Instagram continues to dominate the social marketing scene and brands, influencers and Jo Public continue to find ways to grow their follower count and engagement rate. Growing your Instagram profile is time-consuming work, especially if your business or lifestyle doesn’t necessarily lend itself to “viral” content.
We won’t go into much detail on content in this post – that’s because content is unique to you and your brand and there are plenty of articles out there on great Insta content. We’re going to be laser-focused on tactics you can employ right now to supercharge your profile (without even creating a single post!). These tactics are tried and tested and are very effective so keep reading!
Instagram profile tips
It won’t surprise you to learn that Instagram is tight-lipped on how to grow your presence, other than basic advice. If everyone knew how to ‘game the system’, the platform wouldn’t be as fun for users (which is bad news for Instagram). Furthermore, Instagram is constantly changing its platform and its algorithms so tactics that worked six months ago might be less effective today. This means we have to continually test to see what works and what works for you.
This results in a lot of anecdotal evidence and conclusions drawn from small studies being published in forums and blogs all over the internet. Where appropriate, we’ve referenced them but it’s always advisable to use Google for the most specific and recent articles relating to your queries. The following tips will help brand accounts and ones that are more personal.
Here we go with something super simple and something you can do immediately:
1. Archive old Instagram posts
Instagram allows you to go through your posts and archive those you no longer want to show publicly. You should archive posts that you now deem to be off-brand, low-quality or that performed poorly by way of likes or comments.
This has two major benefits. Firstly, it makes your ‘follower to post’ ratio better. It is way more impressive to have 1000 followers having only posted 200 times as opposed to having posted 500 times.
Secondly, by removing posts that performed poorly, any new visitors to your profile will only see posts with good engagement. This indicates to them that you post high-quality content that’s well received by your followers (boding well for them!).
Going through this process also enables you to do this:
2. Analyse trends
Which posts are you archiving and why? What is it about those posts you no longer like and/or why didn’t they resonate with your audience?
If you’re able to extrapolate trends based on the actual responses each post received from your audience, you can better shape your content strategy moving forward. This means your content is actually based on evidence of your own account, not on the thoughts or small case study of another marketer.
3. Pick a niche
Common wisdom in the Instagram marketing world dictates an account should focus on a single niche topic. Having one interest area that informs content, hashtagging and the accounts followed is generally the most effective way to grow an account.
This is because it is far easier for a potential follower to decide whether or not your posts will be of interest to them moving forward. If you post about 4 or 5 different topics, a large proportion of posts might be of little interest to an audience member.
It is important to know the extent to which your audience is interested in you and your lifestyle or interested in the subject you tend to post about.
It’s advisable to choose one core niche with one or two side interests. The niche doesn’t need to be super specific – your personality and unique style will make your account appealing to a subgroup of that niche’s enthusiasts. When we say niche in the context of Instagram it means; “tennis” or “gardening” or “entrepreneurship” – fairly broad areas – and these will pick themselves for a brand account.
Remember – this does not just inform your content. It informs which accounts to follow and engage with.
Yes, yes, this is super old school, but you have to do it:
4. Engage with other accounts
Social media is just that; social. Finding the time to genuinely engage with other relevant accounts - and in particular your followers - can really help you build your instagram following.
5. Use hashtags wisely
Undoubtedly, hashtags have a vital role to play in increasing post reach and, therefore, growing your following. However, using the right hashtags is key if you’re to achieve their potential.
If you want to grow your influence rapidly, the bottom line is that you need to use a lot of hashtags. There’s a limit of 30 hashtags per post and there’s a good argument for using that number because every one of them represents an opportunity to reach an audience.
More importantly, however, you should use a range of hashtags in terms of their popularity. All of your hashtags should be relevant to your niche and the post shared but you can be savvy with their popularity.
Head of Social
