4 Proven Hacks to Gain Views and Likes on Instagram

With terms like ‘Insta-worthy’ and ‘the Gram’ becoming the norm in everyday conversation, it’s easy to see that Instagram has a massive influence on its users’ daily lives.

Over the past few years, Instagram has boomed in user count and functionality to become the sixth-most used site.  And, with our BoostStorm® help along with “4 Proven Hacks to Gain Views and Likes on Instagram” you’re going to propel your Instagram presence significantly.

What was once a place for people to share their vacation pictures is now a source of income for thousands of influencers, marketers, bloggers, and businesses. At this point, it’s safe to say that having a flourishing Instagram account is a great way to build your clientele or audience.

However, most people are not Instagram experts. Thus, they often lose at the hands of the smart algorithm designed to favor the audience more than the content creators.

Worry not, though. It’s not impossible to beat the algorithm. With the four fool-proof hacks discussed in this guide, you can quickly emerge as a popular and successful account on Instagram.

Post Popular Content

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that posting popular content will get you more likes and views. However, not everyone on the photo-sharing app can start posting puppy videos and memes, can they?

As a content creator, you must find out what’s popular with your audience. Once you discover their likes and interests, show them relevant content on your stories and feed.

But how can you find this information? Instagram is quite helpful in this regard since the app has Instagram Insights for Business accounts.

Go to the Insights and select ‘Posts.’ Here, you’ll see the engagement your posts have been getting in the past year. Which posts were shared, liked, and saved most? Are they videos or pictures?

Identify the common themes in these posts and show similar content to your audience. A success story in this regard comes from Bloom & Wild.

The flower delivery company wanted to get a larger audience without spending millions of dollars. After studying their metrics, they found that the audience engages more with videos. So, that’s what they started to post more on their page.

The result? They had a whopping 62% increase in new visitors, and their comment section also got busier.

Another great example is Airbnb. While most other companies have a mini-army of professional photographers taking pictures of their products and services, Airbnb left the task to their customers.

The company posts pictures taken by hosts and guests on their social media accounts because the audience likes to see a touch of realism.

As a result, their pictures get thousands of likes and comments.

Post Daily

While regular users may not need to post daily, content creators definitely do. Even if you’re not posting a picture or a video, make sure you’re active on stories. Keep your audience engaged by holding polls, asking questions, and making them choose between two things.

Also, people love to get a peek into your life. So, you can share your morning routine, pet stories, or everyday activities with your audience. Some good ideas include outfit of the day, food pictures, and your favorite songs or playlists.

Since 500 million people use Instagram stories daily, it’s imperative that you leverage this engagement for your account’s growth. Even better, a third of the most highly-viewed Instagram stories are from business accounts.

Other than stories, you can also go on Instagram Live to interact with your audience.

As a creator, artist, or influencer, you can personally talk to people on Instagram Live, get their feedback, or maybe even hold a small giveaway to ensure more people join the Live session.

The aim should be to make it fun and get people to engage. For instance, if you’re an artist or a photographer, share your process with the audience on Instagram Live.

On the other hand, businesses can give the audience a virtual tour of their new store or a sneak-peak of the upcoming collection on the Live session.

When posting on Instagram, make sure you’re doing it at optimal times. On average, off-work hours are the best time to post as people are more likely to be on their phones.

For some unknown reason, Thursday seems to be the best day to post content on Instagram, especially at 11 am or 5 pm.

#UseHashtags

If you want to get more likes on your content, make sure to add hashtags since such posts have a high like-to-follower ratio. However, don’t bombard your posts with hashtags. Anything less than 10 is great for engagement.

Hashtags are also an excellent way to interact with your audience. For instance, Starbucks runs its #RedCupContest campaign in December. They ask the users to post pictures of Starbucks cups with the hashtag. The best pictures stand a chance to win Starbucks gift cards.

Another brand that successfully used a hashtag to increase its user engagement and views is Marc Jacobs. The American designer label quite smartly coupled hashtags with their recruitment process in a widely successful Instagram campaign.

They asked people from all over the world to use the hashtag #CastMeMarc to become the new face of the brand. At the moment, the hashtag has more than 90,000 posts under it. That’s more than the likes on any of the pictures on the brand’s page.

From these applicants, 30 were chosen by the company and featured in a video.

Likewise, if you’re running an art account, a meme page, or share self-produced music with your audience, create a unique hashtag to make it easier for the users to find your posts. Make sure it’s a creative and catchy hashtag that makes an impact – something like #ShareACoke.

Hold Giveaways and Contests

Hosting giveaways is another proven way to gain views and likes on your posts. When holding a contest, make sure to be creative and write the instructions clearly in the description.

For instance, you can tell the followers to tag three of their friends in the comment section to enter the race for winning a product or a cash prize. Here are some interesting contest ideas:

• Ask your followers to caption a picture or suggest a name for one of your upcoming products to get a three-month supply of it for free.
• If you’re holding the giveaway close to a festive occasion like Christmas or Valentine’s Day, tell the followers to share a funny story. Whoever has the best anecdote wins the contest.
• Create a hashtag and ask the audience to post a related picture. The follower who posts the best picture gets to spend a day with you.

Most content creators host giveaways when they reach 10k, 50k, or 100k followers. However, if you’re a beginner, go ahead and give away a gift basket for reaching 5k followers.

Conclusion

While gaining views, likes and comments is the first step of the process, you also have to hold your audience’s attention. For that, you must continually post content that is in line with your audience’s interests.

As long as you do that, the ever-changing algorithm won’t do your engagement much harm.

Want to get noticed even faster? Consider any one of our Instagram services to give your profile and post an instant boost.