Why Instagram?
Instagram is an emerging social media platform with over 400 million monthly active users, as of September 2015. With Facebook’s pocketbook now behind it, this highly visual social media platform is gaining traction as a popular visual advertising channel.
Marketers are becoming increasingly interested in Instagram, because studies have shown high brand engagement that is greater than the engagement achieved on both Twitter and Facebook. One factor that has led to high brand engagement is the fact that Instagram users can see posts from every account they follow (if they log in regularly).
Victor Pineiro of Big Spaceship—a digital agency—states, “Organic engagement on Instagram is leaps and bounds above its counterpart on Facebook, on Twitter, on Pinterest, on any of them. The reasons you’ll get the numbers that are so high is that you see every piece of content that you’re subscribed to, and it’s really easy to tap once to ‘like’ something.”
The real estate industry is naturally positioned to capitalise on Instagram as an inbound marketing tool and agents can easily use Instagram to enhance their business. Images of the inside and outside of homes attract buyers, which makes Instagram a great platform to start sharing photos of properties for sale. Sharing high quality images of homes can also attract sellers, too, because they can clearly see you highlight your properties for sale.
So, how do you build a massive Instagram following? Here are 5 easy tips:
5 Easy Tips to Grow a Massive Instagram Following
1 . Post at the Right Time
If you post when users are most active on Instagram, you automatically get more impressions and engagement. Studies vary on when the best time to post on Instagram is, but across the board most agree that engagement on Instagram is higher on Mondays and Thursdays at any time other than 3p.m.-4p.m. Many also state that posts shared at 2a.m. and 5p.m. receive the best engagement, however, Instagram users are known for being engaged fairly steadily throughout the week.
2. Use Hash Tags
Your goal when using Instagram is to engage your current following while growing your following. Posting great photos will help you engage your following and hashtagging photos will help you grow your following by making your photos discoverable by people searching for your hashtag terms.
Hashtags make your content searchable and many social media users search by hashtags. Research popular versions of hashtags and think about what terms a user might search for on Instagram. The hashtag #melbournehomes has over 2,500 posts that showcase the exterior and interior of homes for sale.
Try different keywords that fit your brand, services, and products, and build up your keyword hashtags as you go. Come up with 15-20 popular hashtags to use and revisit your hashtags every few months, because the popular ones will change. Make sure to use branded hashtags, service or product hashtags, and location hashtags. For example, #ipropertyau, #realestatesoftware, and #victoriaaustralia might be hashtags we would use.
3. Cross Promote Your Content
Cross promote your content on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks. Take the photo you just added to Instagram and follow the prompts to include in on Facebook and Twitter. This is likely one of the simplest steps, especially if you have a well-established Facebook or Twitter following. This will help increase new followers and engagement.
4. Interact with Users, Including Your Competitors’ Followers
Interacting and engaging with your users does take time and effort, but social media users love to feel appreciated. Comment and like their photos. If your followers comment on your photos, respond to them.
Other users, who may not follow you, will see your interaction and be more apt to follow you, too!
Find your competitors on social media and take a look at who their followers are. You won’t have to steal their followers, per se, but you can interact with them so they’ll follow you, too. Take a look at who comments on your competitors’ posts and go check out their profiles. Like or comment on any pictures that jump out at you. Most people you engage with on Instagram will click over to your profile and follow you.
5. Run a Promotion
One of the easiest ways to boost your following is to run a promotion and give away a free product or service. People love free stuff. The more worthwhile your prize is, the more people you’ll likely attract.
Set up your promotion, so one of the rules is that people have to follow you in order to be eligible to win. To further expand engagement and gain more followers, create a second rule that requests followers to tag a friend, or five, in the post.
When you run your promotion, don’t forget to cross-promote it on all of your social media platforms.
Hopefully, these tips will help you increase your Instagram following, so more people see your posts and visit your website.
If you want to ensure you’re using Instagram to drive traffic to a user-friendly and professional website, contact us for help. We combine gorgeous design with the latest website technology to create websites, property microsites, blogs for real estate agents, and more.