What's Happening with Instagram & How to Succeed
UGH.
Instagram is doing that thing again when all of our content is performing poorly with no real reason why. Although the social media platform hasn’t come forward with any formal reasoning, marketers are speculating the increase in users being the culprit.
Why? Similarly to Facebook, Instagram believes in limiting branded content (or business pages) to create a better user scrolling experience. The increased number of users and business pages on Instagram is creating an issue for everyday users trying to connect with their friends and followers.
Think about how many ads or businesses you see on your timeline versus your actual friends. Chances are you see content from celebrities and big brands more than your college friends and real-life connections.
Instagram (who is owned by Facebook) has a solution that asks you to pay for ads that guarantee reach, engagement and website clicks.
For small business owners, it’s stressful enough finding the time to actually post. Now add the weight of battling with brands with big budgets. We’re going to break down how to combat Instagram’s new algorithm and how to succeed as a small business.
Get in their DMs
Now is the time to use direct messaging to share your posts, event flyers, and webinar details. During one of our client case studies (@sheswellnetworked), we found website visits were the highest when we shared posts directly to the audience via DMs.
How it works: Post a photo, click the arrow next to the comment icon and share it with people you’re following. We even encouraged them to comment below to increase post engagement. Win/Win.Post Notifications
Turning on post notifications is a sure way to show Instagram’s algorithm who is BOSS. Post notifications keep you in the loop whenever someone comments on a specific post. The trouble is that it’s specific to that one post, not all posts provided by a user. This is best for content that’s encouraging engagement. Like a post saying “What’s your biggest marketing challenge?” or “Tag your favorite small business below.” You’ll want to be notified if you’re trying to find leads from the post.
How it works: Log into Instagram, head to the post you’d like notifications for, click the 3 dots in the right corner, and turn on post notifications.Cultivate an Audience of Loyalists
Whoever told you being social on social media was a crime doesn’t understand the science to SOCIAL media. Get social with people and make them feel loved, cherished, appreciated and valued. Instagram has also released a new feature to group DM, similar to a Facebook Group. Using this method, you can cultivate a group of loyalists who are loyal to advocating for your brand and content.
How it works: Spend 2 hours per day answering your audience questions, commenting on their content, and sharing something valuable like a statistic, tip or alarming fact.Study Your Analytics + Repeat
While Instagram is a hinder in the journey to growing your page, your content has to stand out and captivate your audience. Checking your analytics weekly is a great practice to further understand what exactly your audience is interested in seeing. In example, videos tend to outperform other content types like photos, memes and graphics.
How it works: Tracking analytics requires a Business page. Review your analytics and use these methods to track what your audience is enjoying.Hashtag Strategy
Understanding hashtags can be complex, but with the ability to follow tags, you can curate a feed that you actually want to see. For example, I follow hashtags that show me events in the DC, MD and VA area, black women-owned businesses and marketing insight. This way my scroll experience is exactly what I want to see–i’m not bombarded with content that isn’t valuable.
It’s one thing to see others but how can they see you? I add 12 relevant, high-performing hashtags to every post on Instagram so my audience can see or find me. Make sure to avoid these common mistakes with hashtags.
How it works: Log into Instagram, search for hashtags you or your audience may find interest in, click Follow. Other related tags may appear–use those to find more tags.
These five strategies will help you combat the new mid-year 2019 Instagram algorithm. As always, if you have questions about Instagram and sharing content, please shoot us an email at info@miocoa.com where we’ll be happy to help you.