Are you an online business selling products or services? Do you use Instagram to market your business but find it hard to drive traffic to your Instagram profile? If you are looking to reach more fans and customers on Instagram or want to improve your engagement and quality of content, this article will share some strategies on how to increase your profile visits in 2020.
A few years ago, algorithms on Instagram was pretty basic, as posts were simply displayed chronologically, all you had to do was experiment and find the right timing to post your content and then consistently stick to this strategy to get the most out of your Instagram content. These days, algorithms are a lot smarter and are more focused on making sure that the content you post are of quality and truly connects to your target audience.
If you've ever wondered what is the perfect strategy to attract more Instagram followers or to increase traffic to your profile, then these simple Instagram growth strategies for 2020 will get you started on boosting Instagram traffic:
1- Set realistic milestones for your Instagram account
Just like any other venture you're planning on, you'll need to set realistic targets for your brand to give yourself a direction and focus. With a proper plan in place, putting your business on Instagram will be a much more clear and efficient process which will leave you in a much better position. Take the time and research your target market, your competitors and content topics you want to show - whatever your plan is, research how you can show off your brand's unique style and make a lasting first impression.
2- Hashtag research
Hashtags actually originated from Twitter but has since been adopted by many other popular social media channels including Instagram. Used correctly, hashtags can be a great tool to help reach your target audience and create visibility for your campaign. Using relevant hashtags related to your brand and content will connect you to your audience that are following similar hashtags. According to Simply Measured, just adding one hashtag to a post resulted in a 12.6% increase in engagement! So experiment with different hashtags and research your potential followers to find the best possible hashtag combination.
3- Post Consistently
Find a good balance when planning your Instagram posts and have a flow that makes sense for your brand. Brainstorm a content and topic plan and try to be as relevant and authentic as you can be. Your Instagram content should be tailored to your users and having a variation of topics ( inspiration posts, UGC, day to day updates etc ) will help naturally draw in more real fans who loves engaging with the content that you produce. Take the time and invest in your content and your fans, they will appreciate it and will ultimately build you a strong fan base.
Another good tip is to post your content at certain times each day. Experiment and see which times are best to post for better engagement and when you have a schedule in place, use a free schedule tool like Plaaan to automate your posts!
4- Use Instagram stories and built-in features
Instagram stories is a must use function for businesses and brands. Stories are the perfect way to share in between moments and day to day snippets of updates for your brand, and with stories lasting just 24 hours before it disappears, it is a non intrusive way to share content. Another great feature is that Instagram stories are actually discoverable, which means that people can actually see your content even if they did not follow you, giving you new opportunities to reach new people and also more freedom to share your brand in a non intrusive fashion. Remember to take advantage of the built-in features like live stories and product tagging, or even to re-purpose your social content, if you have over 10k followers you can even add a 'swipe up' feature and add a link to your website.
5- Build trust through user generated content
UGC is a great way to build trust and brand awareness on Instagram, content created by your fans that are featuring your brand will give a level of trust to your viewers which in turn gives them more confident to believe in your brand, product or service, by getting a honest idea of what they are getting before making a commitment. Even if you are a small business, UGC is a great way to build traffic and your brand reputation, encourage your customers to share content and feature them on your profile! Try starting a hashtag trend that is unique to your brand, you can then easily find UGC through this tag to share with your fans. Customers who love and trust your brand will most likely be happy to talk and share opinions about you, especially if its a brand they can get behind and be proud of.
6- Appreciate and always respond to comments and feedback from fans
It's important to be part of the community and always appreciate the comments and feedback from your fans, whats more, it has been shown that Instagram actually prioritizes posts with more engagement compared with similar posts, so it's always best practice to listen to your fans and engage with them on a regular basis. It also makes sense that you should listen to your followers, your fans and customers as they should be the most important aspect of your business, and your followers will appreciated and actually incentives them to keep commenting, resulting in a thriving and healthy social platform. If you are not taking the time to respond to your fans, then you’re probably not taking the crucial steps needed to learn more about your audience.
7- Learn and take notes from top performers
It's always a good habit to explore and find top performers that are related to your brand. Form a list of your favorite profiles and get inspiration from them and also take a look at what functions they are using to utilize on their brand or profile - it's an easy way for small businesses with no resources to hire a social media marketing team to stay on top of Instagram's algorithm changes, as well as any new functions that you may not have used before.
8- Link your Instagram on your other channels
If you have other channels in the digital space, for example a website, YouTube channel or Facebook profile, a quick and easy way to create more Instagram traffic is to cross promote your profiles with each other - for example, you may have a large YouTube following. By adding a simple link or mentioning your Instagram profile on your videos, this will instantly create a bridge to your Instagram profile, giving you a free and easy way to grow your following. If you have an eCommerce store, add a social button to the footer or somewhere that is easily visible to visitors, printing out cards with your social media information and place them along with customer orders is another great idea to grow your following.
The important thing to remember is that you started your Instagram profile with a goal to share your experience about your business or brand and to make your users happy. Be authentic and really think about your target audience and what they want to see, your brands will appreciate it!
If you are someone who finds content creation or managing your social media daunting, get in touch with us! Speak to one of our Digital Marketing Experts at SeenSeen for a free consultation and see how we can help you.
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