A Blogger’s Guide to Building Your Instagram: Part 2
Oh hey, welcome back to A Blogger’s Guide to Building Your Instagram (part 2). So nice to see you again. Incase you missed it, check out part 1 here.
Last time, I talked about the importance of creating great content, building your voice, playing well with others (aka #instakarma) oh and a pretty sweet hashtag trick. In Part 2, you’ll learn how to really grow your audience in a meaningful way.
Follow Other Accounts with a Strategy
Growing your following involves some proactive outreach, which means following the right accounts (fellow users in your niche). One of my favorite ways to find new accounts – that I want to follow or interact with – is to go to an account I admire, within the same niche, and check out both the accounts that they’re following and the accounts that follows that user.
Click through to different pages and interact with their photos by liking and leaving meaningful comments (NO COPYING AND PASTING #sleezly.) If you really like their account, give them a follow (and in a nice, creative way let them know that you love their account.) If you do this people will almost always follow back. This takes time, but it also ensures that your followers are quality and the kind of users who will engage with your photos in the future. I can’t emphasize enough how important QUALITY and ENGAGEMENT are when it comes to Instagram (and any social media for that matter.)
I mean, what’s the point of having 20,000 followers if you’re only getting 100 likes? #sadface
Manage Your Following
Every couple days, or even just once a week, I suggest using tool called CrowdFireApp.com to go through your following/followers to see who’s NOT following you back. From the app you can easily unfollow if the person didn’t reciprocate. I wouldn’t do this more than once a week because you can seem very spammy if you’re constantly following and unfollowing.
I had a phase of doing that too frequently and I just felt kind of lame so I stopped. You might be able to grow followers really quickly, but Instagram might flag you as a spammer and it’s just not worth it.
The Best way to Promote Posts and a Work-Around for Instagram Attribution
Have you ever looked at your Google Analytics and noticed that none of your traffic is coming from Instagram? Turns out, it is, but not in the way you think it is.
Your Google Analytics won’t show any attribution through Instagram, like it does for other referral links, instead any click-throughs will register as direct traffic (that’s because the link opens outside the app and in Safari). If you want to see how much traffic comes from your Instagram, try using a unique bit.ly link which you use only for Instagram. With bit.ly accounts you can see how many clicks a link got. If you use it solely for Instagram, you’ll know exactly how much and where the traffic is coming from.
Below is a screenshot of my Bit.ly link from when I shared last week’s blog post on my Instagram (in my bio link). This is WAY more traffic than I ever expected, mind you it was very relevant for Instagram, but this trick totally changed how I viewed Instagram as a traffic driver.
Use the Location Tag (not just for Locations)
Besides using location tags for when I’m out to an actual location, like a favorite coffee shop or new restaurant, I love using the location tag as another piece of real estate for either a call to action i.e. “GIVEAWAY” “New on init4thelongrun.com” “Recipe Link in Bio” or another joke/tidbit i.e. “Smoothie Bowl City” or usually some combination of emojis.
Engage With Your Favorite Brands
This is me putting my community manager and blogger hat on at the same time (it’s a pretty awesome metaphorical hat, in my mind it’s like one of those really cool beanies…) Brands love when Instagrammers take (good) shots of their product in action. Don’t forget to tag that brand’s account AND mention them in the caption (brands love this, and it ensures your photo will be seen). I’ve had my photos regrammed by a couple of my favorite brands (Evolution Fresh, Wild Friend’s Nut Butter, Essentially Coconut, Manitoba Harvest) which helped get my page more exposure. Bonus: If you use the brand’s hashtag they’ll eat that up.
Host a Giveaway with Your Favorite Brand
Have a product you genuinely love and want your fans to know? Hosting a giveaway is a great way to grow your following and giveback to fans. If you can, try to reach out the that brand and see if they’re interested in donating product in return for a shoutout and your hosting a giveaway. Most brands should be receptive because giveaways are a great way for them to grow as well (don’t forget to politely remind them of that).
To get the most bang for your buck have your followers 1.) like the photo, 2.) Follow both @yourhandle and @thebrand’s & 3.) tag three friends in the comments. This way new accounts (friends of your followers) will see that photo and hopefully it will encourage them to enter as well.
The key to this is finding the right product to giveaway. It has to make sense with your blog and Instagram page. If it’s not something you genuinely love then it won’t attract quality followers who share your interest, and there’s a higher chance that they’ll unfollow if they don’t win.
Share a Shoutout
Community is one of the best parts of Instagram! You can use this to your advantage big time. After you’ve made some instafriends don’t be afraid to reach out to them for a shoutout swap. Ask if they’d be interested in posting one of your photos, mentioning your account and encouraging their following check you out and you’ll do the same in return. It’s best to approach users with followings close to your own so it’s a fair trade.
I suggest doing this with accounts that you’ve already established a great relationship with, but don’t take it personally if they say no. You’ll have a good feel for the right people to reach out to. It can be a great way to extend your reach to a new audience.
This post was a brand/friend shoutout combo. Also, go follow Rachel because she’s an insta-goddness (and overnight oat queen/fellow avocado & nut butter lover) and my badass boss/PR-partner at Bai.
Bonus Tip: Get Nerdy
Want to get nerdy? As a community manager, I love using the website Iconosquare for Instagram analytics. It’s not perfect, but photos by most liked and most commented as well as see your most popular hashtags, who your followers are and so much more. You might be able to spot trends like when the best time to post and what kind of photos get the most reaction.
Looking for more? Check out the first installment of A Blogger’s Guide to Building Your Instagram
Liked these tips? Share the love with your blogging and Instafriends because #InstaKarma
[Tweet “Get even more secrets to growing your Instagram following and engagement”]
While you’re at it, check out my ‘gram: @init4thelongrunblog (warning it’s mostly food and jokes)
Great tip about using the location for something other than the location. I’ve seen people do it but I never remember it myself!
Not a necessity but it can be a fun way to draw attention to your post
I could use these tips! I have been struggling a bit with instagram lately, def gonna use these!
Let me know if you have any specific questions Rachel! 😀
You are THE instagram queen! So many more great tips like last time. Thanks so much Georgie!
d’aww now I’m #instablushing – it doesn’t hurt that I get paid to be on Instagram during my 9-5 😉
I like what you said about using the bit.ly links to see if your links are getting traffic. Though, I’m hoping you can convince the Instagram headquarters to let us add live links soon! Like, yesterday.
Right! While I appreciate that it keeps posts cleaner for the most part it would so helpful – I’m guessing they don’t want people leaving the app or brands getting too spammy but I think it’s a matter of time.
Great tips! Engaging with other people (more than just “liking”) has been so helpful 🙂
Thanks Jess! Once I began starting conversations with followers/followings thing got a lot more fun!
Awesome tips, Georgie! I have a question: when using the location tag for other things, does it still show your location when you click on it? I always want to do that but I didn’t know if just changing what it says got rid of the ability to see where you are.
It does, which is a bummer if you’re trying to be careful about where/how much you share your location. Sometimes I’ll make the tags ahead of time so I can use them even if I’m not in that spot.
I felt like crying seeing the people no following me back! I never check, but I went on unfollowme yesterday and so SO surprised! I did some clean up 😛
Best not to dwell, but it can be super useful once and a while to do some ‘spring cleaning’
You are actually the best for sharing all of these awesome tips with us. I wish my life weren’t so cray so that I could take the time to engage with others via instagram as much as I’d like. But as soon as things slow down I will definitely be using these tips!
Totally understand! There are just so many ways to connect online it’s hard to keep track.
Fantastic tips, again! I started using the bit.ly trick today to track my traffic from Instagram, and I’m going to try adding fun things to my location. I have to say, Instagram is my favorite social media platform! I just need to take some better photos, but I love the interaction I get on Instagram vs Facebook
I agree! It’s so nice knowing that if people want to see your posts they actually get to. I’d be really curious to hear about how your bit.ly links go.
These posts have been super helpful! I’ve already implemented some things from your post last week and I can’t wait to sit down this weekend and really dive into both. Thank you!
Thanks so much Katie! So glad you enjoyed them.
Girl, you’re the Instagram queen! I didn’t get to comment on your last post in this series but shared and saved it because it was amazing. I’m just getting started with Instagram and can already tell you’ll save me from fiddling around with no clue of what I’m doing. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with all of us!
Thank you so much dear! What’s your handle? I’d love to follow 😀
ahhh yea! love the tips. the google analytics thing is a must . So thank you! and shout outs tags and all the genuine love it awesome. <3
Thanks Lindsay! It’s been a big revelation that Instagram has been driving a good amount of my traffic
Great article, i liked the second part even more than the first one;) I see you’re concerned about following management. CrowdFire is quite good, it gives some real precious information, but when it comes to actually getting rid of those people i’d suggest to use a specialized unfollowing tool – fast-unfollow.com. This is its only purpose, and it does it quickly – 5k per day. You don’t have to do anything but to activate it and leave for some time. By the way thanks for mentioning the possibility to track traffic with link shorteners like bit.ly, i don’t know how come i didn’t think about it before 😉
Thanks Jaquelin – good to know about fast-unfollow.com
The bit.ly links have been so helpful for tracking!
You’re an #instagenius. GREAT tips!
Haha thanks Rachel – just have to use a it a ton for work so I’ve learned a lot of strategies 😀
Sweet tips!! I never knew about the app that sees who’s following you back and I always wondered why I had “zero” traffic coming from my IG!! Thanks for that one!!
-KJ
Right!? Crazy to see how much traffic actually does come from Insta! I have a friend and it’s her highest referral
Just stumbled across both of your insta posts, and they are SO helpful. I love interacting with people, so I thought instagram would be a great tool for me, but it definitely hasn’t been easy! I will definitely be using many of your tips. Thanks!
So glad you enjoyed it Christine! Thank you.