Let’s face it. Getting enough visibility on Instagram has become far more difficult than ever.
Maybe you’ve been in this for a while and you can tell your latest efforts just yield … well, uhm… crickets.
And if you are all new to using Instagram for your business you feel like you’ve drifted into a land far far away. Lots of posting and still little to no engagement. It kind of feels like walking through a dark tunnel with no end in sight whichever way you look.
No results yet? No leads through Instagram? Read on. I’ll show you how.
Instagram is an amazing platform to bring new customers to your business.
Launched in October 2018 by founders Kevin System and Mike Krieger the photo and video sharing platform has since embarked on an incredible journey. It gained 1 million users within its first 2 months, climbed to over 600 million users worldwide by the 5th year, and by now has amassed about 1 billion users worldwide according to a recent Hubspot report.
Source – Hubspot
Over 70% of ALL Brands are on Instagram. That is over 25 billion business accounts. And millions of people are shopping on Instagram every single minute.
So how can you make this work for you as well?
This is where our 10 steps to a succeeding on Instagram account come in.
Step 1 – Research your Niche
This step is the most important to begin with before any other steps so you understand what you’re aiming for.
It’s kind of like getting to know the area you’re in before you actually go on the long hike, the trip throwing the rain forecast, or the dive into the underwater cave. You wanna know where you are, what works, what doesn’t, and what leads to success, And keep you safe.
When it comes to Instagram that means looking at accounts in your industry, in your niche, and your focus of work that are most successful.
You do not want to reinvent the wheel. Model other people’s success until you find your own unique style.
What type of content performs best on Instagram in your industry? How many times do people post? What hashtags to use? How do their captions look look? Do they use emojis and if so which ones and how many? What types of post get the best response and most engagement?
Step 2 – Set your Instagram profile up as a business account.
Set your Instagram account up as a business account (find out how in this video here).
Business accounts benefit have a huge amount of performance data off your Instagram profile. Those are summarized as Instagram insights. In short, Instagram insights will show you how your account is doing.
Want to know which of your content works best? Instagram insights will show what post at what time of day got the most likes, comments, share, saves, and video views.
You want to know at what time of day and in what area your content is accessed the most, what age range your audience has, what gender? The audience section in Instagram insights will do exactly that.
In fact, the audience insights section alone is worth setting up Your Instagram business account.
Don’t go blind any further. Make your Instagram decisions based off of clear defined metrics. Instagram and sides does just that.
Step 3 – Post high quality content.
You’ve seen it before haven’t you? Those grainy photos or videos that feel like they’re pinching your eyeballs just from looking at them. Painful.
Nobody likes to see that! Except for grandma. But grandma’s like, comment, and follow alone won’t grow our Instagram business account 😉 Love grandma, really.
Anything that’s low quality (grainy or pixelated) will not be allowed on the explorer page – The page you want to be featured on for massive exposure.
So what defines high-quality content?
The Instagram algorithm filters content in the feed for high quality photos or images. If a content piece is below 200 dots per inch (dpi) it will not show on the explorer page because the Instagram algorithm deems it not good enough to be exposed to the larger audience.
Now I’m not asking you to manually check every single image or video for the resolution. As a rule of thumb if a content piece does not look crisp and clear chances are it’s not having a good resolution.
Step 4 – Post Consistently
Have you ever heard of the saying that healthy daily habits produce good results?
It’s somewhat the same with Instagram. Consistency is key.
If you post on random days and times your chances are very slim to get discovered by the right audience.
A well designed feed by Debiflue
Put yourself in the shoes of your audience (your potential customer) – If they don’t know when to expect you and your new content online, how can you expect them to engage with you?
It’s kind of like your favorite TV show only randomly playing on your favorite station. Wouldn’t you find that annoying?
To increase your visibility on Instagram and make sure your audience can find you opt to post daily. If you’re starting a new account I’d suggest you post at least 1 to 2 times a day for the first two weeks.
After that I recommend you increase your posting frequency to up to three times a day.
What this does is it spreads out your content over the day and allows you to capture different sections of active users on Instagram.
Step 5 – Timing is everything
Now that we covered The frequency of posting let’s have a look at your timing.
I can’t emphasize this enough!
Timing. Is. Everything.
Dashboard of When to Post Ap
Remember the example of the TV show? What if you never knew when it would play on your station? Right? You would be frustrated, and eventually you’d stop looking out for it because it requires so much effort. And so will your Instagram followers be if they don’t know when your post will be up.
So how do you determine the best timing for your posts? Well you will have to test it out In the beginning.
In our experience from many client accounts we are managing and have been managing in the past, good times for posting to start out with are
9AM, 12PM (noon), 3PM, and 6PM
Now you don’t have to post four times a day starting out. You can start with two posts a day and then review your post engagement for the best performance.
While you can do this manually we suggest using an app that tells you what time is best to post.
“When to post” for example is a great app that helps you review your Instagram account and will tell you the times of the day that works best for you to post. The app literally shows you the best 3 times of the day for your account to get the most engagement such as likes, comments, shares, and saves.
Another option that we use for managing multiple client accounts is OnlyPult.
(Image of When to post with affiliate link)
Based on the metrics you can then adjust your posting times and further tweak along the way. You’ll notice that sometimes just deviating from the suggested times a few minutes will have a huge impact on your post’s performance.
Step 6 – Use Instagram stories
Instagram stories are an amazing way to spread the word about your Instagram posts even further.
They’re kind of like taking out the megaphone and shouting out any new developments from the the rooftop.
You can leverage this by going on your story every time you create a new post. Doing this will help your post get additional exposure from your story. You literally double the exposure.
By upping the exposure this way you double the traffic (visitors) to your post and potentially also your Instagram account.
Step 7 – interact with your audience
This one sounds so simple, yet it is so essential to do it.
Interact with your audience. And I don’t just mean liking A comment or replying with an emoji. Do more.
As the Instagram algorithm has evolved so has its ability to track to engagement and conversation.
And that is exactly what you want to have on your Instagram profile. Encourage conversation, do you and your caption, but also do it in the comments. When you respond to someone’s comment on your post don’t just like the comment or respond “thanks”.
Start an actual conversation, tell them that you appreciate their comment and ask them a question related to the topic.
You can also ask them what other content they would like to see on your feet.
You will be surprised how open and how willing people are to share their opinion. And that is exactly what you want. You want to hear your audience. You want to listen to what they need and then execute on that.
It’ll make huge difference in your audience Will appreciate it long term.
Step 8 – Follow people in your niche
That’s right, you do not want to just follow about anyone randomly. That’s a big No No.
Instead pick key Influencer accounts in your niche and follow them. Influencer accounts are accounts with a lot of followers, like 10,000, 100,000 or more that have good content and a lot of engagement on each of their posts. Be picky, choose only a few, and truly interact with them and their content. The trick with this is to build a professional network for you that is specific and related to your profession and your specific industry.
You are a plastic surgeon? Look at other high authority Instagram accounts with a focus on plastic surgery. Find peers that do similar work and have a great following and a fantastic engagement. Find accounts that focus on your specialty, their audience will be very similar to what audience you want to attract for your own account.
You’re a technology company? Focus on other accounts with content centered around technology, better yet your specific type of technology.
What this will do is help you to find the types of audiences that should see your content.
Step 9 – engage with authority account followers in your niche.
You will probably remember that in step 7 I suggested you follow influencer accounts in your niche and interact with them.
This step takes it a notch further.
Remember what I said about finding people that fit your ideal audience and Customer profile? Well the stuff helps you get them into your world and your Instagram profile.
You followed key influencer accounts in your niche. Now you’re not only going to engage with the accounts themselves but more importantly with their audience.
Now you want to like comments of other users on the influencers post and also leave a comment yourself.
Liking other people’s comments will notify them that you liked your comment. Many of them will get very curious who liked their cup their comment and they would likely check out your Instagram profile.
Commenting on a high authority Instagram account’s post gives you high visibility. You want to be mindful about what you comment. Be specific to the post, be relevant to the conversation, and always add a lot of value. What this does is it distinguishes you from all the other comments and also positions you as an expert in the subject matter.
All this increases your visibility, your authority and your chance to gain more followers from the exact audience type you are after.
Step 10 – Be genuine
That’s right yourself – everyone else is already taken.
Yes I get it. Over the last couple steps I told you to model other people’s success. And I meant that.
But while learning and modeling what works on successful Instagram accounts don’t forget to sprinkle in your own personal note. What is your mission? How does it tie to your business and the products and services that you offer?
It’s your secret sauce. It is your unique way of doing things.
Is there a unique way you can approach a topic? Would your opinion matter?
This is your chance at positioning yourself as THE expert in your field AND distinguishing yourself from your competition.
Now mind you, I said do not reinvent the wheel.
Instagram is a science, not an art.
You should still learn and leverage features from successful Instagram accounts and implement them into your Instagram profile.
But it is the mix that matters. Just copying a successful brand Instagram to the tea will not help you long-term.
The Kim Kardashians, Nicki Minaj’s , and John Legend’s are already out there. The World doesn’t want a copy of that. So while you get ideas from the influencer accounts, nit pick and choose wisely, and slowly develop your own unique style that fits the message of your brand.
Those are our 10 steps to succeed on Instagram.
What about you?
What have you tried and applied? And what has worked for you?
Let my team and me know . We’d LOVE to get your take on this. You can tell us comments bellow or follow our agency on social media on facebook, twitter, instagram, and youtube.
Cheers,
Anjoscha 🙂
Anjoscha is the founder and president of We Ask Beyond and the creator of The Ultimate Practice PathwayTM. She has spend a decade in the biomedical industry and believes that science and technology can bring a better tomorrow for humanity.
When she is not working you will find her traveling and exploring new places, enjoying good food, and walking barefoot on the shores of California.
You can also follow her personal profiles on Facebook, twitter, and instagram.