A lot of marketers on Instagram think that becoming popular on that photo sharing platform is simply a matter of luck. They think that it’s just really a matter of rolling the dice the right way and being in the right place at the right time in front of the right people.
I wish I could tell you that it’s that random. In fact, a lot of the big players out there have a well cultivated and engineered presence on Instagram. In other words, their popularity is a deliberate creation. If they can do it, guess what? You can do it too.
First of all you need to increase your followers on social media, but below are also some ideas that would enable you to replicate the success of some of the big Instagram influencer brands in your niche.
Reverse engineer your competitor’s photos to produce higher quality photos
How do you know that you have the best photos in your niche? If you’re like most Instagram marketers, you get this impression through simple guessing. That’s the bottom line. You’re all excited about a particular photo sets so maybe, this would translate to real popularity.
Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you do not reflect the tastes of the people you’re trying to reach out to? Maybe your tastes and preferences are statistical aberrations. Sadly, a lot of people miss out on the memo on this and they just plug away.
They post photo after photo that they think are hot and guess what? Their Instagram account goes nowhere fast. Sad, pathetic, and absolutely unnecessary. If you want your Instagram account to blow up, start by reverse engineering your competitor’s photos.
If you notice that all your competitors are posting the same type of photo, it’s a clue for you to do the same thing. Now, simply copying everybody else’s actions is not going to be your highway to success.
Reverse engineering your competitor’s photos is the first step you need to take to grow Instagram likes. You need to take an additional step. You need to produce better photos. In other words, your competitors would tell you what type of photos to produce.
The next step is to come up with something better now that you know the type of photos that you’re going to be posting on your account.
Study your competitor’s hashtag choices
Just as you used your competitors to reverse engineer your way into the right kind of photos, you should use the same strategy when it comes to their hashtags. Remember, hashtags are the primary way non-followers will find your content.
Don’t blast random hashtags out to Instagram. Sure, you may attract a lot of people, but these people are not interested in your brand. They’re not interested in your niche. You get a lot of volume, but this volume doesn’t necessarily translate to dollars and cents.
If you want to make a lot of money with your Instagram account, you need a very targeted message. And this means studying your competitor’s hashtag choices and using those to draw the same audience that they have built and then improving on those hashtag choices.
The most important tip I can give you
What is the most important tip when it comes to trying to grow Instagram likes? It’s all about social proof. When people see your content, they might see that you obviously have high quality photos and videos.
Unfortunately, content quality is not enough. You have to get people off the fence. You have to get people to engage. For them to commit to that, they must first feel that your content is worth engaging with.
How would they get that impression? They look at how many likes you already have. If it turns out that you already have a lot of engagement with your content, they are more likely to follow you. They are a lot more likely to engage with your materials.
But if you have very little, they won’t bother. As the old saying goes, to those who already have a lot, even more would be given. To those who have very little, even the little that they have will be taken away from them.
This definitely applies to social media. So if you’re serious of trying to figure out how to grow Instagram likes, buy social proof. This would push people to engage and this can create a positive chain reaction that can help your Instagram account blow up.