Want to steal our Parade of Homes Instagram strategy to grow your brand on social? You’re in luck. We’re sharing our top 11 posts with the highest reach and breaking down why they performed so well. Then, you can reverse engineer them to create memorable content for your own business.
With 20,800+ followers and 2 million+ Instagram impressions in the last year, we’ve trialed and tested hundreds of content types to find what resonates best with our home and design audience. And now we’re sharing them with you!
Collaboration Posts
Collaborating with another Instagram account essentially doubles your post reach since the image or reel is shared with both your audience and theirs. We partnered with local pastry chef and TV personality, Zoë François, to tap into her baking-obsessed followers and share our love of kitchen design. Many of her longtime fans have found her through her online recipes, cookbooks, or TV specials, and had never heard of the Parade of Homes until this creative partnership.
Chronological Stories
Don’t underestimate the power of a strong opening clip. These first few video snippets of Pinnacle Family Home’s summer Artisan home immediately captivated viewers. We’ve also found that our followers like to experience a home tour video the same way they’d tour a house in person — starting in the main areas like the living room and kitchen, then working their way into the secondary rooms and upstairs to the primary suite.
Cultural Relevance
This Reel has a couple things going for it: timeliness, event correlation, and title. Posted in February, these kitchen predictions were a relevant look-ahead to the new year of design trends. It was also filmed at the International Builders Show (IBS), where thousands of attendees are posting and consuming event-related content. Lastly, the title is a popular topic featuring a well-known brand name, Cambria, that consumers know and trust.
Rapid Editing
People’s attention spans aren’t what they used to be. This home tour Reel gets to the point fast by showcasing a quick edit of rooms in this beautiful Artisan home by Ridge Construction. Don’t be afraid to show quick snippets instead of lingering on the same visual for too long.
Trending Audio
Play into the audio algorithm! Trending sounds and songs are a great way to get Instagram to amplify your post to followers or on the explore tab. This example, a brief home tour of a Hanson Builders’ Parade Home, capitalized on the popularity of the song “September” which was a fan-favorite during that month.
Establishing Shots & Titles
Set the scene. This Reel opens with a brief exterior shot, showing you what house the viewer will see a tour of, and a short title and caption reinforcing this assumption. You’ll also see that each clip is a short, slow pan, or zoom of each space — we believe this is the best way to capture engaging, yet simple content that viewers love.
Local Talent
This Reel piques the interest of our local Twin Cities following. We partnered with Falen, a local radio star and social media influencer, to increase the buzz surrounding our fall tour. She appears for a few seconds to introduce the video, but her loyal fans would recognize her (and her voice!) anywhere.
Attention-Grabbing Hook
Hook your audience with a short title and leave them wanting more. Reeling consumers in with “secret surprise” language up front encourages them to watch more of the video to find out more. This text and editing style is also popular with travel influencers and media accounts, so the video format feels familiar to viewers.
Well-Written Copy
Similar to the previous post, this Reel features heavy text throughout, encouraging viewers to continue watching and reading along. Add in the beautiful visuals from Swanson Homes’ Artisan home, and you’ve got a winning formula!
Community Representation
One: who doesn’t love puppies? Two: who doesn’t love seeing themselves featured in their feeds? Posts that feel like organic Instagram content, like this could’ve been shared by one of your close friends, perform exceptionally well on Instagram. This post feels authentic, lively, and shows off our wonderful Parade of Homes community.
Pop Culture Affiliation
Tap into pop culture moments and ride the social momentum. This Ridge Construction closet tour uses a trending sound from the Barbie music soundtrack, highlights relevant home content, and connects the two subjects together in the caption.
You’ll notice nearly all of these top posts are Reels — that’s because video is that much more effective. Let that sink in, and then ask yourself if your business is prioritizing the right content.
For builders and remodelers especially, take a look at our @paradeofhomestc profile and see what pointers you can take away to start seeing results for yourself. Happy content creating!
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