Instagram is among the best platforms to promote your brand to a bigger audience. Influencers and digital marketers use this platform to increase their brand awareness and to generate revenues, on top of staying up to date on the latest ins.
Businesses are also digitizing their brands and promoting their products online, and one of the platforms they often use to reach out to potential customers is Instagram. However, Instagram has recently updated its sorting algorithm which caused influencers, digital marketers, and even SEO marketers a decline in engagement and organic traffic.
Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that you should give up on Instagram and look for other platforms to increase your brand’s visibility. This only means you have to find ways to break Instagram’s algorithm. With that being said, here are some of Instagram’s growth best tactics and ways to gain followers and increase discoverability.
Instagram Growth – How to Gain Followers on Instagram
Experts projected 1.2B Instagram users by 2023. The number is really high, however, without proper strategies, gaining followers on Instagram can be very challenging, no matter how high the number of Instagram users is. Fortunately, there are proven ways to gain more followers on the platform. Here are 3 ways you can gain more followers on Instagram!
1. Identify Your Optimal Posting Time
Getting followers is hard. However, not having followers at all is harder. In order to grow more followers on the platform, you must first identify your target audience and find out which time of the day they are most active on the platform. Retaining followers may take you a very long time, which is why it’s important to post when they are online.
You are looking to skyrocket your brand awareness, thus, you would want to reach your audience or followers. Once you have identified your optimal posting time, you can then start scheduling posts ahead of time.
2. Make Use of Keywords in Your Posts
Sometimes, people follow an influencer because they found the influencer’s content while searching the internet. Most probably, the content contained keywords related to or pointing to what people searched for.
Using keywords is imperative not just in increasing your Instagram followers, but in rankings as well. However, don’t stuff keywords in your content as this will only be more harmful than helpful. Instead, aim for a 1-2% keyword density to ensure that you reach as many audiences as you can.
3. Use Graphics Materials
It’s an unfortunate thing if you have no graphic design skills, however, that shouldn’t stop you from reaching your goals. In fact, there are a lot of ways you can still incorporate videos and images into your content, you just have to be creative!
The 2016 analysis showed an overwhelming revenue of $3.2B from Instagram by using graphics materials. Moreover, posts containing videos and images are more likely to generate engagements from users than just pure texts.
This goes to show that it’s wise to invest in graphics materials when promoting your brand. This does not only attract customers but increases your chance of reaching out to more followers.
How to Increase Instagram Discoverability
While gaining followers on Instagram is important, Instagram discoverability is just as essential. Luckily, increasing Instagram discoverability is easy, with the right strategies. Look into these tips on how you can increase your visibility on Instagram and see if they work for you!
1. Use as Many Essential Hashtags as You Can
Who would have thought that this little pound sign (#) can help you increase Instagram visibility? Although hashtags were the main way people can search stuff on Instagram, no one really predicted that this sign can skyrocket your visibility.
Also Read: How to Delete Instagram Account: A Simple Step-by-Step Guide
Try using as many hashtags as you can. However, don’t use just any hashtags. They should be hashtags that are relevant to your content. There’s no use for you to write #femininity on content about ThanksGiving. As much as you would want to boost your discoverability at once, it doesn’t work like that. Just as trust doesn’t grow overnight, Instagram discoverability takes more time to cook, too.
2. Use Alt Texts
It was mentioned earlier that using graphics materials helps in generating organic traffic. Similarly, using alt texts in your images also raises your Instagram visibility. You can write custom alt texts to describe your photos in a more personal way. Currently, Instagram has a feature that automatically puts alt texts on images, however, you can increase your visibility more by writing custom alt texts on your graphics materials.
To put an alt text on an image on Instagram, do the following:
- Click on Advanced Setting at the bottom of the screen before you hit the Share button.
- Tap on Write Alt Text
- Click on Done when you’re through.
3. Use Engaging Images And Videos
Over 500M users post on Instagram every day. The chances of your content reaching audiences are slim to none, but you can change that. You can boost your visibility on Instagram by using engaging and high-quality images and videos. Let your graphics materials do the talking for you.
People love high-quality images and videos. Use images with high resolution to attract people’s attention. Or, you can use engaging videos to get people wanting more. Whichever you prefer the most, it’s okay as long as they are high-quality and catch the attention of almost everyone.
Fun Facts
- The photo of an egg has the most likes on Instagram reaching up to +55M.
- Instagram already has more than 50B photo uploads.
- A percentage of 60% of users develop new products on Instagram.
- Instagram videos generate twice the engagement that Instagram photos do.
- An average of 68% of people use Instagram to reach creators.
- Over 5M video uploads were made right after Instagram launched the video upload feature.
- Instagram recorded Pizza as the most Instagrammed food.
- Popular influencers earn an average of $670 dollars per video upload.
- More than 50% of Instagram posts and comments contain emojis.
Final Words
Instagram is among the best platforms to raise brand awareness. However, if you’re planning to use Instagram to reach your goals, you must first ensure that your Instagram account has followers and high visibility. Use these tips to increase your Instagram’s discoverability and gain more followers. Wish you all the best!
