How to promote your Instagram. How to promote Instagram yourself - step-by-step instructions. Address trending topics

Instagram currently has 130 million active users, with billions of new likes added every hour. If you work with this service correctly, you can ensure instant viral marketing success. But if it’s the other way around, then failure is inevitable. For those who have just started promoting a brand on Instagram, business2community.com has collected 52 useful tips on how to successfully run an advertising campaign using this social platform.

account settings

1. Create a business account on Instagram - it's very easy.

2. Use the name of the company or brand as the name. If it is taken, then choose a name that is most associated with the brand.

3. Fill out your profile information: upload a beautiful branded photo, add short information about yourself, post a link to the company website.

4. Integrate your account with Facebook.

5. Set up automatic integration of photos from Instagram to Facebook, this will increase the number of reposts. Companies like Mercedes Benz get a lot of likes through cross-posting:

6. Come up with a unique brand strategy, rely on it in all aspects of promotion, show people your company’s view of the world, focus all content around a bright, unique idea.

Advertise your account

7. Use tools to promote your Instagram account. For example, in Russia, large brands use plibber.ru - you just need to come up with creative content and an image, and then select the accounts in which you are going to advertise. The average cost of one organic subscriber is from 1 to 3 rubles.

Hashtags

8. Hashtags in updates are one of the key components of the service. It is with the help of hashtags that the user will be able to find photos of the desired brand. Unlike Twitter, there is no limit on the number of characters, but don't overdo it, it looks intrusive.

9. Include your brand name in your hashtag. Write unique hashtags for individual advertising campaigns. For example, if you decide to hold a photo contest, come up with a special hashtag for this. This tactic will not only be a good advertisement for the brand, but will also allow users to establish a connection with each other, thus the competition participants will see who they are competing with. Here's how Dry Soda used #fridayDRYday to engage users and share photos:

10. Use common hashtags in every post. For example, if you own a coffee shop and post a photo of a latte, add the hashtags #latte or #coffee.

11. Use popular hashtags. Trends on Instagram change very quickly, so if you managed to join the fashion movement in time, add a suitable hashtag. This way, your post will be among the most famous, and the number of views will be measured in the thousands.

12. Be sure to follow new and relevant hashtags on Instagram. Add them to your posts. Take a moment to connect with the users adding these hashtags and comment and like their posts. Your activity will not go unnoticed.

13. Monitor the Web and look for users adding your brand name as a hashtag. This is how subscribers use feedback to tell you about something important. Track all mentions just like you do on Facebook and Twitter. Reply quickly to ensure a good and long-lasting relationship with buyers.

Main – Thisclients

14. Prove to your subscribers how much you value them: publish and share their best photos on social networks. But remember, before you leave a post, be sure to ask permission. Starbucks, which is one of the top three most successful brands on Instagram, uses similar tactics very often. Every few weeks, they dedicate a post to one of their followers, featuring their creation of one of the Starbucks products.

15. With a new feature on Instagram that allows you to embed Instagram photos on other sites, you have the opportunity to host full-fledged fan posts. Make sure the user is aware that their post will appear on your site.

16. Like your followers’ photos, especially if they feature your brand.

17. Comment on followers’ photos.

18.Reply to all comments that are left on your photos/videos, even if they are negative.

19. Use @ mentions. Users love to be addressed personally. For example, Coca-Cola highlighted a subscriber who won a photo contest:

20. Use @mentions and tag celebrities. If your image is somehow related to the figure of a famous person, then you should not be afraid to mark the star. Perhaps the photo will interest him/her so much that a repost will follow.

21. Focus on attracting customers, create publications with customers always in mind. An Instagram business should be tailored to the lifestyle your customers lead.

Prove yourself

22. Don’t forget to be creative: use different filters, interesting angles, lighting effects and other photography tricks. Add variety with programs like Photoshop, Diptic or Photoshake. Combine multiple images into one. Here's a great example of how you can combine three photos:

25. Show users how to use your company's products in their lives. Here's an example where Whistler Water showed fans drinking their water at a concert:

26. Always maintain an ideal image: subscribers like cool brands. For example, Pilot Pen USA, which sells pens, is an example of successful marketing. Their Instagram is filled with stylish photos of notes and pens:

27. Illustrate your brand story in a colorful way: Post beautiful photos and videos to show users the fundamental principles and values ​​on which the company lives and works.

28. Open up to the world: post photos of your employees, tell us who is behind the success of your brand. Shoot videos from behind the scenes and share what a typical working day is like in your company. This will strengthen the brand image and the perception of subscribers. Williams Sonoma uses a similar technique:

29. Publish funny, entertaining videos about the CEO of the company to be “closer to the people.” For example, make short, funny videos of him talking about what he likes to do outside of work hours.

30. Post unique content to make users feel special. Share photos that cannot be found on other social networks.

31. If you're launching a product, organizing a band's first concert, or opening a new store, do it on Instagram. For example, on the day of the premiere, shoot a video of the staff preparing for the official moment and the customers waiting in anticipation.

32. Create a teaser that shows the preparation of a product for a market launch or an opening event. But don't give away the secret of what exactly we're talking about.

33. Post a report on Instagram about an event that has already taken place. Feel free to show how company employees work in real life.

34. Build partnerships with other brands, regardless of what business you represent: a small store or an international holding. You can achieve ideal cooperation - mutually advertise the companies' products in the feed. For example, Wimbledon and Nike:

Be more creative

35. Ask users to write comments. If you want maximum engagement, don't be silent. Questions give rise to discussions. Ask what readers think of a recently published post or image.

36. Ask questions about the company or product, get users to talk about them. Ask if they have used the brand's product today, create a hashtag where followers can post photos on this topic. Target, for example, asks questions like “What flavor of popsicles do you like?”, and users, in turn, begin to discuss the brand online.

38. Create interactive fill-in-the-blank posts. For example, if your business is a grocery store, post a picture of a cereal breakfast and caption, “I like to start my day with a plate of _____.” People will discuss your product and express their opinions.

39. Another original way to grab the attention of users is to ask them to come up with a caption for the image. Be original and post an unusual photo of one of your products. Announce a competition for the best signature and don't forget to come up with a small prize for the winner.

40. Use crowdsourcing: Ask users to post photos of how your brand plays a role in their lives. This will help you understand your target audience and will also be useful for further research aimed at business development. But in order to attract the maximum number of users, you will have to launch a photo competition.

Competitions inInstagram

41. An Instagram photo contest is an opportunity to get tons of user-generated content and new ideas, or just get all the attention for your business. Set the competition theme you need and give clients the opportunity to show their creativity. Here's an example of what you can do if you sell mocha:

42. If you're running an Instagram contest, make sure the prize is good enough to motivate participation as well as further sharing online. Sometimes it’s the prize that can cause a photo contest to go viral.

Don't forget about mobile users

44. Use geotagging - linking photos to a map. Add your location to the post and target local users with these images.

45. Stop separating online and offline reality. Place QR codes on Instagram so that users can scan them to receive, for example, discount coupons.

46. ​​If you are organizing an event, create a suitable hashtag where people can post their photos and check out others.

47. Organize an online meeting for active users who may be potential buyers.

IncreaseROI

48. Regardless of your follower count, post content consistently. Users will specifically browse a brand's account, knowing they will find interesting updates.

49. Decide on the frequency of publications. Some brands post 2-3 times a day, others 2-3 times a week. Use analytics to determine the frequency that suits you.

50. Find out what is the best time to publish content. Each brand is individual. Therefore, you should resort to analytics to find out when photos get the most likes, or what time followers are actively using hashtags.

51. Analyze the results: track activity by all indicators (hashtags, likes, reposts, etc.)

52. Improve yourself. Based on the results obtained, draw conclusions and improve the content.

Today, there are many services for automated promotion of an Instagram account, which for a small fee will help you attract subscribers and increase brand awareness.

53. The Zengram online service combines in its functionality a wide range of advantages and opportunities related to the promotion of Instagram accounts.

Its main advantages:

• simultaneous maintenance of an unlimited number of accounts from one personal account;
• complete control over actions;
• advanced targeting settings;
• mutual liking of your subscribers;
• sending welcome messages to new users in direct messages;
• instaspy;
• attentive and responsive tech. support;
• full analytics;
• work through a proxy;
• cleaning from bots and commercial accounts;
• parser and comment likes.

The cost of the service depends on the number of days of subscription; the more days you buy, the more you save. Every new user gets the first 7 days free of charge.

The Zengram blog regularly publishes useful informational articles about promotion. If you have not yet decided how to create an account for a business on Instagram, pay attention to the article “What to write about yourself on Instagram: creating a business profile.” In it you will find a guide to choosing a name for promoting a small/large business or personal brand, Tips on designing a profile header and maintaining an account.

54. The innovative SMM tool for promotion Instapromo occupies one of the leading positions in all areas of Insta promotion. The service offers a full range of services:

• promotion (massalaiking, masscommenting, massfollowing)
• delayed posting

Every year, the collection of photos on the resource pages increases by more than 40 million copies, attracting new users who are a potential target audience. You can lure people to a specific page using various methods.

Why do you need to promote your account?

Instagram opens up the opportunity to promote various products, services or brands. Using this network, companies and people achieve popularity. Instagram audience – about 300,000,000 users. Celebrity pages and famous brands have pages here.

Many people dream of promoting their profile. This makes it possible to attract people’s attention and find consumers for the goods or services offered for sale. The main thing that is required is followers who are interested in the content presented in the account.

Who uses it?

Instagram allows every user to successfully develop, be it an ordinary person or a world-famous company. First of all, it allows the user to gain popularity and fame. After all, having thousands of subscribers who will be interested in your profile is simply great. Moreover, a promoted account allows you to receive passive income from advertising.

Large manufacturers have long paid attention to this social network because it allows them to popularize their brand. For a developing business, it will also be very useful to find your target audience among users who will be interested in the goods and services offered.

With the right approach, you can significantly increase sales of a wide variety of products.

Show business did not stand aside either. The most popular stars have already created their pages on the Internet. Here you can also find profiles of famous politicians, athletes, and businessmen.

Ordinary people can also express themselves. For example, talents who know how to capture unique moments in photographs will not be left without attention and may receive quite tempting offers for cooperation. But you can only develop in this network if the created account is of interest to other users.

Free methods

Each user can promote an account on their own. Just uploading photos and waiting for an influx of subscribers is quite naive. Today it is difficult to interest the audience in anything, so a lot of effort will have to be made to promote it.

Some methods will help increase the number of followers of a certain page or public:

• On a social network you can find many acquaintances, friends or relatives who can become your subscribers. You need to constantly fill your profile with unique photos or other content that will be interesting to people.
• You can attract followers with interesting and original photographs that can attract attention. But it’s worth remembering that almost every person has a phone that allows them to take pictures and post them online, so competition will be high. Having a professional lens at hand and learning how to work with photographs and services for processing them, you can post beautiful images on the page that will be of interest to the public.
• It is very useful to learn how to use hashtags correctly when describing the pictures you post. Today, you can use no more than 30 hashtags to describe a photo. Do not forget that the tags must correspond to the content of the image, otherwise the administration may block the account.
• Your activity on the social network will attract new subscribers. Each user will be glad to receive new likes and comments on their images and in most cases will respond in kind. But you shouldn’t take on this method with excessive zeal. Unprecedented activity may be perceived by the administration as using a bot for promotion, which is also fraught with certain sanctions.
• Don’t forget about other social networks and post pictures on Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, Twitter and others, leaving a link to Instagram under them. This promotion method will only be effective if your accounts on other social networks are well promoted.
• There is no need to constantly load your subscribers with new content. Instead of twenty random photographs, it is better to post two in excellent quality and well processed.
• Provide as many contacts as possible in your profile so that interested users can contact you. This is very useful if the page is an online store or offers any services. Each user should be able to place an order as soon as possible.

You can learn other useful tips for promotion from the following video:

Paid methods

On the Internet you can find a huge number of offers for account promotion. If you decide to resort to a similar promotion method, you should choose the right service that offers SMM services:

Don't forget that By promoting a page using bots, you can get a ban from the administration. Specialists of services offering effective promotion services are aware of user rights and will not allow their violation. This will allow you to gain popularity on the social network without falling under sanctions.

Special programs

Self-promotion requires considerable time, and you will have to pay significant sums for the services of reliable services. If you are looking for a middle ground, you can pay attention to specially designed programs that will allow you to get a lot of subscribers in the shortest possible time.

When installing a following program, you need to select the right settings. The first thing to consider is the network rules for users. Excessive activity on your account will reveal the program's operation, and the page will be banned. To prevent this from happening, adhere to the following values:

• put no more than 1000 likes per day;
• leave maximum 250 comments per day;
• have up to 300 followers in 24 hours.

These data are approximate, since the administration does not disclose the indicators that are considered the limit. You should not use multiple programs at the same time. This may result in a lifetime ban and your previous progress will be lost.

All of the above methods will allow users to achieve popularity on Instagram. When choosing any method, you should think it over and calculate everything carefully so as not to have troubles with the administration in the future and at the same time increase the page’s rating.

The social network Instagram has long ceased to be a place for sharing photos and ordinary communication. Now many stars and even individual companies make money through advertising or promote their products to the audience. In order for your Instagram account to generate income, you need to plan the development and attraction of subscribers. In this article you will find step-by-step instructions on how to promote Instagram for free and on your own.

Let's look at the main steps to prepare a page that will develop on Instagram:

• Title and design. Since the link to the profile and its description are the first things a person sees when entering the page, this part needs to be given enough attention. The description should contain brief and clear information about this blog, as well as links to other social resources, phone number, and so on.
• Planning. At the beginning of your journey, you need to draw up a content plan according to which posts will be published. The topic of publications, a set of hashtags, design, etc. must be thought out.
• Publication and analysis. After each post, it is necessary to analyze the impressions of subscribers and adjust the content depending on their reaction. Pay attention to those topics that have caused heated discussion, received a large number of likes, and so on.

The most ideal option is to advertise with people or companies whose accounts are very popular in the same area in which your profile is developing. However, having friends or partners with a large number of subscribers is not given to everyone.

Therefore, we will highlight the basic rules and tips that will help you gradually attract your audience. They are equally suitable for both commercial profiles and private pages:

Remember that recruiting subscribers and promoting an account without financial investments and PR will take quite a lot of time. The main thing is to regularly fill out your profile and follow the simple rules that are indicated in our article.

Maintaining interest in the account

Now let's talk about how to retain your audience. If you have attracted followers to your account, but do not take any action to interest them, this audience may soon disappear. Users stop viewing posts, commenting and liking them if they become uninteresting or disappear from the feed altogether. To retain followers, follow these rules:

• Maintain quality content and publications. This applies to stores, private pages, and thematic blogs. People subscribe because of beautiful photos, interesting descriptions and dialogue between the account owner and the public.
• Try to post every day. This way you will always be visible to your subscribers. Currently, users quickly find replacements for public pages and pages that do not post interesting posts for a long time.
• Interact with your audience. The more you respond to subscribers and listen to their opinions, the sooner your audience will be replenished with new people. Also, do not forget to come up with interesting competitions and sweepstakes that require activity from subscribers.

Conclusion

If you want to start promoting your Instagram account, then get started by reading our guide. You can draw up your development strategy, adjusted to the blog’s theme and activities, so that promotion is more effective. Don’t forget about constant analysis of the audience and their interests. If you have any questions, ask them in the comments to this article!

Developing and promoting your account on social networks, including Instagram, can bring in good income. You just need to progressively move in the direction of popularizing yourself as an individual or a resource with information useful to visitors. In short, placement is the key to success.

Why Instagram

Instagram is currently one of the three most popular social networks. The majority of convertible traffic comes from these three. Moreover, it is on Instagram that the most active audience is now concentrated, ready for feedback and various external influences. This network is not filled with a huge amount of advertising garbage, which can now be found almost everywhere.

Perhaps, Instgram currently continues to follow the main goal that the developers invested in their project. People just post their own photos here and look at others. The constantly updated feed creates a characteristic atmosphere that encourages users to be active.

Traffic on Instagram begins its path to conversion with this link in the profile. There is no point in posting the address of a store or something like that, because it will be impossible to go in one click, and most likely no one will copy the link and paste it into the browser line.

Publications

It is the posts that force users to subscribe to one or another account. The content you post piques the interest of visitors and encourages them to more actively study the issue you are addressing.

Therefore, immediately understand that ninety percent of the information you post must be unique. You also need to compose your comments and descriptions yourself. You can sometimes dilute the content with pictures, but they should also be useful and on topic.

Instagram is actually your photo album, so the photos should be yours. But you shouldn’t post anything as long as it’s your own. It should be a pleasure to visit your profile. All content used needs to be well thought out, and not just spammed.

Well, a few words about the main work:

1. Learn to take good pictures – this is a service for photographs. Don’t expect popularity if you only post pictures of food, pictures or demotivators. Users come to see live photos of people they are interested in.
2. Don't neglect signatures – each image should become a small story that you reveal in the caption. People will read with interest about your adventures and achievements.
3. Frequent publications – of course, within reasonable limits, one or two photos a day will be enough.
4. Pay attention to feedback – respond responsibly to the comments of your subscribers. They may ask you questions and expect a response. By starting discussions, you also increase interest in the account. When you increase your momentum, you can use the help of software that collects comments from all your posts for ease of work.

Attracting subscribers

To speed up the process of attracting real people, you need to wisely use all the tools that Instagram provides for your use:

1. Place hashtags– helps expand your audience.
2. Make marks with places– information about where exactly the photo was taken helps users find places of interest.
3. Don't skimp on likes– by liking other people’s photos, you arouse interest in yourself.
4. Comment on other people's posts– by communicating with popular people or starting discussions in well-known groups, you can lure some of their subscribers.
5. Subscribe yourself– active actions on Instagram will always benefit you.
6. Mutual PR– exchanging advertising posts is a cheap and easy way.
7. Advertise yourself– if you have pages on social networks, then no one forbids you to put links to your Instagram account there.
8. Use promotion programs– there are many services where you can receive points for performing some simple actions. In the future, points can be used to buy likes, subscriptions, etc. The method is quite dirty, but sometimes it can be used.

Paid promotion methods

Of course, for money everything happens faster and more efficiently:

1. Buy advertising from popular groups and users – advertising your account in the form of paid posts in large public pages can immediately increase the number of your subscribers by an order of magnitude.
2. contextual advertising – the appearance of your photo in the news feed contributes to the rapid development of your account.
3. Promotion software – software simulation of a high level of activity. There are software that can travel through thematic resources, like and perform other useful actions for you.

Programs for Instagram promotion

In the vastness of the global network there is a whole lot of different programs that can help you with promotion. Here's what you should pay attention to.

Software for increasing likes and subscribers:

1. Pmgrm;
2. Jet-insta;
3. Socialkit.

The small money you need to pay is more than compensated by the degree of usefulness of the functionality provided.

Content on Instagram is divided into three types: entertaining, informational and selling. A business page should contain all types of content.

Entertaining content evokes positive emotions in users, provides interesting or intriguing information, and helps to have fun. This includes:

• publications for the mood: cheerful and funny photographs, jokes, stories and anecdotes, congratulations, popular memes, quotes;
• competitions, sweepstakes and marathons to engage subscribers;
• quests;
• provocations.

Information posts are divided into:

• reviews of products, services, tools, services, etc.;
• news: industry news, trends, ratings, forecasts, opinions of leaders;
• products: characteristics, comparisons, answers to questions from subscribers;
• reputational posts: regalia, certificates, business achievements;
• “inner kitchen”: how the company lives, mission, history, announcements, reports, stages of production, demonstration of services, etc.

Selling posts are dedicated to:

• product: its advantages, before and after photos, product offer, promotions;
• social proof: reviews from real clients, photographs with stars and celebrities, client stories.

Company content: what to write about

Business pages on Instagram are created with the purpose of promoting products or services, so posts must be related to the topic of the page being promoted. To promote Instagram, a young brand/company should tell and show its products, convey their value and difference from competitors. On the page of a well-known brand, it is permissible to rarely mention the product; create all content based on emotions or useful for the audience. There is no point in writing about Coca-Cola, everyone knows about it.

To promote on Instagram, companies can:

• share insider information: show production, post photos from exhibitions, selfies in the style of “office everyday life”;
• tell stories related to the creation of products and their unusual use;
• show the use of a product or the result of a service provided, supplemented with intriguing posts;
• publish useful materials and life hacks on the topic of the page.

User-generated content: how to engage

Content created by loyal users is especially valuable. You should consider an action plan to engage page subscribers. When content is interesting, useful, and/or generates a genuine reaction, visitors are always active. Additionally, activity can be stimulated.

Organize a marathon. Marathons are a popular format for bringing together users. Invite bloggers or organize your own speakers, you can team up with a company with a related topic. You should think through the marathon program, tasks for participants and assign a responsible employee to conduct and control the event. The marathon should not be long. Five to fourteen days will be enough. A company producing household cleaning products can organize a marathon “Waking up the house after winter”, a manufacturer of children’s goods can organize a “Week of paper crafts for preschoolers”, a company selling hair care products can organize “Five styles in five days”.

Hold prize draws. Users repost the content of the page, and in return participate in a drawing for an attractive gift. There are two types of drawings: the winner is selected randomly from all participants, or the winner is the subscriber who has made the maximum number of reposts.

Text content: how to write

Each content requires its own presentation of material. Instagram adopts conversational language and a personal presentation. It is advisable to communicate with subscribers on equal terms, to treat them like old friends. Instagram is a positive social network. Vivid emotions, original judgments, and creative publications are in demand here. Falsehood, whining and negativity are prohibited.

The length of posts is much shorter than in other social networks. The ideal length is up to three sentences. When a long text is required, break it into paragraphs and publish in parts through two or three short posts. Long texts should be up to five paragraphs inclusive. At the end of the post, leave a call to action: write, follow the link in your profile, leave your phone number.

Provide publications with geo-tags and hashtags. Geo-tagging is needed for local business. Potential clients can easily find the company using them.

A hashtag is a keyword or phrase without spaces, preceded by a # sign. A hashtag works like a link; by clicking on it, the user sees all the content tagged with that hashtag.

Hashtags are needed for every page and for every post. You can use up to 30 hashtags on Instagram, but it’s better to limit yourself to five. Hashtags should be selected using the Websta service, which shows the popularity of each. If you select a hashtag from the top, the post will quickly go down due to high competition. We recommend using hashtags of average popularity: up to 400 - 500 thousand posts.

Video content: which one to post

Video helps to promote the page faster. Instagram has a short video message format. You can also create video collages. The video should be “catchy” from the very first second. The content of the video should be clear to the user when viewed without sound. It is advisable to duplicate the speech with text on the screen. When viewing horizontally, the text should fit completely; when viewing vertically, it should go off the screen. Make the plot dynamic. People won't watch a boring video. There are applications for video processing: Boomerang, Flipagram, Hyperlapse. To create cartoons - PowToon.

Technical requirements for the video:

• video aspect ratio: 1:1;
• file format: .mp4;
• signature up to 125 characters long;
• minimum video length - 3 seconds;
• maximum video length is 60 seconds.

Using a demo video, you should show the product, its advantages, and methods of use. You can make an entertaining video with humor if the topic of the page allows.

Video materials shot in the form of a mini-series achieve high virality. They can talk about the life of the company or show short product creation cycles. Also of interest are mini-interviews with employees, videos from events, and speeches at conferences.

• Create an account for your business, determine the purpose of promotion on Instagram, the profile and interests of the target audience.
• Create a content plan. Include all types of posts, set frequency, select hashtags. Consider publication topics and ways to involve users.
• Write in simple, conversational language. Communicate with subscribers in a friendly, equal manner. Use emotions, avoid negativity.
• Pay special attention to the pictures. Use good quality square images. If you don’t have your own, take it from free photo stocks.
• Create short videos ranging from 3 to 60 seconds. Make mini-series on the same topic. Announce the next releases.

The article was prepared by Svetlana Sirvida-Llorente.