Instagram is a powerhouse for businesses to engage more audiences to their account. People spend a vast time planning and creating content to grab the user’s attention. When Instagram was introduced, it was a simple photo-sharing application for people to gain entertainment. But later, it has transformed into a serious content marketing platform and to build audiences for brands.
Over 200 million monthly users share about 60 million images and hit 1.6 billion likes in a single day on Instagram. In social networks other than Instagram, the engagement rate is only 0.1%. The average engagement rate on Instagram for business accounts is 58 times higher than the engagement on Facebook.
If you are thinking about how to become famous on Instagram, check out the below interesting hacks to gain the attention of audiences and convert them to your potential customers.
#1. Select The Right Hashtags
The goal for all brands and businesses is to create an engaging environment with their audiences. When you start to engage with your followers, you will earn loyal customers to your business, leading to increased sales conversion. Post engaging videos and photos to fulfill their first requirement. But, if you want continuous growth in engaging new audiences, the right way is to use the correct hashtags on your content. Using hashtags makes it easier for people to find the specific content they are required to watch.
Though Twitter introduced hashtags in the year 2007, their popularity has grown on all the social media platforms, especially on Instagram. Hashtags play a vital role in improving your brand visibility to new audiences. At the same time, you have to select a relevant hashtag related to your content to attract users. Though Instagram allows you to stuff a maximum of 30 hashtags, using seven to nine will be sufficient to gain more potential followers to your account. Some of the top-performing hashtags are,
- #love
- #photooftheday
- #instagood
- #beautiful
- #fashion
- #happy
#2. Finding The Correct Time To Post
The essential marketing strategy to engage your target audiences is by posting your content at the right time. Move on with analysis and find which content has worked out well and the reason for non-performed content in the past and present. Just posting engaging content will not boost your engagement rate. Know the online presence of your followers and target audiences to get your brand’s reach with your audience’s involvement. Notice your audience’s activities as well as your competitors to gain some knowledge in getting engagement.
Instagram makes it easier to find the active time of your audiences by the inbuilt Instagram insights feature. You can utilize this feature only if you have a business account. Through the insights option, you can track the performance of your followers about their presence on Instagram, their interest, etc. The report gives you the best time to post your content by day.
Experts found the average best time to post on Instagram from various analyses as 11 AM to 1 PM and 5 PM to 7 PM. If you want to deliver any vital content or announcement to your audiences, schedule those posts on weekend days to perform well and get better results.
#3. Grab Your Competitor’s Followers
The best way to gather loyal audiences to your Instagram account is by finding your closest competitor’s Instagram account. Analyze their Instagram feed page and note the level of engagement. Get the information about the audiences and approach them because they already have an interest related to your product. Create an engaging conversation with those audiences and attract them to your account.
The only way to gain your competitor’s followers is by engaging with them. There are different ways to engage users on Instagram, and you can achieve this only with the help of your repetitive effort and hard work. The familiar three types of engagement used by most people and brands are,
- Follow the user back
- Like photos posted by them
- Comment on the photo they have posted
If the competitor is in the same location as yours, add location on your bio and start following their users. I am sure that you will get back responses at least by 30% since their interest matched your business.
#4. Use Stories With Stickers
Instagram stories are the engaging medium where audiences show interest in watching short videos or images that last for 24 hours. Since the content appears on the top of your follower’s homepage, it boosts views for Instagram stories intending them to watch it. Your followers will easily get to know about your business and your engaging activities with your story content itself. Instagram stories provide an attractive sticker to increase the interaction with your followers. You can quickly increase the sale conversion and drive traffic to your website with stickers. Some of the engaging stickers are,
- Quiz sticker
- Question sticker
- Countdown sticker
- Poll type sticker
- Location sticker
- Music sticker
- Hashtag stickers, etc.
Increase the interaction with your followers and show your product live with your audiences to create brand trust, which may intend them to buy your products. It is a great place to interact with your audiences directly. Respond to all the messages, clear their doubts about your product, and drive traffic to your landing page.
#5. Go For Giving Sponsored Posts
Take advantage of influencer marketing and find the influencers fit for your brand to increase your follower’s count. Expose your brand to wider audiences with the help of influencers. Influencers are the users on Instagram who have created a reputation among the audiences with loyal followings. There are plenty of influencers on Instagram, and find the influencers for your brands who have the same followers as your target audiences which will be easy to gain those followers to your account.
You can find influencers from your following list also, because you may already follow them for some reasons. Or the best way is to type the keyword related to your business on the search tab like you do for finding hashtags. You will get both the hashtags and the top Instagram accounts with the correct keyword.
Notice two things while finding your influencers:
- Usually should have more than 15k followers
- The email address on their profile.
If you find an account with large followings and a mail address, they will accept the sponsored post. You can approach them via their email address and tell them about your business profile with clear information. If you are a small business, go for micro-influencers who have fewer followings but high engaging audiences. Since the influencers created brand trust, you will get loyal followers and customers from them.
#6. Run Contest And Giveaways
When you tag any of your friends, you will get more responses from them, giving engagement to your account. If the engagement level increases, it becomes favorable to the Instagram algorithm. Usually, people will show interest if any contest occurs with a winning prize. Use this as an opportunity and conduct contests related to your business. Gather audiences to your contest from your loyal followers, asking them to share your contest post on their page also.
Think of giving contests in a way that intends people to tag their friends. If your content looks interesting, you will gain new followers to your page. After analyzing all participants, declare a winner and announce it by posting on all your social media and tagging the winner. Give your product the winning prize that helps in promoting your brand to reach your business to various people.
#7. Post User-Generated Content
User-generated content is regular content which may be photos, videos, or audio created by your followers and fans. UGC content is an essential tool to grow your marketing strategy that helps in gaining potential followers to your account with more engagement rate among old followers. When you post UGC content, you can build a trustful relationship with your audiences and gain potential customers for your brand.
According to Olapic research, 56% of people are more likely to buy products if their potential customers share them. Ask your customers to give positive feedback about your product and ask them to post it on their Instagram feed or stories. Or, you can get direct messages from your potential customers and post the same content on your Instagram page to build trust and increase conversions.
#8. Use Live Feature On Instagram
Performing live video is the key to success on all social media platforms. On Instagram also you can find the live feature where you can connect with your followers directly to share the features of your product. Show your product live to your followers and answer your audiences’ questions directly on live, creating brand trust.
When you start a live video, your profile with a ring appears on the top of your follower’s homepage near to their stories. Your followers will also receive a notification when you start a live video. Once your live session completes, you can upload it to your stories.
Final Thought
Instagram is a great place for brands to grow their follower count and improve their website traffic. Achieve revenue on Instagram by following the correct marketing strategy for your business. Follow the above points and improve your followers count with the gain of potential customers to your business.
AUTHOR BIO:
Caterina Taylor is an experienced social media marketer and writer who works at PlanYourGram.com. She loves to work on content creation for social media blogs and has the potential to deliver engaging content on various platforms and networks.
