Instagram has so many great features – Stories, Reels, Collabs and with improvements being made continuously, it’s important to keep up to date. In our article today, we’re sharing some ways you can adopt a strategic approach to using Instagram to grow your business.
Three Steps To Boost Instagram Engagement
Reach New Audiences
Instagram has tons of built-in features and tactics that make reaching new audiences easier. Here are some of them:
- Reels – Create reels regularly and jump onto trending music and videos for the best way to reach new audiences. Add up to 10 hashtags to optimise your short videos.
- Hashtags and Keywords – Using hashtags can still work to reach new followers. Try to use ones that have less than 100k tags, so your hashtags don’t get lost in the ones with hundreds of thousands. You can also use ALT Tag descriptions on posts.
- Collabs – Co-author a feed or post with another user, preferably one with a significant number of followers. It is an opportunity for your brand to branch out to the followers of other accounts.
- Carousel Posts – People love sharing educational content, such as step-by-step guides and tips. Using Carousel or swipeable posts is an effective and interactive way to do this, as they are both saveable and shareable.
- Giveaways – Boost Instagram engagement by hosting giveaways or contests where entry requires tagging or sharing a post.
Convert Visitors to Followers
It’s great when people see your profile, but they have to follow you for your audience to get to know you better. Here are ways to do it.
- Profile Bio and Picture – People make quick judgements. Science tells us that it only takes seven seconds to make an in-person first impression, and it’s much shorter, 1/10 of a second, when online. Make sure you have a relatable profile image and a strong bio, so people know what you do as soon as they hit your profile.
- Feed Aesthetics – Curate your grid in such a way that aligns with your brand. Stick with colour schemes, specific filters and content themes.
- Content – Get clear on your messaging. Focus on content niche and balance it with your audience’s interests and needs. Speak about the value they can get from your business.
Build A Community
The first two steps are action items geared towards attracting potential followers one at a time. The third step requires keeping all of them and building a sense of oneness, a community. Instagram has rolled out excellent features that encourage engagement and drive retention. Here are some of them:
- Stories – Informal and interactive, Stories are perfect when sharing conversational topics. The 15 second content helps humanise your brand and makes you more relatable. Use interactive stickers that make your Stories fun to watch.
- Live – To connect with your audience on a more personal level, go Live! Show your behind-the-scenes activities on a product launch or an update about your business. Schedule your live events and promote them on your page to hype it and boost view counts.
- Memes – Generate more reactions from your followers with memes. Show their thoughts and sentiments and something they can relate to through these not so perfect imagery and witty captions.
- Comments and DMs – Do not post and ghost. Fostering a community means you listen to what your followers say and respond. Add a call to action CTA to your captions and take time to reply to comments and direct messages.
Boost Instagram Engagement: The Takeaway
As Instagram is constantly changing and evolving, the best way to stay ahead of the curve is to continue having fun with your content creation but take a strategic approach. Focus on creating content that resonates with your audience, adds value, and at the same time, use the tactics that Instagram likes. Don’t be scared to experiment and find what works best for your business.
If you need help with creating a tailored Instagram strategy, contact us. Always happy to help.
