With that being said, let’s go to 7 things you should consider to use to grow your account in 2022 – what’s new and what’s getting more and more hype? Let’s see.

Finding your niche

Instagram is too crowded to simply assume that being a lifestyle, fashion, or photography Instagrammer will be “right niching.” It would help if you narrowed it down – now, in 2021, it’s more important than ever.

We’re almost sure you’re already tired of advice “go find your niche!” because let’s be honest: it isn’t as simple as it may sound.

If you don’t know your niche yet, of course, you shouldn’t let that stop you from posting.

Just test different topics, try out all the ideas that come up to your head – but do it consciously and decide which are the ones you feel the best with, which are the ones that your audience is interested in the most.

An analysis is a key to success (cliché but still 100% true). You’ll learn what feels most natural to you only by observing and experimenting. 

Focus on IG Lives Streaming

In the past, people were a little bit shy and intimidated by the thought of going live. It felt a bit unnatural to sit in front of the camera (built-in phone camera to be specific), but 2020 and the pandemic made people used to on-line activities and showing up on Zoom or Google Meet calls, plus all the things were happening on-line: yoga classes, fitness classes, linguistics classes, cooking classes, EVERYTHING.

Now going live on Instagram feels less awkward, and many times, even the shyest creators decide to try. It’s rewarding!

Now let’s dig a little bit deeper: it’s also a great way to actually engage with the audience. Answer their questions, get to know them better, and make them like us more because of our smile, tone of voice, and gestures.

It’s not only on the rise: it’s here to stay. 

Reels

Researchers assume that this year reels will take center stage on Instagram – this short video form has a vast potential simply because people enjoy consuming it. What is more, Instagram made reels shoppable, which means you can actually buy something that has appeared on somebody’s reel. That is a piece of big news for business owners – reels marketing will be growing fast, that’s more than sure.

Micro-influencers coming to the forefront

Micro-influencers are winning this year. Why? They most often have a much higher engagement rate and closer relation with the audience, and they are perceived to be more genuine. They provide a more niche-specific kind of growth and more deep engagement for brands they collaborate with.

Consistency

Instagram’s market is getting more and more saturated, and with that being said: it’s crucial to remind our followers why they follow us and why they should stay with us. Consistency gives your followers something to look forward to. It’s the easiest way to say, “hey, I am here, don’t forget me!”

Consistency looks different for everyone – but being consistent on Instagram is all about creating a realistic posting schedule. Yep, you have to note down your plan and stick to it. If it’s three times a week? Great. Everyday? Amazing. There is no right, specific option that will work best for everyone: you have to decide for yourself.

As long as you’re committed to your schedule – it’s okay. Plan your posts ahead: there are so many apps that can help you: UNUM, Planoly, Later… Spoiler alert: we’ll discuss which one is the best for who in one of the upcoming posts. 

Instagram SEO

Search engine optimization is finally coming to Instagram. If you have a website, a blog, or a Youtube account, you already know what it is and why it’s so important (and why it will make our Instagram life a little bit easier). Because of that change, we have to take our captions SERIOUSLY. They matter not only because they have to be engaging and user (follower) friendly: now our captions also should include keywords. Keywords that people interested in our niche are looking for – it will make our posts easier to be found! Great news: it’s going to be increasing our organic reach!

Branded AR Filters

Influencers and brands create their own augmented reality filters all the time – even though people love raw, natural, authentic content, at the same time, we adore those funny filters and creative animations. 

2022 will surprise us many times – but hopefully, most positively and creatively. What trends are your favorites? What do you expect more of, what should we research: we love to hear from you!

We write to inspire you to analyze your content – eat up all the information, use it and make us proud with your creative results!

The post Top Instagram trends for your social media strategy 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.

The topic of hashtags seems endless.

Various theories and methods of the selection and different strategies based on hashtags’ statistics.

They all have one thing in common – They require time and specific knowledge.

This article aims to be the answer to some key questions about hashtags and at the same time present you the most effective solution to the following problems:

• Which hashtags attract the most views to your posts?
• Which hashtags are best for your profile and photos?
• How do you determine the correct hashtag size for your profile?

Let’s start from the very beginning…

Hashtags effectiveness – How to find the best hashtags?

History remembers a very short time when Instagram used to present information about reach generated by particular hashtag in Instagram insights statistics panel.

We were able to see the top 5 hashtags, i.e. the ones that generate the most views of content.

Source

Unfortunately only a handful of users received the test solution, and even they were deprived of this option quite quickly.

Due to the fact that the data is now hidden by Instagram, it seems almost impossible to track information about which hashtag brings the most of the reach to your account…

Almost.

Why?

It’s not possible to find out exact reach delivered by one, particular hashtag from the list of hashtags you placed under the photo.

But it is still possible to find out which of them delivered most of the result.

How to do it?

The solution to this problem was developed by IQhashtags in the form of a dedicated functionality – Hashtag Performance.

How does it work?

To introduce you to the methodology we need to start from the very beginning and explain what drives hashtag reach.

Any time user enter the hashtag and opens its site he will see the most popular photos for the given hashtag.

They will be presented on the grid of 9 to 12 best posts for the given hashtag.

They are located above the so-called “above the fold line”, which is the place that is visible to everyone without scrolling the page.

The very similar set of hashtags will be seen by every Instagram user who decides to browse the content under the given hashtag.

At this point, the user can decide what to do next: scroll down and browse the most popular photos, go to the most recent or simply leave the page

However, the TOP9 is the place that gathers the most of the attention and it’s your goal is to hit up to the top 9 with as many posts and hashtags as possible.

That’s also what you should track and use as reference for the future posts if you succeed.

Hashtag Performance — IQhashtags

IQhashtags collects that data and present it to you in accessible and easy to use way.

It monitors the position of your photo for each hashtag that you used and whenever it appeared in the TOP9 you will have this information assigned and collected.

Blue star near to the hashtag shows hashtagthat drove the highest reach and hit your photo to the Top 9!

These are the best hashtags you have used, they effectively drove the reach, and they are responsible for the main part of the total reach generated by the post.

That’s the very valuable information as it allows you to drive individual conclusions for further posting.

It lets you know what hashtag size fits your account best.

All you have to do now is to choose the smallest and largest hashtag from the marked hashtags list – i.e. those marked with a green marker:-)

This is the range (hashtag sizes) you should use once searching for the new hashtags – for example in IQhashtags Hashtags Search tab.

Summary

Determining the right hashtags is not difficult, but it requires work time and patience.

However, with IQhashtags, and its Hashtag Performance tab its much more easy, far more effective and less time-consuming.

It automatically analyzes the positions of your photos and determines the hashtags that worked best for you.

Allows you to find the hashtag size range perfectly fitting your account.

The sweet spot where the competition isn’t very high but still the interest is big enough to attract new likes and followers.

Of course, you must continue to follow the key rule for choosing the hashtags.

It must be related to the subject of your visual content and keep on delivering high quality content!

Good luck and keep on great work!

The post Hashtag Performance – how to find the best hashtags on Instagram? appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.