How To Stand Out From The Noise On Instagram

Instagram is undoubtedly the most prominent social media platform out there and is on its way to close the gap with its parent company Facebook - which currently boasts 2.2 billion monthly active users.

Instagram is huge! With 1 billion monthly active users and more than 8 million brands present on the platform collectively sharing more than 40 million pictures on an average day, standing out from the crowd can become a bit difficult if you are actively marketing yourself on the platform organically or inorganically.

Yes, building a highly engaged following on the platform is hard but it’s certainly not impossible. If you are maintaining a presence on the platform and are seeing little to no results or are just starting out from scratch, the tips I’m about to tell you will help you stand out on Instagram and build a highly engaged following for your Instagram business or personal account -

Create a profile and optimize

Creating a profile on the platform is easy but you’ll have to choose if you want to create a personal profile or a business profile. The reason I’m mentioning it is that if you create a business profile, you’ll get additional analytics for your each and every post made on the platform. While you can choose to create a personal profile as well, going for a business profile will always be beneficial if you are looking to establish yourself strongly on the platform. Data always helps. Optimizing your business profile on the platform is easy! Just focus on providing as much information to your audience (in about 200 words) about yourself in your profile bio. And don’t forget to add your website link and contact information so users can easily give you a call when they feel like it! If you’re going for a personal profile, make sure it’s not set to private by checking it’s settings.

The kind of images you upload matters

Instagram is a highly visual image sharing platform in nature, so it makes sense to upload only your best on the platform. So, focus on uploading only high-quality images on Instagram that are high on aesthetics and visual appeal.

You can also upload videos on the platform, they receive a ton of engagement as well. But, on Instagram, images are the king and receive the most engagement. Try keeping a unique theme in all your pics and keep it consistent to stand out.

Don’t waste that caption space

Talking about posting images, with each image you post, Instagram allows you to add a 2200 words caption than you can make use of to tell your audience a story to add more depth to your pictures, add relevant hashtags or tag other people, but do make good use of all that space.

National Geographic, which is currently the most followed brand on the visual platform, does it perfectly by adding a lot of depth to all their images by adding heart-warming and witty captions that keep their ever-increasing fans wanting for more.

Use stories, hashtags, and other Instagram marketing features

Like Snapchat, you can create stories on Instagram to get in front of your audience with the help of a colorful circle which appears at the top of news feed. Also, you can make use of relevant #hashtags on the platform to get seen by an audience browsing through that specific hashtag and gain exposure. Or you can make use of Live Video on the platform for instant engagement as each time you start a LIve Video on your profile, all your followers will receive a push notification about it.

You can use the platform to market yourself in various ways, make sure you know all about their nitty-gritty marketing features that let creators on the platform get really creative. I would suggest you to keep a close look at Instagram Press to stay abreast with all their upcoming features and latest updates.

Keep your audience interested

Keeping your audience interested on Instagram by uploading engaging posts every now and then is of utmost importance. Only when you are actively working on engaging your audience and post consistently, you’ll be able to pave way for new audiences to find and follow you.

So, post consistently, engage with your audience by regularly replying to their comments, share their images and get involved in the community to build a solid fan base on the platform.

Spend some money

If you want to gain quick exposure and build a solid fan base on the platform, going the paid way is always an option. You can make use of Instagram’s in-feed ads to get your message across to a ton of targeted users depending on your budget. Instagram provides you the functionality of displaying photo, video, carousel, stories and collection ads to fulfill all kinds of your business objectives.

While you get an option to promote your each and every post, you’ll have to use Facebook Ads Manager to set-up, optimize and target all your paid marketing campaigns on the platform. If you've never done paid marketing on the platform, don't worry we can help you with setting it all up.

Use the above-mentioned methods to convert your Instagram presence from NOT to HOT!. While there are many other ways you can use to gain exposure on the platform, the ways I mentioned above will surely help you gain a lot of traction on the platform. If there are other great ways to build a solid fan base on Instagram that may have helped your or someone’s else business take off on the platform, do let us know in the comments.