Grow Your Interior Design Firm’s Instagram Account With These Top Tactics

There are over 2 billion monthly active users on Instagram. In addition, there are over 124 million posts tagged with #InteriorDesign. There is plenty of opportunity for interior design Instagram accounts to experience growth and exposure. More followers mean more brand exposure, more customers, and more growth. Growing your Instagram account can be a valuable tool for growing your interior design firm. 

If you aren’t seeing the growth rate that you want, then give these proven Instagrammer tactics a try.

If you are only posting single images to your Instagram feed, then you aren’t utilizing the full capabilities of Instagram. You are also missing out on the most engaging content on Instagram. Video and image carousels are the most engaged with content on the platform. Using both of these types of content has your target audience engaging with your content for longer. Followers spend time watching the entire video or scrolling through a carousel of several images and short videos. The longer someone interacts with your content, the more connected and interested they become in your business. 

In addition to videos and post carousels, you can also try posting stories, reels, or going live. Success on social media is about figuring out what works for your firm. Just because a high-end New York firm has success with stories that feature design projects doesn’t mean yours will. While Architectural Digest has a strong following, you can’t simply copy what they do and expect success. Don’t be afraid to experiment and see what resonates with your audience. Once you figure out the content type and subject matter that works the best, you can create more content that showcases that content type.

Perhaps you create a carousel post that shows the progression of one of your projects. For example, the first image could be the beautifully designed room in its final form. Then the following pictures could show the progression from the original room to the final product. This type of post is perfect for engaging with homeowners that like to do DIY projects. Your before and after project posts show followers that they can accomplish your decor ideas in their own home. Your account becomes a must-follow source of inspiration.

You could host a live event where you answer common questions that your clients ask you. Encourage people to engage with you and ask questions during the live session. You could go live and show people a behind-the-scenes look at your day-to-day business. Perhaps you take them on a tour of your showroom that’s full of eye-candy. Maybe you show off the textiles that you have on hand to feel and get better design inspo for a room. Maybe you have a mood board that features textiles, colors, and design style.

Post to reels and create mini “how-to” videos. Use them to show people how they can makeover their homes. Perhaps you show people how to create a color palette that features bright colors or pastels. Or you could show people how to coordinate patterns. Maybe you do a series where each video is a step by step guide on how a stylist curates a particular design style. Explain the design and key features of that style. Then walk through how you would go about creating that style in a bedroom, living, or dining room. You could do one on Scandinavian, Mid-century, Minimalist, Jungalow. Highlight the clean lines seen throughout a minimalist room, or the bright colors in Jungalow. Followers can use your videos and content as design inspiration.

You could have the most engaging and informative content in the world, but if no one ever sees it, then it’s useless. When you post is crucial to get your content in front of your target audience. Post when you think your target audience is most likely going to be on Instagram. If you don’t know when your audience is on Instagram, that’s ok. You can figure it out. Your first option is to look at your analytics to see when people are the most active and engaging with your content. 

If you don’t have this data, that’s ok. Your first step will be to create it. You do this by posting at different times of the day and different days of the week. Over time, you’ll build a data set that you can use to refine your Instagram account activity. The more data you have, the more accurate your analysis will be. 

Start with the universally accepted ideal times. This is between 6 and 9 PM and on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. From here, you can branch out and try different times. Another option is to look at when your competitors are posting. Are they getting a lot of engagement at those times?

Consistency doesn’t mean volume. Do not over-post and flood your followers with content. Posting too much will push people to unfollow you, which is the opposite of what you want.

Working with influencers has gotten a bad rap lately. It’s a shame because there’s great value in working with influencers, especially as an interior designer. You have a broad range of influencer opportunities. Collaborating gives you more exposure and reaches already engaged audiences. 

To make your collaboration a success, do not work with large-scale mega influencers who have millions of followers. Instead, look for micro influencers. They have smaller followings, but their followers are highly engaged and emotionally connected. Micro influencers typically have 10-50 thousand followers. The idea is to target quality, not quantity. Some services will vette influencers for you. Or you can reach out to influencers personally. 

Do not blindly send money or product to an influencer. Treat this like you would any other business vendor agreement. Put the agreement in writing in the form of a contract with the terms spelled out. Have both parties sign it. 

Instagram isn’t just about pictures and videos. You need to write captions that correspond to the images. Always include a caption! This one element increases engagement by 2%. This doesn’t sound like much, but over time, it adds up to significant gains. Your captions should be relevant, interesting, and engaging. 

While long captions over 2,000 characters perform well, so do short ones that are between 1-20 characters. It isn’t about the length but about being relevant and relatable. You should connect and identify with the caption on some level. This could be through a pain point, with humor, or by tugging on the heartstrings. 

Using hashtags helps get your interior design firm in front of people who don’t already follow you. However, don’t overdo the hashtags! Your posts will look spammy if you pile 30 hashtags in the caption. Instead, stick with a few key hashtags that are relevant to the post and your business. This will help people find you and your content. Try using some of these hashtags to get started creating a hashtags strategy. 

Increasing your Instagram follower numbers isn’t complicated. It just takes organization, consistency, and dedication. Start by doing data analysis of your current account’s performance. Then diversify your content, collaborate with others, and schedule your posts better. Over time, you will gather new data that you can then use to optimize your efforts and improve your Instagram account performance.