How To Get Noticed On Instagram

When Instagram launched in 2010 (has it really been that long?!) it was purely a photo-sharing app. In a short time, though, it evolved to become a huge player on the social media marketing and advertising scene. 

Today, reels, short-form videos, ads and traditional images are all vying for billions of users’ attention. This powerhouse of a platform is definitely worth including in your social media marketing plan, and can do wonders for boosting your visibility online. But there are some key things to know to ensure that efforts are worthwhile and that you find your ideal audience.

Instagram Basics to Know and Implement

We’ve all posted on Instagram by now, right? Pick a photo or video, add a filter, caption and hashtag–you know the drill. But when you’re doing this for a business, the landscape changes a bit and there are more things to keep in mind.

Profile Perfection

When folks come across your account, they want to know who you are and what you offer. That means perfecting your profile picture, using a clearly visible, high-quality image of your logo and crafting a bio that is professional but relatable to the audience you’re trying to reach. Much like on your website, your Instagram account also needs to be optimized, including any links and text in the bio. Organization is key too, so that potential customers visiting your profile can find what they’re looking for. You can group related posts, allowing visitors to find posts about your products and services, testimonials, portfolio, sales, and more. 

A big part of your content is your general brand aesthetic. From logo to images and videos, this needs to be consistent for ease of recognition, but also to avoid confusion. Any opportunity to highlight your expertise and niche needs to be taken.

Quality Content

No one wants to engage with a business that offers only marginally interesting or relevant content. Instead, consistent sharing of high-quality images and well-produced videos that meet established quality standards will catch more eyes than not. And that’s really the goal–attract viewers and keep them interested. The more you can appeal to your audience, the more likes, shares, comments and overall engagement you’ll get, which is ultimately what feeds the AI systems and drives them to introduce you to more users. This could include content that taps into current social media trends, but it will always include evergreen content that addresses your audience’s main questions and concerns. If your audience loves to see behind the scenes of your business, then high-quality content tracking what you do day in and out is definitely worth sharing.

Timely Posting

Hand in hand with quality content is a smart schedule for releasing posts. Taking time to organize and release content on a schedule, based on ideal times or seasons, is one way to aim for the most exposure. There are some general guidelines, but the optimal time to post will typically depend on your specific audience. After all, if you post when they’re online and likely to see your content, you can often count on more likes, comments and shares, which will always drive a wider exposure and help to exponentially increase followers and engagement. Once you know the sweet spot, time wise, consistency helps to build your community.

Hashtag Mastery

Now that you’ve accommodated your ideal audience, it’s time to reach wider. Hashtags can get you there, so it’s important to know how to use them. From more common, generic, and popular hashtags, to those that only the niche few will seek out, they can all be used to help increase exposure while also tailoring who sees and interacts with your content. Establishing branded hashtags, specific to your company, is a great way to build an in-crowd and encourage customers to get involved in your online community.

Active Engagement

Now that you’ve got eyes on your content, you want to build relationships with your followers via active engagement. Aim for authenticity and relatable replies that reinforce your brand. This encourages more engagement, which then helps to fuel a more expansive reach to other folks who want and need to know who you are. Liking and replying to DMs and comments makes folks feel appreciated and involved, and fosters a desire to keep engaging in the future. Inserting fun polls and quizzes periodically can also spur engagement–everyone loves to share their opinion! Knowing the kind of content that’s most likely to appeal to your audience is vital to ensure that efforts and funds aren’t wasted. 

Utilize Ads

Instagram ads offer a surefire way to enhance visibility of your account and expand your reach on the platform. There’s a range of types of ads and ways to utilize them to engage and gain more customers, but trust us when we say that this is a process best done with a reliable, experienced partner. Ad campaigns are central to many companies’ success, but they require a lot of work on the back end: bidding, understanding demographics, ensuring cohesion, and both building and maintaining landing pages on your website along with ongoing efforts to test and rework ads to optimize for best results. It’s a lot to try and handle alone.

Algorithms or AI?

Up until recently, Instagram used algorithms consisting of various ranking factors and user data to determine who saw what. But as is true with AISO and other marketing endeavors, things are changing, and AI has entered the chat. The social media platform is now utilizing more AI systems to make predictions about content and use input signals–likes, comments, and shares, for instance–paired with machine learning to decide what content is most relevant to users. 

Clearly, engagement is key with this new exposure model. But this is now–things could (and likely will) change in the future. The real goal is to have a team on your side that keeps up with the shifts and adjusts accordingly, ensuring that your social media accounts are always compliant and relevant. That means analyzing data, finding patterns, and implementing those findings in your next ad campaign or round of posts. Content performance is based on so many factors, and a savvy social media expert can ensure cooperation and collaboration that results in engagement.

Work With A Social Media Marketing Professional

In the end, success on Instagram is all about offering something of value to the right people, at the right time, and in the right way. It’s a balance between relevance and taking informed chances, while also tracking the evolving nature of social media–it’s always changing and it can be hard to keep up. 

There are a lot of moving parts in this deceptively simple equation, and when one component is off, the whole thing can flop. That’s why it’s so important to partner with an expert when you’re ready to get serious about Instagram. Billions of folks of all ages and backgrounds are using it, including many of your current and potential customers–it’s time to get your business in front of them. Don't let overwhelm or lack of bandwidth hold you back. With focused and diligent efforts from the Alt Media Studios social media marketing team you can gain traction and see real-world results from Instagram campaigns that hit and stick.

Our digital marketing agency in Cleveland is here to help with every aspect of marketing your business on social media platforms, from drafting and scheduling posts to the custom web design involved in building landing pages. Need custom web application development to make transactions or business easier? We do that too. We’re a Cleveland SEO company who does everything, including AISO. From content marketing and video marketing to expert graphic design in Cleveland, if it helps to build your brand and showcase your business, we’re your go-to, one-stop shop. Contact us today to learn more about our services and get started on your Instagram and social media marketing journey.