As of 2024, Instagram remains one of the most popular social media platforms globally, continually evolving its features and offerings. Let’s take a look at the platform’s 3 major current offerings.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
- Instagram’s current major offerings
- How can your brand use Instagram?
- Top 5 Instagram organic strategies
- Conclusion
Instagram’s Current Major Offerings
Photo/Static Posts
Instagram users can share a photo with captions on their profile grid. Traditionally, Instagram posts are often used to showcase highlights of one’s life, share experiences, promote products or services, or engage with followers through visually appealing content — in both static and video format, but we’ll get to video in a bit.
Pro Tip: Can’t decide on just one photo to post? Instagram offers users the ability to share multiple images in a format called Carousel. The current trendy way to describe this kind of photo? A photo dump.
Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories are short-lived content that disappears after 24 hours. Stories provide a more ephemeral and spontaneous way to share moments throughout the day. They’re used for behind-the-scenes content, daily updates, announcements, and interactive engagement with followers.
Users can share photos, videos, text, and interactive elements like polls, questions, and quizzes. These gamified elements are a great way to not only build community but also hear from your audience on what they want to see and tend to gravitate towards.
Pro Tip: Don’t want to lose the story after 24 hours? Create a Highlight on your profile to encapsulate some of your favorite stories. You can make a highlight for trips, weekends, your pet and more!
Instagram Reels
Reels are videos often featuring music (especially trending songs/audio clips), text, and special effects. They’re designed for creative expression and entertainment, similar to TikTok. Reels are primarily for creative expression and entertainment. Users create short, engaging videos using various editing tools and effects to capture attention and showcase their personality or talents.
Pro Tip: Scroll through your Explore page to take note of trending sounds to jump on the trend and expand your likelihood of reaching a bigger audience!
How Can Your Brand Use Instagram?
Now, how can you and your brand use Instagram? Overall, Instagram continues to serve as a versatile platform for personal expression, brand promotion, and community building. Its diverse range of features caters to different content styles and audience preferences, making it a powerhouse in the social media landscape by having the power to reach hundreds to thousands to millions of potential consumers.
However, it’s not just about reach. What are you going to do once your content is in front of potential consumers? When thinking about the end user, there are several aspects to consider:
- Visual Content Preference: Instagram is a highly visual platform, so focus on creating visually appealing content that would cause users to stop scrolling and give you their attention.
- Authenticity and Transparency: Instagram users value authenticity and transparency from brands. Put yourself in the end users’ shoes — are you going to engage with content that feels overly polished and promotional or content that feels genuine and relatable?. I thought so.
- Engagement and Interaction: Users on Instagram are active and engaged, often liking, commenting, and sharing content. Build relationships and get users to continue to engage with your content by actively engaging with their comments, running polls, and asking questions to foster a sense of community.
- Influencer Marketing: Influencers play a significant role on Instagram, more on this further down, with many users following and trusting their recommendations. Consider partnering with influencers whose values align with yours and whose followers match their target demographic. Remember, the influencers you partner with will be a direct reflection of your brand.
- Data and Analytics: leverage Instagram’s analytics tools to gain insights into your audience demographics, content performance, and engagement metrics. This data can help you refine your content strategy and tailor messaging to better resonate with your target audience.
Are you ready to take these tools and utilize them to help grow your brand on Instagram? In this blog post, we will reveal 5 organic Instagram growth strategies that will help you grow your following, attract real followers, and engage with your audience like never before. From creating high-quality content to collaborating with influencers, we’ve got you covered. So, get ready to tap into the power of organic growth and skyrocket your Instagram success.
Check out our Instagram to see these suggested strategies and tips in action!
Top 5 Instagram Organic Strategies
1. Content Is King: Quality Over Quantity
One thing is clear in social media—attention spans are fleeting, and competition is fierce. The key to Instagram success? The quality of your content. Remember, it’s not about the number of posts you churn out; it’s about crafting visually captivating and high-quality graphics, images, and videos that make your brand stand out. Each piece of content should be a testament to your brand’s identity and resonate deeply with your target audience.
Take time to explore what content category works best for you and your brand. Some categories are:
- Educational: use studies, articles, and blogs to teach consumers that can lead to how your product can be a solution
- Green screens: using a green screen, or even the in app feature that does most of the work for you, is a great storytelling tool
- Direct to camera: a raw and real approach to speak to camera/create content
- Skits: humorous sketches are a great way that audiences are more likely to share with their own audiences
- Repurposed content: reach out to creators that have created content and ask if you can share to your feed as well for an authentic approach
- Voiceover Vlog: a visual first approach!
When exploring these content categories, no matter which one you go with, make sure you have a strong hook that keeps your audience from scrolling past to the next content. The stronger the hook, the more likely they are to make it through to the end of your content, which will keep them coming back for more.
Regarding captions, think of them as the perfect complement to your visuals. Write concise, informative, and engaging captions that add value to your posts. Engage your audience with thought-provoking questions, share behind-the-scenes glimpses, or provide insightful tips related to your niche. Remember, authenticity is key – let your brand’s personality shine through in every caption.
Consistency is crucial, but don’t fall into the trap of posting excessively or deviating from your brand’s core message. Quality over quantity should be your mantra. Overwhelming your followers with irrelevant content can dilute your brand’s impact and confuse your audience. Instead, take the time to carefully curate your content, making sure that each post aligns with your brand and adds value to your followers’ experience.
Last but not least, embrace the power of analytics. Instagram Insights provides a wealth of information about your audience engagement, post performance, and follower growth. Analyze these metrics regularly to gain insights into what resonates most with your audience. Use this knowledge to fine-tune your content strategy and create even more compelling content that keeps your followers coming back for more.
Content Is King: In Action
Take a look at Oura Ring’s Instagram account. Notice their feed is polished, well-thought-out and manages to stay on trend with posts that put their own spin on cultural events.
2. Consistent Posting Schedule
Consistency is key when it comes to Instagram success. By posting regularly, you can keep your audience engaged and coming back for more. Plus, a consistent posting schedule can help you reach new followers who may be interested in your content.
To find the best times to post for your target audience, consider their demographics and interests. For example, if you’re targeting millennials, you may want to post during the evening or on weekends. If you’re targeting business professionals, you may want to post during the morning or early afternoon. You can also use Instagram Insights to see when your current followers are most active.
Once you’ve determined the best times to post, create a content calendar to help you stay on track. Your content calendar should include a mix of different types of content, such as photos, videos, and carousel posts. You should also include a mix of promotional and non-promotional content.
When creating your content, be sure to focus on quality over quantity. Your posts should be well-written, visually appealing, and relevant to your target audience. You should also use relevant hashtags to help your posts reach a wider audience.
By following these tips, you can create a consistent posting schedule that will help grow your Instagram following and reach an ever wider audience. Just remember to be patient and persistent – it takes time to build a successful Instagram account.
Consistent Posting: In Action
Take a look at our own Instagram account — NoGood. We have an in-house creative team that produces content daily on Instagram (and TikTok). We’ve been able to create viral reels by a mixture of talent, creativity AND posting consistently. Several tools that assist us in posting cadence are Click Up, Google Sheets, and others such as Emplifi or Sprinklr.
3. Community Engagement: Foster Genuine Connections
Building a strong community on Instagram is essential for organic growth. Here are some effective strategies to engage with your audience and foster genuine connections:
- Actively respond to comments and messages: try to respond to comments on your posts and direct messages from your followers. This shows that you value their opinions and are interested in building relationships with them. Respond in a timely and personalized manner, and avoid using generic responses.
- Encourage user-generated content (UGC): UGC is a powerful tool for building community and authenticity on Instagram. Encourage your followers to create and share content related to your brand, and feature their posts on your account. This not only generates fresh and engaging content but also makes your followers feel valued and appreciated.
- Run contests and giveaways: Contests and giveaways are a fun and effective way to engage your audience and attract new followers. Offer prizes that are relevant to your brand and set clear rules and guidelines for participation. Contests and giveaways can generate excitement and buzz around your account, leading to increased visibility and follower growth.
- Feature customer testimonials: Share positive customer experiences and testimonials on your Instagram account. This builds trust and credibility with potential customers and reinforces the value of your brand. Customer testimonials serve as social proof and can influence purchasing decisions.
- Utilize Instagram Stories: Instagram Stories offer a dynamic way to engage with your audience in a more personal and real-time manner. Use Stories to share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your brand, product demonstrations, tutorials, polls, and questions to encourage interaction. Stories can help you connect with your followers on a deeper level and create a sense of community.
- Broadcast Channels: Instagram Broadcast Channels are a new feature revolutionizing how users engage with content on the platform. These channels function as dedicated spaces where creators can curate and share a series of posts centered around a specific theme, topic, or project. This is a great way to scope out your loyal audience members as this is essentially free-mium content, and as they have to subscribe and join the channel to get the content. Additionally, users can easily discover and follow these channels, ensuring they stay up-to-date with the latest posts and updates.
- Call and Response: Asking users to leave a comment, participate in Stories’ gamified units, or tagtagging you in their UGC is a great way to navigate your content strategy, as the audience that you are trying to target is giving you live feedback (and sometimes even content examples with their own UGC) of what they would like to see.
Community Engagement: In Action
Take a look at Photoshop’s Instagram account. The power and reach of both their brand and product are clearly showcased as their feed is almost entirely a direct result of what their consumers were able to create through the use of what they’re selling — Photoshop. This is a great example of UGC and featuring customers.
Another example would be Saturday Night Live’s Instagram account. They utilize Broadcast Channels to give fans an inside look behind the scenes into the writers’ room, dress rehearsals, quick changes in between sketches, and more.
4. Hashtag Strategy: Elevate Your Discoverability
Hashtags are an essential part of Instagram marketing, and using them effectively can help you reach a wider audience and grow your follower base.
To start, research popular and relevant hashtags in your niche. Use tools like Instagram’s search function, hashtag generators, or third-party analytics platforms to find hashtags that your target audience is using. Additionally, keep in mind that as social media and Instagram are evolving, users—specifically younger audiences—come to platforms like Instagram for both entertainment and a search engine. Leverage your hashtags and caption copy by thinking about what users might search to where your brand and post would appear at the top of the search results.
Next, create branded hashtags specific to your business or campaign. Branded hashtags can help you build brand recognition and encourage user-generated content. Use your branded hashtags consistently in all your Instagram posts and encourage your followers to use them as well.
Track and analyze your hashtag performance regularly using Instagram Insights or other analytics tools. Track the reach, impressions, and engagement of your posts with different hashtags to understand what’s working and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Finally, engage with other users’ posts that use your hashtags. Like, comment, and follow relevant accounts to build relationships and increase your visibility. Participating in conversations around your hashtags can help you connect with potential customers and expand your reach.
Remember to use a mix of popular and niche hashtags, but avoid using too many hashtags (Instagram allows up to 30 per post). Focus on using relevant and targeted hashtags that align with your content and target audience to maximize your discoverability.
Hashtag Strategy: In Action
Take a look at Apple’s Instagram. In 2019, they announced a photo contest that asked iPhone users to take a photo and publish it on Instagram with the hashtag #ShotoniPhone. The winning images were posted on all across Apple’s platforms.
Not only did the photographers win—Apple did as well. Today, Instagram users can scroll through millions of posts under the #ShotoniPhone tag and see stunning photos, you guessed it, shot on iPhones.
5. Influencer Collaborations: Tap Into Established Audiences
Collaborating with influencers is a strategic move that can propel your Instagram growth and amplify your brand’s reach. Influencers have already established a loyal following and have the power to influence the purchasing decisions of their audience. Partnering with the right influencers can introduce your brand to a broader audience, generate brand awareness, and drive potential customers to your profile.
When selecting influencers, authenticity, and alignment are paramount. Choose influencers whose values and content resonate with your brand’s identity and target audience. Micro-influencers, with their engaged and highly responsive followers, can be particularly effective in fostering genuine connections and driving conversions.
To create a successful collaboration, set clear expectations and outline specific goals. Determine the type of content, deliverables, and timeline, and establish metrics to measure the success of the partnership. Providing influencers with clear guidelines helps maintain brand consistency while allowing them creative freedom to express their unique style.
Leveraging user-generated content (UGC) from influencer collaborations adds a layer of authenticity to your brand’s narrative. By reposting or featuring influencers’ content on your profile, you tap into their credibility and establish trust with your audience. UGC humanizes your brand, showcasing real people using and enjoying your products or services.
Influencer collaborations are a powerful tool for organic Instagram growth. By partnering with the right influencers, setting clear expectations, and utilizing UGC effectively, you can tap into established audiences, build brand credibility, and drive engaged followers to your profile.
Influencer Collaborations: In Action
Take a look at Dunkin’s Instagram. One thing just about everyone loves? Coffee. What Dunkin’ does extremely well in the social space is using a wide range of influencers—actors, pop stars, and online personalities — to expand their reach and make sure all coffee runs lead to Dunkin’.
Conclusion
Organic growth strategies are the best way to build a sustainable following on Instagram. If you focus on quality content, engage with your audience, and use relevant hashtags and influencer collaborations, you can grow your reach and build a community of engaged followers. Be sure to analyze your progress and continuously optimize your strategies based on data and insights.
Remember, consistency and authenticity are key to success on Instagram. By staying true to your brand’s identity and providing value to your audience, you can build a loyal following that will help you achieve your business goals. So, start implementing these organic growth strategies today and watch your Instagram account flourish.
