Are you regularly posting fantastic content on Instagram but not getting enough likes? Many brands experience low engagement on Instagram because of fierce competition and the reducing human attention span.
If you want to grow Instagram likes organically and quickly, we’ve got you covered. Here are nine proven strategies you can implement to boost your Instagram likes and engagement.
1. Create content your followers want to see
You must be creating top-notch content that educates and empowers your users. But do they really want to see it? When formulating an Instagram content strategy, many brands publish content their audience “might” want to see.
This guesswork isn’t always accurate, and brands end up posting content their audience isn’t interested in. Therefore, they get fewer likes and low engagement.
If you’re growing a new Instagram account, do some research to find out what your audience wants to see. Share content accordingly to get more free Instagram likes.
2. Use relevant and high-traffic hashtags
Instagram is fueled by hashtags. There are infinite hashtags on Instagram, with new ones being created daily. Here are the top five Instagram hashtags and how often they’ve been mentioned.
- #love (1.83 billion)
- #instagood (1.150 billion)
- #fashion (812.7 million)
- #photooftheday (797.3 million)
- #beautiful (661.0 million)
People use hashtags to search for posts related to topics they’re interested in. For example, someone who wants to see travel-related content can search for #travel, which currently has over 180 million mentions.
When you use high-traffic hashtags, you can attract more traffic and likes, even if you have fewer followers. In fact, posts with at least one hashtag get 29% higher engagement. This figure skyrockets to 79.5% for 11 hashtags.
That said, it’s essential to use relevant hashtags only. For instance, if you’re a beverage brand, using #fashion and #beautiful hashtags will be irrelevant. You may get traffic with these hashtags, but likes and engagement will remain low.
Your hashtags should meet the following criteria:
- High traffic
- Relevance
3. Write irresistible captions
While Instagram is essentially a visual-centric platform, captions play a vital role in engagement. You can use captions to give context to your posts and grab people’s attention.
Instagram captions have a character limit of 2,200 characters. So, apart from writing punchy one-liners to grab attention, you can write detailed captions to share in-depth information with your audience.
Here’s where good old copywriting comes into the picture. You could either sharpen your copywriting skills or hire a specialist copywriter to do the job for you. But ensure that your posts have captions your audience can’t ignore.
4. Invest in high-quality visuals
If you take away one learning from this article, let it be this. Invest in high-quality visuals.
To understand this further, let’s travel back to 2010, when Instagram was born. Initially, Instagram was a photo and video sharing service. Photographers and videographers would share their work with an audience, and good-quality images and videos were highly appreciated.
While Instagram has developed into the go-to social networking platform over the years, good-quality photos and videos still receive the best response. So, focus on creating stunning visuals to maximize engagement and get free Instagram likes.
5. Take inspiration from other brands
Competitor analysis is a big part of Instagram marketing. If your competitors are active on Instagram and getting excellent engagement, dig into what they’re doing and try to implement the same in your Instagram strategy.
Suppose you’re a sportswear brand trying to appeal to a younger audience. You see Nike as your Instagram competitor, as the brand has 200 million+ followers and high audience engagement.
When you analyze Nike’s Instagram content strategy, you find that the brand invests heavily in influencer marketing. Nike regularly collaborates with athletes worldwide to reach a global audience and increase engagement.
Hence, you can also partner with influencers to reach a global audience and get more likes and engagement.
6. Tag users
Tagging people in your posts is an effortless way to increase likes and engagement. When you tag people, they get notified of the post. Hence, they’re more likely to interact with the post and like it.
More importantly, people feel involved when you tag them, encouraging them to like the post. Many users may even repost the content or share it as Stories.
When you tag people, your posts may also appear in the Explore section of the tagged users’ followers. This way, you can reach an even larger audience and increase likes.
7. Run contests and events
Running contests and events on social media is a time-tested engagement strategy. Contests have a conversion rate of 34%, and 33% of contest participants are open to receiving brand information and offers.
Instagram contests help build a community, incentivize your audience, boost awareness, and generate leads and sales.
Any Instagram contest needs the following elements:
- Start and end date
- Entry criteria
- Prize
- Winner selection criteria
Here’s an example of an Instagram giveaway contest hosted by Raww Cosmetics.
Users had to follow the brand’s Instagram profile, like the contest post, and tag three friends to participate. The prize was Raww Cosmetics’ skincare range comprising numerous products.
You can use QR codes to promote your Instagram contests to an offline audience. Create a QR code for your Instagram post and share it with your audience to increase participation. And you can also use a Social Media QR code to share your Instagram profile across channels and increase followers.
8. Post memes
Memes are funny, engaging, and memorable — exactly how content on social media should be. They enable your brand to move away from the usual “branded” content and stand out from the crowd. Brands like Gucci, Ruffles, and BarkBox have hopped on the meme trend.
Memes are versatile, and you can incorporate them into your social media strategy regardless of your industry. Whether you’re in retail, fashion, finance, real estate, or technology, you can leverage memes to put a smile on your audience’s faces.
That said, memes could go against the identity of some brands. For example, memes may not sit right with your audience if you’re a retirement home or life insurance company.
But if you want to position your brand as friendly and casual, memes can help.
9. Experiment with different content types
In this attention economy, brands can’t afford to be boring and predictable on social media. If you post similar content daily, your audience will eventually get bored. You must experiment with various content types and mix up your content to keep your followers interested.
Here are some Instagram content ideas to experiment with:
- Infographics
- Explainer videos
- Product teasers
- Behind-the-scenes photos and videos
- Interviews
- Memes and humorous content
- User-generated content
For example, if you sell physical products, you can encourage people to click photos with your products and share them on Instagram. You can then repost those photos to create a vast library of user-generated content.
Final thoughts
The Instagram ‘like count’ matters, and brands should take a strategic approach to increase likes. More likes indicate high engagement, resulting in more leads and sales.
There are numerous ways to increase Instagram likes organically. In a nutshell, brands can increase likes by publishing high-quality, evergreen content that their audience wants to see.
If you want to promote your Instagram posts with QR codes, QRCodeChimp can help. Sign up for QRCodeChimp today and create a free QR code.
