Six Steps for Maximum Exposure on Instagram

Sep 15, 2017

It’s no secret that Instagram is a powerful marketing tool. According to a blog post by Hootsuite, Instagram has over 500 million active monthly users. By the end of 2017, 70.7 percent of U.S. companies will use Instagram for marketing. And 75% of Instagram users take action, such as visiting a website, after looking at an Instagram advertising post.

If you’re hoping to spread the word about your business, Instagram is statistically the place to invest your time and energy.

If you didn’t know, Facebook owns Instagram, which of course is why you see similar features on both platforms. With the latest algorithm switch, Hashtag shadow ban, or if you are barely starting out with the platform, you may feel a bit overwhelmed getting to know all of the features.

The number one question many of my clients ask me is how to get seen on Instagram. In a platform filled with so much noise, it can be hard. But, these six steps will sure to provide maximum exposure for your brand.

Step 1. Optimize your profile

Believe it or not, there are still some businesses out there that have a private profile. If you’re on Instagram, make sure you have a public company profile. Because Facebook owns Instagram, you now can convert your IG page into a business account by integrating your Facebook business page. This will allow you to see analytics for your Instagram page as well as times when your audience is most active on IG, and what content they respond to best. If you’re a solopreneur or have a business partner, be sure your profile picture is a picture of you/ both of you. YOU are your brand. Now, if you’re a business with multiple employees, then you may have your logo as your profile picture. When it comes to your bio, it must contain who you are, what you do, and who you serve. And don’t forget to add a link to your profile. I love using LinkTree for importing multiple links! For a step-by-step tutorial on how to use LinkTree to market your business, click here!

Step 2: Figure out the best time to post on Instagram

Strategic timing of posts and sharing updates at peak times are the best ways to increase your exposure organically. The Instagram news feed has been algorithm-based for quite some time now. It’s not chronological, and thus, not about timing. The most effective way is to post when your following is online. If you have a business account with Instagram, access Analytics; and it’s all there. Quickly figure out the best days and times to post for your audience. Go to Followers tabs and click “See More.” You can scroll through hours and days graphs to see top hours.

Step 3. Use relevant hashtags

In my blog post “Dos and Dont’s of Hashtags,” I explained how hashtags are important when it comes to using social media. Hashtags provide an easy way to search for content, and they give us the ability to track conversations about our brand and our products. They also help us keep an eye on what’s going on in our industry. One of the things brands do wrong on Instagram is they hashtag every word. Hashtagging “#food” will NOT get your post seen because in that hashtag search there are over 222,392,585 posts. If you’re in a local setting, for example, San Antonio, you could do “#SAFoodie” which only has 56,034 posts. While there’s still a grand number of post in #SAFoodie, the hashtag is tailored to your local setting and gathers all the posts from local influencers in your city.

Step 4: Start using your Instagram Stories

According to TechCrunch.com, in the 25 weeks, since Instagram launched Instagram Stories, Instagram Stories has reached 150 million daily users. To start an Instagram, Go to the top of your homepage and click the camera button. Option buttons such as live, regular, boomerang, rewind and hands-free will pop up, once you finish your story. Upload it!

Step 5: Integrating the location into your stories

Recently, Instagram launched a GEO-centric story feature where if you tag a location, the story will pop up on that GEO-Centric Story. Here’s an example: I tagged myself when I was at a coffee shop, and my story then popped up on the San Antonio, TX story which increased my reach and added more clicks to my Instagram profile. By doing this, you are now increasing the number of people viewing your profile and checking out your website.

Step 6: Tag Relevant Accounts Inside Your Picture

Want to get seen by more accounts? Make sure you tag within your picture. By tagging related accounts, it allows your post to get categorized in the other accounts “Photos of You.”