Ugghhhh!

If you’re marketing your business on Instagram, then you’ve probably exclaimed just like that. At times, these social platforms can be a tad frustrating if you’re trying to grow your following, engage an audience, generate leads and make some sales. Don’t worry, I know just how you’re feeling.
With Instagram’s newest strategy of clamping down on bots such as Instagress and Mass Planner along with the introduction of their new algorithm, engagement has been cut tremendously making organic reach a little harder to come by. But have no fear, here are 7 ways you can still make and impact and get the engagement your desire.

1. Research and A/B Split Test Your Hashtags

Hashtags are one of the primary ways for your content to be found on Instagram and the more eyes your content is in front of the more engagement you’re likely to get. Instagram currently allows 30 hashtags per post and I suggest you use all of them. There are a couple ways you can research hashtags from checking out what the competition is using, seeing what is trending online with services such as hashtagify.me and even within Instagram’s app itself. Be sure to use a mixture of high usage and low usage hashtags in your mix and create a few sets to use so that can you A/B split test and find out those that are working the best for your content. To research hashtags on Instagram, simply search for a hashtag and at the top of the page, you’ll see suggestions related to the hashtags within that category [See photo below]. You can go through each hashtag and choose the ones that identify best with your content. I’d also suggest that one to three of your hashtags be directly related to the visuals or content you’re posting. Ex: If you’re posting a photo of your morning coffee make sure #coffee is one of the hashtags you use.

Bonus Tip: Liz Dean from The Social Media Posse gives some good insight with her article “Debunking the Instagram “Shadow Ban” with Artificial Intelligence” on how the algorithm works and the future of hashtags on Instagram.

 

In the above photo I searched for  #communityovercompetition and above Instagram shows other related hashtags in that category as well as noting the hashtag’s popularity below.

2. Be active

Being active on instagram is another way that helps with your engagement on the platform. Basically, give the same engagement you are looking to get. Go out there and comment and like posts in your community and let others know that you exist. Take an hour or so out of your day to give some genuine engagement and feedback. Sometimes, you have to be the first to provide what you’re seeking.

3. Tie Images In with Compelling Story Telling

It’s great to have stand out images in your instagram feed. Visuals always grab the eye but equally as important is creating a compelling caption to go along with that image. You want to create emotion in order to draw your audience in and the best way to do that is through your words. Long form captions are shown to have the best proven results. Tell your story, share a problem that you found a solution for and connect with the struggles your audience is facing by offering them solutions. You will always draw people to you by providing a solution rather than fixating on a problem.

4. Find the Right Time to Post

Sometimes I wonder if marketing is really a science or an art and truly it’s a little bit of both. You can’t be effective at any type of marketing without delving into the analytics. You need to see how your audience is behaving in order to better reach and serve them. Therefore if you haven’t switched over to the Instagram business profile then you should do so now. You’ll get a snap shot of your audience demographics and the days and hours they are most active on the platform. This will give you an idea of when to post, so that you can get the most  out of your content. For me, after playing around with timing over the past few weeks, I have found that weekends give me the most engagement and that could possibly mean that my audience is most active on Saturdays and Sundays, or that there is less posting going on in those times, and therefore less competition. I wouldn’t have been able to work this out without analyzing the data.

5. Add a Call to Action

Sometimes getting what you want means simply just asking for it. I’d encourage you to add a call to action on each post – whether it’s asking a question in the caption and getting your audience to comment or directing them to a link in your bio. You’ll want your content to inspire some action that doesn’t involve just scrolling past your post.

Bonus Tip: Try to ensure your call to action is seen early on in your caption as Instagram hides some of the text once the content is shown on the news feed.

6. Cross Promoting

A good way to get a little more engagement is by cross promoting your content on your other social profiles. For example, I like to share my photos and videos on Twitter along with the instagram link as this can sometimes bring people over who may follow me on Twitter but not on Instagram and give them an opportunity to fully interact with the content I’m posting.

7. Instagram Ads – Pay to Play

I’ve seen so many articles siting ways to improve Instagram engagement and very few mention paying for ads. As with any company (as I’m sure it is with yours), Instagram’s aim is to monetize its product. They’ve done so by creating Instagram Ads and changing their algorithm to service that product. I’ve helped many of my clients grow audiences through the use of instagram ads and strategic targeting. This is a viable way to ensure that your product gets seen by the right people and with minimal cost to you. Before you start creating ads, you must clearly define who your audience is, where they’re located and what interests they are likely to have. This will ensure that you get the most bang for your buck.

Bonus Tip:

While all these tips are well and good, I wouldn’t be a good marketer if I didn’t encourage you to create your own community – be it an email list or membership on your website. Social media should be used as a tool to direct your audience to your online community, not simply growing followers to just stay on your social profiles. That way if any of the social platforms shut down, you will still be able to get your content out to those who need, and want, to see it.

If you’ve read this far, I’m glad you did. Hit me up via email or one of my social profiles and let’s chat.

 

With love from Barbados,

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