4 tips on Instagram to help you grow your audience

4 tips on Instagram to help you grow your audience

This article will cover 10 useful tips that will help you grow your audience on Instagram. By optimizing your content, behaviour, and understanding the way the instagram algorithm works, you will be able to grow exponentially every day.

1. Understanding the algorithm.

For those of you that don’t know, Instagram has an algorithm that works similar to a snowball. When you post a photo it will appear in the recent section of every hashtag you used. Additionally, if a user likes your photo, your photo will then get shared to the user’s followers on the explore page. If somebody then finds your photo on their explore page and likes it, then it will get shared to their followers’ explore page, and so on. The more likes, comments and shares your post gets, the more likes, comments and shares it will continue to get.
In order to set goals for your account, I am going to break down your account in 3 different categories and explain what your main goal should be at your followers’ number, and why:

0 – 4000 followers

#Hashtags
When you are just starting and gaining your first members, it will be very difficult to get on the general explore page as well as hit top on hashtags with a big volume of posts. Many people will advise you to not even bother using hashtags at all, but here’s what has been tested and works for me:

If you use hashtags such as #amazing or #photography, your post is going to get drowned by the amount of new posts in the recent feed very quickly, and it will probably reach a very small amout of people. Alternatively, if you target your hashtags to be unpopular and very specific, you are more likely to get the exposure you are looking for. Let’s say you are going to use our hashtag “#escapewithart”. There are an average of 10 posts a day using this hashtag, so your post is going to stay in the recent feed for around 3 days! Let’s say there are an average of 15 users checking the hashtag a day, that means you will have a reach of 45 users. Additionally, if you manage to get a few likes and comments on your post, it will appear on the top feed for as long as you can keep it trending!
Contrary, if you use #amazing, your post is going to dissapear in as little as under a minute, with very few people managing to see it before it gets buried by newer posts. Do your research, see the amount of likes a post gets in the top section of a hashtag and use hashtags that will make you reach the most people. Here’s a website which checks your account and suggests hashtags on which you are likely to get top post: https://www.whichhashtag.com/

#Engagement
When you are a small account, you should aim to talk to as many people as you can. If they get a notification where you liked their post, or even better, commented and made a story about their account, they are more likely to check your account out. The way I do it is I post a picture, and then immediatly like my followers’ feeds and also check out new posts on different hashtags in order for them to see my recent photo. The odds are they are going to return the favor, and that means I am more likely to get on the top feed of the hashtags I used.

4000-10.000 followers

#Hashtags
You shouldn’t stop doing what you’ve been doing, but since you are likely to get more likes now that you have a bigger audience, you can use bigger hashtags.

#Engagement
You are at a point where you can start doing more interesting things with your account. You can make competitions where you ask your followers to tag friends, or you can start sharing people’s posts with the condition that they tag you in their posts first. This will help you grow exponentially, reaching the followers of your followers so to speak.

10.000-100.000

Your aim should be to get as many events going as possible. Work on your enagegement more than your growth. Ask questions, make friends, hold giveaways, cometitions, weekly posts where people can ask you questions! Anything goes! This will prepare your account for the next step. If you feel confident on your engagement even before you reach 100 thousand followers, andyou are constantly getting an incredible amount of likes, then check the next step.

100.000+

If you worked on your engagement and you are getting an average of 1000 likes on your posts, it’s time to aim for the explore page! Try to get as much engagement as you can on your posts, invite people to answer a question. The more engagement you have, the more likely the post is to appear on the explore page. Use huge hashtags such as #instagram and #art. Your reach should be insane.

Sometimes you are going to notice you have very low engagement. First of all, you should check that your account is not shadowbanned. Follow this link to learn more about the instagram shadowban: https://escapewithart.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-instagram-shadowban/

2. Dealing with low engagement.

If that seems to be working, then let me remind you how the algorithm works. If somebody likes your post, the next time they log into their instagram, they are likely going to see your new posts as well. If they see your post and they don’t like it, next time they check their instagram, your recent posts are most likely going to be hidden from their feed.

The way to deal with this is to make sure your followers still know that you exist. You should make a list with all the followers that seem to not like your recent posts and pay their profile a visit. Make a comment, send them a message asking them how their week was. Odds are they are going to visit your profile and like a few posts as well. Repeat as neccesary.

3. Content is king.

This one is fairly straight-forward. Post quality content and you will receive quality audience. Post unique content, and you will receive followers interested in unique content. Post shitty content, and everyone will just scroll past your page. Additionally, you can create a theme. Post with the same filter, or use the same colors continously. When people look at your feed they will feel more welcome and therefore they might hit that follow button easier.

4. Ignore your followers

Yes, you read correctly. You can further boost your followers by ignoring your inactive ones. Instagram shows your recent posts to 10% of your followers to start with. If you receive engagement, then instagram will show the next 10% your post. If you have followers that seem to be automated, fake, and they never comment or like on your content, then you are better off without them. If you go on their profile and ignore their account, next time your post gets shared to 10% of your followers, it won’t get shared to your fake followers.

If you can have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us or leave a comment below.