Instagram likes still matter. Engagement with your posts shows how much your audience likes (ironic) your content and your products. A higher count of likes is an indication of a loyal brand following, among a host of other things, and thus is highly important for any business that is using the social media platform to promote itself.
Given the fact that Instagram recently re-enabled the public likes counter, the importance of likes has escalated once again.
Getting more Instagram likes is sort of a fangirl moment that everyone hopes to achieve. In addition to the bragging rights of having more likes, engagement also tends to push your post’s reach and helps you reach the explore tab, hence exposing your posts to an audience greater than your existing followers. Thereby, here are 10 tricks that will get you more Instagram likes:
1. Have good images and posts
Photography used to be an art. Now, even if image sharing has become a marketing tactic of its own, having good images on your feed is extremely important in attracting users to your posts and eventually earning their likes.
Users have a flooded variety of content to see on Instagram nowadays; after all, it is the largest image-sharing platform in the UK and worldwide. In this sea of content, the image or video you share is going to be the basis of whether the user likes your post or not.
Check to see trends of your previous posts and try to replicate the type of images that you have posted in the past that have resulted in higher likes than before. Personally, an observation I’ve made is that a portrait from a DSLR gets more likes than a candid picture using a mobile camera since the former is crisp, clear, and has the right exposure, to name a few.
If a certain type of image works better for you then follow that and keep getting likes from it.
2. Call to actions matter A LOT
Calls to action are you telling your audience what you want them to do. You want them to like your post? Tell them! You want them to follow you? Tell them! You need to treat your audience as numb individuals who have no idea what they are doing, as the case is with most people on social media who are just trying to fling their way and just pass their time.
A call to action can help you get more likes by actually putting this idea in your audience’s mind that you want them to like your post! Without this, they might just scroll past your post by just skimming over it.
3. Scheduling can help sometimes
Multiple studies have found that the timings of your posts matter a lot if you want to get maximum engagement. Users are on Instagram all of the day but at certain periods, activity is higher than usual. This includes the time before people get to work, say 8-10 AM. Also includes the usual time for a lunch break, around 1-2 PM. Then in the evening once people are done with a workout or just lying around, 6-8 PM. Last, right around bedtime, by 9-11 PM.
Try to post during these times, observe which time works for your profile the best, and start using that time frame to publish new posts exclusively. There isn’t one recipe that fits all so you need to find what’s best for your setup and use that accordingly.
If you’re on Instagram, you are bound to be on other platforms as well. Share your posts to other channels and reach out to the audience that is there as well. This is important so that users are aware that you have a presence on Instagram too.
Instagram lets you share directly to Facebook (obviously), Twitter, and Tumblr. Although the end post might look different on each platform, it is still worth a shot.
5. Reach out to others by liking their posts, not necessarily a like for like
Liking others’ posts is a nice way of reaching out and letting them know about you. Even if you are not running a like-for-like program, people might notice that you have liked their post and check out your profile, inevitably liking one of your posts.
Outreach is a tried-and-tested method of increasing engagement. You might want to like relevant posts of your niche so that players in your market are aware of you. This doesn’t mean that you start liking posts of your competitors. Go for influencers, social media celebrities, and the likes of that; these influencers tend to play a major role in consumer decisions nowadays.
6. Run competitions
Tag and like contests are a very good way of increasing organic engagement and getting people to like your posts. Everyone likes freebies, whether it’s a product that you’re giving away or even a shoutout! People actively engage with tag and like contests and this can result in good engagement for you as well.
Hashtags are a good way of getting your post to show up when people search for a specific hashtag. Use tags that are relevant to your page so that your post is visible to others. This is a good way of reaching out to users who do not follow your page and also lets them know what your page or your content is about.
8. Add your posts to your story
Stories have significantly more reach than posts. A user might be bombarded with posts from different accounts on their feed but most people view stories regularly, hence giving you a chance to let them know that you have put up a fresh post.
9. Good captions
Many users appreciate good captions as it attracts them towards your page and sometimes when a caption is relatable to a user they like the post even if they don’t like the image itself. There are many ways you can see which caption to use with your posts and once again, one recipe does not fit all and you will have to see what works for you.
10. Tag your location
Tagging your location can help users who are finding localized posts. E.g. if you run a local electronics store in London, you can tag London and use #electronicsinlondon to help users find your post and your page. Local marketing is one of the best ways of increasing your reach, try it out yourself!
So, which one of these tips will you be using on your Instagram profile growth? Let us know if there’s anything that you think we have missed!
