Instagram is a huge social network with over 1 billion active users – a user base that is continuing to grow even now with no signs of slowing down. It is quick to manage thanks to its largely visual nature, and has some of the best engagement on the web.
Many companies use Instagram to boost their products and services to extraordinary popularity. Moreover, there are countless ‘Instagram celebrities’ who make a living from posting to Instagram alone. Some of them get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single post.
That ought to tell you something about how much big companies value Instagram!
But despite all this, countless businesses are still failing to gain any momentum on the platform. That’s because they’re stuck posting the same content day after day, not providing any value for their audience, and not quite ‘getting it’ when it comes to what sticks or what strategies work.
That’s where this quick report comes in. Read on and we’re going to change the way you view Instagram and the way your business operates.
Instagram – Seller of Dreams
This report is split into two parts. First we’ll see how you can create a real movement by understanding what makes Instagram tick. Then we’ll get into the granular details – the tips and tricks that make any Instagram account grow faster. We’ll start with the big picture, then get down to the details. And speaking of big picture, that’s what Instagram is all about for business. It’s about selling a dream or a ‘value proposition’. Being very visual, Instagram lends itself to promoting feelings over figures – it shows people who are successful, who are happy, or who are very trendy.
This in turn creates an instant visceral reaction in the viewer, who is socially motivated to want to do the same things and feel the same way. That’s why we follow aspirational accounts, and it’s why Instagram posts have the potential to influence moreso that anything you can accomplish on Twitter.
Like they say: a picture is worth a thousand words!
In fact, you could even go so far as to pin many a cultural movement on Instagram. Instagram is at least partially responsible for the selfie for instance – selfies are at least somewhat a way for teens and others to express themselves online and this has spilled out into countless other mediums. Some would go so far as to blame Instagram for creating a more narcissistic population. Likewise, Instagram can be held partially responsible for the entire ‘hipster’ movement.
Hipsters are generally regarded as millennials who are very ‘self-aware’ (or self-conscious, depending on your point of
view). They are people who are dissatisfied with many aspects of modern society, and who have as a result decided to be actively ‘different’ from those around them. They are less interested in making lots of money and wearing suits, and more interested in taking photos of beautiful sunsets, of their holiday destinations, and of plates of food.
Instagram helped to facilitate this shift in focus by providing just the right tools. The simple filters that Instagram offer allow anyone to take a mundane moment from their life and make it look ‘beautiful’ or at the very least, artistic. In doing so, they alter our focus and find the beauty and the appeal in our lives. And to this day, Instagram is filled with hipsters taking photos of their food, or of glasses standing alone on tables. Then there are the photos of bullet journals, carefully placed on desks surrounded by coffee and potted plants. There are other corners of Instagram of course. There is a huge fitness community for example, filled with photos of people looking tanned and muscular while jogging down the beach. Travel is absolutely huge. Beauty and beauty products likewise have a big place. And fashion is perfectly suited to this visual medium.
Art and photography do well on Instagram too. And there is
- larger silver-surfer contingent than you might think, made up particularly of people who enjoy activities like hiking, bird spotting, sewing etc.
Then there is the rather dubious concept of ‘stunting’ on Instagram.
What is stunting? It’s the act of creating an account in order to portray a particular image, that actually isn’t authentic. Most often? It means looking extremely wealthy and
successful. For example then, a stunter might post an image of their hand on the wheel of a Lamborghini, wearing a Rolex and with a wad of cash on the seat next to them. In reality though, they are testing the car at a show-room, the Rolex is a knock-off, and the cash is just $100 that they withdrew in small notes.
Believe it or not, people actually make a living from stunting! This is the most concrete example of the ‘law of attraction’ in action. Fake it until you make it!
If all this sounds surprising, the point is that we can do the precise same thing for our business. By posting about the lifestyle and using the filters and your photography in order to make it all look amazing and desirable, you can make an account that is highly persuasive and that will grow exponentially.
Think of this as a movement, rather than just a corporate brand. It’s why companies like Apple are so successful – they speak to the creative side, the showy side, and the aspirational side of the buyer. That’s what Instagram will let you do.
What and How to Post
With all that said, you need to make sure you are posting images and videos that help to convey the message you wish to portray. Ideally, someone should see one of your images and feel inspired and moved – in turn seeking out your content to learn more.
For many, this means taking photos that are as attractive as possible – so if you have photography skills, then that’s ideal! Each photo should somehow tell a story, and show the benefits of the product or service you’re offering.
At the same time, it also means sharing videos – which actually have a higher engagement than video on Instagram!
But what if you aren’t an amazing photographer or you aren’t confident in your skills? Fortunately, there are some things you can do to get around that.
Editing
Both pictures and videos should be edited in order to get the very most from them – this way you can turn a bland photo into something truly eye-catching. If you are serious about your photography, then shoot your images in the RAW file format, using a flat color profile (low contrast and vibrancy). This provides you with the maximum amount of pure information, meaning that you can then open them up in Lightroom or Photoshop and make them look fantastic by playing with the color curves, saturation, etc.
This is also an opportunity to add text, effects, and more. There are some amazing ‘presets’ you can find for photography that will generate some amazing looking shots. Note that Instagram also now offers basic editing allowing you to add things like vignette effects, or to alter the contrast and shadows etc. This is an easy way to ‘fix’ a photo that perhaps came out a little over-exposed for instance.
Video can be edited meanwhile using Sony Vegas Pro, Final Cut, Adobe Premiere, or even iOS software like Luma Fusion. This way, you can chop together a long piece of footage to be punchier and more exciting. Add some music and color grading and you can make your video much more impactful.
Using Stock Photography
Another option is to use stock photography! You can find royalty free photo sites, or alternatively buy them from a site like Envato Elements (elements.envato.com). Here, you’ll find huge lists of photos that are available for you to use and even to edit.
And that’s the key point, because you can edit photos in order to make them unique to your brand. For example, if you have a fitness business, then you can take photos of people in the gym or running on the beach, and then add motivational quotes over the top and some filters. These kinds of accounts are extremely easy to run and maintain and yet they are highly successful because they tick all the boxes we’re looking at.
In seconds, you can download an image of someone jogging on the beach, turn it black and white, then add some beautiful text with a fancy font on top. It just take a few moments to learn the editing skills and to get access to the account. The same strategy can work whether you’re selling cars, a dating website, or practically anything else.
The best bit? It ticks all the boxes we’re looking for: allowing you to convey your value proposition, create photos that stand out, and help your audience to feel something that motivates them to buy.
Frequency and Tips
Using editing and occasionally stock photos, you can create a high volume of high quality images that people will want to follow you in order to keep seeing.
The next trick is to make sure that they are getting found and that they are getting engagement.
So how often should you post? The good news is that the guess work has been taken out of the equation: businesses on average recommend posting 1-3 times per day in order to achieve maximum engagement. They recommend posting between 10am-3pm for local businesses, or 6pm GMT if you have a global audience.
The next tip: post in portrait orientation wherever possible. This will increase the amount of space your photo takes up in a vertical feed, and it will increase the amount of time your audience sees it for as a result!
Next: use the right hashtags. Instagram lets you add up to 30 hashtags for each image post, and that means you have thirty opportunities to help people find you. If you could play the lottery for free 30 times, would you only enter five times? No!
The best hashtags are the ones that are popular (100,000 posts+) but not insanely popular (1,000,000 posts+).
Hashtags that are too popular will mean your content gets drowned out the moment you post, while those that are too niche won’t bring enough views in. Aim for that happy sweet spot in the middle, but also use a range of hashtags with a couple at both end of the spectrum.
More valuable still are the hashtags that are very hot topics in your niche, or that are trending generally. Use ‘news jacking’ in order to ride off the success of a popular topic. Ask yourself what you could post that would be relevant.
More Ways to Engage
Finally, make sure you engage with your audience using every other available trick. You can pay for sponsored posts and ads, but you actually don’t need to if you focus on answering the comments on your posts, commenting on other people’s posts, and liking their photos. Follow people in your niche too, and try to use hashtags and mentions to get noticed by bigger brands.
Follow 20 new accounts and you’ll likely get 10 follows back as long as they are relevant and especially if you’ve engaged with them in the past. And remember: this growth is exponential over time.
Using Instagram’s Live Video and Stories is another way you can engage more – especially as these will sometimes notify users that you’ve just posted. That’s a great way to interact in a more personal and direct manner with your audience, which in turn means that you can build that trust and authority.
Finally, work with other creators to do ad swaps and to promote each other every so often.
If you do all this, if you are consistent, and if you put real effort into delivering a message to your audience – then there is every chance that you could generate AT LEAST 100 new followers a day. And because this growth is exponential… the sky is the limit!
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