How to grow on Instagram

Growing on Instagram

Are you a creator who strives to reach a larger audience with no budget for ad expenditures? Many people bury their idea of establishing their stores when it requires a financial muscle beyond affordability.

The revolutionized digital world has transformed how artists present their ideas. The flourishing potential online platforms bridged the gap between creators and consumers. It is alluring how it takes a phone with an internet connection to promote your artwork.

If you are a creator, then having an online presence is imperative. Second, exposing your art to the target audience makes a massive change. Identifying the right platform is a prerequisite, and in this digital world, Instagram tops the list of apps widely used by creators.

Instagram, a social media application with over 1 Billion users, has exponential growth potential.

In case you are planning to get noticed on Instagram, which definitely should be your primary aim, keep reading.

In this article, I’m going to list ways to grow on Instagram. Fascinatingly, this app gives you a plethora of opportunities based on the skills you possess.

The below-listed pointers boost organic reach on Instagram when implemented right.

1. Create an account:

Yes, you’re aware of this palpable account creation. But did you know that as a creator, having a business account is convenient for page promotion?

A business account has impressive features that help analyze your page’s reach, performance, and impact. The target audience’s reaction to the content uploaded significantly enables revamping and restructuring your content.

Pros of having an Instagram Business account

• Access to analytics tools
• Availability of additional contact buttons
• Promote posts and run ads to drive followers
• Get performance insights of each post
• Use of clickable links

Instagram allows converting a personal account into a business account in a few clicks. You don’t have to worry about creating a new business account and re-upload data from your account.

Pro tip: Include the primary keyword related to your business in your account username.

Like the Google search engines, Instagram ranks the top profiles related to specific keywords. Come up with a creative name mending with keywords to attract eyeballs. The username is the epiphany of how well you lucidly communicate innovatively.

2. Instagram Bio:

An Instagram bio gives visitors a preview of your account. Cleverly using this minimal space decides if the users engross by scrolling down to explore your business. Using bio meticulously is one of the SEO techniques for increasing your reach.

Your Instagram bio should comprise:

Name: Add “your name” to this tab. Think from the audience’s perspective; if they wish to reach out, how would they? It would be through the search list. The search bar shows results based on the similarity between the name you enter and the existing profile and user names. Add your name or the business name to give a personal touch, reducing people’s efforts to identify you.

Skills: Mention your skills in the Instagram bio. “What you do” is the chief concern because only if the user gets interested in what you do, only then will they take time to browse through your page.

Keywords: Research the niche-specific keywords. Being keyword specific makes it easier to know the “why, what, and how” of your business. Ensure the keywords inserted are business-related.

Link: An essential feature of all! Inserting a link in the bio diverts the audience to your official website. Enabling audiences to explore via the link provides an opportunity to redirect users to the site. It has the potential to transform viewers into customers.

Emails: Emails allow customers to communicate with you. It is a great engagement tool for connecting, beginning, and clarifying any business-related queries.

Additional: Insert hashtags, location, CTA, emojis to add the quirk.

3. Instagram posts:

Content is the goldmine underscoring all the tactics. You may have exponential content ideas, but if you miss out on communicating them to the customers, you lose! Articulating the content is of utmost importance, notably avoid the usage of jargon. Using jargon becomes essential if the target audience is familiar with the topic.

For instance, you have created a page to promote your stock market agency. Your target audience is people who don’t have an iota of knowledge of stocks. The content’s purpose is to educate them and then eventually sell.

Consistently posting content is crucial to ensure that your audience won’t forget you. Besides that, posting content regularly increases your chances of gaining traction, as people would show an interest in following you to achieve consistent value allowing a boost in organic reach.

There are a few things you must check off before hitting the upload button.

1. Title: The title of the content that you share via image should be catchy. Avoid using simple words in your headline. Make it crisp, creative, and understandable.

2. Appealing images: Play with colors; appealing images with a contrast text color saves a lot of your advertising expenditure. Tools like Canva allow you to create aesthetic visuals for free.

3. Caption: Your caption should be elaborative of the title. Deliver what you promised in the title. A well-structured caption attracts, informs, and reciprocates positive results from the customer’s end.

First, get the readers hooked on your content. Refrain from immediately delving into the crux concept. Address the reader’s pain points, triggers, problems. Second, go ahead in briefly describing the topic. Provide solutions to the issues. Prioritize your customer needs and concentrate solely on delivering quality content. Salesy tags in between are a turnoff, don’t do it. Finally, end your caption with a call-to-action.

What do you intend the viewers to do further after reading? Is it sharing any opinions in the comments, reading your blog, or heading over to purchase from your website?

The requirement is endless, so are CTA buttons. Use them as per right fit.

Pro tip: keyword stuffing is always a big no-no.

4. Instagram Followers:

Your audiences will have diverse preferences, which influences the objectives. If you are selling perfume for men, you should not entirely ignore the demographics of women. Why? Because you can strategically target them by convincing them to buy a scent for their male partners.

Avoid putting all eggs in one basket. Segregate the audience depending on their age, location, and requirements. Never hesitate to connect with your targeted audience.

The numbers game is dangerous! What matters is the number of active followers on your profile and not the total number of followers. Do not buy followers, neither compel anyone to follow you.

If they seek value, they will follow you.

• Follow like-minded people
• Follow your business partners
• Follow influences for future collaborations
• Follow your customer
• Follow your employees, colleagues, and friends

5. Engagement:

Content communication and marketing are powerful tools that decide the performance of a page. Engaging with the audience should be your top-most priority. Engagement gives you a surety of how well everything is going.

In the hunt for gaining followers, businesses often commit a huge mistake of ignoring those who show genuine interest in what they do. Never miss out on any chance to communicate.

Get your engagement plan framed practically.

• Your posts are an engaging opportunity. If a user is commenting on the post, reply and make them feel important.
• If a person is making efforts in writing you a mail on how you can improve, acknowledge the feedback.
• If a viewer asks you a question via DM, reply with an appropriate answer.
• Asking questions, polls, quizzes are a few of the brilliant methods to increase engagement.
• Many people host giveaways by asking the participants to tag their friends; this excellent engagement tool not only gives you great exposure but entices interest in the audiences.

Innovative ways to reach your target audience

Instagram Hashtags:

Instagram permits 30 hashtags per post, and you get multiple hashtags related to your niche. Each hashtag comprises a varied number of followers. Before vaguely inserting hashtags, always do your homework.

The right hashtags help you rank for the specific hashtags, making people notice you. For that, you have to first find the keywords in your field. Check out your competitor’s pages for a better idea.

After listing the essential keywords, highlight the significant ones. See if they exist on Instagram (they do). Now, looking at 1M+ followers for that hashtag, do not get overwhelmed. You can engage with posts that are ranking for this hashtag. The aim is to make people know you exist.

After researching hashtags, use a mix of hashtags with high, medium, and minimal followers. It may seem impossible to rank for hashtags with over a million followers, but by concentrating on hashtags with medium followers and maintaining consistency, you can change the game.

Pro tip: Hashtags attract engagement.

Instagram Stories:

Never underestimate the potential of Instagram stories! Most people view the stories popping on their feed. By posting relatable content on your story, you increase the possibility of people getting familiar with your work. Instagram provides various tools on the stories to increase engagement. Please make use of them!

Upload stories: Don’t be in a hurry to upload all the stories in one go. Post one, wait for a while, and proceed with another. This way, you are hooking the audience every time they open their Instagram.

CTA buttons: Widely exploited are the swipe up option, redirecting post, link in bio, and the GIF. Every time you post, notify people about it through your Instagram stories.

Updates: Share quick updates about the availability of offers, discounts on the products. Feedbacks from the customers also add credibility to your business.

Lives: Stream sessions and organize interactive workshops on Instagram. The whole point is to get in touch with the audience.

Instagram Reels:

Always remember to use the newly introduced features of the application. When a user spends a considerable time using these features, the application hikes the organic reach to your account. Can you get creative in under 15 seconds?

The Instagram reels are a recent feature. Obviate the thought of observing other creators and their reach by using these features. Flexibly adapt to the new environment by creatively strategizing ways to deliver worthy messages through the mini clips. As a creator, you can post quick reviews, answer mostly asked questions, and roll out video content.

After the Tiktok ban in our country, the reels feature gained traction, relieving many creators. Any application would aim to make most users avail of the features. Hence, encouraging more people by making your content visible to more people.

IGTV:

IGTV enables users to start their video channel on Instagram. With video ranging up to 1 hour, you needn’t worry about compromising the video content. Use this feature to interact with your audience regularly.

How to use IGTV:

1. Upload recorded live videos.
2. Re-purpose and re-upload content
3. Start a weekly show
4. Conduct regular interviews
5. Give a glance into the background work.

To Sum Up:

Following these optimized tips consistently and accurately will generate results of growth. Being patient and persistently improving tactics flourishes your business account.

Are you religiously practicing growth hacks for boosting organic reach? Stay away from false promises and don’t engage in any malpractice of buying followers and engagement groups.