Ah, Instagram—one of my favorite social media channels of all time. The little sister to Facebook, this channel focuses on images and video to share experiences, products and information in a beautiful flowing news feed. But, as a business, just like any other social media channel, we have to think about it in a more structured sense. There are ways to maximize engagement and visibility, tricks of the trade, if you will.
With the new year looming, here are ten ways to get ahead of the game in 2021.
1.Use Quality Filters
With so many filter options how do you choose the right one? Right now, the three most popular are Clarendon, Juno and Lark, as well as no filter. However, according to TrackMaven, the top three filters that drive interaction are Mayfair, Hefe and Ludwig.
2. Start Conversations Using Instagram Stories Stickers
Instagram Stories stickers were introduced fairly recently, and they are built for interaction. These include things like the Question Sticker, the Poll Sticker, the Countdown Sticker, and more. The point is to start a conversation with your followers, making celebrities, companies and influencers more human, more approachable and more likable.
3. Pay Closer Attention to Your Hashtags
The right hashtags will link common groups of people who probably don’t follow you yet and lead them to your page. The wrong hashtags look spammy and generic. You’re in luck because there are tools to help you find the right ones, like Later’s new Hashtag Suggestions feature. All you have to know is *one* hashtag, and they do the hashtag research for you in a second. What an easy way to increase your Instagram engagement!
4. Post at the Right Times
Just like with any other marketing strategy, there are times your followers are more present than others. If you have a business account, these analytics are available for you to use and learn from. You may want to think about using a scheduling tool like Hootsuite or Facebook Business Suite for your posts since we aren’t available every moment of the day to stop and post. (If you don’t have a Facebook Business Suite set up, you’re missing out on so many tools that can help run your page smoothly.)
5. Make It Fun Sometimes
Your company may not seem fun, but even the most boring industries can have a jolly social media presence. I have a friend who owns a company that makes conveyor belts and robots for factory automation…BORING! But thanks to some help from her marketing team, you won’t ever know just how much of a snoozefest that industry can be. From including AR filters in your stories to adding memes and GIFs to your feeds, your engagement rates can see great results and interaction when posting something quirky and fun.
6. Create Content People Want to Save
I bet you didn’t realize saving images and videos on Instagram even mattered in terms of engagement, but in 2020, saving is just as important as commenting! Saves are also important because Instagram is testing the removal of likes altogether (so far in seven countries). “Savable” content is anything your followers will want to come back to later. Think about what’s important to your audience and what they find value in.
7. Steal Your Competitors’ Followers
How do you do this without being sleazy? Just engage with them. Like the user, comment on their posts or simply like their post. If they don’t know who you are, they see you now. Don’t be afraid to use an emoji or two as well, making you seem more interested and more human.
8. Use Geotags to Boost Local Support
Geotagging drives a sense of community among Instagram users who visit your brick-and-mortar location and post photos when visiting.
It can also showcase which great places your brand visits to get its photos. Either way, it helps new users find you and engage with you. When this is done, your profile photo will show up in the “Places” tab in Instagram’s Search and Explore section, along with all the other posts tagged to the same location.
9. Run a Giveaway
One of the best kinds of comments you can get on any social media post, not just Instagram, is when a user tags a friend. Not only do these comments contribute to your post’s engagement, which in turn makes it favorable to the Instagram algorithm, but each tag brings you a new audience member who arrived through a recommendation and who you could potentially win over as a follower. Pro tip: when running a contest of any kind, make sure to consult the Promotion Guidelines first.
10. Be Consistent
Have we talked about consistency before? If you aren’t sure, check out some of our other blogs because this is a common thread at Rooted Web. If you aren’t consistent in your voice or message, your followers won’t really know why they should or continue to follow you. Having a consistent theme and posting schedule will help new or potential followers really know who you are and what you’re about.
Regardless of why you have an Instagram or what your goal is with your account, our marketing team can help build the marketing strategy you need to increase Instagram engagement, followers and revenue. Contact us today to get started!
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