Instagram Organic Growth Strategies: Easy Ways to Get More Engagement and Attract People To Your Business
What You’re Doing Wrong on Instagram
In this first section, we're going to talk about all the things you're doing wrong on Instagram, and how you might actually be hurting your own growth on the platform.
1. Using A Filter
Using a filter may benefit your overall feed - but that's all it will do.
While a common visual tone makes for a pretty grid, it doesn't make for engagement. Something shifted this past year in which audiences are now starting to gravitate more toward feeds that feel more human. What we mean by this is that Instagram businesses don't have to try too hard to appear perfect on their social media anymore. Your images don't have to look like they belong on the cover of a magazine.
What people want in 2020 is the real you. They want to see what your life is like, the good and the bad.
Using filters can create a disconnect between you and your audience. It may look great, and you may get likes and comments, but your audience won't get to know the real you. And this is harmful to your online community because people connect with people. The more impersonal you are, the harder it will be to foster a relationship with your audience.
But this is good news! Editing photos means spending extra time on your social media and less time on your business. With the knowledge that your audience doesn't want nor need a filtered image, you can now focus more of your energy one what you are truly passionate about.
2. Posting To Post
You've probably heard a lot about the importance of consistency on Instagram. Well, we're here to tell you that this mindset can actually be detrimental to your organic growth strategy.
Posting just to post doesn't benefit anyone. While consistency ensures that your audience is constantly reminded of your business's existence, you have to think about what they are actually remembering about you. Are they remembering meaningless content? Or are they remembering that you always provide something of value?
Use this small business owner’s Instagram as an example:
In this post, she is sharing information about herself: candles make her peaceful. This little tidbit on how important candles are to her, and how she sometimes envisions herself in other places, ensures that people feel like they are following a person and not a business.
Cleverly, she’s also linking information about herself with her product.
In this post, she begins by providing her followers with helpful information. Now that they have read her caption, they will start to avoid phthalates - and also start to use candles that are phthalate-free (a product which she sells). Even if her followers do not immediately buy her product, her caption will still affect them because it involves important information that they will not want to forget.
This post is engaging because it provides followers with updates. Updates are often important and makes followers feel as though they are a part of the journey. And that’s the ultimate goal of small businesses on social media: to make their followers feel like they are a part of something.
You don't want your Instagram posts to be the posts that everyone skims by because it never seems to offer them anything. So here's how you can stop this from happening: always try to connect with your audience.
Where are they at right now? What challenges or struggles are they facing that your business can help with? Don't just tell your audience about your products - explain to them that you understand their troubles and that you created a product or offer a service that can help them fix it.
And keep in mind that your audience might be resistant to this. They may be dedicated to a competitor of yours, or they may be suspicious of whether your products or services work or not. Therefore, the intent of your posts should be to convince them that you are the best option and that what you offer is reliable.
And remember: make sure to address their objections! Acknowledge subjects such as affordability, how much time it takes to use your service or product, and the trustworthiness of your business.
3. Not Adding A Call-To-Action
So far, we have talked about things that you should stop doing. Now, it's time to talk about something that you should start doing: using Call-To-Actions (CTA's)!
Before I explain why this is so important, I would like to emphasize that creating a CTA is not a time-consuming process. CTA's are usually, and should usually be, short sentences. They could be something as simple as: "Click the link in bio to learn more," or "Comment what you think!"
Wondering why something so simple could also be something so important? Here are three reasons:
It motivates your audience. They may see your post about your product and become interested. However, they may also be unsure on how to proceed. By giving them instructions on what to do next, you're making the buying process much easier for them.
Your audience wants them. CTA's are common in posts now, so when people get to the end of your post, they're expecting to see it. If they don't see one, they might experience a feeling of confusion or even disappointment.
It neatly concludes your caption. Just like you should start a post with a nice hook, you should also end it meaningfully. What do you want your audience to remember from your post? That they should visit your link in bio, or read your latest blog post, or go to your online store.
In other words, don't miss this opportunity to inspire your audience to take action.
Easy Ways To Get More Engagement on Instagram
Now, we're going to discuss some things you can start doing that will have results but take very little effort.
1. Use Consistent Brand Figures
How much time do you spend developing images to share on your feed? What if I were to tell you that you could spend less than half that amount and still earn the same (or maybe even better) results?
If you're wondering how you can do this, the answer is simple: by using consistent brand figures. As an example, look at Greenfield Community College's Instagram.
Each of their images include "consistent brand figures:" their brand logo, brand colors, brand fonts, and image templates. Instead of wasting hours thinking of new ways to present a visual, they simply reuse a layout that always receives great engagement. And to ensure that their followers don't get overexposed to the same images, the college alternates the primary colors used.
A bonus to this method is that it also provides your feed with a signature look that your audience becomes familiar with.
2. Interact With Your Followers
Another simple hack you can adopt is to interact with your followers. Here are a few different ways you can do this:
Reply or "like" their comments under your post
Comment under or "like" their posts
Follow them back
Send them a DM
This step requires for you to pay a little more attention to the Instagram platform as a whole, rather than just your engagements. However, it's a step that you will not regret taking.
Interacting with your followers shows them that they are in a reciprocating relationship, which in turn builds a sense of community. Your audience doesn't want to be talked at all the time - they also want to be listened to. A simple act of "liking" their comment under your post can make them feel seen.
In other words: take the social in social media seriously! You will find that this small amount of extra effort is worthwhile - and it can even be fun for you to speak to people who are as interested in your industry as you are.
3. Repurpose Content
This third step is possibly the easiest of all! If you are not as dedicated to Instagram as you are to another social media platform, then you will be glad to know that repurposed content performs well on this popular visual platform.
It isn't necessary for you to develop content that is Instagram-specific. For example, if you are a very active blogger, you can create a post for Instagram that uses some points from your blog or you can direct your followers to your website.
You can see us using this strategy on our own Instagram below:
By repurposing content, we are also providing consistent posts to our social media while also directing traffic over to another platform.
Attracting People To Your Business on Instagram
For the third and final part of our Instagram Organic Growth Strategies blog, we are going to teach you how to attract people to your business using Instagram. This information is especially useful today during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While business owners have always tried to increase the amount of their clients/customers, we are now living in a time when people are less likely to venture out and discover stores physically. Meaning it's important that business owners know how to increase the probability of people finding their companies virtually.
1. Use the Right Hashtags
In a previous post, owner Jamie Cocco does a deep dive into hashtags and how best to use them. If you're interested in learning more about this subject, we encourage you to click the button below:
To summarize, here are the still-relevant rules of hashtag usage:
every post should have 30 hashtags total
every post should contain "core" hashtags that never change
every post should have hashtags that are specific to the content
every post should have a healthy recipe of popular, niche, and in-between hashtags (ones that aren't in the millions but are also not in the lower thousands)
The wonderful thing about hashtags is that they have the ability to connect you to people who have something to contribute to a certain topic. For example, if you put #baking into the Instagram search engine, you'll find people who offer baking tutorials, people who sell pastries, people who buy baked goods, and people who are entertained by all the previous people.
Without hashtags, you would be posting content with the vague hope that someone somewhere would be interested in what you have to offer. With hashtags, you are able to reach out directly to people already interested.
So here is what you should do: make your hashtags count. Put yourself in the mind of a consumer and think "what hashtags am I likely to search for?"
2. Interact with Other Businesses
This step will help you reach people who are not actively searching for you.
A person scrolling through #baking is looking to follow a bakery page - but there are thousands of other people who feel satisfied with the baking pages they already follow.
Your job is to prove to them that they aren't.
Do this by showing up on their radar. If they aren't searching for your hashtags, then another way for them to find you is through the comment sections of pages that they're interested in. Therefore, you need to find businesses that are similar to your own without being competitors. Let's stay on the food theme: if you sell baking recipes, then you should interact with businesses that sell dinner recipes.
But before you do, here's a fair warning: avoid commenting self-promotional things such as, "Check out our baking recipes!" These comments are likely to annoy the page your posting under. Instead, you should comment something like "this looks delicious!" The difference is that the latter gives the impression that you are trying to become a part of their community, while the former gives the impression that you are trying to steal their audience.
Your profile picture and vanity handle should be enough to inform people what your page offers.
3. Use Instagram's Story Feature
Right now, you might be thinking that Instagram Stories are only good for interacting with your followers - but this feature can also help you attract new people to your page.
How? By following these two steps:
Use the Location sticker
Use hashtags in your Story
The location sticker tells people where you are in your Story. For example, let's say your business is in Northampton, Massachusetts. When you share this on your Story, what you post will show up in the geo-location Story.
This will give your business the opportunity to be seen by more people in your community and more people hoping to travel to your city. They may not be familiar with your business yet, but they are interested in your location - and by establishing yourself as a part of the community in the geo-location feature, you are establishing yourself as a business to pay attention to. So make sure to geo-tag every time you post!
(Tip: use a geo-tag that is already popular)
Using hashtags in your Story will do much of the same thing. Instagram creates a Story that features everyone who uses a specific hashtag. So if you put #bake in your Story, you will be featured in the #bake Story.
(Tip: unlike when you use hashtags in your feed, your Story hashtags should be popular - not niche)
Final Thoughts
We hope that you use these steps to not only grow your audience but to grow the right audience. While engagement is important, it's even more important that you are engaging people who are likely to lead to sales.
And if there is anything you take away from this blog post, it's that you should focus on creating meaningful, personalized content that easily directs your potential consumers to the next step of the buying process.
If you liked the advice in this blog and want more, don't forget to check out our upcoming social media course: Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs. We developed this course because we know the potential social media has in generating large sales, and because we know that many small business owners are not making the most of what these online platforms can offer them.
Our course will give you all the tools necessary to create and execute a successful social media marketing plan. Click the button below to enroll.
