HOW TO GROW YOUR INSTAGRAM FOLLOWING
With more than 1 billion users across the globe, Instagram continues to provide incredible marketing opportunities for businesses. As we learn to embrace our digitally dominated society, it’s become apparent that there really are no limits as to what we can achieve with the help of social media. As marketers, one of the core objectives we work towards on Instagram is increasing the number of followers on a profile. The more followers, the more opportunities you have to showcase your brand and what you have to offer. If you are determined to grow your Instagram following, read our tips below to find out how you can do so organically. BE CONSISTENT WITH YOUR POSTS One of the greatest ways to grow your Instagram following is to stay consistent with your posts. Set a realistic goal of how frequently you are able to post. Whether it’s 4 times a week or once a day, create a content sharing goal and hold yourself accountable to it. The more frequently you post, the more familiar people become with your brand, trust it and expect you to continue posting regularly, providing quality content. A great tip is to plan your content in advance so you’re not just posting for the sake of posting and can actually provide value for your followers. Remember those who post regularly are more likely to receive greater engagement. CREATE A HASHTAG STRATEGY Hashtags are another great way in which you can easily grow your Instagram. With the right hashtag strategy, you can obtain visibility in the Instagram explore tab and be seen by those who aren’t yet following your profile. Instagram allows users to include up to 30 hashtags per post, however, it’s important to use good quality hashtags which are relevant to your business in order to achieve the best results. We recommend collating a list of hashtags that your target market would be searching for. For example, if you are a café you would want to incorporate a series of hashtags relevant to food/drinks, the cuisine you offer, your location etc. MAKE USE OF VIDEOS, LIVE CONTENT AND STORIES Creating video footage is the best possible way to showcase your brand and provide your followers with a deeper insight into the faces behind the name. Live content and stories in particular are raw, real and relatable. Make your video footage fun and interactive by showing fun elements of your workplace you can answer any FAQs, introduce your team or show a sneak preview of any new products or services you will be introducing. The more you create video content; the more familiar Instagram users will be with your brand and learn to trust your business. EMBRACE USER-GENERATED CONTENT Did you know that 9 out of 10 people are more likely to trust a brand that shares organic, user-generated content as opposed to professionally constructed content (Nielsen Consumer Trust Index). Essentially, what this means is Instagram users want to see content from REAL people utilising your services or products. Encourage your followers to create their own content and include your Instagram handle or hashtag. You could prompt people to create their own content by offering a discount on their next order or whatever you are willing to offer. Most Instagram users will gladly promote a brand if they are happy with the service they have received. COLLABORATE WITH OTHER BRANDS/INFLUENCERS Another highly effective way to grow your following on Instagram is to collaborate with other brands or influencers in your industry. Reach out to local businesses and influencers with a high number of followers and ask if they would be willing to promote your brand in exchange for a discount on your services or products. You could even suggest running competitions together to leverage both of your followers. This is an ideal way to create brand awareness and network within the online community. Once you gain new followers it’s critical to be conscious of the content you share with them. The work isn’t over once they hit the follow button. You must continue to create valuable content in order to gain their trust and encourage your followers to support your brand. And please, do not fall into the trap of buying followers! More often than not this provides practically no value to your business, wasting your time and money. Genuine followers will support your brand and are more likely to engage with your profile, becoming your customers or clients. For assistance with your social media strategy, let the team at DGreat Solutions assist.
GENERATING MORE LEADS USING FACEBOOK ADVERTISING
As much as we all love to utilise free advertising on social media, it can be challenging to obtain visibility. Your competition is much greater with organic advertising and essentially you need to work much harder to have your posts seen. Facebook ads are an ideal way to learn more about your target market and attract more leads to your business page. Businesses thrive from using Facebook due to its exceptional reach and targeting capabilities. We list below 5 ways of generating more leads using Facebook advertising. Targeted ads Facebook provides users with an extraordinary level of targeted marketing. Facebook Ads Manager enables businesses to create ad campaigns which target a variety of audiences based upon their marketing objectives. With the ability to target users based upon demographics such as their location, career, income, gender, age, and interests. This assists businesses to target a variety of audiences, test them, measure the results and determine which audience group generates the most leads. You also have the option to create a reach campaign, where you have the ability to target the maximum amount of people possible. Free promotions We all love receiving things for free, creating an ad which promotes a free item or service is an effective way to capture Facebook user’s attention and obtain more leads. When deciding what to offer your prospects for free, think about what your target audience would find useful. Think outside the box and be unique with your free promotion. Whether it be an e-book, consultation or free product to try, you want to use the free offer as an introduction to your products or services and prompt them to seek your assistance further. The aim is to demonstrate your expertise in your industry and how you differ from your competitors. Include a CTA (call to action) in your free promotion which prompts users to include their contact details. This will allow you to add them to your client database or email marketing platform to follow up with them in future. Video ads Facebook videos are highly effective, especially when used in ad campaigns. Video ads provide businesses with the opportunity to create informative and engaging content which encourages users to use your services or buy your products. It’s important to create high quality videos, including a CTA such as ‘call us today’ or ‘book a free consultation’. Mobile friendly videos generate higher engagement, so always remember to ensure your videos are optimised for mobile. Visual content is crucial when creating Facebook ads, 85% of videos watched by users, are viewed without sound. Consider having subtitles throughout your video ads to cater to this. Also keep your videos short and sweet, video ads under 60 seconds are ideal. Anything longer than this and it becomes harder to keep the attention of your viewers. SMS & Messenger Another tip for generating more leads is by incorporating SMS and Facebook Messenger into your ad strategy. Facebook provides businesses with the ability to have an auto responder. This improves your response rates overall and assists businesses to convert leads more frequently. Messenger and SMS have significantly high open rates as opposed to email. Messenger has 70% open rates and SMS even higher with 98%. You have a greater chance of conveying your indented message by utilising this technique. Once you have obtained the contact details of your prospects via your ads, you can use these details to alert users of special promotions or important updates via SMS and Messenger. Advertise on Instagram In case you are unaware, Facebook actually owns Instagram. This means you have the ability to use the same ads created in Facebook ads manager, to target those who fall within your target audience on Instagram. This provides you with another window of opportunity to target those who may be interested in your products or services who actually may not use Facebook, however, use Instagram. Instagram is a highly effective platform for social media marketing and one you should incorporate into your ads strategy in order to obtain more leads. Facebook advertising is a powerful way for businesses to promote their products or services and gain a significant amount of leads. Facebook’s targeting capabilities provide business owners with the potential to reach a significant number of prospects who would actually be interested in their business. Facebook has the highest number of active monthly users, compared with other social media platforms. This is why DGreat Solution recommends Facebook for businesses and marketers to invest in advertising campaigns.
The Algorithms of Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn: What is it and how do you master it?
An algorithm is essentially defined as a set or rules or processes used to solve a problem or work towards an end result. In terms of social media, an algorithm is a process with which each user’s posts are filtered and shared with others based upon a number of factors such as their online behavior, interests and profile interactions. Algorithms are important because they determine whether or not your posts reach the top of your follower’s newsfeeds. Social media algorithms can be quite a difficult topic to grasp especially when platforms such as Instagram and Facebook are continuously making changes to how user’s posts are viewed. This can be equally frustrating for business owners and marketers as having your content visible isn’t as simple as it used to be. Previously, posts were shared to users in chronological order so timing your posts was a top priority. Nowadays, the algorithms are based upon a number of factors and will vary depending on each platform. Although they are undeniably inconvenient at times, learning the ins and outs of each social media platform’s algorithmic approach will greatly benefit your organic reach. THE FACEBOOK ALGORITHM Being one of the most popular marketing platforms, Facebook is an ideal space for businesses to reach out to potential customers or clients. However, recently Facebook has made it harder than ever for businesses to reach people organically. This is due to newsfeed changes which mean Facebook users are more prone to seeing content from family and friends as opposed to businesses. Facebook essentially prioritizes posts which are from profiles you frequently interact with, or posts which have a large number of reactions or comments and video content. Some tips for mastering Facebook’s algorithm include sharing your businesses content on your own personal account, frequently interacting with your account followers or friends, encouraging others to share your content and utilise video content as much as possible. Also, ensure your business page is set to public so you are still visible to those who don’t follow your page. Boosting posts and Facebook ads aren’t organic, but are highly beneficial for business and do guarantee audience reach. THE INSTAGRAM ALGORITHM The Instagram algorithm has received much criticism over the past year especially from social media influencers and business owners who rely solely on the platform to operate. Timing of posts was always one of the main features of the Instagram algorithm in the past. It still is important; however Instagram also prioritises other features such as profiles users frequently engage with, the popularity of posts (including likes and shares) and hashtags each user follows. It can be very tricky for posts to be seen by users if they are not frequently interacting with their followers. If you want your posts to reach more of your followers organically, interact with your followers on a regular basis. By commenting, liking and sharing their content, in return Instagram will prioritise your content. Utilise hashtags, and use as many as you can (Instagram allows up to 30) based on a number of categories such as location and hashtags relevant to your content and industry. Post consistently and at times where your followers or target audience are most active. If your account is set to a business profile you are able to see this in your insights tab. Finally, share your content on your story highlights. Although they do last for only 24 hours, this is an additional way to share your content with your followers and can track who has viewed it. THE LINKEDIN ALGORITHM LinkedIn is potentially the most popular social media platform for B2B marketing. Quite similarly to Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn prioritises a number of factors in their algorithm. When sharing content on LinkedIn, it’s important to keep it professional and ensure it provides value for its audience. LinkedIn will favor content from profiles which you have interacted with previously as well as posts with high levels of engagement (shares, likes, comments etc.) and does not particularly favor content from business pages. In order to obtain good organic reach on LinkedIn, share your content on your business pages as well as your own personal accounts. This will enhance the likelihood of your posts being viewed and provides a more personal approach. Posting various formats of content such as text, image and video will also boost your visibility. And finally, as with all social media platforms, be consistent! Social media algorithms aren’t necessarily the easiest concept to grasp and will take some time to understand entirely. The best step you can take is to stay updated with each social media marketing platform and make note of any changes which occur to their algorithms. The more you familiarise yourself with each platform, the greater you will become at mastering the algorithms!
How to use instagram to build brand trust
Instagram now has over 800 million active users. It is unarguably one the most far reaching social media platforms you can get your hands on. Instagram has proven itself to be a great advertising platform for businesses and shows no signs of slowing down. eMarketer estimated the worldwide ad revenues to exceed $10 billion dollars by this year. This is quite an increase from just under $2 billion in 2016.If you’re not already using Instagram to increase the reach and build brand awareness, you’re missing out. Thankfully, its relatively easy to get your business up and running, you just need enough time and effort to implement a well thought out strategy. STUDY Your first step should be going out and finding other business similar to yours and studying what they are currently posting. Look at the colours, the type of imagery, the people in the photos, the location etc. Think about how it makes you feel when you see their content, what kind of emotion are they pulling from you, does it make you want to be a part of their culture?If yes, then model what they are doing. We aren’t saying to copying what they’re doing, but for now, write down things that you like and things that you don’t like. WHAT TO POST Now that you have some idea on what your competitors are posting and the angle they’re going for, it’s time to decide on what you want to start posting! This changes entirely on industry to industry and obviously I don’t know what kind of legal obligations you may have within yours. But, you want to be posting content that is; 1) Relative to your industry. 2) Speaks how you want your ideal customer to speak. And 3) Keeps existing and potential customers engaged with your brand. So hopefully you already know your ideal customer, or at least have some idea of who they are, what they do, where they hang out and what other kind of things they spend their money on. We have found that it is best to actually give this “ideal customer” a name, give them an outfit, hair style and friends. It might seem a bit odd, but it will help you think and realise who your target market it. And hey, doesn’t hurt to try. WHEN TO POST Instagram has changed its algorithms a lot in the recent years, to the point that it almost doesn’t matter ‘when’ you post, but more so ‘how often’ you post. Instagram favours regular, high quality and high engaged content. It is a general recommendation that you post at least once per day, twice if you feel the need to. And that’s just for the standard Instagram ‘feed’ post, Instagram stories is a whole other mind field. Now, I’m sure we all follow someone who feels the need to put every waking minute of their lives on the instagram stories, we are saying to do this. But, I believe business owners could take a leaf out of their book. Instagram stories are a great way to drive existing followers to your page and keep them in the loop! It won’t necessarily get your page discovered by new people (that’s what your Instagram Feed posts are for), but when they do land on your page and you have a story that’s been posted in the last 24 hours, they are liking to look. It helps keep your profile looking lively and active, and is just another great way to keep engagement up on your profile. Instagram the amazing platform Instagram is an amazing platform for building your brands image and communicating with your existing and potential customers. Try not to overthink your content, keep it lighthearted, keep up with current trends and keep your audience engaged.If you are struggling to come up with ideas or are just feeling overwhelmed with the road ahead for your business and instagram, get in contact with us today! We over free consultation calls, so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain!
