Here is my priceless list of Instagram Hacks for small content creators sure to raise your Instagram game!
It is no secret that the Instagram algorithm is continually mutating. In an advert saturated platform which bring them billions in revenue, Instagram’s algorithm seems to favour accounts with budgets and notoriety.
Fear not there’s some tricks that can help you build your own Instagram account.
People think that the trick to growing on Instagram is to work against the algorithm.
What they don’t realise is that you should actually work with the algorithm.
You must firstly understand what are Instagram’s goals as an app so that you can work towards a successful Instagram growth.
Instagram’s main goals
Let’s think about Instagram’s main goals!
Instagram’s main goal is to keep users on the app as long as possible!
How is this achieved realistically? Think about what holds your attention!
It’s quite literally attention grabbing content, wether it’s videos, pictures or stories.
When you produce content which Instagram sees its users enjoying, by the way they interact with it, it helps push it to more users.
Did you know that videos that are watched till the end get a 200k view push from Instagram in comparison to those who don’t get watched fully. Those which are not watched fully will be lucky to be seen by less than 5% of their followers.
Growing your page is all about trying to be appealing to those who don’t know you, not that 5% that already follow religiously. These include friends and family which would support you no matter what.
The ultimate goal is to be interesting to those who have no idea who you are.
Here are some useful Instagram Hacks for small content creators which I learnt in this years Instagram growth journey.
Instagram Hack 1 – Do not be spammy
At the Top of my list of Instagram Hacks for small content creators is this key tip!
Refrain from doing spam type actions. This is too broad of an advice so let me narrow it down for you.
Spam related actions include:
- Using the same set of hashtags.
- Following and unfollowing accounts.
- Commenting on over 100 posts a day.
- Buying followers, likes and views.
Were you aware that carrying the above actions will make the algorithm work against you?
This will decrease greatly your reach and your impressions so less and less people will see your account and content.
Your account will not be able to flourish if this is the case and growth is unlikely.
If you are mind boggled when it comes to knowing what Instagram reach and impressions are, don’t be! Make sure you link your Facebook page to your Instagram and switch to a Professional account.
The professional account will allow you access to an insights page which allow you to check the analytical data for your account. This is very important if you want to grow your following as it will show you how people react to your content and profile on a daily basis. (but let’s leave this for a whole other post)
Some of these actions can get your blocked from following, commenting and your account can even be completely removed.
Instagram hack 2 – Replying to comments
Were you aware that Instagram loves people who reply to comments?
So stop being a diva and reply to those comments! Yes I said it but I must shake you to the core to allow that much desired Instagram growth.
But think about it from the perspective of the person who took the time to comment on your picture, if you left someone a comment and they didn’t answer how would that make you feel?
A comment establishes a deeper connection with your followers, a sense of appreciation and confidence in you.
I think that as a small content creator this hack is especially important because you have the ability to create rapport with your follower this way.
Instagram Hack 3 – Create Engaging Content
Posting a high quality photo with a beautiful background and a good caption unfortunately is not going to cut it anymore.
The best of Instagram Hacks for small content creators includes creating engaging content! Can you see how I underlined engaging?
Everybody can access the tools and locations to produce a variation of the same content.
This method will only allow engagement from your existing followers and unfortunately won’t be able to attract a new audience.
This may still work for those who are celebrities but for your average Joe, it goes well beyond that.
For people to want to engage with you or even follow you, you MUST meet a certain criteria:
You should be able to teach them something.
Are you knowledgeable in a certain area in your life? Did you have an issue and now know how to resolve it?
Why not share your knowledge and expertise with your followers.
Even if you are not expert, you could take them on your learning journey with you.
You must be following other people on social platforms also because you are getting value from their content.
You should be able to help them with a particular area in their life.
It is human psychology to want to better yourself, it’s probably part of evolution itself! A natural need to adapt and to ever-changing times.
Let’s face it life is filled with queries, we all at some point have had to learn how to do something that we yet didn’t know yet how to do.
So this is your chance use your knowledge to help your followers!
You could be following a mommy blogger who teaches you how to tackle challenging situations with parenting or how to better budget for a family for example.
You should provoke feelings in your audience.
Provoking reactions in terms what you can make people feel is another determining factor of wether you can develop a following.
For example, you may be following a certain influencer who is extremely funny and you want to keep up with how he is going to entertain you next.
But see this influencer is provoking feelings that will induce you to follow him or her.
It doesn’t necessarily mean we should all be comedians, we all have our own personalities and we should show it off.
Feelings that you could provoke include happiness, sadness and even anger!
Yes you heard that right! I’ve seen people grow over night after having said something completely outrageous! Just because they sparked extreme anger in people!
The tools to use to up your Instagram content
To my knowledge using carousels, IGTV, info graphics and even videos help achieve the best possible results.
But why? Simply because everyone is sticking to the same content type!
Whereas others who are winning at the Instagram game are taking it up a notch!
The trick is to STAND OUT in all that noise!
Instagram Hack 4 – Build your foundations
This Instagram Hack for small content creators is sometimes overseen! Can you believe it?
People underestimate the importance of setting the foundations and direction planning of their account.
If you think that going with the flow is going to work, you are leaving your account literally open to luck rather than a structured growth method proven by marketing studies to be successful.
The first thing you need to do is to think carefully about 3 important questions:
Who are you?
What do you do?
Why should people follow you?
You must position yourself in the market and understand how you want your audience to perceive you.
If you don’t do this, then you can just call it a day unfortunately.
But the thing is one you know exactly who you are, how you want to be perceived in the social media industry it will be easier to also create content around that.
Think about all the people you actively follow, you follow them because they offer content that you have interest in.
For example, maybe you follow a style blogger because she’s got such amazing online style inspiration that you use in your daily life.
Instagram Hack 5 – Time to crosslink to another app audience
If the title isn’t clear enough, excuse me. What I mean is that you should have your Instagram link on another social media platform so that you can maximise your chances of being seen.
A very popular app at the moment which gives you maximum exposure is Tiktok, Tiktok pushes your content to wider audience so linking your Instagram to your Tiktok can really widen your reach.
Some marketing companies are incorporating this strategy and have seen some interesting results.
Instagram Hack 6 – Show off your personality
Have you ever watched video of people that have a low tone whilst talking? Could you really watch their video till the end?
Probably not! Right?
What about when you watch a high energy explosive individual talking in a video? You were super absorbed probably into their personality so much so that you were drawn into watching the whole video.
Showing off your personality and charisma can have a serious impact in your stories and videos. So why not show it off?
Instagram Hack 7 – Communication Format
Communication skills are the key to your success. When I mention communication format.
You will need to divise a format by which you will communicate with your followers.
The most famous influencers follow a particular format. This format includes particular specific ways they follow.
So, when they see that a particular piece of content is popular, they try to focus on this.
Another example is doing specific day formats, like have Friday going out inspiration or what I got from Zara under £50 every week.
If your followers know they are going to get the content they enjoy, they will definitely be back for more.
Instagram Hack 8 – Be original
It’s a common misconception that if you copy a type of content that went viral, the chances are that you are going to do well as well.
The reality is that unfortunately it’s been done and there will be a vast amount of people replicating this content piece.
So put yourself in your followers shoes, would you be as engaged into that particular content piece if you’ve already seen it done by someone else countless times. Probably not! Right?
People are tired of seeing the same things being done over and over again!
Did you know that because of the amount of high quality content available on Instagram, followers subconsciously stop for longer times on “uglier posts” as they visually stand out in the midst of the beautifully curated feeds.
And guess what? The Instagram algorithm actually takes into account how long a person stops on your post! I find this an incredibly useful piece of information to consider.
It’s time to exceed the social media expectations, we all want to create bigger and better content in our niche.
But how do you create original content?
It’s conceptually simple, but you need to provoke emotions, whether it’s happiness, sadness, anger, love, you name it. Try to break out of the standard mold.
This list of Instagram Hacks for small content creators is a great foundation to start your changes with.
These are hacks that I have learnt through self development courses which have been tested thoroughly and without fail help you increase your Instagram following and influence.
If you enjoyed this Instagram post which not check out the importance of using Instagram highlight covers, I love have some free Instagram highlight covers you can download.
I hope you enjoyed this hack edition. Are there any questions pertinent to Instagram that you would like me to tackle and give you some insight into?
Let me know in the comments section below.
