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Last Updated on May 2, 2023 by Work In My Pajamas
A successful Instagram account isn’t just about uploading tons of pictures and videos. You need to go about in a smart way if you’re going to gain a larger audience.
In This Post:
1. Know Your Audience
Everyone would like to engage everyone, everywhere, every time. But you can’t provide content that satisfies everyone to the same degree. If you try making a profile that appeals to dozens of different categories of people at once, you might end up losing your whole fan base. Narrow down your target audience, and give them what they want. If people know what they can expect from you, they are more likely to stick around, and tell their friends to check it out as well.
2. Find Your Edge
After you figured out who your target audience is, you have to see what you have to offer them that nobody else can. With over 400 million users, Instagram offers a pretty wide variety of content. You are going to have to get really creative, if you want to find that certain something that makes you special.
The easiest thing you can do is just draw inspiration from your personal experience. Give your followers a little bit of insight into your life, make them feel like their part of an extended circle of friends. Working on a personal brand is essential if you want to make it big via social media.
3. Engage Your Audience
Your fans need to know that they are talking to a real person, who cares about them. Simply posting pretty pictures, and throwing in a like here and there is not going to be enough to make them feel like they’re actually communicating with you. So throw in an occasional comment as well, get a conversation going.
Contests and giveaways are also great tactics to boost your follower base. Everyone loves a little lighthearted competition once in a while. It will give your audience a reason to engage with your account, and keep coming back.
4. Choose When to Post
Dumping content on your page without a clear plan is a sure way to get yourself exhausted with no results to show for it. You have to know when your audience is most likely to look, to maximize the visibility of your content.
Avoid posting very early in the morning. It’s unlikely the first thing their going to do when they wake up in the morning is to go check Instagram. That content will be pretty much wasted. Same goes for stuff uploaded very late at night.
You should consider your audience’s occupation, and their general schedule. Most of them are likely going to check their feeds in the middle of the day, around 3 or 4 PM.
5. Learn From The Best
There are so many great Instagram accounts out there. Doing a little bit of research from time to time can’t hurt. A lot of them are owned by professional photographers, or celebrities, so it’s pretty obvious why they would be so popular.
But some gained their fame straight through Instagram. Some of these accounts aren’t even owned by people. The best Instagram pages speak to their audience in a meaningful way, even if that means posting funny pictures, to brighten up their day. Find out what it is that makes these accounts so appealing to such a large audience. See what you can borrow from these creative accounts.
6. Do Your Homework
Using Instagram analytics might sound a bit boring, but it’s the most efficient way to figure out how your account is doing, and how you can improve it. Instead of using unreliable guesswork, why not let a computer work for you?
And don’t be dismissive about hashtags. There’s a bit of artistry involved in choosing the correct hashtags that are going to get the most visibility. Choose words or phrases that are popular, and specific. Terms that are too generic are unlikely to bring people to your page, because they’ll just get lost looking at a billion other images using the same tags.
7. Have Fun With It
You probably remember that one guy in your class that was all about getting the best grades, and who felt like talking to people was just a waste of time. Don’t be that guy. Instagram users are pretty good at spotting accounts that are just there for traffic.
Surprise your followers from time to time. Show them that you’re are genuinely enjoying this whole process, and that you’re not in it just for the sake of likes and views. That’ll encourage them to join in on the fun.
