Instagram is one of the most visited social media platforms in the world. There are more than 500 million daily active users on the image and video-sharing platform. In theory, that is about 8-9% of the world’s population.
There’s lots of potential for brands to make money and earn a living. However, to get the best out of the platform, you must increase instagram followers and engagement. Here are some of the proven options that are successful.
Direct People to Like Your Account
The first thing to do is ask friends, family, and coworkers to follow your page and like the content published. If those close to you can increase your followers and engagement, it will encourage those who don’t know you to like and engage.
Getting this initial help can also help posts to be displayed in the discovery reels, as the number of engagements will directly correlate to being shown in this section of the social media platform. You can also buy IG likes for relatively little, and buying 50 for Instagram can be a great start.
Encourage New Followers in Texts
People don’t tend to ask new audience groups to follow or engage with content; this can be one of the biggest problems. Therefore, one of the best options is to add a line to every piece you publish.
A simple line like: “Please like, share, comment, and follow” can turn your content into a much more engaging piece. And this is a tactic used by other social media influencers like those on YouTube and TikTok.
Use Different Content Types
There are numerous options on Instagram, including stories, reels, videos, and images. These are fantastic opportunities for influencers and brands. Various content will appeal more to different audience types.
For example, some people prefer videos, while others engage more with photos. The more varied posts you produce, the more complex profile and content mix you can advertise that will attract more attention from a wider audience.
Use Competitions
Competitions are a great way you can build traction for any Instagram profile. You can run a competition with a prize such as: giving a discount, gift voucher or free products.
There are several ways you can get audiences to enter a competition with lots of different software that can help you. For instance, you can get your audience to:
* Follow your account.
* Like your content.
* Comment on your post.
* Share your post with some of their friends/followers.
Use Influencers
Influencers can be a significant benefit to new and existing accounts. They tend to have thousands, if not millions of followers, who can direct attention to your account and ensure you get more followers and engagement.
The biggest challenge with influencers is ensuring that you use the right ones. Some influencers will not be communicating with the right audience for your brand. For example, a motoring influencer is not going to have the same audience as a craft or baking channel.
Therefore, you need to get the influencer right. You might also need to invest heavily. Some influencers can charge hundreds or thousands of pounds to feature your account on their content.
Using the Right Number of Hashtags
Hashtags can be signposts for audiences looking for content within specific topics. There are numerous hashtags you can adopt that will ensure your content is discovered by new users. However, what many brands do is that they overuse hashtags, adding ten or twenty hashtags to a post.
While this seems like it would get lots of attention, research has shown that any more than three hashtags significantly drop engagement on your content. Therefore, adding between two and three to each piece is the better option. But lots of content in a day can still achieve the same amount of distribution of hashtags.
Want more visibility for your Instagram posts? In this video, Instagram expert Jenn Herman provides you with a step-by-step guide for determining the mix of hashtags you should use for short-term and long-term exposure on Instagram.
You’ll discover how many hashtags should you use, a mix of different types, where to place them, how to know if they are working, and how to decide which hashtags to use.
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00:00 Intro
00:55 How Many Instagram Hashtags to Use
01:55 How to Research Instagram Hashtags
05:13 Where to Add Instagram Hashtags
06:45 How to Analyze Instagram Hashtag Performance
#SocialMediaMarketing #InstagramMarketing #InstagramHashtags
Using the Right Hashtags
There are some problems with what hashtags brands use as well. If you use hashtags that are too popular, you’re going to suffer from significant competition. For instance, a hashtag like #nofilter is common, but it is also very competitive.
Only those brands already performing well will be promoted when using this hashtag. Use hashtags you know are going to be searched for in high volume but have little competition. Using hashtag trackers might be the best option here. There are some free options you can use, or you can pay for some tracking software.
Multiple Posts Per Day
While offering audiences one or two posts per day might seem wise, the lifespan of an Instagram post can be pretty short. Users tend to follow hundreds of accounts, and your content might get lost in the masses.
Therefore, you want to publish between four and five pieces daily, spread around the day. Not only will this help you with getting your content seen by more people, but it will also allow you to use different hashtags on each post, getting a wide variety during the day to increase the potential of being discovered by new people on the platform.
Improve Content Quality
The true value of content is not in the quantity but in the quality of the content you’re delivering to audiences. Too many young brands use substandard content to grab the audience's attention.
While this might seem like a cost-effective method, after all, lots of users don’t have professional equipment, and it doesn’t offer the right impression for your brand. If you want to be seen as professional, you need to put in the effort to create that image. You need to use the best equipment including editing software.
Use Professional Support
Sometimes doing everything yourself is not the best answer. You might need to hire a professional Instagram content developer to build a campaign and help you with technical issues.
Numerous Instagram professionals can help you with this, and they can be found at a cost-effective rate too. They can offer full-service packages or just consultation options, depending on your specific needs and budget.
Publish Content At Different Times of the Day
While there are peak periods for content to be found, that doesn’t mean you should always be publishing at this time. There are lots of times when you might find users online.
So posting sporadically throughout the day means you are going to reach users that are on later on in the day or earlier. And if you’re publishing outside of the peak times, you are going to find you have fewer competitors to steal your audience.
Be Confident
If you want followers and engagement, you have to have confidence in your brand, message, and content. Being shy, reserved, or lacking confidence in what you’re doing will show through in your content. Therefore, people will not want to engage with you.
You need to show the confidence that you know what you’re doing, you’re worth their attention and they should need to follow/engage with you to be seen as themselves. Confidence is hard to acquire, but if you have a strong belief in yourself and what you do, then you should be proud of that and convey that in all your brand’s messages.
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