Recently, we had Instagram expert Jenn Herman explore Agorapulse’s new Instagram features on a Facebook Live. During that broadcast, she gave us Instagram tips that were so good, we have to share them—especially because they were told to us like we’re best friends swapping awesome ideas.
Want to learn some of Jenn’s tips for getting more reach and engagement on Instagram? Then read on!
1. Is Tagging Users a Good Idea?
“If you mention a busy username in a comment, that person or brand might not see the notification. To increase your chances of having your tag seen, tag a username in a photo post. That post will still be mixed with that user’s regular notifications, but it will also appear in the tagged content grid of that user.”
“And if you’re in their tagged content, it’s easy for those users to reshare your post to their stories or feed. A good way to get additional exposure to your content!
“Agorapulse makes it super-easy to tag users on your scheduled or queued photo posts.
“Before you go off tagging every person you know, a bit of precautionary advice: Tag only users or brands that are in the photo.
“For example, Tiger Woods doesn’t really want to know about your Golf Day—nor is he very likely to share your post.
2. Should I Bother Adding a Geolocation to My Instagram Posts?
“Location tags are a golden secret sauce that a lot of people aren’t aware of. They’re still valuable on Instagram because if you, say, tag your content in locations where Social Media Marketing World is going to be (San Diego Convention Center, near the Gaslamp District), people coming in for Social Media Marketing World who want to know more about the area will look up those locations in advance of their trip.
“They’re wondering, ‘San Diego Convention Center? Let me go look at that and see what content comes up. What does the convention center look like? What do the restaurants and surrounding areas look like?’
“And, yes, Agorapulse gives you a way to add a location tag to your news feed posts.
“We always talk about hashtags as, you know, the search mechanism to get found by new people. But a lot of people look for location tags.
If I’m looking to try a new restaurant, one of the first things I do is to look at that location tag on Instagram because not only do I care what the actual restaurant is posting, but I also want to know what other people are posting about that restaurant.
“All location-based businesses should geotag for instances like these.
Instagram built these functions for a reason. So, why not use them—especially if it spreads brand awareness for your business?
3. Do Long Captions Help or Hurt Engagement on Instagram?
“Most people go on to Instagram to look at photos. They’ll see captions, but they want to move past them. That said, brands have figured out how to create that longer-form content that people on Instagram read.
“I am one of those brands/people.
“When there’s a new Instagram feature, function, or update, I will post an image and use the caption as a microblog where I outline all the functions and features in great detail.
“For me to write a short post about a new feature and say, ‘Go check out the blog post’ doesn’t give as much value to my followers. And many don’t want to go to a blog. They want to stay on Instagram!
“Each time I create long-form captions, I get crazy-good engagement. For me, it’s also highly valuable. But these posts of mine are educational content highly targeted to my audience. That doesn’t mean it works for everybody. Test your audience and determine if they’re responsive to a few long-form posts.
“The more a user spends time with your post, the more the Instagram algorithm thinks that user likes your content. If a user clicks on the dot, dot, dot more to read the whole caption, Instagram recognizes that.
“That’s not something that we see as an engagement. There’s no data point that’s gonna tell us if that is happening.
“But all of those behaviors are recognized by the algorithm in terms of your engagement with that individual person. And the Instagram algorithm is individually based, not popularity-based. Meaning, if influencer Mike Allton is in there reading all of my posts (because I know he does) and he’s taking that extra time to read, even if he doesn’t like or leave a comment, the algorithm recognizes he gave me that additional attention. And that shows as a ranking value that my content will continue to rank higher in his feed of results because he does continue to read and acknowledge my content.
Want to see Jenn talk about these three tips and other Instagram must-know-abouts? Then watch this Facebook Live recording.
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