Whether you are using a new IG profile or have a long-existing one, having social visibility is crucial to your success. You cannot gain any engagement on your posts if no one sees them. Instagram is currently one of the most influential social media platforms for marketing making. The presence of more than a billion active users makes it the perfect virtual space for brand building and attracting customers. However, the massive user count operative on the site also makes it full of competitors for any professional. Whether your business is B2B or B2C, well-established or new, chances are Instagram is already home to many brands from your niche. Building an optimized visibility plan for an IG account in such a scenario needs some meticulous digital media strategizing. It may be a daunting task, especially if you are trying to build yourself up from a follower count of 0. But it is certainly not impossible.
Many new account holders consider purchasing social media signals to get a head start in the account-building process. You may buy Instagram likes, shares, followers, and many other similar components that play a crucial role in determining your visibility on the platform. However, this is a short-term solution and requires extreme alertness on your part. Unless your purchased services are real-time add-ons, your visibility and reach on the platform may fall rather than increase. Here is a guide on how you can optimize your brand-new IG account for long-term visibility and reach.
Visibility on Instagram: What Determines This?
Social visibility on Instagram or any other networking platform is how consistently and prominently you are seen by other network users. In most cases, it is directly linked to how, where, and when you feature on the home feed of the platform. Instagram’s algorithms determine every account’s visibility and reach.
When you look at Instagram, you will notice that the site personalizes the home feed for each user. Consider the scenario: you and I are IG users following the duplicate accounts and having the same followers on our accounts. If you and I were to log into our Instagram accounts simultaneously from the exact location, we would still have a different content lineup on our respective feeds. This is because what we see is determined by algorithms that process our online behavior on the platform rather than the chronology of posts put up by IG users. The following are key determiners of your visibility on Instagram:
- Relation to fellow IG users:
- Who are you actively following?
- Who actively follows you?
- Which accounts are you a dormant follower on?
- Who are inactive followers on your account?
- Who do you frequently message or interact with?
- Which IG users tag you in their content and vice versa?
- Whose content do you share or save?
- Time of engagement:
- When do your posts get maximum attention?
- Who is online when you are posting content?
- Search signals:
- Who runs frequent searches on your username or IG profile?
- Which hashtags and keywords of yours feature most prominently on others’ search feeds?
- Time spent on Instagram:
- How long do you and your followers stay active on the platform?
- How frequently do you post and interact with others?
It is also worth remembering that visibility on Instagram is determined by not one but several sets of algorithms. This is why you may place differently on:
- The main IG home feed of individual users;
- IG Stories feed;
- IG Explore tab;
- IG Reels;
- IGTV app.
Essential Must-Haves Before You Begin
Like any other aspect of your business, creating a method for increasing your digital visibility will work best with specific prerequisites in place. Now that you have a fair idea of what can affect your visibility on Instagram, you can put in place an informed plan for creating your IG presence. Here is a quick check-list of what you must have in place before you begin your brand-building mission on Instagram:
- Research Skills
Knowing what determines your visibility is not enough. It would help if you did thorough homework on how to trigger these algorithms in your favor. The best way to go about this is to:
- Study the online behavior and actions of your competitors. This includes surveying:
- What kind of posts gets the most reach and impression?
- What hashtags bring maximum conversions?
- Who interacts with their posts?
- Study the online behavior patterns of your target audience. This includes surveying:
- When your target audience is most active on IG?
- What kind of posts do they interact with most?
- What localized details should you pay attention to?
- What mentions and hashtags are popular with them?
- Do contests and giveaways attract desired traction?
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
- Study the marketing benefits of using promotions, ads, and paid social signals. This includes understanding:
- Personalized micro-goal-driven Instagram advertisements;
- Monetizing IG content;
- Purchasing social signals from third parties;
- Using Shopping tags and Referrals.
- Know the legal rules of social media business marketing. This includes familiarizing yourself with:
- The fine print details of IG terms and policies;
- The localized rules and regulations of Instagram concerning the country you reside in.
- Presentation Skills
Content is king for any marketing strategy online or offline. It is not enough to ensure your content is of top quality, and in keeping with your business ethics, you must also have the ability to present the same in a manner that makes the average IG user pause their thumb-scrolling to check it out. Familiarize yourself with:
- Ways of posting live or recorded content.
- Fonts, filters, and add-ons make content visually enriching and popular.
- Trending presentation ideas like using infographics, polls, and surveys.
- Formats and quality of videos and images that work the best in the different formats of content creation on Instagram.
- Hashtag and caption optimization strategies.
- People Skills
You cannot expect to gain engagement if you contribute zero attention to your fellow IG users’ content. Ensure your people’s skills are at their optimum by:
- Following and engaging with relevant accounts, in your industry and allied niche.
- Promptly responding to follower interactions on your account.
- Being always approachable, courteous, and genuine.
- Being open to dialogue and changes.
- Being patient, and focused on humanizing your brand.
Steps to Optimizing your IG Account’s visibility from Zero
Now you are ready to make your presence on Instagram. Capitalize on all the essentials by following these easy steps:
- Make a Business Account
A common mistake made by many news users of Instagram is to start a general account. If you are using the site for professional reasons, be sure to use a business account. Having it gives you certain advantages that will help you raise your visibility from zero. You get access to using:
- Instagram insights and analytics that let you keep a tab of how well your posts are doing. Not only will you be able to check your reach and visibility, but you can also see other important details like:
- Who is interacting with your account?
- Which hashtags are bringing you high engagement?
- Who views but does not engage with your content?
- What is your current audience demographic?
- Instagram’s ads and promotions that let you tailor your ads as per your:
- End goal;
- Budget;
- Duration required for advancement.
- Retailing features that let you make direct sales from the platform, thus increasing your visibility. This includes:
- Connecting to your Facebook marketplace catalog;
- Creating shoppable posts;
- Adding CTA buttons to your profile that let you sell using third-party websites.
- Create a Bio that Makes an Impression
Check your profile page to ensure you have it complete and it leaves a great first impression. This makes your visitors curious enough to look through your posts. The triggering engagement metrics increase your visibility chances on the platform and bring further engagement from new audiences. The following sections are of utmost importance when it comes to leaving a lasting impression:
- Profile picture
Select a profile picture that speaks for your brand and its persona. If you have profiles on other social media sites, use the same profile photo to create brand recognition. Whether you use a face, an object, or a logo for your image, a good quality image with good lighting is always a good idea regardless of the subject in your picture. Your username should be simple to remember and understand.
- URL
This is an active hyperlink space. Use it to direct people to web pages you want traffic for. This could be a link to an account on another social media platform, your official website, an e-site, a review, a survey, or any other working landing page. You can change this link as per your marketing needs as frequently as you wish. Showcase your best here to attract audience traction to your IG posts too.
- Description
Make this as SEO optimized as possible using primary keyword descriptors. Keep it simple and genuine. Tell the audience what will interest them about your account.
- Contact Information
Provide working contact information like an email or address to build trust for your brand. This will bring real followers and interaction to your account, which will raise your visibility on the platform.
- CTA
Depending on where you are, you may add direct call-to-action buttons that allow your visitors to reserve or purchase your services using a third party.
- Experiment and Evaluate
When you start creating posts, do not be afraid to test out the waters for different types of posts. If you plan your content creation strategy ahead of time, you will quickly test out what posting format works for you. Also, take note of what time of posting attracts maximum engagement from the desired target audience. Ensure that these posts, although experimental, are professional enough to leave a good impression on visitors. If you can make them pause to like or comment on these, you would have already set out on the right track of gaining visibility when you experiment:
- Do not lose sight of your micro goals.
- Be confident of the visual identity and persona you are trying to craft.
- Create content that showcases what your brand can do for its potential clients.
- Use All Inbuilt Features
To increase your audience reach, try out all the different content formats on Instagram. Keep in mind that the key is to make relatable posts. Creatively study and use the features and add-ons for each design, namely Stories, Reels, Carousel, IGTV, Live videos, and regular posts.
- Collaborate
Find partners to create content with and promote your account. Find Influencers and Content Creators who can help you build organic client relationships. Choose who you work with after a thorough background check of their authenticity, reach, and visibility.
Collaborating with someone with similar business values and attitudes can pull your visibility up considerably in your desired audience base.
- Have a Consistent-Posting Schedule
Create a content plan and posting calendar based on your research about your target audience’s behavior. Keep to your schedule. When you create new content or go live, ensure you make announcements and provide teasers ahead of time to generate audience interest and attract maximum organic engagement. Having a consistent posting schedule builds audience anticipation as it makes your posting pattern predictable for them. Your real active followers will likely visit your profile to check your new content even if it does not appear on their feed if they are anticipating its posting. This increases the chances of your being visible on their feeds for your later posts. To enable this, you can make use of tools to auto-schedule and publish your Instagram content.
- Engage
You need to engage with others to find reciprocal engagement from IG users. Connect with your target audience and your industry peers. Be insightful and approachable in your comments. Respond promptly to queries and appreciations left by visitors. If responding to all is overwhelming, you could use auto-responses to keep the conversation polite and generic without offending your active followers.
- Maintain Quality Check
Ultimately your content is your best tool for enhancing visibility. High-quality content will bring real engagement. Grow your impression and reach with content that connects. Great posts genuinely make the audience come back to your account. Do not compromise on quality for short-term success.
Conclusion
In short, do not let the fact that you are starting at ground zero intimidate you. If you stay focused on your goals and tailor your Instagram presence around them, you will find your way up. Plan your launch right to get yourself an optimized head start. Hereafter, you are in the same rat race as your competitors and peers. Navigate through the trends and keep yourself updated with the platform’s new features and policies. Once you have begun your journey on Instagram, it is all about maintaining an optimized presence to attract real organic growth. Believe in your marketing plans and watch your account grow from zero visibility. As long as you focus on the quality of your content and keep your target audience engaged, you are sure to build an impressive and healthy reach and presence for your business soon!