Despite competition from other social platforms (many of which are new), Instagram is still growing at an explosive rate. How do we know this? The numbers say it all. In 2017, this platform had 700 million users. Now, this number has grown to 1.074 billion accounts! While not all of these are active, you can bet that millions of accounts are actively engaging on the platform. These are accounts that you can convert into leads which one day can be sales channels. But how do you do this successfully?
Tips To Market Your Brand on Instagram in 2021
Many strategies that worked when Instagram was at an infancy stage no longer work as well as they did. For example, to grow your account in 2018, all you had to do was be active and follow many users, many of whom would immediately follow you back. Do you remember the ‘follow for follow’ trend? It does not work anymore. Let’s show you what works now and why you must jump on it to take your brand to the next level.
Boosting Your Instagram Followers
Organic growth is one of the hardest things to master on Instagram and any other social platform. Even in the new ones, it’s tricky to post a video or photo and see numbers streaming in. Unless you are lucky to go viral and stay that way, those numbers are not that satisfactory. That’s why using a head start works to your advantage. How? You can boost Instagram followers by getting real followers sent to your account. These accounts will make it look like you have an authentic voice that other people care about. Before long, you will realize that more people will start following your posts, and you can start enjoying organic growth.
Does buying followers trump waiting for the Instagram algorithm to find you among the millions of account holders? It sure does! The algorithm always gives to those who already have something working for them. So, the moment you start receiving followers, the algorithm will bump you up, pushing you closer to your target audience. But the work does not end here. Keep reading for how you can retain these followers and attract more to your brand.
Not Spamming Your Followers
We’ve all heard Instagram gurus emphasizing the need to be consistent with our engagement on Instagram. It makes sense. You’ve got millions of accounts competing for the same attention. Unless you are already a celebrity who sneezes and TMZ posts about it, you need to keep your audience glued to their phones. But give people too much of anything, and they no longer want it. Cue- do not overpost.
It’s so easy to get carried away with the scheduling and posting that you decide to get in your followers’ faces. After all, the more they see you, the less likely they will forget about your brand, yes? Not even close. They soon start muting you and moving on to other accounts. If you have a lot to say, how about using the carousel feature, making a reel, or creating a video? You fit a lot into one post, and that’s enough to get the message home. You do not want people rolling their eyes and going, ‘here comes another post!’
Oh, don’t forget to schedule the posts for a time when your target audience is active. It brings us to our next point.
Relying on Instagram Insights
Understanding who you want to target is one thing- it comes down to nailing your demographics. For example, you may want to target people aged 30 to 39 for a new skincare product. That makes sense. Now, the part where people ignore is what the audience wants to see. Of course, holding a survey and considering the responses is one way to do this. But Instagram has made data collection much easier for you. How?
Professional insights! If you haven’t converted your Instagram account to a business account, now is the time to do so! You get real-time insights showing you which posts did well and which ones fell below par. With this ranking, you can start getting a feel of what your audience wants to see and giving them more of this. Maybe they like videos more than they like your pictures. Or they prefer interacting with your Instagram stories. Follow the statistics and not what you think works.
Creating a Popular Hashtag
People often jump on hashtags. It makes sense- if a hashtag already has a following, then anyone following it will see your content. But think about it this way. A popular hashtag will have millions of people tagging it in their photos. Take #travel, for example. Most vacationers and travel bloggers use this in their posts. All this competition makes it harder for you to stand out. Sure, it gives you some exposure, but it does not make you a standalone point that others can single out. What can you do about it?
The first thing is to use more hashtags. Create a mix of hashtags, blending in those with high and low numbers, and ensuring that you do not use too many tags in one post. Aim for about ten hashtags. Of course, the more the hashtags, the more you need to invest in a good caption that minimizes the visibility of the tags.
Then to our point- create a hashtag from which you can build a community. Think about what hashtag would speak to your brand and create one that falls in line with this. Communicate with your followers the thinking behind the tag and make it a thing- a community. When people tag you on posts, they will likely use the same hashtag.
Interacting with Other Accounts
While the ‘follow for follow’ concept no longer works, engagement always sells on Instagram. Interact with your followers. When they comment on your posts, leave replies. Answer your direct messages, like other people’s content, send reactions to posts, share posts, repost, and do whatever it takes to interact with other accounts in real-time. Why? This activity ensures that your account name is visible to other people who may, in turn, follow you to see what you are all about.
Are you ready to take Instagram marketing up a notch? You now have what it takes!
