When you start out with a social media platform, especially Instagram, getting Instagram Likes might seem like a daunting task.
Many business owners and startups still perceive Instagram as a useless social media platform designed for teens and millennials commenting on their besties’ photos with heart-eyes emojis, sharing ephemeral Instagram Stories, following the entire Kardashian-Jenner family, and uploading idyllic images.
In recent years, Instagram quickly outgrew its status of “a fun app” and has become a viable and unparalleled tool for startups, business owners, digital marketers, and SEO specialists who want to promote their brand, build an audience, sell, and network to maximize their profit.
But here’s the hard truth: there’s no way you can ramp up your brand’s Instagram account and reap all of the benefits of this social media app without getting more likes for your business page on Instagram.
Instagram, which now boasts more than 1 billion monthly active users, has already outperformed its competitors in terms of engagement with brand accounts. On Instagram, engagement with business accounts is 10 times higher compared to Facebook and a whopping 84 times higher than on Twitter.
But wait until you hear this. About 60% of Instagram users discover new products when scrolling their feed.
So yeah, if you’re thinking of focusing on only one social media platform for your startup, Instagram would be your best pick (though we don’t see a reason why you shouldn’t maintain online presence on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, among other platforms).
Instagram has recently unveiled its plans to hide the number of “likes” each photo gets. And while the move is intended to put an end to – or at least minimize – the so-called “Instagram envy,” it might also affect the way your potential consumers perceive your business or brand.
Fact: Yes, “Instagram envy” is a real thing, as a 2017 study conducted by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) and the Young Health Movement (YHM) confirmed this phenomenon.
You see, without those red-hearted “like” buttons hovering at the bottom of your images, your followers – and potential followers – won’t focus so much on the number of likes that you’re getting.
Rather, they’ll focus more on the quality of your content. Meaning, it will be much easier to win the hearts – or, to be more specific, the likes – of your potential customers in fiercely competitive Insta environments.
The most successful and profitable brands have already embraced the power of social media as part of their digital marketing plan, with Instagram being the cornerstone of that strategy.
Here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter whether you’ve already established your startup as reputable and profitable or are still at early stages of growing your business. Instagram can – and should be – a prominent weapon in your digital marketing arsenal.
Promoting your brand online and having no Instagram page is like trying to win a song contest without a microphone.
Instagram is your microphone because it allows hundreds – or, if you’re lucky, millions – of people to hear about your brand, especially considering that 80% of the app’s users follow at least one business on the platform.
Okay, so how do you get more likes for your Instagram business page? In reality, there is no secret sauce to getting more likes for your Instagram account.
Instead, there are seven proven ways to adjust your profile, captions, hashtags, and content to increase your brand’s visibility and engagement. As a result, you get more likes, while reaching more customers because your brand’s images will be popping up in the Instagram feed of a larger number of users.
And you’re going to accomplish that by working these seven tips into your digital marketing strategy.
Being passive won’t get you far if you have a startup company, but you probably know this by now (or else you would never get to the point of starting your own business). And growing your brand on Instagram is no exception.
It’s not enough to just create an Instagram page for your startup and let it sit there, waiting for your potential customers to follow you and start showering you with hundreds of likes. If it worked like that, promoting your brand on Instagram wouldn’t be such a big deal.
First things first: you need to engage. In other words, follow your potential customers. “Wait, but who is my potential customer?” you might be wondering. Well, that’s the question that only you can answer because only you know the ins and outs of your business.
It’s crucial to identify your target audience before you start following random people in a non-systematic fashion. Make it a habit to follow at least 30 potential customers on Instagram every single day.
And don’t forget to like their photos and write comments (make sure these comments aren’t spammy). In some cases, you might also send a direct message promoting your products or services (but keep those to a minimum or Instagram could suspend your account).
According to eCommerce entrepreneur Richard Lazazzera at A Better Lemonade Stand, following other users on Instagram results in a 14-percent chance of a follow-back. The follow-back rates for “follow + like” and “follow + like + comment” are 22 and 34 percent respectively.
Bonus tip: If you want to follow the right people but don’t know where to start, you could “steal” your competitor’s followers.
Many startups overlook the importance of captions on their Instagram photos and end up with an unsatisfactory and embarrassing number of followers and likes as a result.
Sure, your Instagram images can tell a thousand words but don’t shy away from generating engagement through words as well.
Although it takes time to learn how to write catchy and me memorable captions, spending hours on writing just one sentence would be unnecessary and counterproductive. Instead, try to have fun and experiment with what works for your brand and what doesn’t.
According to SproutSocial, the “ideal” length of an Instagram caption to maximize engagement is between 138 and 150 characters. Try to stick to that number, and keep in mind that the caption character limit on the app is 2,200 characters (but hardly any startup needs such lengthy posts unless you’ve decided to turn your Instagram business page into an eBook).
While writing captions for every image might feel like dipping your toe into muddy waters, it actually gets better over time. Seriously, it does. You will eventually find your brand’s unique Instagram voice once you start experimenting.
A unique Instagram voice shouldn’t be the only distinctive attribute of your business profile to attract more likes. You will also need your own Instagram style.
We know what you’re thinking right now. “Unique voice. Unique style. What are you even talking about?” Truth be told, every successful business that operates on Instagram has its own Instagram visual content style, which is instantly recognizable by its followers.
To develop your individual style on Instagram, you will have to be consistent with the style of your images, the captions, the hashtags, and the frequency of your posts.
Yes, developing your own Instagram style may feel like wandering around a dark forest without a map. You might have fun, but it’s quite easy to get lost.
Simply following your potential customer isn’t going to do the trick. A valuable piece of advice is to take the time to engage with your audience.
When we say “engage,” we don’t mean spamming your followers and getting your services and products forced down their throat until they choke on it. That kind of behavior would leave you with 0 followers, which is the opposite of what we’re trying to accomplish here.
The most straightforward and obvious way to engage your followers is by responding to the comments that users have left under your posts.
Even a simple “thank you” response can make a huge difference and increase the likelihood that the commenter will check in later, like your content, and leave another comment.
Another simple yet effective way to engage your audience is by asking your followers to “tag someone who needs to see/read this.” It increases the odds that your followers will (a) engage with the content that you’re posting, and (b) tag their friends or followers who might also like your content.
According to MelyssaGriffin, another fantastic way to create a little buzz around your Instagram page is by creating a challenge.
Sharing photos or videos of your customers using your product or benefitting from your service can help you rapidly spread the word about your startup online.
Not only does it show that you appreciate and care about your customer base, but also makes your startup appear more credible, useful, and trustworthy in the eyes of your potential customers.
When you do this, don’t forget to tag the customer whose photo or video you’re featuring in your Instagram post. They might even repost this, which means you’ll get the attention of their followers.
Buying likes from brands is certainly the best way to get fast results and increase the number of likes on your Instagram business page posts. You’ll be able to eliminate the time spent in generating organic likes, which makes the whole process seamless.
With a 2018 study showed that the influencer marketing industry is projected to rake in a staggering $5 to 10 billion share in advertising by 2020, you should definitely consider taking advantage of this trend.
As you may have guessed, Instagram represents a massive share of the influencer marketing industry. But let’s make sure that we’re on the same page about this trend.
You can launch an influencer marketing campaign on Instagram by finding other Instagram accounts – usually, those with an immense following – who’d accept payment in exchange for promoting your startup.
According to TapInfluence, influencer marketing, which is usually done in the form of a sponsored post on Instagram, can drive 11 times higher return on investment (ROI) than traditional forms of advertising.
We’re not encouraging you to make all hashtags vanish from your Instagram startup page. What we’re saying is that you need to get more creative with hashtagging in order to get more likes.
Although Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags in a post, stick to up to ten hashtags because a study showed that your engagement rates start to drop once you include more than ten hashtags.
Don’t use just any hashtags. Instead, get more creative and let them be part of your unique style (remember how we discussed the importance of developing your unique Instagram style earlier?).
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