthoughts on any social media platform and they're integral to your TikTok strategy. You can significantly boost your reach, engagement, and follower growth by being thoughtful and strategic in using hashtags and captions. So go ahead, hashtag away, but do it wisely.

6. Add closed captions to your videos

Closed captions might seem like a small detail, but they can make a world of difference in how your TikTok videos are received. Not only do they make your content more accessible to the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, but they also offer SEO benefits and can increase viewer engagement.

More than 1.5 billion people worldwide are currently affected by hearing loss in at least one ear, and about 430 million people worldwide require rehabilitation for disabling hearing loss. Adding closed captions to your videos helps make your content accessible to a broader audience.

TikTok's algorithm is a bit of a mystery, but what we do know is that it values engagement. Closed captions can increase the time people spend watching your video, which in turn can boost its visibility on the platform. Plus, captions make your content more searchable, boosting your TikTok SEO.

Adding closed captions to your TikTok videos is straightforward. You can either manually type them in as you edit your video or use third-party apps that generate captions for you. The key is to ensure they're accurate and sync well with the video.

Tips for effective closed captioning on TikTok

• Keep it short and sweet: TikTok videos are short, so your captions should be too. Aim for concise, clear language.
• Timing is everything: Make sure your captions are well-timed to match the video's audio or action.
• Be mindful of readability: Use a font and background that make the text easy to read. Avoid fancy fonts or colors that clash with the video.

Adding closed captions to your TikTok videos is a small effort that can yield big results. It enhances accessibility, boosts engagement, and even improves your video's discoverability. So the next time you post a video, don't forget the captions—it's a win-win for everyone involved.

7. Publish your videos at the right times

You've worked to create a great TikTok video, but when should you hit that "Post" button? Believe it or not, timing can be a crucial factor in how well your video performs. Publishing your TikToks at the right times can help your video reach a wider audience and increase its chances of going viral.

To maximize your video's reach, aim to post during the hours when your target audience is most active on TikTok. This usually means between four and five PM mid-week, but it can vary depending on your specific audience demographics.

If you have a global following, time zones can complicate things. You might need to experiment with posting at different times to see when you get the best engagement. Some creators even repost videos at different times to reach audiences in various time zones.

While the TikTok algorithm is not fully understood, it's believed that videos that get quick engagement are more likely to be pushed to a broader audience. Posting when your followers are most active can give your video the initial boost it needs.

How to find your ideal posting time

• Analyze past performance: Look at your TikTok analytics to see when your past videos have received the most engagement.
• Conduct A/B tests: Experiment by posting similar videos at different times and days to see which performs better.
• Monitor real-time analytics: After posting, keep an eye on how quickly your video gains views and engagement. This can offer immediate insights into whether you've hit a sweet spot.
• Consistency over perfection: While timing is important, consistency is key. If you can't always post at the ideal time, don't sweat it. What's more important is maintaining a consistent posting schedule that your audience can rely on.

Publishing your videos at the right times can give them the extra push they need to reach a wider audience and rack up those views. It's a simple yet effective strategy that can make a significant difference in your TikTok success. So go ahead, set that alarm, and get ready to hit "Post" when the time is just right.

8. Play around with the length of your videos

TikTok allows videos ranging from 15 seconds to 3 minutes, but what's the ideal length for your content? While shorter videos are more consumable, longer, videos provide the space to delve deeper into a topic. The trick is to find the sweet spot that works for you and your audience.

Short, 15 to 30-second videos are the bread and butter of TikTok. They're quick to watch, easy to engage with, and perfect for simple, catchy content. If you want to capture attention fast or if you are a beginner, this is your go-to format.

TikTok's 3 to 10-minute video options allow you to explore topics more deeply. This format is ideal for tutorials, storytelling, or any content that requires more time to unfold. However, longer videos demand stronger storytelling skills to keep viewers engaged.

Sometimes, 15 seconds is too short, and 10 minutes is too long. Videos that fall in the 30- to 60-second range offer a happy medium. They're long enough to convey a complete thought but short enough to keep the viewer's attention.

Don't be afraid to mix it up. Experiment with different video lengths to see what resonates most with your audience. Use TikTok analytics to track metrics like watch time and engagement rates for videos of varying lengths.

Tips for effective video lengths

• Start strong: Regardless of length, your video should grab the viewer's attention in the first few seconds.
• Pacing is key: Make sure the content flows naturally and keeps the viewer engaged throughout.
• End with a bang: Conclude with a strong call-to-action or a memorable moment encouraging likes, shares, or follows.

The length of your TikTok videos isn't a one-size-fits-all scenario. It's an element you should tailor to your content type, audience preferences, and the message you're trying to convey. By playing around with different video lengths and analyzing the results, you can optimize your content for maximum impact.

9. Use trending music and sounds

One of the unique features of TikTok is its extensive library of music and sounds that creators can use. Using trending music and sounds can not only make your videos more engaging but also increase their chances of going viral.

Trending music often comes with its own set of trending challenges or dances. By using a popular track, you're essentially hopping on a trend that already has a built-in audience and increasing your video's visibility.

TikTok's algorithm tends to favor videos that use trending music. This is because these videos are more likely to be engaged with, shared, and saved, all of which the algorithm considers metrics when deciding what to show on the 'For You' page.

How to find trending songs and sounds

• Explore the 'For You' page: This is where you'll find videos that are currently trending, complete with the music they use.
• Use TikTok's music discovery feature: This tool within the app helps you find popular tracks in different genres.
• Follow popular creators and influencers: Keep an eye on what music popular TikTokers are using; chances are, those tracks are trending.

Tips for using music effectively

• Match the mood: The music should complement the content of your video. A mismatch between music and what people expect from your original content or tiktok profile can be jarring and reduce engagement.
• Volume control: Make sure the music doesn't overpower your voice if you're speaking in the video.
• Legal considerations: Always consider and respect copyright laws. TikTok's library is generally safe to use, but if you're sourcing music externally, make sure you have the rights to use it.

Music and sound are more than just an auditory experience on TikTok; they're a strategic tool that can significantly impact your video's performance. By tapping into trending music and sounds instead of posting original sounds, you're giving your content a leg up in the TikTok algorithm and increasing its potential reach and engagement.

10. Share user-generated content to your TikTok account

User-generated content (UGC) is a goldmine for content creators looking to build a more engaged and loyal community. It adds a layer of authenticity to your TikTok account and encourages more interaction from your audience.

When you share content created by your followers or other TikTok users, you give them a shoutout. This can increase engagement, as people are likelier to interact with a creator who appreciates and highlights their community. If someone has said something positive about your brand or content, why not share it?

However, before you use anyone’s content, make sure to always get consent from and give credit to the original creator. You should also prioritize quality over quantity – choose UGC that aligns with your brand and content quality standards. Additionally,

• Make sure your shared UGC fits seamlessly with your existing content strategy.
• Use UGC as an opportunity to engage with your community. Ask questions, seek opinions, and encourage more users to share their content with you.
• Monitor metrics like engagement and follower growth to gauge the effectiveness of sharing UGC.

Sharing user-generated content is not just a strategy – it's a way to build a community around your TikTok presence. It adds a layer of authenticity and engagement that can set you apart from other creators. So go ahead, start sharing, and start engaging!

11. Cross-post your videos to other social media platforms

Creating engaging content takes time and effort, so why limit its reach to just one platform? Cross-posting your TikTok videos to other social media platforms that prioritize short-form videos, like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, can maximize your content's exposure and draw a broader audience.

Different platforms have different user demographics, and you tap into multiple audiences by cross-posting. Besides, you've already worked to create a great TikTok video – sharing it on other platforms is a quick way to get more mileage out of your original content. More engagement across different social media platforms can signal to algorithms that your content is worth promoting, increasing its visibility.

Remember that each platform has its own set of guidelines and best practices that decide what might be a popular video. Make sure to adapt your video accordingly. Consider the peak activity times for each platform to maximize engagement and customize platform-specific features like hashtags and captions to fit each platform.

In addition to Reels and Shorts, you should consider cross-sharing on Twitter and LinkedIn. While not designed for short-form video, these platforms can still be useful for sharing standout TikTok content.

Cross-posting is more than just a time-saver; it's a strategy to amplify your content's reach and impact. By sharing your TikTok videos on other platforms, you're not just recycling content; you're repurposing it for broader success.

Improve your TikTok growth with Buffer

As you implement these strategies, remember that what gets measured gets managed. TikTok offers a range of analytics tools that can help you track your growth, engagement rates, and the effectiveness of your content. Regularly monitoring these metrics will show you what's working and provide insights into improvement areas.

Finally, don’t give in to the temptation to buy TikTok followers – it’ll only hurt your account in the long run. Growing your TikTok following is not an overnight endeavor, but with high-quality content, consistent effort, and a strategic approach, you’re more likely to see significant growth. So go ahead, roll up your sleeves, and dive into the TikTok universe. Your future followers are waiting!

In this article, we’ll share exactly how to repost on Instagram.

One of the best aspects of social media is being able to share something with your followers, but other social media platforms make reposting a bit easier.

On Twitter, you can retweet. On Facebook, there’s the option to share a post. And on Instagram, you can repost, which is essentially a way to share a picture from another Instagram user with your followers.

Though reposting isn’t an official feature of Instagram’s apps or website, it’s something that many brands and users have been doing for a while now. And it’s a tactic that has delivered great success, too. Here at Buffer, reposting user-generated content was a key factor in our growing our Instagram audience by over 400%.

Learning how to repost on Instagram is the key to taking your marketing strategy on the photo-sharing platform to the next level. We’d love to help get you started! Keep reading for advice and tips on the best ways to add reposting to your social strategy and the ideal workflows for doing it quickly and efficiently.

How to Repost on Instagram

First things first, before you repost…

With other social networks, reposting is a native feature that comes baked into the product experience and expectations. On Instagram, since this isn’t a native part of the app, there needs to be an additional step:

Before you repost, it is best to get permission from the original poster so that you can repost their work with credit.

You can do this in a few ways:

• Send the original poster a direct message on Instagram.
• Comment on their photo to start the conversation.
• Connect via email to iron out the details and get explicit permission.

Reposting has been around as a strategy on Instagram for quite some time, long before tools like Buffer for Instagram came around. Third-party apps allowed for particular repost functions, often including watermarks or @-mention credits on the reposted photo. The absolute simplest way, though, was with a screengrab of the original post — a process that can still be replicated today.

Here’s how to manually repost photos in four easy steps:

1. Screenshot a photo

Open Instagram, find the photo you’d like to repost with your audience and take a screenshot of it.

2. Upload your screenshot to Instagram

Once you have the Instagram photo saved to your camera roll, tap on the plus-sign icon within Instagram, hit post, and select your screenshot as you would any other image you want to share on Instagram.

3. Resize the image

Next, you’ll want to resize your post so that only the image remains. You can do this using the resize functionality within Instagram, or if you’d like to crop before you upload the photo, this can also be done using your phone’s photo editing functionality.

4. Add a caption

Be sure to credit the original source of the image within your caption and tag their account using their Instagram handle (@buffer, for example).

Third-party apps for reposting to Instagram

There are also third-party apps available in the app store that allow you to repost photos and Reels directly inside of Instagram. Here are a few you can try.

Repost+ for Instagram

Available on iOS and Android.

Repost: For Posts, Stories

Available on iOS.

Repost for Instagram - JaredCo

Available for Android.

How to repost to your Instagram Story

You can also repost someone else’s original content to your Instagram Story. You’ll need to be on the app to do this, but the process is the same from Android to iPhone. To repost content to your story, follow these steps:

1. Tap on the paper airplane icon on the post or Reel you want to share.
2. Tap on the option to add this to your story.
3. Customize your post with GIFs, stickers, text, and caption options in the top-right corner.
4. Tap the arrow in the bottom-right corner, and make sure “add post to your story” is selected,
5. Select whether you want to share it to your story or close friends, and then click the arrow to post.

Keep in mind that this won’t work with a private account or with ads; only those set to public will let you share their content on your own account.

Why reposting can be important for brands

Instagram has become an incredibly important network for brands. In fact, 48.8% of brands are on Instagram.

Instagram is used by more than 200 million businesses and 2.75 billion monthly users.

Instagram offers a prime opportunity to engage with your customers. Your audience is there, ready, and expecting to interact with you. The vast majority of people — 90%, in fact — follow at least one brand on Instagram. One in two people have discovered new brands using the platform, and 63% of people say they’ve formed meaningful connections with companies using Instagram. And with social commerce on the scene, 44% of users said they use Instagram to shop on a weekly basis.

But how does reposting come into play here?

People tend to trust user-generated content (aka UGC) more than they trust branded posts. Consumers are twice as likely to see user-generated content as authentic — and that authenticity directly influences their purchasing decisions.

How we use reposting at Buffer
Here at Buffer, we’ve also made reposting a key part of our Instagram strategy and this tactic has helped us to significantly grow our account. In under 3 months after implementing a user generated content campaign on Instagram, our account grew by 60%  – 5,850 to 9,400 followers and counting.

How reposting can fit into your Instagram strategy

Here are three ways to make reposting a part of your strategy.

1. Share UGC from events and milestones

Live events, meetups, and talks are great times to create and curate content. If you’re running your own event, or maybe a member of your team is giving a talk at a conference, this is a golden opportunity to repost some content on Instagram.

Addressing big milestones or celebrating key moments can also be a great strategy to inspire your followers to share some user-generated content.

Coachella sometimes features UGC to generate hype for their music-loving fans. For instance, they shared an incredibly creative video from artist Rudy Willingham that showcases headlining performer Harry Styles:

2. Monitor brand mentions, tags, and hashtags

Your Instagram notifications can also be a great source of user-generated content. Keep an eye out for any new mentions and tags, as these can be great sources of content for your own Instagram feed.

Airbnb features guest photos (and tags rental listings) in their feed, sometimes drawing from their #airbnbsuperhost community for content.

This approach from Airbnb serves two needs: they get compelling visuals to share with their audience, and they promote the properties that support their bottom line.

3. Acknowledge and share content from community members

People enjoy being acknowledged for their content and efforts on social media. And sometimes, reaching out and asking to share some fan’s content on your brand’s profile can be a great way to acknowledge their work and discover new brand ambassadors.

Etsy puts their community of makers front and center on their feed, showcasing the products available on their wide-ranging shopping platform. They also created an elegant way to secure permission to repost: they ask people to respond to requests with the custom hashtag #YesEtsy if they’re comfortable with the reshare.

Etsy is built on a community of makers, so showcasing their creativity and craftsmanship helps them feel supported while getting customers excited to purchase their products.

Discover more about how we use reposting and UGC as part of our Instagram strategy here at Buffer:

How to decide what you should repost on Instagram

Cool, so you’re ready to repost some content on Instagram, but which photos should you share?

It’s important to ensure you have a strategy in place when it comes to reposting and also an idea of how the content you repost fits into your wider Instagram strategy. There are a few factors to think about before you hit “share post.”

Composition

Composition refers to the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art as distinct from the subject of a work. A good composition makes an image pleasing to look at and will draw in more viewers. The rule of thirds is a great starting point for a well-composed image: if you imagine a grid of nine equal zones, the subject of the photo should be in the right or left third of the grid (or the top or bottom if it’s a vertical shot).

This fan image of a Getaway House rental cabin is a striking example of the rule of thirds at work.

When it comes to sharing images from other Instagram accounts, think about your brand’s style of composition and whether each image fits in here. For example, if all of your images feature a solid background, it might not fit in with your visual style to repost an image with a textured background.

Color palette

Many brands use a set color palette or aesthetic on Instagram, and moving away from your brand style may make your reposted content feel a little out of place. For example, Everlane tends to use a soft palette made up mostly of neutrals with the occasional pop of bright color:

If Everlane were to repost an image with a busy, saturated color scheme, it wouldn’t feel aligned with their brand.

Content

This is probably the most important factor of any reposting strategy. Before sharing a photo, think about whether the content is aligned with your brand. For example, at Buffer, our Instagram content focuses on three main themes:

1. Social media strategies
2. Small business advice
3. Remote work

Before reposting anything, we’ll ensure that the photo aligns with one of these three themes and helps us execute our strategy.

3 reposting best practices

1. Be thoughtful when you ask for permission to repost

Once you’ve discovered a photo you’d like to share, we’ve found that it’s best to send a thoughtful message in your outreach. Include a kind word about why you liked the original post, and tell the poster why you’d like to share their photo. If you have any terms and conditions before you offer attribution, give the original poster a link to review them. Finally, give them directions on how they can respond if they’re on board with a repost: These could be as simple as “Respond with ‘yes’ if you’re interested” or could include a custom tag that you’ve developed specifically for this purpose.

2. Avoid edits

If you’ve picked out a photo you’d love to repost, it’s a best practice to share it untouched and unedited. If you do want to add something to the post, reposting it to your story will preserve the original while giving you a chance to include commentary, stickers, etc. Ninety-nine percent of the time, you’ll be able to go ahead and publish without any changes, but for those rare occasions where a slight edit may be needed, reach out to the original creator and ask before publishing an edited image.

3. Credit your source

This one is super important. If you choose to repost someone’s photo, ensure you give credit in your post. The best way to credit someone is to include their username within your caption.

Instagram captions become truncated with an ellipsis after three lines of text, so, where possible, try to include the credit within those first three lines so it’s visible.

Here are a few ways you can give credit within your photo caption:

• Credit: @username
• Photo credit: @username
• Moment captured by @username
• 📸 by @username
• Thanks to @username for sharing this image with us

7 Inspiring examples of reposting done right

Which brands have top-notch UGC?

1. GoPro

GoPro is built on user-generated content. Their Instagram feed regularly features content from members of their community and showcases the amazing images you can capture using a GoPro camera. They also host challenges where their followers submit photos for a chance at an award.

2. Bēhance

Bēhance from Adobe uses Instagram to showcase illustrators and graphic designers who use their platform. They spotlight artists and feature guest curators while including links to their work, which gives their feed the feel of an inclusive museum.

Bēhance runs a social platform for artists where they can share their projects, connect with peers and potential clients, and even live stream their creative processes. Reposts go one step further in promoting their users and likely drum up interest for creatives who haven’t signed up yet.

3. Quince

Quince reposts examples of customers wearing their clothing or using home goods out in the wild — while keeping a tight focus on their minimalist vibe. For example, here’s a cozy photo of their linen bedding that was originally shared by a customer:

These kinds of posts from users give Quince’s products a much more accessible feel — it doesn’t take an expert to re-create their looks in your own home or wardrobe.

4. Poler

Poler produces outdoor adventure and camping accessories and clothing. They share UGC on Instagram to showcase products being used by customers.

Poler’s products are designed for the outdoors, not for staged or stuffy photoshoots. User posts show off how their products work in an authentic setting — and that’s much more compelling for their audience.

5. The Design Tip

The Design Tip is a must-follow account for anyone in the design space or anyone with a desire to learn a little about design. Every day, the account features work submitted by their community of followers, such as this piece by Scott Martin (aka Burnt Toast) that asks you to fill in the blank:

By exclusively sharing user content, the Design Tip can maintain a rigorous posting schedule and keep engagement high without having to spend time and resources creating fresh, original content.

6. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is incredibly welcoming, and their brand personality carries over into the content they repost on Instagram. They regularly feature posts from partner companies in their story to showcase how businesses use their email tool

This doesn’t just promote Mailchimp’s partners; it gives their audience valuable tips and creative ideas on how to use their software.

7. WeWork

WeWork uses Instagram to showcase their co-working spaces and the amazing people and companies who are a part of their community. WeWork often shares photos of their spaces that are shared by community members. For example, this post featuring a member with her dog was originally shared by the member herself:

WeWork’s spaces are designed to be modern and inviting, so they look great in customer photos. Sharing UGC of their workspaces lets their audience imagine themselves at WeWork.

Reshare Instagram posts as part of your brand strategy

Repost UGC to elevate your brand on Instagram.

Reposting the right way can expand your reach, turn your followers into ambassadors, and boost trust among your customers. Be strategic when you’re picking user-generated content to share, and look for posts that match your goals for social.

If you’re trying to increase brand awareness, for instance, focus on posts from users with a large number of engaged followers. If you’re hoping to create an engaged community, create branded hashtags or contests where users can submit posts for you to share. And always make sure your reposts reinforce your brand’s look, feel, and tone.

Remember you can use Buffer for free to stay on top of all of your Instagram and social media needs! ➡️

A single word or phrase can change the trajectory of your social media posts’ performance. Power words can increase your conversions, engagement, and click-through rates.

They aren’t magic pills, but they can convert the same-old social media copy to strong, sticky, and persuasive posts.

In this article, I’ll explain how power words work and how you can sprinkle them in your social media content. I’ve also created and categorized a list of 150+ power words you can use.

What are power words?

Power words are words or phrases that evoke an emotional response in your audience. They make your copywriting more compelling and help in holding the reader’s attention.

Knowingly or unknowingly, you’ve seen and been affected by power words. They’re like water, adaptable to every vessel:

• content marketing (blog headlines, sales pages, newsletter homepage, webinars)
• e-commerce (product descriptions, sale announcement popups, landing pages)
• email marketing (in email subject lines to improve open rates)

…And so much more.

In this article, we’ll tackle how to use power words within the realm of social media.

How do power words work?

Power words are words or phrases designed to grab the reader’s attention. Despite being a few syllables, they can make a huge difference in your content performance. Most power words play on the psychology of the human brain — that’s why power words are mostly words or phrases that would make your target audience pause and take notice.

But it’s important to remember that power words aren’t the be-all-end-all to get more engagement or clicks. They work in tandem with your expertise, consistency, content quality, and social media algorithms. It’s not enough to use power words if your goal is to get more eyeballs on your content. Power words are just one part of the whole strategy.

Think of power words as an accessory. Just like a belt can add an extra oomph to a great outfit, power words can push your high-quality content to get more engagement. They aren’t a secret miracle cure, but they’re tiny, helpful nudges.

How to incorporate power words in your social media content?

Where do you use power words on social media sites?

The most important place to use power words is in your hooks — whether they’re visual or in the caption. For example, you can use power words in your Instagram caption (the obvious choice), but you can also use them in the transcript of your videos to instantly grab the attention of your target audience.

Apart from hooks, you can sprinkle power words wherever they fit organically. They perk up your audience’s ears, so don’t be afraid to use them generously.

The only caution you should exercise is not stuffing power words in your social media content just because they’re effective. The power of power words relies on their organic fitting — no one should be able to point and say, “oh they’ve used a power word” (unless they’re a copywriter). Power words should fit like a glove wherever they’re placed — unnoticeable and natural.

Plus: Today’s audience is well-versed in PR speak. If you use a ton of power words where they clearly don’t belong, your followers will be able to spot it in a jiffy. And it’ll come across as spammy and untrustworthy.

Not to mention, using too many power words might cause you to overpromise and under-deliver. You want to do the opposite to keep your audience delighted.

If you’re planning to use power words in your social media marketing strategy:

1. First, write a rough draft of your social media copy (the caption and the video/carousel transcript)

2. Then, edit it and monitor where you can use some of the power words or power phrases from the list of power words below

3. Double-check if the power words you’ve mentioned fit naturally and don’t feel forced or salesy

After some practice, it’s likely that using power words will become an unconscious habit. That’s great! But always ensure that you aren’t using power words as clickbait. That can cause you to lose the trust of your audience, and despite its short-term rewards, it can have negative long-term consequences.

Below, I’ve split the 150+ power words into various categories depending on your social media content’s goals. Skip to the most relevant section for you and see the examples of how to use them to ensure you’re using the power words in the right context.

18 power words for when you’re providing customer service on social media

Using social media for customer service is now as commonplace as using Maps on your phone instead of a physical map. While you respond to customer queries, it’s important to disperse power words relevant to customer service to satisfy your customers.

Remember that customers might not always tag you in the queries or complaints they share. Use social listening to stay on top of all customer mentions of your brand on social media.

Psychology principle(s) at play

Customer service power words often play at the reciprocity principle. When you do something kind for your buyers (like helping them politely), they feel compelled to return the favor — maybe by giving you a five-star rating or purchasing from you.

Example

Telecom company Jiocare responded to a customer query using multiple power words in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Many companies also often use the “apologize” power word — synonym of “sorry” — at the beginning of a customer conversation.

19 power words for leveraging the curiosity gap

The curiosity gap is when you give a sneak peek to your audience on the hook so that they stay for more. Curiosity power words tweak your boring marketing copy to be more interesting. Use the following curiosity power words to turbocharge your copy.

Psychology principle(s) at play

Curiosity gap is a psychological hack in itself. People itch to close the gap between information given and information withheld. Social media posts leveraging the curiosity gap will earn more clicks because your audience would want to know more.

Example

A great example of curiosity gap is an Instagram Reel by French creator and biochemist, Jessie Inchauspé on why she doesn’t drink juice.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jessie Inchauspé (@glucosegoddess)

The above post uses “controversial” as the power word, but her statement stands on its own, too. It’s a great example of how you don’t always need power words to follow the principle that power words stand on. “Why I don’t drink juice” would immediately entice a question, “What? Why? I thought it’s good for us!” from the audience — a classic example of curiosity gap in action.

34 power words for stopping the scroll

Stopping the scroll is the most essential aspect of social media. People have millions of posts on their feeds, and the only way to get some eyeballs to your content is to stop the scroll.

The crucial aspect of using these types of power words is to avoid using misleading headings that don’t quench the curiosity of your potential customers.

Psychology principle(s) at play

Many stop-the-scroll power words use the curiosity gap to entice your audience to click. For example, writing “what no one tells you” makes your followers tingle to know more.

Other power words in this category also rely on negativity bias — negative information is more likely to catch people’s attention than positive information. So, when you use words like, “you’re vulnerable to ABC,” your audience immediately pauses and checks what you’re talking about.

Lastly, some scroll-stopping power words use the mere urgency effect and the scarcity principle. Your audience is more tempted to act quickly when there’s a time limit. For example, saying “sale only for 24 hours” makes your audience act fast because there’s a deadline they don’t want to miss. 

Example

Clothing brand — Pink Lily — used a couple of power words (“limited edition,” “hurry,” and “selling out fast”) from this category to announce their latest product collection in collaboration with an influencer.

You’ll see the best performance in this category of power words is when you’re running a sale, offering a free product, or have a limited time deal. Since these actions require immediate action, they’re likely to get high engagement.

43 power words for emotional resonance

Emotional power words encompass lust power words, greed power words, and fear power words. Anything that strikes an emotional chord with your target audience is bound to create a powerful effect.

But emotional power words (especially greed power words and fear power words) can often come across as negative or salesy. It’s critical to maintain a balance and use them in the right context — to help your audience, not use their emotions against them. If you choose the clickbaity route, you won’t build trust with your followers.

Psychology principle(s) at play

Emotional power words primarily work because humans love stories. Since these words often call you to share a personal story about yourself, people get intrigued and want to learn more.

Some emotional power words also play on regret aversion and loss aversion: People want to avoid having regrets in the future. If you use emotional words like “regret” or “mistake,” your followers will engage because they want to avoid errors and pain.

Example

Remi Idowu shared a “guilt-free” dessert recipe with her target audience that fits the example of using emotionally charged power words.

You don’t necessarily need to use power words to entice emotions from your target audience, though. Think of the emotion you want to tap into and create content around it.

19 power words for gaining your audience’s trust

Building trust with your audience is arguably the most important factor in converting lingering potential customers to loyal fans. Persuasive words, testimonials, case studies, and other forms of social proof can help you build trust among your followers and ultimately boost conversion rates.

Psychology principle(s) at play

The power words in this category mainly rely on credibility research, social proof, and authority bias.

In all three concepts, the idea is that your audience doesn’t want to do the legwork of trying a product themselves and forming an opinion. It requires too much time, resources, and energy. So, they rely on shortcuts — like reading data-backed evidence that your product works, scanning reviews, or seeing the credibility of your influencer partner.

Example

Carolina Clare has an excellent example of using a “money back guarantee” in her TikTok video.

She also shares a time-bound discount code that makes the post all the more powerful.

26 power words for helping your audience

Educational content is big on all social media platforms. It’s one of those evergreen types of content that’ll generate traffic for years on end. The use of power words can only enhance the reach of such content and boost conversions. 

Psychology principle(s) at play

Part of “helping your audience power words” is using the reciprocity principle, like you do in customer service. You want your audience to feel compelled to return the favor by liking your post, commenting, or even buying from your store.

But these power words also hinge on the fact that everyone’s a cognitive miser. Everyone in your follower list wants quick, easy, painless, and instant solutions to their problems. When you offer this to them, you appeal to their human tendency and make their life more easy & convenient — thus, they engage with your content. 

Example

A YouTube short by beauty brand Sally Beauty is an excellent example of using the word “how-to” in your social media posts.

Straightforward guides for educational content are best for attracting audiences. Plus: Using power words in these types of posts is relatively easier and more natural.

Pair power words with a wholesome social media strategy

The right words can make an impact. But they need the support of stunning visuals, high-quality content, consistency, and a clear call-to-action (CTAs) to give you the most bang for your buck.

You can’t optimize your copy for maximum conversions just by using power words. If your call to action is unclear — for example — it’s unlikely your post will perform well. Keep power words in your back pocket, but don’t let them be your only strategy for improving your social copy.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

As a super Type-A person, that’s a favorite expression of mine. Having spent many years managing various social media platforms in marketing and media, I’ve learned the hard way that this is one area where you absolutely cannot wing it. Especially if you’re managing multiple channels. 

You need a social media content calendar.

A social media calendar is a game changer when building a social media presence, be it as someone building your personal brand, a creator, or a social media manager. 

I’ll walk you through exactly how to create your own calendar using Buffer. I’ll also share expert guidance on why you need a social media calendar, plus the system we use in our marketing team at Buffer.

How to create your own social media calendar from scratch

Buffer is a social media scheduling tool built to make it easier to grow your following online. It’s a one-stop-shop for the entire process — from brainstorming to publishing, right on to analyzing content performance. 

There are a host of other perks to housing your social media calendar in Buffer — beyond the ability to plan and schedule in a single tool:

• A high-level monthly view for big-picture planning.
• A more in-depth weekly view to see all the key details at a glance.
• The ability to exclude certain channels from view for extra clarity and focus.
• Access it anywhere. Thanks to Buffer’s mobile app, you can check or amend your calendar on the go. 
• More to come! The calendar is a big focus for us at the moment, and we have some really exciting plans for it.

📲 Download the Buffer app for iOS here

📲 Download the Buffer app for Android here

I’m going to walk you through exactly how to create yours in Buffer’s free social media calendar, take you beyond planning, and right into scheduling. 

1. Define your social media strategy

Before you even open a calendar tool, a social media strategy should be your first port of call. 

If you’re a creator and not a social media manager, it will be tempting to skip this step. But trust me, a marketing strategy is not just for Marketing teams. It’s a crucial step in social media success. Random posting = random results. Having clear goals, understanding your target audience, and defining your content pillars will make your marketing efforts much easier and more successful in the long run. 

Don’t just take it from me — I love this Reel by @stanforcreators, which outlines just how important it is for creators and their unique approach to creating one.

This doesn’t involve pages and pages — even just a single-page content strategy will help you get crystal clear on your goals and how you’re going to achieve them. 

You’ll find our complete social media strategy guide here, and it’s well worth working your way through it if you’re just starting (there’s even a template there, too!). Here’s a high-level overview of your steps:

1. Pinpoint your ‘why.’ Why do you need to be active on social media? What is your ultimate goal?
2. Define your target audience. Who are you trying to reach with your content?
3. Define your content pillars. What are you going to share, and why will it resonate?
4. Choose your platforms. Which social media sites will you use to reach your audience? How many social platforms should you choose?
5. Set your cadence. Decide on your posting frequency (which may differ from platform to platform).

2. Connect your channels

Congratulations, the toughest part is out of the way! With your strategy in hand, you’re ready to connect your social media accounts to Buffer. First, make sure you’re logged in to those social profiles in the browser or on the device you’re using.

If you’re new to Buffer, head over here to create your free account. From there, click Connect Channels (you can connect up to three for free).

If you’re already a Buffer user, head over to account.buffer.com/channels, and choose Connect Channel. You could also click on your profile avatar at the top right of your dashboard and click Account, then Channels.

Click on the channel you'd like to connect. (If you already have channels connected, click Connect New Channel and then click the channel you'd like to connect.)

The process is pretty straightforward, but we have an in-depth guide to connecting channels in Buffer in our help center, plus specific how-tos for each platform if you run into any problems.

3. Create your tagging system

Color coding is my organizational love language (you should see my bookshelf), so Buffer’s new feature addition, Tags, has changed the game for me when it comes to content planning. 

There are a host of ways to use Tags that will be incredibly useful in your social media management system. You could use them to tag posts by:

• Content pillar (my personal favorite)
• Post status (idea, draft, ready to publish)
• Format or type of content (text, video, photo, carousel)
• Platform (while you’ll be able to see which social media app your post is scheduled on in the calendar, this could be useful if you’re also saving ideas here for, say, a blog)

What’s really neat about Tags is that they translate over to the Analytics section, too, so you can measure up the performance of one grouping against another. This has been incredibly useful for me as I experiment with my content pillars to see which resonate the most with my audience.

To create your Tags, click on Publishing at the top left of the screen, then Create just beneath that. 

Then head over to Manage Tags on the bottom left of your screen and click Create Tag on the top right.

A pop-up will appear where you can add your tag name and choose a color to represent it. (All the color options were specifically chosen because they work well together, so any combination will be aesthetically pleasing if, like me, you’re into that!) 

4. Get your ideas down

Ready for a brain dump? You likely have a solid idea of the kind of content you’re creating thanks to your strategy work in Step 1. Now, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work on the actual content creation. 

This is where Buffer’s Create space comes in. It’s a versatile system that you can use in plenty of different ways, but if you’re working on building out your calendar, I’d advise you start by using it as a hub for all your ideas. You can view everything in a gallery, or organize your ideas into boards (as I’ve done in the image below). 

As a creator, anything I share on one of my social channels will start in this space first. 

Top tip: Don’t worry about making all your social media posts beautiful right away. Even if all you have is a half-baked idea or a reminder about an important product launch, a brief note works just fine here, too. Just get it down — you can refine it later.

My posts often start out this way (like the Create cards you’ll see in the screenshot), which I then flesh out as inspiration strikes and polish up before adding them to my publishing schedule. 

To create an idea, click Create in the top left corner, then Create Idea on the top right.

Right here, you can:

1. Add your copy or caption (or placeholder text)
2. Choose your Tag/s
3. Add media, like video or photos
4. Add directly from Buffer integrations (like Canva, Dropbox, Google Drive, Unsplash, and more)
5. Get help from Buffer’s AI Assistant when you’re stuck

You can save the idea to keep it in your Create space by clicking the Save Idea button or scheduling it right away with the Create Post button (more on this below).

5. Set up your Queue

At Buffer, we think of the posting schedule for every social media platform as a Queue — basically, set time slots every week for posting.

You don’t have to stick to this, of course, but it’s a really handy way to commit to the cadence you laid out in your social media strategy. As time goes on and you experiment with different timings and frequencies on all the platforms you’re using, you’ll be able to pinpoint the slots that work well for your target audience. 

When you first start with Buffer, the platform will automatically assign times in your Queue. (Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean that something will automatically be published. Think of these times as empty placeholders or posting slots that you can use, tweak, or leave as you see fit.)

To set up your Queue, click on Publishing on the top left, then choose the channel you want to tweak in the list on the left-hand side. 

On the right of the window, you’ll see the Queue that Buffer has automatically created for the channel. To change your Queue times, click on the gear icon next to your chosen time zone. 

Here in the posting schedule settings, you can:

1. Add a new posting time
2. Turn off posting on specific days
3. Remove times from your current schedule (hover over the time, then click on the arrow that pops up)
4. Clear your Queue completely

You might choose to leave these slots as is — you can edit your scheduled times in the calendar, after all — but it’s a good idea to be aware of the Queue timings for all your channels (you’ll see why in Step 6 below).

6. Start planning

Now that you have a host of great ideas ready and waiting to be published on your social media channels, it’s finally time to get them on the calendar.

To do so, select an idea that’s ready to go in Create. Then click on the Create Post button at the bottom of the pop-up.

Next, choose which channels you want to post the update on. 

If you’ve selected multiple platforms, scroll down within the window to tailor each one for the social network it’s going on. Buffer will let you know if the post fits into the limitations (like text, or video, or photo size and dimensions) for each channel.

Choose Add to Queue. This schedules your post for the next available slot in your Queue, leaving any other posts you already have scheduled in place. Don’t worry, you can still tweak this time slot!

You can also click on the dropdown arrow to Share Next (go to the very next spot in your Queue, bumping any other content already in that slot to the next slot) or Share Now (publish right away).

Of course, you don’t have to start putting your posts together in Create — you can create new content directly in the Calendar, too. 

Click on Calendar in the top left corner, and you’ll be taken to a week view. (I like to use month view when I’m doing some serious content planning, which you can do by clicking Month on the top right corner. It all comes down to personal preference.)

To add to the calendar, click Create Post on the top right.

You’ll be taken to a similar pop-up window as mentioned in the Create Post section of Create where you can add text and media, get help from Buffer’s AI assistant, and more. When the post is ready to go, hit Add to Queue, Share Next, or Share Now, as above. 

You also have the option to save the post as a draft if you’re not quite ready to schedule or if you need approvals from another team member or stakeholder.

Finding your saved drafts is really easy — just click on the channel you saved the post for, then Drafts at the top of the screen.

7. Fine-tune your calendar

With your content ready and raring to go, play around with your calendar to find the perfect mix for each day, week, and month. As long as the post hasn’t been published, you can tweak everything to your heart’s content. 

To see the details of each post in your calendar, hover over the card. Hit Delete to remove the post entirely, or Share Now to publish it immediately. 

To make changes to the post, click Edit. Here, you can change everything from the publish date to the content itself. 

In the monthly calendar view, you can also drag and drop cards on different days to have them go live at the same time on that new date. In the week view, you can do the same, but drag it into a new time slot to change that, too. 

Check in with your calendar at the beginning of each day to see what you have scheduled and refine your content if need be.

As much as it pays to be proactive with your calendar and schedule posts in advance, social media often needs reactive work, too. There might be a new trending TikTok sound you need to jump on right away. On the flip side, global events might mean you have to tweak your messaging, curate your content, or overhaul your plan completely.

5 reasons you need a social media calendar

Save time and organize your processes

A social media calendar can help you save time by keeping all your ideas and posts in one place. 

A calendar also allows you to create content in advance when you have the big picture of when everything is meant to go out. This is essential for team collaboration if you’re working with other people in a marketing team. It can also help you mitigate the risk of mistakes by allowing you to review content ahead of time.

If you use a social media management tool like Buffer to house your calendar, you can schedule it from there, too, helping you to optimize and automate your workflows. 

When creating a social media calendar, Colin Toh at Headphonesty looks at two factors: “When my audience is most active and if there are any relevant events to tie content into. I create my content calendar three months in advance by following trends and around product drops and review schedules.”

Identify and execute more ambitious social media campaigns

A calendar helps you create a big picture and identify social media campaigns for your team to execute. If you know that a big company event is coming up, or a product will be launched in a few months, you can create a detailed campaign.

Vikki Tokarz, Head of Community at Scribe, finds calendars very useful for organizing social media marketing campaigns, especially if the campaign is multi-faceted and lengthy — anything more than a day or two is not manageable without one.

Calendars are also great for visualizing how each planned post for your campaigns might look on your feed, as Caleigh Alleyne, PR & Communications Manager at Storytap can attest.

She says, “[With calendars]...we can plan the order of posts to flow the best and create visuals that feel cohesive in the feed and on our grid, but also have a quick way to see how our campaigns will work with our regular content from both a timing and a visual perspective.”

Once you organize your processes, you can focus all your energy on creativity. You can also keep track of social, cultural, and historical moments that are relevant to your audience or brand to tap into for future campaigns.

Improve posting consistency

Growing an audience is no longer as simple as just posting when you feel like it. Consistency factors into a lot of platforms’ decisions to push certain content. Basically, the more consistently you post, the better your chances of getting in front of your target audience.

“Frequency is something we think about a lot, and while we want to maintain a constant social presence, we use the calendar to plan for the seasonal ebbs and flows of business and ramp up or scale back posts accordingly,” says John Li, co-founder of Fig Loans.

A sharing schedule can help you increase traffic and audience engagement, especially if you’re providing your audience with valuable and relevant information. Plus, by scheduling content to go out like clockwork, you never have to miss key posting times again.

Caleigh Alleyne has found a sharing rhythm where she can publish content on the best days. She shares that calendars help determine what content performs best in a monthly schedule and provide a visual for what the content and creative assets will look like.

“This is also helpful to draw month-over-month comparisons and understand how our growth and engagement rate shift throughout the month,” she says.

Create higher-quality content

When you start organizing your content topics either on your own or with your social media team, the chances are that through a surge of creativity, you could end up with a lot of new ideas. Even if something can’t be used immediately, you can save it for future use. Mixing new ideas with evergreen content can be a good way to make sure your calendar is always updated.

Vikki Tokarz also has some important advice for creating social media calendar content. “Write timely, viral content when you have it, and schedule your ‘bread and butter’ (evergreen) content to cultivate a persistent, relatable social presence.”

Every platform has different rules that work for it. Planning for each channel can help you identify opportunities to repurpose content or create entirely new posts.

Finding the balance between timely and evergreen content is key. Sometimes winging it with viral moments will work, but quality content requires a level of preparation and effort.

Randomly picked topics that don’t resonate with your audience can hurt your engagement. A planned content calendar will allow you to spot such blunders, so you only publish fresh and relevant content.

Improve tracking and analysis of performance

A calendar can also help you track post and campaign performance. By monitoring and analyzing your audience’s engagement and feedback, you can gain valuable insights into their preferences which you can later apply to your content.

Consider adopting Bryan Maniotakis' (MinimalGoods.co) strategy for experimenting with and analyzing content.

“If I focus on a certain type of content for a week, I can quickly compare the results (engagement/ following/etc) with another type of content in a different week, to get a better understanding of group performance over time.”

Analyzing content performance can also show you where you need to double down on your efforts or cut out the content entirely. For example, Facebook’s organic reach has slowed for a lot of accounts, but paid ads continue to perform well.

Knowing whether you need to invest in more paid ads or organic content can save you a lot of time and effort in the long run.

The social media calendar system we use at Buffer

At Buffer, we have X/Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Threads, and Mastodon accounts. We’re most active on X, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube. We’re a small team, so we’re prioritizing the social networks our target audience is most active on — but it’s still a lot to manage.

Enter: Our super-efficient content calendar system. We have a dual-tool system, as we log every piece of content we share — whether it’s a social media post, blog article, or new marketing release in the same content calendar in Notion. From there, our social media posts are moved into Buffer to be scheduled. 

As a tools junkie, I’ve tried out a host of systems in my career, but when I started at Buffer in August 2023, I was blown away by the content workflow. While it might look complicated, it’s really easy to get to grips with and will give everyone at the company a bird’s-eye view of the content landscape at any given moment. 

Here’s how that works:

1. Our Social Media Manager, Mitra Mehvar, pulls resources from our blog content calendar and our marketing launch plan to share on social. She fills in the gaps with her own brilliant content ideas, often related to remote work, life at Buffer, or life as a Social Media Manager, small business owner, or content creator.
2. She creates cards for each post in our content calendar in Notion, tagging them with the social channels she plans to post them to. 
3. She’ll draft all the required copy, and, if necessary, record a video. The copy and video link will go right in the relevant Notion card.
4. Mitra will let our Head of Content and Communications, Hailley Griffis, know when the posts are ready for checking. Hailley usually gives her the thumbs up straight away. 
5. Mitra copies the content into Buffer to schedule the posts and move them around if need be.
6. Finally, she checks back in often to monitor the content performance metrics right in Buffer’s analytics dashboard.

Choosing the right tool for your social media calendar

When I first started out as a Social Media Manager, I hacked together a social media planning system and editorial calendar in a table in Microsoft Word (I don’t want to talk about it). Thankfully, times have changed a whole lot since then — there are a host of brilliant tools out there you can use for your social media calendar.

I may be biased, but Buffer is undoubtedly the best option if you’re looking for an all-in-one planning, scheduling, and analytics social media management tool. Notion is brilliant if you’re mapping out content outside social media platforms. Then there’s Asana, Trello (both project management tools), Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, or even Google Calendar. 

My point is: Figure out what feels right for you. While deciding on a system might feel like a make-or-break in your process, try not to overthink it too much. There’s no real way you can know whether it will work for you until you try it. 

If you try one and it’s not working out, migrating to a new tool won’t be the end of the world. Don’t be afraid to experiment — as long as you have a social media calendar that works for you, you’re well on your way to success. 

Instagram marketing can be…overwhelming (to say the least). It’s become one of the most fruitful social media platforms for small businesses and yet — it’s one of the hardest channels to grow on.

So many “hacks to grow on Instagram” are outdated, unrealistic, and sometimes just a bunch of gobbledygook. In this article, I’ll break down how you can form an Instagram marketing strategy that actually works and some handy tips that successful creators and businesses on the platform follow (that you can replicate). Let’s go!

How to build your Instagram strategy in 5 steps

Before we begin, it’s essential to know that the steps below will serve as an excellent guidepost, but they aren’t commandments set in stone. Tweak them to fit your own context, goals, and restraints. There are 1,000 ways to pet a cat — implement the methods below however possible for you.

Step 1: Set goals for your Instagram marketing

The foundation of an Instagram marketing strategy is its goals. Working without setting objectives is like driving blindfolded. How can you define the steps you need to take if you don’t know what you want to achieve?

This step doesn’t have to be daunting and time-consuming. You’ve likely already set larger business goals and marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) — align your Instagram strategy with them. If you’ve already settled on social media marketing goals, that’s even better!

For example, if your business goal is to increase customer acquisition, your Instagram content strategy should work toward inviting more buyers to the website. But if your business aims to achieve more brand awareness, your Instagram strategy should be to introduce your company and its products or services to the world.

The goal you set will dictate what you post on Instagram. If we continue with the example above, you will post more case-study-centric Instagram content for customer acquisition goals. On the contrary, you will share more about how your company operates and what it does with the brand awareness objective.

The shoe brand, Tracksmith, is a great example of setting clear Instagram marketing goals. You can see their focus on building a community via every post on their feed.

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A post shared by Tracksmith (@tracksmithrunning)

How many goals should you set? It’s best to stick to one primary objective and maybe setting two or three additional ones. But your second and third goals should work in tandem with your primary aim. Let’s say your first priority is brand awareness. Then, your second objective should be increasing your Instagram following, and not increasing sales. The former aim is in service to the main goal while the latter distorts the focus away from it.

It’s also best to convert vague goals into specific KPIs. So, “grow on Instagram”   becomes “increase my Instagram following by 40 percent in this quarter.” Specific KPIs have data and a deadline attached to them. The more solid your goal, the clearer your vision for what to achieve via your Instagram marketing efforts. KPIs also help you understand which social media metrics to track for evaluating your progress.

Step 2: Create (or audit) your Instagram profile

Why is an Instagram bio a crucial step for your Instagram marketing strategy? It’s the first thing someone views when they land on your profile. Your Instagram strategy won’t work if someone likes your content but doesn’t get the gist of what you do (and where they can learn more) from your Instagram bio.

And it doesn’t matter if you’re a total beginner or someone who’s been in the Instagram game for a while. Everyone needs to touch-up their Instagram profile every now and then. Here are five questions you should answer:

1. Do you have the right kind of Instagram account? An Instagram creator account is for creators (you get a label below your profile to categorize what you do). On the other hand, an Instagram business account is perfect for brands on Instagram (you get the call-to-action (CTA) button like “Shop Now” to sell your products).

2. Is your Instagram profile picture high-quality? If you’re a creator, the profile image should be of you. If you’re a brand, the image should be your logo.

3. Does your Instagram bio clearly show who you are and what you do? Anyone who comes to your profile shouldn’t be left questioning about what exactly you offer. Don’t forget to put any obvious keywords related to your business here.

4. Is your username easily searchable? Instagram usernames aren’t the place to be clever. Use your or your businesses’ names to make your Instagram profile easily discoverable. But you’ve entered an alias name across all your social media accounts, use the same on Instagram, too. The key is to keep your usernames consistent so Google can verify you and people can find you. If possible, you should also use broad, niche-related keywords in your Instagram username. They show up at the top when someone uses the search bar.

5. Have you added an Instagram link in bio where people can learn more about you? This feature is a godsend because it allows anyone who lands on your profile to learn more about you. Instagram allows you to add multiple links in your bio now, but it looks clumsy and untidy. There are plenty of link in bio tools available in the market for you to unify your links and present them in one landing page. Buffer’s Start Page is my pick because you can customize it however you like, upload a web page with every post on your feed, and even schedule content to appear on this page.

The creator and pediatric Hannah Hargrove is an excellent example of how to nail the above elements on your Instagram profile. She has a creator account highlighting her credentials, what she posts about, and one collective link to learn more.

Apart from the five basics, also try to make your Instagram bios work in favor of your Instagram strategy goals set in step one.

For example, if your objective is to bring more email subscribers to your newsletter, offer a freebie, write “Free [resource name] in bio! ⬇” and ask a profile visitor if they would like to subscribe to your newsletter when they sign up to receive the resource. This way, your Instagram bio directly serves toward making more of your target audience share their email.

Step 3: Define your target audience

Everything you create on Instagram should be with your ideal target audience in mind. Your target audience should overlap with your existing buyers. These are the people who like to purchase from you and you want to reach more Instagram users like them.

If you’ve already been posting on Instagram for a while, go to your Account Insights and you’ll get a detailed breakdown of the demographics you’re reaching via your content. Instagram analytics help you see the top locations, age ranges, and genders you’re reaching with your posts.

You can also see an analysis of how your posts perform and how much engagement you receive on each kind of post. There’s no analysis of the audience demographic on individual posts, though.

If your existing posts are reaching your ideal target audience, that’s great! You have to work on boosting your Instagram reach, but that’s an easy problem to solve once you have a solid Instagram marketing strategy.

However, if your target audience doesn’t overlap with the demographics of your potential customers, you need to revise your Instagram content. You need to post more of what your ideal target audience would need. This might mean you lose a few irrelevant Instagram followers, but that’s a good thing for the long-term because you only want your target audience to follow you.

Suppose you’re rewiring your Instagram content strategy for your target audience or starting from scratch. In that case, you need to find Instagram users who’ll find your Instagram page (and by extension, your products or services) useful. Here are four questions that can help you nail down your target audience:

• What does your target audience look like, demographically? Where do they live and what is their age range?
• What are they looking for when they browse Instagram? Do they want infotainment or education?
• What are they trying to get done by consuming your content (or by using your products or services)?
• What are a few common questions and problems they have? How can you help resolve them?

Answering the above questions will help you form one persona who represents your ideal target audience. Every piece of content you create for Instagram should be for this person. Keep them top-of-mind when brainstorming Instagram post ideas and following the rest of the steps in implementing your Instagram marketing strategy.

Step 4: Make an Instagram content calendar

The Instagram algorithm loves consistency like a non-swimmer loves a life raft. You need to devise a social media strategy that gives you the room to post regularly on Instagram. A content calendar helps immensely here because you schedule your content in advance (as opposed to scratching your head every day, finding post ideas).

An Instagram content calendar has to answer three questions:

1. How often are you posting content on Instagram? According to Adam Mosseri (Head of Instagram), the ideal posting frequency for Instagram is posting one to two Instagram Stories daily and a couple of in-feed posts (including Instagram carousels, Reels, and single-feed images) weekly.

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A post shared by Instagram’s @Creators (@creators)

But you do you! Everyone’s bandwidth looks different; there can’t be one rulebook for ideal frequency. Consistency is more important than intensity. If all you can do is one in-feed post a week in the beginning, do that. Increase your quantity gradually as you build the muscle of creating Instagram content.

2. What kind of posts are you posting on Instagram? Even though Mosseri has a guideline here, there are three options in the in-feed posts — carousels, Reels, and single images. Post what resonates best with your audience. Check your analytics and spot a pattern — which type of posts are performing the best for you? 

For example, you might notice that your educational posts perform best in carousel form and your infotainment content is best suited for Instagram Reels. If you use a social media management tool like Buffer to schedule and post your content, it’ll automatically do this for you: You can check which types of content perform the best for your Instagram account, the best posting frequency, and the best time to post.

3. What time are you posting on Instagram? Based on Buffer’s analysis of five million Instagram posts, the best time to post on Instagram is 7 to 8 AM on weekdays.

But there’s no one universal best time to post on Instagram (or any social media platform, for that matter). These are just the times that can help you boost your engagement rate.

Reminder: You can use Buffer’s analysis to find the best time to post for your account. This is the time when most of your target audience is online.

The last thing you want to do is prepare your Instagram content in advance and then post it manually. It defeats the purpose of creating a content calendar. Instead, use analytics tools like Buffer to schedule content in advance. You can see your content calendar across social networks, collaborate with your team, get analytics beyond Instagram’s native capabilities, and so much more. Try it for free today.

How far in advance should you create your content calendar? Instagram often has real-time trends you can hop on and make your own. And these get good reach, too, so you’ll want in. However, relying on motivation and Instagram trends alone is an unreliable strategy. I’d advise scheduling one to two weeks’ worth of content in advance and creating more trendy posts, depending on your team’s capacity.

Some Instagram content formats also require you to be more real-time than others. For example, you can easily schedule Instagram carousels far in advance. But Instagram Stories are a bit more casual and have plenty of features you can use real-time (like Q&A).

Step 5: Tweak your strategy based on performance analytics and followers’ feedback

All posts and no reflection can make Jack a poor performer. As tempting as it is to post and forget, it’s crucial to carve out the time to check your Instagram analytics and understand how your posts are performing.

For example, if you see one of your Instagram Stories got double the views than it usually does, you can examine why. Was it popping with colors? Was it aesthetic to look at? Did it use any engagement stickers that resulted in an additional reach boost? Did it have a CTA that enticed a lot of replies from your Instagram followers?

These insights will help you tweak your Instagram strategy and create more content that resonates with your audience. But reflecting on your performance is easier said than done. What do you do after you’ve opened the Pandora box of social media metrics? Answer the following questions:

• Which were your top performing Instagram posts?
• Which types of content have the highest engagement rate?
• What did those posts have in common? For example, it might be a topic that your audience needs help with. Or it might contain an actual human, which your followers liked.
• How did the trending posts and Instagram ads (if applicable) performed compared to the scheduled content? Why do you think there was this gap?
• Which were your most liked/commented/saved/shared Instagram posts? What did they have in common?
• Are you reaching your target audience with your posts?
• How close or far are you from reaching your Instagram marketing strategy goal?

And data alone isn’t enough. You need qualitative feedback, too. All social platforms are is a two-way street. Read your followers’ comments and direct messages (DMs). Ask what they’d like to hear from you and what they don’t like in your Instagram content.

It’s easy to think the job is done once you stick to a content calendar. But growth lies in listening to your audience and modifying your strategy accordingly.

7 handy Instagram marketing tips to add to your strategy

The above steps will help you get the basics right. But when you’re ready, you’ll want to move beyond the fundamentals and do more to grow on Instagram. Here are seven things the pros are doing that you should add to your Instagram strategy: 

1: Use Instagram Live, Instagram Stories, and Instagram Broadcast to engage with your followers

It’s one thing to gain new followers. It’s another to retain them. Luckily, Instagram has plenty of features to help you keep your audience engaged. Here are the top three:

Instagram Live: Instagram Live is an easy way to connect with your audience real-time. Choose a topic to talk about and inform your followers multiple times of the Live in advance. Answer their questions, provide exclusive content, and connect with your followers more deeply. 

The best part? You can save and repurpose your Instagram Live content into Instagram Reels. Here are some ideas from Instagram about topics for your live stream.

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A post shared by Instagram’s @Creators (@creators)

Instagram Stories: Instagram Stories have so many engagement features you can use to understand your audience better. You can answer their questions through a Q&A, add a link, invite followers to add to your Story (using the “add yours” feature), quiz them, start a countdown, run a poll, and so much more. 

An additional tip is to turn your best-performing Stories into Highlights. For example, if there’s a topic you get a lot of questions about, run a Stories series to answer them and convert them to Highlights that are ever-present on your Instagram profile.

A great example: Skincare brand Naturium has Instagram Story Highlights for all of its new products — detailing what the product does and its benefits. Anyone coming to their profile has all the info they need at their fingertips.

Instagram Broadcast: An Instagram Broadcast channel is like having a one-to-many group chat with your followers. You can use it to share new content that didn’t make it to their feed, run a community Q&A, share major updates, and post exclusive behind-the-scenes content.

French biochemist, author, and creator Jessie Inchauspé uses her Instagram broadcast channel to share recent studies she finds interesting, post content updates, and even share some casual life info.

An excellent social media marketing strategy includes ways to not only get new followers, but also to strengthen your existing community. Find more & more ways to deepen your connection with those who choose to follow and engage with you.

2: Repurpose, repost, pin, and boost your top-performing Instagram content

Content creation and getting visibility for your content is hard work. You want to ensure you get the most bang for your buck for every piece of content you create. And here’s a secret: If you repost your Instagram content after a while of posting the original content, no one cares. This works, because:

• You likely had an influx of followers who didn’t see it before
• Old followers needed a reminder about the old post’s content
• Old followers have forgotten about the post

Look at your high-performing content from the last six months and repost a video or carousel as is (unless your Instagram audience has shifted). I promise you, no one would notice. Even if they would, they’d just remember how good the post was and be happy they saw it again. 

Creator Sun Yi followed the strategy of reposting his old posts every six months and gained over 75,000 followers on his Instagram and TikTok accounts.

And if you’re actively creating content on other social media sites, repurpose them for Instagram. If you have a cohesive social media strategy with overlapping goals, what worked well on one platform will likely work excellently on another platform too. For example, we used Buffer Remix to repurpose an Instagram post out of a post on X (formerly Twitter).

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A post shared by Buffer (@buffer)

Similarly, pinned posts work to give the most visibility to your chosen Instagram post. Pinned posts are to Instagram feed what Highlights are to Instagram Stories (but due to Instagram's grid, pinned posts are limited to three only). Pin your high-performing content and an introductory post so it’s the first thing a new potential follower sees when they land on your profile.

Lastly, you can capitalize on your top-performing posts by running them as Instagram ads. Boosting an Instagram post is comparatively way easier than running a full-fledged Instagram advertising campaign (although you compromise on the A+ demographic targeting of Meta).

Boosting a post can help you reach a wider Instagram audience and tap into new followers. If you can afford to, explore with it and see how your ads perform.

3: Answer questions in comments via Instagram Reels

You can now reply with a comment on any Instagram Reel with a new Reel. Here’s how:

1. Tap “Reply” on the comment you want to reply to

2. Select the camera icon on the left

3. Create your Reel and post it

Despite being available since 2021, it’s an underused feature. Responding with a Reel to one of your comments has many benefits:

• It makes your Instagram content more interactive
• It helps you answer common audience questions at scale
• It lets you create more Instagram content without digging for ideas
• It makes your followers feel valued because you’re responding to their comments with a dedicated post

The next time you get a common question on one of your Instagram Reels, answer it with another video.

4: Create exclusive content for your Instagram subscribers (if your goal is to monetize via Instagram account)

Instagram lets you create exclusive subscriber-only content via Instagram subscriptions. If one of your goals (set in step one) is to make money via your Instagram content, subscriptions should definitely be a part of your Instagram strategy.  The purple crown signifies subscribed content on the platform.

Encourage your audience with exclusive content that’s only available for paid subscribers and ensure you provide value with the subscription. Focus on maximizing this revenue and using subscriptions to connect even more deeply with your target audience.

5: Partner with an Instagram influencer to boost your reach

Influencer marketing is an excellent way to boost your Instagram reach and tap into a new audience. Start by finding an Instagram influencer in your niche using a tool like Modash or SARAL and start collaborating to create content.

For example, Crest partnered with creator Jennifer Latch to boost brand awareness around one of Crest’s products.

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A post shared by Jennifer Latch (@jenlatch)

Jennifer Latch showed how she uses the products, why she likes it, and encourages her followers to try it, too. Partnerships with creators who endorse your product help you borrow their seal of trust with a new audience and appear more authentic (as opposed to all “business-y”).

You can partner with other similar creators in your niche even if you’re a creator yourself. It’ll help you expose your content to a new audience and help another creator do the same. For example, travel creators Aakansha Monga and Christian Grossi collaborated to make an Instagram Reel about vacationing in Bali.

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A post shared by Offbeat Travel | TravelAMore (@aakanksha.monga)

Before you partner with a creator (as a small business or another creator), ensure:

• Their following overlaps with your target audience
• Their content style and brand values match yours
• They have enough followers and engagement to give your content an extended reach

6: Optimize every Instagram post with SEO, hashtags, and captions

Here’s a checklist you should keep handy before publishing any Instagram post:

• Have you optimized your post for Instagram SEO? Use some primary and secondary keywords to help the Instagram algorithm learn what your content is all about.
• Have you used three to five broad and niche Instagram hashtags? Don’t litter your posts with Instagram hashtags, but don’t let the additional reach they can provide go to waste, either. Enter hashtags that are related to your post and your niche. Mix popular hashtags with niche ones for best results (and a branded hashtag, if you have it).A pro tip: Categorize the various hashtags you use, club them together, and use Buffer’s hashtag manager instead of adding them manually every time.
• Have you written a compelling Instagram caption? The perfect Instagram caption fits the post like a puzzle piece. If the topic requires an in-depth analysis, write a detailed caption using line breaks and emojis to keep readers hooked. If the content covers most of the topic, use a short and engaging action that entices replies from your audience.

Skincare creator Aishwarya Kandpal is an excellent example for acing the above elements in her Instagram content.

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A post shared by aishwarya kandpal • skincare & haircare (@indianskinblog)

She doesn’t use hashtags, but I’d advise adding a few instead of typing post-related keywords at the end of the caption. Explore and see what method is giving you better results.

7: Encourage and reshare user-generated content on your profile

User-generated content (UGC) is content created about your brand by customers or other influencers. It’s an excellent addition to your Instagram marketing strategy because:

• It helps the customers (whose content you shared) feel valued
• It adds more authentic, eye-catching posts to your Instagram feed
• It establishes social proof about your products
• It helps you post more content on your profile

Fitness brand, The NordStick, is an excellent example of how to use user-generated content in your Instagram strategy. They regularly share the UGC of customers using their products and how it's benefiting their workouts.

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A post shared by The NordStick®️ (@thenordstick)

If customers are sharing posts about your product or services, reshare them on your Instagram account.

Keep adapting your Instagram marketing strategy with the times

You can have a loose Instagram strategy for the long term, but it’s best not to hold it too tightly. Instagram continually updates its algorithm, releases new features, and changes the UI and UX of the Instagram app.

It’s crucial that you stay flexible with Instagram’s changes to get the most out of your strategy. For example, if Instagram releases a new feature tomorrow, be prepared to use it to get the first-mover advantage. Or if Instagram decides to close IGTV (like it did), repurpose the old videos to your advantage into Reels.

The only thing that remains constant throughout your strategy? Having the aim to help your audience via your Instagram content, whatever that looks like.

Pinterest is the underdog of all social media sites.

• It marries the social media aspect with a visual search engine
• It’s one of the most rapidly growing social media platforms
• It gives you a fertile ground to grow your website traffic

If that wasn’t enough, Pinterest ads also give you twice as much return on ad spend (ROAS) compared to other social media marketing channels. Pinterest advertising is also more cost-effective than other digital marketing avenues.

Given all the benefits, why is Pinterest marketing so underutilized by creators and small e-commerce businesses? It’s because the platform can be a bit of a mystery. It has unconventional features and Pinterest marketing isn’t replicable on any other social network.

In this guide, I’ll share a step-by-step guide on how you can forge a Pinterest marketing strategy. If you’re a total newbie to Pinterest, I’d recommend reading this article first. It breaks down the basics of the platform that can help you better use the framework below.

How to create your Pinterest marketing plan

To create a solid Pinterest marketing plan, you need to tie four components together:

• Your ideal customer profile (ICP) or your target audience
• Your Pinterest keyword strategy
• Your pinning strategy 
• Your performance analysis

We’ll tackle how you can ace each element in detail.

Step 1: Create a persona of your ideal customer on Pinterest

Defining your target audience is often the first step of forming a social media strategy. You need to ask yourself three questions to understand your Pinterest audience:

1. Is your target audience using Pinterest? Pinterest is excellent for brand awareness. It has 498 million active users and 69.5 percent of them are women. Most of these women are aged between 25 and 34. That said, since 2020, GenZ and men have been among the fastest growing user segments for Pinterest. It’s likely that your target audience is already using Pinterest. If not, they will be starting soon.

2. What is your target audience using Pinterest for? Pinterest users often have that ready-to-buy attitude that’s absent from other social channels. 46 percent of weekly pinners say they’ve discovered a new brand or a product on Pinterest. 

However, Pinterest is a full-funnel platform. This means you have Pinterest users at all stages of the buying journey — awareness, consideration, and purchase. 

Part of your target audience might be coming for inspiration (awareness), another segment might be using Pinterest with an open mind to buy (consideration), and the last portion might be coming with a “let’s go buy!” attitude (purchasing).

For example, if I’m searching for “home decor items” on Pinterest, I could be:

• In the awareness stage: Using the items I see as inspiration to decorate my own home
• In the consideration stage: Searching for items I could potentially buy to decorate my house
• In the purchasing stage: Have already decided on a few items I want to buy, but not chosen a brand yet

If you look at the Pinterest search results for this query, they display results that serve all three user intents.

3. What’s your target audience’s pain point and how can you help them resolve it? The last question you need to answer is what your audience struggles with. You don’t need a Google Slide full of data and analytics here. Knowing a few basic details is more than enough. This will guide your keyword strategy and then your performance analytics will help you understand more about your audience’s problems (see how it comes full circle?).

For example, suppose you’re a food creator and know your audience struggles with making healthy meals quickly and on a budget. In that case, you already know some keywords you’re going to target — like “healthy eating,” “quick recipes,” or “budget-friendly meal-prepping.”

To understand your target audience’s needs, ask yourself the following questions:

• What job are they trying to complete when logging in on Pinterest? How can you help?
• What are the top ten most frequently asked questions you get from your audience?
• What does your target audience struggle with in your industry or niche?

To continue the above example of the food creator, some content pillars they can have are “Meal prepping” or “Quick dinner recipes” or “Under $10 meals.” 

These content pillars can become one (or more!) of your Pinterest boards. You can target more long-tail keywords within those boards and create niche pins.

For instance, you can post a “Affordable pasta with only three ingredients” recipe on the “Under $10 meals” board.

A reminder: This audience insight doesn’t exist in isolation. You need to supplement (and update) it with your keyword strategy and performance insights.

Step 2: Build a keyword strategy for Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual search engine. This means it uses keywords to understand your post's topic and rank it when the audience searches for similar queries.

What are keywords? They’re your audience's search phrases to resolve their queries — essentially, your content topics. But you have to be a bit more intentional about using specific phrasing and related wording to rank at the top of the search results.

Let me illustrate with an example. Shreya Dalela, founder of The Creatives Hour, uses a primary keyword and several secondary keywords in all her Pinterest posts.

In the above image, Shreya targets “wall paint pattern ideas” but also uses related phrases such as “geometric wall paint patterns,” “DIY ideas,” and “vibrant kitchen,” to name a few.

Using all these phrases helps the Pinterest algorithm rank her post in multiple search queries when it’s relevant to the user intent.

The above is a classic example of how you can use search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to rank your Pinterest content at the top.

How do you find relevant keywords for your Pinterest account?

Pinterest doesn’t share its API, so it’s impossible to see backend data for the platform for keyword research. But here are four ways you can find SEO keywords for your Pinterest account:

1. Remember the legwork we did when we were narrowing down our target audience? That process will give you a rough idea of the keywords your audience might be using to find your pins. You can cross-reference this by searching for your industry keywords on Pinterest and seeing related keywords other creators are using. Also note Pinterest’s recommended keywords in the auto-complete search bar.

2. Pinterest also has a trends tool to help you see which topics and keywords your target audience is searching for.

3. Pinterest also releases a trends report every year based on Pinterest user searches and behaviors. This can help you do some content planning in advance. These reports have an 80 percent success rate. So, there’s a high chance that you can create useful content for your audience that’ll perform well based on the keywords/topics in this resource.

4. Apart from this, you can also use SEO tools like Keywords Everywhere or Answer the Public to get some topic inspiration. But take these keywords with a grain of salt because these tools are designed for search engines like Google and Bing, not Pinterest.

5. Remember to use a mix of branded keywords (your company name) and industry-related keywords for the pins you create. Solution-aware buyers might know your company name and search for it directly, while problem-aware customers will search for topical keywords.

Now, you need to use the right keywords in three places on your Pinterest account:

• Your Pinterest profile
• Your Pinterest boards
• Your pin designs & copy

Let’s address how to use Pinterest SEO in each place one by one.

1. SEO in your Pinterest profile

On your Pinterest profile, you need to use keywords in your username, name, and bio.

Username: You want to keep your username consistent across all your social media accounts to make it easy for people to find you. If you have any obvious keywords attached to your username already, that’s going to help you rank higher in search when someone types the keyword you’ve used.

Display name: Like Instagram, you can extend your display name to showcase your main niche. Write your full name and use the “|” symbol to add a few keywords about what you post on your Pinterest profile. Your profile will appear at the top when someone searches for the keywords you used.

Bio: Your social media bio everywhere should be about how you serve your audience and not all about you, you, you. That said, ensure you add a few relevant keywords organically about what you do and who you serve with your Pinterest content.

Creators Nico & Louise of The Plant Based School have the perfect Pinterest bio showcasing how they help their audience at every corner of their profile with the right keywords.

2. SEO in your Pinterest boards

You should have relevant keywords in your board name, your board’s description, and your board cover. Travel creator, Alexane Said, is a good example of how to do this right. She categorizes her boards according to locations and uses descriptive keywords in the description to highlight what the board contains.

Remember that just like Google, the Pinterest search engine also looks at your overall niche. If you consistently share pins related to one topic and pin each piece to the right board, the Pinterest algorithm will start considering you an “expert” in your niche. But if you post about various things without focus, Pinterest will get confused.

It’s all interlinked. So, ensure the pins you add to each board are relevant to the keywords & topic you’ve used in the board name, description, and cover.

3: SEO in your pin designs and copy

Your pins are the meat of the matter when it comes to Pinterest SEO. You should use your targeted keywords in text overlays, pin titles, and pin descriptions. Pinterest also lets you add “tags,” which are essentially topics related to your Pinterest pin. Think of them as a replacement for hashtags. And of course, add each pin to a relevant board.

This pin by Sofia is a good example of how to sprinkle SEO-friendly keywords across each pin.

Step 3: Implement a smart pinning strategy

A pinning strategy is all about maximizing your return-on-investment (ROI) from your Pinterest marketing efforts and minimizing the time spent creating content.

How often should you pin per day?

The ideal posting frequency for Pinterest is posting at least one pin a week, according to the platform’s recommendations.

But a Tailwind study found that its most successful users pin around 15 – 25 new pins per day. But pinning more than 50 times a day can negatively impact your content distribution.

Like any other social platform, Pinterest values consistent and fresh posts. Aim for publishing high-quality pins regularly and gradually increasing your number of pins to boost your following on the platform (instead of repinning the same post over and over).

And instead of pinning manually, use a social media management tool like Buffer to schedule pins to go out automatically.

Buffer helps you minimize the job even further by automatically pulling in images from your destination link. If you’re already creating Pinterest-friendly images on your website, you don’t need to reupload them on Buffer to publish them on Pinterest.

Pinterest has four types of pins (idea pins are now a thing of the past):

• Image pins — pins containing a static image
• Video pins — pins containing a video
• Rich pins — pins that automatically pull information from your website
• Product pins — pins that feature products you can buy

You should have a healthy mix of all types of visual content. Once you start reflecting on your analytics, you can start spotting patterns if one type of pin is outperforming the others. When that happens, you can create more of one type of pin than others.

⚡ Reminder: Ensure you meet the aspect ratio for every pin to create. You don’t want half of your pin to get cut off in search results.  

But even hearing “create 15 – 25 pins for a single day” makes me bone tired. Who has the time to run a business and create so much social media content?

Luckily, you can rotate through the same keywords with (only slightly) different images on Pinterest. To put it simply: You can create multiple pins targeting the same keyword. This is possible because Pinterest’s SEO doesn’t cannibalize you for creating multiple posts targeting the same keywords.

For example, if you’re a fashion creator targeting a keyword like “fall fashion outfits,” Google can punish you if you have multiple blog posts on your website fighting to rank for the same keyword.

On the contrary, Pinterest’s SEO does no such thing. You can create content targeting the same keywords repeatedly. This lightens the load on your end and also allows you to exercise your creativity on a single topic.

And since Pinterest is all about repurposing your existing blog content into fresh pins to boost website traffic, you can create multiple templates targeting the same keyword with slightly different designs. You can easily do it on Canva. The company Elite Content Marketer did this on a regular basis to increase their traffic by 825 percent in three months.

But don’t schedule all similar-keyword-and-destination-link content in one day because you can be flagged as spam. You can schedule one pin for a single URL every day.

Creating a high quantity of pins without compromising on quality (or nearing creator burnout) is all about doing smart work. Think how you can get the most out of each piece of content you’ve already created before starting from scratch.

Step 4: Reflect on your Pinterest analytics every month

If you’ve just started marketing on Pinterest, give it around three to four months of consistent work before you check your analytics (unless one of your pins goes viral and you want to check how you can double down on it!).

After three months, here are the metrics you should check on your Pinterest business account:

• Outbound links: How many people clicked on the link you had attached to your pin?
• Pin clicks: How many times did someone click on your pin in search to view it close up?
• Saves: How many times have people saved your pin to one of their boards?
• Impressions: How many times your pin was viewed? 

In addition, you should check your Google Analytics reports to determine which pins contributed to the highest traffic via Pinterest.

Adjust your Pinterest marketing strategy based on what you find in your analytics report.

Find the common themes in the pins that gave you the most conversions in Google Analytics. Are they of the same style (like infographics or tutorials), using the same call to action, etc.? Are multiple pins variations of the same keyword? Are the results seasonal? Analyzing click-through rates can tell you which content format pins work the best for you and which keywords get you the most ROI.

In your Pinterest native analytics, check if you’re getting more impressions but less outbound clicks. This might mean you need to improve your Pinterest images and copy. Are certain boards getting more reach than others? Are certain font styles getting more saves? Double down on them.

You can take this analysis a step further by using a marketing tool like Buffer that gives you advanced data like your top-performing content types, the times when you get the most engagement, and more.

Try it for free today.

Tying all the Pinterest marketing elements together

Using Pinterest for business means tying all the above four steps together:

• Continue creating pins (step 3) based on your keyword strategy (step 2) for a while
• And tweak your marketing strategy based on your performance data (step 4) and audience behavior (step 1) as you progress

You might have to do this for a while before you see tangible results from Pinterest. That’s the nature of a visual search engine. But the other side of the coin is you can garner traffic from Pinterest for years as more & more users discover your content.

Read more:

17 Tips, Tools and Tricks to Improve your Pinterest Marketing Strategy

The Scientific Guide to Pinterest Marketing: How to Create Popular Images for More Pins and Better Conversion

How to Use Pinterest – And Why You Should as a Creator or Business

Whether you are a seasoned social media marketer, a marketer looking to venture into social media marketing, or a business owner who wants to leverage the enormous power of social, it’s helpful to know about the most popular social media platforms out there right now. This will allow you to maximize your brand reach, engage with the right people, and nail your social media marketing strategy.

Of course, it isn’t only about the total number of users on the host of social media apps out there. It’s also whether the social networking site is a right fit for your business and you. Does it fit your brand image? Is your target audience using that social media site? How many social media platforms can you manage at once?

To make things easier, we researched and compiled information about the top social media sites in 2024. Some will be familiar to you, while others might sound new. We recommend reading through this list to learn more about the social media apps that might be great for your brand. And remember, you don’t have to be on every social media site to have a successful brand.

The top 23 social media apps and platforms for 2024

This list is ranked by the latest data on monthly active users (MAUs)*. While it's useful to see the sheer volume of users each site has, it doesn't necessarily mean the one with the biggest user base is the best for your brand. If your target audience is not active there, the platform isn't worth the time and effort it will take to manage it.

Start your social media marketing strategy by pinpointing where your ideal customers are active, to get the best return on investment (ROI) for your business.

1. Facebook — 3.05 billion MAUs

Facebook is the largest social networking site, with over 3 billion people using it monthly, according to Statista. This means roughly 37 percent of the world’s population are Facebook users. Facebook's direct messaging spin-off app, Facebook Messenger, boasts 931 million monthly active users.

More than 200 million businesses (mostly small businesses) use Facebook tools, and more than seven million advertisers actively promote their business on Facebook, which makes it a pretty safe bet if you want to have a presence on social media. Facebook Groups, along with the platform's powerful advertising tool, Facebook Ads Manager, also make it easier to reach more people and grow your following on Facebook.

It’s easy to get started on Facebook because almost all content formats work great on Facebook — text, images, video content (Facebook Reels), and Stories. But the Facebook algorithm prioritizes content that sparks conversations and meaningful interactions between people, especially those from family and friends.

2. WhatsApp — 2.78 billion MAUs

WhatsApp is a messaging app used by people in over 180 countries, boasting an estimated 2.78 active users, according to Statista.

Initially, people originally used WhatsApp to send text messages to their family and friends, but the launch of WhatsApp Business in 2018 has seen the messaging platform become a popular choice for brands. WhatsApp Business reported having over 200 million monthly active users in June 2023.

WhatsApp’s business platform allows businesses to provide customer support and share updates with customers about their purchases. For small businesses, there’s the WhatsApp Business app, while enterprise businesses can use the WhatsApp Business API.

As the most widely used messaging platform, WhatsApp can be a great customer service channel for your business.

3. YouTube — 2.49 billion MAUs

YouTube is a video-sharing platform where users watch a billion hours of videos daily. Besides being the second largest social media app, YouTube is often called the second largest search engine after Google, its parent company.

So, if you use video to promote your business, then you definitely need to add YouTube to your marketing strategy. To get started, here’s how to create a YouTube channel for your brand.

To help your videos get discovered by more people, we recommend reading up on YouTube SEO and the YouTube algorithm.

4. Instagram — 2.04 billion MAUs

As a visual social networking platform, Instagram is the place for showcasing your products or services with photos or videos. On the app, you can share a wide range of content, such as photos, videos, Stories, Reels, and live videos.

As a brand, you can create an Instagram business profile, which provides rich analytics of your profile and posts and the ability to schedule Instagram posts using third-party tools. It’s also a great place to get user-generated content from your audience because users frequently share content and tag brands.

As is the case with Facebook, the Instagram algorithm prioritizes engagement above all else. Check out this guide to help you grow your following on Instagram, whether you're a seasoned creator or just starting out.

5. WeChat — 1.32 billion MAUs

WeChat was released in 2011 by Tencent, one of China’s biggest tech companies. With over 1.32 billion monthly users, 80 percent of China's total population is active on the app.

Like WhatsApp and Messenger, WeChat was originally a messaging app, but it’s evolved into an all-in-one platform. Besides messaging and calling, users can shop online, pay bills, buy groceries, transfer money, make reservations, book taxis, and more.

WeChat is the most popular social media app in China and other parts of Asia. So if you want to boost your brand in China (where popular social networks like Facebook and X are banned), WeChat is a good alternative. You can run ads on the official WeChat account or on WeChat Moments. There are also many WeChat-based influencers who can help your brand reach millions of Chinese consumers.

6. TikTok — 1.22 billion MAUs

TikTok (known as Douyin in China) is a short-form video-sharing app. Despite only launching in 2017, it’s one of the fastest-growing apps in the world and recently overtook Google as the most visited internet site.​

TikTok allows users to create and share videos between 15 seconds and 10 minutes long, and the app has a vast catalog of sound effects, music snippets, and filters to enhance the videos and make them more appealing.

You can find videos relating to almost all interests, ranging from lip-syncs, dancing, and challenges to DIY tricks and make-up tutorials. About 47.4 percent of TikTok users in the U.S. are aged 10-29. So if your target demographic is young, then TikTok is a great social media platform for your business to be on.

The TikTok algorithm prioritizes engagement, as well as video watch time — so it's important to hook viewers in from the first few seconds of your video. Here's our guide to getting more followers on TikTok.

7. Telegram — 800 million MAUs

Telegram is a free messaging app that works across multiple devices with no limits on media sizes.

Telegram's distinctive feature is its end-to-end encryption for all activities, including chats, groups, and media shared between participants. Its focus on security has drawn more customers over the years, especially when WhatsApp announced changes to its privacy policy that would allow it to share information with parent company Meta.

There are several ways brands can make use of Telegram, besides providing one-on-one customer support. For example, brands can create chatbots for the Telegram platform or make use of Telegram's channel feature to broadcast messages to up to 200,000 people.

8. Snapchat — 750 million MAUs

Snapchat focuses on photos and short videos (known as snaps) shared between friends. It made the vertical video format popular, which eventually proliferated on other visual social media apps like Instagram and TikTok.

But the rise of Instagram Stories, specifically, seems to have hindered Snapchat’s growth and marketers’ interest in using Snapchat for their brands in general.​

Nevertheless, 69% of U.S. teens say they use Snapchat. So if your target audience is mostly teenagers, you should consider using the app. If you’re not familiar with Snapchat, check out our beginner’s guide to Snapchat. Or if you’re undecided between Snapchat and Instagram, we wrote a little comparison of Snapchat and Instagram for brands.

9. Kuaishou — 673 million MAUs

Kuaishou is a Chinese rival to Douyin or TikTok. Like its competitors, Kuaishou allows users to overlay text and stickers to images or videos and add sound bites. Users can also live stream content to their followers on the platform or record longer videos.

Compared to TikTok, Kuaishou is more popular with an older audience, especially in rural parts of China. The app also relies more on e-commerce revenue than on advertising revenue.

10. Sina Weibo — 599 million MAUs

“Weibo” (微博) means “micro-blog” in Chinese. Launched by the Chinese technology company Sina Corporation in 2009, Sina Weibo, or simply Weibo, is, a microblogging platform that compares to Twitter and Instagram.

Through Weibo, users can post images, videos, and stories, see trending topics, use hashtags in posts, and use the platform for instant messaging.

In comparison to WeChat, Sina Weibo has a younger demographic, and it offers more informational and trending content. In fact, The New York Times said Weibo is the place to be if you “want to go viral” in China. Weibo also allows businesses to set up official and verified accounts to communicate with their followers and to use paid advertising.

11. QQ — 571 million MAUs

QQ was released in China in 1999 by Tencent. Prior to the launch of WeChat, QQ was the number one Chinese messaging app. Besides its instant messaging features, QQ also enables users to decorate their avatars, watch movies, play online games, stream music, shop online, blog, and make payments.

While WeChat has become the market leader in China, QQ is still popular with younger social media users. It’s also used in 80 countries and is available in many other languages. One of the upsides of QQ is you don't need a phone number to sign up. This attracts young people who don't have mobile devices but use the desktop version.

However, the largest audience for QQ is in the workforce. QQ’s desktop messenger is popular for its ease of use and ability to transfer files greater than 25 MB, which WeChat doesn’t allow.

12. QQ — 558 million MAUs

QQ or Qzone is another China-based app from Tencent that mixes social networking and blogging. Users can upload multimedia, keep diaries, write blogs, play games, and stream music with the social media app.

Like Facebook, users can also connect with friends, see a feed of updates, comment, share or react to posts, and update cover or profile photos.

It's worth noting that the platform's user numbers are going in the opposite direction to the others on this list. QQ's MAUs have been in decline in recent months, dropping from around 574 million in 2022 to 558 million in 2023.

13. X (formerly Twitter) — 550 million MAUs

X's monthly active user numbers have been reported as anywhere between 335 million to 666 million. In a September 2023 interview, X CEO Linda Yaccarino shared that the company currently had 550 million MAUs, so we've gone with that value.

The platform once known as Twitter invites an audience that loves to post news, entertainment, sports, politics, and more. What makes it different from most other social networking sites is it strongly emphasizes real-time information — things happening and trending right now — in just 280 characters (140 for Japanese, Korean, and Chinese).

Many brands use Twitter as an alternate customer service channel. According to advertisers on Twitter, more than 80 percent of social customer service requests happen on Twitter. And Salesforce calls Twitter the “New 1-800 Number for Customer Service.”

If you’re new to the platform, here's a look at how the X/Twitter algorithm works, plus how to grow your following on Twitter.

14. Pinterest — 465 million MAUs

Pinterest is a one-stop shop for inspiration and discovering new products and ideas. On Pinterest, users "pin" photos that link to websites, product pages, blog posts, and other content across the internet. It's a great platform for driving traffic to your website, and Pinterest’s user base are seven times more likely to purchase products they've pinned.​

Popular topics and themes on the social platform include fashion, beauty, home, garden, and DIY. If you're a business or creator in one of these niches, it's a no brainer to share your content on the platform.

Here's how to use Pinterest if you're just starting out, along with 20 ways to get followers on Pinterest if you're just starting out.

15. Reddit — 430 million MAUs

With roughly 1.7 billion visits in April 2023, Reddit has been called the "front page of the internet," thanks to its mix of current events, celebrity "ask me anything" (AMA) events, and in-depth discussions of niche topics.

There are subreddits (i.e., dedicated forums) for pretty much anything under the sun. Subreddits, however, have different levels of engagement, so it’s great to research to see if there are popular subreddits your brand can be part of. For example, if your business is a beauty brand, you could join r/beauty.

Be aware, though, most subreddits do not allow self-promotion. The aim is to engage with members in the respective subreddits by asking and answering questions, sharing tips and resources, and participating in discussions.

Besides submitting your content to Reddit and participating in discussions, you can also find content ideas and advertise.

16. LinkedIn — 424 million MAUs

At roughly 424 million monthly active users, LinkedIn has evolved from a simple job search engine and resume site into a professional networking platform where industry experts share content, network, and build their personal brand.

It has also become a place for businesses to establish thought leadership and attract customers and top talent, as well as a place for creators to build personal brands in their industries.

Here's a guide to LinkedIn's algorithm to help you get more followers on LinkedIn, whether you're a business or a creator.

17. Quora — 300 million MAUs

Quora is a community-based Q&A website and app where people can find information on a wide variety of topics. Questions and answers are user-ranked based on views, votes, reviews, and shares.

As a brand, you can create a Quora page for your business or use employee advocates to answer questions about your products or services or about topics in your industry. Quora also has an ads platform you can use to advertise your business. And because 63% of users research major online purchases, it's a great place to reach customers actively looking for a product or service.

18. Discord — 154 million MAUs

Discord is a communication platform primarily designed for gamers. It allows users to create servers, join communities, voice chat, and text chat with others in real time.

Discord is popular due to its ease of use, customizable features, and compatibility with various devices. It has expanded beyond gaming communities and is now used by businesses, educational institutions, and other groups.

19. Twitch — 140 million MAUs

Twitch is a live-streaming platform for gamers. It offers video game content and other forms of entertainment. Users can create a channel, stream their gameplay, and interact with their audience through chat.

Twitch has become a central hub for the gaming and esports communities. It's a place where many professional players, teams, and tournaments use it to broadcast their matches. Twitch's success is driven by its community-driven approach, allowing creators to build a dedicated following and earn money through subscriptions, donations, and sponsorships.

20. Tumblr — 135 million MAUs

Tumblr is a popular microblogging social media site with 135 million monthly active users.

Users can share content in different formats: text, photos, videos, GIFs, audio clips, links, and more. The site's users share content on every topic, niche, and interest imaginable.

Tumblr also lets you customize your blog design. For this reason, many users opt to use their Tumblr account as their website.

21. Threads by Instagram — 100 million

Instagram’s Twitter alternative, Threads, hit app stores in 2023 with a record-breaking rise to 100 million sign-ups in a matter of days. While interest in the platform initially seemed to flag, Threads has regularly launched new features to keep MAUs climbing.

Threads has “just under” 100 million monthly active users according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who believes the app has a “good chance” of reaching 1 billion users in the next few years.

22. Mastodon — 1.7 million MAUs

Mastodon, a new entrant on the social media scene, exploded in popularity in late 2022, taking it from 300,000 to over 1.7 million monthly active users in 2023.

Mastodon is a decentralized, open-source software that allows users to set up servers to communicate with each other. Users can create posts of up to 5,000 characters, and add images, audio, and video.

23. Bluesky — MAU unknown

Bluesky is a decentralized, invite-only social network built on an open-source protocol. While they’ve yet to publicly share their monthly active user numbers, the platform hit the 1 million (total) users mark in September 2023.

Bluesky was created by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey while he was still in the role. The platform, which also has an iOS and Android app, bears a striking resemblance to Dorsey’s former product.

Be selective with your social media presence

You don't need to be everywhere all at once. So regardless of the size of the social media site, consider whether your brand’s target audience is active on those platforms. It’s better to pick two to three sites and do them well rather than create so-so content for five or more different platforms.

P.S. Buffer lets you schedule social media posts to several top social media sites. If you want to manage more than one social media account across multiple platforms, try Buffer (totally free) to experience what it can do for your business.

*Unless otherwise stated, these numbers are from Statista's report, 'Most popular social networks worldwide as of October 2023'.

If you're a TikTok creator, you've probably heard about hashtags. They can be a serious game changer for boosting TikTok SEO and getting more eyes on your content.

In this article, we'll explore everything you need to know about TikTok hashtags, including how to find them, using the right ones for your content, along with a list of the trending TikTok hashtags across several industries for 2024.

Here’s how to improve your reach and grow your following on TikTok with hashtags.

What are TikTok hashtags?

As is the case on most social media platforms, TikTok hashtags are words or phrases preceded by the "#" symbol used to categorize content on the platform. When a user adds a hashtag to their video, it becomes searchable by other users under that specific hashtag.

When someone searches for a hashtag, they are presented with a feed of all the videos that have been tagged with that hashtag, allowing them to find content that is relevant to their interests.

Depending on the popularity of certain hashtags, TikTok may even create ‘featured pages’ to highlight trending topics, which users can favorite and follow. Think of these pages as ‘For You pages (or FYPs) for specific topics. Here are some examples of current TikTok trends, #BookTok and #MomsofTikTok:

This makes it easier for users to discover new content and for creators to reach a wider audience. The use of hashtags on TikTok plays a crucial role in helping users categorize their content and increase their visibility on the platform. 

The benefits of using TikTok hashtags

Across platforms, hashtags are a powerful social media marketing tool. On TikTok in particular, hashtags help to categorize your content, which in turn helps the people who are looking for content in your niche discover you more easily. Here are some of the benefits of using TikTok hashtags:

• Increased visibility: Adding a hashtag to your TikTok video makes it searchable by other users and increases its chances of being discovered.
• Reach a wider audience: TikTok hashtags make it easier for creators to reach a target audience that is interested in the same topics.
• Viral potential: If your video is well-received and relevant to a particular hashtag, it has an increased chance of going viral and reaching a large audience.
• Improved engagement: Using hashtags that are relevant to your content can lead to increased engagement from users who are interested in the same topics. Engagement is a very important signal to the TikTok algorithm — the more interactions you get, the more likely your video is to be surfaced on new audience’s For You pages. 
• Increased followers: By using popular and relevant hashtags, you can attract new followers who are interested in your content.
• Increased brand exposure: Brands can use TikTok hashtags to increase their visibility and reach a wider audience, leading to increased brand exposure and recognition.

Using hashtags can help you build your brand on TikTok. When you consistently use the same hashtags in your content, users will start to associate those hashtags with your brand. This can help you build a loyal following and increase your overall visibility on the platform.

How to find the right hashtags for your TikTok

There are several ways to find trending TikTok hashtags. My personal favorite TikTok’s Creative Center tool is the perfect solution to quickly finding the right hashtags. 

It’s great for finding the hard data on hashtag popularity by their numbers, industry, and regions. You can even find trending TikTok sounds, videos, and creators that are making waves right now.

The only downside is that the experience doesn’t come in the TikTok app, so it’s a bit more difficult to dive deep into other content on your phone since you have to do all your research in your browser. 

So, here’s how to find the right hashtags for your TikTok manually:

1. Open TikTok, click on the search button at the top-right of the screen, and type in your query.

For example, if you want to create a cooking video showing off a recipe, you can search for the keyword "recipe ideas". If you want to get even more niche, search for a keyword that is specific to the type of recipe like healthy recipes or beginner recipes.

2. The hashtags associated with your query will be displayed under the "Hashtags" section. Scroll through the results to see all the hashtags that are related to your keyword. The number of views for the hashtag will also be displayed beside each one.

3. Check what content is being created under that hashtag. Keep a mental note of how many likes, comments, and views the videos have, as well as which creators appear repeatedly under that hashtag. This can give you an idea of its popularity.

4. Select the hashtags that are relevant to your content and that you believe will reach your target audience. You can use up to 30 hashtags per video on TikTok (but stick to 4-6)

5. After you've selected your hashtags, add them to your video when you post it on TikTok. Simply type the hashtags into the caption or description field and make sure to add the "#" symbol before each hashtag.

6. Once your video is posted, it will be searchable under each hashtag you add, helping you increase its visibility and reach a wider audience.

The top TikTok hashtags of 2024

While you might think it’s a great idea to throw as many hashtags into the mix as possible to see what sticks, I’d urge you to choose wisely. If the hashtags you choose aren’t relevant to your content, they’ll harm your video performance more than help it. 

With that in mind, here’s a look at the most popular hashtags on TikTok of 2024, so far. We keep this list updated regularly, but be sure to check out TikTok’s Creative Center for the most up-to-date lists. 

The 10 most popular TikTok hashtags of 2024 worldwide

1. #memecut — 18 million posts, 45 billion views
2. #growmyaccount — 12 million posts, 52 billion views
3. #contenido — 6 million posts, 53 billion views
4. #account — 7 million posts, 30 billion views
5. #realmadrid — 3 million posts, 39 billion views
6. #brawlstars — 3 million posts, 37 billion views
7. #summer — 10 million posts, 20 billion views
8. #repost — 3 million posts, 21 billion views
9. #barcelona — 2 million posts, 26 billion views
10. #diadesanvalentin — 3 million posts, 39 billion views

The 10 most popular TikTok hashtags of 2024 in the U.S.

1. #memecut — 4.6 million posts, 8.4 billion views
2. #สโลว์สมูท — 2.4 million posts, 2.8 billion views
3. #relateable — 669K posts, 7.1 billion views
4. #wlw — 771k posts, 5.2 billion views 
5. #summer — 2.6 million posts, 5.2 billion views
6. #repost — 605K posts, 4.6 billion views
7. #work — 568K posts, 5.2 billion views
8. #baseball — 462K posts, 5.6 billion views
9. #drake — 314K posts, 4.9 billion views
10. #health — 573K posts, 3.2 billion views

The 10 most popular TikTok hashtags of 2024 in apparel & accessories

1. #spring — 532K posts, 2 billion views
2. #tattoo — 340K posts, 4 billion views
3. #tattoos — 239K posts, 2 billion views
4. #shop — 229K posts, 1 billion views
5. #original — 199K posts, 1 billion views
6. #summervibes — 162K posts, 1 billion views
7. #tiktokshopping — 197K posts, 1 billion views
8. #dress — 121K posts, 1 billion views
9. #stpatricksday — 127K posts, 843 million views
10. #tattooartist — 123K posts, 1 billion views

The 10 most popular TikTok hashtags of 2024 in beauty & personal care

1. #barber — 207K posts, 3 billion views
2. #color — 97K posts, 515 million views
3. #slime — 70K posts, 968 million views
4. #barberlife — 77K posts, 619 million views
5. #nails — 97K posts, 515 million views
6. #teeth — 40K posts, 1 billion views
7. #beard — 54K posts, 475 million views
8. #stressrelief — 59K posts, 318 million views
9. #teethwhitening — 36K posts, 884 million views
10. #organic — 58K posts, 227 million views

The 10 most popular TikTok hashtags of 2024 in business services

1. #bookmarks — 12K posts, 31 million views
2. #balloontutorial — 1K posts, 24 million views
3. #balloonideas — 904 posts, 25 million views
4. #cncmill — 1K posts, 8 million views
5. #tuftexballoons — 1K posts, 4 million views
6. #cncmachinetool — 1K posts, 6 million views
7. #balloonartisttiktok — 1K posts, 24 million views
8. #balloonsetup — 1K posts, 3 million views
9. #cncprogramming — 578 posts, 13 million views
10. #balloonsoftiktok — 826 posts, 3 million views

The 10 most popular TikTok hashtags of 2024 in games

1. #warzone — 524K posts, 4 billion views
2. #sketch — 322K posts, 4 billion views
3. #brawlstars — 272K posts, 5 billion views
4. #mellstroy — 611K posts, 910 million views
5. #бравлстарс — 239K posts, 3 billion views
6. #glavstroy — 387K posts, 2 billion views
7. #avatarthelastairbender — 142K posts, 4 billion views
8. #mlb — 204K posts, 3 billion views
9. #мелстрой — 307K posts, 1 billion views
10. #helldivers2 — 206K posts, 2 billion views
11. #siege — 147K posts, 1 billion views

The 10 most popular TikTok hashtags of 2024 in health

1. #dental — 27K posts, 438 million views
2. #orthodontics — 5K posts, 74 million views
3. #collagenpowder — 3K posts, 58 million views
4. #dentallab — 1K posts, 10 million views
5. #dentaltechnician — 633 posts, 10 million views
6. #collagensupplement — 620 posts, 5 million views
7. #bestdentist — 478 posts, 8 million views
8. #diseñodesonrisa — 449 posts, 5 million views
9. #dentalsurgery — 418 posts, 5 million views
10. #dentaltech — 507 posts, 6 million views

The 10 most popular TikTok hashtags of 2024 in travel

1. #beach — 394K posts, 2 billion views
2. #vacation — 389K posts, 2 billion views
3. #disneyland — 146K posts, 2 billion views
4. #carnival — 80K posts, 1 billion views
5. #landscape — 382K posts, 347 million views
6. #trip — 73K posts, 360 million views
7. #riodejaniero — 31K posts, 666 million views
8. #waltdisneyworld — 61K posts, 440 million views
9. #paradise — 67K posts, 186 million views
10. #disneytiktok — 50K posts, 541 million views

Tips to make the most of TikTok hashtags

Whether you’re a social media marketer, small business, influencer, or UGC (user-generated content) creator, you’d be remiss not to bake hashtags into your TikTok marketing strategy. Here’s what you need to do to make the most of hashtags on TikTok:

1. Research relevant hashtags 

Take the time to research the best hashtags for your content. Look for hashtags that are related to your niche, theme, or topic and ensure that they are still being actively used by the TikTok community. This includes digging through your competition’s post and looking for relevant hashtags.

2. Use a mix of popular and niche hashtags

Using both popular and niche hashtags can help you reach a wider audience while also targeting specific users who are interested in your content. The more niche a hashtag, the less content you will likely see under it. This is actually good for content discovery as there is less competition.

3. Stay up-to-date

TikTok is constantly evolving, and the popularity of hashtags can change quickly. Keep an eye on trends and use hashtags that are relevant to current events, challenges, and trends.

4. Develop a branded hashtag

Creating your own hashtag for your TikTok account is a great way to build brand recall on the platform, plus increase your chances of kickstarting a trend or even a hashtag challenge. 

ELF Cosmetics #eyeslipsface hashtag has over 9.8 billion associated videos and was a massive viral campaign in 2020. If you have any catchy ideas, make sure the custom hashtag is easy to remember and spell. 

@jessicaalba #eyeslipsface my errryday look #honestbeauty #cleanbeauty ♬ Eyes. Lips. Face. (e.l.f.) - iLL Wayno & Holla FyeSixWun

When TikTok users see your branded hashtag, they will associate it with your brand and be more likely to engage with your content.

5. Limit the number of hashtags

Using too many hashtags can look spammy and detract from the quality of your content (not to mention eat into your caption and decrease the chance followers will read it — TikTok has a 4,000 character limit). 

Stick to using four to six relevant hashtags per TikTok post, keeping a mix of trending and niche hashtags.

6. Measure hashtag performance

Finally, track which hashtags work best for you and your content. If you consistently use the same set of hashtags, note which ones seem to drive more engagement or views than others. This will allow you to focus on the most effective tags and optimize your hashtag strategy over time.

Hashtags are not a guarantee you'll go viral — but they can improve your chances

Using hashtags doesn’t guarantee that your video will go viral. However, developing a strategy for using them in your videos can help increase the number of eyes on your content, reach a specific audience, and build your brand on TikTok. By following these best practices, you can use hashtags effectively and take your TikTok content to the next level.

Growing on Instagram takes time and effort — but with these must-do tactics, the path to an engaged following is a lot more straightforward than you might think.

You will learn

• Instagram fundamentals that are essential for organic growth
• Big-picture guidance on your Instagram content strategy and calendars
• Small tweaks and tips that make all the difference

There are no definitive “growth hacks” for increasing your number of followers on Instagram — but there are still plenty of things you can do to build your Instagram growth strategy.

Here are 13 steps you can take for organic Instagram growth, in the order we recommended doing them.

Before we dive in: If you’re just starting with Instagram for your business or as a creator, the first step is to tighten the nuts and bolts of your Instagram presence. As such, the first few tactics cover the basics and are particularly relevant to new creators or businesses.

Even if you’re a seasoned Instagrammer, it’s worth making sure you have the essential boxes ticked more moving on. If you are, don't worry: there's plenty of guidance in this guide for intermediate and advanced creators too.

Let's get into them all.

At a glance: 13 ways to get more followers on Instagram

1. Avoid buying fake followers like the plague
2. Embed keywords into your username and name
3. Optimize your Instagram bio
4. Cross-promote your Instagram handle on other channels
5. Find your best times to post on Instagram
6. Build an Instagram marketing strategy
7. Write compelling captions
8. Use relevant hashtags
9. Understand your analytics
10. Collaborate with Instagram creators or other small businesses
11. Experiment with different types of Instagram posts
12. Talk to your audience in comments and Stories
13. Get verified on Instagram

1. Avoid buying fake followers like the plague

When websites sell 1,000 Instagram followers for the cheap pricing of $12.99 (yes, those are real figures), it’s enticing to snag a quick win to inflate your follower count. But purchasing fake followers does more harm than good:

• Instagram actively discourages and purges accounts that engage in fraudulent activities
• Fake followers are bots and not real people — they don’t engage with your account authentically or convert into customers
• You destroy your credibility and lose the trust of your audience — which will make them unfollow you

Purchasing engagement such as views and comments or participating in engagement pods is equally futile at growing your Instagram account. You don’t just want a huge number of followers for the sake of it, you want to grow a meaningful community.

2. Embed keywords into your username and name

The Instagram algorithm prioritizes search results containing keywords in the name and username.

• Your username is your Instagram handle (your profile’s @name): Keep this the same as your company’s name and/or consistent with your profile’s username on other social channels to be instantly identifiable.
• Your name is your company’s name (or anything you like): Add relevant keywords here to improve your visibility.

For example, Ursa Major has “skincare” in its name on Instagram to make the company easier to find when someone searches for skincare brands and solutions.

Adding a relevant keyword is also an opportunity to tell who you are and what you sell to potential customers at a glance — since it’s the first thing someone sees when they land on your profile.

3. Optimize your Instagram bio

There are four elements you need to nail to unlock the perfect Instagram bio:

• A straightforward description of what you do and/or what you sell
• A stroke of brand personality
• A clear call to action
• A link

Your Instagram bio is only 150 characters. But it’s what makes or breaks your first impression on potential followers and customers. The science behind Instagram bios is to make them clear, creative, and complete. Anyone reading it should instantly know what your company does, how it can help them, and where they can learn more. Odd Giraffe, a personalized stationery brand, hits the nail on the head with their Instagram bio.

For starters, their “Hello, paper person” not only gives its bio a slash of character that’s uniquely them, but also filters out who they’re speaking to: Someone who lives and breathes stationery. The following line is a crystal-clear call to action that highlights what they sell and how they differentiate themselves (100+ designs).

The link in bio is your chance to redirect your audience to an external page. You can add your company’s website or keep updating it based on your recent posts. But if you want to go the extra mile, use link-in-bio tools like Buffer’s Start Page to combine all your URLs into one. Look how photographer Ryan Johnson does this using Buffer:

Not just this: You can also customize the Start Page as much as you like to make it on-brand and track how each link is performing.

4. Cross-promote your Instagram handle on other channels

Redirecting potential customers from other channels to your Instagram profile is a lightweight strategy to make yourself discoverable and boost your following quickly.

For example, at Buffer, we add our Instagram link on our website footer.

No one should have to manually go and search for you on Instagram if they already follow you in other places. Add your Instagram account’s link to:

• Your product packaging
• Your blogs (when relevant)
• Marketing and transactional emails
• Your website’s footer and/or sidebar
• Social media posts from team members
• Your and your employees’ email signature
• Bios on other social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube
• Networking events and webinars (Use your profile’s Instagram QR code for in-person events)

Your Instagram link doesn’t have to be big and flashy. A small Instagram icon or your QR code works for most places.

5. Find your best times to post on Instagram

What’s the best time to post on Instagram? When your audience is online.

There’s no one universal best time to share content on Instagram. Instead, aim to determine the ideal time to post for your followers.How will you know when your audience is online? Instagram tells you through its Insights in four simple steps:

1. Go to your Instagram profile within the app and click on the hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines) on the top right of your screen.
2. Tap on ‘Insights’.
3. From there, click on ‘Total followers’
4. Scroll down to the bottom of this page and look for ‘Most active times’. You’ll be able to toggle between hours for every day of the week or look at specific days.

Want to take it up a notch? Use Buffer’s analytics to determine the best times to post, the best types of posts, and the best post frequency. Buffer uses data from your previous posts and followers’ activity and organizes the numbers in a way that’s easy to understand.

Along with the time, also consider when your content is more relevant logically. A step-by-step video recipe will perform better post-working hours when people cook. On the other hand, a coffee shop post might do better at the 2 p.m. afternoon slump.

Experiment with posting times to determine when you get the most reach and engagement.

Now we’re moving on from the fundamental tips into intermediate territory. We recommend completing steps 1 through 5 before tackling the rest of this list.

6. Build an Instagram marketing strategy

Having a clear idea of where Instagram fits into your overall social media marketing strategy will not only give you positive business results but also steer you in a laser-focused direction on what to post on Instagram.But how do you create an Instagram growth strategy?

Step 1: Solidify your goals

Define whether you want to increase brand awareness, boost direct conversions, drive website traffic, or something else. Clarifying your goal dictates the content you post, your call-to-actions, and keeps your Instagram grid on-brand.

Step 2: Get a 360-view of your target audience

Knowing the basic demographics is crucial. But also go beyond that and deeply understand what your audience struggles with and how you can help them resolve their challenges using your Instagram content strategy.

Natasha Pierre — host of the Shine Online Podcast and a Video Marketing Coach — says losing sight of your ideal follower in exchange for virality is the single biggest mistake creators make:

“People often focus so much on going viral and reaching as many people as possible that they lose sight of the ideal follower they're trying to reach. You could go viral today, and if you're reaching mostly the wrong people:

1) Chances are it won't result in them following you, and;

2) It would lead to a follower who is not an engaged community member if you're a creator or would never be a warm lead if you're a small business.

Taking the time to reflect on who your ideal follower is will help you create specific-to-them content which will not only result in better growth but quality new followers.”

Step 3: Define your brand voice and aesthetic

Even if you’re a creator and not a company, it’s worth crafting a social media marketing voice that’s uniquely you, so Instagram users can identify your posts without seeing the username.

Brand voice is hard to track or quantify, but it’s non-negotiable to be memorable. On Instagram, you can also define your aesthetic along with your brand voice. Use brand colors, stick to a consistent content theme, and have a personality.⚠️ Remember: If you’re a small business, remember that your social media marketing voice shouldn’t differ vastly from your general brand voice. Reflect your company values on and off the app.

Step 4: Create content pillar themes and stick to them

Decide on a niche for your Instagram account. Have a few overarching topics you’ll post about, and don’t deviate from them too much. This has many benefits:

• You don’t have to constantly reinvent the wheel for brainstorming great content ideas
• Your Instagram community starts recognizing you for the type of content you create
• You don’t get distracted by the new, hot, shiny thing and keep revising your Instagram strategy

Step 5: Create a content calendar and post consistently

How often should you post on Instagram?

We recommend posting at least once daily — whether a carousel, a Reel, or a Story. Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, recommends posting two feed posts per week and two stories per day.

Brock Johnson — an Instagram growth coach who grew to 400K followers in one year — says posting more frequently is the most surprising way to boost your Instagram following. But this often sounds like the route to creator burnout.

A potential solution? Content repurposing. This doesn’t just mean repurposing content you’ve posted on previous channels (though that is a great option, if you’re not doing that already) but also within the same platform. Don’t be afraid of tweaking content that performed well and sharing it again. 

As creators or marketers, we often make the assumption that all of our followers have seen every single piece of content we create, but in reality, only a small portion of our audience will see a particular post. As long as you’re clever with your tweaks, content repurposing can save you loads of time and energy. 

Some examples could be to turn a series of Instagram Stories into a Reel or an insightful caption into a poignant video. Here’s a great example of the latter from @stanforcreators:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Stan — Your All-in-One Creator Store (@stanforcreators)

Content batching often comes to the rescue when creating a content calendar and posting schedule, but you often need to hop on trends to gain visibility — which means publishing Instagram posts on the go.

The ideal scenario is having a mix of scheduled and on-the-go posts. Wondering how to schedule Instagram posts? Use a scheduling tool like Buffer.

The best part? Buffer’s content calendar is visual, giving you a bird’s eye view of what you have coming up and the content gaps you need to fill.

7. Write compelling captions

It’s enticing to skimp on Instagram captions when you’ve toiled to create the perfect carousel or video. But Instagram captions hold more weight than you think: They can either nudge someone to follow you or scroll past you without looking.

For example, wellness brand Cosmix doesn’t simply write, “shop on our website!” on its Instagram posts. It explains the ingredients used, how their products help specific issues, and mentions the studies that back up their claims.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cosmix - Superfoods (@cosmixwellness)

Don’t mistake long for better though: Instagram captions perform best when they’re either very long or very short (20 characters vs. 2,000 characters), according to HubSpot’s 2023 Instagram Engagement Report.

Writing the perfect Instagram caption is more about understanding your audience and the context of your post than trying to hit a character count. If you’re writing an educational post, it makes sense to have a longer caption. But when you’re sharing an aesthetic product image, shorter is sweeter.

If coming up with cheeky captions isn’t your forte, try Buffer’s AI assistant to have a rough first draft in seconds. For example, if you’re a skincare brand and want to post about wearing sunscreen indoors, write it as a prompt for Buffer.

8. Use relevant hashtags

The right hashtags can expose your Instagram posts to a large and targeted audience.

How many hashtags should you use? The limit is up to 30, but Instagram recommends using only three to five hashtags.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Instagram’s @Creators (@creators)

But quantity isn’t where it’s at — you want to rank for your Instagram hashtags to make the most of them. Why? Many people follow hashtags to see posts about a topic or search for something specific. Your goal is to appear on the Explore page at first glance when someone uses your niche’s hashtag.

The right strategy is to use hashtags with a mix of popular and niche — this way, you don’t get lost in a sea of spam or remain hidden in your little corner of Instagram.

How do you find hashtags that would appeal to your target audience? Use free hashtag generators to help you find relevant hashtags for your Instagram post. Add a few words about your image or video, and these tools will recommend the top hashtags that go well with it.

Curate a list of hashtags for your community and group them together using Buffer’s Hashtag Manager. For example, make a group of product-specific hashtags and another for niche or industry-specific hashtags. Select from your pre-saved groups on Buffer and add hashtags to your scheduled Instagram posts.

9. Understand your analytics

Regularly checking your Instagram analytics is key to understanding what’s working for you and what’s not. You might find that your audience responds best to entertaining Reels, but educational posts work best as carousels. Discovering trends guides your content creation strategy to get maximum return on investment from Instagram.

Instagram has native analytics on its app, but they’re pretty limited. You can’t see your individual post’s performance in a single window to analyze them side by side neither can you handpick metrics important to you. It’s better to use a third-party tool like Buffer’s analytics to get all the data at a glance and even make custom reports for stakeholders.

Which metric is the most important to track? It depends on your Instagram goals and strategy. For example, if you’re testing a new hashtag, knowing the number of new followers is more important than tracking likes from your current followers. But if you’re experimenting with posting times, keeping an eye on impressions is more important.

10. Collaborate with Instagram creators or other small businesses

Collaborating with other creators via influencer marketing or partnerships with small businesses is a win-win because it exposes both parties to a new community. The critical bit is ensuring you partner with a company or creator who aligns with your values and whose followers’ demographics & interests overlap with your target audience.

For example, the period tracker app, Flo, collaborated with Charity Ekezie and created a sarcastic, funny, paid Instagram post to highlight the social initiative by the company where premium features are available free of charge in several countries from Ethiopia to Haiti.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Charity Ekezie (@itssucrepea)

These posts are shown on both accounts — meaning all followers of your creator partner will see the shared post (and, by extension, your Instagram profile and small business).

If influencers with over a hundred thousand followers are out of your budget, run a micro-influencer campaign. Smaller creators often have a tightly-knit community who trusts their recommendations.

How to find these influencers? You can go through a manual Google search or search using hashtags and keywords on Instagram. A smarter approach is to use influencer discovery tools like Modash to save time and find relevant creators.

It’s not necessary to restrict yourself to partnering with individual creators. You can also form partnerships with other small businesses — like LinkedIn and Headspace collaborated to create a post about recovering from job loss.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Headspace (@headspace)

Instagram collab posts don’t necessarily have to be a shared post, either. You can also:

• Go live with a creator
• Do an Instagram account takeover
• Repost Instagram content from an influencer’s profile
• Post videos created by them natively on your brand account

11. Experiment with different types of Instagram posts

Instagram is no longer just a photo app. The platform has introduced many formats, including Instagram Reels, pinned posts, Story Highlights, and carousel posts.

Which type of post will increase your Instagram engagement? Studies show Instagram carousels have the highest engagement, but it’s more complicated than that. Your audience might prefer Instagram Reels for bite-sized entertaining posts and carousel posts for everything educational.

If you feel your Instagram isn’t growing, experiment with different kinds of posts. It’s best to combine all the varieties, like the skincare brand 100percentpure.

12. Talk to your audience in comments and Stories

Engage with your Instagram audience to understand their problems, answer their questions, and get content ideas.

Elise Darma — an Instagram educator for business owners — says speaking to your audience is an underutilized strategy for follower growth on Instagram:

“Don't wait for everyone to come to you. The best hack ever is to proactively engage with other people on Instagram who are the kind of people your business helps. Imagine if you were at a cocktail party and wanted to make friends there.” 

“The smartest strategy wouldn't be to wait for everyone to come up to you; if you were to take the initiative to talk to people, introduce yourself, and ask them questions about themselves, you would leave that party with many more friends than if you didn't take that action.”

How do you talk to your audience on Instagram? Social media management pros will know the basic thing is responding to the comments and messages you receive — especially if it’s a question by a potential customer. The yogurt brand Chobani is a good example. They respond to almost every comment they receive.

Responding to each comment and DM isn’t realistic once you start receiving thousands of them, but do your best to answer all queries. Buffer’s engagement features make it easier — you can respond to comments from your desktop instead of cramping your hand using the mobile app.

Beyond comments and DMs, get active on Instagram Stories. There are so many features that can inspire amazing content ideas — like asking a question, interactive stickers, polls, countdowns, and even adding links. For example, nutrition brand Bulletproof does a weekly Q&A on their Instagram account to answer their audience’s most frequently asked questions about their products.

Don’t have the time or brainpower to whip up Instagram Story Ideas? Many Instagram Stories templates are available to help you save time and create aesthetic designs.

The best part about Stories? You can create a group of them and make Instagram Highlights — these remain in your profile forever instead of disappearing in 24 hours. Use them to create a go-to resource section answering all common customer queries to reduce the hindrance in selling your products on Instagram.

13. Get verified on Instagram

Having the coveted blue checkmark next to your Instagram account is a badge of instant credibility. It helps you stand out in search results, avoids impersonation, and even get higher engagement rates.

If your aim is to increase your Instagram growth rate, getting verified will undoubtedly help. But how do you get verified on Instagram? It’s simple: Buy a subscription through your Instagram profile — but there are certain eligibility requirements you have to meet, like adhering to Meta’s minimum activity requirements.

Getting more followers on Instagram isn’t a one-time affair

With these 13 tips under your belt, you’re certainly more equipped to grow your following on Instagram. But it isn’t a one-and-done deal. Maintaining Instagram growth requires regularly publishing high-quality content and staying on top of your social media strategy.

It’s time-consuming and laborious to manage the planning, posting, engaging, and tracking manually. Having an all-in-one tool — like Buffer — lets you do all of that under one roof. Don’t take just my word for it: Get started for free today and see for yourself.

We analyzed more than 5.5 million Instagram posts sent through Buffer to pinpoint the best time, day, and post format for maximum engagement.

You will learn

• Which days and hours are generally the best posting times.
• The post format that gets the most engagement.
• How to use analytics to figure out the best time to reach your specific audience.

There are many factors to consider when it comes to posting on Instagram — but the one that often feels like a make-or-break decision is what time to post your content.

It's a fair concern — the last thing you want is to spend the time and resources it takes to come up with a showstopper piece of content only to post it in a social media dead zone that results in… crickets.

Sharing Instagram Stories, Reels, feed posts, and carousels at optimal times for engagement is an important consideration in your social media strategy. If your content immediately makes it to your target audience’s feed while they're around to engage with it, it’s more likely to succeed.

It's why we combed through the median engagement rate of over 5.5 million Instagram posts sent through Buffer: to uncover which days and times are more likely to yield engagement (along with which post formats get the most likes, comments, and shares).

With all that in mind, let's dig into everything you need to know about when you should be posting on Instagram — including how to figure out the best time for your audience, whether you’re a marketer, creator, influencer, or casual Instagrammer.

Is there a best time to post on Instagram?

Let's get this out of the way before we begin: There's no universal best time to post for guaranteed success on Instagram — if only it were that easy. However, our analysis showed us that there are certain days and times that tend to yield more engagement than others.

Before we dig into those numbers, let's discuss why engagement matters.

Each section of the app (the main Instagram feed, Stories, Instagram Reels, and the Explore page) is governed by a separate algorithm. One of the most important “signals” for the various Instagram algorithms is engagement.

Engagement — likes, comments, shares, and saves — on your content tells the app that your content is resonating with people. In turn, Instagram will show your content to more people like those who have already engaged.

This is particularly true in the public discovery pages, Explore and Reels. And getting your content in those spaces is often a fast track to Instagram growth.

So while Instagram timing, or post recency, is not as crucial as it once was (R.I.P chronological feed), it’s still an important factor to consider when developing your social media marketing strategy and determining when to post content.

Ready to dig into the numbers?

The best times to post on Instagram

The best time to post on Instagram is generally between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. on weekdays. After analyzing more than 5 million Instagram posts, we found that posts shared at these times tended to get the most engagement.

This is likely because Instagram users wake up and check their phones before starting their day or scroll through the app while on their morning commute.

As you'll see from the heatmap graph above, audience behavior is pretty predictable, depending on the day of the week. The darkest green slots represent the time slots with the highest engagement. The light green to white blocks are the time slots with the lowest engagement.

You'll see that on weekdays, engagement suddenly picks up at 7 a.m. and peters out slightly as the day wears on and they're at work. There is a slight uptick at around midday, during lunch breaks.

Engagement picks up slightly in the early evenings. On Thursdays and Fridays, there's suddenly an engagement spike at 4 p.m. — likely when they mentally check out of work a bit earlier as the weekend nears.

Weekends are completely different. On Saturdays and Sundays, our data shows that engagement drops significantly, with some slightly more engaged times on Saturday morning and Sunday evening — though these weekend peaks are nothing close to the weekday engagement levels.

At a glance: The best times to post on Instagram for each day of the week

• Monday: 7 a.m.
• Tuesday: 7 a.m.
• Wednesday: 7 a.m.
• Thursday: 7 a.m.
• Friday: 4 p.m.
• Saturday: 7 a.m.
• Sunday: 7 p.m.

The best time to post on Instagram on Monday

The best time to post on Instagram on Mondays is in the morning when most users wake up between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., with two more (albeit smaller) peaks at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

• ⏰ Peak Instagram engagement time on Monday: 7 a.m.

The best time to post on Instagram on Tuesday

The best time to post on Instagram on Tuesday is in the early mornings — our analysis showed an engagement hotspot at 7 a.m. There is another (slightly lower) engagement peak in the early evening at 6 p.m.

• ⏰ Peak Instagram engagement time on Tuesday: 7 a.m.

The best time to post on Instagram on Wednesday

The best time to post on Instagram on Wednesday follows a similar pattern, with a solid peak time from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m., with no real engagement spikes later in the day.

• ⏰ Peak Instagram engagement time on Wednesday: 7 a.m.

The best time to post on Instagram on Thursday

The best times to post on Instagram on Thursdays are 7 a.m., 8 a.m., and 4 p.m, according to Buffer data. These posting times tended to see more engagement than those posted during other times of the day.

• ⏰ Peak Instagram engagement time on Thursday: 7 a.m.

The best time to post on Instagram on Friday

The best times to post on Instagram on Friday is at 4 p.m. or between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. However, the numbers show that there are slightly more high engagement time slots than on the other days of the week.

• ⏰ Peak Instagram engagement time on Friday: 4 p.m.

The best time to post on Instagram on Saturday

The best times to post on Instagram on Saturday is 7 a.m., though it's worth noting that Saturday engagement pales in comparison to weekdays. Engagement is also a bit better at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

• ⏰ Peak Instagram engagement time on Saturday: 7 a.m.

The best time to post on Instagram on Sunday

The best times to post on Instagram on Sunday are in the evening, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday is also a quiet time on the app, with Instagram users indulging in slower mornings.

• ⏰ Peak Instagram engagement time on Sunday: 7 p.m.

This is where social media scheduling tools like Buffer really shine. Experiment by systematically going through the times on the list above, scheduling a post, and tracking its performance to see what works best for your specific audience.

What is the best day of the week to post on Instagram?

You really can't go wrong with sharing content on Instagram on weekdays. But Monday and Friday are an inch about the rest of the week for engagement times.

Comparatively, the worst time of the week to post on Instagram is on a weekend. Saturday and Sunday are the worst days to post, with engagement significantly lower than the rest of the week.

What is the best time to post Reels on Instagram?

The best days and times to post Reels align with the above graphs, but it's also worth considering that people treat different segments of the Instagram app a little differently.

An update on the algorithm by Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri offers some interesting insight on this front: “People tend to look for their closest friends in Stories, use Explore to discover new content and creators, and be entertained in Reels.”

It stands to reason, then, that people are looking to be entertained at certain times of day, and catch up with friends, family, and their favorite creators at other times.

If you're looking for a slight boost in Reels engagement, we recommend testing out the peak evening times to share your videos. Your followers will have slightly more time to scroll and enjoy your content before bedtime than they would in the peak morning slots when they need to rush off to work.

The best type of content on Instagram

This might not surprise you — the most engaging content on Instagram is video. Our data revealed that videos perform a head and shoulders above carousels and photo posts.

Carousels also tend to perform slightly better than images, though the difference is not as marked as the one between Reels and everything else.

The best time for you to post on Instagram

While all of the above time frames can be useful in helping you put together a posting schedule as you’re just starting out, take it all with a pinch of salt.

There are better ways to figure out when your audience is online and engaging — and these times might not align with the general guidelines above.

How to find the best time for you to post on Instagram

Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all for the best time to post on Instagram. Your peak engagement time will likely differ from someone else’s.

For example, my Instagram audience’s activity level is pretty steady on work days and on the weekends. They’re less likely to be online during work hours, and engagement usually peaks in the early evening. They’re slightly more active on Wednesday, with activity peaking at 6 p.m. in my time zone (SAST).

For Buffer’s Instagram following, things look a little different. “We’ve found that posting between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. PST on weekdays works well for us, though Mondays at 7 p.m. PST are our best engagement time,” says Social Media Manager Mitra Mehvar. For ease of comparison, those times are 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. EST, and 10 p.m. EST.

“In general, I’ve found that weekends have had a lower engagement for us so I usually don’t post on Saturday and Sunday,” she adds.

Option 1: Instagram Insights

To get similar stats for your own audience via the Instagram analytics baked into the app, head over to Instagram Insights on the mobile app:

• Go to your Instagram profile and click on the hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines) on the top right of your screen.
• Tap on ‘Insights’.
• From there, click on ‘Total followers’
• Scroll down to the bottom of this page and look for ‘Most active times’. You’ll be able to toggle between hours for every day of the week or look at specific days.

Note that you’ll need an Instagram Business account or Instagram Creator account to access these metrics.

Option 1: Buffer Analytics

Social media analytics tools like Buffer will offer deeper insights. If you’re a Buffer user, our Analytics offer even deeper insights into the best times to post on Instagram. To find yours:

• Head over to analyze.buffer.com in your desktop browser and make sure you’re logged into your Buffer account.
• Click on ‘Instagram’ on the left side of your screen. There’s a host of important data to dig into here, including post performance and audience demographics.

• Click on ‘Answers’. Here, you’ll find insights on a whole lot more than the best time to post (think which post types are the best for you, or how often you should be posting) but the best time to post is the second box from the top.

Here are some of the Answers for our Instagram account in Buffer"

Your checklist for high-performing Instagram posts

While figuring out the best time to post for maximum engagement is an important part of your Instagram marketing strategy, it’s not the be-all and end-all.

As we unpack in our guide to the Instagram algorithm(s) there are a huge number of factors to take into account if you want your content to perform well. Here’s our checklist for high-performing Instagram content:

1. Make the most of Instagram’s new features: As with the launch of Instagram Stories and Reels, the platform loves showcasing its new features. Using them could mean getting your content in front of new audiences.
2. Experiment with post types: Regularly trying out a new type of content will help you figure out what resonates the most with your audience. Plus, it’s a great way to repurpose your content.
3. Don’t neglect your caption: According to a fascinating report by HubSpot, captions that performed the best were either very long (over 2,000 characters) or very short (less than 20). Using emojis in captions was also shown to boost engagement.
4. Use hashtags: Studies show that posts with hashtags receive higher engagement than those without. Buffer’s Hashtag Manager will make adding your favorite ones your caption or comments a breeze.
5. Prioritize authentic engagement: Rather than wasting time and resources on Instagram algorithm hacks, focus on fostering meaningful engagement with your followers. That means replying to comments and messages, resharing their mentions of you, and even interacting with them on their own content.
6. Analyze to see what’s working: Use Instagram Insights to see which of your posts have had the most engagement. Buffer's analytics will also help you uncover your best posts (those with the highest engagement) in just a few clicks.

What have you found most helpful when determining your best time to post on Instagram? Let us know @buffer on all our social media accounts!

We analyzed more than 1 million videos sent through Buffer to pinpoint the best time and day to post on TikTok for maximum reach.

You will learn:

• The best posting times on TikTok for video views
• The best (and worst) days of the week for posting on TikTok
• How to pinpoint the best days and times to post for your audience

While it’s always a good time to watch TikToks — the average viewer streams 24 hours of content a month on the app — figuring out the best time to post a TikTok is a bit more complicated.

And yet knowing when to post on TikTok can be a game-changer for content creators and small business owners alike. After all, you work hard on your content, so it makes sense to schedule your posts during peak times.

There are plenty of factors to consider when figuring out the optimal times to share. This guide will walk you through all the best practices for posting on TikTok for maximum engagement — and, with any luck, land your videos on For You Pages worldwide.

Is there a best time to post on TikTok?

There have been many studies analyzing other social media apps, but because TikTok is a relatively new platform, the numbers are a little more limited. 

This is why we tapped into Buffer’s data — analyzing more than a million TikToks sent through our platform — to pinpoint when to post on TikTok for video views.

But before we dig into that, an important caveat: There is no universal best time to post on TikTok that will work for every video on the app. If only it were that easy! 

The best time to post your TikTok posts depends on your audience and their behaviors — which is why we will walk you through analyzing your own TikTok data to figure out when to post on TikTok for your target audience later in this article. 

That said, the days and times in the charts below offer a handy guide to help you maximize your content potential while growing your following.

Ready to get into the numbers?

The best times to post on TikTok

The best times to post on TikTok are 2 p.m. on Mondays, 4 p.m. on Wednesdays, and 8 a.m. on Saturdays. On most days, reach tends to pick up later, with peaks usually happening in the late morning or afternoon.

Unsurprisingly, there are time slots with solid reach in the early evenings until 11 p.m., too

This graph above breaks down the week into hourly chunks. The darkest purple blocks are the time slots with the highest reach. The light purple to white blocks are the time slots with the lowest reach. (TikTok defines reach as the “total number of unique viewers who viewed the video.” For ease of explanation, we’ll use reach and views interchangeably here.) 

The earliest hours of the day are at the bottom of the graph, starting from midnight at the very bottom.

In our best time to post on Instagram data analysis, the weekdays were similar and reasonably predictable, with engagement peaks outside working hours. But with TikTok, things are less cut and dried.

This is likely because TikTok has a younger demographic — 53 percent of TikTok users in the U.S. are under 25, with 20 percent under 18 — with less rigid work schedules. 

The best time to post on TikTok at a glance

• Monday: 2 p.m.
• Tuesday: 10 a.m.
• Wednesday: 4 p.m.
• Thursday: 4 p.m.
• Friday: 10 a.m.
• Saturday: 8 a.m.
• Sunday: 10 a.m.

The best time to post on TikTok on Monday

According to Buffer data, the best time slots on Monday for TikTok video views are between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., with a notable surge happening at 2 p.m. 

⏰ When to post on TikTok on Monday: 2 p.m.

The best time to post on TikTok on Tuesday

On Tuesday, the data suggests that 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. is the best time to post on TikTok, with the time slot with the highest reach at 10 a.m.

⏰ When to post on TikTok on Tuesday: 10 a.m.

The best time to post on TikTok on Wednesday

While Wednesday may not be the best day to post on TikTok (more on this below), we see a peak in reach at 9 a.m. and then again between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

⏰ When to post on TikTok on Wednesday: 4 p.m.

The best time to post on TikTok on Thursday

The best posting times on Thursday are 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m., according to Buffer data.

⏰ When to post on TikTok on Thursday: 4 p.m.

The best time to post on TikTok on Friday

On Friday, the optimal posting times on TikTok are between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., with another reach hotspot at 4 p.m.

⏰ When to post on TikTok on Friday: 10 a.m.

The best time to post on TikTok on Saturday

Saturday is a quieter time on TikTok, though there is a solid peak in reach between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. and another (albeit lower) good time frame between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.

⏰ When to post on TikTok on Saturday: 8 a.m.

The best time to post on TikTok on Sunday

Sunday is also a slower day, with only one peak in video reach on the app between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

⏰ When to post on TikTok on Sunday: 10 a.m.

This is where social media scheduling tools like Buffer shine. Experiment by systematically going through the times on the list above, scheduling a TikTok, and tracking its performance to see what works best for your specific audience.

What is the best day of the week to post on TikTok?

Tuesday is the best day of the week to post on TikTok in terms of reach, with Thursday, Monday, and Friday not too far off. 

The worst day of the week to post on TikTok is Saturday when there’s a notable dip in reach on the app. Sunday and Wednesday are also not the best days to post on TikTok. 

Why it’s important to find the best times to post on TikTok

You’re on TikTok because you want others to engage with your content. Whether you post a behind-the-scenes video of your teammates, a TikTok explaining your latest product launch, or jump on a funny trend, TikToks are meant to be seen by your community. 

If you’re sharing videos that aren’t getting any views, you’re missing out on building stronger connections with your customers and increasing brand awareness.

TikTok videos have the highest engagement rate per post out of any other social platform, meaning you could use TikTok as a key driver of brand awareness and traffic for your brand. Of course, to take advantage of this, you need to post at the right times to give your followers a chance to like, share, and comment on your TikTok content.

Creator Meka Monroe @plannedcreative has a thriving TikTok where she discusses social strategy. In a video, she shares how she gained 40,000 followers through best practices, explicitly saying she only posted when her followers were most active.

@plannedcreative How I gained 40K on tiktok my exact strategy. #growyourtiktok #plannedcreative #contentcreator #contentcreatortips ♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys - Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey

Putting some thought into your posting schedule is rewarded by the TikTok algorithm and can yield great results.

How to find your best time to post on TikTok

The conversation surrounding when to post on social media can sometimes feel a bit reductive, especially considering there’s a lot of conflicting data on the topic. And while we hope you find the data from Buffer helpful, the results should be taken as helpful suggestions rather than rigid rules to follow.

For one thing, trends on social media are constantly evolving. Another factor to consider is that no matter how thorough these reports are, they’re based on aggregated data and may not apply to your audience. 

So, understanding your best posting times boils down to understanding your followers’ online habits — an essential part of your overall marketing strategy.

Sync up with your followers

Influencer Marketing Hub laid out two essential questions content creators should be asking themselves when it comes to when to post on TikTok, which we think are helpful:

1. Where is your audience?
2. When are they awake?

Your community is unique; the best times to post TikToks will depend on their schedule. Remember, TikTok is a global platform, and you’ll likely have a global audience. Your followers may be scattered across the world, so considering all the different time zones and finding overlap with your community is crucial to planning content successfully.

Experiment with different times

After you’ve studied your target audience’s schedule and nailed down a few options for posting, it’s time to put your social media management research into action and see whether these times work. Play around with scheduling your TikToks at various periods during the day to see which video performs the best.

This is where TikTok analytics comes into play. Analyzing the data — total views, comments, likes, and shares — of each video is the best way to evaluate whether your audience is discovering your content and if it resonates with them. You’ll find the analytics dashboard on your TikTok account under Creator tools. From there, you’ll be able to deep dive into three sections: overview, content, and followers.

Overview

Overview provides a breakdown of some of your basic metrics. You can see your total video views, follower growth, and likes, comments, and shares over time. There is also an engagement tab within this section that goes into your video performance in more depth.

Content

The content tab provides a much more detailed analysis than overview does. Here, you can break down key metrics for each of your TikToks. Along with looking at the likes and comments, you’ll also be able to see the average watch time of each video and the percentage of people who watched the entire TikTok. Remember that the content tab only accumulates data for the last seven days.

You’ll also get insights into how your followers found your videos and your various audience territories — which, as discussed earlier, is essential to factor in.

Followers

The followers tab is key for figuring out the best posting times as it highlights your audience location, when they are most active, and tracks the fluctuations in your follower growth. Pay attention to when your follower activity is the highest, and try to post around the same time. Another helpful metric here is seeing the other content your followers engage with.

For more detailed metrics, you can also get a TikTok Pro account. While monitoring your analytics is vital to harnessing your TikTok’s potential, try not to get too caught up in the numbers. Data always tends to fluctuate. Social media algorithms are constantly shifting.

After analyzing this data, you should feel more confident about which times and days work best for your target audience. Once you’ve established your TikTok calendar, you can use a social media management tool like Buffer to schedule your videos.

Think about your own schedule

As a content creator, burnout can be very real. While posting consistently is important, you don’t want to do too much at once and exhaust yourself. When thinking about how often you should post and what the best times are, make sure you’re also factoring in whether the workload feels reasonable for you. 

To create good content that is engaging, informative, and thoughtful, you need to feel inspired, so take care of your physical and mental health and take breaks whenever needed.

Implementing a social media calendar into your routine can significantly reduce the stress of planning and posting content. A calendar will provide an organized way to lay out all of your videos and help you be more consistent. 

Once you have a solid overview of your posts and when to schedule them, you can start planning and filming TikTok content in advance and even batch-create content.

Create great content to post on TikTok

This guide focuses primarily on scheduling, but creating high-quality content should always be your priority. Sure, finding the best times to post can get your work in front of more eyes, but you want to make sure you’re always presenting your A-game to customers with engaging and informative material.

TikTok tips

TikTok is inherently a creative space, so there are many different ways to share content successfully with your community. While it’s great to diversify your videos, it’s also helpful to find your niche. Often, users will follow an account for a particular aesthetic or because they share a specific type of content, so figure out your strengths and stick to them.

Still, be open to experimenting with trending content — whether that means trying out a specific challenge or incorporating trending TikTok sounds into your videos. 

Many accounts have gone viral from engaging with popular content, so be flexible. Whatever you post, use hashtags, engage with your audience, and be consistent.

Emulate your favorites

So many great influencers and small business owners create fun and exciting content on TikTok. Watching their videos is a great way to brainstorm ideas for your brand. You can use their work as a jumping-off point and tailor the content to fit your brand. If you need some inspiration — check out this list of innovative TikTokers.

Hopefully, this guide will help you nail down some of the best times to post on TikTok! Ensuring your videos get seen by as many people as possible is the next step in attracting more customers to your brand and building a stronger online community.

What are your favorite times to post on TikTok? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter or Instagram!

Check out our list of the best free SEO tools that can boost your organic rankings on Google & Bing and can lead to immediate gains in your marketing today.

You will learn

• The best free tools to upgrade your search engine optimization
• Tools to help you uncover new keyword opportunities
• Tools that will check your backlinks

Whenever I dream up a home improvement project for my place, I work the smartest and fastest when I have the right tools. It’s amazing the difference a good tool can make – and the extra time it takes to get work done without a helpful tool.

The same principle applies to digital marketing. How can you work smarter and faster with SEO?

It starts with having the right tools.

Here are the best free SEO tools on the market that will fill up your toolkit with options for every scenario. Whether you're a pro or not, these tools are fast, free, and easy to use. I hope you find one or two (or twenty) you can put to good use today.

At a glance: The best free SEO tools

1. Google PageSpeed Insights
2. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
3. Answer the Public
4. Google Analytics
5. Google Search Console
6. Ahrefs’ Backlink Checker
7. Google Ads Keyword Planner
8. SERP Snippet Optimization Tool
9. Google Trends
10. Ahrefs’ SEO toolbar
11. Moz Local Listing Score
12. Yoast SEO
13. JSON-LD Schema Generator For SEO
14. Classy Schema Structured Data Viewer
15. SimilarWeb
16. SERP Robot
17. XML Sitemaps
18. Robots.txt Generator
19. Copyscape
20. Google Alerts
21. Screaming Frog SEO Log File Analyser
22. Exploding Topics
23. The Hreflang Tags Generator Tool
24. Keyword Surfer
25. Google Mobile-Friendly Test
26. Website Authority Checker
27. Whitespark’s Google Review Link Generator
28. SEMRush

1. Google PageSpeed Insights

Check the speed and usability of your site on multiple devices

Limitations: None

Enter a URL, and this tool will test the loading time and performance for that URL on desktop and mobile. It then grades your site’s performance from 0 - 100. It tells you exactly how fast it takes to load the site according to different metrics and suggests improvement areas.

Alternatives: Pingdom, WebPageTest, and GTMetrix

2. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools

Run a technical audit of your site

Limitations: 10,000 crawl credits per project per month

Sign up for Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, verify your website, and you can audit your website for over 100+ technical SEO issues. The tool also gives suggestions on how to fix them.

After running an SEO audit, it also suggests areas where you can improve your internal linking, which helps boost your rankings in search engines.

This tool also lets you see your site’s organic keyword rankings and who’s linking to you.

Alternatives: Screaming Frog (audit), Beam Us Up (audit)

3. Answer the Public

Hundreds of keyword ideas based on a single keyword

Limitations: Three free searches per day; you have to sign up to use them.

Enter any relevant keyword, and Answer the Public will provide a huge list of long-tail keyword opportunities, plus common questions asked.

Alternatives: KeywordTool.io, UberSuggest, Keyword Sheeter, Keyword Generator

4. Google Analytics

Complete web stats and search insights

Limitations: No limitations for its usage, but queries that are sending you organic traffic are hidden

Quite possibly the most powerful free analytics tool available, Google Analytics tracks pretty much every bit of traffic you can imagine on your website—where it comes from, which page is receiving it and so on.

While it’s not purely for SEO, it’s still a helpful tool to track if you’re getting traffic from organic search.

However, Google Analytics has since stopped showing which keywords send you that traffic. You’ll have to pair it with a tool like Keyword Hero to uncover what’s behind “(not provided).”

Alternatives: Matomo, Open Web Analytics, and Clicky

5. Google Search Console

Constant website analysis, alerts, and error reports

Limitations: Only shows a handful of technical SEO issues, the top 1,000 backlinks, and the top 1,000 organic keywords

Google Search Console gives you a taste of what the most used search engine thinks of your website. You can use it to check and fix technical issues on your website, see important SEO data like clicks, impressions, and average ranking position, submit sitemaps, and more.

If ranking in search engines like Bing and Yandex are important to you, note that they have their own “search console” too.

Alternatives: Bing Webmaster Tools, Yandex Webmaster Tools

6. Ahrefs’ Backlink Checker

Comprehensive link analysis

Limitations: Free for the top 100 backlinks

The free version of Ahrefs’ Backlink Checker shows the top 100 backlinks to any website or URL, along with the total number of backlinks and referring domains (links from unique sites), Domain Rating (DR), and URL Rating (UR) where applicable.

A great way to use this tool is to paste your competitor’s website and find potential link-building opportunities.

Alternatives: Moz Link Explorer

7. Google Ads Keyword Planner

Know what people search for with this free keyword research tool

Limitations: You’ll need to run an ad campaign to see exact search volumes

Enter a keyword or group of keywords into the tool, and Google Keyword Planner will return all sorts of helpful stats to guide your keyword strategy: monthly search volume, competition, and even suggested terms you might not have considered.

Alternatives: Bing Keyword Planner

8. SERP Snippet Optimization Tool

Preview how your web pages will look in Google’s search results

Limitations: None

See how your meta title and description will appear in the search results before you even publish your web page. Works for desktop and mobile.

Check for truncation issues and fix them instantly.

Alternatives: Portent's SERP Preview Tool

9. Google Trends

See the relative search popularity of topics

Limitations: None

Google Trends shows the popular search terms over time, which is useful for uncovering seasonal variations in search popularity. Compare multiple terms to see their relative popularity over time, and watch for handy keyword suggestions.

10. Ahrefs’ SEO toolbar

Check the broken links, redirect chains, nofollow links, and on-page elements for any webpage

Limitations: Technical and on-page SEO features are free, but you’ll need an Ahrefs account to see SEO metrics within the SERPs

The Ahrefs SEO toolbar is a free Chrome extension (also available as a Firefox plugin) that allows you to check for broken links, trace redirect chains, and highlight no-follow links for any webpage. It also generates an on-page SEO report that includes the webpage's:

• Title
• Meta description
• Word count
• Headers
• Hreflang tags
• Canonicals
• OG tags

This makes analyzing any page much easier and faster.

If you have access to a paid Ahrefs account, you’ll also be able to see important keyword metrics like search volume, CPC, and keyword difficulty within the SERPs.

Alternatives: Detailed SEO Extension, SEO Minion, LinkMiner (broken links), Ayima Redirect Path (redirect tracing)

11. Moz Local Listing Score

See how your local business looks online

Limitations: Data is only available for three countries: US, Canada & UK

Moz crunches data from more than 10 different sources—including Google, Yelp, and Facebook—to score your brick-and-mortar business on how it looks online. Results come complete with actionable fixes for inconsistent or incomplete listings.

12. Yoast SEO

Optimize your blog posts for search engines

Limitations: Some data limitations, which you can unlock via a premium account

Enter the main keyword for your blog post, and Yoast SEO will suggest how to tweak it to optimize for search engines. You can also get suggestions for general SEO improvement for content like meta tags and URL slug. It's primarily available to Wordpress users.

Alternatives: Rank Math, All in One SEO Pack, The SEO Framework

13. JSON-LD Schema Generator For SEO

Customize how your web pages appear in the search results

Limitations: None

Despite its outdated user experience, this tool is great for helping create custom code so that your reviews, events, organizations, and people are displayed the way you want in Google’s search results. Once you’ve created your schema code, copy and paste it into your website.

Then, use the next tool to check if the implementation has been done correctly.

Alternatives: Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator

14. Classy Schema Structured Data Viewer

Check if your structured data was implemented correctly

Limitations: None

Always double-check to make sure you’re implementing the technical aspects of SEO right. Use this tool to see if your structured data/schema markup was done correctly.

Alternatives: Google Structured Data Testing Tool, Google’s Rich Results Test (currently does not test for all possible schema markups)

15. SimilarWeb

View site stats for any domain

Limitations: You’ll need a paid account to see every data point, but the free version is good enough to get a real-time snapshot of your competitor’s activity

Use this tool to estimate how much search traffic a website gets. See a breakdown of traffic sources, locations, and more. A helpful tool for competitor research.

16. SERP Robot

See your ranking position for up to five keywords

Limitations: None

Enter any website or web page and up to five keywords to see where you rank for each of them. Check your competitors’ rankings too.

17. XML Sitemaps

Create a sitemap

Limitations: Free up to 500 pages

Simply enter your site’s URL and some optional parameters, and XML Sitemaps will create a sitemap that you can upload to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

18. Robots.txt Generator

Generate a robots.txt for your site

Limitations: None

Robots.txt files let web robots know what to do with a website’s pages. When a page is disallowed in robots.txt, that represents instructions telling the robots to skip over those web pages completely.

Alternatives: YellowPipe’s Robots.txt Generator

19. Copyscape

Check for duplicate content

Limitations: Only the top 10 results are shown

Enter a URL for a blog post or website, and Copyscape can tell you where else that content exists online. You might find results you’ll need to follow up with to help get your SEO in order.

20. Google Alerts

Get alerted of any online mentions of your brand, product or company

Limitations: None

Enter your brand, company or product name and Google will send you an email if it finds any webpage mentioning those terms.

21. Screaming Frog SEO Log File Analyser

Upload and analyze your log files

Limitations: Up to 1,000 lines

If you’re interested to find out what Googlebot is doing on your site, you can look into your website’s log files. Screaming Frog’s Log File Analyser allows you to do that for free.

Alternatives: SEOlyzer

22. Exploding Topics

Discover the hottest trends

Limitations: None

SEOs often target topics with high search volume, but that means targeting topics that are already popular. What if you could find and target topics right before they hit the mainstream?

Use this tool to do that.

Alternatives: Glimpse, Treendly

23. The Hreflang Tags Generator Tool

Generate hreflang tags for your multi-language/multi-country site

Limitations: None

If your site targets different countries or different languages, you’ll need to set up your hreflang tags properly. Unfortunately, it’s quite easy to mess up, which can cause issues for your site.

Enter your site’s URL, the language and country of the URL, and the tool will generate the necessary hreflang annotations for you.

24. Keyword Surfer

See search volumes and CPC data within the SERPs

Limitations: None

Install this free Chrome extension and you’ll be able to see search volumes and CPC data for any keyword you enter into Google. You’ll also see suggested keyword ideas related to your query – pop a couple into your headings to see what happens to your SEO.

Alternatives: WMS Everywhere

25. Google Mobile-Friendly Test

Check your site’s mobile-friendliness

Limitations: None

Enter any URL and this tool will tell you if it’s mobile-friendly. It also tells you what went wrong and what you need to fix.

26. Website Authority Checker

Check your website’s Domain Rating

Limitations: None

Enter your URL and see the Domain Rating (DR) of your website. Generally speaking, the higher the number, the more authoritative your website.

A high DR has been shown to correlate positively with higher Google rankings.

Alternatives: Moz’s Domain SEO Analysis Tool

27. Whitespark’s Google Review Link Generator

Create a link for customers to review your business on Google

Customer reviews are important for small business’ local SEO. This tool allows you to create a shareable link for customers to review your business on Google. You can send pop these links in your social media link in bio or make them part of your content marketing.

28. SEMRush

Perform a site audit or check your ranking in search

Limitations: Although users benefit most from a paid account, you can still get a lot of functionality out of a free account.

With a free trial, you can:

• Track your search rankings with the rank checker
• Perform competitor analysis
• Perform a content and technical SEO audit of your site
• Generate a content brief for your target keyword
• Use the SEO writing assistant for content writing guidance to find relevant and related keywords
• Get recommendations to optimize existing content
• Run 10 free keyword research reports each day

If you just want to get straight to it, check out SEMRush's pricing here.

Further resources

If you’re interested in even more tools—here are a few places to start:

• The Ultimate List of the 60 Best SEO Tools (Free & Paid) — an comprehensive tools list curated by SEMRush
• 36 Free SEO Tools for DIY SEOs — a curated list of tried and tested free SEO tools by Ahrefs
• The Complete Beginner’s Guide to SEO — an overview of what you might be able to do with these tools

Hope these all help with boosting your SEO strategy!

Pinterest has what many other social media sites don’t: The ability to insert your website’s link in every post. While Instagram and TikTok are stingy with their limited “link in bio” features, Pinterest is all about helping your business thrive by redirecting people to your website.

What’s more: Pinterest is the sweet combo of a social media platform and a visual search engine. People come here to scroll for inspiration and search like they’d on Google.

Getting more followers on Pinterest translates to a generous outbound spike in website traffic and a direct positive impact on your business. The problem? Growing on Pinterest is harder than ever. Here are 20 tips that’ll help you move the needle right away.

1: Convert your Pinterest profile to a Business account

Pinterest has two kinds of accounts: Personal and Business. If you have a Personal account, I’d recommend switching to Business. Why? Because Business accounts have access to:

• Analytics for how your pins are performing
• Advertising features to create various types of ads
• Pinterest Business Hub & Creator Hub
  

Pinterest itself recommends converting to a Business account to access helpful growth features. Here’s how you can convert your Pinterest personal account to a Business profile:

1. Log in to your Pinterest account

2. Click the arrow next to your profile icon

3. Click on the “Convert to Business” option and upgrade for free

2: Brand your Pinterest profile to make it recognizable

Optimizing your profile is the prerequisite for growing on Pinterest. Imagine someone clicking on your pin, going to your Pinterest profile to learn more, and having no clue who you are or what you do. They won’t hit that follow button.

Here’s how to give some personality to your Pinterest profile page:

1. Add your name and profile name to your profile. If you have a brand name or username that you’re already using on your website and other social media accounts, use the same one here.

2. Add a clear profile photo so people can put a face to your name. If you’re a brand, put your logo in the profile photo.

3. Use your “About” section to describe what you post on Pinterest and how it can benefit your audience. Keep it short and sweet.

4. Add a cover photo telling people what you do or what you represent. This isn’t necessary, but it’s a good addition!

⚡ Pro-tip: Pinterest also recommends adding searchable keywords in conjunction with your name to make it easy for people to discover you.

Shreya Dalela, creator of The Creatives Hour, is the perfect example of how you can brand your account and make it easy for people to click follow.

If you’re a small business, you can also apply for Pinterest’s verified merchant program to get a blue checkmark, which gives you that extra badge of authenticity and some coveted features (like shopping experiences).

And remember: Branding isn’t just for your profile. Pinterest actively encourages its users to put a logo on every pin they share:

“Put a logo on every Pin that you make, but keep it subtle. Avoid the lower-right corner, since that spot gets covered up by our product icons.” 

3: Verify your website

While you’re in the branding section, Pinterest also gives you the option to claim your website. This ensures that your profile picture always appears alongside your pin and every other pin Pinterest users save from your website. And whenever someone sees your profile picture, they can check out your Pinterest account and follow you.

Claiming your website also helps you understand what viewers are pinning from your site by giving you access to advanced analytics.

How do you claim your website? You have to add an HTML or TXT code to your website. It sounds more complicated than it is. This video shows you how to do it step-by-step.

Verifying your website also enables you to create rich pins. What are rich pins? They are a type of pin that automatically sync information from your website. So, if you update an article on your website, the rich pin you’ve created for it will automatically update with the new information. Rich pins also show more data on your pins compared to other pins, like titles and pin descriptions.

4: Create fresh pins consistently

All social networks want you to post consistently on their platform. The ideal frequency for Pinterest is at least one pin a week. However, Tailwind’s study has found that its most successful Pinterest users pin 15 – 20 times a day.

Pinterest says there are five types of content styles you can create:

1. Instructional

2. Quick tip

3. Comparison

4. Storyteller

5. Conversation

For example, Lindsey Baruch creates a ton of step-by-step guide style Pinterest content because it suits her niche of creating recipes for her followers.

Short-form video content is the best way to present tutorials and how-to content.

On the other hand, Isabelle Dias creates instructional and quick tip Pinterest content in the form of infographics, still visuals, etc., because it suits her self-development niche.

Certain types of content perform best in specific formats. For example, videos are great for in-depth tutorials, while images are excellent for aspirational fashion inspiration. That said, you can be flexible in choosing content formats and exercising your creativity.

⚠️ Note: Don’t compromise on the quality of your Pinterest pins to meet a certain number. Pinterest content has a longer shelf life — meaning the pins you create today can generate traffic for weeks. Invest time in creating thoughtful, quality content that is actually relevant to your target audience.

Now, creating and posting even five pins per day on a regular basis sounds exhausting. Who has the time to write the title, description and edit posts every single day? The solution: Batch create content and schedule pins using Buffer. You can create pins in advance and queue them into relevant boards.

The best part? If you add a destination link, Buffer will automatically pull through the available images on your website. So, if you’re adding Pinterest-worthy photos on your website already, you don’t even need to upload the image if you use Buffer.

5: Publish high-quality vertical images & videos

Pinterest is a visual platform. High-quality matters on Pinterest — whether it’s for infographics or videos. The ideal image size is 1000 x 1500 pixels in a 2:3 aspect ratio. Pinterest says other ratios can negatively impact your performance because the image’s text is half-visible. The ratio is also ideal because most Pinterest users use the app on their mobile.

A great example is Melisza Mcfierce’s Pinterest profile. Each and every pin she posts is of extremely high-quality and stands out as clean, clear, and crisp on the home feed.

6: Select a strong cover image for your pins

When Pinterest users hunt for something in the search bar, they click on the pin with the most appealing cover image. Pinterest agrees: They recommend thinking strategically about the cover image and its text.

This tip is important because the Pinterest algorithm can scan your images and understand whether or not they match your pin description and overall profile niche. So, your Pinterest cover images should contextualize what you’re discussing in the pin.

Let’s say you’re a travel creator and are creating a pin on the best coworking cafes in Prague. Don’t use a sunset as the cover image for this pin — use a relevant cafe’s image instead.

When I type “best coworking cafes in Prague” in the Pinterest search bar, it displays all the relevant images of cafes (with relevant overlay text!) at the top.

7: Use Pinterest boards to organize your Pins

Pinterest boards are a way to categorize your various content pillars into different folders. This advice comes straight from Pinterest.

“Because we know pinners are planners, it’s important to focus on your board strategy.”

Pinterest also suggests keeping your board names straightforward instead of clever to make them SEO-friendly. For example, if you’re creating a board about makeup recommendations, name your board something simple and direct, such as “Makeup products recommendations,” instead of using an informal term such as “makeup products that slap.”

The fashNcurious Pinterest profile is an A+ example. The mother-daughter duo creates fashion content on Pinterest and organizes it in boards such as “nail content” and “fashion inspiration for all occasions.”

Categorizing your content into boards also helps new followers navigate your profile and get similar content in one window. Here’s how to create a board:

1. Go to your Pinterest profile

2. Click on “Saved”

3. Click on the “➕” plus icon on the right-hand side

4. Choose “Board”

5. Name your board and start pinning pins to it

If you want to take it up a notch, you can also create sections within your boards. For example, if one of your Pinterest boards is about “winter recipes,” you can bifurcate it further into sections like “winter beverages” or “winter desserts.”

8: Add a call-to-action (CTA) to every pin

What should your target audience do after they come across a pin from you? Adding a call-to-action to every pin you create ensures your audience takes that next step of following you or visiting your website. For example, in this pin, fitness creator Jacquelyn has a clear CTA to watch her YouTube video.

Some other call-to-action phrases you can use:

1. Read the full blog on my website

2. Follow me for more [your niche] content

3. Save this for later

4. What do you think of [topic of your pin]?

5. Comment your favorite [something relevant to your pin] below

You can also add a voiceover for your CTA if you share a video on Pinterest.

9: Engage with others

If I had a penny for every time I saw a creator posting and ghosting on Pinterest, I’d be swimming in cash. Social media marketing is a two-way street. This is especially true for Pinterest. It encourages active users to respond to comments, pin frequently, and share ideas with each other.

If you want to grow on Pinterest, you have to build a community. This means following others in your niche, commenting on other people’s content, and responding to comments & direct messages (DMs) you receive. For example, Suman replies to questions and comments on her Pinterest videos to help her audience.

Engaging on Pinterest doesn’t have to be complicated! Take out 10–20 minutes every day to respond to any notifications you receive. When you reply to someone, you increase engagement and also prompt them to check your pin again. Also scroll Pinterest for the kind of content you like. If you find another creator in a relevant niche with useful content, follow them and engage with their profile. They might follow you back or start saving your pins on their board.

10: Join relevant group boards

Group boards are Pinterest boards with multiple collaborators. You can create your own group board by inviting collaborators and giving them various levels of permissions.

There are popular group boards in every niche that aid in providing an additional reach to your Pinterest content. You can request to join these boards and participate in pinning content consistently. Use pingroupie to search for popular group boards in your niche. Most group boards will also use the description to share guidelines on joining the board and set up some ground rules.

11: Tailor your repurposed content to the Pinterest platform

Since the Pinterest algorithm scans your image content for contextual cues, it’s crucial that you do the editing of your content within the platform.

So, for example, if you’re repurposing a TikTok video for Pinterest, remove the accompanying text and add Pinterest’s text instead. Use the platform’s native editing abilities as much as possible to publish more Pinterest-friendly content — and boost your follower count by extension.

12: Level-up your content using music, duration settings, stickers, and more

Pinterest has developed a ton of native editing features — like editing music, syncing text to video, adding stickers, and more. Use all of these features to create more engaging content.

Academia Central Fitness is an excellent example of how to use Pinterest’s various features to create scroll-stopping pins. They align the text to the videos they share, use Pinterest’s native font, and add stickers & music to all their pins.

13: Optimize your images, pin descriptions, and text overlays for SEO

If you pick the right keywords on Pinterest, you’ll improve your discoverability and increase your number of followers. Pinterest also highlights that using the right keywords for SEO positively affects the distribution of your content.

Use keywords in three spaces on Pinterest:

• Text overlays
• Title
• Pin description

⚠️ Note: In text overlays, ensure your image is as easy to read as possible. Remember people are scrolling on their phones. Small fonts are easy to miss. Use header fonts to show what your image is about.

This pin by Cassey Ho of Blogilates on “how to do a split” is an excellent example of how to sprinkle keywords into your Pinterest content.

How do you find relevant keywords related to your pin? You can search for your topic on Pinterest, see the suggested keywords that pop up, and monitor what your competitors are using. You can also use the Pinterest trends tool to search for your topic and find what your audience is searching for.

14: Use topic tags instead of hashtags

Topic tags are the new hashtags on Pinterest. Although you might still see many creators using hashtags, Pinterest says they rely on topic tags to categorize your content.

 You can add up to 10 topic tags for each pin you post. Pinterest gives you the option to “tag related topics” while you’re posting your pin.

Pinterest users can’t see your tagged topics — which is another benefit since it doesn’t appear spammy like hashtags.

15: Create content your audience would want to save

The Pinterest algorithm prioritizes content that’s saved. In their own words:

“If there’s a Pin with a lot of saves, the system will recommend it across the platform’s main pages over other less inspiring, less engaging content.”

A save signals to Pinterest that your post has meaningful engagement and that people resonate with your idea. Ask yourself: “What kind of content would my target audience want to bookmark?” and create more and more of it.

Creating savable content should be your top Pinterest marketing strategy. People often return to the saved content — increasing your engagement even further.

16: Hop on trending content

Pinterest users love seasonal content more than any other social media platform. And Pinterest capitalizes on it by giving you tons of resources to find the latest trends on the social network:

1. Pinterest trends tool

2. A monthly trends report

3. A Pinterest predicts series to help you ace future trends today

4. A theme to organize your content for the whole year and inspire your content calendar

Use these resources to create trending content in advance (as much as possible). Some trends — like the holidays — allow you to prepare pins early because you know that spike is coming.

17: Use Pinterest analytics to guide your content strategy

Once you switch to a business account, you get in-depth insights into how your content is performing. You get details like saves, outbound clicks, pin clicks, profile visits, and more. Which metrics are the most important depends on your goals. For example, if you want to grow website traffic via Pinterest, the outbound click rate is the most important.

Spend some time each week or month identifying your best-performing pins. Maybe you noticed how-to video content gets the highest number of saves and click-through rates, so you can double down on it when you start creating new pins.

18: Craft multiple pins for the same post

Shreya Dalela used Pinterest to grow the website Elite Content Marketer’s traffic by a whopping 829 percent (!) in just three months. One of her top tips is creating multiple pin designs for the same topic. For example, she suggested varying the designs for the same header or splitting one long-form post into mini infographics.

This is an excellent way to get the most out of every piece of content you create and also an A+ Pinterest strategy to pin more without burning yourself out. But it comes with two caveats:

• Shreya suggests avoiding pinning multiple posts with the same URL in one day, as this might come across as spam. Instead, spread it out over a few days or weeks.
• Shreya also recommends first testing how five pins on one topic perform. If it performs well, create more pins for it. If not, don’t design more pins for it.

19: Promote your pins

If you have some budget for Pinterest ads, consider promoting your Pinterest pins to reach potential followers. How to create a Pinterest ad?

1. Click on the three horizontal lines at the top left corner of your Pinterest profile

2. Click on “Promote a Pin”

3. Set a goal and a destination URL for your pin

4. Set a daily budget for your ad

5. Choose the audience you want to target

And you’re done!

While we’re fans of organic growth here at Buffer, giving your pins a little nudge (if you can afford to) hurt no one. Try Pinterest ads for yourself and see if promoted pins give you enough return-on-investment (ROI) to become a regular part of your Pinterest marketing strategy.

20: Add a Pinterest follow button to your website, newsletter, and other social media

Last but not least: Encourage the followers, fans, and email subscribers you already have to follow you on Pinterest. In your email newsletter or Instagram Stories, you can share a regular “What we’re pinning” update to remind your existing followers to check you out on Pinterest, too.

For example, at Buffer, we link our Pinterest profile to the footnote of our website — along with other social accounts.

But remember: Your target audience needs a reason to follow you on Pinterest. Perhaps you create a bait of exclusive content or all your existing content organized neatly into boards & sections your audience can refer back to easily. Whatever it is, craft a compelling offer that’d entice people to click the follow button.

There’s more to Pinterest than Pinterest followers

Pinterest is known as the social network to drive more traffic to your website. It encourages its users to go away from the platform to create — an anomaly in the social media marketing world.

So, while Pinterest followers are a good metric to evaluate your growth on Pinterest, remember it’s not the only one. If you’re getting decent traffic, enough saves & impressions, and engaged comments, you’re doing Pinterest right! Don’t focus on gaining new Pinterest followers in a silo — look at the big picture and focus on building a community on the platform.

Read more: Pinterest Idea Pins: The complete guide to inspiring your followers and How to use Pinterest Marketing to Gain Exposure for Your Small Business

If you find marketing on Facebook as a small business challenging, you’re not alone.

Meta itself has said organic reach is declining due to increased competition. And the average engagement rate on Facebook Pages has dropped to a meager 0.07 percent.

It might look like the good ol’ days of Facebook have come to an end. But this couldn’t be further from the truth:

• A horticulture business based in Cork, The Irish Gardener, gets 80 percent of its customer referrals via its Facebook business page.
• Jutta Zeisset used her Facebook page to take over 25 orders a day during the COVID-19 pandemic and avoid running out of business.
• Sustainable fashion brand, Mit Ecken und Kanten, attributes 35 percent of their sales to Facebook.

In this article, I’ll tell you how you can join the ranks of these brands and increase engagement on Facebook. Let’s go!

What does Facebook engagement even mean?

Before we get on the field, it’s important to understand what Facebook engagement actually means.

Simply put, Facebook engagement is when your audience takes an action (liking, commenting, sharing, clicking on the link) to one of your Facebook posts, Stories, or ads.

Formally, Facebook engagement rate formula is dividing the number of reactions, comments, and shares your post gets by the total number of followers of your Facebook business page and multiplying this number by 100.

But this is for one post. Facebook shares the engagement rate for your whole page in Facebook page Insights. You can find the button on the left-hand side of your Facebook page.

Once you click “Insights,” Facebook will give you an overview of your page’s engagement.

15 ways to increase Facebook engagement rate

There isn’t one magical answer to increasing your Facebook engagement rate. But there are certain methods that, when adapted correctly, can work for you.

• If you’re a beginner at running a Facebook business page, start at the basics.
• If you’ve been at this for a while, go to the intermediate stage. 
• And if you’re a pro who’s looking for more, go to the last section.

The 5 basics

If you’re a beginner to using Facebook Pages, here are five tips to get you started.

1: Post quality content consistently at the right time

If you want to use Facebook to market your business, you need to post on it consistently. What consistently means can depend on your team’s capacity. There’s no golden number, but in general, the ideal posting frequency for Facebook is one to two posts per day.

Don’t fret about the number if you’d compromise quality to hit it. Quality will always precede quality — especially when there’s already so much noise. Aim to post at whatever frequency you’re comfortable, and as you get more efficient with your content creation workflow, you can increase the number of posts per day.

But don’t make it a task on your to-do list to “post on Facebook.” Days as a business owner go by quickly, and it’s easy for social media management to fall through the cracks. Create a social media content calendar and schedule your Facebook posts in advance using Buffer. You can schedule anything from photos to videos on your Facebook page and Facebook Groups.

Connect your Facebook page to Buffer and start filling your content calendar with scheduled content within minutes.

When should you post your awesome content on Facebook? After analyzing one million posts, we found that the best time to post was 10 AM on Friday.

That said, there’s no one universal time to post on Facebook to get the most engagement. It depends on when your Facebook audience is online.

The best part? Buffer can help you with that, too! It’ll give you answers like: What is my best time to post on Facebook to get the most engagement? Which type of posts perform the best for me? How often should I post on Facebook to get the maximum return on investment (ROI)? All of the insights are tailored to you. And all of this for free! 

Callout: Log in to Buffer today to schedule your next Facebook post.

2: Respond to comments and messages from your audience

It sounds fundamental, but it’s easy to miss: Social networks are a two-way street. When your audience interacts with you, acknowledge it! Carve some time in your day to intentionally engage with your fans on Facebook — respond to their comments, direct messages (DMs), and the posts they tag you in.

BOOM Beauty is an excellent example. They share a detailed response to their followers’ queries and react (with a heart/link/emoji) to other complimentary comments.

Responding to comments also directly signals to Facebook that there’s engagement on your post — which can help it rank higher in the Facebook News feed.

Ideally, you should respond to every comment you receive. But if that’s not possible, try to respond to all the questions or complaints your customers leave. Blindly posting without addressing your buyers’ concerns can leave a sour taste in their mouths.

Many comments can also lead to an insight into what kind of content your Facebook audience wants — enabling you to create more fan-centric content that garners even better engagement.

3: Ensure every post has a relevant call-to-action

One of Meta’s recommended best practices to increase Facebook page engagement is adding an action button to your page. This can be something like “Shop now” or “Learn more” depending on your Facebook marketing goals.

Having an overarching suggested action is great for new visitors to your page. They’ll instantly be redirected to Messenger, WhatsApp, or your website to learn more about you.

In addition to this, you should also accompany every post with a call to action. It encourages engagement (more comments!) and lets your audience know you want to hear from them.

Shoe brand Kizik did a simple post by dropping a white heart emoji in the comments to encourage their followers to start interacting with the post.

Your call to action can be as straightforward as Kizik's. Or you can mix it up by asking questions at the end of your posts — like “Drop your favorite product from our new collection!” or “What do you think of [concept your audience is interested in]?”

The end goal is for every post to have a goal and a response from your Facebook audience.

4: Take your photos up a notch

Visual content performs well on Facebook is no surprise. It’s the easiest way to increase Facebook engagement.

But don’t make the mistake of using random stock photos on your page. Fill it with life by showcasing the behind-the-scenes of your business and products — giving a personality to your page that’s unique to your brand.

Booking.com aces their photo game — they share eye-catching real-life photos from their listings.

These pictures stop the scroll — which is what you should aim for, too. Couple it with a relevant caption and an engaging CTA and you’ve got a power combo! 

5: Keep your Page’s cover photo, about section, and contact info up-to-date

When creating a Facebook page, you’re prompted to add basic details such as your business name and category. But I’d advise you to go beyond that and add a lively “Intro” section and Facebook cover photo.

Why? This section is your chance to make a first impression on potential followers. If you do it right, you can attract new audiences and start building your community. Take the drink company, Innocent. Their about section is short, succinct, and full of their brand’s unique voice.

Whenever a new target customer lands on their Facebook page, they’ll understand the brand's tone, what they sell, how they can contact them, and their review rating. The cover photo adds a nice touch by showcasing their cute packaging.

Adding essential details about your business (contact info, address) helps customers resolve their queries quickly. And adding a quirky brand-related “Intro” section enables new visitors to catch your vibe in a jiffy.

If you haven’t already updated this info, or if it’s been a while, brush it up to increase engagement.

The 5 methods for the intermediate stage

Have you been managing Facebook pages for a while but are feeling stuck? Here are five ways to increase engagement and get unstuck.

6: Repurpose your most popular posts

What if I told you that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you create a new Facebook post? Part of becoming efficient with your Facebook marketing is learning how to repurpose content.

For example, Mailchimp repurposed a survey into a Facebook post and then cross-posted the carousel on LinkedIn, too.

If you also run a content marketing program, repurpose your blog posts into snappy visuals and write-ups for Facebook posts. If you also have an overall social media marketing strategy (let’s say you post on LinkedIn or Instagram), cross-post that content on Facebook.

You can also use more user-generated content (UGC) for your Facebook posts. It also takes away the focus from you and spotlights a happy customer. Leveraging a customer’s post or case study for your page is an excellent way to share more Facebook posts without the heavy lifting of content creation. Use Buffer Remix to transform any link or tweet into a Facebook post.

Sleep company Oura is a good example of how to feature customer stories on your Facebook page.

Look at how they encourage other followers to share their stories — encouraging more authentic content that resonates with their Facebook audience.

Repurposing content also helps you understand which type performs well on which social media platform. For example, you might find a pattern where repurposed Instagram posts as carousels get good engagement on Facebook. You can double down on this to improve your engagement metrics even further.

7: Tap into relevant trends in your industry

Tailoring your Facebook content calendar to trends, holidays, memes, and recent hot topics in your industry is an easy way to boost engagement. Since those subjects are already trending, Facebook pushes them into the News feed, and people are more interested in engaging with something contextually & immediately relevant.

Facebook releases a trends report every year to help you gain insight into what topics are currently performing best on the platform.

But you can also do this by social listening — keeping an ear to the ground and listening to conversations in your comments, inbox, and groups.

Wendy’s Facebook page excels at posting time-sensitive content (mostly memes). For example, their first post after Meta went down for a while was related to the topic.

Not all of your Facebook posts need to be so time-relevant. But you can schedule some trending posts in advance for upcoming events and holidays of the year.

⚡ Pro-tip: If there’s a trending TikTok sound or Instagram audio, they’ll also likely perform well on Facebook Reels. Repurpose or cross-post them while the trend is still popular.

8: Enhance your Facebook Stories

Facebook Stories disappear in 24 hours. This fact alone increases their engagement significantly — your followers will want to see your post before it expires.

And Facebook Stories have many features that spark additional interaction, such as stickers, GIFs, emojis, boomerangs, and more. You can even add a web link button to redirect customers to another URL.

For example, lifestyle brand, Chumbak often reshares its Instagram Stories on Facebook.

Facebook Stories are often a forgotten aspect of Facebook engagement strategy. While you’re leveling up, create content in advance for Facebook Stories. You don’t have to do much work — if you’re already creating Instagram Stories, you can repost them on Facebook.

9: Upload more native video content

Our analysis of millions of posts showed the best content for Facebook is video. While images are amazing, video is the one getting the most engagement.

Facebook has also introduced Facebook Reels in 2022 to encourage more video content. A good Facebook video is engaging, authentic, and relevant to your audience.

Clothing brand, Bewakoof, is a good example of creating top-notch Facebook Reels. They tap into trends (Get-ready-with-me), tailor them to their brand’s visuals/voice, and add a detailed caption without the link (Facebook posts with links get the least engagement).

While creating videos for Facebook, remember to add captions since many people might be watching them with the sound turned off. And like with Stories, experiment with the various features Facebook Reels has! It’ll make your videos more engaging and fun to watch.

10: Ensure every post is mobile-friendly

Over 98 percent of active Facebook users use the social media platform from their phones. That’s practically all of your target audience on Facebook.

Optimizing your Facebook posts for mobiles is a no-brainer:

• Include photos in the ideal image size
• Create Facebook Reels and Stories vertically
• Post short and sweet captions that are small-screen friendly

Food brand Auntie Anne’s is my favorite when it comes to creating phone-first Facebook posts.

Their textual posts are all within a character limit, and their images never look off for the platform.

The 5 tips for pros

You’ve done some successful Facebook-ing, but you’re curious if you can stretch the limit. Here are five things you might not have thought of.

11: Go live

Going live on Facebook encourages your target audience to show up on your Facebook page since it’s not a post they can come back to. Similar to Stories — the fear of missing out (FOMO) is strong with Facebook live videos.

You can ensure more people show up by announcing the live in advance, hyping it up in your posts, inviting an expert, and answering audience questions. Think: What would entice your audience to put this Facebook live on their calendars? And lead with that offer for your Facebook live.

The best part is you can also repurpose your Facebook live videos into various short-form videos — filling your content calendar with relevant Facebook posts without creating fresh content.

12: Create and engage with Facebook Group(s)

Post as your page in Facebook groups is one of Meta’s common advice for increasing engagement on your Facebook page. It gives your brand more visibility and creates a more wholesome and authentic social media strategy.

Let’s say you sell a skincare product. Your strategy should be to join popular skincare Facebook groups and participate in the conversations without selling your merch. Community members will take notice and check you out — increasing your page’s engagement.

Eventually, you can sprinkle a product link here and there (unless the group’s rule prohibits you do so), but be mindful of not treating Facebook groups as a sales channel.

You can also create your own Facebook group for industry enthusiasts. Again, it’s best if you sell her sporadically. Your product conversations will likely come up organically.

Saie Beauty has a Facebook Group called Clean Beauty Crew, where members can talk about all things makeup.

13: Use post insights to create more audience-centric content

Once you’ve built the muscle to post on Facebook regularly, you’ll soon have invaluable Facebook insights.

Facebook page insights give you info on:

• Link clicks
• Page views
• Action on page
• 3-second video views
• 1-second video views
• Recent content performance
• Your audience’s demographics
• Overall page’s reach, engagement, and net followers

Use the above data to tweak your Facebook strategy and get more engagement. You can get even more useful data using Buffer. Apart from the average engagement, views, impressions, and audience data, Buffer also enables you to find relevant answers for you — your best time to post, the best type of post, and the ideal posting frequency.

Not just this: You can even tag related posts to track a specific campaign’s results quickly and export this data to create beautiful reports.

Mark it on your calendar to view your Facebook analytics weekly, monthly, or quarterly, and double down on what’s working to maximize engagement.

14: Experiment with Facebook’s newer products and post types

Keeping up with the ever-changing Facebook algorithm is easier said than done. But once you start posting and interacting with your audience regularly, you need to shimmy out of your comfort zone to surpass your engagement ceiling.

For example, Facebook predicts Facebook Messenger will help businesses get more done in 2024. Once you read this, start using Facebook Messenger more proactively to support your engagement efforts. You can keep up with all new Facebook features and updates using @creator’s account, media sites, and our newsletter.

This way, if Facebook rolls out a new feature or deprioritizes a content type in the Facebook News feed, you’ll be the first to take action.

15: Use Facebook ads to boost a post or strategically garner more engagement

We’re all about organic reach at Buffer. But if you need a little push, using Facebook ads is an excellent option to increase Facebook engagement.

• Boost posts to see if they get more engagement.
• If a post is already performing well, boost it to capitalize on the momentum.
• Or if you’re running an important campaign for a sale or launch, run a campaign on Facebook ads manager to guarantee some visibility on those Facebook posts.

The only thing to remember is to keep some wiggle room for your Facebook advertising cost. It can take a bit of trial and error to get things right and get the most engagement out of Facebook ads.

Aim for creating a wholesome Facebook marketing strategy

Facebook engagement is a single facet of your overall Facebook marketing strategy. Your engagement can be A+, but your strategy might be wobbling.

So, remember: Increasing your engagement is a means to an end. The ultimate goal of your Facebook marketing should be to listen to your audience, answer their queries, and boost conversions. See engagement as the part of a whole to avoid tunnel vision.

Read more: The Best Time to Post on Facebook in 2024: A Complete Guide

We analyzed over 1 million posts sent through Buffer to pinpoint the best time and day to post on LinkedIn for maximum reach.

You will learn

• Which days and times are generally best for posting
• The post format that gets the most engagement
• How to use analytics to figure out the best time to reach your specific audience

After digging into millions of posts sent through Buffer in 2023, we’ve pinpointed the best time to post on all major social platforms for maximum engagement. 

Discovering the best time and the best day to post on LinkedIn was particularly fascinating. While most other social media platforms can be pretty unpredictable, with ebbs and flows in activity happening at random times of the day, LinkedIn’s high-engagement time slots are like clockwork.

I’ll be honest: this is a nice change of pace compared to the unpredictability of social media in general! It makes sense, of course — LinkedIn’s primary purpose is to connect professionals, and many users need to log on daily for their work.

Another fun part of exploring this data was that we figured out the best content type to post on the platform. (Finally, some hard evidence supports my anecdotal claims that folks need to use LinkedIn carousels!)

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let’s take a stroll through some stats.

Is there a best time to post on LinkedIn?

Technically, yes. After analyzing more than 1 million LinkedIn posts sent through Buffer, we were able to pinpoint some clear times when engagement with posts seems to be much higher. 

So, we can confidently say that your LinkedIn content is more likely to get engagement in these windows, whether you're looking to grow a LinkedIn Page for a brand or your own personal brand with a LinkedIn profile. But — and here’s the rub — every target audience is different. 

As I always do in these articles on the best time to post on social media, I advise experimenting with your posting schedule as part of your LinkedIn marketing strategy, then digging into your social media analytics to uncover your unique best time to post and make the most of the LinkedIn algorithm. 

We’ll get into how to do that below. First, here’s a deep dive into Buffer’s data on the best time to publish your content for LinkedIn.

The best time to post on LinkedIn for engagement

The best time to post on LinkedIn for high engagement is generally between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays. No data science degrees required to figure out why — despite the rise of more personal content on the platform, it's still primarily used by professionals during working hours.

The graph above breaks down the week into hourly chunks. The darkest blue blocks are the time slots with the highest engagement. The light blue to white blocks are the time slots with the lowest engagement. 

So, as a rule of thumb, it’s a safe bet to post content on LinkedIn anytime during these weekday windows. However, there are a few slots that have slightly higher engagement rates than others. 

For example, engagement picks up mid-morning, lunch breaks, and much of the afternoon as people start scrolling through their LinkedIn feeds when they step back from work.

The best time to post on LinkedIn on Monday

According to Buffer data, the best time slots on Monday for LinkedIn engagement are between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., when engagement is slightly higher than the rest of the 9-5 peak. 

⏰ When to post on LinkedIn on Monday: 4 p.m.

The best time to post on LinkedIn on Tuesday

On Tuesday, the data suggests that the optimal posting times for engagement start in the early afternoon at 12 p.m. We see higher engagement numbers at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., too.

⏰ When to post on LinkedIn on Tuesday: 4 p.m.

The best time to post on LinkedIn on Wednesday

Once again, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. have a slight edge on the other high-engagement slots on LinkedIn, with 12 p.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. tied for third place. 

⏰ When to post on LinkedIn on Wednesday: 2 p.m.

The best time to post on LinkedIn on Thursday

We see a slightly earlier engagement spike on Thursday at 11 a.m., with another optimal time between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. 

⏰ When to post on LinkedIn on Thursday: 4 p.m.

The best time to post on LinkedIn on Friday

On Friday, the optimal posting times on LinkedIn are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. — it makes sense that engagement drops off a little earlier ahead of the weekend as LinkedIn users log off. 

⏰ When to post on LinkedIn on Friday: 1 p.m.

The best time to post on LinkedIn on Saturday

We see a significant drop-off in engagement with content posted on Saturdays, but some times are better than others to publish: 4 p.m., 7 p.m., and 10 p.m. see slightly higher engagement. 

⏰ When to post on LinkedIn on Saturday: 10 p.m.

The best time to post on LinkedIn on Sunday

Sunday is also a quieter day on the platform, with slight peaks at certain times. The best times to post on LinkedIn on Sunday are in the early morning, midday, and later afternoon: 7 a.m., 12 p.m., and 5 p.m.

⏰ When to post on LinkedIn on Sunday: 7 a.m.

This is where social media scheduling tools like Buffer shine. Experiment by systematically reviewing the times on the list above, scheduling a LinkedIn, and tracking its performance to see what works best for your audience.

At a glance: The best times to post on LinkedIn for each day of the week

• Monday: 4 a.m.
• Tuesday: 4 p.m.
• Wednesday: 2 p.m.
• Thursday: 4 p.m.
• Friday: 1 p.m.
• Saturday: 10 p.m.
• Sunday: 7 a.m.

The best day to post on LinkedIn

All weekdays have great engagement on the professional networking platform, but Friday is the best day of the week to post on the platform. The last day of the work week sees a slightly higher level than the rest, closely followed by Thursday and Wednesday, respectively.

The worst day of the week to post on LinkedIn is Saturday, when engagement is roughly two-thirds of the level we see on Friday. Sunday is not far off, with a notable drop compared to the rest of the week. 

The best content format to post on LinkedIn

Even the social network for professionals is not immune to the allure of video content. Our analysis revealed that it’s the type of content that sees the most engagement on the platform, with photos and LinkedIn document carousels (usually PDFs) not far behind. 

Here are the specific numbers to give you an indication of just how close they are.

Best performing post type on Linkedin by engagement rate

1. Video posts — 4.9 percent
2. Photo posts — 4.8 percent
3. PDF carousel posts — 4.2 percent
4. Text-only posts — 3.6 percent
5. Link posts — 2.7 percent

How to find the best time to post on LinkedIn for your audience

As mentioned above, these numbers can form a helpful guide if you’re just building your LinkedIn social media marketing strategy. Still, they’re no substitute for figuring out your own best time to post.

LinkedIn Analytics will surface your top-performing posts over a specific time for both Pages and profiles, which might allow you to pinpoint some patterns.

However, you’ll need a record of exactly when you posted a specific piece of content — like a social media scheduling tool or social media content calendar — to refer back to. Frustratingly, LinkedIn won’t show you detailed timings on published content after the fact. The best the LinkedIn timestamp will tell you is “3h” or “2d” (to indicate you posted the content three hours or two days ago, etc.)

Luckily, if you have a LinkedIn Page connected to Buffer, there’s a much simpler way to figure out your best time to post. In fact, with enough data, Buffer will tell you. (We’re hoping to bring this feature to LinkedIn profiles, too — keep an eye on our product roadmap to stay in the loop!)

Through Buffer’s Analytics, you can see an overview of what day, type of post, and frequency is best for each of your connected channels. Here’s how to access yours:

1. Sign in to Buffer on your desktop
2. Click Analytics on the top menu
3. Click LinkedIn under the Channels at the left-side menu
4. Click Answers

If you’ve been posting to LinkedIn for at least 30 days, you can track the metrics on all your posts in that time. For us at Buffer, over six months, our best day to post is on Friday, which is interesting given all the data about keeping to weekdays for posting.

As you can see, our data stands apart from the statistics provided by different reports, and yours will, too.

Along with telling which days to post or the number of times to post, Analytics also tracks metrics like followers, engagement rate per post, clicks, and more. It’s a great way to get a holistic overview of your performance on LinkedIn (and your other social channels).

3 factors to consider when scheduling LinkedIn content

Different factors affect the best times to post on LinkedIn, especially because it is a niche platform dedicated to professionals, businesses, and the topics they discuss. Here are some things to keep in mind as you schedule your posts on LinkedIn:

Breaks in the workday

LinkedIn is primarily used during traditional business hours, with engagement dropping off markedly after 5 p.m. and on weekends.

Of course, there are also natural breaks during the workday in which LinkedIn engagement increases. Lunchtime (12 p.m.) is generally a slightly more active time on the platform.

Engagement spikes again towards the end of the workday when professionals are likely to take an afternoon break.

Varying audience time zones

Consider when the largest segment of your population is likely to be on LinkedIn. For example, if you're based in Europe, your best bet is to post using Central European Time (CET) since that time zone has the most significant number of people active in that region. You can use a social media analytics tool to determine where your target audience is located.

Posting frequency

The ideal number of times you should be posting is two to five times per week and up to 20 times per month. 

Ultimately, you should experiment to find what works best for your account and audience. Anything from where you put your links to using LinkedIn’s carousel post feature can affect your engagement rates, regardless of timing. So, you need to prioritize understanding the LinkedIn algorithm, platform, and your audience along with when to post.

If you’re still stumped about which times work best for you, use Buffer’s automatic scheduling to start and refine your posting strategy over time. Once you’ve started posting consistently through Buffer, you will also get all your Analytics in your account's ‘Answers’ dashboard to see which days and times are best to post.

What have you found most helpful when determining your best time to post on LinkedIn? Comment below or let us know @buffer on all our social media accounts!