5 Tips To Expand Your Instagram Reach Today

Did you know there are five things you could be doing differently today that could expand your Instagram reach? And, with hardly any work on your part? Now I don’t usually talk much about Instagram on the ol’ blog, but recently I’ve been learning some interesting things about growing your account that I wouldn’t have considered at all!

I’ve tested them out for some time and have noticed significant changes. So I must do my due diligence and share with you because that’s what I love to do! 😀 So I’ll be adding an Instagram menu option for future posts, and in this article, I’m breaking down the five things you could be doing TODAY to expand your Instagram reach starting now! And because I hate blog posts that beat around-the-bush I’m going to recap the top five right from the beginning, just read on to learn more…they are:

---

Optimize Your Headline Name

5 Minute a Day Engagement Strategy

Geo Tagging & Story Hash-Tagging

Utilizing Polls in Your Stories

Post More Videos

---

1. Optimize Your Headline Name

This instagram tip is so under utilized it’s crazy! (But right now for you and I, this may be a good thing..) wink, wink 🙂

Ok, let’s say someone is searching for a particular keyword in the Instagram search bar….i.e. (Instagram Tips, Blogging Tips, Hair Tutorials, Photo Tutorials, Makeup, etc.) You want YOUR profile to pop up and having those keywords in your bio won’t make much of a difference. BUT, place them in your headline where keywords ARE searchable, and suddenly you’ll have the chance of Instagram showing your account to the masses searching for those specific Instagram keywords every day!

Let me show you some examples:

So as you can see, by changing up your headline to include what you do and what value you could bring to others searching for these particular keywords in Instagram, you are expanding your reach to thousands of people who are using the Instagram search bar every day!

Now let’s say your Instagram name isn’t your real name, but rather your company or blog name and you want to include your name in your headline but still be searchable, you can try something like so:

Your Name | What You Do or Post About

examples: AnnMarie Woods | Hair & Makeup

John Smith | Instagram Tips and Tricks

2. 5 Minute A Day Instagram Engagement Strategy

How many of you find yourself endlessly scrolling only your feed waiting on those numbers and then your followers posts, but are ignoring the explore feed all together?!
via GIPHY

This tactic isn’t going to help extend your reach further than those you follow and follow you that are commenting and liking on your posts already.

When your building your brand or trying to attract and expand your Instagram reach to others, you need to put in the work. You can’t just expect to get results. Sure your good friends may share your account and posts here-and-there to their followers, but everyone on Instagram has their growth agenda. So you have to take matters into your own hands.

I’m all about growing organically and staying away from Instagram pods, like groups, telegram groups, bought in giveaway loops, you name it as growth tactics.

See Related Post: The Instagram Burnout

Since Instagram is a COMMUNITY and your trying to build your community of followers you want to be targeting those who are your ideal audience…in other words, you want people to follow you that are actually interested in what you are doing and what you have to offer them, not those who are there because they have to be or they are trying to win something. Because let’s face it, they will leave quick fast and in a hurry when there is no obligation for them to stick around and your account doesn’t vibe with what they are into while on Instagram.

So Here’s The Stragegy

Set a timer for a least five minutes whenever you find yourself with a bit of free time during the day.

In those FIVE minutes:

• Search for hashtags under the “Tag” line in the Instagram search bar for your ideal customer/follower (remember you want to think of people that could benefit from your posts and whatever it is you are selling). Then think of a keyword that describes them..i.e. (#photolovers #makeupartists #stayathomemom, #personaltrainer #workoutcoach #makeuplover, #hairguru….etc.)

• Pick a hashtag and dive into the “recent” posts (not Top). Start by liking someone’s photo, then go to their profile and like at least two more and leave any genuine comment you want. Go back and do this for the remainder of your time. If you find an account you like…follow them! If you can provide help to a caption…give it.

• Once you’re done close the app and go about your day, you can repeat this as often as you like throughout the day but just as good measure for your sanity 5 minutes is the perfect amount of time. Cause we all got a lot more on our plate during the day than just IG, mmkkk.

via GIPHY

Don’t forget to give love to those that already are following and engaging with you! You wouldn’t be out scooting for new players for your football team if you already had a full team you could be training with right now. That’s just wasting their time, and they will ultimately become bored and lose focus or worse….become recruited by another team who appreciates their worth. Do you feel me?

So within one of those 5-minute timers..answer your DMs, reply to your comments, like and comment on your follower’s posts. Be SOCIAL….it is social media after all 😛

3. Geo-Tagging and Story Hash-Tagging

• Geo-Tagging: It’s no secret that Geo-Tagging, where your photos are taken on an Instagram post, can significantly expand your reach to those searching for locations. But did you know that doing the same with your stories can increase your story reach just as much?!

Try it out next time your out and about and then go back into your stories later to see how many viewers you had and how many viewers came from your geo-tag! My stories typically get around 300-400views, and when I add my location, I can get an extra 100+ viewers (depending on where I’m at). This approach enables them to click on my profile and follow if they are interested. It’s as easy as that!

• Story Hash-Tagging: Did you know that you can hide hashtags in your stories too? And if you do, your chance of being seen on the explore page increases! Instagram stories today have nearly 300 million active daily users. And if you’re like so many today, often stories are the first thing that people look at when they log onto Instagram!

So you best believe that hiding hashtags in your stories is the way to go!! You don’t want to make your story look too needy with a bunch of hashtags:

Check Out: The Ultimate Guide To Photo Editing Apps For Instagram

4. Utilizing Polls in Your Instagram Stories

You want to get to know your followers, and what they like so you can better serve and bring value to them. A super-easy way to do this is by taking advantage of your IG story features like polls, questions, and quizzes.

People love to share their opinions, and by simply asking your audience a yes or no question more likely that they will participate. And THAT my friends counts as engagement to the Instagram algorithm. This in turn, signals to IG that people are interested in your stories and what your sharing, making it more likely that Instagram will share your content to those people the next time you post.

Typically when you post to your feed, only a small percentage of your followers are going to see it right of the bat. Unless you have immediate high engagement, which of course, is rare for smaller accounts to achieve. BUT when you utilize these features, almost everyone who engaged with you in your stories is going to see what you post the next time you do.

5. Post More Videos

Another great tactic to increasing your Instagram exposure is by posting more videos! Just like with location, when you post videos, you are increasing your chances of being found. When you’re looking at the explore feed, you’ll notice there is a big square on the right just for videos! Not only do you have a higher chance of being on the explore feed with videos, but you’re also increasing your retention time, which then expands your Instagram reach. The “algorithm” loves retention time (the longer someone looks at your post) and videos is one of the best ways to do that since it’s easier to look at videos longer than pictures of course 🙂

IGTV is especially useful for this as well. And with the new feature of adding a preview of your IGTV video to your feed, it’s a no brainer. Instagram wants you to utilize all of its features. And it promotes people who do! So if you’re not yet posting many videos, you best get on it! But a word of advice…don’t just post any ol’ video. Just like with your posts, you should post videos that provide value, are entertaining, or educating your audience. This will also ensure that they stick around longer as well 😉

Hope these help you!

Like This Post? Save It On Pinterest!