This post outlines some of the best ways to grow your Instagram account and adopt the Instagram algorithm to get more reach and views on Instagram.
There is no need for your blood to run cold, nor does it have to be a complete mystery. Most social media platforms work similarly; you can use these ideas on Facebook or TikTok.
FYI: You can embed Instagram widget automatically with a social media aggregator and alive your website with fresh content.
A combination of creativity, user-generated content, a bit of technical knowledge, and some dedication will definitely get you there.
So without further due, let’s check what we will cover in this article:
How to Get More Instagram Views?
Before we take a deep dive into some ideas about how to “get those views” going, we will start with some basic yet fundamental rules that will help you increase views on your Instagram:
Find optimal posting time
Understanding your audience’s peak online times can significantly increase engagement rates. Experiment with different posting times and monitor which garner more views or interactions. You can use third-party scheduling tools for automated posting.
Use Instagram Insights
This is Instagram’s in-built analytics tool, allowing you to understand how your posts perform. You can see impressions, reach, website clicks, and follower activity data. This tool can help you understand your audience better and tailor your content to their preferences.
Create specifically for Instagram
Instagram content has a distinct aesthetic and format. Create content that aligns with this aesthetic, including images and videos of high quality, and use Instagram’s native filters and editing options. Avoid using content with watermarks from other platforms; it can detract from the user experience and hurt your performance.
Write Descriptive and engaging captions
A compelling caption can drive higher engagement. Encourage interaction by asking questions, including calls-to-action, or sharing behind-the-scenes information.
Good captions add context, show off your brand’s personality, and prompt your followers to take action.
Make social proof a regular post in your calendar.
Sharing user-generated content, reviews, testimonials, or even reposting followers’ posts can build trust and foster a sense of community.
It not only validates your product or service but also appreciates your customers for their loyalty.
Socialize with your audience
Active engagement is crucial on Instagram. Responding to comments, liking followers’ posts, participating in relevant discussions, and even hosting live sessions or Q&A can help you connect on a deeper level with your audience and build stronger relationships.
Tag your Instagram posts with a location tag
Geo-tagging can boost your visibility among local users and travelers, particularly if you’re in the hospitality or retail business.
Users often check location tags to find places to visit, shop, or eat. By tagging your location, you make your posts discoverable to this audience.
Be consistent with your posts on your Instagram account
Consistency is key in growing your follower base and maintaining engagement. Develop a regular posting schedule and stick to it. Consistent posting keeps your brand at the top of your followers’ feeds and their minds.
Remember, consistency isn’t just about frequency but also about the quality and style of your content.
As most creators swear by this “rule” and believe consistency is the key to going viral! Take @hope.schwing‘s word for it!
10 Ideas on How to Get More Views on Instagram?
Idea 1: Creative use of Instagram stories stickers (organize AMAs etc.)
We’re starting our ideas list with one of the simplest things you can do to get views on Instagram – use stickers on your Instagram stories.
This is such a great Instagram business idea because posting Stories where you are asking for opinions, interacting, and engaging with your followers make people feel included, which will help you create a faithful community and ultimately grow your business.
How to use it:
- Choose the image you want for your Instagram story.
- Choose a sticker that will help you engage your community. Here is a shortlist with the most common stickers out there if you lack creativity.
- Quiz Sticker – used in versatile ways (educational, entertaining, getting feedback and getting to know your follower’s interests, etc.).
- Location Sticker – your story will appear in the public stories feed of that location meaning everyone could see and engage with that particular story.
- Hashtag Sticker – like the location sticker, your story will appear on the public hashtag’s page.
- GIF Sticker – allows you to express your creativity, create more appealing and fun content, highlight certain parts of your story such as call-to-actions and links, and draw more attention.
- Poll-Sticker – asking for feedback, opinions, interests, ideas, likes, and dislikes, or in a word, engaging with your audience, this is just the sticker for it.
Other stickers worth mentioning here are emoji sliders, question stickers, countdown stickers, shopping stickers, music stickers, link stickers, and ‘Add yours’ sticker. Don’t be scared to play with them; create quizzes, polls, ask questions, etc. Find creative ways to increase Instagram Story views with these stickers, entertain your audience, and get to know them better so you can get more engagement.
Example: Marissa Mcnamara, a fitness and lifestyle coach, uses the countdown sticker to announce a new winter lounge drop.
Idea 2: Create Sharable Content
Creating fun and relatable quality content is the best way to create a bond with your followers and expand your audience and, therefore, your views.
It’s no wonder once we all see something interesting and relatable – the absolute first thing we do is share it with our friends.
Regardless of what your Instagram business account is about, create such content, and your audience will forward it, meaning more engagement and you are getting more views on Instagram.
Read more: How to get more Instagram followers?
For example, Pullandbear created and posted this meme that resonates with their audience and promotes their Black Friday sale.
Idea 3: Go live on exclusive events
Instagram Live is a must-do when talking about connecting with your audience, increasing video views, and being more transparent and authentic.
Unlike posts and Reels that can be polished to perfection, Instagram Live is all about showing the proper un-edited side of yourself/your business.
Another thing, Instagram Live allows real-time comments and questions that you can answer doing the live → resulting in uninterrupted interaction, which is super important for building a solid connection with your followers/customers.
When talking about your brand, some ideas on how to take this to the next level are:
- Use Instagram Live to increase awareness about a particular topic,
- Build hype around a new product and its launch,
- spread some important news, and
- drive traffic to your website.
Example: Skincare influencer Nikki created Derm Talks Events, where she collaborates with dermatologists to raise awareness about common skin issues.
Ste-by-step guide for doing an Instagram Live:
- Tap the “+” icon in the top-right corner and select Live
- A camera screen will open up
- Tap on the left-hand menu to ‘Add a title’ for your Live video
- Select broadcast audience (there’s public and practice option where you can go live by yourself)
- Set your Start time (date and time); and
- In the settings (top right corner), you can set up some camera settings
On this screen, you can also see how many of your followers are Live at the moment and choose an effect from your saved effects gallery.
Lastly, → tap the big circle icon at the bottom, and you will go Live.
Extra tips:
- Once your Live video is scheduled – make sure to hype your audience, promote your Live on Stories, and gently push your followers to set those reminders to tune in when the time comes.
- Don’t forget to check when your audience is most active and go live then,
- Consider everything beforehand, such as content, set-up, lightning, and location.
Here’s a sticker countdown posted on stories with a reminder about a scheduled live (just the strategy we talked about).
Idea 4: Organize giveaways
When done right, hosting a giveaway can be one of the most influential and fast ways to increase Instagram views and grow your following.
Although giveaways hold the potential to attract new followers, if these followers are not your target audience, they will most likely unfollow you the minute that giveaway ends.
For this same reason, your giveaways should be carefully planned and, even more importantly – aligned with your social marketing strategy.
Example: Public figure and fashion influencer/creator Valeria Lipovetsky hosting an international giveaway for Valentine’s Day, gifting a $600 worth of prize pack for certain clothes from @knix.
This is a giveaway done right because most of her followers are there because of her fashion/clothing suggestions and daily wears, so giving away clothes – is perfectly aligned with her social media strategy.
Steps to executing a single giveaway:
- Decide what you’ll be giving away (prize relevant to your audience and its needs). You could also partner up with some other similar brand to have a bigger audience.
- Set the entry criteria – state how someone can enter the giveaway (rules such as following, tagging friends, sharing on the story – this depends on your marketing goals). Since our goal is increasing views – we could place criteria for every participant to share the post on the story.
- Launch and promote, promote, promote! Promoting your giveaway is also crucial to hitting those giveaway goals, such as more views and growth.
- Choose a winner! Do it publicly and be transparent about everything! You want a fair giveaway.
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Idea 5: Interview famous users in your niche
Getting those extra views, you need so you reap all the benefits from your Instagram account is all about expanding your community. A simple strategy to do this and to boost engagement would be to interview/collaborate with famous Instagram users in your niche.
The logic behind this is – these famous users have a massive community of followers, meaning only one story or mention of your Instagram account might provide you with a solid stream of views, engagement, and of course, followers.
However, it needs to be done the right way, and here’s how to do it:
Create a list of meaningful people
Do profound research and make sure you create a list with relevant people in your industry to get new views and following from relevant audiences plus, this interview needs to bring real value to your followers.
One interesting way to find them is to browse your followers’ activity and even follow a few accounts to wait till they repost or share content from other users you think might be relevant for your interview.
Figure out a way to reach out to these people
Do it through social media or e-mail; figure out what’s in it for them and pitch that; don’t be too spammy.
Do reach out with your idea but keep in mind it might take a while before you land your desired interview.
Don’t forget to talk about the delicate topic of sharing the interview with their Instagram community as well.
Once you land and film your interview – make sure you promote it across all the Instagram channels (post on your stories, create posts out of it with key points, create a discussion).
Example: Here is a list with interesting examples of how famous users and versatile brands came together to create unique and engaging Instagram content (in this case these interviews/collaborations were done through the Instagram Live Channel).
Idea 6: Use Instagram hashtags
Using popular Instagram hashtags is one of the most underrated tactics to get your Instagram views.
We often see people over saturating their Instagram posts with many hashtags that are usually too generic, and that’s the wrong way to go.
Instead, here’s what the Instagram team suggest:
Although there are versatile types of hashtags and ways to add them, you should remember to add them strategically according to a carefully created hashtag strategy. Your goal is to help bring value to people searching that particular hashtag plus help you increase your reach.
Pro tip: choose and use → monitor and analyze → and optimize the use of your hashtags
Don’t forget to go around following this “cycle constantly”. It’s essential to keep track of what hashtags you’re using and how they are performing.
Example: Daisy Filardini, a wildlife photographer, uses a combination of popular hashtags, including location hashtags and branded ones with her name.
Idea 7: Create your own Instagram ads
Out of all 10 ways, this is the only paid option to increase your reach if you’re willing to spend some money.
Here’s a short walk-through of how to do it (keep in mind that Instagram ads are more complicated, and you might need some professional help).
- Open the Facebook ads manager.
- Choose your ad objective (in our case – reach, since we’re looking into increasing views)
- Name your Instagram campaign.
- Choose your ad placement (between all social media platforms, here’s it vital to check the Instagram box only)
- Choose your target audience.
- Define your budget and schedule, and lastly
- Choose your Instagram ad format.
Idea 8: Film Reels videos on a very trending topic
Imagine gaining more than 2,800 new followers in a month?
That would be incredible, and this is exactly what happened to Yuri Mori, a fashion model who chooses to post a reel every day for a month.
Yes, Instagram Reels hold the potential for massive growth, increased engagement, and increased follower rates. Plus, Instagram recently announced that their feature development for 2022 will primarily focus on video content, such as Live videos and Reels.
If you’re clueless about getting started → , make sure to follow the Instagram Reels tutorial.
For example, Digital Creator Naysha did go viral using the renaissance portraits AR filter (and who knows, maybe next time it will be your reel ?).
Idea 9: Collaborate with local micro-influencers
Influencer marketing has been a thing for a while now. As a digital marketing strategist, if you’re not using it already, you’re missing out greatly since a survey showed 61% of consumers trust suggestions made by these influencers.
Even more, shared from personal experience, Anna the head of social media marketing from Ula Loops says micro-influencers had a huge impact on building a strong relationship with their customers and a loyal community.
Working with niche micro influencers helped our business a lot! I always approached the relationship between our brand and influencers more as an extended family member than as a promotional transaction, which resulted in higher levels of trust and engagement with our community. They improved our brand trustworthiness and immensely increased our sales. The collaboration was mostly with commissions and gifts for their followers, friends or family members.”
Head of social media marketing from Ula Loops
Micro-influencers usually have between 20.000-50.000 followers, but this number doesn’t mean a collaboration won’t provide you with excellent results.
On the contrary, tons of huge brands work with this type of micro-influencers specifically because they have a loyal and dedicated community of followers. However, make sure you choose micro-influencers relevant to your audience and industry (for example, a cook promoting a cookbook you published).
Example: Sephora created a well-thought-out beauty influencer program named #SephoraSquad and is constantly hiring micro-influencers to promote and review all sorts of beauty and skincare products.
To find micro-influencers, just start with the Instagram explore tab and look for suggested people. These are usually people who post content in your niche.
Idea 10: Stay true to yourself
Although it sounds much like a cliche, staying true to yourself and letting your creativity shine through is one of the best things you can do if you want to see your Instagram profile grow, and I’ll jump right down to an example to prove my point.
And as the last point, most users who post content only to show off or copy other brands eventually will lose their engagement and the potential to reach new audiences.
Example: Digital Creator Laura has more than 17 million views on her Instagram Reels because she’s not afraid to show her personality and creativity.
Bonus idea: Embed Instagram feed on your website
Embedding an Instagram widget on your website is a unique way to increase the reach of your Instagram posts and therefore increase their views by exposing them to a new audience.
With a professional social media aggregator, you can sync all your posts from Instagram to your website in seconds.
Plus, you can add additional links to the photos and tag them with the products shown on the photos. Therefore, you will get an entire Instagram shop and, at the same time, increase views and sales.
Try EmbedFeed for 7 days and embed your Instagram feed on your website.
Conclusion
I hope these ideas can help you create high-quality content and increase your organic reach.
Embrace new experiences without fear or hesitation, but never forget your followers’ importance—cherish their interests, happiness, and enjoyment.
And don’t forget that all popular social media platforms have mechanisms to ban shady tactics and accounts with fake followers that buy Instagram views.
So it is always better to invest in well thought social media marketing strategy that will bring you results in the long run.
FYI: You can embed Instagram widget automatically with a social media aggregator and alive your website with fresh content.
