How to increase profile visits on instagram

10 Simple Tactics You Can Try Today

Since Instagram started sorting posts on users’ feed with an algorithm, many marketers have noticed a decline in their organic reach and engagement.

But that doesn’t have to be the case for you. In fact, it could be possible for you to reach more of your followers now than without the new Instagram algorithm.

In this post, we’ll share 10 straightforward ways you can use to increase your organic reach on Instagram today.

Buffer for Instagram now comes with direct scheduling! Schedule single-image or video posts or set reminders to post multi-image posts at your best times to grow your Instagram following. Learn more today.

Understanding the Instagram Algorithm

Here’s a quick side-note: Understanding how the Instagram algorithm works can be helpful in figuring out how to increase your organic reach in the algorithmic-feed world.

We’ve dug into the Instagram algorithm and broken down the seven key factors of the Instagram algorithm. If you’d like to learn about the algorithm and how it ranks content on users’ feed, feel free to hit the button below to read the post first.

Learn about the Instagram algorithm

10 ways to boost your Instagram reach today

So how can you increase your organic reach on Instagram? Here are the 10 powerful ways you can do that:

Find your optimal posting times
Experiment with videos
Host contests or ask questions to encourage engagement
Curate user-generated content
Tell Instagram Stories
Go live on Instagram
Use Instagram ads
Post less
Create specifically for Instagram
Be a great Instagram user

Let’s dive in!

1. Find your optimal posting times

Even though Instagram uses an algorithmic timeline now, optimal posting times are still relevant as Sue B. Zimmerman, suggests posting when the majority of your audience is online:

It may take time to get a long-term understanding of your followers’ activity, but it’s important to make sure you’re posting when the majority of your audience is online.

If you are using an Instagram Business Profile, you can check your Instagram Insights to find out when your followers are most active by the day of the week and the time of the day.

Once you’ve identified your ideal posting times, you can also schedule Instagram posts ahead of time to help ensure you consistently post high-quality content.

2. Experiment with videos

Several studies have found that photos tend to get more overall engagement (i.e. likes and comments) than videos on Instagram. On first look, it might seem that photos are better than videos for engagement — and it could well be!

On closer examination, we might draw a different conclusion. News Whip studied the Instagram accounts of 31 news publishers and made an interesting discovery. While photos, on average, get more likes (and overall engagement) than videos, videos generate more comments than photos. In fact, videos, on average, received more than twice the amount of comments than photos!

It is not certain if the Instagram algorithm values likes and comments equally or one more than another. But since commenting requires more effort from a user than liking, it’s possible that the algorithm values comments more than likes and would rank posts with more comments higher than posts with more likes.

Last year, Instagram found that the video watch time on Instagram increased by more than 40 percent over a six-month period. At this growth rate, it could be great to experiment with videos to see if it increases your engagement and organic reach on Instagram.

To make things easier for you, you can now schedule videos to your Instagram business profiles using Buffer.

3. Host contests or ask questions to encourage engagement

Asking questions or calling for an action is one of the fun ways to encourage your followers to interact with your Instagram posts. We found that hosting a giveaway contest is an effective way to engage our followers.

Some of the call-to-actions we have tried are:

Enter to win by sharing your favorite emoji party combo in the comments below ?
To enter, simply tag a friend below who you would “Vote” for as your favorite marketer and you’ll both be entered to win!
To enter tag a friend below who you know is rocking it on social media! ?
What’s on your reading list this week? ? Drop your book suggestions below for a chance to win a free book of your choice from the Buffer team! ❤

While giveaway contests usually generate more comments than usual posts, we try to give it a few months in between each contest to keep things fun and exciting.

Something that we do more often is asking a question in our Instagram posts. Several of our most-commented posts (excluding contest posts) are posts with a question such as this, this, and this.

4. Curate user-generated content

Brian Peters, our digital marketing strategist, grew our Instagram account following by about 500% (4,250 to 21,000) in under six months. His secret? User-generated content.

Curating user-generated content can encourage those users to engage with and share those content. Since the Instagram algorithm considers users’ relationships when ranking content on their feed, building relationships with your users through Instagram might also help your content rank higher on their feeds.

Apart from organic reach, Crowdtap found that user-generated content is 35 percent more memorable and 50 percent more trusted than traditional media and other non-user-generated content. This makes user-generated content a valuable strategy to try.

If you would like to repost user-generated content on your Instagram profile, we would love for you to try our Buffer for Android or Buffer for iOS mobile apps, which can help speed up the process.

5. Tell Instagram Stories

In our State of Social Media 2016 report, we found that while 63 percent of marketers surveyed use Instagram, only 16 percent have created Instagram Stories. There’s a great opportunity to stand out before it gets too crowded!

Instagram Stories take a prominent position on the Instagram app — above the feed. This allows you to stay on top of your followers’ feed and grab more of their attention. If your followers view your Stories regularly, it could possibly even help your Instagram posts rank higher on their feeds.

It’s worth noting that the Stories are also ranked by an algorithm; possibly one very similar to the feed algorithm. Spend the time to craft great Stories to help them rank better.

6. Go live on Instagram

A similar “trick” is to go live on Instagram. When you use live video, you will appear right at the front of the Stories feed, assuming no one else is live at the same time. The “LIVE” logo also makes your profile photo more prominent in the Instagram app.

Social Media Examiner found that the more they went live on Facebook, the more their non-live content received exposure. Michael Stelzner said that one reason might be their brand is in front of their fans more often so the fans might go to their Page to see their content more — even if the fans don’t watch the live video.

This effect could play out on Instagram, too. Seeing your logo at the top of their feed might encourage your followers to check out your Instagram profile.

From our State of Social Media 2016 report, we concluded that live video has yet to hit mass adoption as only 27 percent of marketers surveyed had created live video content. While the percentage might be higher today, I believe live videos aren’t mainstream yet. So it’s another perfect way to stand out and deliver great content!

7.

Use Instagram ads

This might sound a little counter-intuitive but Instagram ads can be an effective way to grow your organic reach.

If you have an Instagram Business Profile, you can promote your existing posts from within the Instagram app. (

So which post should you promote?

Here’s a quick way to pick a good post to promote:

Go to your Instagram Insights on the mobile app (tap on the profile tab and then the bar chart icon).
Tap “See More” under the “Top Posts” section.
Tap on “Impressions” at the top (a pop-up should apply to let you adjust your stats filters).
For the first filter, you can choose “All”, “Photos”, or “Videos” according to your preference.
For the second filter, select “Engagement”.
For the third filter, select “7 days”.
You will see your top posts by engagement for the last seven days. From there, you can pick a post to promote.

As these posts have received the most engagement from your followers, they would likely also resonate with the people you promote to (assuming you have targeted people like your followers).

8. Post less

When explaining social media algorithms, Michael Stelzner encouraged marketers to re-think your posting strategy.

Rethink is the keyword here. Rethink your posting strategy on social media – Less is actually more!

Sue B. Zimmerman also gave a similar advice for marketers who want to overcome the Instagram algorithm.

If you truly want to connect with your audience, it’s better to share one fabulous photo instead of 20 mediocre images. So next time, before you hit post, take a moment and consider how this content contributes to your brand, and does it effectively encourage engagement from your followers.

I believe this is about the allocation of your resources and time. Instead of publishing 20 posts a week, use the same resources and time for just one or two posts and make them great.

Quality content that is relevant to your followers has a higher chance of eliciting a positive response from your followers. In turn, this can help your posts rank higher on your followers’ feed.

9. Create specifically for Instagram

One way to create quality content is to create content specifically for Instagram. Instagram, being a very visual platform, has a greater focus on the photo or video itself than the text. So a post that would do well on Instagram is probably different from one that would do well on Twitter or Facebook.

For smaller social media teams or solo social media manager, it can be challenging to always create unique content for each platform. Crossposting and repurposing content from other platforms can be great, too. If you are doing that, it’d be best to craft specific caption for each social media platform as your followers likely follow you for a different reason for each of the platforms.

Now with Tailored Posts, you can write customized captions for each social network. We’re hoping that this feature would encourage you to be (even) more creative with your social media posts and would help you drive more engagement.

10. Be a great Instagram user

This last point might be a little vague but it nicely wraps up many of the points above.

Social media algorithms are built to encourage genuine, positive behaviors on the platforms such as sharing, showing appreciation, quick replies, and more. Often, they would also try to discourage abuse or hacks.

My gut feeling here is that being a great Instagram user will help you grow your organic reach over time. That includes:

Posting quality content that is relevant to your followers (be it informative, inspiring, or entertaining)
Answering questions on your posts quickly
Thanking people for commenting on your posts
Exploring other people’s profiles, engaging with their posts, and building a relationship with them

All the best!

The main objective of Instagram (and most social media platforms) is to make users happy and let them enjoy the experience. As brands on Instagram (and social media), I think we can do a lot to create great experiences for our followers — which will, in turn, benefit ourselves.

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Proven Method to Organically Increase Reach and Profile Visits on Instagram

A rise in the number of Profile visits is a sign that your Instagram followers are interested in your products. They are browsing your store. It indicates your influence over your audience.

So, how to get more visibility on Instagram without spending a dime? How can you increase organic reach and profile visits? This article will help for sure.

Below I’m writing about an experiment I set up two weeks ago. I wanted to test if I can improve the number of Profile visits on Blusteak’s Instagram account.

And it worked.

The Profile visits more than doubled within a week. It went up to 1651, from 675 in the previous week. Now, the profile visits are 5x of what they were two weeks ago.

Want to know how I did it? Keep reading…

Best way to increase Instagram profile visits

I began by turning on notifications for 4-5 pages which attracted good engagement on their posts. Now, whenever they posted, I started getting notifications.

Then, I noticed funky posts were more relatable to me.

So, I began commenting something humorous on such posts. You have to give something to get something, right? And when I posted comments in line with the posts’ theme, their followers liked those. They even replied to my comments.

The page also liked and replied.

Increase Instagram reach and Profile visits organically by commenting

I soon noticed a gradual increase in my profile visits. The numbers used to be in hundreds, but they are in thousands now. OK, that sounds like a slight exaggeration on my part. But I’m hopeful these will keep growing if I continue interacting with relevant pages.

That’s how to get a wider reach on Instagram; through an ongoing genuine and sensible engagement.

So, make it a habit to put a comment on different accounts you admire. Only 3-5 comments a day would work.

Don’t just say “great post”. Instead, tell them you liked the hat, or how you’re craving for coffee seeing their post. Complement or share a brief thought.

You will increase your brand visibility on Instagram, get more profile visits, and even get some chances of partnerships.

How to turn on post notifications?

To turn on notifications for an Instagram account, visit that account, and tap the bell icon at the top right. A pop up will open showing different toggle buttons. Tap the button beside Posts to receive posts’ notifications from that account.

Other working methods to improve brand visibility on Instagram

1. Post shareable content

You must create and share high-quality and engaging content. But to improve visibility, content should drive shares. Post images or videos which your followers would share in their stories and DMs. Also, encourage them to share the content.

2. Upload Instagram Reels

Instagram Reels reach is good these days. So, you must try recording as many Reels as you can, and post them on the Explore tab. If people like them, the Instagram algorithm will promote them further. You might even get virality, and thus a massive organic reach.

Suggested Read: How Small Businesses Can Take Advantage of Instagram Reels?

3. Create interactive Stories

Instagram Stories appear on the top of your followers’ feed. You can create polls, run quizzes or announce giveaway contests there. You can host Instagram Live or Q&A sessions too. Make some buzz by asking followers to spread the word.

By regularly posting relatable and interactive Stories, you give your followers a reason to keep checking your account.

Conclusion

Improving Instagram organic reach isn’t an impossible task. But if you’re looking to get a quick boost to visibility, try the tested method I mentioned above. Comment on different Instagram accounts you like or in which your target audience hangs out.

It’s all about sharing relatable content; whether on your account or as a comment on others. You’ll reap the rewards soon – as a better reach and higher profile visits.

How to significantly increase the reach and engagement on Instagram

The introduction of the algorithmic feed has seriously hit the reach and engagement of many users on Instagram. Even big bloggers are complaining that posts are getting far fewer likes and comments than they used to.

Instagram has complex feed generation algorithms, and Facebook does not share how they work. Still, marketers figure out algorithms from their own experience or from a few tips from Facebook. nine0003

Post content regularly

If you start posting much less often, the coverage may drop: this is how the social network algorithm works. To increase your reach on Instagram, post new content regularly and don't go missing for a few days.

Communicate actively

At a minimum, courtesy will work: if you regularly comment on your friends' posts, they will respond to you in the same way. Ask questions, leave compliments, reply to Stories and send funny photos to your friends in direct. nine0003

Tell stories

Yes, first of all, everyone is interested in the image. However, you can keep the interest of the audience with the help of stories, the original style of presentation of materials and humor.

Posts with long texts show good results. The audience responds to such records. Concentrate not on describing the problem, but on solving it, then you will receive positive comments. This is a simple and working way to increase engagement on Instagram. nine0003

Use Call to action

Remember how you yourself behave in a social network: sometimes you would be happy to answer something under a friend's photo, but there is simply no reason to do so.

Ask questions to the audience, try to bring up interesting but easy-to-discuss topics: childhood memories, favorite food, plans for the summer.

Post Stories

The exact ranking factors for content on Instagram are unknown, but according to some assumptions based on the speeches of the developers, regular posting of Stories has a positive effect on your account. nine0003

...and use them to promote content

Unlike posts in your account, subscribers will probably see your Story. Bloggers are already using this: they announce a new post with an intriguing caption and an offer to go to the account.

Drop the gallery format

Users have noticed that posts consisting of several photos fail in the feed and collect 30-50% fewer reactions. nine0003

Determine the correct time to post

Instagram algorithms keep track of how many reactions a post received immediately after publication, and based on this determine whether to consider it interesting and whether to show it higher in the feed.

If you post a photo late at night, it will probably fail in the feed. To get the most out of it, focus not on your own impressions, but on statistics. This will help increase engagement on Instagram.

nine0002 You can track activity by time of day using the service's internal statistics. And if you need to get data for a long time period or for a competitor's account, use Popsters. So you can analyze any account on Instagram.

What should be the engagement on Instagram?

A couple of years ago, an account was considered conditionally successful, where the number of likes was 10% of the number of subscribers. Now the situation has changed: small accounts have an average higher ER than large ones (more about ER calculation). nine0003

You also have the ability to analyze any account and view detailed Instagram analytics data with Popsters.

The ratio of engagement on Instagram and the number of followers was studied by the influence. co service team. Profiles with less than 2000 followers on average have an ER of 10.7%, 2000-5000 have an ER of 6%. See chart for details:

Useful articles continued:

What you can learn from Russian brands on Instagram;
Ways to view statistics on Instagram;
How to make a beautiful and effective photo caption on Instagram;
What is Social Media Outreach - The Complete Guide.

9 proven ways to increase your Instagram reach

Why is there no Instagram reach? How to increase it and increase activity on Instagram? Known pain? For a few more years, answering these questions was as easy as shelling pears, but then the social network introduced the algorithmic principle of forming the feed, and everything broke down. Let's go back to basics and talk about proven ways to increase reach and increase statistics on Instagram. nine0003

Find the optimal time for posting

Despite the algorithmic principle of creating a user feed, the moment of posting still has not lost its significance. The right time to post always helps boost your reach. Active engagement will tell the algorithms that the content needs to be shown to more people.

How to choose the best moment

The easiest way to do this is with the help of a business profile. Its owners have access to an advanced analytical tool - Instagram Insights. With it, you can understand when members of your target audience are most active. nine0003

Instagram user activity peak

User activity analysispng

According to observations, the best time to post on Instagram is evening, but there are no universal recipes, you still have to dig into analytics

mark when users react to the post most violently. Manual analysis takes more time, but it is also a fairly accurate technique. nine0003

In order not to sit at the monitor while waiting for a better time, use delayed posting services.

Test aspect ratio

Numerous studies show that Instagram images get more likes and comments than videos. But on the basis of such analytics, it is impossible to draw unambiguous conclusions. Perhaps publishing only pictures is not suitable for a particular project.

What is the ambiguity

News Whip's user activity research shows that photos do generate more likes. But videos get about 2 times more comments than "hearts". No one really knows which of the factors is "more expensive" on Instagram. But if you follow the logic, you can draw an interesting conclusion. It takes more effort to write a comment than to get a like. Therefore, it can be assumed that content with a large number of comments has a priority in ranking, as it stimulates users better. nine0003

Ask questions and run contests

Polls and sweepstakes are classic promotions. They consistently provide good coverage on Instagram, as they form a motivated and direct call to the audience for “useful” actions for the account. The main thing is that polls and contests are really interesting and easy to perform.

Here are examples of successful ways to engage in activity:

please show a funny thematic combination of emoji;
call to mark on the page the user with the most creative signature in the account; nine0094
flash mob “Tell me about the latest book/game/movie”;
please draw a picture of a brand or event.

Burj Khalifa promotion

Instagram contest example

One of the most successful contests in our projects is the draw of two nights at the Burj Khalifa. Participants need to subscribe to the account, like and tag a friend in the comment

In order for the contests to consistently raise the asset on Instagram, you need to know when to stop. One successful campaign does not mean that you should launch the next in a few days. Contests and surveys quickly get boring. Therefore, they should be carried out rarely, but with a really worthwhile idea. nine0003

How to administer sweepstakes on Instagram

Many novice bloggers and SMM professionals face this problem. A large number of participants is difficult to control. Any special service will help to simplify the task. Let's take You to Gift as an example. This is a fully automatic tool that will independently check the fulfillment of the conditions for participation and form a systematic user base.

The advantages of this service include:

All features of the tool are free to use, making it accessible to everyone.
Contests can be held in any popular format.
The service has its own audience that will be happy to join the draw, and this can be considered free advertising.
The platform uses a reliable randomizer. Each user can be convinced of the objectivity of determining the winners.

It should be noted that You to Gift has enough competitors, so you can always choose the right assistant. nine0003

Work with user-generated content

Crowdtap research has shown that user-generated content is 50% more trusted and 35% more accepted by the audience. Own publications of commercial accounts are usually associated with advertising.

Therefore, it is highly recommended to establish communication with the target audience. Encouraging user-generated content isn't that hard. Post creativity and customer reviews on your page, offer discounts for product photos. Brainstorming will help you come up with a lot of successful motivators. nine0003

Post stories

Today even children know how to make stories. This is a very popular format that stimulates the activity of the audience well. Stories are above the main feed, so it's hard for users to "pass by". It has already been noticed that popular stories are a powerful positive signal for Instagram algorithms.

Example of a survey in Stories

Instagram Stories

Activities can be combined. For example, in an automotive project, we conducted a survey in story

Use advertising

Despite the obviousness of this recommendation, it is impossible not to talk about it. Promotion on social networks, including Instagram, is becoming more and more difficult. The most popular platforms have joined active monetization. Therefore, conditions are created in which significant success cannot be achieved without advertising.

Yes, Instagram ads are expensive, but you can work with them on a very limited budget. To do this, you need to learn to understand your target audience and set up internal targeting. Then even a small amount is enough to achieve significant coverage with the help of advertising. nine0003

Publish without fanaticism

Today, users are faced with an avalanche of content every day. If you load your audience with a lot of dubious posts, expect only a small reach on Instagram. It's always better to post a couple of really interesting photos than to fill your feed with mediocre pictures. Rare publications of high-quality content form the expectation of a holiday among subscribers, akin to information hunger.

If a social network is seen as a promising platform for promotion, forget about cross-posting and copying materials from other sites. For Instagram, you need to create an exclusive. They must exactly match the format and expectations of the target audience. Remember: bright visual images are most valued here. nine0003

Follow the trends

You can achieve genuine audience activity only if you follow the trends and maintain a truly live account. Business needs to use all available formats and tools. For example, many people forget that new arrivals in an online store can be shown in stories. In the feed, it is worth making a carousel of beautiful product photos.

Live on Instagram

Sample Live

Live is an easy and inexpensive way to warm up your audience and answer burning questions

Another tool that is undeservedly rarely used to increase coverage is live broadcasts. It is not necessary to conduct long streams. It is enough to go live for a couple of minutes to show something really interesting or funny. Broadcasts are direct communication with the audience, which increases trust and engagement. Ethers also receive priority in the user's feed.

Automate

In the broadest sense of this concept, promotion on Instagram is the race to get the maximum audience coverage. Content creation, communication with users, analytics and other activities are only means to achieve the main goal. Therefore, it is worth thinking about optimizing the promotion process on Instagram. nine0003

The use of various services to automate processes is the basis for effective work in social networks. Now there are a lot of tools, paid and free, that will help you publish materials at a given time, get a lot of analytical data, run contests, track competitors, and perform other useful functions.

Without their help, there is simply no time left to create interesting content.