Digital Marketing Insights

Woman taking photo of pumpkin soup with smartphone

Excited for the last round of Insta best Practices?

I sure am 😀

Since we have covered a lot about the features, hacks and creative things you can do, it’s about time we look into how to get more followers and generate engagement.

If you need a little background, then look up PART 1 and PART 2

 

ENGAGEMENT / FOLLOWER FRENZY

 

111. Take Instagram’s suggestions on who to follow.

112. Invite your (Facebook friends, Twitter followers, business partners, clients, family, etc.) everyone to follow you on Instagram.

113. Make an Instagram tab on your Facebook page to drive traffic and engagement.

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Courtesy : Placeit

114. Link your phonebook contacts with Instagram. Yes, you can (AND SHOULD!) do it!

115. Urge people to follow you with possible rewards (such as discounts and coupons.)

116. Find relevant profiles to follow using ‘Followerwonk’.

117. Consistently give shout outs, props, and kudos to your most diligent and engaged followers.

118. Show your followers you appreciate them by acknowledging and engaging with their cool photos.

119. Sometimes, you should let your audience decide what your next Instagram post can be. Ask them what are they looking forward to seeing on your feed? What exactly are they dying to know about your brand?

120. Promptly respond to comments. #allcomments #besocial

121. Instagram recently added an option to like the comments. At the absolute minimum, use this if you absolutely can’t find the time to reply to each individual user.

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Courtesy: Later.com

122. Use first names when you are responding. (If you know them.)

122. Ask followers to review your profile and get suggestions on what they like. What’s your favourite part of my feed? #feedback.

123. Spend at least 10 minutes a day interacting and engaging (commenting, linking, reposting) with other users’ content.

124. Reach out to like-minded profiles or people to talk about cross-promotion.

125. Use Instagram Direct to privately ask users if they’d be interested in a shout-out, cross promotion, etc.

instagramdirect2

Courtesy: keywordteam

126. Use apps to post comments from your computer.

127. Use the Unfollowgram app. See who doesn’t follow you back, and reach out to them to be your followers.

128. Don’t be a ghost. (Ghost follower, that is!) Let people know you are a real person by liking, and especially, commenting on photos.

 

USER GENERATED CONTENT

 

130. Hashtag user-generated content contests.

131. Ask users to tag friends to win a prize.

132. Ask your fans to share their unique moments related to your product, service, or brand.

133. Transform crowdsourced images into a unique video message that highlights the creativity of your loyal followers.

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

134. Add the Instagram widget to your blog or website. The SnapWidget app is an easy and free way to do so.

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Courtesy: everything.typepad

135. Promote your Instagram account on other channels such as Twitter, Facebook, and even Snapchat.

136. Promote your account within offline media like on business cards, in your office, during events, seminars, conferences, etc.

 

TRACKING / ANALYTICS

 

137. Track your account performance. We suggest using Iconosquare.

138. See activity for the accounts you follow to know what’s working for them and apply it. For inspiration, visit the activity tab and select following.

139. Use Ink361 to find out what content works well on accounts that share audiences similar to yours.

140. Track the popular pages with the Explore tab.

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Courtesy: slideshare.net/Sosarina

141. Use a tool like GeoPic for Instagram which helps you monitor posts by username, hashtag, location, or any combination of for powerful targeting

142. Use the Search feature to see what kind of content is popular in your geographic location.

143. Click on ‘Places’ and then the most accurate geographic tag and note the content genres here.

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Courtesy: thenextweb

144. Check out your ‘Following’ feed. You can find this by clicking on the heart icon at the bottom of the Instagram app and then selecting ‘Following’ at the top, and see what content the users you are following are liking

145. Record details about your most popular posts and analyze why you believe it was so successful. Try to recreate that!

 

NEXT LEVEL (ADVERTISING, AUTOMATION, SHOPPING)

 

146. Run Instagram ads occasionally. They work well for a new product or service launch, for an event, for an ebook offer you worked so hard on, etc.

“75 percent of Instagram users take action, such as visiting a website, after looking at an Instagram advertising post.“ Locowise, 2016

147. Run contests or competitions following your local rules and regulations surrounding promotions. Some types you can try: Like to Win, hashtag specific, etc. Here’s a great example!

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Via: Giphy

148. Automate likes for popular accounts using the like Followadder. But don’t neglect real engagement just because you use this!

149. In fact, you can also automate likes for certain hashtags with the same app. Again! Don’t neglect real engagement just because you use this!

150. Showcase some of your best merchandise on IG and give your followers opportunities to buy right from the app. Consider Instagram selling solutions such as Soldsie and Like2Buy to power this type of post.

And that brings us to an end!

We really hope that you were able to create a few fun posts, get some likes and comments, and garner engagement with these 150 tips! Keep visiting, as our celebration of Canada’s 150 years with informative and interesting digital insights will continue throughout July.

admin
Mouneeb is an experienced digital marketing strategist with a passion for helping clients achieve their goals online. With over 15 years of experience in designing, developing, and managing a team that develops top-notch web projects, he brings a wealth of information to the teams that he leads and the leaders that he follows.
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