Follow these 5 tips to engage with your existing audience while attracting new potential customers organically:
1. Presentation is Key
Before you worry about content, you need to make sure your profile fits your brand. Cater the look and feel of your page to your specific customers.
For example, if you’re a clothing boutique, you might want to go with a sophisticated bio, minimal icons, some contact links, and maybe a quirky emoji to tie it all together. If you’re a mechanic, you’ll want straight-forward language, plenty of contact information, and no icons or extras that aren’t necessary.
Here are some examples of different Instagram profiles:
2. Your Posting Frequency
This will vary from business to business, so the first thing I recommend is seeing how your top-of-industry competitors are doing it. I’m not talking about your local competitors, but the Pepsi or Starbucks of your industry.
These companies will often post 2-3 times a day in addition to 5 story posts. While this may sound daunting, there are important reasons:
Almost all social media platforms use algorithms and Instagram is no exception. Frequent posting will tell the algorithm to show your posts in the trending section.
To put it simply, the more you interact on Instagram, the more Instagram is going to reward you. If your posts get plenty of comments, tags, likes, and shares, they’ll sky-rocket to the trending pages.
3. Post With Purpose
Engagement is key to a successful Instagram page. It’s no wonder meme and celebrity pages dominate the space—the nature of their posts is extremely engaging.
What makes them so powerful is that their pages get a reaction out of viewers, which make them like the post and want to share it with their friends by tagging and commenting.
This constant interaction boosts their pages to the top of the trending page because Instagram’s algorithms can expect consistent success.
It’s up to you to decide how your type of business should be posting engaging content. A cosmetics company might post videos of makeup tutorials, giveaways, and new product reviews. Viewers want to watch these videos, talk about the products, and share the content with their friends.
4. Be Social, TRULY Social.
Getting engagement on Instagram is all about using the algorithm to your advantage. Aside from posting, there is one other way to maximize your chances of getting in front of clients faces; being truly social.
The best technique for getting social on Instagram is to search trending hashtags in your field and engaging with trending posts. Often times, you’ll find people talking about products in your field or even see your competitors’ posts.
This can all be used to your advantage by doing one simple thing—engaging. Like, Comment, Tag, Share, Repost, and repeat. Make yourself a part of the online community and watch your brand recognition grow, not because of the ads you’re running, but because each of these viewers have interacted with you personally.
This engagement tells the algorithms that your page is active and a prime candidate for the trending page.
5. The Tactic That You Didn’t Think Of
Here’s the secret that might help you make the transition from small business to industry powerhouse (on the gram).
Social Media Influencers!
Now, this can be costly, but it’s one of the best ways of marketing online in the modern age.
Let’s face it, ads and big corporations have left a bad taste in our mouths and have made it hard to trust what we see online. At the same time, we’ve boosted our trust in influencers because they’re a familiar, accessible face that has proven themselves as a source of information in their industry.
You’ve seen this, but maybe you’ve never noticed. Take Kim Kardashian for example. She’s promoting third party products subtly throughout her timeline and being paid very well for it. Don’t worry; there are more accessible ways than celebs.
For example, in my early years of digital marketing, I was able to grow a cosmetics company by reaching out to micro-influencers in the cosmetics space. I’d offer them small amounts of money to promote my client’s products and link back to their page.
Consider reaching out to micro-influencers in your space and making some small deals. They’ve become a standard practice in social media and there are websites dedicated to finding influencers to promote your products.
Tip: Be wary of influencers who have a significant following, but low engagement.
Now, take everything you’ve learned, get out there, and take over your industry (at least on Instagram)! If you ever want to talk about marketing strategy, Yas is your #1 destination. Check out our many fantastic marketing services by clicking the button below!
