As an artist, getting your work noticed is the best thing one can ask for (and also a good number of followers. Come on, everyone loves a good number of followers on their profile). In this digital world, Instagram is arguably the best platform for that to happen.
There are many ways to get your account noticed on Instagram. In this article, we’ll be discussing some of the ways that worked really well for us (after months of learning and applying). This is not a trick that will boost your Instagram presence overnight; rather, it takes time. It can be a little overwhelming for people who didn’t know about this, but believe me, these changes had a huge impact on our account. Read the article until the end and apply it to your profile. They are
- Reels
- Optimizing your bio
- Hashtags
In this article, We’ll be discussing only bio optimization and hashtags as reels are a very vast topic to discuss and we are still experimenting with our reels (Even though we are seeing good results).
OPTIMIZING YOU BIO
1) Professional account
If you are an influencer, content creator, running a product-based business or service-based business on Instagram it would be best to choose a professional account rather than a personal account. With a professional account, you’ll have access to many insights which will be very useful. Instagram Insights provides engagement analytics to help you enhance your Instagram for a Business approach.
2) Niche
Having a particular niche is one of the game changers on Instagram. Having multiple niches will confuse your audience and Instagram tooo. Posting content about a particular niche consistently will not only optimize your account but also help your content get more traffic and grow your audience. Having a particular niche will be very useful in optimizing your profile.
In simple words, the niche is what do you do and how do you help people on Instagram
In our case, we are product and food photographers
- We help brands create unique visual content.
- We help fellow photographers by teaching photography and helping them grow digitally.
Posting consistently (3-4 times a week) over the same niche will result in higher engagements and it will make your profile more noticeable.
3) Profile Name
The profile name is the most important thing if you want to get your account more noticed. Once the niche is sorted, you can add keywords to your profile name so that when people search your niche you can show up in their results. Profile name can consist of 30 characters.
Instead of adding our profile name as just a photographer, we named it a product and food photographer. So the more you sub-niche, the easier it will be for people to find you. If photography is a niche, fashion photography, food photography, wildlife photography, and street photography are sub-niches. For example, if someone needs a food photographer there are more chances that they’ll find our account top on their search list rather than an account that is named only as a photographer.
Instead of naming your account as a digital marketer, naming your account with the sub-niche, you are most experienced in will make your account more noticeable when people search for your sub-niche.
If you are trying to create a personal brand or business brand, you can add your name at the beginning of your profile name.
Posting content consistently on the specific niche you chose will make your account appear in top searches.
4) Instagram Bio
After your target audience has reached your Instagram profile, your bio will have a huge impact on whether they will follow your account or not. The Instagram bio should briefly explain your brand story and how are you going to add value to their lives (Why should they follow you).
Personal achievements of the business can be added to the bio. Business location can be added in the bio. Add a call to action button (Follow us, Dm us, Click this for collab). Add any clickable links where you’ll be able to record the audience information (Website).
Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to reach people in your niche. Hashtags cannot promote your content or bring traffic to your content like in the past but still, hashtags can be a great addition to your content. An average of 11-15 relevant hashtags can be added to your content.
We suggest you use the hashtags in the following way (This is just our suggestion)
#6-8 niche related hashtags
#2-3 post related hashtags
#1-2 brand-related hashtags
#1-2 location-based hashtags
(We found our best performing hashtags after many trials and errors)
Personal suggestions:
1) Don’t add any hashtags or other account links in the bio of your business account, as it distracts people and makes them move to other platforms. (Human attention is very short)
2) If you are serving a national audience, don’t add anything in regional language.
3) The aesthetics(way your profile looks) of your profile matter a lot (You know the thing about first impressions right?)
4) No quotes, wishing you on your birthdays or statements (Seriously!) or anything that seems unprofessional.
5) Keep posting regularly. Starting anything can be difficult at first, but it’ll get easier with time. You’ll get to know what’s working for you only if you start posting.
6) Check for an account which is performing very well in your niche and try to replicate that.
7) KEEP EXPERIMENTING.
It may seem overwhelming at first (It was for us too) but take the first step and start growing your account.
This is our insights overview. We teach only what we follow. A part of it was from FB ads but we are seeing good engagements recently over the last month.
Firstly, thanks for reading it all the way through. It seems that you are serious about growing your Instagram profile. Do share this on your Instagram story by tagging us (for our Instagram growth) if you have found this article helpful and need similar articles on topics like how to grow your account, and reach more people (obviously for free). Do text us on Instagram with your thoughts after reading this article. We’d be happy to help you. We want to know whether it’s serving its purpose.