Nowadays, Instagram is one of the most rapidly expanding social media networks. With 1 billion active users per month, it’s evident that its meteoric rise will not be slowing down any time soon.
Considering its massive size and widespread use, Instagram presents a unique challenge for marketers: how to attract and retain followers. If you want some suggestions, continue on.
Think Like Your Readers
Instagram has a user base, with most users being women between the ages of 18 and 29. Most of them really reside in countries other than the United States. These simple numbers may not mean much for such a huge platform, but they may help you get a feel for who is listening right now and how that demographic has evolved over time.
Many of you undoubtedly already know that researching and targeting your ideal customer is an essential aspect of any successful marketing campaign. Yet it might be difficult to target a certain demographic on such a broad platform, which is why engagement tools exist. Conversations lead to sales, so make sure you’re not just “telling” people to buy your goods. Real involvement helps you not just monetarily but also strategically, allowing you to provide an ever-improving experience for your fans.
In other words, if you want to use Instagram to effectively expand your brand, you need to go above and beyond what they anticipate.
The #Hashtag Explanation
Hashtags are familiar to most people nowadays, but are you savvy in their strategic application? The regulations are continuously evolving, so it’s smart to stay up-to-date.
You should be aware that Instagram very recently began allowing users the option to follow hashtags. For corporations, what does this imply? Using targeted hashtags increases your chances of attracting new followers organically, but it also brings more competition.
But there’s something else worth noting about the new hashtag regulation: if users have the option to follow a hashtag, they also have the option to stop following it at a later time. That might have an unintended and detrimental effect on your business if this keeps happening with a hashtag you use frequently.
The way around this, and as a general guideline, is to often vary your hashtags.
Instead of competing, opt to work together
We don’t want you to plagiarise, but it may sound like we do. Yet getting other people’s approval to use your images, whether through a formal collaboration or even just a contest, is essential. There are a lot of Instagram users competing for attention, so it makes sense to work together if you enjoy each other’s company and provide complementary services.
For maximum success with influencer marketing, which involves sharing someone else’s “personal” material in exchange for exposure, all parties involved should be completely honest about the nature of their relationship.
Acquire and Use Appropriate Resources
There are certain individuals you follow who seem to have an impossible amount of followers. Good news: they most likely “cheated” by using novel methods and equipment. Fortunately, anybody can gain access to these resources and begin constructing a fan base.
These are just a handful of the many fantastic resources available to help you expand your Instagram audience: (check out a great list of tools for branded content here).
VSCO is a superb video and picture solution for any organisation that relies heavily on visuals. The straightforward service enhances the standard of your video and still photography.
Ink 361 allows you to keep track of your material and keep tabs on your team members at the same time. It’s totally free and a great place to start if you’re just getting your Instagram company or personal brand off the ground.
Later is a convenient media archive and scheduling tool that can be easily included into any editorial calendar. It’s integrated with Chrome so you can quickly upload many media files and share them all at once.
To discover and interact with other Instagram users, you may use a service like the artificial intelligence-powered SocialDrift.
Plan your video content usage carefully
According to Omnicore, around 5 million videos were posted on the first day that Instagram allowed users to share videos. It’s important to remember a few things whenever you publish anything on Instagram, whether it’s an ad, a Story, or just something fascinating.
The initial few seconds of a video are crucial, so make sure your brand name is prominent from the get-go. A sense of urgency and transience may be achieved by the use of music, writing, or even ephemeral content (like Instagram Stories). There is a great deal of leeway for originality here; nevertheless, the most important thing is to organise each message with a distinct call to action in order to pique readers’ interest immediately.
Experimenting with different video formats and uses is another wonderful idea. There are so many fun and useful apps out there (like Boomerang) that it’s not hard to come up with original and eye-catching marketing strategies to set your company apart from the competition. Videos shot in time-lapse, slow-motion, or a combination of the two may do wonders for attracting attention and building a following.
Have a Contest
- Communicate your call to action clearly (prize)
- Create a partnership with a company or influential person, or recruit some brand ambassadors to spread the word about your contest.
- Limit the duration of the competition and encourage participation by having participants tag their friends in the comments section.
- Choose a prize that you know your audience will enjoy.