We find ourselves searching for the answers to quite a few of these Instagram related questions often, so we thought it best if we put them all together into one handy cheat sheet.
There are quite a few limitations and tricks to be aware of in the hugely popular social media tool.
It’s important to be aware of them when posting to ensure that you don’t receive any error messages that might hinder your activity.
We’ve also included a few tips into our cheat sheet so that you can make your posts more engaging:
Likes
You can only perform 350 likes per hour (unless you’re very quick not likely you’ll hit this limit!) This is to prevent spammers and bots, which are software allowing you to buy likes and followers. We don’t advocate these bots as they tend to buy you fake followers, who then get removed by the social media platforms.Followers
You can’t follow more than 7500 users according to Instagram. However, some users can follow more than 7,500 users if they did so before I nstagram imposed the limit. Some Instagram users also claim there’s an hourly limit to the number of users you can follow and unfollow. This is rumoured to be 160 per hour, although Instagram has not confirmed such restrictions. We like to use the apps Cleaner or Followers + for cleaning out and mass deleting users. They are both free and can help you to work out where to focus your activity.
Word Count
Whilst the limit on Instagram posts is 2,200 characters, we don’t recommend writing an absolute essay on Instagram! People scroll through quickly, so you want to grab their attention by using succinct sentences that inspire and tell stories in brief. Your Instagram biography needs to be kept to 150 characters or under. Don’t forget to include a URL link!Hashtags
Instagram limits you to 30, which we believe to be a good thing. Too many hashtags can be off-putting to your audience and could make you appear a little desperate for engagement! We recommend using somewhere between 5-10 hashtags, whatever feels right. Don’t forget to keep testing different tags, and not to use the same stock group of tags for every photo you upload.Posts
There’s no limit on how often you post on Instagram, or how many times. If you change your mind after posting, you can delete each post individually but you can’t delete them all. Remember Instagram is your shop window so ensure that everything looks beautiful and relevant.Filters
Did you know that there are 27 different Instagram filters that you can use to make your photos look beautiful? This infographic from Canva details which are the world’s favourite filters. Can you guess which it is? It’s a good idea to use the same or similar filters each time for consistency. If you are looking for more, then the app Afterlight has 75 more!Emojis
If you’re a fan of emojis (which we are massively!) then you’ll be glad to know that you can use them in your Instagram posts. This is a great way to make the posts more engaging and to help you stand out amongst the chatter. Did you know you can also hashtag an emoji!? #💚 That’s it for our Instagram Cheat Sheet. If you want more then join The Avocado Social Media Hub, our free Group for the latest social media updates, great examples and case studies, and support. Our to learn more about Instagram functionality, you can read more on our blog.