7 Best instagram marketing techniques – Next Is Best

When I came across the Instagram I was super surprised by knowing some facts.

Most of the people ignore Instagram thinking they should focus more on Facebook or twitter.

But the question is why do I think I should take out time to write this article? Because I know it’s important.

While writing this post some questions crossed my mind:

Why Instagram became so important nowadays?
How big is Instagram now?
How hashtags are important?
Instagram looks simple but what are the best practices to follow?

Well, you will get the answer for all questions mentioned and feel free to ask if you have any further question.

I will start with some facts about Instagram which will help you to understand the seriousness of this platform.

1) Instagram launched an iPhone app in Dec’2010 and by now (June’2016) they have 500 Million monthly active users

2) Stanford grads Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger founded Instagram in 2010

3) Facebook acquired the company two years later in 2012 for $1 Bn cash and stock

4) 20% of total internet users are using Instagram

5) 90% of Instagram users are younger than 35

6) New York City is the most geotagged city

7) Instagram is still the most followed username (177 Million)

8) 83% of all the photos contain Hashtags

Statistics courtesy: Digital Marketing Ramblings

Now I hope we all agree that we should start to focus on Instagram too.

Here are some best Instagram marketing techniques to follow.

1) Instagram goal setting strategy:

We are quite busy is managing other social media accounts that we overlook Instagram.

But for the matter of fact, we now know how important Instagram marketing is.

Sharing one picture a day is not the Instagram strategy. If I will ask you to check your Instagram profile now and compare to Facebook or Twitter, you will see the difference.

Sometimes we conclude after a little effort that Instagram marketing doesn’t work. But that’s not the case.

If you will follow the proper strategy Instagram will help you to build a brand.

Example: I used to post a picture without strategy and hardly get 10-15 likes and that it. But see the image below: In hardly 8-9 hours got 95 likes and 5 comments and number is still growing.

2) Link in bio helps to get more clicks and traffic

When we talk about the website or any digital marketing technique the end objective is always to get traffic.

Why are spending the time to get more attention from people through different social media platform?

Answer: To land them up on our website and eventually in turn into leads.

If you don’t have a call to action or link in the bio you are losing a huge part of the opportunity.

Instagram gives the option to use a link in the bio. Use it smartly to link back to your website, twitter page or FB page.

To add the link go to “Edit Profile” and see the “Website” field. Check the image below.

3) Don’t make Instagram account private

If you are using Instagram for your business need I don’t think you should make it private.

private accounts have limited reach to the people. If a visitor is not on your friend list they can not see any update until you approve it.

If you are following best Instagram marketing technique then you should make your profile public so that your visitors can check new update and like/comment.

4) Respond to the visitor’s like and comment

Instagram is very sensitive because if you will ignore your visitor they have millions of other options.

So engage them by acknowledging their comments and feedbacks.

I used to do that without fail please check my Instagram profile. Also, see the below image.

If you don’t acknowledge comments that means you are ignoring your visitors. Slowly you will start losing traffic.

So make sure you reply back whenever gets a comment. This will also help you to build a strong business relationship.

You should also read 8 best ways to increase pageviews for the website

5) Proper use of Instagram Hashtags

You can use the hashtag properly to reach the target audience. Normally what we do is, use a couple of hashtags and that’s too very specific to the post.

Ideally, hashtags on Instagram should be more generic to reach the maximum audience.

Below are some basic techniques before you include any hashtag:

– Easy to remember
-Before including the hashtag, search whether the hashtag is active or
not. Example: Simply go to search box and type #instagram and you
will see the recent activities
-Relevant and short hashtags
-Make a list of hashtags and use them regularly in all your posts

You can use maximum 30 hashtags in one post. So why Instagram defined a limit of hashtags? This is clearly stating that if you will use the maximum hashtag you will get more reach.

Some people try to play around the hashtags to confuse the user but in the long term, this doesn’t work. You need to be relevant.

Example: ‘Mo Vlogs’ is the king of youtube and creating very cool stuff about worlds most expensive cars. Even though they are not ignoring Instagram. And you will the how relevant their hashtags.

6) Useful tool for Instagram followers track

Sometimes you must have realised that you are following someone but they are not following you back or Initially they followed you and later unfollowed.

Well, there are tools available who can help you to figure this out and clean your profile. This way you can follow the more targetted audience.

Crowdfireapp

You simply need to signup with Instagram and you will find all the option there. The only drawback is: In order to unfollow you need to upgrade or else you check in crowdfire and then manually remove from Instagram. Check the image below:

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is another very nice tool to keep a track of your followers and following. This is free of cost. Check the image below:

7) Final words

I have listed a couple of techniques here but I am exploring more. Please share more tips and techniques to increase the number of followers ethically on Instagram.

I am still trying more tips and will bring them soon once verified 🙂