I have been working on my Instagram lately, and I am loving this platform. I get to speak directly to my ideal audience and readers and get to be found by a whole new audience easily. It is a fun platform to use, but Instagram is also definitely a social media platform that requires intention, discipline and consistency. Instagram has made it a bit harder to reach your audience with the algorithm change, but in my opinion they compensated for this by introducing business accounts (especially with the stats we get to see) and also by adding Instagram Stories. Here are
4 tips to grow your Instagram account after the algorithm change.
#1.Post at optimal times! By converting to a business account ( just go to profile and tap Switch to Business Profile. You must have connected your Facebook Business page with your Instagram account. )
I get to see a graph of peak engagement times for a specific day. So for example, on Fridays it is showing me that my peak times are 1pm and 4pm and also at 2, 8 or 9 p.m. So if I want maximum reach, it is best that I post at one of those times. I can choose a secondary peak time if I want to post earlier, and that would be at 2 p.m. I try to post at one of the peak times as best as I can. Lately, I have been aiming to post 1-2 times a day.
Bonus tip – Your stats will also show which TYPE of content has had the most reach, engagement and likes, so you can tell which topics do well with your audience, and you can repeat more of that.
#2. Related hashtags are your best friend! PERIOD. By using hashtags that my audience uses, I get new followers every single day.
To find related hashtags, you need to click on a hashtag you have used or you see on someone else’s post up on top. You will see “related,” and you will then get a whole series of new hashtags, and you may be surprised. (If you want a video of me showing you how to do it, you can sign up for my FREE Fuse Lounge and catch the video in Events tab.) You can post up to 30 hashtags in your post, and I recommend you do some in the caption and you can do the rest in the comments area, but definitely add at least 10 hashtags to every post. Use some general hashtags that have over 1 million posts and some in 100-300 thousand range, some in 30-50 thousand, and even your own hashtag too. Bonus tip – you can go back to old posts and add some hashtags, too.
Bonus tip – I have noticed that when I autopost IG posts with hashtags to my FB biz page, I am getting WAY more reach in Facebook.
#3. Use Instagram Stories. I did a whole post on why you should use Instagram Stories, but my favorite reason is that it affects the Algorithm. Instagram is pushing video big time and has started rolling out showcasing Stories in the Explore section. It does not have to be crazy, but you can easily add 3-5 posts a day on IG. Read more about using Instagram Stories for your business . And check out my FREE webinar on Honeybook tomorrow. You can sign up here.
#4. Branding consistency. I have to confess that it was not til recently that I have had a good visual flow in Instagram and this was what I struggled with the most. You see, when I started using Instagram, it was to escape from Facebook and showcase personal posts to friends and family. Once I decided it would be used to grow my creative biz and blog, my gears shifted, but my post images did not. I could not seem to get it going in a flow, you know? Even after I rebranded, I was stuck, but my branding girls reminded me to post with my ideal audience in mind and that every post should reflect my brand board and colors: fun, vibrant and feminine. Then, they shared a GREAT app called Snug so I could visually see what my posts would look like next to each other and view the whole grid view in Pinterest. So now I grab a few post ideas I have (many are graphics I make in Canva using some text and my brand colors), then I get to see how the next image will look next to previous and the overall layout of post. This has been a game changer!
BONUS TIP! View your Instagram posts as mini snackable content so give tips, add call to action and make it your writing journal. Therefore don’t be afraid to make longer captions.
CONCLUSION.
Overall I have seen a huge improvement on my account after the Algorithm change, but I do have to get better at planning my content ahead of time. I need to take a day just to save a bunch of posts and have the graphics ahead of time so I’m not scrounging for what to post. I have seen my account grow, my brand now looks consistent, and I even have increased blog visits. Tools I can’t live without to help me get followers every single day on Instagram: Snug, Canva and Snapped.
So what is working for you on Instagram? Comment below, and don’t forget to watch the replay of my Instagram Presentation in the Fuse Lounge.