Instagram was once a simple photo sharing social network with filters that people shared with their friends. It isn’t like that any more. Today in 2017, Instagram has become an extremely powerful and influential social medium. From Instagram Stories to Live Video, Instagram has become extremely sophisticated and much more advanced.
So how do you and your business take advantage of this powerful social medium that has over 500 million monthly active users?
Here are a few optimization tips to not only become a huge influencer but also grow your following with the right people:
- Character Count. While Instagram is 100% a mobile social network and people don’t like to write long pieces content from their phone or tablet, it can be beneficial. In fact, Instagram provides you with space of up to 2,200 characters. While they will only show three lines of your image caption in a user’s feed, if you can grab their attention in those first three lines, you won! While a great photo should always be your lead in, it isn’t always enough (and it’s what everyone else is doing). To combat that, try creating some posts with long interesting copy. There is a good chance others will comment and engage with your post.
- Hashtags Are Mandatory, Not Optional. You will not grow your audience unless you utilize hashtags in your posts. Hashtags are what give your posts legs as users follow not just their feed but popular hashtags they care about. Don’t utilize generic hashtags though. They won’t provide you with the right followers. Once you decide on a hashtag to use, Instagram provides you with a list of suggestions of other similar hashtags that are popular. This takes all the guessing out and tells you exactly the words others are using. If you do want to include hashtags in your caption try to make them organic in the copy rather than just filling them up at the end. As a good rule of thumb, every post should have at least 5 to 7 hashtags. Don’t go crazy though and spam the post as it will backfire in the long run and provide you with a less optimized audience.
- Follow your competitor’s followers. You can do this with a few simple steps. Within the app look for the magnify glass icon and then tap the search bar at the top. Then tap the word “Tags” under the search bar. Start typing a keyword related to your industry and see what comes up high that includes that word in a lot of posts. Nine photos will then appear that are considered “top posts”. They are considered top posts because they were posted by users with a lot of followers or because they have a lot of engagement on them. Click on one and go to their profile. Then click on the number above their followers. It will give you a list of everyone who is following that influencer. Start following a few of those people and there is a good chance they will spread some social love and follow you back. Keep doing this process and before you know it you will have a bunch of new followers that actually are quality people you want following you.
As you can see there are a lot of strategies to help build your Instagram influence. It does though though take time, effort and repetition but before you know it, it can happen.
For additional ways on how to grow your presence on Instagram contact The Interactive Imprint at 954-254-1650 or visit TheInteractiveImprint.com.
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