If content is KING, engagement is the QUEEN. Right?
A lot of marketers and business owners struggle with getting good engagement on Instagram but, it’s not that hard.
In this post ,I will show you how I did it for a new Instagram account.
Few weeks ago, I created a brand new Instagram account ( @iSocialYou) and grew it to 1,000 fans in 28 days. I did not use any “Instagram marketing secrets”. Just a simple plan and consistency did the trick.
Here is the step by step process that I used > Instagram Marketing to grow a brand new account.
I was getting a lot of followers but the engagement was just ok, until I made a simple adjustment 🙂
It was so simple that I was surprised by the results myself.
Below is the before and after image of my Instagram engagement (Using Iconosquare)
Before I tell you what I did, let me see if you can guess it.
Just look at these before and after images for few seconds. These are from my Instagram profile.
Did you notice anything?
Can you see the difference?
Maybe you can tell it already, but here is what I did to boost Instagram Engagement…
I STARTED FOLLOWING A CONSISTENT THEME IN MY CONTENT.
Before Image: I was using random colors and random branding. No consistency. Sometimes I would use my initials “am” and sometimes the hashtag #iSocialYou as the branding.
After Image: If you notice, the theme is consistent. Similar colors and fonts are being used with consistent branding (#iSocialYou).
You are probably thinking, why did it work?
IMHO a consistent theme makes your Instagram account memorable.
People will start remembering the content and your profile.
And I am not alone, This is what Ashley said in one of the recent Teachable blogs,
Pick 2-3 colors that you want repeating in all posts. This will add a cohesive look to your feed. It will also give you guidelines to work with as you create posts in the future.
Instagram marketing action items for you:
Are you ready to test this out on your Instagram account?
Ok then – let’s go…
- Create a consistent theme for your content.
- Consistent fonts.
- Consistent colors.
- Consistent branding (You can use a logo, website URL or a hashtag like I did)
- Share content consistently (2 – 3 per day)
- Use a ton of relevant hashtags. Ideally, you want to use more than 11 but I like to use the maximum allowed by Instagram (30)
According to TrackMaven, Interactions are highest on Instagram posts with 11+ hashtags.
Here are some additional things you can do to improve the results even more
- Reply to all the comments on your content.
- Like other images but make sure these are relevant to your business.
- Leave thoughtful comments on other people’s photos.
- I didn’t do it myself but, I believe adding video to your content mix will also help with more engagement.
Now over to you. How is your engagement on the platform?
Are you following a consistent Instagram marketing strategy? Let me know in the comments below?