Instagram is no longer just a fun social media platform that people use to showcase their talent. Or to share a hundred pictures of their dog. It is now a multi billion dollar industry and if you have clicked on this post, chances are that you are a content creator and are sick of Instagram’s changing algorithm. With these changes, getting more engagement and growing on IG is now tougher than ever.
But here are some no BS ways how you can improve your IG Game in 2020:
ENGAGEMENT IS IMPORTANT:
We know people keep saying that content is king and while that is true, without engagement, the content, however good it may be, is useless. People say that likes and comments are vanity metrics and that you shouldn’t care about them, but if you want to grow on IG, these are really important. You see, IG algorithm has no way of knowing if the content is good or bad except for the engagement. So the more likes and comments or saved and shares any picture gets, it signals IG algorithm that it is good content and thus Instagram shows it to even more people. So now the whole game becomes “How to get more engagement” and here is everything you can do:
CREATE GOOD CONTENT:
You should have seen this one coming. Content is still the king, right!? Because when you create good content people automatically want to like and comment on it. And we also usually always do the same. Often times when we come across a beautiful picture, we even share it on our stories because we know the pain that goes behind a good piece of content. And no we are not suggesting that you go and invest in a DSLR right away, but learn the basic principles of photography and focus on your technique. Learn a thing or two about post processing photos for social media and you will be far better off. This also makes sense when you are trying to create a more aesthetically pleasing consistent feed. Because no matter what your reach is, if your feed doesn’t look good as a whole, people are less likely to follow you.
ENGAGE WITH OTHERS:
This is really REALLY important. Ever hear the term what goes around comes around? We firmly believe in this. So if you want people to be giving you a lot of love on your pictures, you have to do the same too. Like and comment on people’s posts. it is also a great idea to be a part of engagement support groups, but always make sure you select the groups carefully. You do not want to be in a group where people spam you with “nice pic” comments. You want people who will actually take out time to read your caption and to reply in a meaningful comment. This is not limited to comments though. reply to polls on people’s stories, share your opinion when someone asks, it doesn’t take a lot of time and you will be making real connections with people before you know it.
Tell a STORY:
This is really important because IG is not just about pretty pictures even though it might look like so when you first look at it. Captions are a great place to share your views with your audience. We have seen a number of influencers who share their views on a particular topic in long form captions. This is called micro blogging. And no you shouldn’t always try to write long captions but every now and then it makes sense because it allows your audience to get to know you a little better. It also helps with the engagement because people are more likely to read and then reply in comments what they think about that topic.
Create Shareable Content:
You know why meme accounts grow that quickly? Because people love sharing that content with their friends.You will see people tagging their friends in comments under memes or sharing these memes in their stories and it makes sense right? Because this way, you get more eyeballs on the content thus increasing your reach.
Now this might not be relevant to a lot of people because they can not compromise on their feed and just share memes, we get it. But you know how IG allows you to add 10 pieces of content in a given post using the carousel? Use that! Keep the first picture a pretty pictures that goes with the theme and use the rest of the slides to share some educational quotes that you think your audience will find worth sharing. Or teach your audience how you edited a particular photo.
Related: How to get the right followers on social Media
Define your TARGET AUDIENCE:
Okay, we can not stress on this point enough. Having a target audience defined is probably the most important thing. Because when you know whom are you creating the content for, it makes it so much easier to create good content that your audience finds value in. And do not try to target everyone because it almost never works. And that’s okay. Because if your target audience is let’s say new moms, then teenage boys will obviously have no interest. I know that’s probably a very wide example and everyone understand that, but we always suggest niching down. Like don’t keep “New moms” as a niche. “New moms in Delhi” is probably a better target audience. You get the point right?
Use ALL the features:
We are guilty of not using IgTV and we already know we want to work on it. The features that exist on Ig exist for a reason. When Instagram introduced IGTV it was an indication that IG wants people to stay on their platform for longer because the longer anyone is on the platform the more ads Ig can show to the them and if you are making more IGTV videos and thus helping Instagram in keeping people on the app for longer, IG will show your content to more people.
So focus on actively using all the features that instagram offers, be it polls n your stories or Q&A s or IGtv. You need to be on top on your game when it comes to using these features on the daily. Another neglected feature is Instagram live which again is really really important and it is clearly evident in Instagram’s algorithm because the lives are always in the front of stories.
PROVIDE VALUE:
It goes along with creating shareable content. Because when you are entertaining your audience or educating them, they are more likely to share your content with others. So ask yourself what value are you providing your audience? Why should someone follow you? Would you follow yourself? And then focus on packing more value in your IG posts or captions. We always share tips on how to take good pictures and how to post process in our stories and it is always very well received by our audience.
That’s everything that we had for this post. We also have a blogpost on how to create killer Ig feed. Check it out here.
Leave us a comment if you have any questions! 🙂
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