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How to advertise on instagram for free


11 Amazing Ways How to Promote Your Instagram Account (for Free)

With over 1.3 billion users worldwide, you can put Instagram on top of any list of popular social networking sites. Instagram is an excellent platform for small businesses to reach their potential customers and increase engagement with them. 

Most users spend approximately 29 minutes a day on Instagram, thus promising you great reach if the platform is well-used. However, many business owners are unsure of the ways as to how to use Instagram in a way that will prove fruitful. You can’t just randomly start posting and expect amazing results. Promote your Instagram account by building a strategy and planning your execution well.  

If you are not sure how to use Instagram to reach customers, this article will help you through the lens of the different things you can do to promote your Instagram account.

Table Of Contents

  1. Reasons to Use Instagram to Promote Your Business
  2. Can you Promote for Free on Instagram?
    • Things to keep in mind…
      • Keep your Instagram account as a business account
      • Complete your profile
      • Make your profile visible 
  3. 11 Best Ways to Promote Your Instagram (for Free)
    • 1. Create Useful Posts 
    • 2. Engage through Stories Stickers 
    • 3. Create Save-able Content for Your Feed
    • 4. Use Hashtags 
    • 5. Use Instagram Stories
    • 6. Use IGTV
    • 7. Go Live on Instagram Live
    • 8. Engage with Instagram Influencers
    • 9. Take Advantage of Instagram Story Highlights 
    • 10. Host Collaborative Competitions 
    •  11. Make Use of Longer Captions 
    • Conclusion
  4. How To Promote Instagram FAQs

This is probably a no-brainer for all of you, but it bears repeating so that you fully understand the strategic importance that Instagram has in social media marketing.

Furthermore, unless you know the reasons as to why you should promote your business on Instagram, you will not be able to fully apply the points I will discuss later.

So, why use Instagram for business?

  • The face of your brand – Instagram is about images and visuals, so you can form a personal connection with your customers through pictures. You can share images of your team, how they operate, the testimonials of your happy customers, and how they use your product. This would help you to engage with your potential customers.
  • Tell customers about offers – You can update your followers with interesting promotions you have launched. If you are launching a new product or service, Instagram is the best platform to reach your customers.
  • Tell stories – Of all the social media platforms, Instagram is the perfect place to be creative with your marketing. Instagram stories are an excellent feature designed to boost audience engagement.
  • Stay updated with trends – You should be on Instagram because it keeps you updated with what customers like in the market and what is not working. Accordingly, you can create your posts and try to reach your customers.
  • Influencer marketing – The concept is very popular these days and the best platform to bring in results for you is Instagram. Through dependable influencers, you can take your company sales to a new level.

A lot of businesses are under the impression that gaining followers on Instagram and increasing engagement is costly. Yes, if you plan to do influencer marketing and paid promotion, Instagram can be costly. However, we are not focusing on paid marketing for Instagram in this article. The good news is that you can promote and grow your business for free on Instagram.

Things to keep in mind…

Before we talk about the free ways in which you can promote your business, it is important to talk about some basic checks you need to have in your Instagram account – 

Keep your Instagram account as a business account

If you are using a personal profile for your business, it would not help you grow. Instead, it is recommended that you create a business account. This would enable you to get an access to Instagram ads and promoted posts, allowing you to increase your reach and engagement

Complete your profile

Incomplete Instagram accounts are unattractive, and you don’t want your followers to look at your incomplete profile, right? You must include your business details; have a high-quality profile picture and a bio that speaks of your business as a brand.



Make your profile visible 

You cannot promote and get more followers if users cannot find you. Hence, make sure your profile is public. Otherwise, only those who follow you will be able to see your post. 

Further Reading: A 17-Step Plan to Launch (or Revise) Your Instagram Marketing Strategy

You now know the secret – you can promote your business for free on Instagram. Let us look at 11 simple ways how you can do it:

1. Create Useful Posts 

The first and basic thing you need to do is promote your Instagram account through meaningful posts. If you can create attractive, interesting, and useful content, you will give viewers a strong reason to follow you. To begin with, you need to set yourself aside from the crowd. Most businesses use their link in bio to link to their website to drive traffic there. 

Imagine the feed of users with posts, all wanting them to visit the website for more info. Now, if you can share all the information through the Instagram post, it will be a breather for them and something they may feel delighted to see.  

You should know how the Instagram algorithm works. It doesn’t show the photo you post to all of your followers. It is shown to only 10-20% of your followers and Instagram waits to see if there is some engagement with your content or not. The response from the 20% decides whether more people are going to see your post or not. You have to ensure you are creating meaningful posts that drive engagement.

Further Reading: Instagram Link In Bio: 10 Different Ways You Can Drive Traffic from Instagram

2. Engage through Stories Stickers 

Do you know how many users are using Instagram stories every day. The count is over 500 million, and this number is going to increase with time. Instagram stories stickers are an excellent way to encourage your followers to engage with you and share their experiences and opinions. It will lead to a loyal following, and every follower will stay connected to your brand.

Below are some ways to get started with stickers –

  • Question sticker – Of all the stickers, the question sticker works best. The maximum engagement comes from AMA (Ask Me Anything), and most of the influencers are using it for higher engagement. However, there is no reason why you should not do it for your business. You can get to know your followers’ opinions about your brand, or you can ask them about their expectations from you. It will help you reach followers with the services they are expecting.
  • Quiz sticker – It lets you create multiple-choice questions for your followers to answer. You can also track the results. The followers get to know if they have answered right or wrong, and you get to see which option has been more popular.

3. Create Save-able Content for Your Feed

Businesses should take advantage of Instagram shares, comments, and saves. Creating content that encourages your followers to tap and click the Save button is a good way to boost engagement. Content that audiences will want to come back to in the future is saveable content. 



If you can share some tips and suggestions that will help your followers in some way – you can expect your followers will save that content for the future. The idea is simple – you have to create content that is important for your audience. It can be anything – infographics, powerful quotes, or funny memes.

Further Reading: Tips and Tricks to Build a Seamless Instagram Content Strategy

4. Use Hashtags 

Hashtags are essential if you want to promote your Instagram account for free. You should use relevant hashtags in your posts and stories so that it reaches the targeted users. Your posts can contain up to 30 hashtags. You may use all, but you should be careful in selecting the right ones. The use of relevant hashtags will increase your engagement rate. You can use the below hashtags in your posts –

  • Location-based – To target your local audience and increase brand awareness in the local community, you can use location-based hashtags.
  • Popular hashtags – Using Instagram hashtags like #nofilter and other popular and creative hashtags helps you reach a wider audience. It also helps you promote the human side of your business. 
  • Industry-specific – Hashtag will help you reach people who are interested in your business content in general. You can even connect with influencers through industry-specific hashtags.

Further Reading: 8 Powerful Ways How to Use Instagram Hashtags for More Exposure

5. Use Instagram Stories

One of Instagram’s most engaging features is Instagram Stories. We have already discussed the use of stickers in Instagram stories, but you shouldn’t limit yourself to them only. The content in your story gets updated every 24 hours, and it’s the perfect place to show your followers transparent and raw content which will enable you to make your business more relatable.

Instagram stories get maximum engagement, and you should not miss the opportunity to promote your account for free using this feature.

Further Reading: 8 Ways How to Use Instagram Stories for Online Store Promotion in 2022

6.

Use IGTV

IGTV on Instagram works similar to YouTube. In this, users can explore different channels of their favorite topics and content. The success of Youtube should be enough to assure you that video content is the most effective way to reach and engage with your audience. IGTV helps you bring those followers to your account that are more video-inclined.

With IGTV, it’s easy to get started – once you upload your first video on IGTV, your brand’s unique channel is automatically generated by Instagram. IGTV allows you to post existing videos too, which again is a great way to promote your business. You can also post YouTube videos on Instagram TV and reach new followers.

7. Go Live on Instagram Live

The Instagram Live feature is also a great way to promote your business without spending a few bucks. You can host a variety of workshops, Q&A, and interviews using Instagram Live. It would be helpful to let your followers know ahead of time about your upcoming live session. This will likely result in more viewers joining in and staying back. 

When people see you or someone from higher management talking about the business directly, it helps build trust and put a face behind your brand. You can also use this platform to invite your followers to your Instagram Live sessions and thus have a direct interaction. Try to create a meaningful Instagram Live experience for your followers, and this would indirectly create sales.

8. Engage with Instagram Influencers

Influencer marketing doesn’t always have to involve paid campaigns. By engaging smartly with them, you can help support their brand while gaining exposure for your business. Apart from liking and commenting on their posts, you can also repost their posts in order to engage with them and gain more exposure. There are a lot of Instagram influencers out there; you ought to choose those who are useful and relevant to your brand. For example, if you provide financial services, you should engage with influencers who talk about finance.

Further Reading: Instagram Influencer Marketing: The Complete Guide

9. Take Advantage of Instagram Story Highlights 

Instagram Story Highlights are basically the curated collections of the content that you have posted to your stories in the past. These collections are commonly referred to as albums, and you can choose to create different albums for different categories. Unlike regular stories, Story highlights do not disappear after 24 hours – they stay in your profile permanently underneath the bio section and above the regular feed. If you have many products to offer to your followers, you can create an album around each. You can keep updating the albums with the relevant story.

10. Host Collaborative Competitions 

If you are in contact with some business owners who are in a similar industry as yours, you can join hands with them for a collaborative competition. It is advisable to collaborate with one or multiple profiles in the beginning and move on to others gradually. One of the commonly used tactics is to have an Instagram competition where entrants follow your account and tag a few friends in the comment section. 

Using this method, all business owners can tap the followers of other businesses and grow their accounts. Consider joining hands with a company whose products or services are complementary to yours. As an example, if you’re a sunglasses retailer, a swimwear brand could be a good fit because it’s easy to see the connection between these two products.

Further Reading: How to Do A Giveaway On Instagram in 12 Easy Steps

 11. Make Use of Longer Captions 

You must know you can use up to 2200 characters while making a post on Instagram. If you want to share something with your audience for which you plan to take them outside Instagram, avoid doing it. Instead of taking them to an external site, you can share all the information by writing Instagram captions. 

Your followers are on Instagram because they want to spend time there. You should not take them to another site, they may probably not like doing it. Longer captions also help you in improving your Instagram engagement. As per studies, high engagement posts have an average of 65-70 words in the caption. You can make a note of it and next time when you create a post, make sure you have enough words in the caption.

Further Reading: Instagram Captions: 14 Tips on How to Optimize Them to Boost Engagement

Conclusion

Get started promoting your Instagram account with these given tactics. Create a strong strategy wherein the inbuilt Instagram features can be used optimally. Maintain an active and interesting feed. Try to use the above-mentioned tips to create new content and be regular in posting them. 

However, always remain consistent and patient. Your efforts will gradually pay off. Instagram has proven to be a great marketing tool where your followers can help spread word about your business and also give constructive feedback.

Leverage your Instagram profile in a way to engage in two-way conversation for best results.

Further Reading: How to Use Instagram Reels for Business: The Definitive Guide

Author Bio

Akash Tripathi, a Content Marketing Strategist at Top Mobile Tech, has 10+ years of experience in blogging and digital marketing. At Top Mobile Tech, he covers various how-to and tips & tricks related to iPhone and more related to technologies.

Hero photo by Mourizal Zativa on Unsplash

How To Promote Instagram FAQs

How can I promote my Instagram for free?

Here are some of the ways you can promote your Instagram for free:

1. Post engaging content that speaks to your target audience.
2. Include relevant hashtags in your posts.
3. Connect with other users in your niche and collaborate on giveaways or other promotional activities.
4. Take time to connect with other users and create quality content.

Is promoting on Instagram worth it?

With over a billion monthly users, Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms. It’s also one of the most effective platforms for promoting products and services. Thanks to its visual format, Instagram is ideal for showcasing products, and the built-in search and discovery features make it easy for potential customers to find your brand. In addition, Instagram offers a variety of paid advertising options that allow you to reach a wider audience. When used effectively, Instagram can be an extremely powerful marketing tool.

How can I boost my Instagram?

While there’s no magic bullet for gaining Instagram followers, there are a number of things you can do to give your account a boost:

1. Make sure that your profile is complete and accurate.
2. Take the time to curate interesting and visually appealing content.
3. When posting photos, be sure to use hashtags and locations to make them easily discoverable.
4. Don’t be afraid to reach out to other users and engage with their content.

How much does it cost to promote on IG?

The cost of promoting on Instagram depends on a number of factors, including the size of your target audience, the type of content you’re promoting, and the level of engagement you’re hoping to achieve. Generally speaking, businesses can expect to spend anywhere from $10 to $500 per day on Instagram advertising. However, it’s important to keep in mind that promoting on Instagram is not a one-time cost.

How do I get 1000 Instagram followers?

There is no one magic formula for gaining a large number of Instagram followers. However, there are a few basic strategies that can help to increase your visibility and appeal to potential followers:

1. Make sure to post regularly and use hashtags to improve your reach.
2. Engage with other users by liking and commenting on their posts, and follow accounts that you find interesting or relevant to your own.
3. Use Instagram ads to target users who are likely to be interested in your content.

8 Free Instagram Marketing Techniques to Grow Your Business

Believe it or not, it’s totally possible to save your marketing budget and grow your account by only using free Instagram marketing tools and techniques!

Instagram is an awesome platform to showcase your products, services, and overall business. But small businesses often spend a lot of their budget on social media marketing, where in fact, some of the best and most rewarding techniques are totally free!

To help you get started (and save some $$$!), we’re sharing 9 of the best free social media marketing tools, Instagram marketing tips, and techniques that you can work into your strategy today!

Free Instagram Marketing Tip #1: Curate Your Feed to Create a Balance Between Product & Lifestyle Shots

As a small business or startup, we know you’re super proud of your products and services. But when it comes to Instagram marketing, you walk a fine line between showcasing your products and coming across as a glorified sales pitch!

Remember that Instagram is a social platform first and an advertising medium second. So if you want to grow your following and sell more products, you have to strike a balance between showcasing your product and honoring Instagram’s social roots.

It’s all in the planning! Taking a birdseye view of how your feed currently looks and how you’d like it to look in the future is so important — it helps you identify when and where you’ve been pushing products too often, and where there are opportunities to incorporate other types of content.

To do this, try to plan a feed with a simple ratio of your different types of content. For example, if you’re a business that makes leather handbags for businesswomen, you may want to balance your feed with shots of a bustling city, lifestyle shots of women on the move or at work, and your product shots. So you could create a ratio of 1:3 — for every three ‘other’ lifestyle or city shots in your grid, you can include a clear product shot.

Take a look at how @wearefeelgoodinc creates a great Instagram aesthetic by mixing ocean scenes, lifestyle shots, and product shots of their sunscreens across their feed. It’s subtle marketing that really works on their grid!

The easiest way to do this is to use an Instagram Visual Planner like Later. Simply drag and drop your photos onto the visual planner, re-arrange them to see how your future feed will look like, and save to schedule them!

The best news? It’s completely free to use!

Plus, once you’ve identified the spots on your grid where you can showcase your products, you can really go all out with carousel or video posts to maximize on exposure while still maintaining a balance in your feed!

Free Instagram Marketing Tip #2: Use Instagram Stories to Introduce Your Business

Your followers are savvy and inquisitive, and they want to know more about your brand!

So simply introducing your products with photos on your feed isn’t enough these days — you need to take the time to introduce your brand and business too.

Your followers are curious about how your products are made, the people behind the business, and what you have planned for the future — so take the time to share this info with them.

Not only does this open up great opportunities to create engaging content your followers will love, but it gives you another way to introduce your products and services without dipping into the marketing budget.

Instagram Stories is one of the best platforms for this — it’s short video clips allow for quick and easy insights into your day-to-day business life. Jewelry brand @mejuri is a great example of how they incorporate behind-the-scenes content of their business and product-based content.

Think about creating some of these Instagram Stories next time you want you’re planning a content calendar:

#1: Tell Your Brand Story

Don’t be afraid to share with your followers how, when, and why you wanted to create your business. Let them know about your struggles as a startup and some of your proudest moments to date.

#2: Take Your Audience Behind the Scenes

Think about bringing your followers along to your warehouse or introducing them to the manufacturing team or where you source your materials from.

If you’re selling a service  rather than a physical product, you could share a ‘day in the life of…’ post on Instagram Stories that shows glimpses of the inner workings of your business and who is involved in running the business each day.

If you’re already on a Later Business plan, you can schedule Instagram Stories! Just like your feed posts, you can now plan, schedule, and publish your Instagram Stories!

Free Instagram Marketing Tip #3: Use Branded Community Hashtags to Stand Out

Instagram is a busy place, and for small businesses starting out on the platform, it can be particularly hard to be seen or heard.

But just like IRL business, word-of-mouth marketing really helps to build a brand’s reputation on Instagram. And one of the easiest ways to do this is by creating a community of engaged followers and a branded hashtag to spread the word!

A great example is @herschelsupply’s #welltravelled hashtag, which the brand created to connect like-minded users around their love of travel and travel photography.

While not directly promoting Herschel or its products, the hashtag has been used on nearly 4.5 million posts and has been key to growing Herschel’s community. Plus, followers of the hashtag and the brand know that Hershel is the driving force behind the hashtag so their products are regularly featured in the tagged images around the world.

It’s one of the easiest ways to have your audience and customers speak on behalf of your brand. If your followers share their love for your products, you’ll soon start to see a difference in your follower count and sales!

Looking to create a branded hashtag for your brand or business? Check out our free Instagram Hashtag Strategy Guide. Learn how to implement an effective Instagram hashtag strategy that not only grows your engagement but also boosts the effectiveness of your Instagram marketing campaigns!

Free Instagram Marketing Tip #4: Level-Up Your Product Showcases With Instagram Stories Templates

While your marketing budget may not stretch to the point of hiring a graphic designer or video editor, you can still make your Instagram Stories look awesome.

There are some amazing photo and video editing tools and apps out there that can really level-up your product showcases (and are completely free!). So when you do post stories that show off your products, you’re guaranteed that they’ll stand out from the crowd.

For Instagram Stories videos — try out Over app! Over’s free version is filled with great tools and templates to help you create better video content for your Instagram Stories. Later’s Social Media Strategist, Mel Brittner is a big fan of the easy-to-use app that can take a basic selfie video and make it more dynamic and engaging! 

For images, Canva (available on desktop and mobile) is packed full of ready-made Instagram Stories templates that are fully customizable so you can add in your brand colors, fonts, and product shots!

Looking for some other freebies? Check out Later’s Instagram Stories templates that are completely customizable using Photoshop!

Free Instagram Marketing Tip #5: Launch a Regular Weekly Series

Having a weekly installment on your Instagram profile is a great way to encourage your follows to tune in regularly!

Plus, it’s a chance to cover topics you may not usually be able to on your feed or your Instagram Stories that your audience is interested in. And you can potentially weave in more info about your products and services!

Later has recently started hosting weekly tips on Instagram Stories where we share some insider hacks to creating awesome Instagram content. While it’s not always based around Later’s features (in fact, we share a lot of tips from other tools and platforms we use like Over and MailChimp!) there are times when we reveal a little-known fact about a Later feature!

Other brands like Airbnb and Beats by Dre are also jumping on the Instagram Series trend and are hosting a regular topic each week!

Free Instagram Marketing Tip #6: Host Q&A Sessions with Your Audience

There’s no better way to get to know your audience than by listening to the questions they have about your brand, business, and products.

And to help you build a deeper connection with your customers, you can host a Q&A session on Instagram! The Instagram Stories Question Sticker makes it super-simple to collect your audience’s most burning questions, or you can host an Instagram Live so your followers can tune in and ask questions while you’re having a chat!

Not only is this a great way to research your audience while engaging with them, your followers could also have specific questions about your products or services, and you’ll be there to answer them! It’s an easy way to subtly introduce your audience to some lesser-known products in your line, or showcase newer products in your collection without spending a dime.

Free Instagram Marketing Tip #7: Plan a Collaboration Project With Other Brands

Instagram collaborations are a great idea if you’re looking to easily and cheaply market your products to new audiences.

While Influencer marketing does often require budget and strong strategies for success, teaming up with a like-minded and complementary business doesn’t need to blow the budget.

If you find a brand that you’d like to partner up with on Instagram, you could host an Instagram Stories Live session together and invite both your audiences to tune in as you discuss a topic that’s relative to both your industries.

Or you could work together to create a product for your audiences, like a podcast, ebook, or a weekly newsletter! Once you’ve found the right partner, the mutual benefits for both parties are endless!

Free Instagram Marketing Tip #8: Become an Industry Leader in Your Field

While Instagram is a great place to market your products, it’s also a great place for information sharing.

By making yourself an industry leader in your field, you’ll already be steps ahead of your competition while followers and potential customers turn to you for advice and guidance, as well as your product line!

One way to do this is to be generous with your information and resources — you could create free ebooks or guides, write knowledgeable blog posts and share them on your feed, or regularly produce how-to content on Instagram Stories or IGTV.

The aim is to become a point of reference for your followers so they know that when they tune in your stories or visit your profile page, you’ll always be sharing content that is relevant and useful!

Don’t forget to share the love and highlight others in your field that are doing good for your industry. Whether it’s an app or program you’re using for your business, or an innovative product just come to market, share as much relevant information as possible with your audience so they know they can always rely on you to help answer their questions! Check out how @alextooby continuously provides current and trending information for her followers: 

Marketing your business online doesn’t need to cost an arm and a leg, especially if you’re focusing your efforts on Instagram.

With some forward planning, strategy, and great content, you’ll easily be able to optimize your product and business marketing on your feed, without having to blow your budget!

Ready to start? Sign up to Later today and you can begin planning, scheduling and posting all of your Instagram content for free!

How to advertise on Instagram for free ✋ step by step instructions

Learn how to set up free advertising on Instagram and order professional placement of targeted advertising on this social network.

Content

  1. How to run ads on Instagram for free
  2. The effectiveness of free advertising on Instagram

Free advertising on Instagram is gaining popularity rapidly. Now it is one of the most popular social networks for commercial activities, so many are looking for ways to promote their goods, services and brands on its platform. Official advertising on Instagram became available not so long ago, and you can even do without a profile on this social network to place it. This type of promotion became possible thanks to the launch of official advertising in social media jointly with AiTarget. networks.

How to place ads on Instagram for free

First, the user needs to make sure that there are no ad blockers installed in the browser, such as AdBlock, as well as antivirus program extensions. The AirTarget service is engaged in the creation of advertising, and such extensions block it and make it impossible. The user needs to register in the service through Facebook and give the application access to the advertising cabinets of your profile. After that, an Instagram account is linked to the advertising account. This will require:

  1. Link your Instagram channel address to your Facebook account;
  2. On the left side, click the "Instagram Ads" button and then "Add Account";
  3. In the "Advertising Manager" create an ad, remembering to specify the promotion tasks;
  4. In the free column, a link to the promoted page, then click the "Next" button;
  5. Specify the target audience for showing your advertisement;
  6. Select the advertising campaign budget;
  7. Customize the appearance of the ad by specifying the landing page;
  8. Check the design of the ad using the preview button;
  9. Click Place Order.

Using the presented action algorithm, you will be able to place free advertising on Instagram yourself, but in order for it to be really effective, the following aspects must be taken into account.

The effectiveness of free advertising on Instagram

In order for free advertising on Instagram to have an effect and attract new visitors to your resource, you need to take into account the design of the advertising message. It is not customary to use long descriptions here. The image should grab attention so that the user wants to open it and see the information underneath. The text under the photo should be catchy and simple so that everyone can understand the unique selling proposition and be interested in it.

Read also: « Where can I order ads on Instagram? »

Hashtags are considered to be a powerful engine of free advertising on Instagram, the use of which allows users to find posts of interest to them in given categories. So, using popular tags in advertising posts, you can attract a large audience in a short period of time. You can independently make a free target on Instagram, the price is set only for the number of planned transitions or clicks.

In order for advertising in your profile to be as effective as possible, in addition to it, the page must also contain other high-quality content: original photos that catch the eye in the feed (we recommend reading the article “ Setting up ads in the Instagram feed “) and encouraging you to open the page, as well as informational messages, thematic facts and humor - all this will help to promote the profile to the top and promote advertising.

Our site offers to independently set up and place targeted advertising on social networks. Our employees, using an individual approach, will listen to your wishes and ideas, using them when creating an advertisement for your website, page, brand or service. Specialists will correctly set up advertising using the right tools, and you can check the result after a short period of time.

8 ways to promote Instagram for free

Started Instagram to promote your product? Excellent. Filled it with colorful photos and cool texts? Perfect. Now we need to somehow untwist this page. The easiest way is to run ads. But if the budget is limited, there are also free methods. Let's look at them in more detail.

1. Use hashtags in your posts. Always

One of the simplest and, in a sense, obligatory ways is to use hashtags in publications. These tag words are needed for grouping, sorting and quickly finding things that your potential customers are interested in. Instagram has the ability to follow hashtags, so common words (for example, #design, #art, #jazz) will allow you to attract a new audience in a short time (if, of course, your content is of high quality). And your own unique hashtags will work for the image and search results in the future.

How many hashtags to use?

Instagram has limited their number to 30, but we do not recommend strictly following this possibility. A large number of hashtags will scare off potential subscribers and create a completely different reputation for you than you dreamed of. But about 10 pieces, among which there will be own tags (headings are always good), and popular general concepts, and terms from your workspace will obviously work.

If tags prevent your post from looking attractive, then you have two options: The disadvantage of this method is that you close the possibility of delayed posting.

  • After the text of the post, make several lines with only one dot and then put a set of hashtags.

    • 2. Geolocation to the rescue

    Instagram users have not stopped looking for interesting places, and with them photos. And that's great, because you can also hook them. Make it a rule to put a geolocation tag on Instagram: this will not provide the maximum influx of likes and followers, but the post can shoot. Some cunning people have found a loophole here for “getting likes”: in each new publication they put completely different places, from the Caribbean to Big Ben in England. They say it works. However, you can check it yourself.

    Geolocation is also a good option for local businesses: people often look for shops, salons or cafes in their city, not far from their homes. In this case, you should always indicate the real address if you have an offline business.

    How to get your geotag on Instagram?

    If you are the owner of a cafe or shop, be sure to make your own geotag, and follow it to track who takes a photo and like, comment, repost. It is not difficult to make a geotag, for this you need:

    • Log in to Facebook from your mobile (namely, from your phone).
    • Go to create a new post "What are you thinking about" and click on the pink geotag icon.
    • You may see a Where Are You window prompting you to enable geolocation. Agree (you can also do it manually in the settings).
    • Click "Add new location".
    • Fill out the form and click "Create".
    • Publish your post and your tag is ready.

    3. Rils and Rils again

    After the huge popularity of TikTok, the owners of almost all social networks decided to keep up and introduce the function of an endless feed with short videos. Instagram is no exception. And since reels is a relatively new Instagram tool, it has a large reach. Even accounts with a small number of followers can count on hundreds of thousands of views. The main thing is to shoot the most sticky video that users will want to review and like.

    This can also include IGTV - the function is no longer new, but is constantly being improved. For example, now you can save live broadcasts in IGTV.

    4. Mutual PR on Instagram

    Mutual PR with other accounts whose work topics are similar to yours will be a good, and most importantly, free opportunity to promote your own Instagram profile. Agree on cooperation: you post photos or stories about them, they are about you. Of course, with marks on the photo, indicating your accounts and happy emoticons.

    5. Tell stories

    Today even a child can make Instagram Stories. For you, this is additional content and an opportunity to remind you of yourself without littering the subscribers' feed. Put a geotag in your stories and, perhaps, you will be included in the selection for your city.

    What to post in stories?

    What kind of posts will be here is up to you. But as practice shows, people are much more interested in watching the process "from the inside". Shoot a video, don't be afraid to be creative and experiment. Don't know what to do? Try to boomerang with your product, create surveys. It grabs the attention of subscribers. Live broadcasts are also welcome. They are good because all your subscribers instantly receive notifications about the start of the live broadcast, which means that they will most likely come to watch it. How to keep them at the screens is a more difficult task. Therefore, think several times before this, and also prepare a place, choose a time and an occasion.

    Another new feature for Stories is stickers. Choose a sticker with a suitable theme (for example, the last photo on your phone), add your photo and get views from the general feed of this sticker.

    6. ​​Look for partners among influencers

    Fashion bloggers, show business stars and famous people in local communities have many loyal subscribers. It is not necessary to start with millionaires, you can try to offer services on a barter basis to novice video bloggers and see what happens. In this segment, the simpler - the more natural and better.

    One of the collaboration methods is joint live broadcasts. Share useful information, answer popular questions - try to make the broadcast useful first of all, because there is already a lot of simply entertaining content and users are unlikely to spend a lot of time on it. For example, you can share your experience of running an online store and talk about how to sell on Instagram and attract more customers.

    7. Contests. Prizes. Gifts

    Everyone loves free things - that's a fact. So turn this into a great tool to help grow your account. Launch a contest with a good prize, specify simple conditions for participation (tag a friend in the comments, answer a question in the comments, come up with the most fun caption for the picture, etc. ) and enjoy the results. Old as the world, but always works.

    The main thing here is not to overdo it. People will follow you because of the prize, but they will just as quickly unsubscribe after. Your task is to interest subscribers during the contest, so that after they have no desire to unsubscribe. And one more tip - as a prize, use what you sell (if you have an online store), or what is most related to your page (for example, beauty products, if you are a beauty blogger). This way you will attract a relevant audience. Don't play generic things like iPhones or money.

    8. More carousels

    Another great way to increase your reach and engagement is to post in a carousel format. Your task is to interest users so that they scroll through the carousel to the end. It can be advice, stories, interesting stories. If users not only like, but also save or share your post, even better. The Instagram algorithm needs to see that your post is interesting, then there is a high probability of being recommended to users who do not follow you.

    Keep your finger on the pulse and follow Instagram for updates - any new feature will be tested and get great coverage. Don't be afraid to experiment and don't wait until everyone starts using these features - the further, the less coverage.

    And finally...

    All ways to promote your Instagram account for free will work if your account is properly designed: