Instagram watch time is CRITICAL when it comes to account growth and engaging your audience organically. Whether you’re running a new profile, or a seasoned one, the amount of time your viewers are sticking around DOES EXTREMELY MATTER.

Fortunately, there are easy ways to improve your Reels to boost audience retention and maximize your  organic views. This can even eventually lead to reaching 2,000 hours of viewed Reel! In this guide, I’ll be focusing on 6 easy tips that can increase your Instagram Reels watch time. So if you’re ready to boost your growth through improved viewer retention and more Reels views, let’s get to it!

Why is Reel watch time so important on Instagram?

Watch time is the key on Instagram as it is a metric that measures the amount of time viewers spend watching your content. It is considered one of the most important factors in Instagram’s algorithm for recommending content to new users. Reels with higher watch time are more likely to be suggested to new potential followers, leading to organic growth, increased views, higher engagement, and changes in your follower count.

How is watch time calculated on Instagram?

Watch time for your Instagram Reels is calculated for each Reel individually. It’s the total amount of time that viewers spend watching your particular piece of content. It is measured in minutes (and seconds), and it of course includes all views, including those from multiple devices (phones, tablets, computers) and repeated views from the same viewers as well.

How long should my Reels be to increase watch time?

The ideal length of your Reels to increase watch time depends on your content and audience. However, shorter Reels (7-10 seconds) tend to have higher watch times than longer ones, as they can keep viewers more engaged and there’s lower risk of boredom.

Proven Strategies to Increase Your Reels Watch Time

Use B-Rolls – You most probably already know this term from Youtube, huh? B-roll is basically just extra content that you overlay on the original video to add this extra spark, character and value to your Reel.

Why is it worth this extra effort? That way, you can break up mundane video so that your viewers aren’t just watching a long talking head. You can also help your potential follower better understand your talking points by adding examples relating to the topic. Show additional shots of a specific thing/product/place to give them more insight on what it looks like/how exactly it works

When editing your Reels, you can also use the power of jumpcuts. A jumpcut is an easy method to break up your video by slightly changing the look of each shot (each clip). This makes the overall result much more engaging and appealing. How to achieve it? Editing your Reel with jumpcuts is actually really simple. It’s just a matter of using a Reel editor like Cupcut or VN and zooming in and out between clips, so even though the background of each video is technically the same, and the same location, one clip can look differently from the next.

Use the power of trending audios – Using music in your Reels is the smartest way to add some emotional value to your Instagram videos. Invoking emotions, and creating the intrigue is – you guessed it! – another great way to increase your Reels watch time. Of course, you can’t just choose a random audio to input into your Reels. The audios or music you choose should go with the feelings, the mood you’re trying to invoke with your content.

Our protip? Try to avoid background audios that are too sad, too depressing if it doesn’t go with the vibe of your specific Reel.

Use Custom Reels Thumbnails – A custom thumbnail is a picture that shows alongside the title of your Reel. As a viewer scrolls through Instagram Reels Explore Section, it is the first item they see! Utilizing intriguing, high-quality, aesthetically pleasing custom thumbnails will boost your Reels click-through rate.

Collaborate with Other  Creators from your niche– Partnering with other Instagrammers in your field/your niche will absolutely help you raise the exposure and view time of your Reels. You can even collaborate on Reels to cross-promote your accounts with other content creators who have similar interests and similar target audiences. 

Optimize your reels for SEO on Instagram – Better Instagram SEO methods may help your Reels rank higher in the platform’s search engine results, resulting in many more views and organic interaction. I know it may sound like a black magic, but in practice – it’s really not. Just identify the major hashtags and keywords (you can research them with IQ Hashtags to save time, and effectively find the most promising ones) and use them in your Reels captions. This is one of the smartest ways to increase your watch time in a short time. 

how to increase Instagram Reels watch time

Double down on what works best – Data is your best friend, I can’t stress this enough! Analyze your Reels statistics (I use IQ Hashtags’ Reels Metrics to have in-depth data and all the comparable details in one dashboard – if you want, you can also try it out with a free 7-day trial right here), to know what the audience loves the most, and what kind of Reels performs the best.

Now You’re Ready to Increase Your Reels Watch Time on Instagram & Boost Your Organic Growth!

For more info on how to improve your organic growth, check out our other free guides. And hey, there are so many new on the way, so keep coming back to stay on the right Instagram track.

The post Your 6 Strategies to Increase Reels Watch Time on Instagram – 6 Easy Ways appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

How to hide likes on Instagram? Are likes just a vanity metric you shouldn’t pay attention to or maybe one of the factors brands and agencies use before they decide to collaborate with any creator? Should you hide Instagram likes or allow them to scream at anyone who visits your profile? Stick around to find out  how to quickly hide likes for yourself or for others and check out our list of pros and cons of hiding likes that should answer all of these questions.

If You Hide Likes on Instagram, Can Others See It?

The first thing to say here, is that there are two options when it comes to hiding likes and views count.

You can hide them on  Instagram posts, and that works for regular feed posts – you can only scroll through the accounts that liked the video but numbers are invisible. 

However, you’ll still be able to see likes and views for Reels.

What can I say… We’re a bit inconsistent, Instagram, aren’t we?

Can You Hide Like Count On Reels?

With Reels, the preview for the likes count looks the same as for feed posts, but when you actually click on it, you’ll still see how many times the video has been played and how many likes it has. 

So whoever can explain why Reels are an exception from this rule, you’re welcome to share this info with us in the comments below. We can’t come up with anything better than just, Reels are a popular format on Instagram atm, and they want to create some kind of FOMO in people by tempting them with numbers, or…The numbers are supposed to be an indicator of what’s trending on the platform… But these arguments still don’t seem like a good enough reason for me.  Personally, I just think that if some people don’t need or want to see likes, just give them that option on everything. That’s all.

On the other hand, you can hide likes on your own posts from other people, and of course you can also use both solutions at the same time.  In this case, people won’t see likes or views count for your regular feed posts (so any images including carousels, videos up to 60s, of course with the exception of Reels).

Should I Hide Likes?

Initially, the reason why Instagram decided to roll out this feature is as they said themselves, to give people more control over their experience on the platform. They wanted to depressurize Instagram, make it less of a competition, give people more space to focus on connecting with people that they love and things that inspire them, which was a very noble thing to do. However, after a while of testing the feature they’ve decided to make it optional since it ended up being polarizing for the community, as said by the Big Instagram Boss Adam Mosseri.

This doesn’t change the fact that you might still want to hide likes for your posts and find it beneficial, so let me show you how to do it right now!

How to Hide Instagram Likes – Guide

1. Let’s go with the option numero uno: turn off likes on others Instagram posts, so you won’t see them yourself.

First, go onto your Instagram profile. From there, select the hamburger menu in the top right corner of the screen.

Go to ‚‘Settings’. click on privacy and then the posts icon.  Right at the top of the screen you’ll see the  ‘Hide like and view counts‘ option. Switch it on and you’re done. Now you can’t see likes or views on other people’s posts.

2. If you’d like to hide likes and views on your own posts from the people who visit your profile you have two ways to do it:

You can do it at the stage of creating a post:

Upload a photo or video, add a caption and hashtags, all the usual stuff. Once you’re done with your post tap Advanced Settings at the bottom of the screen

and toggle on Hide Like and View Counts.

And that’s it, return to your post and publish it. Everything that people can see in your post from now on,  are profiles that liked it without any numbers attached.

3. If you’d like to hide likes on the existing posts. The process is really straightforward as well.

Go to the post you want to hide likes for. Click on the three dots menu in the top right corner and hit „Hide like Count”. Also, if you don’t fancy people commenting on your post. You can switch that option off here as well.

The only thing you need to remember about, is that you will have to repeat this process for every post you publish as there is no way to make this the default option.

Another step checked off the list, so now’s a good time to decide if it’s a good idea for you to hide the number of likes and views in your posts.

Is It Better to Hide Your Likes on Instagram?

Here’s when we think you could consider ditching likes count from your posts:

1. First, let’s follow up on the origin of the idea for hiding likes.

The feature was supposed to empower people, and shape a more positive experience on Instagram, so If you feel anxious about these numbers. You’re nervously checking your phone for notifications after you post anything, or even worse start judging your own worth based on how you measure up against other people who appear to be doing better or worse than you do on Instagram – in these scenarios hiding likes look like a good first step to building a healthier relationship with the platform.

We’re not psychologists or therapists, so this is of course not professional advice but we do believe that small steps always lead to bigger ones and we hope this can be one of them for you. 

2.  If the only thing holding you back from hiding likes is a concern that this will affect your stats, you should also not be worried. The algorithm won’t get upset with you about it. You’ll still be able to access your posts’ insights. Which is even better if you think about it, because you’ll be looking at the overall performance of your post. Not focusing only on how many likes it got.

3.  Another reason why you could try hiding your like count is when it becomes a vanity metric. What we mean by that is when the number of followers, likes or shares  on your posts become more important than your objectives as a creator or a business owner. Your Instagram objectives should go hand in hand with your business goals. Whether it is building a mailing list, raising your brand awareness or finding brands to collaborate with, your likes count isn’t the only metric you should be relying on to achieve these goals.

Cons of Hiding Likes on Instagram

1. Instagram has been testing the feature since 2019, which translates to a lot of feedback from Instagram users. The big Instagram Boss, Adam Mosseri, brought to light that ‘For those who liked it, the feature worked just the way they wanted it to work. It  depressurised the experience. But for those who didn’t, they used likes to get a sense of what was trending, what was relevant on Instagram, and they weren’t so happy about not seeing likes in other creators‘ feeds. So before you hide likes on your business or creator account, the thing to remember is that very often people’s first instinct is that large numbers of likes mean quality content and eventually can attract more people to follow your profile.

2. Thankfully, these days brands looking for collaborators pay attention to other performance indicators than just likes.  They use professional tools like socialauditor to audit influencers and determine if they’re the right fit to promote their service or a product. But if they don’t use advanced tools like this one, they will most likely still pay attention to your likes count, the number of followers, your engagement in the comments and generally how your posts resonate with your audience. In which case, keeping your likes count visible can be a good idea.

Do Likes Matter on Social Media?

We feel that the more people decide to hide likes on their posts the healthier Instagram ecosystem can become by reducing the negative effects of the social comparison on the platform, and creating a safe space for our more authentic selves. Which would be a fantastic thing.

I hope that this article helped you to make a decision about hiding likes in your posts, and if you decided to go for it, we made it easier to get it done with our short tutorial 

If you enjoyed reading this post, let me know in the comments below what’s your opinion about hiding likes on Instagram? Have you already done it or maybe you’re completely against it. I’m very curious to see what you guys think about it!

The post How to Hide Instagram Likes – Short Guide + Should You Do It? appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Not sure how to write the perfect Instagram Bio? What elements make it perfect and how can you use it to convert your visitors into loyal followers? This article will answers all of these questions, so stick around to get your 7 tips on what to put in your Instagram Bio to make it pop!

What Is Instagram Bio Short For?

Let’s start from the basics. 

An Instagram bio is the 150-character description on your profile page. It is your place to shine and tell people about yourself and/or your business, help them understand what you do and how you will add value to their lives. 

But it isn’t just about lines of text. I think that every single component that can be seen at the top of your profile should be also considered as your bio. 

For example your profile photo that shows people who you are and your Story highlights which can be a wonderful eye-catcher for new visitors if you use them strategically. All of these elements are what makes the first impression on your visitors and it is not an exaggeration to say that every single one of them is what makes people hit that follow button. Let me know in the comments below if you agree!

What Makes a Good Bio? What’s the Best Bio for Instagram? 

Before we get into 7 tips that will make your bio attract followers like bees to a honeypot.

Let’s shortly talk about what makes a bio perfect?

Before you even seat down to writing your bio try to answer these core questions: 

• What will be your/ your brand’s voice: are you a laid back creator or a business with luxurious jewellery. The way you should communicate with your audience through your bio should be defined by your brand’s style of communication

• What is your brand promise: what are you going to deliver every time people visit your profile. Remember that a brand promise means nothing if it’s not followed through with action, so make sure your content is a reflection of that.

• What do you need an Instagram profile for? What do you want to achieve with it?: Showcase your brand? Educate your customers about how they can reach you?  or maybe promote your blog? What you’ll include in your bio depends on these goals.

• And finally, what makes you stand out from the crowd? Instagram is a highly saturated platform so think what is that one thing that makes you different and could grab the attention of your future followers?

Ok, we created a solid foundation for the Perfect instagram bio, so let’s move on to 7 tips that will make your bio POP and attract new followers.

Choose a Knockout Profile Photo

Your profile picture is a visual introduction to your profile. It literally tells or better shows your visitors who you are.

If you’re building a personal brand, make sure to use a photo of yourself. Studies have shown that photos with faces drive more engagement and are a powerful non-verbal way to communicate. 

Use it to show your personality, play with props that clearly state what you do: if you’re a photographer pose with a camera, if you’re a floral designer pose with a nice flower arrangement. 

Try to choose a clear background so it doesn’t distract people from your wonderful face. Remember to only use high quality photos that follow Instagram’s dimensions for a profile picture. This little miniature photo in your profile is already a tiny little thing so you definitely don’t want it to be pixelated.

On the other hand, if you’re a brand and your face isn’t the face of your business consider choosing your brand’s logo. It will become the symbol that customers use to recognise your brand. If you haven’t got one yet, make sure your logo sets the stage for the story you’re trying to tell and corresponds with an overall aesthetic of your Instagram profile.

Use Keywords to Make Your Profile More Discoverable

Using the same Name and Username/ your @ handle in your Instagram profile is a huge waste of the precious, very limited space you’ve got in your bio, but also… It makes you less searchable on the platform. 

Using keywords in your Instagram name is a way to optimize your bio and help people to find you on the platform. It would be amazing if you could include keywords in both your Instagram username and Instagram name –  but if you want to keep your @handle nice, and clean adding keywords to your Instagram name is just as effective. 

Do your research and find out what kind of key words your target audience could be looking up on Instagram?

For example if your profile shares healthy vegan recipes, include that in your Instagram name. That way anytime people search for healthy vegan recipes you double up your chances to pop up in their search results.

What Should You Write In Your Bio?

Create a strong intro to attract your target audience.

Make the perfect use of the 150 characters you get and help your visitors understand what you or your business are all about.  If you don’t know the answer to this question it means that it’s time to go back to your strategy, and clarify some stuff.

Treat this one or two lines of text as your elevator pitch that either makes people stop and say „ok, these guys do something cool”.

You know what I mean!

The less words the better. Remember that no-one is going to spend more than a few seconds looking at your bio.

Use simple words, don’t overcomplicate it and if you’re ready to spice things up, this is the right place to say what makes you different from other profiles in your niche.

Include a CTA (Call to Action)

A clear call to action helps to engage your viewers and encourage them to take an action you’d like them to take on your profile.

Think about the goals you’d like to achieve. Is it driving more traffic to your website? Selling your service? Do you want people to shop your new collection?

Have you just released a song you want people to listen to? Use your bio to achieve any of these goals.

You can use phrases like:

„Shop NOW!”  With a nice arrow emoji pointing at your link in bio or „Download my free online course” or „Listen to my new single Now!” or go with a simple „Get in touch”. 

Use a Link in the BIO

The tip number 5  kind of completes the tip number 4. Your call to action can be a great way to direct people to your link in bio. 

Why should you use a link in bio? 

First of all: it is the only clickable link on your profile page. This can be a link to your website, blog, youtube channel, shop or a landing page if you want to share multiple links in one URL. It is a free pass to any other place where your followers can find your content and products online. 

Second – Instagram is a marketing tool but you shouldn’t rely on it as a place to run your business. You never know what could go wrong. Your account could get banned or permanently disabled, in which case you lose everything you worked for on the platform. 

That’s why you need a link in your bio, another place where people can find you, where you exist online. I cannot stress enough how important this is for your business. 

Display Your Contact Info

Tip number 6 getting you closer to creating a perfect bio  is pretty straight forward. If you want people to find you or contact you make sure you give them an easy way to reach out to you.

With a business profile you can display your e-mail address, contact number and even your business location. All you need to do is go to your contact options in your profile, fill out all the details and switch on „display contact info.”

Complete Your BIO With Highlights

Since your bio is a place where you need to get straight to the point, your story’s highlights can be very useful to provide more value and information to your visitors. Highlights are only a click away from your profile description, which means that they are also in the centre of attention.

You can use them as an extension of your bio and share some additional details important to your audience: like your opening hours, customer reviews or answer frequently asked questions.

But also remember that visually appealing highlights can be a wonderful way to make a great first impression on your future followers! So make them pretty.

Thank you so much for reading! Let me know in the comment section below if you agree with our recipe for the perfect Instagram bio or would you add something else to it? Something I haven’t thought of?

And that would be it. Enjoy creating your amazing Instagram bio and I’ll see you in the next one!

The post How to Write the Perfect Instagram Bio – 7 Tips to Get More Followers appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Do you know how to use Instagram Stories for your business? In today’s article, I’ll share 4 tips for using this content format to showcase your brand or yourself like a real PRO. If you’re seeking effective ways to increase your engagement, be more visible on the platform, or drive more traffic to your website and sell more products, this post will bring you one step closer to achieving all of these goals.

Got your pen and paper ready? Alright then, let’s dive in! 

What Are Instagram Stories and How Do They Work?

I think you already know what Instagram stories are. To sum it up in a few words: a story is a format with vertical, full-screen photos or videos complemented with interactive stickers, polls, text, and other graphic elements. Once published, stories disappear after 24 hours. 

It is a very addictive form of content because it’s fast, fun, and very easy to engage with.

How do we know that? There are some serious numbers to back up this statement. So let’s shortly talk about some facts & figures that show why you shouldn’t be overlooking Instagram stories in your business marketing strategy these days. 

According to the internal Instagram data:

• Over 500 mln people use Instagram Stories every day. That is a vast number, and many opportunities to interact with your audience!
• Almost 4 mln businesses advertise on stories every month
• 58% of people say they have become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in Stories
• 50% of people have visited a website to buy a product or service as a result of seeing it in Stories

As you can see, it is a very high-performing form of content, that resonates with people often due to its raw and authentic nature, and it should become a part of your business communication right now, if it hasn’t yet. Every marketer knows that a good story is crucial for every brand to thrive, and it’s time for you to start building your own by following these 5 tips.

Use Polls, Stickers, and Ask Questions 

Interactive stickers, polls, quizzes, or short questions in your stories are fun to engage with your community, and they take only a second to participate. It is a way more uncomplicated form to generate engagement in your profile than your feed posts, and I’ll give you at least 3 reasons why they can benefit your business.

• Often people don’t even need to comment on your stories to interact with them. A simple “this or that” game, or a question about your product like “Would you like this dress back in stock?” allows them to respond to you with only one click.
• Inviting your audience to join your brand’s story makes them feel like they are part of the conversation and that their opinion really matters to you. 
• Any action taken on your stories through interactive stickers, quizes, or polls says to the algorithm, “ok… this guy is connected with this profile, so he will probably like to see more of it”. This is one of the “signals” for Instagram, they use to start pushing your content higher in your followers’ feeds or, in the case of stories at the beginning of the stories bar at the top of their screen. 

I’m sure you know how it works from your own experience. You open the app, and the first thing you see on your feed are mostly profiles you are genuinely interested in for whatever reason. You are more likely to engage with their content again because you’ve shown interest in what they do in the past. 

Instagram stories can help you build this kind of connection with your audience, and these fun features can be very helpful in achieving that.

Another benefit of using Interactive stickers, polls, quizzes, or short questions in your stories is getting feedback from your audience to learn what they expect from your brand, and what products or services they like the most. If you’re a coffee roastery, you can create a poll for people to choose their favorite type of coffee like Brazilian beans or Colombian beans. 

The results you’ll get from a simple poll like this one, can help you decide about your shops’ product choices. For example, if your audience prefers to drink Brazilian coffee, you can move a step further and ask them if they’d be interested in a brewing kit to make the best Brazilian coffee. If they are, you have just tested the waters before adding a new product to your offer and know that your audience will be interested in purchasing it in the future.

I love coffee, but I don’t know much about it, so if you’re a coffee business or a coffee fanatic, forgive my lack of knowledge in this area. This is all just an example for how to use stories to make better product choices for your brand.

Don’t Forget about Calls to Action

Call to action is an essential element of your stories that will work amazingly well with all the available features we just talked about.

Any content you create, whether it’s a story or a feed post, you do it for a reason. Think about what is the goal you want to achieve with your next story. Whether it’s driving more website traffic, building some hype around a product launch, or building a newsletter, a call to action tells your customers what to do with the piece of information they just got from your story.

So let’s say you offer a discount code that’s only available today. Use a clear call to action like “Get 20% off your next purchase! Got to the link in bio to claim your discount today.” Thanks to this short message, your audience will know exactly what you have to offer and what to do about it. If they are interested in your product they will go to your link in bio and hopefully make a purchase. This allows you to send your audience wherever you want directly from your stories.

Show Your Authentic Side

I think we can all agree that video format is the future of content marketing, and it will NEVER go away.  And before you go all nervous about it, here comes a quick disclaimer – there is still space for other formats on Instagram, like Carousels, graphics, photography, and you don’t need to pivot to video content completely. However, many businesses implemented videos into their content strategies and will continue doing so because they are more engaging and attention-grabbing than text or images. 

Transparency and authenticity, especially in video forms are a huge emerging trend not only for creators but also for businesses. So don’t be afraid to show your real side. Talk about your products. Tell people about your brand’s journey. How much work do you put into every single product. How much you care about your clients.

It’s time to invite your followers backstage and tell them: hey! This is what we are all about!

Maximize the First Few Seconds

Instagram stories are a fast environment, and if you want your viewers to take action, the first few seconds of your story should be the most engaging. Facebook data confirms that Top performing ads integrate branding and key messages at the start to achieve best results. 

Try to place the most important elements like your logo, product, and a key message in the first 3 seconds of your story. Then, pair your images with central placed text to draw attention. Play around with motion in your videos or use music and voiceovers to make your stories a multidimensional experience for your viewers.

That’s it for today. Hopefully, these 4 tips for using Instagram Stories to showcase your business like a real PRO have already made you feel like one! By following them, you’ll turn your stories into a laid-back way to communicate with your audience and grow your business like never before.

But before you head over to create the most fantastic story, if you found this article helpful, I’d appreciate it if you let the Google algorithm know about it by commenting it down below!

I’ll be back with more Instagram wisdom tomorrow, but in the meantime check out other articles, and follow us on Instagram for more Instagram news and trends helping you to grow a powerful Instagram profile.

The post How to Use Instagram Stories To Promote Your Business – New Ideas To Showcase Your brand Like a PRO appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

It is pretty inevitable to gain and lose followers. Their attention, interests, and needs change over time, so there’s a risk your content was attractive to someone in the past, but now it simply isn’t anymore. That’s how it works (or: c’est la vie, as the French people say) – gaining some new followers here, losing some old followers there.

The situation looks completely different when suddenly, one day, you wake up and notice that your following count has been dropping massively. You start worrying and sweating. You are right to be bothered! A massive drop in followers is not usual. So what could be happening to your account or your audience?

“I lost 100 Instagram followers in just one day.”

While that might cause panic, I’m here to tell you: sometimes, you have to take a few steps back to take two steps forward. The second good news is that you are not alone. If you’re checking out this article, I will assume you’ve had a similar problem and you’ve seen a similar decline in your Instagram stats lately. Let me know in the comments what it was exactly! Meanwhile, let’s investigate what this loss can mean and what to do instead of worrying. 

Should You Really Worry When You’re Suddenly Losing Followers on Instagram?

Let me tell you: looking at it from a different angle, losing followers isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially if they weren’t your target audience. How many followers you have is honestly more of a vanity metric. Tbh, especially when you consider that about half of your followers may be uninterested in what you have to say, they’re not engaging with your content, and they rarely watch your Instagram stories.

The bottom line and the key takeaway is: we all need to focus more on conversions than arbitrary numbers on your follower count. Nevertheless, every case is different, and that’s why it’s crucial to analyze what might be happening to you, and why those people are unfollowing you! So let’s discuss the most common reasons and problems you may be facing. 

Many of Your Followers Could Be Bots and Fake Accounts

Instagram is fighting really hard against bots, and all the fake accounts. The platform prioritizes the trustworthiness of the community instead of the showy number of profiles created.

The Gram may have shut down shady, spam accounts, and if they were following you, then they’re gone forever. Instagram may have deleted many spam accounts, as they have in 2014. Don’t worry about them – it’s much better for your engagement rate if they’re gone!

Many People Follow You, Hoping That You Will Follow Them Back

And then they simply unfollow you. Unfortunately, many people still use Instagram automation tools to get more and more followers on their side. If you don’t follow these people back, a bot will unfollow your account in a couple of days.

You Unexpectedly Changed Your Niche or Your Content Pillars

Then people who followed you, who have been interested in your content pillars, would discover that posts from your profile are not what they want to see in their feeds anymore. 

Real-life example, to explain the case better? Most of my base followers followed my profile for Instagram marketing content. Are they going to want to see a bunch of tips about baking the perfect carrot cake or taking care of a greyhound? I don’t really think so.

It makes sense that the profile would suffer a little for straying from the content pillars. On the other hand, if everybody was rewarded for posting all off-topic posts, there would be no need to stick to your pillars and your niche!

More posts or reels, on any topic under the sun would equal higher reach, so everybody would be doing it.

If you’ve changed your content pillars or you’ve diversified your niches, that may equal some people unfollowing you. Many of your followers wanted to hear from you about one or two content pillars — much likely, the topics you touch on in your description (in your bio). If you’re consistently posting off-topic, there’s a risk they will get fed up and then unfollow you.

What to do about it: Refocus your posts.

It’s beneficial to follow the 80/20 rule: stick with posting about your main area of interest 80 percent of the time, and use the remaining 20 percent to post about your other interests. This will help you retain your followers, while letting your creative personality shine through your profile!

You Haven’t Posted Anything in Weeks

It can be that you don’t post on a regular basis on the Gram. Maybe you haven’t posted anything in weeks, or even months? Your followers will often do some Instagram spring cleaning, and get rid of the inactive profiles —and they would include you! 

You Were Following a Content Trend, Which Is No Longer Popular

The ugly truth: social media trends come and go, sometimes without any warning. Whether you realize it or not, it might be that your posts or your reels matched a particular Instagram trend which is no longer being looked for as much, and your followers have lost interest in your content. 

What to do about it:  Dive into your stats to have a better look at your posts, their engagement, and unfollow tendencies.

What Can You Do About the Decrease in Instagram Followers?

Is there a way? Of course, there is. Follow these3 tips to stop your followers deserting you (and yup, entertain them along the way):

1. Experiment with different content formats. I experimented with reels because I began seeing them all the time on the Gram.I thought I would see what all the Reels fuss was about! To be honest,I found some really nice and surprising results! For this reason alone, and because Instagram seems to be pushing video right now, give reels a try!
2. Stay consistent. So keep up a good, consistent schedule with lots of creative posts, so your followers know you don’t forget about them, and they can count on you!
3. Analyze your Instagram insights. That’s actually a golden habit. For a more accurate picture of your account (the metrics that really matter), look to your IQ Hashtags’ Profile Analysis section as well. 

To Wrap-up!

I hope I have shed some light on the loss of your followers. Unless your profile loses more than it gains week after week, try not to obsess too much about it. Instead, focus on how to increase your Instagram followers, and on delivering better content. That way you’ll have more control over gaining new followers!

The post Why Do You Keep Losing Instagram Followers (And What To Do About It)? appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Hashtags most definitely still work wonders for Instagram creators. Even though they have been around for such a long time now, their effectiveness is still very much accurate. If your posts don’t include any hashtags, you will miss out on views and organic engagement. Why risk it?

On the ‘Gram, hashtags are primarily used for attracting new potential followers, creating higher engagement, and categorizing your posts. If you want to reach your target audience – people that you believe might be interested in what you have to say – using specific, well-tailored hashtags might be the most optimal way to bring more (targeted) traffic.

Let’s go back to the start, for a sec. Hashtags were basically introduced on Instagram so that content on similar topics can be categorized together. This process makes it easier for all the users to find and track the content they are interested in! That way, hashtags are incredibly effective – but only if you can research and find the relevant and popular hashtags in your niche before adding them to your content, of course.

Chances are, you already know the basic principles of using hashtags:

1. You need the consciously picked ones for higher performance! Never everrr overburden your captions with hashtags that are irrelevant to your post.

2. Be strategic, and try to use 25-30 relevant hashtags in a post.

There are many, many other rules and strategies it’s good to know to make the most of your hashtag game – but we will talk about them a bit later. Today, I’d love to dive deeper into all the benefits of using good hashtags (and by “good” I mean – well researched), to boost your motivation, and make you more aware of all the aces in the hole that are yours to use!

Why Are Hashtags So Powerful? 

To put it all in a nutshell: they can help your content reach a target audience, attract new followers in your niche, increase organic engagement, and develop a more positive (and recognizable!) profile image. 

As you may already know, hashtags play an essential role in:

• increasing your organic visibility
• categorizing your posts
• giving you the power of being found in search queries

But the list is EXTREMELY longer. Let’s dive in much deeper and elaborate on why hashtags can help you maximize the potential of your posts . If Instagram is one of the social media platforms to focus your marketing efforts, this blog post is for you. Today we’ll discuss in detail 7 practical benefits of using well-targeted hashtags. Let’s go!  

1. Thanks to Hashtags, You Become Discoverable, and You Make Your Content Easier To Find

Actually, that’s how you gain visibility. One of the biggest reasons to start using well-researched hashtags on the ‘Gram is to help your posts get found. When someone clicks on a hashtag, it allows them to quickly find related posts and Reels that use the same hashtag. That’s why it’s incredibly important that any hashtags you use need to be relevant to your content and to your niche. If someone finds your posts while looking for something totally different, they’ll be enormously disappointed. 

From a practical business standpoint: Instagram hashtags are crucial both for your personal branding and visibility. When picked consciously, they give people from your target audience the easiest way of finding your profile and give you an additional way to engage with your potential followers.

The algo is smart, so when your engagement increases, it leads to more followers. More followers =higher brand/profile awareness. 

When posting new content, by adding hashtags to it, you indicate its topic and its context with the intention that people looking for content like yours will see your posts. Once added to a post, every hashtag phrase becomes searchable (and clickable).

It’s extra powerful. Hashtags basically help people find stuff they like. They are like organizational tools for the ‘Gram. They are here to make it possible for people to find posts on a given topic (when those posts use the same hashtag that is being searched for). 

Finding new great posts by looking for specific hashtags has become an evergreen form of Instagram communication. More and more people are using hashtag searches to discover new profiles, which is a way of searching you can surely take advantage of!

2. Join the Community, and Learn What Others Are Saying About Your Niche and Your Topics

You can browse through your fav hashtags, to see what other creators have to say and show, and what they’re posting. For example, if your brand is in the fashion industry, you can perform a search for hashtags such as #newtrends, #sustainablefashion, to see what other creators are currently talking about. This allows you to learn new tendencies, gain inspiration and insight from others, and join interesting conversations (in the comment section) about topics that you’re also an expert in.

3. The Power of Trending Hashtags Is Real

If you’re trying to get noticed on the ‘Gram, you REALLY need to have a strong hashtag strategy. Trending hashtags can massively increase your visibility, along with your organic reach. Side benefit? They can give you great content ideas by helping you notice what other creators in your industry are producing.

Keep in mind trending hashtags can change in a blink of an eye, so you need to make sure to research them before you put time into creating a post for a specific hashtag.

To find which hashtags are trending at the moment, or are best to be used for short term use, there are several trending hashtag research tools available. One of them is IQ Hashtags, which works wonders for quick and intuitive hashtag research. It does a great job of finding relevant and trending hashtags – give it a try to make your Gram life easier. It’s also a good idea to keep track of which hashtags are currently trending.

4. With Current Content Overload, Hashtags Are a Crucial Part of Almost Every Creator’s Instagram SEO Strategy

Using hashtags appropriately will not only help your posts show up in an Instagram search, but they also help your content rank higher on Discovery Sections. There are many aspects of Instagram SEO right now, but it’s essential to ensure that well-targeted hashtags are one of them, so your content remains discoverable.

5. Categorize Your Posts

Did you know you have the power to create your own hashtags?

Using hashtags puts your posts in specific categories. If your followers (and potential followers) are interested in posts that have something to do with a certain topic, and if you use these hashtags in your posts, your followers will be able to see your posts when they enter that hashtag into the search field.

This way, you will generate a thread of all posts that contain that hashtag, and anybody, whether they’re your followers or not, will be able to see your posts and browse through them.

6. People Can Follow Hashtags They Love

Instagram users can follow hashtags they’re really interested in, so choosing good ones can enhance the success of your profile and boost your engagement.

The best practice to find hashtags your target audience follows? Always try to keep up with the current insights and trending hashtags to ensure that your hashtags are updated and that you’re using the ones people are truly looking for. 

If it’s difficult or time-consuming for you to find these hashtags, there are apps or websites that will help you – as you know, I always recommend my choice, that is IQ Hashtags.

7. Hashtags Give You So Many Opportunities for Organic Growth – But Only if You Play Fair

Hashtags work wonders only if your account has real followers (what I mean here is: you don’t buy bots, and you don’t use follow4follow methods).

It’s worth mentioning that hashtags catalog and rank posts based on many different engagement metrics! The algo pushes relevant content to potential followers based on their engagement and their interest in similar posts.

Hashtags are an art – and Instagram algo is REALLY SMART. Or the accounts that have many fake followers, bots or too many ghost followers, hashtags aren’t working the way they’re meant to. 

It can be tricky, but the truth is: it depends on how much your followers (and potential followers) have engaged on your posts. The maximum reach with hashtags is possible mainly when your followers are interacting with you – so the algo knows your profile is exciting and worth promoting.

Hashtags Benefits – It’s Time for Q&A!

Hashtags advantages Q&A, here we go! Let’s be honest, I get asked a lot of the same questions, so I thought I would cover some of them in a little Q&A. So let’s get into it!

What are the benefits of hashtags IN A NUTSHELL? Are they really working to make something viral?

As you already know, hashtags are still essential for Instagram in 2022. It’s a challenge for Instagram to deliver the right posts to the right people, and the thing is that hashtags really help to do it well. Need more benefits?

• They can boost up your content’ views.
• Your profile gets discovered by new people (your potential followers).
• They bring you higher engagement.

So yeah, use relevant, right hashtags on your posts and stories to increase your chances of “going viral” and getting discovered by new audiences on Instagram. They can bring you into more engagement, more engaged followers, and more potential clients for your business.

Why are hashtags usually irrelevant to posts on Instagram?

That’s a good one! Well, people are using generic hashtags as a way to reach more people (even if they’re random and they’re not from their target audience), and boost engagement under their posts – and they’re hoping it will work. Simple, it’s done for cheap likes and F4F.

But as you already know: it’s irritating for other users, and from what I know, Instagram is trying to get rid of these tactics. So don’t use irrelevant hashtags!

You will attract the right kind of followers only if you give your audience what they’re TRULY looking for: quality posts that speak to their interests.

There is a golden rule: the more general the hashtag is, the less valuable it’s gonna be. Instead of hashtagging #every #single #random #idea, use the well-tailored hashtags that are more niche to your target audience.

Relevance (and hashtag research) is the key. Identify hashtags that will contribute towards your goals.

Do hashtags really help you grow on Instagram, or are they a waste of time?

A waste of time? WHAT?

Instagram hashtags are still superuseful to get more eyes (and engagement!) on your Instagram posts. Posts with at least one hashtag get on average 12.6% more engagement than posts without a hashtag. So it really is worth creating a hashtag strategy if you want to grow your account!

Are hashtags a waste of time? NO NO NO, NO WAY, but it also depends on how you use them, of course. 

But they genuinely help you get noticed. If you know which hashtags to use, then it helps you grow – woah – a LOT.

The post How Can Hashtags Be Effective? 7 Reasons Why Instagram Hashtags Are Important (All the Benefits of Using Hashtags) appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

You surely have heard that the algorithm rewards creators who use new features. Does Instagram get something out of this deal? Oh, come on. If you use a brand new feature, chances are it will make your community more likely to give it a chance and test it out too. So it’s beneficial for both sides – your profile and the whole platform as well! How can you make it work FOR YOURSELF? As always, to majorly up your engagement, a great place to start is testing which features feel good to you. Try using new features once in a while, and watch your reach and engagement soar because even if it sounds a bit too good to be true, it’s not a rumor: Instagram will really reward you if you utilize their new features. Real-life example?

If you use Reels, Instagram will push your posts to more users.

The video keeps Instagram users on a platform for a longer amount of time, so they really care about prioritizing it. So if you’re creating video content, you’re basically supporting the platform’s growth, and you’re helping Adam Mosseri keep users on his platform. And yup, they need our help, and they’ll reward us for it. It sounds really fair, huh?

The best thing? Instagram won’t ever get stuck in the past, as some of the other platforms do – they’re still introducing new features and new formats. In addition, Instagram is transparent and communicative about all upcoming features, so they basically keep us all informed about new moves, and we can feel like we have all the updates.

Essential new features to test out right now?

Collabs: If you want to supercharge your posts reach, it’s time to start experimenting with this beneficial feature. It allows you to invite another creator to collaborate on a regular post or an Instagram Reel, and it works like co-authoring content. Both of your usernames will appear on the post and appear on both feeds. The best news? Two different audiences will see your post, which means double chances for likes, comments, and shares. That way, you can easily double your reach. Sounds good, huh?

Adding your custom stickers to instastories

They don’t just help you engage with your audience, they can give your instastories a totally new look and reframe your storytelling. Why would you even want to use other creators’ GIFs when you can come up with your own? The best part? That’s not as complicated as you may think – and we can help you with that! 

So, how to make your own Instagram GIF stickers?

All GIFs used in Instagram Stories are powered by the platform you’re probably familiar with: Giphy.com. The first step to create your own stickers: you’ll need to create an account and go through the process of verification. Then you’re ready to start your GIFs journey! With the platform’s help, you don’t need any pro badass animation and graphic design skills to create something impressive. To be honest – they have made the creation process extremely straightforward and intuitive. Giphy also offers pretty helpful analytics for each of your GIFs. This means you can track how many times users were viewing your creations. That’s some powerful stuff!

Schedule LIVE videos and practice performing live in advance.

Now you’re armed with a great feature to build up a bigger buzz for your upcoming Live session by scheduling it (up to 90 days in advance), then sharing info across Instagram to alert your followers. Instagram has also rolled out a feature, “Practice mode,” which allows you to test going live ahead of the scheduled one to try your connection, lighting options and rehearse any other pre-live activity you may want to prepare.

Let us tell you: testing new features is more important than ever because it’s your chance to get rewarded by Instagram’s algorithm. So that’s it – now is the perfect time to try how these new features can work for you: you can learn at your own pace and become comfortable with the new possibilities. And if the changes are a bit confusing, don’t worry – you’ll quickly become familiar with them (and the best part – Bien sur, we’ll help you, that’s more than obvious). 

New Instagram Features Q&A

As always, I’ve gathered the most burning questions right here! To give you easy access to the critical questions with answers, I will be creating a short FAQ at the end of almost every post, so look out for them!

How to make a collaboration post on Instagram?

Instagram Collabs give you an opportunity to invite another creator to collaborate on regular posts or Reels so that they can share the content with their audience as well. It’s like co-authoring a book! Essentially, you co-author post with another Instagram user, and the content will show up on both of your feeds. When you gain access to the Collabs feature, you’ll have a chance to send and accept requests to collaborate on co-authored content.

The good news is that it’s really easy-peasy to arrange a Collab on Instagram – the whole process is exceptionally similar to tagging someone in a post. Let’s dive in deeper!

How to land your first Instagram collaboration? And how to find a collab partner?

1. Find a creator you love and trust and you’d love to work with. A successful collab post starts with finding the right collab partner! You need to find someone who can be a good fit for your strategy.
2. Start by preparing a list of about 15-20 creators you’d love to collaborate with. Reach out to them all. Say hi, and ask them if they’d be interested in preparing a collab post with you. Pro tip? Introduce yourself and explain a little about your idea and why you wanted to collaborate with them. Throwing in an HONEST compliment is also a beneficial idea, so don’t hesitate to use it.
3.  Many of your dream collab partners might not respond. And that’s okay too, don’t take it personally – they might be too busy, overwhelmed with work or an important project they’re working on.
4. If someone says they’re in, prepare your Instagram collaboration idea in detail. Yass, once you’ve found your Instagram collab partner, it’s time to discuss the concept!

By the way – reaching out to people you don’t know yet can be a big challenge, so the next time you post a regular post or a Reel that you made with your good friend or a photographer you’re working with, why not make it a Collab post? That’s a great way to start with this feature! 

How to send a collab request?

1. After uploading your new content (Reels or a regular post), go to the next step of the process as usual, and find the option “Tag people.”
2.  Look at the bottom right corner – there, you should see the “Invite Collaborator” feature. After tapping on it, choose the creator you want to collaborate with.
3. After you’ve picked the user, you want to collaborate with, post the content as usual, and your collaborator will receive a request (right in their DMs inbox).
4. The content will not be posted on their feed until they’ve accepted the request.

Can I create collab post with more than one creator? Can I invite 2-3 users?

ATM, you can only collaborate with one creator! 

Why can’t I post collabs?

Collabs feature was rolled out to everybody (no matter where you live), so you should have it by now! Make sure you’re using the latest version of the ‘Gram (update it just in case), but if you have the latest version and you still can’t use the collab feature – unfortunately, all you can do is wait (or get in touch with IG’s helpdesk).

What other new features can be beneficial for MY account? How to tell if they’re going to work for me?

Which formats will be the best choices FOR YOU? Well, the most crucial thing: you need to experiment, test them all out, and then analyze the insights. If you’d like ME to help you, audit your current content strategy, find your strengths and obstacles you might unconsciously be facing + research which formats can work wonders for YOUR content creation, there’s still a chance. 

Right now, I want to make this 1:1 game-changing audit accessible to as many of you as possible. And hey, I have dropped its price from last year to prove my commitment. Book it now (for 29$) as this is the only way you can get this kind of 1:1 audit and my personalized insights 

Now, I would love to hear from you…

What questions do you have about Instagram strategy, new features, or hashtag research? Notice that I said question(s) plural. Ask a lot of them. Don’t be shy!

Your answers help me create better future blog content, ebooks, and guides. So what would you love to know? By the way- stay tuned for an entire post about the ways you can benefit from using Collabs feature! 

The post Use New Instagram Features To Explode Your Reach and Engagement appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Let’s be honest: 2021 was a bit crazy. Oh, it really WAS. The biggest news to come out of Adam Mosseri’s official announcement was definitely that Instagram no longer wants to be seen as a “regular photo-sharing” app. Well, at the same time, with the Tiktok’s phenomenon, this shouldn’t be so shocking. What about 2022? Are we expecting a year full of big surprises? What content formats and features should you focus on to make the algorithm like you? 

I’ve decided to do something refreshing to keep you updated!

Let’s discuss all the critical trending formats you need to jump on (or at least: test them out!) to succeed in 2022

I want to show you exactly how to use them strategically, how to create unique content using these features, and how to grow an engaged following and not fall behind.

My goal? Make you pretty open to trying new things on the Gram and see what’s working FOR YOU. 

In 2021 a few things have revealed themselves. First, jumping on trending formats is essential. Because look, are you having difficulty drawing attention to your IG profile? Be honest. It can be dramatically confusing to pour your whole heart and soul into content creation without reaching as many potential followers as you want. You probably already know about trending formats, but you may not know how to use them to gain the kind of traction you dream of. Trending features are significant for aspiring influencers and businesses to use because they can attract new attention for your profile, translate to thousands of sales, and create stronger relationships with your community (and potential followers from your target audience). So let’s go! 

Here’s what you can expect to learn today:

• Does New Year mean new trending formats? 
• What formats are trending right now, and why they can help you get back your points in growing your IG
• How to experiment with these formats with an openness that sounds like: “I haven’t tried ya, but I’m intrigued!”
• Why Reels are literally the most fantastic format ever
• Which trending formats will get you more followers/sales?

Video Content – The King of Trends 

As you probably already know, in 2021 video format was slowly but surely becoming the king of the Gram. We have to keep in mind that TikTok was announced as the most intensively growing social media platform out there, and Instagram didn’t want to fall behind! To survive in this competitive world, the Gram had to adapt. That’s why all the video updates started to roll out, and our fav platform started prioritizing Reels. From my perspective, it was a smart move, as Instagram is so saturated with regular posts, described with irrelevant hashtags, slam-bang content, and plenty of ads that it was hard to break through this noise at times.

New formats give us new opportunities for being discovered more quickly – it’s proven that the algorithm rewards you for using new trending formats. So what kind of content should you be prioritizing? 

Reels: yup, yup, you already know that! Reels are currently considered the ultimate number one tactic for organic growth on Instagram. Look at this:

They’re bringing us back to the old days of good organic growth from producing creative content. If you haven’t hopped on the short, entertaining videos bandwagon, but you want to reach your target audience and attract new people, it’s high time to start creating reels, because we don’t like statements like this, but if you aren’t making any short videos, your profile can easily fall behind. Take your chance! I’m taking mine as well!

Anyway, we know what can be stopping you from trying: creating videos can seem like a daunting, time-consuming challenge if you’re used to publishing only regular, static posts. We won’t lie: sometimes it gets tough, and it’s too easy to lose track of time, but never fear, there are some nice ways to create appealing content in less than an hour. The good news? Reels have a low-key nature. Hey, you’re not trying to produce high-quality, huge budget films for yourself or your business! You’re trying to create funny, relatable content that supports the topics you talk about on your profile, so NO PRESSURE! 

Reels are fueled mainly by trends. Side benefit? You often don’t even have to come up with your own concepts, you can just adapt trending ideas from your niche.

How to make people enjoy your short videos, and how to get potential followers to watch your reels without skipping? 

You basically need to do one of the following two tricks:

• make your videos entertaining, short, and sweet. Your goal is to make your potential followers laugh and make them think “well, that’s brilliant, haha HA (the last “ha” is really important), I can relate!”
• give them a smart teaser to make them intrigued (so they simply can’t skip watching it), ex. “The craziest tactic of mine which helped me attract 36 000 new potential followers!” 

To give the algorithm a more straightforward message that your content is engaging, and worth spreading further, use CTAs like “double tap if you can relate!” or “Drop an emoji below if you’re feeling the same!”. It REALLY helps a lot. 

Benefit #2: Every time you publish a new reel, it will pop up in your audience’s feed as they scroll through new content. Also, for every new reel you can decide if you want to include it on your profile’s regular feed, and believe us: it’s beneficial if you’re going to experiment with formats, and you know your reels won’t necessarily match your feed’s aesthetic. Your reels post also shows on the dedicated reels feed, which is the magic spot for all the miracles. The Reels gallery includes videos from all Instagram creators, not just content from people you follow. What does it mean in practice? Your reels can be easily found by new potential followers from all around the world. That’s more than awesome. 

How Do You Make Your Posts Go Viral?

At this point, it’s pretty challenging and sometimes even impossible for a regular, static Instagram post to “go viral”. Why? Because in most cases, the people seeing your new content are people who already follow your profile (+ some random people browsing through hashtag galleries). 

Reels are different. With reels, your chance of your post going “viral” increases almost tenfold.

Check out the stats of one of IQ Hashtags reels below. The regular, traditional Instagram post had a reach of 800 accounts. This reels hit 11 279 views – that’s way over 10 times more than the reach of  regular Instagram post! 

Next Trending Format? Live Videos

Alright, alright, so this format isn’t totally new, but it is well worth the reminder when it comes to trending formats. Live videos are a bit intimidating for many creators (for me and for all our team as well, so you’re not alone!), but at the same time, they’re one of the least time-consuming forms of video content to create. Really.

When your audience hops on to your live, they know they won’t see the perfect, polished video. They know you’re recording it right there and right now. You can try this format and go into a live video with a scenario, a list of topics you want to discuss, or you can choose more spontaneous options and just engage with followers who join you.

Do you need fancy equipment to go live? NOT AT ALL. Chances are, you already own the only camera you truly need. Your smartphone. Anyway, when arranging a live video, make sure you’re in a quiet room so your tribe won’t hear any distracting background noise. Lighting is crucial for appealing video content as well! Our tips? Sitting next to the window is the best, budget option, but if you live somewhere where the sun sets really early or you have a chance to record only late at night, we suggest investing in an affordable and truly helpful ring light, so you can go live anytime, and anywhere. Shaky and unclear video will quickly turn your community off, so a tripod is also a purchase you should consider (there are many affordable options). 

Benefit #2: After you finish your live on Instagram, you can easily save it to your profile (like we did with the videos below), so new people can watch it later, and those live videos can become a permanent part of your profile. 

Next Trending Format I Adore (and chances are you will too): Carousels

There was a brief moment back in 2021 when we thought this format would fade away, because many creators were complaining that it doesn’t bring them good insights. But like the phoenix rising from the ashes, good days of carousels are back, and it seems they’re here to stay! Personally, I LOVE LOOOVE THEM – they’re a huge opportunity to keep your followers viewing your posts for a longer amount of time. 

That’s not magic, that’s simple math: swiping through many slides (up to 10!) takes a longer moment than looking at a single photo. If you aren’t a pro at Correl, Photoshop, Sketch or Illustrator, you can still achieve creative results with Canva (my fav tool, to be honest). Inspirations? Look at THIS:

Instagram Trending Formats – Q&A!

I get so many questions from all you guys asking alllll about Instagram trending formats. That’s why I gathered the repeating questions and I decided to start answering more of them via the Display Purposes Q&A column! Let’s go!

Should I experiment with Reels if I’m camera shy and I identify as an introvert?

That’s a great question, but hey, look, it doesn’t matter if you are an introvert or if you are a lil bit camera shy. 

First of all: you don’t have to be a super confident extravert to make it on the ‘Gram. There are plenty of introverts on the platform and they’re having fun as well! So the answer is: go for it! Exercise your creative muscles. 

You’re getting an official permission to be YOURSELF on your social media. If you have that goal to grow your profile, it’s important to do things that maybe make you feel a bit uncomfortable – many times, that’s exactly how you grow. 

Do I need fancy equipment to start enjoying creating video formats?

To be honest: if you’ve got a mobile phone, and maybe a laptop… Energy and a lil ambition and you can make it work, cause you have ALL you need  

Which trending formats will be the best choices for my profile?

I’m always trying to find the easiest ways for you to make friends with the current algorithms, and right now, the official research shows that the trio: reels, live videos and carousels posts are taking over Instagram. Which formats will be the best FOR YOU? Well, you need to experiment, test them out, analyze the insights and check for yourself. 

But you know me. I firmly believe pursuing Instagram mastery is one of the most valuable investments you can make in growing your personal brand/your business. If you’d like ME to audit your profile and research which formats can work wonders for YOUR content creation, there’s still a chance. 

Right now, I want to make this 1:1 game-changing work accessible to as many of you as possible. I have dropped the audit’s price from last year to prove my commitment. Book it now (for 29$) as this is the only way you can get this kind of 1:1 audit and my personalized insights

Do I have to dance and sing on my Reels?

Holy moly, no (if you don’t want to) ! Want tips for creating Reels for your personal brand/business without twerking? That’s what we will discuss here next week!

Honestly, the key to winning Reels strategy might be to find a balance between lowkey, spontaneous and highly entertaining content and a bit more educational to keep more demanding users engaged. Or knowing which your target audience prefers!

Will Reels increase my reach?

Engagement is key when it comes to growing your profile and you want your followers coming back for more. Reels can definitely do that. See what you can do with them, keep testing and learning. Follow along with Reels trends and trending sounds and try to hop on them as quick as you can. And most important: have fun with them! 

Should I use hashtags when posting Reels?

You definitely should! I cover every aspect of this dilemma right here: Are hashtags for reels important? Does adding them hurt or help your content? Here’s what you should know

That’s all for today! As always, let us know if you need anything – what else would you like to know?

The post Jump on Trending Formats! New Year=New Instagram Trends? appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

Let’s say it loud: your goal is not about closing sales on Instagram – it’s mostly about creating authentic connections and genuine trust. Trust and engagement – believe us when we say this is the currency of the future. It sounds cliché, although it’s more than true. Let check it out for yourself. 

Why does engagement matter so much?

When your followers don’t have any history of commenting or liking your content, the algorithm is most likely to consider them not interested in your posts. The result? They won’t see your new material high on their news feed. Moreover, it applies to instastories as well – our marketing research shows that oftentimes people only watch the first ten, up to fifteen stories. Long story short: people need to prioritize your account in order to watch your content. In other cases, they’ll just miss it. 

Our clients often complain: I have 2 000 followers, but only 50 people watch my stories! How is it even possible? What am I doing wrong? That’s actually not even a surprising case – that’s the average number of views for a profile that doesn’t focus on building an engaged tribe.

Today we’ll be discussing the practical engagement hacks you can implement right now. Functional and straightforward – and providing results, that’s what we like the most about them. Our goal is not only to boost the engagement of your posts but your instastories views as well – so let’s go!

Use instastories to promote your regular posts and the other way round 

Have you noticed that sometimes people liking your posts and people watching your instastories are two totally different groups of followers? Some users prefer scrolling through the instafeed, and there are ones who log into the app only to watch instastories – it’s just the format they like better because it’s more direct and frequently more spontaneous. Use each format to promote each other. In your regular post, mention something worth seeing on your instastories + the other way round, show your new regular post on your instastories (with some call to action, a question, a poll, or a different accurate comment you’ve just made up!)

It’s a working strategy: we’ve tried it for ourselves, and many of our clients have tried this method, and it boosts the views significantly. Of course, you don’t want to overdo it because sometimes it may end up being annoying or boring for some of your followers, so do it once in a while, not every day, and hard pass: not a few times a day! 

Use smaller hashtags – give yourself a chance to get discovered

Smaller hashtags can do wonders for your account. Give yourself an honest answer: would you prefer 1000 random additional views or 250 that are from people authentically interested in your niche and are most likely to follow you after seeing or reading your post?

You can’t use the most popular and huge ones – simply because “recent posts” category view for them gets flooded with too many posts (sometimes 1 000 / a second!). Yours will get lost in the ocean of other posts too quickly, making it impossible for people to notice it.

Hashtags play the most significant role in getting people who don’t follow you to see your content. You have to attract them – and use hashtags they’re most probably typing into the Instagram Search Engine when they look for inspiration or knowledge from a particular field (your field).

Sometimes – and yes, we’ve seen cases like that! – one single really well-targeted hashtag can give you extra 1 000 – 50 000 views from people who don’t follow you. Imagine what 30 consciously chosen hashtags can do. 

We’ll also mention that your hashtag research can be a lot more effective if you use some hashtag research tool – it will save your time + you’ll discover hashtags you’ll have no idea other ways. Can we recommend any particular ones, in good conscience? Absolutely. IQ Hashtags is the one we always share, whoever asks – not only because it absolutely does excellent researches and is the most extended and professional one out there, but also because it contains free plans, meaning you can test it out for yourself without paying a dime for it – that’s an excellent option for the beginning. You can upgrade it whenever you want.

+ Remember that you should always use only hashtags really matching the contents of your posts – so you can’t use hashtag #foodiesinportugal when you upload a photo of your Greek holidays. It will be considered as spam, and your reach may be much lower – so avoid random hashtags at all costs. 

Make people spend more time consuming your content 

What do we mean? The algorithm checks how much time each of your followers spends on your content. If they read your captions, leave a comment or come back to look at your photos again, the algorithm notices that your material must be engaging and exciting. That’s remarkably precious.

So how to achieve this result? Write more involving captions – ask questions, include CTAs (calls to action), try to evoke emotions. Create aesthetically pleasing carousels filled up with practical knowledge your audience may need. Give them the solutions to their problems, research what they want to read about.

When it comes to instastories: use the tools Instagram gives you! The quiz feature, poll feature, question feature. The quiz feature kills two birds with one stone: when reading four different options, people spend much more time than reading only two ones or dragging the sliders with emojis. A quiz is much more involving: they have to think about it to choose the answer consciously. 

Know that those pieces of advice can drastically increase your engagement – take the tips you learned here and use them to start building your Instagram presence. Your statistics will unquestionably thank you for what you did!

Psst, we’re posting new tips & tricks a few times a week, so stay tuned for lots of credible materials coming this way!

The post 3 Instagram engagement hacks working in 2023 appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.

With that being said, let’s go to 7 things you should consider to use to grow your account in 2022 – what’s new and what’s getting more and more hype? Let’s see.

Finding your niche

Instagram is too crowded to simply assume that being a lifestyle, fashion, or photography Instagrammer will be “right niching.” It would help if you narrowed it down – now, in 2021, it’s more important than ever.

We’re almost sure you’re already tired of advice “go find your niche!” because let’s be honest: it isn’t as simple as it may sound.

If you don’t know your niche yet, of course, you shouldn’t let that stop you from posting.

Just test different topics, try out all the ideas that come up to your head – but do it consciously and decide which are the ones you feel the best with, which are the ones that your audience is interested in the most.

An analysis is a key to success (cliché but still 100% true). You’ll learn what feels most natural to you only by observing and experimenting. 

Focus on IG Lives Streaming

In the past, people were a little bit shy and intimidated by the thought of going live. It felt a bit unnatural to sit in front of the camera (built-in phone camera to be specific), but 2020 and the pandemic made people used to on-line activities and showing up on Zoom or Google Meet calls, plus all the things were happening on-line: yoga classes, fitness classes, linguistics classes, cooking classes, EVERYTHING.

Now going live on Instagram feels less awkward, and many times, even the shyest creators decide to try. It’s rewarding!

Now let’s dig a little bit deeper: it’s also a great way to actually engage with the audience. Answer their questions, get to know them better, and make them like us more because of our smile, tone of voice, and gestures.

It’s not only on the rise: it’s here to stay. 

Reels

Researchers assume that this year reels will take center stage on Instagram – this short video form has a vast potential simply because people enjoy consuming it. What is more, Instagram made reels shoppable, which means you can actually buy something that has appeared on somebody’s reel. That is a piece of big news for business owners – reels marketing will be growing fast, that’s more than sure.

Micro-influencers coming to the forefront

Micro-influencers are winning this year. Why? They most often have a much higher engagement rate and closer relation with the audience, and they are perceived to be more genuine. They provide a more niche-specific kind of growth and more deep engagement for brands they collaborate with.

Consistency

Instagram’s market is getting more and more saturated, and with that being said: it’s crucial to remind our followers why they follow us and why they should stay with us. Consistency gives your followers something to look forward to. It’s the easiest way to say, “hey, I am here, don’t forget me!”

Consistency looks different for everyone – but being consistent on Instagram is all about creating a realistic posting schedule. Yep, you have to note down your plan and stick to it. If it’s three times a week? Great. Everyday? Amazing. There is no right, specific option that will work best for everyone: you have to decide for yourself.

As long as you’re committed to your schedule – it’s okay. Plan your posts ahead: there are so many apps that can help you: UNUM, Planoly, Later… Spoiler alert: we’ll discuss which one is the best for who in one of the upcoming posts. 

Instagram SEO

Search engine optimization is finally coming to Instagram. If you have a website, a blog, or a Youtube account, you already know what it is and why it’s so important (and why it will make our Instagram life a little bit easier). Because of that change, we have to take our captions SERIOUSLY. They matter not only because they have to be engaging and user (follower) friendly: now our captions also should include keywords. Keywords that people interested in our niche are looking for – it will make our posts easier to be found! Great news: it’s going to be increasing our organic reach!

Branded AR Filters

Influencers and brands create their own augmented reality filters all the time – even though people love raw, natural, authentic content, at the same time, we adore those funny filters and creative animations. 

2022 will surprise us many times – but hopefully, most positively and creatively. What trends are your favorites? What do you expect more of, what should we research: we love to hear from you!

We write to inspire you to analyze your content – eat up all the information, use it and make us proud with your creative results!

The post Top Instagram trends for your social media strategy in 2023 appeared first on Display Purposes Blog.