Instagram is one of the premier social networks for budding influencers and those who love photos alike. If you’re not on Instagram and you’re a photographer, or the content you create involves images, then you’re absolutely missing out.
Of course, just having an Instagram profile isn’t enough, especially in our modern age of hyper-competitive social media. You need to supercharge your presence on the platform if you want to stand out. Here are 10 tips and tricks to make your Instagram truly amazing.
Optimize your profile
If you’re not getting the Instagram followers you want, that might be because your profile isn’t well-optimized. For instance, your profile name should reflect the kind of content you create. Do you post photos and videos about your cat regularly? Including the words “cat” or “cats” can really help people to find you. Changing up your profile picture and your bio to more accurately and succinctly reflect who you are and what you’re about is also a great idea.
Try a follower service
Let’s face it: getting followers on Instagram can be incredibly difficult. You’re up against some of the most successful and well-known influencers in the world, after all. Facing off against that, especially if you’re occupying the same niche, can be incredibly daunting. That’s why it’s a good idea to check out sites like profile followers, which will help you get more followers on your account and thus increase your reach and range on Instagram.
Create content regularly
Your Instagram should never languish for a few days without you posting any content. It’s always important to keep up your presence on Instagram, because it’s such a fast-moving platform that people may actually move on from you if they don’t see that you’re making content frequently.
Even if you don’t think you have anything to say, you should still post. After all, you never know which of your posts might be the one to go viral; it could be the one you had no faith in!
Instagram has hashtags for a reason. If you want to maximise your presence on the app and you’re not using hashtags, you’re already committing a grave error. If you check out any influencer’s post, you’ll see that they absolutely flood their descriptions with hashtags (or occasionally a comment just below the post).
This is so they can make sure as many people as possible see the content when searching for those hashtags. You need to be doing the same thing.
Tell your Story
Your Instagram Story is a huge part of marketing yourself on the platform. Stories allow you to weave together a narrative from content you’re making. They’re a good way to leave your curated brand behind and show your followers what you’re really like with a “behind the scenes” look at how you make your photos and videos. Carefully consider whether content you’re creating would be better for a standard post or a Story, and you’ll quickly see the benefits.
Go Live
Instagram Live is a good way to engage with your viewers in a more direct, moment-to-moment sense. When you go live, you can stream vlog-style content to your followers, showing them what you’re up to right now and allowing them to interact with you in real time. Viewers can post comments and react to your video, so this is a great way to show your followers you want to talk to them and know what they’re about as well. If you haven’t tried this yet, it’s well worth it!
Make sure your content is engaging
If you’re just posting content about your own life and what you’re up to, you’ll probably find that viewers turn off pretty quickly. Unless there’s a reason people should find your life particularly interesting, there’s a good chance they won’t want to know, so make sure you’re giving them something compelling to look at.
Whether it’s a unique angle on something they haven’t seen before or a skill few people have, leveraging your unique talent is a good Instagram tactic. If all else fails, there’s always cats!
Work with other influencers
Instagram, just like other social media platforms, is all about collaboration. Reaching out across the divides and talking to other users is crucial for building engagement and followers. The more people see you working with other Instagram users, the more they’ll realise that you’re a friendly person, which helps them to feel they can approach you (and social media is all about being approachable). In addition, you may find you and your partners create better content when you collaborate!
Use calls to action
Your Instagram will perform much better if you regularly include calls to action in your content. This means asking users for their opinions on your posts, talking to them when they comment, and asking for their takes on what you’ve created. You could even challenge them to make their own versions of something you’ve made, which will probably produce some pretty amazing posts! Always include calls to action, as they make people feel included.
Have fun
At its best, a career as a social media influencer doesn’t feel like a career. If it starts to feel like work – if you’re slogging through the days, desperate to take a break – then it might be time to walk away for a while. Your attitude towards your work doesn’t just determine whether you’re having fun, after all; it also shows your followers your state of mind. If you want people to think you’re worth following, you need to enjoy what you do, and if you don’t, it’ll show.
