4 Things You Should Know About Instagram
I've meant to sit down and write this post for quite a while now. But after random Instagram polls to gauge interest, I randomly decided to take a week off from writing blogs. The break within itself was no problem, I have blog posts scheduled until June (I'm beginning this post on May 9th), so I can afford to have a bit of me-time!
But now, after a week of the actual writing, I'm ready to sit and talk a little bit about social media; especially Instagram. If you're reading this blog, then you're probably looking for inspiration or ideas to make you Instagram blow up. I don't blame you.
But before you start buying likes or spending countless hours doing the old follow/unfollow, I want you to ask yourself; why do you have an Instagram account?
Yes it might be a place for you to post pictures you wouldn't regularly grace your account with, you might have it as a place for you to vent to strangers and you might even have it purely because everyone else does. But what other benefits is it giving you?
Blog traffic.
Just like Pinterest, Instagram is the perfect place for you to promote your blog and your brand to thousands of strangers across the globe. I mean, what's the point of having a blog that nobody reads? You may as well just write in a journal.
But having 1000's of followers doesn't mean you're going to get just as many websites clicks it's quite the opposite. Unless your Mrs Hinch, more followers have little to no effect on your engagement rate (percentage of followers who engage with the page).
Editor's Note: Just to clarify here. Mrs Hinch is one of the very few influencers who has maintained a high engagement rate of 6% as her following has increased. If you want to read more into this, please click HERE.
So spending hours following/unfollowing people, while useful, only serves as a vanity exercise. If you want to be successful at Instagram, you need to throw out the follower count and work on finding your audience. Companies looking for ambassadors often value bloggers by their engagement rate, not their following.
I've worked with a couple of people of the years who only care about the numbers, but 9/10 they didn't understand the world of digital marketing and the pros and cons of just building up followers. It's one of the reasons why I feel comfortable talking about what I do without getting defensive over my follower count. My followers engage with me. The average engagement rate for a social media account/blog usually flickers around 4-6%, as your follower count gets into the millions, this number decreases radically (unless you're Kylie Jenner or Mrs Hinch, with 4% and 6% respectively). My Instagram engagement rate is about 22%.
Another Editor's Note: If you'd like to work out the engagement rate of any Instagram account. This is the engagement calculator most companies use.
If you want to connect with people who like, comment and interact with your page, please keep reading. I have a few tricks and bits of advice to help you achieve that goal.
If you're still looking to big up your follower count, these tips will always help you. But you won't get a 100 passive new followers a day. So please give this blog a go. Hopefully, I'll change your mind. It's probably more meaningful than me just telling you to run a giveaway if your engagement is low.
This blog is more than me chatting about the same algorithm updates that are plastered across the internet. These are my methods and the things I always remember when planning out an Instagram strategy.
Keep It Positive
Ever since their last significant algorithm update (Like count removal), Instagram has been working towards making the platform a "positive space for community and support".
This update was intended to pressure off users who compare their following/likes to others and adding new features which encourage conversation with users. The company is looking to create a healthier community with more actual content distributed amongst users.
Yes, reducing the pressure on micro-influencers and young adults is a good thing, even though it makes influencer marketing a lot more complicated. But what does Instagram get from this? Higher user time. The end goal for every update/ algorithm amendment is to make a user stay on the app for longer; if the user experience is positive, insightful and smooth, then they'll linger on the app for longer and thus be shown more adverts.
This isn't to say that your account it negative or troll worthy. But you should try to encourage engagement with your followers as much as possible, whether it's through interactive stickers in your story or simply asking them to leave a comment. Interactions like this suggest (to Instagram) that your content is adding something to the user experience and will be shown to more and more users as a result.
It's Not Just About The #
Social media algorithms are a lot smarter than we give them credit for, back when the likes of Twitter and Instagram joined the game the only way you could guarantee your content getting out to people was the use of the humble hashtag. Now the system is a lot more sophisticated, SEO (Search engine optimisation) has been seamlessly integrated into Twitter and IG; meaning that in most situations, the hashtag is purely decorative. If you don't believe me, head over to the Twitter trending page, how many tweets feature the same or any hashtag surrounding the trending topic?
Instagram has incorporated more than just SEO. Instagram has the image recognition technology it needs to organise posts based on image and video content rather than hashtags. For example, if you take a picture of a cup of coffee, but forget to #latte or #starbucks etc. Instagram will still recognise that you've posted a photo of coffee and group it in with similar content. This feature is especially useful for users who worry about looking like a hashtag robot or a spam master. It also means that misspelling a hashtag isn't the end of the world. There are plenty of ways for your content to reach new people.
So to summarise, keep your content clear, your captions keyword rich and pick your hashtags correctly if you want to reach the right people.
Ranking High
As we all know, Instagrams timeline in reverse chronological by default, unless a user intentionally goes into their settings to make this change, Instagram uses three factors to rank what content it shows you. These top 3 ranking signals are as follows:
Relationships
Instagram prioritises posts based on past interactions. If you engage with another user frequently or even have DM'd them in the past. That user is more likely to appear at the top of your feed with you first open up Instagram.
Interest
Instagram recognises the interests of the following lists, profile visits, post likes, comments and all other actions. This is where our previous point fits in. Accounts with a fully optimised page,( i.e. plenty of keywords in their bio, keywords/ hashtags in the copy etc.) would be shown to more users.
Timeline
The reverse chronological order of your timeline means scheduling does matter. If your account is a business account (if it's not, please switch it now) you can check out when your audience is online. Pandering to high traffic times is vital if you want your content to be well received. However, during the current lockdown, these figures may differ a lot as people don't have much else to do.
Connectivity Is King
Like we said at the start of this blog. Instagram wants us to be a community; to support and engage with each other, ultimately to get us to stay online for longer.
This is one of the reasons why I'm an avid lover of the follow/unfollow method. But not in the way that you may think. The 'Less interacted with' section on the following page has been an absolute godsend. There you can keep your following number down but still support, connect with and champion other bloggers like yourself in the hope the favour might be returned. Following new accounts regularly and engaging with their content (liking 5-10 posts and then following the user) is more likely to get you a follower in return, or a mention in their story. But in some cases, it can yield mutual promotion of content, which then makes it look like value-adding content.
Digital networking is a positive thing. LinkedIn probably has the clearest example of digital networking; plenty of people connect with me purely to build their numbers up and look more credible to potential new clients.
Take my "How to boss blogging" series. I love writing them and asking fellow bloggers to contribute. But it's also a brilliant way for us to share our audiences; I promote them on my social media and link to their accounts on the blog post while they talk about the blog post and my page. It's a win-win scenario and one which often ends in mutual support for one another grind.
Make sure you network often, don't spam but lift your fellow bloggers and give them credit when it's due.
What now?
The previous points are vital things to consider when planning out your social media strategy. Everything any company does or releases is done with a set goal in mind. Once you understand that you can break it down and play to your strengths, all of the advice given is based on the December 2019 update which sought to push the Instagram community spirit further and monetise IGTV. They also gave their recommendations for playing to your strengths and here they are;
Post more.
Post consistently.
Like, comment and then follow users.
Create an automatic Instagram DM message to welcome new followers or people looking to chat.
Devote more time to networking.
Figure out your high traffic times.
Engage with users frequently so you can get a good idea of what they want from you.
Would you believe I had intended to keep this blog rather short. But it ultimately got away from me (again)! I hope you enjoyed reading it, and if you have any other thoughts or questions, please comment them down below. I'm more than happy to chat or give you ideas on how to grow your page.
Alternatively, you can follow me on Instagram or Pinterest by clicking the badges in the top left corner of this page.