Instagram 101 for Food & Beverage Channels

We often get asked about how to make a great Instagram site. This blog draws on the experience we have received after working with so many brands, marketers, and digital ad agencies, plus working on our own!

The goals for your channel are up to you but the most obvious and successful are three-fold: 1) grow your channel, 2) engage the followers who have chosen you, and 3) hone your brand voice. ROI is a consideration but is really for the later stages after you build the right audience. Social channels are one of the most effective ways to reach an audience. They are expensive to build if you are buying content, paying for creators, and hiring people to run them, but inexpensive to run after they are built. The good news is that you can build them organically every day without spending too much of your marketing budget.

With food or any product, it is a good idea to show 1) how you made your product, 2) how you use it, and 3) what the package looks like in a branded still life or video. UGC content is always the best way to engage followers. People are looking for recipes, tips, and entertainment!

Let’s learn how all the parts of Instagram work!

Tag

Always tag the people and products in a photo or video. Do this by “Tagging People” before you hit the final submit button. You will get an opportunity to tag everyone and everything in a photo or video before you post. If you are showing multiple images in a slider it is a good idea to tag all. This ensures they see you posted and they can share, too.

Posts

When you click the + sign on your IG channel to add content, you have 4 choices:

1 - Posts are what appears on your wall. They can be videos or stills. Generally, they should add aesthetic value to your channel and act as a website. They can be shared as “stories” at any time. If you want to repost them to put them at the top, you can archive the old ones. Archiving saves the counts associated with the content. You can also boost posts and reels as ads. Posts can always be shared in advance with the right software.

2 - Stories appear at the top of everyone’s home page. Post multiple stories every day or as often as you can make them. a) Share what others say about you - If someone tags you, share the love. b) share posts, and c) share your behind-the-scenes (BTS) videos, stories, and other content that engages and updates your followers. Add mention tags wherever appropriate by clicking the @ symbol and then “mentions” of other accounts - this alerts people in your stories and encourages them to share. Stories disappear after 24 hours but should be saved in “highlights”.

Stories are always at the top of everyone’s home page, while posts are only in the feed on the home page so most people never see your posts as often as your stories.

Highlights are saved stories. The most recent photo will appear unless you edit the highlight icon and upload an image. Many stock images are available online or you can make your own in any vector drawing program like Illustrator or even export from Canva. This is an excellent way to add branding colors!

3 - Reels are videos that are 15-90 seconds. They can also be shared as posts and stories. Here is where you can grow your channel. Instagram will share reels more freely (they do this because they compete with TikTok). Reels should be engaging stories. Ideally, they should be shorter than a minute. Watch more TikTok content if you want to learn to make good reels.

Instagram will share reels that have engagement very often outside your followers. Some reels can go viral and have hundreds of thousands or millions of views.

It is always better to make or share a reel versus an image! The camera on the iPhone makes a more beautiful image of a reel versus a still because of the way it renders the light and colors. And the reel is more likely to get shared.

POV is a great voice with a reel - it shows the content as though it is coming from your eyes.

Reels should always be vertical, not horizontal, so they fill the entire iPhone screen.

Click on the video camera just above your feed to see your reels.

4 - Live is just what it says - you post a live video to your followers and it will appear in posts and reels! You will be able to see who is watching and engage with them. This is perfect if you are at a live event or have something important to share. You can share these as stories, too. You can see the live videos in your reels.

Link in Bio

If you have a link tree program (Google this term; there are many options, including Square Space’s Bio, LinkTree, and more), it will make links for you and give you a link to post in your bio.

This is a great way to share your home page, contact information, blog, or any other link. Since links do not appear on posts, stories, or reels, the link in the bio effectively shares clickable URLs. Ours is designed with Metricool. We can share our motion, food images, news, and links to other social channels.