Are you having problems achieving your goals on Instagram? Are you tired and confused about your current strategy? Fret not, as you are not alone. There are thousands, perhaps even millions, of Instagram users struggling to increase their followers and engagement to help their business become more successful. Though, let me just assure you, for now, this experience is simply normal. However, doing nothing to improve the situation and boost your success rate is what’s not. This is why I’m providing you with my top 10 – old and new – Instagram tips to boost your success.
Optimize Your Profile
First, take care of your profile as everything starts from there. Having a profile that will provide organic views is essential to gaining new followers and potential customers, without a lot of effort. An optimized Instagram profile will have a friendly profile picture, will use the best keyword(s) as his/her real name (not username), will provide accurate one-word descriptions about his/her niche, and will have a call to action and a link.
Use the Right Hashtags
The second thing you should always focus on is the use of the correct hashtags. Using hashtags that do not represent your niche can be disastrous for you, as people will not follow you. I know it is tempting to use trending hashtags most of the time, but you’re only bringing in random traffic. Make sure you use hashtags about your niche that’s popular and widely used for that niche. You can also use more specific hashtags, but always mix them up with popular hashtags to increase exposure. Last, never put the hashtags in the caption; always place them in the first comment to make sure your post won’t look spammy.
Add a Call to Action and a Link
As a supplement to the first tip, always add a call to action and a link to your profile and, if possible, on your post. And, when you post with a link, make sure they synchronize with your profile or simply change the link in the profile for a quick while, just to double the odds of getting clicked. Also, if you have no website, simply cross-promote with your other social media profiles, such as your Facebook fan page, and ask your followers to click on that link to gain more fans.
Upload Great Content
When talking about great content, it doesn’t just mean quality images. It also means great, informative, and entertaining captions. Another thing is, you should always be consistent, especially for business accounts, to make sure your followers get what they’re looking for. Never mix up your topic; stick to one as much as possible. Though it may be great to show a few new things (even about your personal life), it should always be at a minimum to avoid confusing your followers.
Like Comments and Engage
To have a connection with your followers and fans, connect with them. Simple, isn’t it? But unfortunately, a lot of users ignore this and just think it’s a one-way thing. Well, it definitely is not. You have to like and not just be liked, you have to comment and not just have comments on your profile, and you have to reply and not just be messaged, or else it’s a one-way relationship. Having a connection is one of the most important aspects of a business; without it, you will lose. This is why, when someone leaves you a comment, reply and like it to show appreciation and to show you want to connect with them.
Comment on Other Profiles’ Photos
Similar to the previous tip about engaging, only this time, you engage first. Simply comment on other photos of the same niche to gain easy exposure. Be helpful and, if possible, always seek positivity, as I really believe in receiving the same thing back to you. Practice it every day; just find at least 10 to 20 photos you like and leave a comment.
Start Collaborating
Having a business partner or a partner is never a bad thing. Even to this day, shoutout for shoutout is still the best way to grow your followers. That’s because it really works and is easy. You gain from your partner’s followers and vice-versa. Target those who aren’t directly in the same niche but closely relevant. This is to make sure both of you avoid competition and have a mutual benefit.
Use Instagram Stories
This feature opens a huge possibility of greatly exposing your profile to almost every user on Instagram if it’s good enough. Not only having the advantage of an expiration, making users more inclined to check the story, it also gives you a fast and steady opportunity to bring them back to your profile. That way, it increases the odds of gaining new followers. Simply tag yourself in the caption to guide them to your profile or place an arrow pointing to your profile link on the top left and ask them to visit your profile. It’s easy and very effective.
Use Instagram Live
This is a new feature on Instagram I strongly recommend. I recommend it because people are always attracted to new things, and this is one. It is a live video stream, making it very convenient to instruct people to check your profile and ask them to follow you, and you can even use this feature to showcase a product.
Cross Promote
Cross-promoting all your other social media profiles is a great way to inform your fans about other mediums to connect to you. You can do this tactic the other way around and tell your fans on your other social media profiles to check you out on Instagram. This will bring you closer to success, as you are exposing not only your current fans to this but also all the potential fans.
Watch my video version below to make the knowledge absorption even better!
💥💥TOP 10 INSTAGRAM TIPS💥💥 #golive #inspire #teach https://t.co/7pfpIwQU1W
— Alex Khan (@1AlexKhan) December 17, 2016
