With more than 400 million monthly active users, Instagram is a major social media platform for both individuals and brands so we have put together some great marketing tips to help grow your Instagram and increase your engagement and visibility. Instagram is an amazing way to share quick stories and posts to show your followers regular updates on your brand, it also allows you to interact with both existing customers and potential new ones. Whether you’re looking to promote your business or just document your brand’s day to day life, Instagram is a powerful tool that can help you tell your brand’s story.
Reply to Messages, Comments and DM’s
It’s important to engage with your audience and interact with them, you want them to feel like they are a part of the community which surrounds your brand and not just there to be sold to. There is a range of different ways to interact with your audience, whether they contact you or you contact them, interacting is an essential step in the growth of your account. Followers will send you a DM (direct message) if they want to get in contact with your brand so it is a good idea to create a good response that sparks a conversation between you and your follower. This type of interaction is a good way to build a solid connection with your audience that will entice them to reach out to you again. When a follower sees one of your posts they may feel intrigued to leave a comment if they have enjoyed it or found it informative, replying to these comments and creating a conversation increases the engagement on your posts. Creating conversations makes your brand feel approachable and friendly which helps your followers feel more comfortable interacting on your page and engaging in conversations.
A good way to get your company noticed by different users is through interacting with different audiences. There is a range of techniques you can execute to do this, from asking questions on your stories (stories can easily be reposted throughout your followers, creating an engaging story that can hook people from different audiences is a great way to reach further audiences). Heading over to similar brand pages and following their audiences is a good way to spread out your reach to people who have interests within your industry. As your business starts to grow people will start to shout out your brand and mention it on their pages, replying to these actions and showing your appreciation shows your brand acknowledges its followers, posting them on your story or creating a good conversation is a good way to respond to such actions. All of these aspects help reach a wider audience and grow your brand’s network.
Engage With Influencers and Creators
Instagram is a large platform that is full of a range of different influencers and creators who enjoy doing similar things within your industry. Engaging with influencers is a very important step when trying to create a network of people who can help your brand’s page grow. Instagram is a content-based app meaning that finding an influencer or creator that can help provide a range of content that is different to your competitors is a step in the right direction when trying to grow your brand. Approaching an influencer as a brand and complementing their work or featuring them on your page is a great way to get them to notice you positively. From here, you may regularly have conversations with them about work and help grow each other’s Instagram pages.
Influencer marketing is one of the best types of marketing out there on Instagram, this is because people build a connection with influencers and want to replicate the way they live their lives through using the same products and services they use. If your favourite influencer releases a product their audience will want to support them and their most recent product or service. This is why working with an influencer to represent your brand in different audiences is a great idea as it allows the audience to connect to your brand through their favourite influencer.
Post Interactive, High-Quality Posts
When posting pictures on Instagram choosing high-quality photos that represent your brand in the best light is essential when trying to grow your social media account. Creating unique content that makes you stand out from the rest of your competitors is important when you’re the underdog in the Instagram scene. Most people think that posting every day means that their social media will grow faster, however, in some cases, this can be the complete opposite if the content doesn’t captivate your audience. This is why quality over quantity is better in some cases as it makes your Instagram page look more professional instead of a mediocre Instagram page. The best thing to do when posting is to create a range of content and plan it out over a certain amount of time, this is called a social media calendar. This allows you to plan out your content in a spreadsheet, table or software showing the dates and times your post will go out. In doing this you can put aside a specific time to create a range of content that you can plan out for the remaining month, the more content you create means the more chances you have to engage with your audience. Posting daily is still a very good option when trying to grow your Instagram, but don’t rush your content as publishing content that is random and doesn’t intrigue your audience will fill up your feed full of random content which is useless to your brand.
Planning out your posts monthly or weekly allows you to focus your attention on other things like engaging with your audience or growing your brand’s network. Using software like Hootsuite and Buffer is great for scheduling your posts in an organised way.
Use Hashtags
Hashtags are one of the most important things to do on Instagram as they will get you more noticed and more recognised within your industry. For example, if you were taking a picture in the woods using a hashtag like #nature or #picoftheday will boost your post among other similar pictures allowing you to stand out from your competitors who do similar things.
Having your own hashtag can be a useful idea to allow your audience to interact with one another easily. This can be a great way to build a community within your Instagram page as people are going the extra step to be noticed by you and other users who are involved within the sector. In doing this you can also easily access a range of your audience’s posts allowing you to chat and build a connection with them.
Instagram is an app influenced by hashtags like Twitter, this means the more hashtags you use the more people you are likely to reach. In one post you can use up to 30 hashtags meaning that your business will fall under a range of sections when people are searching for a brand or service. The optimum amount of hashtags to use in one post is roughly around 20, this is because it allows your Instagram’s posts to look sleek and modern instead of rammed with hashtags it also provides the highest reach rare on Instagram posts. Making sure all of your hashtags are relevant to your business is important and not just chosen because it’s trending.
Create Captivating Captions
Captions are a crucial part of posting on Instagram, they are good for multiple reasons as they will hook the viewer and also help convey across the message of your post. There are two main types of captions for a post, these are called long and short captions, both can be beneficial to a business in their own ways. Long captions are used to present a range of information to your audience to learn from, were as short captions are used to captivate your audience quickly. Depending on the type of post you are constructing your post can use up to 2,000 words in one post, this means you can include strong CTA within your captions. A good call to action makes the purpose of your post obvious and encourages the user to take the action you want, this is why creating a range of good content with clear CTA’s is important.
Different captions can be used for different things like engagement (increases the amount of interaction on the post), conversion (to drive your audience to do something) and finally Click through (these types of posts are used to make them click through to your website or a link which can be placed in your bio). Spreading out a range of different captions to make your audience conduct different actions on your Instagram page helps make sure your Instagram provides interesting and engaging content while at the same time helping to deliver results from your social media marketing. A good rule of thumb is to sell to your audience in 20% of your posts, this is so your audience knows you’re not just trying to sell a product but also creating a community surrounding your brand, this is why the other 80% should be entertainment.
A good way to determine which captions your audience is best suited to is by doing A-B testing. In this process, you use two different captions on similar posts to see which one does better. From doing this multiple times you can determine which captions your audience enjoys the most. Whether you are trying to sell a product or trying to entertain your audience you need to ensure your captions are fun, straightforward and relevant.
Create a Professionally Branded Profile
Growing an Instagram account can be hard especially if you don’t look professional within your sector. Creating a good profile has many different elements included within it, this includes creating a good profile picture, identifying your tone of voice, building your bio and feed. The first thing people see when they enter your profile is your profile picture, meaning that you need to make sure it represents your brand in the best possible way. The size of this image is very small meaning that you need to make sure your logo is recognisable in a small format. Creating a good first impression with a brand that looks as trustworthy and professional is essential when trying to sell a product or a service on the internet.
Analyse Your Insights
Insights are a useful way to determine how many views and the amount of engagement your Instagram account has on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Monitoring the amount of engagement your account gets is a great way to see the progress of your Instagram account, this allows you to understand what posts and content your audience enjoys. Determining when your most active times are through the day can be a beneficial insight to help you know when you should be posting (a good tip is to post 20 minutes before your most active time as it allows your followers to have the content there ready).
Insights are a hidden gem that most people forget to use, it allows you to choose from a range of categories, for example, the most-liked post 3 months ago. Data is very important to any Instagram business as it allows you to optimise your profile by using informative data. The data that insights provide make monthly overviews very easy as it presents your data in a range of different tables and graphs. To monitor the growth of your account you need to use insights to gain a clear picture of how much engagement, reach and likes you are getting whether it be monthly, weekly or daily.
Create Engaging Stories
Instagram stories are a great way to share quick information out to your followers with ease, stories are easily accessible by everyone with one click. Instagram stories allow you to mention your followers on your stories creating a sense of community making your account more fun and enjoyable. It also allows you to give out updates within the industry on a regular basis without having to construct a whole post on a small bit of news. Due to its swipe motion, Instagram stories are one of the most used features on the app as it’s simple, relaxing and easily accessible. Stories can also be very fun for your community as you can share questions, polls and competitions, for example, Sunday surveys could be a way to see what content your audience wants to see by filling out a poll.
Key Point To Take Away
The main tip to take away is to keep your Instagram active and interact with your followers as this helps grow your Instagram and increase your visibility. Growing an Instagram account takes time and patience, ensuring you are fully prepared to start your Instagram adventure is your key to success, plan out your content, engage with your followers and have fun! Social media marketing is a crucial part of any digital marketing strategy, using these tools allows you to take your business to the next level and reach a range of different audiences.
Need Help Growing Your Instagram?
Our team have helped many brands grow their Instagram accounts and deliver results that align with their company goals! If you want a chat about how we can help grow your Instagram call 01745 289325 or drop us an email at hello@roweandbear.co.uk.
