Obtaining organic reach and engagement on Instagram is essential to growing your account and gaining new followers.
However, this strategy has become challenging as the social media networks’ methods of arranging content, such as the algorithm, have become unpredictable.
Fortunately, there are still methods that both business and personal accounts can use to enhance content visibility.
These mainly consist of making the most of Instagram’s existing and relatively new tools that help distribute your content to more people.
Here are four ways you can expand your Instagram reach:
Find The Optimum Time To Post
Instagram’s allography uses several factors to determine the pattern of how content will show up on a user’s timeline.
It takes into account the number of likes, views, and impressions you’ve had in the past.
Adding to this, the social media network no longer shows post in chronological order, making timeliness tricky.
Thus, finding the best time to post is about the significance of your content to your followers and when they’re most active.
You can test this timing out by posting at various times of the day, then checking the insights to notice what time your audience reaches its highest. Alternatively, you can make use of an Instagram growth service with marketing data and audience analysis to find the best time for your audience.
Keep in mind that your posts should be relevant to the time of day if you’re promoting products. For instance, it’s more ideal to post about dinner meals during the early evening rather than breakfast ideas if you have a food catering business.
Use Suitable Hashtags
Hashtags work similar to hyperlinks in that they’re both used to connect content in an endless chain cycle.
But, a hashtag goes a step further by cross referencing and grouping social media content that’s related to a specific topic.
This is a truly unique means of expanding your reach just by tagging your content to everything related to it.
The best part is that Instagram creates a page for each tag so that viewers can click on it and see all content using the tag.
Therefore, to get the most out of using hashtags, you can start with research.
If you plan to hire a marketing agency to do this, you can check out reviews of growth service companies to find the best one for your needs.
Otherwise, you can use Instagram’s ‘Search’ and ‘Insights’ functions to find the relevant campaign and general hashtags to your content with the highest number of post counts.
Remember to avoid spammed and banned hashtags so that your account doesn’t lose points on Instagram’s algorithm.
Utilize Each Format Channel
Instagram is constantly updating its software to include new formats.
When the platform began in 2012, users could only upload single pictures to the account.
Now, you have the option to post long form videos, short form reels, picture carousels, story highlights, Instagram TV, shops, and even livestreams.
These features give you more opportunities for potential followers who are casually browsing to discover your content.
The best approach to this is to focus on promoting your ideas with a consistent theme running through your account.
Tailor each post to the specific format to maintain a uniform brand image that’s visible across all channels. Short form formats, such as reels, stories, and picture carousels should be attention grabbing and have a clear message or call to cation.
Doing this will branch out your posts to reach more users, and help keep your content visible across the network.
Maximize Sharing And Collaboration Tools
Sharing is, undoubtedly, one of the most useful attributes of social media. It’s what makes content go viral.
This feature is also a way of allowing your followers to spread your posts freely, without you having to pay for it.
Collaboration, in turn, works to increase engagement rate so that followers and casual viewers can become part of your brand story by adding to your content.
You can maximize shareability by ensuring all of your posts have the share option available.
The icon looks like a small triangle paper plane at the bottom of each post, or the bottom right corner function for stories.
You can turn this feature on your settings page. Your profile should remain public so that people can access the feature that allows them to remix your reels as a collaborative tool.
To keep track of all sharing and collaborations of your content, you can view the ‘Insights’ option on your profile page.
Conclusion
Instagram already has all the tools you need to expand your reach; the impact is just a matter of using each channel feature to its fullest.
You can explore all the different functions available, and then implement your marketing plan for each one.
Don’t forget to have your content adapt to short and long form posts so that when your reach increases, it’d be much easier for you to gain followers and conversions.