Reading time: 30 min. | Difficulty: Intermediate | Article type: Tips & Tricks
Published on 2022/01/30 | DLast modification: 2022/02/01
Table of content
When utilized properly Instagram can reap many benefits for brands.
What do the world’s most successful brands have in common?
They all have a significant number of Instagram followers. They have tens of millions of Instagram followers.
There are over 800 million Instagram users, and it’s no wonder that all sorts of organizations and influencers are turning to the platform to increase reach and generate new business.
Here’s a comprehensive list of strategies used by some of the world’s most successful Instagrammers.
More details and explanation ? You will find everything bellow !
Content
Experiment With Content Formats
Social media marketers have a variety of content types to choose from when posting on Instagram, including photo, video and carousel. Marketers should experiment with each one. Varied formats may help to better engage existing followers, which is critical for those hoping to organically reach new followers through prominently placed content.
Develop A Trending Hashtag
Instagram recently announced that users would have the ability to follow specific hashtags. In light of this update, brands should attempt to develop a trending hashtag in order to encourage users to engage with it. If the hashtag is branded, it can also help to increase brand reach.
Share Exclusive Company Announcements On Instagram First
Exclusivity breeds interest. If you want to encourage people to check out your Instagram profile, sharing important company updates on Instagram before sharing them on other channels is a good way to motivate people to follow your account.
Produce Content For Instagram Stories
Within one year of being launched, Instagram Stories garnered over 300 million users. In fact, more people now use Instagram Stories than use all of Snapchat. If you haven’t yet produced content specifically for Instagram Stories, consider doing so.
Create Live Video To Access New Audiences
Instagram promotes live video differently from other content formats. Existing followers receive a notification (if Instagram notifications are turned on), and live videos are promoted in a dedicated live video discover tab. This can be a great way for social media marketers to quickly increase account reach.
Make A Content Calendar To Ensure Content Is Timely
If you outline your content strategy well in advance, it will be easier for you and your team to ensure that content is aligned with upcoming events, such as company announcements or national holidays.
Establish A Compelling Brand Narrative That Informs Instagram Content
The best brands use a variety of Instagram content to tell the same story. It’s important that you develop a compelling and consistent brand narrative in order to communicate effectively with Instagram users.
Example of telling a visual story.
For example, Apple (above) produces Instagram posts that focus on articulating the amazing things customers are able to do thanks to Apple products. The format and subject matter of Apple Instagram posts change regularly, but the story never does.
Write Instagram Captions That Add Value To Content
Creating compelling Instagram captions is a great way to add an additional layer of interest to Instagram content. Learn from Instagram storytellers like Humans of New York (below) and National Geographic to see how a great caption can take Instagram content to a new level.
Example of how captions can help engage on Instagram.
Produce Instagram Videos That Don’t Require Sound To Be Engaging
Roughly 85% of Facebook users play video without sound, and the numbers are likely similar on Instagram. Be sure to create Instagram videos that are just as engaging without sound as with sound. And consider adding captions in order to help audiences understand video content if played without sound.
Promote User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is a great way to demonstrate social proof while sharing compelling content. A number of highly regarded brands, including Mercedes-Benz (below), regularly share UGC for these reasons.
Example of sharing user-generated content.
Get Comfortable Producing Beautiful Visuals Yourself
The best social media marketers are able to produce stunning Instagram content independently. Learn how to take a good smartphone photograph, and familiarize yourself with an editing tool like Photoshop.
Create “Satisfying” Video Content
There is a phenomenon sweeping social media videos across platforms, that of “satisfying” content. Examples include woodworking videos in which two pieces of wood fit perfectly together and coloring videos in which an artist shades an object just so.
Think of how you can create “satisfying” video content in order to produce something with a high virality coefficient.
Features
Switch To An Instagram Business Account
An Instagram Business account provides organizations with great flexibility that can make it easier to grow followers. For example, account admins have access to profile performance metrics. Admins can also easily “boost” posts via an inexpensive ad, and can include a button that makes it easy for profile viewers to contact the business via a direct message, phone call, email or text.
Learn How Instagram’s Sorting System Works
If you’re interested in developing viral Instagram content, you’ll need to understand how Instagram’s sorting algorithm works. The platform uses a variety of factors, including timeliness, post engagement and post location, in order to determine where the post is displayed in a user’s timeline and whether the post makes it to the Explore page.
Tag Each Post With Location And Appropriate Hashtags
Incorporating as much information as possible into each Instagram post is best for those interested in increasing reach. That means adding a location and appropriate hashtags in order to make content more discoverable.
Experiment With Instagram Shopping To Create A Better Experience For Followers
Instagram recently unveiled Shopping, which allows brands to tag items for sale in an e-commerce store. With just a tap on the tag, an Instagram follower can easily navigate to a product web page and purchase the product—all from within Instagram.
E-commerce brands that have used Instagram Shopping have seen incredible results. Marketers who work for e-commerce sites should use Shopping to delight followers, increase post reach and grow followers.
Prepare For Changes To How Instagram Suggests Content
Recently, Instagram started adding suggested content directly into some users’ feeds. Given this reality, social media marketers should be prepared for Instagram to change the way suggested content works.
It may become more challenging for brands to reach existing followers and less challenging to reach prospective followers if the changes take effect.
Engagement
Use Instagram Tools To Increase Followers And Engagement
A number of exciting new technologies have come on the market recently, designed to empower social media marketers and influencers to increase Instagram followers and follower engagement. Below are 3 must-have tools for getting the most out of Instagram:
Instagram tools like the ones mentioned above can help social media marketers to dramatically increase follower count in short order.
Solicit Profile Feedback From Your Target Audience
To better understand how you can improve your Instagram marketing strategy, consider soliciting feedback from existing followers. Sending a direct message to followers who are highly engaged may be a good way to acquire fast and meaningful feedback to optimize your strategy moving forward.
Regularly Shout Out To Engaged Followers To Encourage Further Participation
As mentioned earlier, content with high engagement tends to attract new followers through improved organic reach. To keep followers happy and regularly engaged, mention them regularly in Instagram posts. Showing gratitude is a great way for brands to keep Instagram users engaged.
Celebrate Follow Milestones To Establish Credibility
Be sure to post celebratory content when you reach significant follower milestones. This provides existing followers with much-desired recognition, and helps to establish the credibility of your Instagram profile.
Host Live Events For Instagram Followers
Give back to existing Instagram followers, and document your generosity on Instagram. Doing so through an exclusive live event may create significant “fear of missing out” (FOMO) among potential followers. In time, this FOMO may motivate non-followers to begin following your account.
Take Your Follower To Following Ratio Into Account
There are differing schools of thought when it comes to the importance of follower to following ratio. At the very least, Instagram marketers should be aware that some users consider accounts that have close to a 1:1 ratio to be suspect. Highly credible accounts are often following significantly fewer people than they have following them.
Reply To Those Who Comment On Your Content
Content with high engagement is more often distributed organically via Instagram’s algorithms than content with low engagement. To encourage existing followers to engage with content, be sure to regularly reply to those who comment on your posts.
Advertising
Amplify Reach With Instagram Ads
Billions of dollars are spent on Instagram ads each year, and those numbers are expected to increase. Brands of all sizes understand that Instagram ads provide a unique opportunity to gain access to a specific group of Instagram users. For those interested in quickly increasing the number of Instagram followers, ads may be a good choice.
Showcase Your Instagram Profile At Live Events
Using a plug-in like Tint, marketers can display a live Instagram feed on a monitor at live events. This increased exposure can help to drive awareness among members of a target audience when they are most open to connecting with new people and new brands.
Embed Instagram Content On Your Website
Another way to increase the reach of your Instagram account is by embedding posts on your website. Each Instagram post features an embed code that can be easily pasted into the source code of most websites.
Develop A Contributed Content Campaign That Links To Your Instagram Profile
Drive internet users to your Instagram account by linking to it in widely read articles. To do this, simply create contributed content pieces that are featured in relevant publications and in industry blogs. The increased exposure will help you grow followers in short order.
Re-share Instagram Content On Other Social Media Channels
Use other social media channels to amplify the reach of Instagram content. Since Instagram has hundreds of millions of users, chances are many people who follow you on other platforms also have an Instagram account. Sharing content from Instagram on other platforms will provide followers with a reminder to check you out on Instagram as well.
Link To Your Instagram Account In Other Social Media Bios
It may sound simple, but it can be surprisingly effective. Add a link to your Instagram account within bios on other social media platforms to make it easy for those interested to find you on Instagram.
Marketing concepts
Create An Instagram Competition
While competitions have fallen out of vogue on some social media platforms, they are very much alive on Instagram. Bodybuilding.com recently used an Instagram competition to select two brand spokespeople.
Example of using Instagram to announce contest winners.
In the example above, Bodybuilding.com announced the winners of an Instagram contest that helped the brand gain exposure to potential new followers. The competition was particularly ingenious because it motivated the contestants (all Instagram influencers) to encourage their audiences to engage with Instagram posts shared by the Bodybuilding.com account.
Offer Discounted Pricing To Instagram Followers
Incentivize customers to follow your Instagram account by offering discounted pricing to Instagram followers. Some sophisticated e-commerce systems may be able to determine if a customer is an Instagram follower. If you don’t have access to such a system, you can simply share exclusive discounts with Instagram followers via automated direct messages to incentivize others to follow your account.
Document Your Experience Of Working To Grow Instagram Followers In Blog Posts
In many instances, members of your prospective audience may also be interested in growing their own Instagram accounts. Documenting your experience via a series of blog posts can provide your handle with great exposure to your target audience.
Analytics & Data
Invest In An Instagram Analytics Tool
A good third-party Instagram analytics tool is crucial for those who want to fine-tune their Instagram strategy. Some platforms can even help social media marketers correlate follower growth with a specific piece of content or with changes to content strategy, making it easier to double down on the things that are working best.
Display Important Instagram Metrics In Real Time With A Free Dashboard
With so many distractions, focusing at work can be a challenge. For those who want to focus on improving Instagram metrics, using a real-time dashboard like the one offered by Geckoboard can be a convenient way to put the metrics front and center at home or in the office.
Keep Up With Instagram Trends By Following Influencers And Big Brands
Trends on Instagram can be fluid. Using a specific filter or hashtag may be all the rage one minute, and the next minute the trend will be dead. To stay on top of trending Instagram habits, follow well-known influencers and big brands. Often, the most popular accounts on Instagram are the ones that set new social media trends.
Optimize Share Timing And Frequency
Using a third-party Instagram analytics platform, marketers can optimize the number of posts shared per week, as well as the time the posts are shared, for maximum effect. This can be an effective way to organically increase post reach, which will eventually help you to acquire new followers.
Monitor Competitors To Gain Inspiration
You’ll be able to learn a lot by following competitors, whether their Instagram marketing strategy is successful or not. By carefully monitoring the competition, you may find inspiration from Instagram campaigns that are working well among your target audience. Conversely, you may choose to avoid marketing campaigns that have performed poorly for competitors.
Learn As Much As Possible About Your Target Audience
The more you know about your target audience, the easier it will be to develop a winning Instagram marketing strategy. Take the time to interview actual Instagram users to understand their personal and professional interests.
Collaboration & partnerships
Give Employees A Way To Share Office Content With The Social Media Team
For those who need to quickly create a wide variety of content for Instagram, using content created by employees may be a good way to kick-start production. Just give colleagues an easy way to share content, be it on Slack or in a Google Drive folder.
Hire An influencer To Rapidly Increase Account Reach
The vast majority of marketers who rely on influencer marketing believe it is an effective strategy, according to a recent study. Consider hiring an influencer or micro-influencer to quickly increase the reach of your account.
Work With A Professional Photographer To Create Stunning Visuals
Image and video quality plays a significant role in the success of Instagram content. Consider hiring a freelance photographer or videographer to create arresting Instagram content.
Using a professional photographer can play a major role.
Above, an example of the type of content that performs well on Instagram. This post by Murad Osmann received over 250,000 likes.
Contact Successful Social Media Marketers To Pick Up Tips
Reach out to social media marketers at leading companies and ask for their advice. In many cases, successful marketers—and even influencers—will be happy to offer tips. Many will find a well-worded email to be flattering and unexpected.
Use Co-Marketing To Reach New Audiences
Forming a co-marketing partnership with a complementary product or service can be a great way for both organizations to reach new potential followers. Launching an Instagram “account takeover” is one great way to do this.
Miscellaneous
Create An Instagram Marketing Playbook To Keep Everyone Aligned
If you’re sick or busy, who will manage your Instagram account? Create an Instagram marketing playbook that shares dos and don’ts in order to keep everyone on your team aligned in unforeseen situations.
Always Spell-Check Captions Before Posting
The smallest typo can undercut an otherwise stunning Instagram post. Be sure to always spell-check Instagram captions, hashtags and even tagged locations to avoid harming the credibility of your Instagram account.
Enlist The Help Of Artists To Tell Your Company’s Story
Remember, a key to success on Instagram is developing unique content that tells a uniform brand narrative. A great way to do this is by partnering with an artist to tell that narrative through art.
Embrace Humor To Increase Your Virality Coefficient
Humor goes a long way on Instagram. Brands large and small that are able to develop truly funny content will earn greater amplification, and will find it easier to grow followers.
View Your Own Instagram Profile On Mobile
Be sure to regularly view your own Instagram profile and content on mobile. Many social media marketers have a tendency to view accounts on desktop, since they are monitoring social media at work. Make sure that you replicate the experience of end users in order to quickly catch unintended issues.
Be Patient
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither are massive Instagram followings. Recognize that Instagram marketing can take time as you learn what does and does not resonate with the target audience. Be patient and encourage colleagues to do the same.
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