Instagram is becoming a vital part of the social media strategy of every business. This mainly goes for companies that work on the B2C level and sell goods and services to end-users. Investing in ads may be something that everybody does, however, there is another important aspect to consider – boosting your organic reach on the social network. Luckily, there are still some ways to do that on Instagram and we are going to give you a few essential tips.
In this article, we are going to feature only proven tactics that we use for our clients. Keep in mind that the results may vary. If you are consistent and have high-quality and engaging content, the increase will come sooner rather than later.
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Use Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels
Last year, the Head of Instagram – Adam Mosseri, said that “Instagram is no longer a photo-sharing app”. He mentioned that “the company is looking to lean into entertainment and video after seeing the success of competitors like TikTok and YouTube.”
That’s why stories and reels should become your primary focus.
We know that they are two different things. However, both of them will boost your organic reach in 2022. Instagram Stories remain a key factor to share some brief insights from the company’s everyday life or to announce something interesting that will be coming up – a new product, a new service, or maybe a promotion. They are the ultimate engagement tool for your audience where you can ask questions, run polls or quizzes and this way directly interact with your followers. The more they take action on your story, the more it will be prioritized by the algorithm because these actions will “tell” the platform that this content is cool and interesting.
Instagram Reels on the other hand will be pushed by the algorithm of Instagram itself (they have to overpower TikTok in some way, as Mosseri said). You can use reels to even share a short story that can be funny or creative and get your audience engaged. Maybe you can outline what awesome place for work you provide. Imagine an Instagram reel that tells that story:
- Work from the boring office as usual;
- The weather is nice and people are looking out the window;
- The manager tells the whole team to head down and work from the beach;
- Final shot with some refreshments and a few people on laptops with their feet in the sand.
Not bad, right? However, you need to follow and apply the trends in the niche your brand operates in. Otherwise, you are going to have boring content that nobody interacts with.
The right post at the right time
This might look very simple. Yet a lot of people out there are not paying attention. You can get the most of your posts if your schedule is aligned with the time of day when most people from your target audience are active. If you don’t pay attention to the details some mistakes can happen like:
- Not considering that your target audience is in a different time zone;
- Not taking into account holidays and vacation periods people have;
- Not posting relevant content to some major events going on.
In order to get the best out of your posts, you have to be sure to post the right thing at the right time that will get your audience engaged. This may sound complicated, but you can check when your audience is most active (from profile insights) and check if there is something interesting you can use as inspiration or the subject of your post. That answers the questions “When?” and “What?”
For example, for a client of Interval, we post on Instagram in the relevant time for Chicago (around 10 AM local time) and browse for local interesting events, historical facts, or celebrity visits to use as information in our posts.
Engage the audience with challenges, giveaways, and contests
The best way to increase your organic reach is to engage your audience. And you can do that by involving them with something easy:
- Have a challenge;
- Ask them a question;
- Organize a giveaway;
- Get them to vote in the comments;
- Organize some contests.
All of these can be integrated into the social media strategy of your brand. For example, one of the best performing stories for a client of ours that offers beauty procedures was related to the way women put on their under-eye patches. There was a poll on an Instagram story and the results were amazing. It was the most engaging story ever posted on this client’s account.
This may seem like too much stuff for one final tip. However, most marketers don’t use the full potential of the social network. In order to increase your Instagram organic reach the most, you have to use all the tools to your advantage.
That means you can go live and share something awesome that happened to you. Did you land a new client? Opened a new office? A new store? Got some reward? Be spontaneous and go live when there is something big to share. You can always say at the end: “More news on our website soon!”.
Hashtags are important because your post can be discovered by someone who doesn’t follow you. However, people don’t tend to use them that much. The same goes for the location. And you could be missing out a lot if you are one of these people. Explore the #s which are relevant to you based on your service, location, experience, trending topic, or something else that can be related to your business.
Tagging on Instagram works both ways. Yes, it is great to interact with users and brands. However, the big boost will come if you inspire user-generated content that is related to your brand. For example, here is something you can do:
- Announce a contest for the best makeup routine with the cosmetic products you are selling;
- Communicate a reward that will be attractive enough to get the people engaged;
- Get your audience to post a story with their makeup and share what they love about your product;
- Get them to tag your account.
That, right there is just one of the examples you can do. Get creative and you will achieve awesome results. Users are tired of the same old ads, posts, and content. They want something new, something fresh and they want it now. So give it to them!
If you need some assistance with your overall social media and digital presence, let us know and get in touch with us. We’d be happy to help.
