This Blog entry is originally published in my LinkedIn account as an article.
My 3 Instagram Takeaways on Nix Eniego’s How to Go Viral on Instagram Using Instagram Stories Live Webinar
1.) Use Hashtags correctly.
How do I use Hashtags correctly? Nix goes in an in-depth explanation in his Live video and I do agree with what he says but here are my own tips in using hashtags properly and I believe it starts with proper research on who your company, product or service’s target market is. In any business you need to go deep on who you are selling to. What problem is your service, product or company trying to solve? Why will people support you? Create a buyer persona and imagine what hashtags they’ll most likely hang out with and use theses in your products.
Creating and developing your own unique brand hashtag is also effective in putting personality in your brand. This helps you, your brand or your client’s brand, service and product stand out from the rest.
Avoid being shadow banned, be respectful and do not use curse words or insults in your hashtags. Be it in traditional marketing or in Digital marketing or in any kind of marketing we are dealing with people. People use their emotions in deciding where to throw their money and their support. If you want to attract good people then be a good brand. Even Social Media sites live with the mantra of encouraging positivity by discouraging curse, words, insults, racism and other negative actions. Remember social media is widely used and even children nowadays use social media. We need to become a good influence.
1a.) In IG Stories your location matters, if you use hashtag (name of country) and you really are in that country you will get more engagement.
The location matters since IG Stories are usually live and viewable for only for up to 24 hours if you use the location tag make sure you are really in that location. IG can detect your location via your phone and wifi.
Also in IG Stories the location tag (different from hashtags) will totally override your hashtags, meaning your hashtags are basically rendered useless when you use the location tag. This can be effective in some campaigns but can be destructive in others.
2.) Use, Participate and engage in engagement pods. Engagement pods can help you grow fast.
What is an Engagement Pods? According to Nix it’s a group of people who agree that every time they post they will like, comment and generally engage with each other’s post.
Instagram’s algorithm doesn’t work in a chronological way. Instagram only supposedly shows post that is important to you and how do they compute this? By seeing what post you or your friends engages with.
Initially Instagram only shows your post to 10% of your followers. Engagement pods helps you reach the other 90% of your followers.
3.) Explore is where the magic happen. Instagram doesn’t have a popular page anymore but they have an Explore page. Instagram uses your activity to decide what to show you in explore to increase the chance that you will be interested in the posts in explore. How do they compute that? They see which industry you are interested in and what your followers activity are so to get into the explore you will need a great set of hash tag and a well strategized engagement pod. Explore is different for each Instagram user but you’d definitely want to be in your buyer persona’s explore page. So aside from using great hashtags and participating in engage pods;
What else do you need to do to get on explore?
Make sure your content is relevant to your buyer persona/ target market. Create a good content. Make sure your content Educate, Entertain and Inspire.
Power likes. If an influential person (person with a lot of follower) likes your post it increases your posts visibility and engagement as well because when an influential person like your post it also shows up in their activity which in turn gets showed to their followers. So how do you get power likes? Make sure to tag relevant big accounts in your photo. Example you bought something on ebay then tag the ebay account in your post. Mention Industry and thought leaders in your post if you think they will find it useful and interesting. You can even ask them questions and if they answer and notice you then lucky you right? Be friends with influential people to build your personal brand or your client’s brand.
But be authentic! Create meaningful relationship with this influential people and give value. Please do not befriend them just to take advantage of them. Make sure the relationship is healthy because remember the rule be human. As a human please do not treat other human as only an engagement or like machine. Treat them as humans.
Schedule Instagram posts for optimal times. Posts that receive a burst of likes shortly after they’re posted will perform better in both the Instagram feed and on the Instagram Explore page.
Create a call to action in your Instagram Caption. After you get your engagements and if you do get featured in the explore section and get a lot of traffic in your IG you’d like to convert those traffic into leads for your business so make sure your posts are ready for that.
By creating a call-to-action in your Instagram caption, you can prompt both your followers and new visitors to take further action. You can ask a question, promote a branded hashtag, advertise a sale, or encourage them to visit your website or purchase your product.
To conclude this post my rule in Social Media is to be social. Be human. Create relationships, build communities and give value. Let me know your thoughts and don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions or need any clarification on my key take aways.
About the Featured Photo is from Pexel. This post focuses simply on Instagram and I wanted the photo to show just that.
I wrote this post because I believe taking notes and sharing my notes to others encourages discussions and more learnings for everyone. If you have any questions of want to discuss your thoughts on this topic don’t hesitate to contact me.