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Every day, more than 95 million images are shared with 1 billion users who spend 53 minutes a day on Instagram. How does your brand get the attention of those customers within the firehose of daily content? When dealing with numbers that seem infinite, it becomes vital to put a “border” around them as a marketer attempts to build an Instagram strategy.

Before the game starts there are an infinite number of moves, more moves than the stars in the sky, which is what overwhelms beginner players. But Grandmasters understand after the first piece is cast, a finite number of possibilities emerge with each move. A box of rules within a box of rules within a box of rules, the Russian nesting doll of understanding of the game of chess.

In the same way, this is what savvy marketers are doing in the Instagram platform.  They are building a box of rules within a box of rules for their own content stream and brand. The first box: having a content calendar. If there isn’t a plan, there isn’t a goal, and that means writing it down. Next, we have parsed out 8 of the best practices to execute a successful campaign in Instagram. These 8 tactics focus around a central theme of storytelling because if you cannot organize your social media footprint around a story you won’t grab the consumers attention.

Finally, practice like it’s game time. When a new platform arrives (think Tik Tok) or a platform is new to your organization, the best way to understand it is to play in it. Use your personal account and take a photo a day – post it on Instagram, use different hashtags, respond to comments and direct messages (DMs) – 30 days later you will understand the world through an Instagram lens, a Tik Tok lens, a Facebook live lens, and your brand will be prepared to pivot when the next big thing happens.