In case you've been living under a rock, Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms today. With over 1 billion active monthly users, the Meta-owned social network has become a valuable marketing platform for brands and businesses.
But Instagram's content algorithm is changing all the time -- rarely to the benefit of its users. For smaller brands with minimal social media marketing experience, it can be hard to understand which strategies are the most effective.
Until now. Here are some Instagram marketing tactics that have been proven to optimize your organic reach and broaden your audience.
1. create a business profile
To create a successful brand on Instagram, It's important to understand the differences between user and business profiles.
It's currently unclear whether Instagram's algorithm favors user profiles over business ones, but regardless, having a business profile gives you access to essential management tools.
Some of these business features include:
Access to Instagram Insights
Ability to add a contact button
Your industry will show on your profile
Able to advertise on Instagram and make Promoted Posts
Ability to add links to Instagram Stories
Obviously, if you plan to use Instagram for marketing purposes, being able to advertise your posts is essential for a digital marketing strategy that balances both paid and organic reach.
2. Instagram insights is a valuable tool
As the name implies, Instagram insights give you a plethora of useful information that can help with optimizing your posting, such as:
Engagement data
Impressions stats
Audience demographics
Knowing this information will give you a better sense of your audience and the content they respond best to. By tracking your audience's response to each post, you'll be better equipped to replicate your successes in the future and avoid past failures.
3. avoid obvious advertising
Social media has completely changed how we advertise, and Instagram is no exception. As an Instagram marketer, you should aim to advertise in a way that doesn't disrupt your audience's experience.
This means creating posts that don't read like sales pitches. Instead, appeal to your reader's interests and create content that is entertaining on its own.
4. build a bigger audience through paid ads
One of the key advantages of signing up for a business profile is the ability to create sponsored ads. For these ads, feel free to take a slightly more conventional approach to advertise than your organic posts.
The main purpose of sponsored posts is to expand your brand's reach to users who fit your target demographic but haven't heard of you yet. This is essential for expanding your market and keeping your profile's visibility from stagnating.
5. Make your own branded Hashtag
Branded hashtags are a staple of any successful social media marketing campaign. You don't have to be creatively subtle with it either -- in fact, most custom hashtags are pretty blatant with what they're promoting.
Making a shareable hashtag isn't just a great way to improve reach; having hundreds of thousands of users posting the name of your brand is also great for user engagement.
6. User-generated content
A good reason to engage with your audience is that you can source them for content when you run out. Everyone wants a chance at the spotlight, and you can tap into this desire by offering users the chance to have their own content featured on your page.
Simply create a custom hashtag that users can use to submit their posts, and voila -- you've engineered a successful social media marketing campaign.
Not only does this help to offload the burden of creating your own content to post, but it also allows you to engage with your audience in a way that engenders a sense of brand loyalty.
Conclusion
Instagram's ubiquity among the general public has made it one of the premiere platforms for launching web-based brands and businesses.
By employing the strategies in this post, you're guaranteed to drive up the reach and profit that your business needs.