There is no denying that Instagram is a goldmine for reaching new audiences and building communities.
According to the latest statistics, the social media giant has more than 2 billion active users. Who wouldn’t want to have their presence with such a huge audience?
You would! Right?
The platform is growing by leaps and bounds and is keeping its surprises up with features like Instagram Stories and Reels, along with continuous algorithm updates.
However, with such intriguing features and a vast audience base, Instagram has also become a tough battleground for businesses to grow organically. The average organic reach of Instagram post is 20%. That means simply posting content on the platform is not enough to get the desired reach.
So, what is the key to boost your Instagram organic reach?
There are various factors that come into play in drafting an Instagram organic strategy. These factors include optimizing your content, choosing the right content format, promoting it correctly, and whatnot.
In this blog, we will delve deeper to know all the factors that can boost your Instagram organic growth and reward you with a higher engagement.
1. Optimize your Content
In the quest to grow your Instagram organic presence, start with creating quality content. Creating quality content on Instagram is more important than you imagine.
However, creating quality is easier said than done. Coming up with content that not only resonates with your audience but also looks mesmerizing is an ordeal. Here is how you can do it:
- Understand your audience and their pain points.
- Once you understand the information your audience requires, you will be able to create content that resonates with the audience.
- Study your competitor’s profile and track what can garner attention.
GoPro is a community of young aged leisure or professional athletes and travel photographers who love to see posts oozing with adventure. So, GoPro does the same.
Remember, Instagram is one such platform where your creativity is not only limited to in-feed posts. So, make sure you spread your creative tentacles and leverage other content types, such as videos, stories, and reels.
If you think reels is a feature made only for beauty brands, check out this p-awesome Reels feed of The Pet Scout Shop.
Visuals are the lifeline of Instagram. To reach your Instagram goals, figuring out and creating quality should be on top of your list. Once you get to the sweet spot of producing valuable and aesthetic content, you will see the organic growth numbers adding up.
2. Post Consistently
Before we begin, keep in mind that every social media account is unique, and so is its audience. So, testing out and analyzing different posting frequencies is the best to achieve Instagram organic growth.
Now, let’s talk about the consensus on Instagram posting frequency.
An average Instagram profile with decent followers goes by at least 2-3 posts week. However, accounts with more followers publish at least 2-3 posts per day.
You can say that more prominent brands can afford to post multiple times per day and still manage to get good engagement and reach. On the other hand, small businesses should refrain from bombarding their follower’s feeds with multiple posts per day.
Once the research is done, you can use Instagram post scheduler to automatically publish content at the times that work best for your account, and will help promoting the growth of your brand.
If you are new to the platform and want to gain traction, posting content in the form of eye catchy images can help. In recent years, reels have become the real showstoppers of the platform that can help you gain higher engagement on Instagram than any other type of content.
However, instead of creating all the content for new feeds, you should utilize the Instagram story space as well. You can post at least one story per day to keep your followers hooked.
If your posts are picking real engagement on a regular basis, the Instagram algorithm keeps it on the top of your follower’s feed, and you will see more followers and likes soon.
With so many creative avenues, the pressure of creating content constantly can really get to you. But there is a way to stay one step ahead.
SocialPilot can schedule all kinds of Instagram-ready content, including posts, Reels, and, Stories, in advance for multiple profiles from the same dashboard!
With SocialPilot, make sure your posts are published consistently and earn worthwhile engagement, keeping you on top of the audience’s minds.
3. Load up on quality hashtags
Hashtags originated from Twitter and soon became a part of almost every social media platform. However, when it comes to hashtags on Instagram, some people like them, and some hate them. Still, the engagement of an average post increases by more than 12.6% when it is posted with even one hashtag.
Hashtags are counted among the best ways to grow Instagram accounts. Right hashtags are meant to introduce your brand to the targeted audiences and increase your chance of attracting new followers and likes automatically.
On a particular note, hashtags are the tools aiding the process of content optimization. They help in putting the content and videos in the right category, eventually making it easier for the readers to catch the required data.
A quick example – A food blogger will post picture of a Salad bowl with hashtags like #HealthyEating or #vegetarianfood. So, those looking for motivation for healthy eating can refer to this post.
The hashtags are meant to attract people who are looking for a trending product or service and not a particular brand.
So, find what your audience is looking forward to, or you might have already found it while preparing the content for your profile. For better understanding, we advocate using our guide on Instagram hashtags.
4. Use Instagram Collabs Feature
Tagging bloggers, influencers, or relevant collaborators in your Instagram posts is great for generating traction and getting more traffic on your profile.
Instagram has enhanced its tagging feature by giving you the option to tag and Invite collaborators. It’s the best way to give a shout-out to creators and influencers who have collaborated with you to create the post.
The post or reel you will collaborate on will show up on both of your profiles. It is loved by Instagram influencers and general users as it doubles their Instagram reach.
So, when you tag the accounts relevant to your niche, it attracts the followers of the tagged account, who are more likely to love and engage with your content and the product or service your brand provides.
5. Don’t hesitate to post Reels
Video marketing is a hot topic making rounds on the internet, and when we are talking about Instagram performance, you must put some effort into creating reels. Why?
Reels can help you to organically grow your Instagram following. It is a form of highly interactive content that performs far better than simple images and videos. About 91% of Instagram users watch reels on the platform every week. This data speaks of the value that reels hold for businesses and content creators
In addition to reels, You can also experiment with various video formats like stories to attract a large audience base.
Experimenting with these can be your best step to add some personality to your brand. While images work slowly, reels are likely to opinionate your views and the company’s exact objectives in an appealing manner.
You can use reels to:
- Share a message with your fans
- Announcing a sale
- Announcing the entry of a new product
- Introduce your team
- Testimonials from customers
- Flash sale
- Create videos for describing tips and tricks
Look at your brand’s objective and use these reels ideas accordingly.
Is posting reels for multiple clients eating up most of your time?
Its time to part ways with this hassle and switch to SocialPilot. With SocialPilot’s Instagram scheduling you can schedule and post reels for multiple accounts without missing the posting timeline of your clients. What’s more? You can also use its analytics tool to find out the best time to post reels on Instagram and plan your posting schedule for maximum reach.
6. Cross-Promote Your Content
When you are trying to promote a brand, you need to remain active on other social media platforms too. If you have profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat, don’t hesitate to introduce your newly set up Instagram profile on them.
Or you can simply post one of your popular posts on these platforms. This is a simple trick to pull your existing audience to a new platform. Another way to drive followers to your Instagram profile is to come up with special contests and offers specifly for Instagram. For example, “a chance for Instagram users to win a free hamper!”
You can also leverage other visual platforms like Pinterest to attract a higher reach for your Instagram content. Apart from social media, you can also come up with Social media buttons and add them in your emails, website’s footnote, and ad campaigns to target another set of audience.
To promote your Instagram content on social media, the link in the bio section can also be used. You can use it to connect a landing page holding the same posts that you have posted on Instagram.
7. Always Add a Call to Action
A lot of companies take Instagram to keep their services in front of the audience, but they don’t guide the audience on what to do and how to do it. Solve this dilemma of your readers with a call to action.
Some people direct their viewers to the home page of their website from where they can sign up to the website. Or link the call to action to a particular product.
You can also utilize the comment section to put your call to action. Usually, people post the call to action in the post caption only, but the comment sections can also be used in rather an impressive way. Whenever someone replies to your posts and asks for the product in detail, you can comment with specific details and a call to action that will lead to the content page.
8. Leverage User-generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) can be a great source to attract potential customers and drive them to your sales funnel. It is the content created by your existing line of followers and customers to share their experience with your brand.
UGC has become increasingly popular as it advocates businesses and speaks of the value it holds. UGC can be purposefully created by encouraging your followers and customers to share their experience with your brand.
On average, UGC is likely to generate 5x more conversions than professionally generated content. Many brands have been acing UGC content creation. Here is how Adobe has been successfully doing it.
With the help of its UGC content, Adobe communicates its design efficiencies to its followers.
The best way to create such UGC content is to come up with contests and campaigns to build up the hype for your offerings. However, you also need to make sure that you publish the right type of UGC content on your profile to get the desired traction from Instagram and build customers’ trust over time.
9. Know the Best Time to Post Content
Posting content on Instagram at the right time can really support your organic growth. As we already know, if any content you post on Instagram receives higher engagement during the first hour of posting, it stands a chance to appear in more feeds later as well.
So, if you post content when Instagram receives higher traffic, you can score a comparatively better engagement rate organically. If a post scores a good engagement rate initially, it becomes more credible as per the Instagram algorithm.
Overall, your content will reach maximum feeds and help you to organically grow your Instagram reach. But how to find the best time to post on Instagram?
While many would suggest a particular time slot is right to post, experts say that the time duration before and after work hours is the best time to post on Instagram during weekdays. For weekends, morning to afternoon is considered the best time to post as most users remain free during this time.
If you talk about the worst time to post on Instagram, it is between 3 P.M. to 4 P.M. as most users remain busy during this time, throughout the week
However, this is a general observation. To be more specific about which time is right for you, you can simply go to your Instagram analytics and check at which time your audience remains more active.
Bottom Line
Instagram has proven to be one of the most effective channels for marketing a brand organically. All you need is a few tips to gain momentum for your growth effort and get ahead of the competition.
All the above methods are tried and tested and are a sure shot to boost your Instagram presence. Concentrate on these tips one by one and analyze how they impact your account growth.
To supercharge your Instagram organic presence take the help of SocialPilot. Easily create schedule, and analyze your posts and connect with your followers’ messages from a single dashboard.
Experience it yourself! Go for its free trial or schedule a demo call today.
