Now Instagram likes aren’t everything, but they are an important metric to measure how engaged your social media followers are with your account and business. Having a significant amount of likes on your Instagram account will improve your brand image, credibility and will invite more users to engage with your page.
However, it is important to note that in several countries around the world Instagram has already removed the ‘like count’ underneath posts. Implemented in an effort to improve the mental health of all its users, especially younger ones. This doesn’t mean you won’t be able to track your own likes anymore, it just won’t show up directly under your post on your followers feed. Soon this feature will be coming to Saudi Arabia. Regardless, it will still be an important metric to measure the engagement of your followers!
1. Post consistently
If you post once in a blue moon we guarantee that your followers will lose interest in your page and potentially cause them to unfollow your account. Having fewer followers who see your posts on their timelines is a great way to decrease your likes, that’s not what you want. Ideally, you want to post every few days or at least weekly in order to keep your followers engaged.
2. Post at high-traffic times
Posting at times when none of your followers are online will lead to fewer likes on your posts. To maximize the number of people who see the post you need to post at the time in which most of your target audience is likely to be browsing the ‘gram. Especially that Instagram’s feed is no longer chronological, having more engagement on your post will place your post higher on your followers’ feed. At Brain Space, our social media account managers study the ideal times in order to maximize your likes depending on your audience.
3. Run a giveaway
Running a like-to-enter or tag-to-enter giveaway is a great way in order to increase your likes, interactions, and followers. Everyone loves freebies, so capitalizing on that in order to gain more social clout is a great strategy. The idea is appealing to most people as long as what you’re giving away is of worth to your followers.
4. Use local hashtags rather than popular ones
Ending each of your posts with a set of the 50 most popular hashtags is not an effective way in order to gain more followers or high-quality likes. It is an easy way to gain more likes on your posts but these likes aren’t likely to convert to sales. It also is aesthetically unappealing to your current followers as it looks tasteless, unprofessional and desperate. Preferably use local hashtags to reach potential customers near your business. Using these hashtags increases your chances of other local accounts wanting to collaborate with your business.
5. Promote your posts
Promoting your posts is a great way to increase your reach on Instagram and hence increasing the number of likes on your posts. At Brain Space, we know all the tips and tricks to successful Facebook ad campaigns. We use its powerful targeting options in order to share your posts with people who are most likely to engage with your account and buy your products.
6. Ask questions
Asking questions to your followers is a great way to increase the number of comments on your posts. When someone comments they are much more likely to also like your post, especially if you reply to their comment (which is a must to garner strong relationships with your followers). This kills two birds with one stone, (a) you don’t have to spend all day thinking of a witty caption (b) you increase the engagement on your post.
7. Comment on popular photos
The explore page is your best friend! Follow industry-specific pages and fill your explore page with relative and popular content. Commenting on these posts will expose your account to their followers as well as the original poster. It is an Instagram faux-pax to actively promote your page on someone else’s comment section, so keep your comment short and simple.
8. Post user-generated content
Posting user-generated content is a great way to maintain an active social media presence. Fans of your business who are active on social media are likely to post content about your business. Rather than simply liking and commenting on their post, you could repost it while giving them credit. This only takes a few minutes to do and motivates other fans of yours to create and post content about your products or services. This type of content is very genuine and represents a form of customer testimonial and will lead to more likes and followers.
3. Post high-quality pictures
Instagram is a visual medium and posting low or average quality pictures isn’t going to cut it in this day and age. Now that flagship smartphones are capable of taking visually stunning pictures and recording 4K video, your business has no excuse for posting second-rate pictures.
These are some of our basic tips in order to increase your social media engagement specifically Instagram Likes. Our social media account managers take all these and many more strategies into consideration with every post to maximize its exposure. At Brain Space, we take Social Media Management to the next level and getting the most likes on your Instagram posts is important to us. Contact us to find out what we can do for your social media presence.
Best of Luck,
Brain Space.
