Work with the algorithm, not against it

1. Take advantage of all the screen space available.

You’re allowed to upload a post in a variety of dimensions. The most familiar is perhaps square (1:1) images, or landscape (16:9). But to use the max amount of available space in a feed, you should create and post content in portrait mode (4:5). This way you will fill up the majority of your audience screen and most likely get their attention.

2. Reach out to an unexpected audience with stories.

Show a more personal or off-topic side of your life, which you don’t feel fits your feed. You can keep your feed clean and on point, but at the same time show your audience what you’re up to in a more human and funny way. Let your followers show engagement with polls, Q&A’s or even chatgroups! Now stories also have a new feature, which is called “Challenge” where you can make fun challenges and let your fans take on them.

You should always consider tagging places and people as your stories can and will reach out to a much wider audience.

3. Tag your stories

Use a quality hashtag on each of your stories. It lets you reach out wide, as well as being visible in a hashtag featured story (click on a post hashtag and view the story in the thumbnail image in the top of the feed). By tagging your stories with quality hashtags, you are likely to end up here and be seen by a much wider group of people. That’s what we call FREE reach and FREE followers!

4. Save your stories and make highlights.

Do you think it’s frustrating that your stories are only available for 24 hours? Wasting good content you might say. But no, you can save them to highlights and make them available as long as you want. It’s super easy, just post your story and open it in your profile or Instagram home screen. Then tap the heart in your bottom right corner labeled highlight. You can now view all your saved stories on your profile, just below your profile head and bio.

5. Your bio is your audience first impression of you

According to research, it takes less than two-tenths of a second for an online visitor to form a first impression of you and your content. That’s why you’d better make those count! You should write a compelling and precise bio to present you and your niche. Let your audience get to know you, and be creative. Browse through some of the profiles of your favorite Instagram users and get some inspiration. Your bio is actually one of the most important elements to get your account going. Welcome new followers with an awesome bio!

6. Video is still king

For bigger reach on Instagram, users often have success with uploading short videos and longer videos for Instagram TV. Why it is like this is unknown, but the fact that moving objects in a feed will draw more attention and that way will gather more engagement will also make these posts reach out to a bigger audience. You may ask, why don’t we just upload videos only? Well, you could do that of course. But it’s important to have quality content. In order to maintain a posting schedule, it can be hard to both create enough content and still be able to have the same level of quality. That’s why we suggest a good mix of still images and video as it’s far easier to post according to plan.

It takes time to build a great audience, be patient

If you commit to these simple steps and stay patient, it will pay off in the long term. But still, it’s a difficult game to play, and you have to learn along the way. It doesn’t take long until you will notice improvements and learn what is working and what is not. A little bonus is that a lot of these tips and tricks are applicable to other platforms, such as Facebook and Tiktok.

Haven’t read part I? Check it out here.

Best of luck!