So you just started growing on Instagram, or you’ve been on a platform for a while, but whatever you do and what advice you follow, your account seems to be dead. First of all, there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy that will work for every individual or business on Instagram, but you can boost your chances for growth if you optimize the most important elements of your profile.

There’s no better way to discover, and fix the holes in your Instagram action plan, than auditing your profile, so in this article, I’ll share with you an audit checklist that will help you recognize areas of your Instagram page that need optimization. Ready to improve your Instagram performance? All right then… Let’s dive in!

How are you supposed to know what areas of your account need optimization? We’ll Scooby Doo that thing. In other words, you’ll audit your profile.

What an Instagram Audit Is? Why Do You Need an Instagram Audit?

An Instagram audit is an investigation process (don’t worry, it only sounds super serious, but it really is not!). It helps you find your profile’s weak points and evaluate if it’s moving in the right direction. It helps you analyze different components that make up your profile and content strategy to determine what updates and modifications need to be made in order to grow quicker. It’s the most optimal way of increasing the effectiveness of your Instagram presence! Instagram audit is an absolute necessity and something every serious Instagram user should do every 3-4 months.

Now when you know what’s an Instagram audit and why you need it,  let’s go ahead and jump right into our checklist.

What Steps to Include in an Instagram Audit. Instagram Audit Checklist

Instagram  is a long-term game that can definitely lead to your views going up, so it’s really worth it to audit it carefully. What steps should your audit include?

• Are you using an Instagram business account?
• Is your Instagram handle consistent with your other social media handles? 
• Analysis of your Instagram goals
• Review of every single element of your Instagram account: username, BIO, link in the BIO, display name, profile picture
• Content strategy review
• Hashtag review and hashtag research
• Audience review

The Best Place To Start Is Going Back to Your Instagram Goals

• What were they initially?
• Did you start your Instagram profile to boost your sales, build brand awareness or generate newsletter leads? 

Look at them very carefully and ask yourself: does my Instagram profile achieve my objectives? If the answer is no, make a note of the areas that need improvement.

The easiest way to recognize what areas of your profile aren’t delivering results is to look into several KPIs. KPI, known as Key Performance Indicator, is just a fancy marketing term for indicators of your progress towards a particular goal.

For example: if your goal is to generate more website traffic through Instagram- your KPI would be the number of clicks your website gets in your Stories and Bio. 

So if you see that there’s not much traffic coming to your website from your Instagram profile, you’ll look for any holes in your communication strategy and your profile optimization causing this problem. The next step will be to check what doesn’t work on the surface and…

Review All the Core Elements of Your Instagram Profile

Like your username, display name, profile photo, a profile description, action buttons, highlights, and overall profile aesthetic These elements are very important for two reasons.

• One, they are the first thing people see in your profile, and most of your visitors will decide to follow your account based on the quality of the information included in each section
• And two, Optimizing each of these elements will help you improve your chances of being discovered by users searching keywords related to your niche. In other words, your profile will be SEO-friendly.

This is what you should pay attention to rank higher in Instagram Search results: 

• your @ handle, display name, and bio description should include keywords, so terms people use to find your business. For example, if you’re a wedding florist, you could incorporate the keyword ‚florist’ in your @handle, then add a long-tail keyword in your display name like  ‚wedding florist & stylist.’ And finally, make sure your bio description says what you do and whom you do it for with keywords like ‚Timeless wedding floral designs for the modern romantics’. 

If you optimize these three elements, your account will appear much higher in the search results. I’ve used the search term wedding florist to show you that the top results are profiles that included keywords in the @handle and display name, or just in the display name if they use a business name for their @handle. so you can see for yourself that it works. If your profile isn’t getting much traffic, this may be the part of the audit you should focus on the most.

These were the SEO elements of your bio; now, let’s review the ones that will wow your visitors and make them follow you:

• the first thing that people see is your profile photo – if you’re a business, it will be your logo; if you run a personal brand, it should be your headshot. It needs to be good quality, big enough to be seen on mobile, and match your overall branding. If your photo is of terrible quality, it may be pushing people away.
• Next, again, your bio – it needs to include keywords, but it also needs to sound human, show your personality, tell people why they should follow you, and what makes you different from other profiles in your niche. If you want your Instagram to drive traffic to your website, it also needs to include a link and a call to action. If you’re missing any of these elements, it may mean that your visitors need more clues on what to do in your profile. 
• Make sure also to review your highlights – they can be a great extension for your bio with essential information about your business or your personal brand, and a fantastic eye-catcher! So if they don’t have cohesive covers that align with your brand’s visual identity and include some random insignificant stories that don’t help your audience at all, you’re not optimizing this section enough. 
• and, finally, make sure that you’re maintaining a consistent aesthetic throughout your Instagram feed. If your grid looks like complete chaos, your audience may not be interested in connecting with a profile without a visual identity. 

Once you’ve identified any errors on the surface of your Instagram page, it’s time to dig a bit deeper and…

Look Into the Quality of Your Content

If your content doesn’t resonate with your target audience, meaning it doesn’t spark much engagement, support your goals or  reach many people, these could be the reasons why:

• Number one is that you have no content strategy that supports your objectives – your audience should understand what you have to offer just from one look at your recent posts. They won’t scroll through your entire feed to get to know you, so you should ensure that your posts tell a consistent story and carry the main message you want people to hear and act on. 

Another thing you should look into is the quality of your content and captions. Sadly, if your photos, videos, and graphics are of poor quality, the text is invisible, the image doesn’t correspond with the caption at all, your content is probably confusing and not appealing to your audience. Same goes for captions – if they don’t address your audiences pain points, talk about what’s interesting for them not only for you, and never include calls to action, they will not generate much engagement.

Another element that might be missing in your content is…

Keywords in Captions

This information came straight from the head of Instagram and revealed that for a post to be found in Search, you should put keywords and hashtags in the caption. The algorithm uses this information to index your content so people can easily find posts related to this term.  And this way, we’ve smoothly moved to another point on our audit checklist, which is reviewing your hashtags.

Review Your Hashtags

Hashtags can help you get more eyes on your content, and they are super effective, especially for smaller accounts that just started to build their Instagram presence. There’s no magic number for hashtags. You can use as many of them as you want (up to 30), as long as you choose them wisely. 

If your insights show that you’re not getting any reach from hashtags, make sure that in your posts, you always include:

• Hashtags specific to your content, niche, and your target audience.
• Relevancy is the key to finding effective hashtags 

The best way to check what hashtags work for you is to track their performance. Hashtag Performance feature in the IQ Hashtags tool shows you how your posts ranked for each hashtag. You can use it to make collections of best-performing hashtags to re-use them in the future posts for better visibility and engagement. 

The final thought about hashtags is that they aren’t a magic bullet; they will improve your reach but won’t fix poor content, so don’t build your entire strategy around hashtags.

The last but not least point on our checklist is:

Auditing your Instagram audience

• Are your followers your target audience?
• Do you know their interests and the kind of content they enjoy the most?
• Is your profile followed by any mass followers or bots that affect your profile’s engagement rate?

These questions are a very important part of your audit because you’re building your profile to reach a specific audience, so you shouldn’t care about vanity metrics like your followers’ count but the quality of your audience. If people who follow you don’t engage with your content, don’t buy your service or a product, you’re probably not talking to the right people.

Use your profile insights to verify your followers’ demographic – are they the right age, do they come from the right country or even a city if you’re a local business

Then you can check your posts’ insights to improve your engagement and see what posts resonated with the right audience and supported your overall goal (like increasing your website traffic). Make a list of the most popular topics and double down on this content.

Review Your Followers List and See if They Are Not Mass Followers or Bots.

Both aren’t great for your profile engagement as they are not quality followers. You’ll usually recognize bots by some dodgy-sounding usernames like @lady358_1000. There are typically many numbers involved… You can remove them from your profile as they will never engage with your content and only affect your engagement rate.

The same goes for mass followers. If an account that follows more than 2000 profiles follows you, it is unlikely that they will ever see and engage with your content since the competition is relatively high. This kind of profile usually follows everyone as they go, so since they’re not quality followers, you can say goodbye to them too. But before you do that, always make sure that they are not an engaged part of your community.

If you’d like to know more about your audience’s interests based on their activity on the platform, you should test IQ Hashtags Users Analysis tab. It will show you all the demographic data you get from Instagram insights and tell you what your followers are interested in and what hashtags and tags they use the most. This will help you create more engaging content your followers are genuinely interested in. 

And that would be the end of our 5 step audit checklist.

Hopefully, it will help you identify the most common errors in your Instagram profile, so now, let’s move to the fun part!

Can You Do an Audit Yourself or Should You Hire Someone?

Auditing your profile can be complicated even if you know what you should pay attention to, so if you’re looking for another pair of eyes to help you set your Instagram profile on the right track then say no more, I’m coming to your rescue.

We’ve recently launched IQ Hashtags Custom Instagram Audits run by me, and my partner in crime. We’ll save you hours of work by reviewing your profile and packing all the tips and observations in a complex PDF with an identification of your profile’s strengths and weaknesses. Your bio, content, and hashtags review with tips on how to fix each of these components of your profile if they aren’t working in your favor, but also, we’ll give you strategy suggestions based on our findings in your account. 

All of these to help you grow and achieve your goals. If this sounds interesting to you, make sure to visit the link.

And that’s all I’ve got for you today. Thank you so much for reading. And I’ll see you in the next one.

The post How Do I Do an Instagram Audit and Is It Easy? Step by Step + Free Checklist! appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

It goes without saying that 2021 has been the year a lot of us weren’t expecting – it’s brought so many surprises, new challenges, and Instagram updates, it’s almost unimaginable! Someone asked us the other day whether it’s still a good time to start growing your Instagram account in the current situation, and our answer to this was… Our first thought and the mantra we always deeply believe in: “Purpose and passion led Instagram profiles with a conscious content strategy will always have a place in the Instagram world”.

But we know it sounds a bit like Paulo Coelho’s quote, and it may not exclude your doubts! No wonder, we all prefer strong evidence and in-depth research. That’s exactly what we need to talk about today! From so many of our frank conversations with you (did we mention how much we love them?!), we know that this doubt is absurdly common. Is it really too late to take your Instagram growth more seriously? Believe us, we hear similar questions ALL THE TIME. But what’s absolutely crazy, and maybe even a bit amusing to us is that we’ve been hearing these questions for more than a few years. A GOOD FEW YEARS. One particular question that we are repeatedly asked, especially in December and January, and literally at the start of each year, is “please, tell me without beating around the bush, isn’t it too late to start growing my Instagram in (insert year)“? This question is becoming even more regularly raised as the years go by. In the last two months alone, we’ve got many comments and discussions with you about whether it isn’t too late to start growing on the ‘Gram in 2022. 

And now we know – there might be a little, low voice inside your head telling you from time to time that you’ve missed the boat. A mean voice that sounds so realistic and wise, you’re ready to believe it. It’s laughing in your face:

Come on, it’s too late to start growing your IG in 2022 because it has all been said and created before.

How could you stand out among the trillions of AMAZING profiles with awesome content already out there? 

Nobody will care about your posts, and the growth isn’t feasible anymore.

And guess what? These are perfectly normal concerns! SO MANY CREATORS HAVE THEM. You’re definitely not alone. We all face them from time to time. It’s certainly more challenging to stand out now than it was back in 2015 for example. But that ABSOLUTELY doesn’t mean it’s too late to start growing, hell no! In fact, we STRONGLY believe there’s never been a better time to be an Instagram creator. Despite all the challenges of 2021 (and holy moly, there were so many of them!), we have seen incredible growth from the creators and Instagram entrepreneurs we work with. It seems like ambitious content creators with good content strategies are growing more than ever. Intrigued? 

So let’s elaborate on that and resolve all doubts! Today we’ll discuss:

• Is it too late to start taking your Instagram growth more seriously in 2022? Did you miss your chance?
• Is it still possible for you to create a career through Instagram?
• Will Instagramming be dead in 2022?
• How could you stand out among the millions of gorgeous Instagram profiles already out there?

If you’re reading this blog post, the chances are that you too have been thinking about taking your Instagram growth to the next level, but you’re a bit… Scared? Perhaps you’ve come across some Instagram creators who have built impressive online businesses, landed brand deals, and they’re living your dream life. Maybe you’re wondering if that kind of Instagram success could happen for you too? Is it still possible? Are you really able to achieve it? The first spoiler: it won’t be a walk in the park, but yup, it’s absolutely POSSIBLE. 

Are there too many competitors already?

At the beginning of 2021, there were an estimated 1 billion active Instagram users out there. So yes, you might be right in thinking: wait, that it’s all been said before. So many times! But that’s not so crucial. One thing is even more sure, however! It hasn’t been said by… YOU. Your story-telling, perspective, experiences, absolutely unique point of view, story of your life, insights, aesthetic, and sense of humor: that’s why you are you, and no one ever can create your content as you can. So if you have something to share with the world (even if similar things have been shared millions of times already), share it! Someone out there definitely needs your voice and the posts you’re going to create. Actually, so many people might need them! 

Instagram is already full of mediocre content: but there’s always a space for more ambitious creators, creating with a purpose.

But this 1 billion might still scare you, right? With all of those people, yup, it can get a bit overwhelming. Especially when there are plenty of profiles with tailored feeds, gorgeous captions, and beautiful smiles… Wait, wait, that isn’t the way! Just stop comparing. We’re sure you have something THEY DON’T. So just post the content you love preparing. Have confidence that you are doing your best. Keep experimenting with new formats, keep trying new solutions, and – that’s the key – trust in the process.

Instagram growth opportunities have been replaced by what Tik Tok is bringing to the table.

That’s NOT TRUE. Although, sure thing, some brands allocate more budget for Tik Tok campaigns because they think it’s an up-and-coming platform. It’s their choice. But there are also a lot of brands who know that the lifespan of an Instagram post/reels is extremely longer than Tiktok’s format. A high-quality Instagram post or reels can continue earning views for days or even weeks to come! Also, Instagram offers many flexible formats, meaning there is more room for carousels, multiple photos, videos, text, and links all in one location that aren’t going to disappear so instantly. A good Instagram post is simply more discoverable than a Tiktok’s one! 

More good news? It’s easier to get sponsors on Instagram than ever before. Things have REALLY changed in 2020 and 2021, and now many huge brands have nicely sized budgets set aside specifically for Instagram creators. Just saying! 

Authenticity is the most significant Instagram trend 

Let us tell you – showing your unique, authentic self is incredible for your Instagram’s growth. In times like these, followers turn to creators they feel they can trust, and having your smiling face, exciting story, and inspiring journey at the forefront of your profile plays a major part!

Although people might love different celebrities or Hollywood actresses, they will never relate to them as much as they relate to daily human connection and personal stories from someone just like them. Your voice and your point of view are what make your profile stand apart from the competition. It might feel awkward at first (oh, it does, we know it, haha), but you truly, TRULY need to leverage your authenticity and take advantage of what makes you special.

Instagram is still changing… And growing.

1 minute long Instagram stories, new options for reels, IG video, collaborations, link stickers… Should we go on? The list of the updates 2021 has brought is really LONG! TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT! Without the new features, our profiles wouldn’t have taken off as effectively or quickly if we’d just had regular posts. 

Some people say getting discovered is more complicated than ever – but that’s not necessarily true for everyone. Hashtags still do wonders, you just need to know how to use them most strategically. Reels give you extra exposure. IG Video gives you plenty of opportunities. We’ll dive into all of them in the upcoming posts.

Guidance is easily accessible – and you’re more ready than ever, right? 

Look, there never was a completely easy time to start growing on Instagram, it’s not a piece of cake, especially if you’re a first-time Instagrammer. Doing your best to grow on the ‘Gram means repeatedly failing until you test everything out, find out what works for YOUR ACCOUNT and your community, and finally, get it right. Sure, doing so feels safer when the competition is smaller, but you can turn that into an advantage as well, and there are many sources of credible guides on how to make your content SEEN by your target audience. Because there always comes the point where you can’t grow anymore as an Instagram creator without the help of someone more pro, someone with a fresh perspective to give you clear hints on what’s working and what’s not, so that you can manage and market your content better, and better. Not only is it good for your profile, but it’s also good for your calmness and happiness.

And here we come! Don’t you forget you have us – Display Purpose marketing team, always ready to share our Instagram knowledge, reveal the secret sauce, and help you craft the ideal strategy to grow using organic methods. Together we’ll draft up your bulletproof blueprint for the upcoming year, and if you stick to this plan, YOU’LL ROCK! We’ve also negotiated a great deal with IQ Hashtags – now you can get their in-depth audit for less than 89$, and believe us: it’s a true game-changer for anyone needing guidance and insights from trusted Instagram strategists. They can review your account: once they have a clear idea of where you’re at, they’ll note down all their powerful suggestions on how you can optimize your profile and your content for more views and more engaged followers from your target audience. That’s the REAL help because you can get customized optimization solutions analyzed to work for you and your profile.

2022 is the year you decide to stop spending this one EXTREMELY precious life, putting your Instagram growth off until “someday in the future, maybe later”! 2022 is the year you begin to take control of the potential your storytelling and your content have! You need to finally believe that you’re worth growing your IG.

Notes to take away!

When our friends and clients ask us for advice on whether they should start growing their IG in 2022, and whether it’s not too late, here’s what we tell them: GO FOR IT. Growing your account can be a great way for you to expand and make more money, position yourself as an expert, and get incredible opportunities you’ve never dreamed of. Being an Instagram creator as a career path is not an overnight magical make-money-quick option, but it is a HUGE opportunity if you’re willing to sacrifice some energy, put foundational work in, and find out how to make the most of hashtags. 

But if your question still is: “Will Instagramming be dead in 2022?”, then the answer is most definitely a very loud NO. If you want to dive more into taking your growth to the next level, keep up with our posts and Instagram lessons. We’re always here to help and guide you, and don’t forget – hashtags are the creme de la creme of getting discovered by your ideal followers! 

Have any questions we haven’t answered, ask below, and we’ll talk about them in the upcoming articles! 

The post Is it too late to start growing your Instagram in 2023? appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

The end of the year is often a time for big plans and self-reflection: what has gone wrong? What can be improved? How much reality differs from the stellar steps you wanted to take?

So, is it a good time to analyze your Instagram strategy? Absolutely, so grab your chai-tea latte, thick socks, and let’s go!

All kidding aside, it’s time to get really focused. Yes, it’s time to get serious about your Instagram marketing strategy! You’ve been creating content, reading about reels ideas all day long, and observing your competitors with tears in your eyes, but are new to the Instagram world or are not getting the results you dream of. You’re sick of Instagram things moving slowly and really want to crank things up a notch to lose the frustration. 

So, you may be asking yourself these days if Instagram is truly worth all the work? The short answer is a loud yes. And no, no, don’t make quick assumptions: we’re not just saying that because we’re Instagram marketing specialists and strategists.

Let’s make it clear: the first step to creating an effective Instagram strategy is to examine your account to identify what’s working and what’s definitely not.

You can’t go on making plans based only on your assumptions. We need to think about creating a strategy that will finally take you from where you are now to where you’d love to be, right? Not someday. Not “one day in 10 years from now”. Somewhere in the near future – the sooner, the better.

No matter how much you try to teach yourself all the Instagram tricks to being a better content creator, no matter how many hours you spend reading about the perfect growth methods (sad truth: they actually don’t exist, because the ideal strategy should be highly personalized, and it depends on so many factors), there will come a time when you’ll definitely hit a plateau. As aspiring entrepreneurs in-spe, and busy content creators, we can’t be objective towards our own content; our ego will find its way!

There’s a dangerous trap to fall into: you may find yourself thinking your content and your hashtag strategy is better than it really is.

Or, the opposite can happen as well! It happens REALLY OFTEN. You can become too critical of what you’re creating and publishing and lose your sincere motivation here in the process.

Instagram audit – what it really is 

An Instagram audit is an opportunity to investigate your Instagram efforts and find better ways to improve it all, and be closer to stellar growth you dream about. 

Good Instagram audit (and by “good” we mean: personalized and created by a certificated Instagram strategist or a great marketing specialist who understands all marketing practices) can help you point out your profile’s and your content strategy’s weaknesses and give clear hints on how to the power or your strengths, giving you the push you need to take your content creation to new, upper levels. That’s the main problem; we simply can’t always be objective toward our own content and our own accounts! When you decide to invest in an audit, you’ll have a chance to discover what you’re missing. And that’s one of the most game-changing benefits of having a professional marketing specialist look over your Instagram growth and your strategy. 

When the word “audit” is used, it may come out like one of the overly serious, only theoretical knowledge from thick books that no one wants to get involved with. Yet, an innovative Instagram audit is surprisingly far from this, you don’t have to worry!

We have invested in our blog audit and Instagram audit as well, so we can tell from our own experience: it’s mostly about strategizing, analyzing the steps you’re taking, and taking precise shots to see improvements. Auditing your Instagram profile will most probably help you discover:

• What exactly is working and what is not
• What is hindering your growth
• Which parts of your Instagram do you need to modify and repurpose
• What new opportunities can you explore to quicken growth, attract your target followers, and engage your audience?

So it really can be both fun and eye-opening.

Audit is all about improving your existing strategy. 

Because let’s be honest: what’s the primary goal of us all, all content creators and aspiring entrepreneurs? Optimizing accounts (so nothing is standing in our way or reaching new people), as well as building a strong data-driven strategy. 

When your Instagram isn’t growing the way you’d like, it can get overwhelming and frustrating – we know it TOO WELL. It takes an insane amount of energy to get an Instagram profile to a profitable level as well as maintain the current audience and grow it.

So if you feel that you’re not using your Instagram to the best of its capabilities in your business, you may need to ask someone who’s much more pro, and can objectively analyze what’s right and what’s wrong. From our perspective – it’s totally worth it. When we got our blog audit, we analyzed the insights we received and started implementing them. Have we seen the results? Oh, loud yes. Many times small changes make a BIG DIFFERENCE. That was our case. It was an investment, but the ROI (return on investment) is still highly satisfying, so we’d lie if we said it’s an expense. It’s an investment. 

Is an Instagram audit the right solution for you? Should you actually think about it?

Each case is different, but we gain a new perspective after having the audit of our blog: 

If you’ve been doing your own Instagram strategies, having an expert look at your profile is a smart way to get fresh ideas and improve your strategy. An audit will definitely help you recognize your shortcomings as well as your greatest strengths.

Your job? Take all the pieces of advice from the audit and implement them in your content strategy. 

Ask yourself these fundamental questions:

• Am I trying to improve as a content creator and Instagram entrepreneur?
• Am I creating for the right audience ? Am I sure I’m attracting them as effectively as possible?
• Am I trying to make money with my Instagram presence?

If you answered “yes” to all the questions, then we’d say you need an audit, to be 101% sure you’re on the right track. 

The best solutions on the market? Where to find the most comprehensive audit? Are all the audits SO EXPENSIVE? 

So if you find yourself needing an Instagram audit, you may lose your enthusiasm after seeing the average cost of one.

“I don’t make enough money to afford an Instagram audit”

This is sadly the most common and highly legitimate reason for not seeking help from marketing experts. We know it – they don’t come cheap. We’ve seen audits for 6 000 $. That’s totally insane.

But a really good audit doesn’t have to be expensive to such extremes! In our opinion, the rational cost is anything between 100-400 $. When you start attracting your future clients, or people interested in your services, the return of this investment will come remarkably quickly. IQ Hashtags offer a genuinely comprehensive one for 89 $ – and that’s a great deal because their Instagram strategists are extremely good at what they’re doing. 

When you think about it this way and start seeing it as an investment for a brighter future, the couple of hundred bucks that you may spend on a professional Instagram audit sounds totally fair and justified, right? 

From our own experience: you may hesitate if you certainly need it for a long time. So did we with our blog audit! Maybe it’s the ego, and perhaps it’s the judgment we all fear. Maybe we’re all not very good with criticism. But we need it, because wasting time on the wrong solution is an enormous waste of energy, and we don’t want that. You don’t want that either. 

It’s a strategic idea to get your Instagram strategy and your content checked by professional Instagram strategists whose job it is to help you improve your follower-attracting methods and be able to achieve stellar growth. 

So in our opinion, it’s totally worth it.

Alright, that’s all for today. What do you think? Was this of any help? Are you planning on investing in an Instagram audit? Let us know in the comments, and if you need some guidance (regarding your profile, attracting targeted followers, hashtag research, or some other Instagram-related advice), we’re always here to help. 

Till next time!

The post Instagram audit – what it really is, is it worth the money, and how to tell if you need one appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

We know, we know – it may sound like a massive clickbait, but believe us, that wasn’t on purpose! Lately, we’ve been talking with you a lot – and those conversations turned out to be the best inspiration for our next Instagram lessons. Creators’ and brand owners’ lives are the best inspiration because there are problems to solve, and we’re challenge-addicted people (espresso-powered, yup).

The problem we’re going to discuss today sounds severe, and indeed it is: why can’t you just slap a few hashtags (compiled from your friend’s profile and the profile of someone from a totally different niche) to your content as a random afterthought? Do you really need to research new hashtags, compile the most strategic ones, and then test them?

The first answer will be a bit mysterious, but at the same time, it can hit hard: if you’re not noticing a whole lotta difference in your posts with 30 hashtags and your posts without any hashtag at all, then something is off, and your hashtag strategy is flawed. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today: 

Hashtag strategy is essential. Period. There’s definitely no argument there! But what else do you need to know about it to make your profile grow? What may you not be aware of? What myths are stopping your stellar growth?

Hashtags, hashtags, hashtags… Why do marketing gurus go nuts for them? 

As you probably already know, hashtags are meant to attract an audience who’s looking for content specific to what you’re posting. But let’s play truth or dare for a sec. Or maybe it’s going to be more like “truth or absolute truth,” to be honest. 

Are you spending too much time on Instagram, and you’re not seeing any return of energy and time investment, you aren’t growing, and you feel like constantly beating the mean algorithm? Let’s be honest—there are certain struggles that come with becoming a content creator (even if you’re doing it for your business!), especially Instagram content creator, that we wish all of you could officially avoid. Creating purposeful content, creative concept brainstorms, and of course, posting what you’ve prepared can be one of the giant steps you take on your journey of online growth. But it’s not the only step. You REALLY need hashtags to get discovered and attract the right people.

Without a community, any Instagram profile, even the most polished one, looks like a ghost-town: it can be visually pleasing, but there’s no sign of a joyful life there.

That’s right, you may think, but the main trouble is, there are SO many tips & tricks and different approaches out there, and it can be overwhelming sometimes to figure out which ones you REALLY need and which ones are especially effective, right? Which ones are up-to-date, and you can trust them?

No stress, and no worries.

Only black coffee, and this article, for now.

Today we’re breaking down all the things you should know, listing out all the insights you might not be aware of, and which ones we think are best for different stages of your profile’s growth! Take the crucial step toward a more effective, efficient, and finally – profitable! – profile by focusing on one element of Instagram strategy. HASHTAGS.

Let’s take a look…In today’s article, we’ll discuss in detail:

• Do hashtags still work the way they used to?
• Are they necessary?
• What is the primary purpose of hashtag strategy, and do you really need one?
• What hashtag myths are hindering your growth?
• What hashtag rumors are actually true?

Today, we’re getting hyper tactical. Read on and find out – let’s go! Our point is, if you’re an Instagram creator out there trying to make your content seen, understanding hashtags may just be the ticket to make it big. How big, we can’t prefigure now because it depends on a bunch of practical factors. And today, we’ll talk about some of those factors! Critical ones. 

1. Hashtags are still working. Period. 

There are SO MANY conflicting insights out there.

So let’s make it clear! We’ve been working in this marketing field for ages, so we’re keeping up with all the trends, information, and disinformation: hashtags are not dead. If you feel like they aren’t working in your favor, there’s a risk you simply aren’t using them correctly.

They’re still a BIG DEAL. You just need to make sure that you’re using them consciously and strategically. Why? People might be looking for you for content like yours, but you won’t be discovered unless you show up to the hashtag party!

They really should carry a significant weight of your Instagram strategy! Especially when it comes to making sure people from your target audience can easily discover all the posts you work so hard to prepare.

We don’t know about you, but we’re genuinely passionate about the content we share, and we have people in mind as we’re preparing it! Just kidding – we know for 101% it’s the same story with you. This means our mission is to make sure those people, those people who need our content, who need those insights have a REAL chance to see it! That’s why we know it, for sure, hashtags should be a part of everyone’s strategy if they’re preparing valuable content that needs to be seen.

Numbers speak for themselves as well:

(yes, results like this are still possible, so there’s a huge motivation!)

2. A strategy is a must – more than ever

Yes, double yes, this is closely related to what we’ve discussed in the previous section.

When you think of hashtags, you think of keywords that are making your content discoverable. And the first thing we want to say right to ya is this: hashtag strategy doesn’t have to suck and take you LONG HOURS. It doesn’t, it really doesn’t, 

And establishing and implementing it doesn’t mean you can’t have fun choosing new sets of hashtags, or you can’t use your competitors’ ones to test them out. Testing is essential, by the way.

You need a hashtag strategy to understand what you’re trying to achieve. To use hashtags more consciously and plan what exactly you’re trying to do. Who’s your target audience?

What’s your niche?

Those questions are the key – using a lot of generic, extremely random hashtags won’t be of any help to your profile. That’s why you absolutely need… 

3. Hashtag research. It can be your secret weapon.

Pro tip #1: Research hashtags that are specific to your niche. 

Pro tip #2: Look at what hashtags successful creators in your niche are choosing, and then – smart idea alert – compile a list of hashtags that you can use as well.

But hey, don’t copy exactly the same hashtags for every single publication: rotate them, and mix them with hashtags from your organic research. 

We know you don’t want to spend 45 minutes on hashtag research every time you want to post something. You want to be ready for that post that lies ahead without thinking about the ‘I need to analyze hashtags for half a day’ part too much. So hashtag research tools are basically a godsend. You can save up to a few hours every time you use them (does IQ Hashtags Tool ring a bell? that’s our fav one so far).

Takeaway: Use hashtag research tool, and observe, observe, observe what others are doing. Life will get easier. 

4 . You need to make sure your content is engaging. Stop sleeping on your graphic design skills. And the storytelling is crucial too! 

We’re not going to start with recommending using Canva. BUT actually, maybe we are. 

That’s the most intuitive tool out there, and easy peasy, you’ll find out that you can do more than you think. Set yourself an evening aside and create some awesome posts. Your audience will appreciate it!

Takeaway: Work smarter, not harder, and focus on preparing aesthetically pleasing, engaging posts – many times, it’s better to prepare 3 good ones, than 20 completely boring ones, just for the sake of saying, “I’ve prepared 20 posts”!

5. 30 is still your luckiest of numbers 

When we talk about hashtags, what we’re really talking about is getting discovered by people who’re searching for content similar to what you’re creating. Hashtags are your best chance of getting found!

Anyway, there’s a lot of discourse going on now about whether it’s worth using 30 hashtags anymore. Maybe it’s better to choose only 5? Or 3? It’s actually a topic that comes up so often, that’s the most cyclical Instagram discussion out there. 

You need to remember one thing: each hashtag gives you a new opportunity to reach a totally different group of people. Why would you give up on it?! Maximize your potential reach.

Let this be your sign. We use 30 hashtags every time we post.

Now, it’s your turn!

6. Where you put your hashtags MATTERS

“It doesn’t really matter if you’re posting your hashtags in the caption or in the comments section – as long as you’re using targeted ones, you’re good”.

That’s what you could hear some time ago, but the wind of changes came here. Adam Mosseri has officially claimed that we should avoid putting hashtags in the first comment, as when they’re placed in the caption, they’re doing much better. It’s a matter of algorithm optimization – so let’s remember about that from now on!

That’s all for today! We truly hope this is a time-saver for you. Or maybe you’ve got to know something you didn’t think you were looking for?! 

PS: Isn’t everything better with friends? Forward this article to your Instagram bestie that could also benefit from our insights!

The post The #1 element you need to win on Instagram – 6 facts about hashtags you may not be aware of yet appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

In case you didn’t already know… your BIO is a bit like your global CV. It’s your profile’s identity in the Instagram world, and it is definitely something your potential followers will judge you on. A psychological study says that you only have around 7-8 seconds to grab a user’s attention before they lose their complete focus and look elsewhere! Yup. That’s clearly not a long time. So how can you grab their attention at first sight without looking desperate? How to make them intrigued? And grab enough attention, so they finally click the follow button?

How can you write a BIO that makes people curious about you?

Don’t be scared – we won’t talk about any hard-and-fast rules. Why? Because the first rule is: you can’t be afraid to experiment here!

It takes a little bit of trial and error to find the BIO that unquestionably vibes with you.

You can’t be boring – that’s rule number two. We’re 101% sure you aren’t, so we need to use all your charm and find the best words to describe what you’re doing. And why your potential followers should stay with you. Hold on tight. We’re going to give you some tips and tricks to keep in mind when tackling your new BIO. We’ll be writing the word magic for your profile. 

Today you’ll learn:

• how to transform your regular BIO into a short description that makes people stay with you
• all the BIO writing do’s and don’ts
• how to evoke your potential followers’ emotions
• how to make your BIO really powerful

Ready? Let’s do this! 

WHO ARE YOU?

A pilot? Vegan pasta enthusiast? Marketing coach? Vintage fashion lover? Graphic design solopreneur? Boutique owner?

That’s the first information your potential followers will look for. So what should you do? Let them find the information they want. Quickly. That’s why it should stand first, according to the information architecture. 

People don’t want to THINK MORE to figure out who you are and how they can relate. 

They want relevant information to jump out in front of them and say: “This is who I am, this is what I am doing”.

PROMISE SOMETHING, AND STICK TO IT. STICK TO IT. 

Basically, your goal is to get your potential followers feeling intrigued and curious when they land on your profile. Not overwhelmed – so you can’t make them guess whether they need you in their life or… Not. 

To stand out and be sure your BIO is highly intriguing for all the short-attention-spanned people, it should include a promise. Why is following you beneficial? Do you have the power to make someone’s life better? Teach them something, inspire, encourage? Let them know.

That can be your ultimate ace in the hole, don’t hide it anymore.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FOLLOWERS TO DO? TELL THEM!

Words can be persuasive, inspiring, and impactful, but if you are not asking your tribe to do something at the end, most probably, it’s not engaging enough. We’re sure you’ve heard about CTAs before, but the one if your BIO needs to be extremely short and sweet. Take a moment to understand your potential follower’s thought sequence and make it work in your favor. 

If you are selling vegan recipes, asking your followers to “buy now” is a bit overblown. Instead, consider something like “Try the most delicious kale risotto” or “Do you want to join my vegan army?”

Yup. Make it sound friendly and welcoming. People love to be a part of something – invite them! 

ONLY ONE CALL TO ACTION

If you want your followers to read your articles, only ask them to read.

You don’t want to ask them to visit your cooking portfolio, sign up for your freebie course, sign up for your newsletter, check your shop, and write you an email to book a 1:1 session. The more available options they have, the less likely they are to take ANY action.

All kidding aside, this is a proven psychological study.

ANSWER 3 CRITICAL QUESTIONS

Once again, because that’s REALLY important. When preparing your highly intriguing BIO, remember to answer these questions:

1. Who are you? Can an 8-year-old understand who you are based on your BIO?

 2. Why? Why should new people follow you? What are they going to get? What are the benefits you can offer?

3. Why your profile? What makes your profile different from your competitors? Why should they follow you and not your competitors who do the same thing?

Your potential followers are constantly asking themselves: What exactly do I get from following this profile? Will it make my life better? Do I really need this creator in my life?

If you want to win their attention and that one precious “follow” click, you need to be able to answer these questions. In a nutshell. 

Your BIO is really about them, not you

Are you bringing a fresh solution to a stressful struggle? Your potential followers are reading your BIO because they are looking for a connection between themselves and you. So take it, give them a reason to choose your profile, your content – through your charm, your content’s quality, authenticity, and your storytelling. 

TO WRAP-UP!

Unfortunately, we all have a short attention span, so it’s crucial to make sure your BIO is intriguing enough for someone in a rush. Your BIO is not all about you. This is your MAIN chance to tell your potential followers who you are, AND WHY THEY SHOULD STAY WITH YOU.

Alright, that’s all for today! What do you think?? Are you planning on creating a new BIO? Will you modify your current one?

Ps. If you’ve got any Instagram-related questions or have anything you want to learn more about, let us know—we love hearing from you! 

The post 6 things you need to include in your Instagram BIO to turn it into a magnet for new followers! appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Calling all Instagram creators! Hashtags still own the title of the secret sauce of Instagram content marketing, as they give you the most effective way of reaching new potential followers. “I don’t want random followers, I want the ones from my target audience!” – you may want to shout. That’s ABSOLUTELY right, and that’s our mantra as well. Actually, that’s another reason why hashtags are one of your top tools – they help you attract these ideal followers with huge potential to become your loyal fans, members of your tribe, part of your engaged community, or even future clients. 

Hashtags work by organizing and categorizing content.

That’s their first job, you already know it. But the truth is, nowadays, they not only categorize all the posts and make them discoverable, but they are also an extremely beneficial tool to gain more followers, boost engagement rate, and expand your organic reach. Every post accompanied by a set of relevant hashtags (up to 30) completely changes the process of content discovery, for better, of course. As you start using hashtags more and more consciously, you soon realize there’s so much to learn about it… The strategies, the changes in the algorithm, insights from Adam Mosseri, the research process, keeping up with the trending ones, and the fierce competition. A bit overwhelming, right?

But have no fear and no worries.

We’ll turn it into a quick learning process where strategy and practice are the keys to getting the satisfying results you dream about. In order to start seeing more significant results from your hashtags, you need to be strategic about them. And that’s what we’re going to focus on today!

Yup. Today, we’ll analyze evidence as to how and why certain hashtag strategies work, weaving in mindset hacks and giving you easy examples to support this hashtag lesson. There is something very challenging about making your hashtag strategy more conscious; we know it! Like any Instagram marketing tactic, there are many do’s and don’ts of using hashtags that can make or break your results. Today, we’ll focus on the do’s and positive tactics – to discuss how to use hashtags for maximum impact strategically! 

Let’s dive deeper! Today we’ll discuss in detail: 

• Instagram hashtags best practices you need to implement to get your profile seen
• How to increase your chances of reaching as many new eyeballs as possible?
• Why are hashtags so crucial and help you get noticed?
• How should you use them for much better results?
• How to get your content in front of new targeted followers?
• How to use hashtags more smartly?

Relevancy is A MUST

Rule number one: the hashtags you decide to use should be specific to the content you’re sharing with the world and related to general topics associated with your niche and profile. If you’re a freelance graphic designer posting about graphic design principles, consider using the hashtags “#graphicdesigntips” as well as “#graphicdesignerlife” and “graphicdesignflow.” These hashtags cover the specific topic you’re writing about, as well as broader topics related to your niche and your content area.

Narrow down to hashtags your ideal followers would use to find you. To give you a clear example: we offer tips to grow Instagram, so we use #engagementtips, #instagramgrowthtips, #Instagramstrategy, #growoninstagram. We know that people looking for answers to their Instagram strategy-related questions are browsing content described with these hashtags, so it’s a win-win.  

Another pro tip: Given that your ideal client is local, let’s say: they’re located in Toronto, choose hashtags based on your location, for example #Canadianentrepreneurs, #Canadiangraphicdesigners, #Canadiansolopreneurs. 

Keep your hashtag choices short, sweet, and always to the point. Most of the time (with some exceptions) they shouldn’t consist of more than three to four words! The more intuitive, the better! In the Instagram world, the shorter and more specific your hashtags are, the bigger the chances for attracting new followers. Just be sure they’re something your potential followers (and users from your target audience) will understand the meaning of. Don’t make them too complicated and complex. 

Where to put your hashtags? Not in the comments anymore

For those of you who may have missed @creators’ news, a quick update – for years, even the most trustworthy sources claimed there was no FUNCTIONAL DIFFERENCE between putting hashtags in captions and comments. No difference when it comes to their effectiveness. At all.

And recently, Adam Mosseri has made things clear and made us aware of the update. Here’s the official guidance from him: “for a post to be found in Search, put hashtags in the caption, not the comments.” That sounds really convincing, right? This insight can also be found on the official Instagram blog, where they elaborate on how Search results are ranked.

That said, if you want your posts to pop up in your dream followers’ search queries, then you need to put your hashtags in THE CAPTION. 

Avoid overly popular ones – they’re gonna give you a headache… Nothing else

When it comes to hashtags, bigger is definitely not better. Our research shows that the bigger hashtags you include in a post, the less engagement it receives. On the contrary, targeted, more niched-down hashtags can give you high-quality exposure and can lead to a more effective follower base buildup. Popular hashtags = spam followers, most likely with no quality potential members of your engaged tribe. Why? They have an enormously high amount of traffic, making your posts disappear almost instantly at the speed of light. Avoid them at all costs. #today #beautiful, #pretty, #happy #instagood #throwback #tip #good #yes – they’re so generic, that believe us: this way, you simply can’t attract your ideal followers. There’s no way.

For instance, your new post might get buried in #design, but you actually have a considerable chance of engaging nicely targeted audience with something more specific, like #graphicdesigntips.

Also, don’t clog up a bunch of unrelated hashtags hoping to get some random views. You might annoy and lose potential followers: people are really observant, you wouldn’t tell. 

Trust the research (and start using a hashtag research tool)

Seek, and you shall find!

An excellent place to start is by researching the hashtags your competitors use and observing the trending hashtags that are related to your niche. Also, consider making your creator’s life MUCH more manageable, and save your precious time by using one of the hashtag research tools. Actually, there are so many hashtag research tools available – we love IQ Hashtags, because it’s the most extended one out there, and it generates hashtag ideas with performance data. It’s definitely our go-to tool for good hashtag research, and it’s like a golden mine of all the information you need to grow quicker + it’s extraordinarily intuitive, which is really rare. All you need to do is enter one hashtag you’re using (or the most general keywords related to your niche). Yass, keywords that you’re currently using are a great place to kick off your hashtag research.

You can also set up different search criteria to niche down the results. The results of each search will reveal all the best hashtags that are closely related to the hashtag you’ve typed in, which will give you new choices. You can use them right away to reach and engage with your target audience.

You can also analyze the total number of posts using a particular hashtag and the number of recent interactions that they’re receiving on average. This can help you check the popularity and potential engagement rates that may be tied to your new choices and help you decide which are the best fits. Believe us when we say this can be a place to discover your gold hashtags. Check for yourself  

To wrap-up!

Sure, there is much more to learn about polishing your hashtag strategy, but let’s start by working on the tips mentioned above. When done well, Instagram hashtags will GENUINELY help you reach your dream followers, and that’s our goal, right? 

Let’s repeat the key takeaways once more! 

• Use hashtags relevant to your niche, and don’t risk your profile’s or your brand’s credibility with misleading ones just to get some random views: it’s not worth it.
• You’ll get found by your dream followers if you keep on choosing the most relevant hashtags. 
• How to find the best fits? Try using a hashtag research tool, and analyze the data it gives you. That’s actually a game-changer.
• Putting hashtags in a comment section rather than in a caption might be holding you back – don’t do that! Adam Mosseri gave us a clear insight that it’s remarkably beneficial to put hashtags in the caption and avoid putting them in the first comment, as it’s the best option for better search engine optimization.

It’s your turn to apply these tactics and observe the first results! 

If you want more savvy tips to polish your hashtag strategy and learn more about the most effective growth tactics, we suggest you to read:

• Should you really use only 3-5 hashtags? The ultimate analysis *in-depth research* and the TRUTH about the update
• Hashtags in the first comment aren’t working anymore? Where to post them?
• QUICK and EFFECTIVE: your best hashtag strategy in 2021

The post 4 Instagram hashtags BEST PRACTICES – implement them and grow much quicker appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Indeed, it is a challenge, but don’t panic.

We’ve done in-depth research for you and gathered the most practical solutions (AS ALWAYS).

Is Instagram good for driving traffic? How can you get traffic to your website?

We can’t deny it: Instagram isn’t the most link-friendly platform, but it’s evolving, and this approach is fortunately quick to fade. While you still can’t link a regular Instagram post, there are still several ways to earn organic website traffic directly from Instagram. Let’s dive into the most strategic ways to use all the clickable links! Actually, in today’s article, we will share some of the EASIEST and tested tips to increase your website traffic like a pro marketer – using Instagram link stickers and clickable link the BIO only! 

Ready? Let’s get started!

What clickable links do we have in our Instagram arsenal?

Regardless of the size of your tribe (and numbers on your follower count), the platform’s true potential isn’t FULLY unlocked until you bring at least some of those followers to your websites outside the Gram. In the following paragraphs, we’ll cover several proven ways of getting there. Let’s go! If you’re reading our tips and news regularly, chances are you already know some of the strategies. Still, we’re going to approach them from new angles so you can learn how to increase your website traffic without any worries or technical troubles along the way.

First pro tip: make sure you’re using a professional account to access all the features (if you’re still learning about differences between available account types: we’ve elaborated on this topic right there: What is the difference between a business account and a creator account on Instagram? The best pick!).

What options to use clickable links do we currently have?

• a link in the BIO
• creating a link tree to encourage followers to visit more than one website
• link stickers (unfortunately only if you can first meet two requirements)
• IGtv links (they deserve an individual post, that’s why we’ll elaborate on them in the next article)
• links in DMs (the same story right there – it’s a strategy that demands a comprehensive guide because many tricks may surprise you!)

You have to admit: that’s quite a nice package. But how EXACTLY can you use them to make them work in your favor more intensively? Keep reading; we’re heading there!

Use the full power of your BIO link.

Your Instagram bio is a really big deal. Mainly because, actually, it’s the first thing people notice when they check out your profile! The more good news? Everyone, EVERY single user can include a link in their bio: you don’t have to wait till 10k on the follower count to enjoy the power of this link and drive traffic to the website that is your current priority.

That’s it: your bio should ALWAYS contain a link to the website that is your number one at the moment, so you’re hoping to drive followers toward it. It doesn’t have to be your main homepage! That’s the mistake many people make: most creators and brand owners paste a link to their home pages and leave it that way forever.

When they initially set up their account, they likely added a link to their official page, and probably it’s been there EVER SINCE. Do we have to tell you it’s not the most strategic approach? The bio link is most beneficial when it’s frequently UPDATED.

Consider linking to a particular article, landing page, or product/service on your site instead. Because this little bio link can do so much more than just heading your followers to the official homepage! You can update this link AS OFTEN AS YOU NEED TO. Use it to guide your readers to:

• Your current campaign page
• A newly launched product or services 
• A new article/blog post 
• Your newsletter / landing page

Then, you can use CTAs like “link in my bio” in your posts. Believe us: it really is a smart way to increase the number of your followers who actually click on it! To speed up the process, even more, you can also add CTA directly to your Instagram bio. How? Easy peasy. Just consider writing a catchy line of copy, right before your link in bio, such as: “Click to download the free guide!”. It will make your link way more actionable.

One link in the bio is not enough? Use the link tree!

At the moment, Instagram lets you use only one link featured in the bio. But don’t sweat if the choice is challenging or almost impossible to make! There’s a solution! This is where link trees come in handy.

“A tree? Are you crazy? I don’t want to turn my profile into a garden,” you might want to say, but believe us: that’s a method you’ve been looking for. All kidding aside, let’s go back to the business and elaborate on how it works!

Linktree lets you build simple microsites that lead your followers to all your websites. You can encourage them to go wherever you can be found one-line through one link.

That’s how it looks like. You can fully customize the style of it: colors, fonts, layout, whatever you like. Let us say it’s really intuitive and comfy to use: and we’ve seen many popular creators use it, so give it a try! 

This can have a truly significant impact when it comes to driving more traffic from Instagram. 

Protip: don’t forget to use UTM tags on ALL LINKS from Instagram to your websites or blogs, so you have good reporting on which links were the best traffic providers!

Link stickers – the new swipe-up feature replacement

You remember it for sure: the swipe-up feature was an Instagram game-changer for many brands. It enabled us to send followers directly to the outside destinations, like the official website for example, when they swipe up or click on the “see more” CTA right at the bottom of the particular Instagram stories.

It was working remarkably well.

The only obstacle standing in the way was that this sexy feature was available if you had at least 10,000 followers. That’s a lot.

Recently, it was time for the winds of change – Instagram’s decided to retire the swipe up feature. Instead, they introduced us to the new link stickers. What’s the deal with them? Who gets to use them – is it precisely the same story as with the swipe-up option? Is it going to change the way we use clickable links? Let’s analyze the brief overview of this new feature that has replaced the swipe-up feature.

What exactly is the new Instagram link sticker? Nothing really complicated right there. We already know the rules because it replaces the swipe-up feature, letting creators add an external link to Instagram stories format.

The caveat? To unlock this feature you also have to have at least 10,000 followers. We’ve heard from some of you that Instagram is testing giving access to it to creators with less than 10k followers, but right now, it’s just testing, nothing official yet. What to do if you can’t have the feature yet? Don’t worry at all! If you don’t meet the “10k” criteria, you can still harness the power of Instagram stories by posting shareable content, creating thought-provoking discussions, and inviting your followers to engage. Why is it worth your time? Having outstanding Instagram stories content will encourage your tribe to take the next steps, get to know you better, interact and head over to your landing page / official website / online store or a blog. We can’t stress this enough: stories are also an effective way to tease new content. and alert your followers to recent posts in your feed that they may not have seen yet. 

To wrap-up!

Today’s easy-to-implement strategies can authentically help you use clickable links on Instagram and drive organic traffic from the platform STRAIGHT to your top-priority website, online store, or blog. That’s really important because the following you build on the platform can REALLY help you increase your conversion rates as well. We’ve discussed four ways to take advantage of Instagram to get more eyes on your top priority websites. The key takeaways?

• If you already have 10k on your follower count, or you’re just lucky and got access to this feature anyway: use the “link stickers” feature on Instagram stories to direct users towards your websites
• Don’t forget to use UTM tags (you can generate them right here: UTMs / campaign links builder) on all links from Instagram to your sites, so you have actionable reporting on which tactics were the best session drivers.
• Take note that you can update the link in your bio ANYTIME. When your business/brand has a marketing campaign, a new blog article, or a newly-launched collection, update your BIO  link to a specific landing page.

That’s it for today! You’re now armed with the knowledge to drive traffic to your website from Instagram. Hope this will help you on your way to getting more satisfying results and plenty of pleasant surprises! 

The post THE SMARTEST ways to use Instagram clickable links to drive traffic to your website or blog appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

How long does it take…?

“How long does it take to reach 10K (or any multiple of 10K) followers” – is a pretty common question. “Pretty common” = we hear it over twenty times a week, to be honest. Many creators (and business owners as well!) fear that they’ll have to struggle with profile growth for the rest of their lives, and others expect 2-3 months of intense effort put in the content creation and following growth strategy to be enough. So what’s the truth?

Just like with most things in life… There is no one absolute universal truth. Each profile has its own growth pace – it all depends on over twenty different factors (we know you want to ask – yup, we’ll discuss them all in an upcoming post). We also need to remember that different things work for different people. That’s why there’s no one all-purpose blueprint. It may sound a little bit bothersome, but literally, it’s good news: there are plenty of them. We need to personalize them and analyze the details to comprehend the entire situation entirely – so we won’t lie like many marketing gurus do: there is more than one effective strategy.

But back to the core: today’s article actually won’t be about that! There is one tool that is beneficial for every niche, every business type. You’re right: HASHTAGS!

Hashtags may look like one more tool in our “Instagram growth toolbox,” – but they’re totally irreplaceable if you take your profile’s growth seriously.

Hashtags are here to guide you.

Okay, we know, it sounds a bit mysterious and cliche at the same time, but actually, that’s not a catchy slogan, but the genuine truth. Let us explain. The primary role of hashtags is to make your content discoverable – meaning, people who are looking for inspiration or insights from your niche, can find you and come across your profile without HUGE effort.

Hashtags organize the content you post into a pool of other posts: photos, graphics, carousels, and videos described with the same keyword. For example, #instagramtipsandtricks categorizes your content and allows content marketing lovers searching that hashtag to see what you’re posting, even if they’re not your followers. That’s why hashtags are so powerful: they boost your reach, improve your engagement, and help you increase your follower base. Sounds beneficial, huh?

So how to use these pound signs to make the most of them? We promise that if you apply our techniques, you’ll be able to create a profile that stands out, grow organically, and gather an engaged audience – are you ready to dive deeper? Everyone is dying to know: how does the effective hashtag strategy actually work? Here’s everything we know (and a few theories as well!):

How to find winning hashtags that are going to turn your hobby into a thriving business?

We are all on a bit of a different path; we all have a different mission and goals, we all have a different target market. With these things in mind, we have to say: everyone needs to develop their own strategy. But what we can do is teach you how to do it + how to use our proven to work and most effective methods to find the hashtags that are going to boost engagement, specifically for you.

First things first: what are you creating?

Who is your target audience?

To make the first shift: from a hobby to business-oriented online activities, you need to analyze:

• WHOM your business will serve and what you’re offering them?
• Who will mostly benefit from the content you post?
• Who are you thinking about when you’re preparing new content?

When you have clear answers, we need to find out how to reach THESE PEOPLE. They’re your number one – you need to attract them, you need them to come across your profile, so you can serve them (and they can become your loyal followers, win-win).

How to do it? You’ll never have to waste time scratching your head saying, “how the hell can I do it”, because we’re here. We want to take you by the hand and walk you through our proven list “HASHTAG STRATEGY building” step-by-step!

When you use our methods and avoid the mistakes we’re writing about, you’ll quickly find out that this whole ‘grow your Instagram’ thing is FAR simpler than you’ve been making it out to be. Keep our word, and let’s begin.

Rule number one: don’t use random hashtags!!! (honestly, we’re fighting the urge to add even more exclamation marks)

Whenever you fight the urge to add #love, #happy, #smile hashtags, ask yourself two questions:

• Are the people from your target audience, the most valuable followers you’re looking for, browsing these hashtags’ explore pages?
• don’t you mind looking a bit spammy? These hashtags are actually overly popular, and your post is going to be buried with THOUSAND of posts published at precisely the same time. So let us be brutally honest: they won’t work, and they’re most probably the waste of space in your caption.

Why is it so important? Potential followers from your target audience are the people you think would be interested in what you have to say/show. To build an engaged tribe on Instagram, you need to always keep those people in mind and to be preparing new content specifically for them. Yup. Everything you do – you should do mostly for them. 

These targeted users are the ones who are most likely to TRULY enjoy your post (not just one single post, but many of them!), and the chances of them following your profile are very high then. This strategy is over 1000 times more beneficial than attracting random people because people from your target audience will stay with you, because you’re creating what they NEED.

Don’t skip the hashtag research – in-depth research is your good friend. It can be your BEST friend if you want.

You already know it: you need engaged followers from your target audience.

What do you need as well?

Quality hashtags that precisely align with this target audience.

We love sharing tips and tricks that help you save your precious time, so we have to say: hashtag research can be time-consuming, won’t ever deny it. That’s why it’s totally okay to outsource it, and help yourself by using tools that are designed to make this process much easier and quicker. There are many ones out there – but the one we always recommend is IQ Hashtags, because it has much wider functionality than any other. It’s one web app, with so many different features: actually all you need to develop a working hashtag strategy. We love the fact that it lets you look for hashtags relevant to the size and theme of your account + you can also overview which hashtags are currently trending on the Gram.

Let us know if you’d like us to prepare the extended tool guide – with some life hacks to make the most of this tool!

Don’t fall into the trap of overusing the overly popular hashtags

The volume or popularity of the hashtags you choose is what’s really crucial.

You may already know it from our previous articles (because we always emphasize the importance of it!) – when you use a hiper-popular hashtag, your freshly published content gets lost in the sea of competition within SECONDS, at the speed of light.

#Instagramers has 90.6m posts attached to it. It means that while SO MANY people choose and look for that hashtag, your post will be added to a HUGE collection of content, full of spammy competition. Let’s pick another hashtag, more niched down. #Instagramforbusiness has 175k posts. Considerably better! This hashtag gives you much higher chances of standing out. The aim is to reach specialized, engaged people, not the random ones, remember?

Keep up with new trends

This is an excellent way to gain engaged followers, too.

What does it mean for an Instagram hashtag to become “trending”?

Trending hashtag is the one that isn’t already overly popular (it would be a red flag!), but it’s gaining popularity and more and more people are starting to use it.

But how to find out which ones are trending and which aren’t?

You can check which hashtags are trending in your niche right now with the analytics & monitoring tool – for example with our fav IQ Hashtags tool. It’s one of the REALLY reliable sources, as they use AI to keep up with all the trends.

Additional benefits? Using trending hashtags can get your message across to a much wider audience (highly relevant audience, that is interested in what you have to say!)

Give it a shot and see how it goes! With a bit of practice, hashtags can help you expand your reach, boost all your stats, and gain much more traction. We hope our insights help you with your hashtag strategy moving forward!

Are you happy with your current stats? What are you struggling with the most? We’re always here to listen: let’s chat in the comments!

The post QUICK and EFFECTIVE: your best hashtag strategy in 2023 appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Losing followers on Instagram is a problem all creators face – yes, even the most popular ones. However, this is not inevitable, and there are several things you can do to reduce the number of “unfollows” – and today we’ll discuss them, to prevent you from losing your most valuable, loyal followers, who help you generate higher ER.

We bet the moment you see bad news in your stats, the following questions keep popping up in your head: where does this loss of followers come from, what’s the reason, did I make a mistake somewhere in managing my account?

We’ve worked with thousands of clients, and let us tell you: the number of followers will sometimes increase, sometimes decrease, sometimes stagnate – and sometimes it’s completely normal, and you shouldn’t panic or bother. When should you start worrying? When the losses are repeating too often, and no new followers are coming to you at all. 

The number of followers is a metric that still counts, as it’s the first number we notice when visiting a new profile, but with time, it’s becoming less and less relevant because it’s the rate of your account’s engagement that matters the most. Engagement is – in many ways – the new king factor. 

Before your start worrying, you should ask yourself this question

What is your goal when it comes to content marketing? Have you ever analysed this  in detail? Are you looking to get 20k followers only for your own satisfaction, or are you trying to influence other people, bring value to their life, establish partnerships with brands you love, sell your products, be recognized as an expert in your domain? 

Before you start worrying about your profile growing too slow, you need to think about your primary goal. It will allow you to refocus and take actions that can actually help you reach new followers and make the current ones stay – because you’ll centre on creating encouraging, valuable content. The authentic one, aligned with your overall vision, not the popular type of posts, published only for random likes. 

How can you track how many followers you are losing?

You can track the number of people who unfollow your account in your basic statistics. For that, you go to Insights > Audience. You can display information in a daily, weekly, monthly, or category view:

Why losing Instagram followers is (most often) not a bad thing

Yes, we know, when we lose followers, we tend to take it extremely personally and break down a little. 

And yet, losing followers is often a good thing. And no, we haven’t lost our minds. In most cases, the followers that you lose are: 

• People who are no longer interested in what you’re publishing (so they won’t bring you the engagement you need in order to keep your ER high!)
• People who use the follow-unfollow method
• Fake accounts being deleted by Instagram 

Honestly, would you want such a low-quality audience? No, of course! You are looking for followers interested in what you do and who are – and who are ready to interact with you because they care. 

However, let’s look at this without rose-tinted glasses: you can also lose followers because you haven’t worked on your Instagram strategy. Or you just publish generic content that doesn’t captivate anyone. If you feel like it could be it because you struggle with producing valuable posts and you never know what to mention in your captions: there is a solution to that, too. No one is born a master, so let’s practice your copywriting and photography skills! We’ll share our practical guides in the upcoming posts so that you can upgrade your content creation capability. 

Top 7 mistakes that make people unfollow you (hint: you can easily avoid them)

Let’s come to the main problem: why are you losing even your loyal followers? We have put together seven mistakes that can cause the loss you’re noticing – the most important thing is to be aware of those mistakes and your Instagram-patterns, so you can fix them and improve your stats. 

You do absolutely nothing to engage with your community; your attitude is a little bit like: “who loves me follows me, IDC” 

Your posts are irregular, and you never look into your stats.

Your editorial schedule? It doesn’t exist because you prefer posting everything spontaneously (so no one ever knows when to expect the next post)

The consistent feed? That’s not about yours  

  You are not yourself on Instagram, and your community feels it.

  Your content is all about you, and you never think about your followers and what they may need from you

  You don’t like showing your face, so your followers have no idea who you might be 

The best solution? You can ask for feedback (using instastories from example!), so your followers will give you honest suggestions for improving your content, and you’ll find out what is lacking or what they wish to see more often. Because knowing what to watch out for in our content strategy and our Instagram presence can positively increase our chances for success and prevent us from being frustrated about the loss of followers (which we don’t want!).

If you have any Instagram questions, don’t hesitate to drop them in the comments down below – and we’re going to answer them in our upcoming posts, along with the marketing research and our insights!

The post 7 frank reasons why people unfollow you on Instagram appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

The thing is, when you’re trying to develop a thriving Instagram profile, it happens from time to time that you make a few mistakes. Which ones should you avoid at all costs? What beneficial methods to use instead?
Truth be told: on this particular platform, mistakes can be very tricky! Some of them prevent you from reaching your target audience, and others may result in losing your current followers, even the loyal ones. To avoid falling into these traps, let’s discuss 5 most common reasons why the growth of your account is delayed – and let’s discover the effective solutions!

1 / You’re not posting regularly

No matter what your niche and the type of content you create is, it is important to focus on maintaining consistency if you want to get gratifying results. You can’t post once or twice a week, then disappear for a quarter – and then resurface, out of the blue, without any word of explanation.

When you’re away, you no longer keep your audience informed about what’s going on, and most probably, after a while, they’ll forget why they chose to follow you in the first place.
Keep in mind that the less active you are, the less space you will occupy in the minds of your followers. And this is where your competition can gain advantage! If you’re not there for your target audience, the competition will do it for you.

Without regularity and creating a working publication schedule, your followers won’t stay engaged – because they’ll get bored waiting for the new content from you, and they will find new favorite creators. The ones that will entertain or educate them more often.

This is precisely why it is essential to create an editorial schedule (a detailed plan about when and what you’re going to post, prepared one week, or even one month in advance). While we know it’s not always easy to be consistent (we won’t pretend: it is time-consuming, even with well-crafted time management), it’s a key point.

To start, post 2 to 3 times a week to carve out good frequency. You will observe that over time you will develop a natural rhythm of posting.

Protip: even when you go on vacation, thanks to the different planning platforms, you’re able to schedule your publications in advance. This way, you can be active on Instagram while lying comfortably on your deckchair in the sun!

2 / You’re using the templates everyone else is using

Let’s be honest: there are too many accounts that are looking like twins!
We’re referring to the ready-to-use templates and schemes that we can find on Canva, for example. Thousands of creators use this platform to produce their visuals: stories, infographics, carousels. While the tool is extremely practical, pay attention to the templates you choose.

The best solution to avoid creating boring content that will get your followers thinking, “ew, I’ve already seen it somewhere”? You just have to use them as inspiration and customize them! Imagine if all Canva users had the same templates? Each Instagram account would be a poor copy of the others.

3 / You’re so determined to reach your 10k that you’ve decided to buy fake followers

This is where focusing on vanity metrics will lead you.
These purchased followers are definitely not a part of your target audience and are unlikely to be interested in your content. You won’t ever hear from them because, most probably, there are just a bunch of fake accounts or bots. Let us tell you: it’s a shortcut to nowhere.

While this totally goes against Instagram’s terms of use, you still can find plenty of “marketing” companies offering you 10 000 or even 20 000 followers for 10$.

Not only is it cheating, but you may also regret it bitterly. You can, at best, lose these fake accounts overnight if Instagram spots them and decides to delete them. At worst, Instagram can block your account because you violated the terms of service.

We’re 100% against buying followers. This is an entirely unnecessary practice that will only throw money out of your pocket (there are way better options to spend it!)

Focus on your target followers rather than on proving yourself that your account would look great with 10k at the top. It would and it will, but all in good time!

4 / You’re ignoring the stats

This is one of the mistakes creators commit overwhelmingly often – not looking at the statistics! Each month, analyze which posts have performed the best or the least, how your community is progressing, what types of interactions you’re getting. This – we can’t stress this enough – allows you to readjust your content marketing strategies and make improvements compared to the previous period.

In order to know your audience better and to understand what your community prefers, use all the data from your statistics. Look carefully at the demographics: this will allow you to know more about your current follower base: where they come from, by city and by country, their age groups, as well as their gender.

To access basic statistics, all you have to do is have (or switch to, if you haven’t already!) a professional (business’ or creator’) account. To find out more about your profile’s data, you can also use pro tools designed to help you grow quicker and more consciously: from our experience, the ones we recommend the most are: Social Auditor and IQ Hashtags. The first one will help you scan your account in terms of having mass followers who may harm your ER (engagement rate). It can definitely be a game-changer because the higher your ER is, the more Instagram’s algorithm likes your content and is more likely to show it to new audiences. A win-win solution, right?!

5 / You’re focusing on quantity rather than quality

Going back to what we’ve said above, posting too rarely makes your followers forget about you, but if you post a lot and produce generic content just for the sake of “posting something, no matter what” – it is not a beneficial practice either. Why? Because your audience will quickly find out that you’re posting random things, not providing any value. It’s better to publish 2 posts per week that will be relevant and helpful for your audience rather than 5 shoddy ones.

A little repetition, but let’s be honest: it’s worth saying over and over a thousand times: when we talk about quality on Instagram, we also mean your follower base, of course. There is no point in having a large number of followers if they are not interacting with you! Even though having a large community flatters the ego, you shouldn’t hesitate to sort it out every now and then. You will have fewer followers, but your audience will be authentic, loyal, and engaged.

Catch you later – stay with us; we’re going to share a vast portion of the content marketing experts’ secret sauce. We’re posting new tips & tricks a few times a week, so stay tuned for lots of credible materials coming this way!

If you have questions or doubts, you can always start a convo with us by commenting below or sending us a DM on Instagram! 

The post 5 reasons why your Instagram is growing so slow (and how to fix it) appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.