Does your brand need a boost? Do you know the Instagram marketing strategy that the top Instagram influencers already know?

It’s called engagement!

Instagram “Hacks”?

Before we start, let’s just get this out of the way. There are no true “hacks” – so don’t fall for any smooth talkers.

Just like any other social media platform, Instagram is about creating online communities that stay on Instagram. (That’s why they sell ads!) So your goal should be to keep users engaged on your Instagram business account where they will want to Follow and see more in the future. DO NOT fall for so called “hacks” to get more follows or likes. Like any other algorithm, you can’t really fool it because you don’t really know it and never will.

Instead, you need to focus on optimization

The Optimization Strategy

Your Profile

1. For your profile picture, make sure you have chosen the best photo to identify your brand. For most people it will either be their own face or their brand’s logo. Save the fun photos for your posts.
2. In your description, choose one or two short sentences to describe your brand.
3. Use the rest of your description text for a call to action such as “tag us @myawesomeusername if we can repost your content” or ask users to use a hashtag to do something similar.
4. Include a link to your website or YouTube channel. Whatever is your brand’s primary landing site, make sure Instagram users can find a way to it.

Your Posts

1. Do NOT over post and do NOT constantly advertise.
2. Use professional level photos/videos from:
   • Your own camera
   • Canva
   • Vecteezy
   • Adobe Stock
   • any other stock photo site (just make sure you have proper licensing)
3. Or use decent quality photos/videos if you the post is more personal or behind the scenes.
4. Choose your captions carefully:
   • No caption for aesthetic reasons (photo does not need a caption or has text already)
   • Short description (1-2 sentences)
   • Short story
5. Limit your #hashtags to about 5-7 per post.
6. If appropriate, include “link in bio” somewhere in the description for a call to action.

Your Interactions

1. Limit your number of posts each week.
   • Influencers – it may be appropriate to post 1-2 times per day
   • Businesses – aim for 3-5 times per week unless you are staying away from product/content advertisement
2. Always follow-up on comments. Don’t use too many generic answers as this is possibly worse than not responding.
3. If using DMs is an appropriate method of interaction, make sure you make it known and check at least twice a day.
4. Limit your self-promotion so you don’t appear to be spamming. You’ll lose followers if you annoy them with too much self-promotion.

Conclusion

Overall, using Instagram should be about building a community. If you focus on that, the type of followers you actually want I will follow you onto your other platforms.