There is a lot of importance placed upon Instagram. The Instagram world is quite crafty and can sometimes be difficult to navigate through. Many businesses, influencers, and creators have established a foothold on the photo-sharing platform, from which they have been able to earn themselves some decent income.
In this post we are going to go over some of the most effective practices to help you grow your instagram account in an organic way by attracting more followers and gaining more monthly instagram likes.
Here are some Do’s and Don’ts
1. Don’t – take crappy pictures
Always take photos in natural light and avoid using your phone’s Always take photos in natural light. Invest in a good camera, or even a good camera phone will do, because if you take photos in bad lighting you are likely to get bad quality, grainy photos.
2. Don’t – Abuse Hashtags
Do not overload your content with a load of irrelevant hashtags. Use niche related hashtags and make sure they are between four to six only, not more than that, because it will unnecessarily crowd your posts and honestly, they won’t get you enough reach.
These hashtags include your brand’s hashtags, and industry related hashtags. You could create your own hashtag, that is not used by anyone else. This could be as simple as your company name, also, it is important these hashtags be relevant to what your niche is. Some examples include #artofinstagram #musiciansofig, and #igcreator.
3. Do – Comment on photos from your followers
Comment on posts from your followers, and reply to their comments on your posts – this increases engagement rates on your content and IG page. If you see a post that has one of your own hashtags, or tags you in post, make sure to leave a comment as this helps show people that you are more than a brand and that you care about your followers, or customers.
4. Do – Make sure your photos are in focus and attractive.
Photos should not be blurry, unless you intend it to look like that for a reason. As much as good quality is important, your photos should be clear, as they represent your brand. Since Instagram is a photo sharing app, good, clear photos leave a good first impression on anyone who is visiting your profile.
5. Do – Maintain consistency
Your profile visitors need to see that you post regularly so that these visitors can be converted into devout followers of your profile and buy from your business. Not being consistent shows that maybe your brand does not deliver what it promises.
6. Do – Be real
Be as human as possible, of course that doesn’t mean you get to be emotional all the time. By being real we mean, show emotion when necessary, be empathetic to your followers when necessary. Talk about real issues, and give your opinion on current events and issues. This builds trust with your followers.
7. Don’t – Take photos of your food every now and then.
If you did that, and you were in a food related industry, or a food blogger, then that would make sense, otherwise, it is not really relevant to keep doing that and it is definitely not a smart way to capture a customer’s or a follower’s attention.
8. Don’t – Share too many personal photos.
Instagram is definitely not the place to share everything – what your pet does, what your baby does, your boyfriend got scared of your no-makeup face, where your baby is going, is it walking or not – no, just no.
Yeah, obviously sometimes it is fine, because you don’t want to be selling your brand all the time either. Balance is good, and not sharing too much helps keep some mystery about you, you do not need to reveal everywhere you go and everything you do to your followers.
9. Don’t – Be repetitive
Do not make your content repetitive, or make it have the same undertones as your previous ones, way too many times. Do not photo dump too much if you are an influencer, or a blogger, or even if you have a business set-up on Instagram. Pick the best ones and post them, and the rest you can spread out through the course of the year or something.
10. Don’t – take screenshots
Never post screenshots, unless they are of your sales on your website, or your blog or some app. Also, never use your phone to take a picture from your computer’s screen if you are going to make a business related post, because it really puts an impression on your followers that you are bothered to be a little extra to promote your product.
Bonus tip –
Don’t buy followers, these followers are often fake as they are bot accounts. The comments left from these bots are really tasteless – emojis, emojis and emojis. It doesn’t look good at all. It puts your followers and if they suspect that you have bought followers or automatic Instagram likes monthly, they will most probably not trust what your brand is selling.
If you really want to sell something, you have got to have real instagram followers, because why the heck would bots buy your products or give you any real interaction?
Every photo on your Instagram feed counts, the captions count, the hashtags. Never be absent for a long time, if you are going to take a break, inform your followers through a small video or a post, and when you come back, do something special, like a give away or something. Don’t procrastinate towards uploading new content, or take too much time perfecting the video, or the photo you already have. This list of certain do’s and don’ts can help you stay afloat.
