Instagram has become the ultimate in social media marketing. Instagram is still one of the most popular apps in 2020, even if the competition TikTok has been ahead in terms of downloads in the app store in recent months. But with over a billion users, of which over 500 million are active on the platform every day, Instagram remains the first port of call for the latest pictures and videos.
As on YouTube, all relevant influencers cavort here and 25 million companies are also active there. In the course of digitization, Facebook and Instagram are mostly the primary channels used by companies to acquire new customers. Whether a private person, influencer or company, anyone who cannot be found on Instagram is missing an important communication tool today. Reason enough to talk about 10 hacks to build and increase organic reach.
SEO optimized name
In addition to the user name, Instagram has the option of entering your name in another field. Many traditionally use their first and last name here. This is relevant, because this combination is often already occupied with over a billion accounts and you had to switch to a pseudonym or a number as an appendix to your own name.
It can make sense to specify an SEO optimized term for your activity here. Keywords that are searched for, such as “craftsman”, “pianist” or “dance school” ensure that interested parties who enter the term in the search bar are shown the profile.
Include call-to-action
Instagram lives from interaction, communication with other people and this is also the strongest indicator for the algorithm to know whether the content is relevant or not. However, many are only in the app in spectator mode, so you have to ask them to leave feedback in the form of a comment.
It is therefore advisable to write small texts under the pictures that encourage discussion. A particularly nice message in the video can be provided with the text “Share this with two of your friends”, in a post that contrasts two things, you can ask for the choice of the follower or with an important call like “#stay at home in Corona times “You can ask the reader to please share this with you.
A call-to-action always describes a direct request to interact with the content. This ensures that the range is increased. Tip: Use it sparingly and in a varied way. Otherwise it seems quite desperate when people ask for attention every day.
Hashtags
Hashtags are one of the ways to get more visibility. But be careful: It is essential to only use the hashtags that really match the picture or video. There shouldn’t be too many either. It is advisable to take a look at Instagram to see how big the hashtag you want to use is.
If you have a smaller profile, it is often worth mixing large (1 million), medium (100k) and small hashtags (<100k) in order to achieve a good result.
In addition, the number of followers on your own account is relevant. If others have a significantly larger range, this means that no additional range is generated. The size of the tag can be seen in the # tab in the search bar. We recommend three to five hashtags per post.
Rotate the hashtags
In addition, the same hashtags should not always be used. Instagram could interpret this as spam, which would result in the content no longer being displayed under the hashtags. It is best to think again each time under which keywords the picture or video should be found.
Using trendy hashtags just because they are often searched for but do not fit your content is not advisable, as it worsens people’s user experience. In this case, being found is not everything, because if people have found something completely different and that does not match what is expected, this will even lead to range restrictions in the long term.
Repost
A good option is to have yourself reposted by larger fan sites. This is very popular in certain niches such as the fashion industry. The brands and sites that post cool outfits, such as menwithstreetstyle or menwithclass, have an interest in reposting a picture.
The advantage for menwithclass or menwithstreetstyle is that you can get high-quality content for your pages very quickly, without having to do anything, and ensure brand awareness. In return, the photo owner’s account benefits from their page reach.
Depending on how big the profile is already, it can be that you become a micro influencer, get the clothes and even generate additional income later by wearing the clothes.
Notifications to!
If you as a follower decide to activate the notifications of a profile, the Instagram signals that the content has to be very relevant for them, because they want to know about the new content immediately.
It is worth considering what incentive can be created to get people to do just that: small competitions for the first person to respond to a story or feed post or discount codes for a company’s product are good options to start with. This often not only gives likes, but comments. This again signals the relevance of the image or video to the algorithm.
Use the LIVE function
The LIVE function of Instagram is ideal for interacting with the community: for example, questions can be answered, you can just show yourself and share a message with the community or provide a glimpse behind the scenes.
You can stream live for up to 60 minutes and show what you are doing. It’s worth doing a weekly or bi-weekly livestream that followers are looking forward to. A recommended gesture is to invite followers from time to time to join the LIVE.
This promotes interaction. A tip: It is best to use the question sticker in the Instagram story 24 hours in advance, so you can collect a few questions. The live stream is still available 24 hours after it has ended, so that some can still watch the replay.
The first minutes decide
As already mentioned, the first few minutes are particularly important for a new post: You can also use external traffic sources such as a WhatsApp or Telegram group with friends, your own newsletter or other social media channels to draw attention directly to them.
Going live immediately after a posting to inform viewers that there is something new stimulates discussion and can occasionally be useful. In the first few minutes, Instagram’s algorithm checks how a post arrives and how many people are interested in it. The more there are, the more likely it is that even more people will see it.
Beta tester
Almost every week there are new features on Instagram such as the recently added “we’re staying at home” sticker. If you use these features immediately for your story, you have a good chance of getting a bit more coverage for it.
The reason is: Instagram tests how you and others accept them and how the stickers are received. At the same time, Instagram helps to discover mistakes. It is advisable to always try out everything that is new and ask the community for their opinion.
Sweepstakes
Contests are a controversial topic. Some say that you tend to lose reach because Instagram has the word on their “spam list”, others have built their entire accounts with it. As with call-to-action, it is advisable not to overuse it, but to test for yourself how it is received by the community.
It also makes sense to expose in-house prices such as your own merch, a shoutout, a 10-minute coaching call or a new product to try out. Unconnected money and prizes have a negative reputation and are too unreactive.
It is important with all these hacks that they are built into the routine and that you find out what suits you and, above all, what goes down well with your own community. Every community is different, so just like in the real world, you have to get to know them to see what they like.