How do I grow followers on Instagram? How do I get more views on my Instagram posts?

[Abigail_S]

Instagram is all the rage with younger audiences. How do I use Instagram to market and grow my business? There seems to be a very different strategy to using the platform for your business than for using it personally. 

[Chris-S · Accepted solution]

When managing social media on Instagram, it's important to follow these key steps that I followed while running a non-profit's social accounts:

1. Complete and accurate profile: Make sure your profile fully represents your brand. Use a recognizable profile picture, like your logo, and write a concise yet compelling bio that communicates what your business does and what it offers.

2. Develop a targeted content strategy: Create a content strategy that aligns with your brand identity and resonates with your target audience. This can include a mix of product photos, behind-the-scenes glimpses, user-generated content, inspirational quotes, and educational posts. The goal is to create engaging and interesting content that captures the attention of your followers.

3. Leverage Instagram Stories and Reels: Take advantage of the highly engaging formats of Instagram Stories and Reels. Utilize them to showcase new products, share exclusive promotions, or provide your followers with a behind-the-scenes look at your business. These features allow you to share short, temporary content that can captivate your audience.

By following these steps, you can effectively utilize Instagram to promote your non-profit and engage with your audience.

Connect With Your Audience through Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn 

[Nick_S · Accepted solution]

I'll piggyback off this with some personal anecdotes. As an aspiring artist, Instagram has been my social media of choice for displaying my work and I follow a lot of artists and some of them even talk openly about what works and what doesn't. Of course, using art as an example, it's subjective and personal preference on what catches someone's eye and what appeals to them. I was even talking with an improv/comedy sketch creator the other day about this.

Posting frequently is a must (something I'm bad at). At least 3x a week. And while you should exercise some level of quality control, people aren't just looking for the finished, highly rendered art. People also like to see work-in-progress snapshots or reels/stories showing your art process (digital or traditional).

Reels is the big one, though. If you're an artist, while some people might like to see the full, real-time process of creating art that might be better served for a channel like YouTube. I highly recommend developing some simple video editing skills and figuring out how to splice together the best moments of the process into a quick, digestible video or recording a 30 to 60-second time lapse of the work, if you're working digital. There's lots of little video tricks I've seen artists pull off to highlight their work. One of my favorites is when they record the screen and it looks like just a simple, rough sketch and then they use the eraser tool to reveal the actual finished artwork underneath (using layers in the art program).

[Chris-S · Accepted solution]

When managing social media on Instagram, it's important to follow these key steps that I followed while running a non-profit's social accounts:

1. Complete and accurate profile: Make sure your profile fully represents your brand. Use a recognizable profile picture, like your logo, and write a concise yet compelling bio that communicates what your business does and what it offers.

2. Develop a targeted content strategy: Create a content strategy that aligns with your brand identity and resonates with your target audience. This can include a mix of product photos, behind-the-scenes glimpses, user-generated content, inspirational quotes, and educational posts. The goal is to create engaging and interesting content that captures the attention of your followers.

3. Leverage Instagram Stories and Reels: Take advantage of the highly engaging formats of Instagram Stories and Reels. Utilize them to showcase new products, share exclusive promotions, or provide your followers with a behind-the-scenes look at your business. These features allow you to share short, temporary content that can captivate your audience.

By following these steps, you can effectively utilize Instagram to promote your non-profit and engage with your audience.

Connect With Your Audience through Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn 

[Nick_S · Accepted solution]

I'll piggyback off this with some personal anecdotes. As an aspiring artist, Instagram has been my social media of choice for displaying my work and I follow a lot of artists and some of them even talk openly about what works and what doesn't. Of course, using art as an example, it's subjective and personal preference on what catches someone's eye and what appeals to them. I was even talking with an improv/comedy sketch creator the other day about this.

Posting frequently is a must (something I'm bad at). At least 3x a week. And while you should exercise some level of quality control, people aren't just looking for the finished, highly rendered art. People also like to see work-in-progress snapshots or reels/stories showing your art process (digital or traditional).

Reels is the big one, though. If you're an artist, while some people might like to see the full, real-time process of creating art that might be better served for a channel like YouTube. I highly recommend developing some simple video editing skills and figuring out how to splice together the best moments of the process into a quick, digestible video or recording a 30 to 60-second time lapse of the work, if you're working digital. There's lots of little video tricks I've seen artists pull off to highlight their work. One of my favorites is when they record the screen and it looks like just a simple, rough sketch and then they use the eraser tool to reveal the actual finished artwork underneath (using layers in the art program).

[ACTIVATE · Accepted solution]

Instagram + AI has lead an overhaul of how Instagram "ranks" both content and users. This means that hashtags that were originally critical are now only a piece of the puzzle. Instead, Insta is looking at the written word descriptions in the captions of your posts and reels and your location tagging to make suggestions to Instagram users about you and your business. This is in addition to the algorithm tracking and subsequently feeding users more of what they are enjoying. So the key for business owners is to start thinking of Instagram more in the way of SEO best practices: Title, thorough description (lots of words is NOT bad it's now GOOD), location tagging.