Instagram is one of the most important social media platforms for a business. I wanted to share with you a few hacks/tips on how to improve your engagement and gain those Insta followers. The following hacks are easy to implement and will help you a lot if you are consistent and adding valuable content.
This post contains affiliate links, please read the disclosure here
1. Instagram Stories
This is where everything is happening right now. It doesn’t matter what kind of business you have, you need to be doing Instagram stories!
WHY?
- Instagram stories engage your followers with you and your business
- Your followers get to see how your business is done
- You create a connection and start building trust with your followers, you’re no longer just “digital”.
- Your followers get a sense of your reality
- Your followers may start relating with you
- You can spread your message to a lot more people
HOW TO DO IT:
- Show the behind the scenes of your business
- Do giveaways or exclusive competitions
- Give a discount code
- Create visually appealing content
- Share a little more about yourself
- Show your company’s culture
- Educate people about what you know relating to your business
Suggested: I also created a tutorial about how to create professional Instagram stories for your business, check it out
2. Get notifications when your competition is posting
You always have to look at your competition and keep it in the back of your mind. One of the best ways to do it is through Instagram. Pick your main competition, follow them, and turn on your notifications on each one of them. That way, you’ll be sure to see what they are up to whenever they post and use that to inform your next move. Your competition is a great way to find your target audience and build a relationship with potential customers.
3. How to pin from Instagram
Pinterest is another powerful social media platform. Sharing your Instagram images through Pinterest will get you more traffic and engagement.
How to do it:
ON MOBILE:
But if you wanna save all this hustle, simply connect your Instagram to your Pinterest. Click here to see how
4. How to remove social media trolls
Sometimes you will come across notorious online trolls that will not leave you alone. This is an easy way to remove them from your feed without deleting or blocking.
5. Save inspiration from Instagram for future content creation reference
Creating content is vital for engagement and gaining followers. Just like Pinterest, Instagram can be used as an inspiration tool to save for potential content creation.
How to do it:
6. Remove images without deleting them
If you posted an image but at the moment it doesn’t fit your feed, you can archive it. Instead of deleting the image you can save it off your profile. If you decide that you want to repost one of the archived images you simple: click the Archive icon in the top right corner of your profile to review all archived posts. Then you click on the image you want and press the “show on profile” button.
How to do it:
7. Make your caption more readable
Sometimes you have a lot to say in your caption and you want to space it out. Simple write your caption in your notes with a divider (i use periods) and then copy it into your post.
How to do it:
8. Schedule your Instagram posts
If you want to see how well your content is doing, scheduling it through a platform like SocialPilot will help you do so more effectively. SocialPilot helps you schedule your posts, tracks your content’s engagement, and gives you a full analysis of how your content is doing. By getting this information, you can see what works for your business and what doesn’t. It’s a great investment in the long run. You can always try SocialPilot for FREE here and see for yourself how great of a tool it is. I used SocialPilot for another Instagram account I was running and I found it to be one of the better scheduling tools on the market. Scheduling content also allows you to sort your content ahead of time and not worry about posting.
9. Use individual pics to make one big one
Another great way to capture potential followers attention is by creating one large photo on your feed with many different posts. This is a great way for someone to get a good first impression. I’ve seen a number of brands doing it, and if done right it truly looks great!
10. How to share others’ content
If your customers/ clients talk about your business on their Instagram, there is an easy way to share their content through your Instagram.
How to do it:
You can play around with the post and organize it fit your style. Once you’re happy with it you can simply post.
Note: You can only share posts from public accounts. If you don’t want your posts shared on Instagram stories by other people, you can opt-out of it in your settings.
11. Save your hashtags
Hashtags are amongst the most relevant ways to build your following in the beginning. Once you found the right kind of hashtags you should create a note that keeps them all in one place.
How to do it:
The more you invest in the little thing and in creating good content you will see results. There is no proven science to getting 1000s of followers, there is only trial and error. I hope these hack/tips are helpful to you!