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Instagram: Build Your Online Audience Using It
Instagram can be a highly-targeted, visual advertising channel for your brand if used correctly. In a recent study it was discovered that Instagram provides brands with 25% more engagement over other social platforms. This confirms that Instagram is a prime channel to build your brand for your ecommerce business.
Like any social network out there, there are right ways to use it, wrong ways to use it, and innovative ways to use it. Since you are probably already an entrepreneur, you’re already innovative. We’ll just need to put that entrepreneurial spirit to work here.
In this post, we will show you how to most effectively use Instagram to increase engagement and build a massive following.
Use The Right Hashtags
Your goal on Instagram is to engage your current audience while also growing your following. By posting new, interesting and engaging photos, this will satisfy the first requirement. However; you will need to begin growing by finding the right hashtagging to showcase your photos is extremely important. Hashtagging your photos makes it easy for people to find your photos that are searching for those specific terms.
So which hashtags should you use?
Just like with Twitter and other social sites, users on Instagram use certain hashtags over others. If you use the right hashtags within your photos, you’re much more likely to reach new users and be discovered.
Here are the current top 20 hashtags on Instagram according to Webstagram:
1.#love 546,312,756 posts
2.#instagood 252,226,047 posts
3.#me 238,166,943 posts
4.#follow 208,003,100 posts
5.#tbt 205,718,608 posts
6.#cute 203,174,797 posts
7.#like 193,577,034 posts
8.#photooftheday 189,818,506 posts
9.#followme 183,736,791 posts
10.#tagsforlikes 171,593,674 posts
11.#happy 165,534,554 posts
12.#beautiful 163,122,231 posts
13.#girl 162,838,871 posts
14.#picoftheday 140,266,148 posts
15.#instadaily 126,075,675 posts
16.#fun 124,017,892 posts
17.#smile 120,121,394 posts
18.#igers 118,454,910 posts
19.#selfie 117,998,320 posts
20.#friends 117,809,423 posts
To see a larger list of the top hashtags, you can go to see the popular tag list on Webstagram and Populargram.
If you looked at the list above and said “But none of those apply to my products or brand”, you’re likely correct.
Using hashtags is one thing, using the right tags is a completely other thing. Popular tags like the ones listed above will likely net you additional engagement and likes, however, they will not lead to increased long-term engagement, new interested followers and most importantly, sales.
If you want to tag your photos properly, you’ll need to find and use the most relevant hashtags. This means doing the appropriate keyword research to make sure you’re using the most relevant hashtags that not only describes your brand, but is also being searched for on Instagram.
To find relevant hashtags, you’ll want to use a free online program like IconoSquare (formerly Statigram) or Webstagram.
Below, I used Webstagram to find relevant, related and popular hashtags for my men’s accessory brand by searching for key hashtags that are closely related to my brand.
As an example, searching the hashtag #MensFashion, I was able to pull the following list of additional keyword hashtags along with the number of times they have been used (popularity).
You’ll want to go through this exercise trying different keywords that describe your brand and products, building out your hashtag keyword list as you go.
Keep in mind that Instagram allows for a maximum of 30 hashtags per post. Additionally, the popular words will change over time, so make sure you revisit your hashtag keywords every few months to make sure you’re using the best possible terms.
Pro-Tip 1
Here’s a trick that you can use for your ecommerce businesses. For every product and product category for your store, do a keyword research to see which are the most popular Instagram hashtags around those product categories. Come up with 15-20 popular hashtags for each category of products that you sell, as well as a base of 5-10 popular tags that describe your brand and product offering overall. Finally, I create a list of popular local specific hashtags that relate to your brand.
For example:
(Brand Keyword Hashtags)
#mybrandname #mensfashion #mensaccessories #mensgoods #fashion #mensstyle #instafashion #menswear
(Product Category Keyword Hashtags)
#bugatchisocks #happysocks #corgisocks #socks #sockswag #socksoftheday #sockgame #sockswagg #socksofinstagram #happysockday #sockwars #funsocks #happysockday
(Location Specific Keyword Hashtags)
#Toronto #TorontoFashion #TorontoFashionBloggers
All of these groups of keyword hashtags are stored in a page on Evernote. This makes it easy and efficient when I’m on the go to post a new Instagram image, optimized for the most relevant keywords. I can easily open my Evernote and copy my standard brand, product and location specific hashtags to post with each photo.
Doing the work upfront of researching, organizing and saving the most applicable and popular hashtags will save you a ton of time down the road, increase your engagement and help garner new followers.
Pro-Tip 2
If you’ve been posting to Instagram for a while and feel like you’ve missed out on all these opportunities to build your audience by using keyword hashtags, fret not. You can still go back and post a comment with your new hashtag keyword lists and watch the likes and followers roll in.
Use The Right Filters
Keyword hashtags aren’t the only thing you should give attention. The Instagram community respond to certain photo filters more favorably than others. Using these preferred filters can have an impact on your engagement.
Here are the 10 current most popular filters on Instagram according to Populagram:
Normal (No Filter)
Valencia
Earlybird
X-Pro II
Amaro
Rise
Hudson
Lo-fi
Hefe
Sierra
Post On The Right Days And Time
Besides adding the appropriate hashtags and using the best filters, you should also be considering the timing of your posts.
A targeted approach is to analyze what has and has not worked for you in the past. By visiting IconoSquare’s optimization section, you can get a detailed analysis of your posting history vs. engagement. This report will also highlight the best times of the day and days of the week to post.
Steal Your Competitors Followers
One of the best ways to find and attract new following is by seeking out your closest competitors’ Instagram accounts and engaging with their audience. These people have already shown some level of interest in the products you carry simply by following your competitors’ account.
So how do you effectively steal your competitors’ followers?
You can steal your closest competitors’ followers by engaging with them. There are several ways to engage with Instagram users, and predictably, the more work you put in, the more followers and return engagement you’ll get out of it.
Sponsored Posts And Product Reviews
All this optimized posting to your account is great but if you really want to make an impact, you need to post to other, larger accounts in your niche, exposing your brand to a wider audience.
So how do you do that?
First, unlike the tactics above to grow your account this one isn’t free. However, if done correctly, it’s good value.
To get started, you’ll need to make a list of large accounts in your niche. For example, if you sell beauty products, you’ll want to find large accounts from beauty bloggers.
You may already be following these accounts, if not you’ll need to find them. One of the best ways is to use Webstagram and search for some of the closest hashtag keywords you uncovered in the beginning of this post. When you do a search for your keywords, not only will it show you the related keywords, but it also shows you the top Instagram accounts that feature those keywords.
There are a few things to look for in the profiles results:
Large following – Usually 20k-200k
An email address in the profile
If there is an email address in the profile, it usually means they’re open to sponsored posts. You’ll want to email them and ask them their sponsored post pricing. In general, I have found the average rate to be around $20-$50 per post, depending on the size of their following. However, if you’re selling an unique and original product, you may also want to consider sending them your product to review and post. The more natural and less advertisement like the image, the greater the engagement and response usually.
Instagram Tool Roundup
There are hundreds of tools out there that can help you and your Instagram strategy. In this post I mentioned five key ones help you build your audience and engaged them.
Populagram – Find popular hashtags, filters and people.
Schedugram – Schedule your Instagram post for the most engaging times.
IconoSquare – Info, analytics and insights into your account and followers.
Webstagram – Find the best hashtags for your posts and people for your sponsored posts.
Conclusion
In this post we talked about the most effective ways to use Instagram to build a targeted following, but it’s not always a numbers game. As with any social network, the most successful strategy overall is to be authentic and social.
Instagram can be a highly-targeted, visual advertising channel for your products and brand that can lead to a healthy stream of revenue for your ecommerce business. You just have to use it correctly.
