Instagram Tips & Tricks – Get Follower, Increase Reach, Build Community
Instagram Tips – for young start-ups, fashion designers to stylish restaurants, even for established businesses, 50 or 100 years old, Instagram is new territory for many when it comes to marketing! What does being successful on Instagram mean? How do you build a community? How do you win more followers? When do you post and how often? Questions over questions! That’s why we met with an Instagram expert whom some of you may have seen on Sat1, Pro7 or RTL, Stefan M. Czaja Punkt one of the leading experts and not only a TV guest as a speaker he speaks to 300 people about marketing and social media. If you want to know more about Instagram Marketing, you can find many blog posts on the site of his social media agency.
Today he gives us a short overview about social media marketing on Instagram. We also talk about boughtikes, is it worth it? Then we also wanted to know comma there is software he would recommend as an expert for start-ups or young fashion designers? As a low-cost digital social media manager, so to speak. Because especially at the beginning you have to pay attention to every euro as a datap! So let’s come to our expert’s tip for your Instagram Marketing & Community Management.
What does success mean on Instagram? Community and followers
Success on Instagram means active community. Fashion trends, outfits, travel destinations, all the beautiful photos are worth nothing if nobody is interested in them. Community management, community building and most importantly community maintenance are the cornerstones of Instagram Marketing for companies. This is no longer just about selling but about brand awareness. Brand awareness is a technical term used by advertising agencies and stands for brand awareness. As you the connection or the relationship between brand and prospective customers, customers stands in the foreground. These two groups must also be taken into account in the approach and, of course, also when it comes to creating added value for one’s followers. Through added value, this can be simple questions to learn the honest opinion of the followers or relatively simple actions such as exclusive discounts that are only available on your Instagram channel. But added value is also that you react to comments. 85% of all startups and companies ignore comments from their own community. A person has taken time for the brand. If he or she often doesn’t get a reaction, the fan will stop sooner or later. The fewer comments there are, the less motivated other users are to comment on the content. The constant interaction between the channel, that is you as a boss, social media manager and the audience is the central tool for success on Instagram.
Community care
Even the first 100 fans are important when it comes to the construction. Because the first 100 followers are the first 100 brand advocates. They don’t have to be convinced anymore, they’re already there. Just as important are the first 1000 followers, a goal where many will now of course say, what only 1000 fans? Maybe I can kidnap you and we can do a little example. Just ten years ago, when Instagram and the big world of social media didn’t exist, a young fashion designer had to distribute flyers, make phone calls to buyers, get press placements in magazines, all almost impossible for a young designer! Especially the placement in media, in fashion magazines, is not possible without sufficient financial means. Social media has changed this, you can reach up to 1,000 fans from your own circle with one photo or video. Without a phone call, without distributing a flyer, without an appointment with a buyer to possibly be included in the new collection. You can reach 1000 people, who like me anyway, from your own means, almost free of charge. Marketing has never been so effective! That’s why the community is so important and that’s why the first 100 as well as the first 1000 fans are so important for you!
When I visit companies as a consultant I often hear that their own social media manager is dissatisfied because they only have 8,000 fans, much better would be 80,000 fans. Why and be satisfied? Who was already happy with 100 and also happy with 1000 fans, reacts differently, likes his community more, Inter acts more, brings more positive image. You should always keep the high goals but you should also be happy with what you have achieved and make it clear to your community by being present, interacting with people and demanding their honest opinion.
Interaction and software
For many startups, a dedicated social media manager who takes three or four hours a day to look at other channels, observe trends, likes to give comments, is far too expensive. Giving and commenting onikes on other channels on a daily basis would of course be too time-consuming in addition to the important tasks of new customer acquisition, accounting and general management. Much because Tabs but also many large companies therefore rely on social media software.
The interaction on one’s own channel, with one’s own photos and videos as well as direct news are thus done by oneself. All interaction on other channels, i.e. likening and commenting on other photos and videos, is handled by the software. Maybe we can come back to a practical example later how much social media software helps in our daily work and how much time it saves!
Visual language and harmony
The second aspect is that the image content becomes more creative and varied due to the increased motivation. Often it is only details that make the difference but these details have a big impact on the long run. So before you think about a concept or a strategy, you need to find your own visual language. But as a social media manager I can only recommend to look for inspiration on other channels, if you don’t have to deal daily with bringing creativity into photos. Inspiration can of course be found directly on Instagram!
Find inspiration on other Instagram channels
Many will say now, is nevertheless clear! But from my experience I know that many companies, especially if they haven’t done anything in the field of social media marketing yet, spend many days and weeks with the conception. In the end, it might have taken an hour on Instagram to look at competing offers or completely different offers, e.g. just successful influencers.
- What photos work?
- What picture language works?
- Is it rather the portrait or rather the whole body?
- Are there many details in the image or does the photo focus on a specific subject?
My ultimate Instagram tip, for channel building but also for further support, save images in Instagram! Many do not use this function, but it is quite simple. You can save your own photos directly as inspiration in Instagram, you can even create different folders. For example, you can separate by photos of the team, photos of the product, photos of the lifestyle, photos of novelties, photos of the fair, …
To be able to save images, simply click on the icon below the image. Then go to the photo or video and your saved content. If you are fast, you can then directly select a folder where the photo should be saved. The photos are a constant source of inspiration, for oneself but also for employees or freelancers. Another small instagram tip from everyday life, with a large archive of inspiration one also has good ideas available at moments when one is less creative. For example, if you’re at a Fashion Week just before the first fashion show, you usually don’t have much time to think about creative concepts for Instagram. With a look into the stored photos, you have a lot of ideas and perhaps find a way to directly transform an idea for the current situation.
As I said, in practice many companies are busy for days and weeks thinking about what pictures should look like. It’s much faster with a glance at Instagram and Blogger and companies that are already making it successful. Here you save a lot of time and money as a startup. You can then focus your creativity again on your new fashion collection or, of course, on other areas of setting up a company.
But the A&O for Instagram are beautiful photos and a harmonious style of the Instagram feed.
Beautiful photos are important on Instagram – your own style
The ultimate tip, beautiful photos! Not everyone thinks about it, in many practical examples, we then see as consultants photos with a lot of text, preferably scattered in ten lines, with five different motifs, for example in the lottery. The next photo is dark, showing a lot of products. The next photo is a Selfie. No picture style, no line, no picture language. Recognition is so important for companies. Let’s just look at the basic practice, each company has its own colour. Each company has its own typeface, each company has its own concept. People need this recognition, not only to give us an advantage as a company, they get used to a certain look and never want to see it again because they like it. If we change this look too often, the fee sings sour cream and possibly the follower jumps off.
For Instagram you must always be clear that you need a visual language and you must not be too profound or give too much information. Why is that? On Instagram you have only a few moments in the feed but also with the stories. The next photo, the next video is only a swipe away. Information must therefore be clear, precise and very accurate. When you take your pictures make sure that
- You have a consistent style, consistent coloring
- Pictures focus on one subject, avoid too many details
- Don’t use fonts or descriptions in image
- Light, friendly photos are successful, dark, emotionless photos not
- Sexy always goes!
Filter? Not everything is colorful
Where we just talked about bright and friendly photos and their success on Instagram, here’s the next Instagram tip! Do not use filters. Filters make the photos different, creative, colorful, old but also too much. Instagram is usually about authentic everyday life, not about advertising. Photos don’t need a lot of post-processing, they need creative ideas. I don’t need filters right from the start.
A little tip, corrections are possible. My recommendation:
- Brightness + 8 %
- Heat + 8 %
- Color – 8% for cooler, slightly desaturated images and + 8% for colorful images
This slight image correction makes a photo a little brighter, a little friendlier and more likeable, but is not at all comparable with post-processing or filters. This is merely a matter of a slight correction of the values.
Camera or Smartphone? The right equipment for Instagram
One of the absolute favorite questions of companies and firms, but also of start-ups and young entrepreneurs, you need a professional camera for instagram?
Anyone who has a modern smartphone of the last few months knows how far camera technology has come. From time-lapse video to photos with different sharpness straight lines, you can conjure up any photo or video on your smartphone today. The camera technology is so sophisticated and small that I now hide extremely good devices in the smartphones. For social media management nowadays you don’t really need a reflex camera anymore, a good smartphone Günter absolutely. You have killed two birds with one stone because you have not only all social media networks always with you but also a good camera. Not only can you pre-produce social media content for Instagram, you can even give it live, e.g. on Instagram TV. Situations are captured much faster because less technology has to be prepared. In addition, you don’t have to carry a large, heavy camera and its batteries. For me, the smartphone clearly wins in comparison!
Portrait or square? The right format for photos
Surface is everything! No matter if it is the advertising poster in the city centre or the photo in Instagram feed. When you take pictures, make sure you don’t use your phone in a landscape heart position, but in a portrait position. Instagram gives you a lot more space. For example, if you publish a photo or video in landscape format, you have only a third of the space you could have in portrait format. Therefore, as a small but practical instagram tip, make sure that all your photos and videos are taken in portrait mode, i.e. in portrait format!
More followers? How to build your Instagram Community
Now we come to $10,000,000 question! How do I get more followers? How do I get them very quickly? How do I get them guaranteed? There is never a guarantee!
The community are individual people. Every person has his or her own thoughts, ideas, needs and desires. Social media campaigns can never be guaranteed to be planned. Just think of virality, the subject everyone’s talking about. Can we make a viral video, too? If social media management were that simple, each channel would probably have a billion fans, each video would have a billion views. But it’s not like that. In the competition there are also always competitors with comma, there are the traditional companies, new creative, in addition there are the numerous bloggers who publish content completely free of charge, every day. They also have the added advantage that they are private individuals and not companies “that just want to make money”.
My tips for Instagram:
- Community Building as discussed above
- Honest community care and communication with followers
- Creative content with uniform visual language
- Regular publications, preferably daily
- Increase reach through paid postings
There are two ways to generate range of coverage. Organic range and paid range. Organic range is the range you get through the algorithm within your own community.
- The algorithm is influenced by various parameters, e.g. the posting period, when something is published and how many competing offers there are?
- What is the number of first interactions in the first seconds? How does the interaction develop within the next minutes?
Organic reach thus refers to the people you reach, solely through the effect of the posting. In addition there is still the paid range, advertisements. Because by organic range one creates usually only ten to 15% of the own followers. So if you have 10000 people in front, you usually have 1000 to 1500 people. Through paid reach you can increase this amount of people. Paid range then goes by views, i.e. by the amount of contributions seen. Paid reach is good because organic growth alone would not reach so many people. What a pity, because if on average every 200th person orders a product that interacts with a posting, it would be very practical to reach even more people. That’s why companies advertise.
In principle it is always about organic growth and the organic Betreuung.de not only growth is important but on the regular customers! Through good texts and the involvement of the fans, e.g. through challenges, the own community remains active.
Smart Texts and Instagram Challenges
Smart and ingenious lyrics are definitely short! On Instagram nobody wants to read long, it’s about photos, videos, fast and short entertainment. Texts should therefore always be short and contain impulses for users. Impulses like Call-to-Action, references to our actual offer but also impulses like questions that demand real experiences from users. Questions are a very effective tool, e.g. very simple, “Would you wear it?” The to “what color was your dress at prom?”.
But smart texts aren’t just descriptive or ask questions, you should always remember to mention other brands or people or mark them directly on Instagram. This will give you positive image transfer. For example, if the photo shows a Fanta that is often drunk by young target groups, it is worth mentioning Fanta in the description. Image Transfer. The same goes for the social media stars, of course, if a certain piece of clothing is worn by someone, this person should also be mentioned and marked. This not only ensures that the respective person is informed of the new posting and can therefore react immediately with a like or a comment, which in turn increases the first interaction, which in turn raises the own posting in the algorithm. This also ensures that the posting is also made accessible to parts of the target group of the other person. On the one hand infeed, because there you see the mentions and markings in which the respective account itself was marked, on the other hand a part is also sent out to the target group, as far as parts of it interact with the photo or the video.
Number three is call to action. Who hasn’t heard of anything correct yet, for this one briefly explained.
Call-to-action in the post and stories
Karl zu Action is one of the central tools in online marketing. Corto Action means a direct reference to our respective target, this can be e.g. a product in the online shop, the registration in the newsletter or new fans for our channel. Depending on the white we actively in our descriptions indicate what we want to achieve. e.g.
- Get 10% discount in our online shop, click here
- Subscribe to newsletter now, tomorrow the new feature will come!
- Follow us now on Instagram!
Age is active call to action, call-to-action. For the completeness of the process a link is needed. Unfortunately, you cannot place a link in Instagram Postings, but you can indicate here that the link is in the biography. Users will not only be prompted to click the link, but also to visit your Instagram channel. In the stories it’s already different, here you can place direct links and the full rock can visit the link by simply swyping upwards. Whether online shop or newsletter registration, direct vall to action.
- Swipe up for 10% discount
Use Instagram Stories
Recommendation marketing is a big topic. Influenza in particular shows how effectively one can achieve sales by evaluating or describing products. The more personal the insights, the more authentic, the more likely the willingness to buy increases Point Instagram Stories are an excellent tool to give personal insights. Of course, the bigger the company you have planned, the bigger the stories. But the big advantage is, they disappear after 24 hours and you can publish several a day. Instagram Stories are produced very quickly and most of them have probably made a few themselves or even do some every day. The big advantage is that they are subject to a less strict construct such as postings in the instagram feed. Here the feed has to look harmonious at the end, the visual language has to be right, … with Instagram Stories it’s all much easier! Here, one does not have to be so creative, as a super simple example, the breakfast table would suffice with a delicious buffet. Afterwards we go to the office, have a coffee and have a look at some collection items. Later we go to the customer appointment and a photo of the cappuccino Togo is taken quickly, afterwards we tell in a short video, that this is now going to a great customer, on whom we are very much looking forward. Small intimate stories that permanently accompany the user.
Brand awareness is a big topic, which means brand awareness. Instagram Stories are an excellent Tulum to constantly send small messages.
When do hashtags actually make sense? That’s a really good question. Hashtags could now be explained in great detail and philosophized about for a long time, but in the end it’s all about using them as purposefully as possible. Instagram Tip 1 on Hashtags, does not use hashtags that are intended for building. Such always suggest follow me, then I follow you. If you press like on my picture, I press for a like on your picture. Why isn’t this working? We talk all the time about community and interaction, fans reacting to new photos, new videos and not spirit accounts interacting and never doing anything again. This text motivates others, new or even social bots, to interact with your channel. Real fans aren’t there. Tip number 2 for Hashtags, focus on very specific terms.
Instead of 20 hashtags, we focus on our core product and our image. Both components get 3 exact, matching hashtags
- Three general hash tags like #Beauty, #Eyeliner, #Makeup
- 3 special hashtags for the image #Contour, #Makeuplover, #Eyeshadows
The goal is to reach the top positions point best of course always place 1, as in Google!
Heat map Positioning in online marketing
We all know the search engine Google, the most important platform when it comes to questions on the Internet. Where can I find something? What does something mean? What does something stand for? Where can I find more information about something? The golden brisk in online marketing is number one. The closer you are to this position, the more often you are clicked. Whether on Google or instagram. Here one sees once very beautifully on the basis of the largest search machine of the world on what the views of the user focus, green frequently, yellow very frequently and red almost exclusively.
Buy a follower? Follow for your channel
In fact, there are very many who buy followers. We already had bloggers who had written to us and on closer analysis, out of 250,000 there were a maximum of 20,000 real people. Even large companies work with such funds, buy themselves over the years 10,000, 100,000 fans added. For example, you can see such things easily and without social media software by means of comments. Who has 200 000 followers but only two comments, there can be something wrong.
Buying Follower is quite easy, you can find a lot of offers on the internet. 10.000 fans for 20 $, international from India to the Philippines, up to qualitative 10.000 fans for 300 $, from the German-speaking countries. Ultimately, however, probably no real persons but Social Media Bots.
These accounts will never interact. On the other hand, just to explain, many visitors do not analyze Instagram channels. They just look in a hurry, 100,000 fans, many like that, I’m in. So the medal has two sides. What’s best for you, you have to weigh.
Thank you very much for the detailed discussion. For all our readers who want to start their own business, with their own start-up, fashion design or in the food sector, valuable tips. Thanks for your time!
Questions and Answers
What is instagram for a platform?
As a social network, Instagram is a platform where users can interact with each other. Most popular at the moment are photos in Feed and Instagram stories. The war is usually used daily or two, three times a week. Stories can be made several times a day, they are only available 24 hours a day. Other users respond to these postings and stories. This even leads to small conversations, e.g. in the comments. The more interaction the better! Many users also send direct messages, which are private messages from user to user.
On Instagram you can decide for yourself whether you want to keep your account private, so that only confirmed users have access to photos and videos, or whether the account is publicly accessible. The default setting is of course public. On Instagram, users are particularly concerned with briefly distracting themselves in everyday life. At the breakfast table, while waiting for the subway, small breaks during work, of course also in the evening, for example, when waiting for the date or for friends.
Users typically open Instagram’s app six to eight times a day. This speaks for a very high level of interaction. Small, short content, so-called snack content, is best received by Instagram users. Photos, stories with a length of 10 to 15 seconds or also videos with approx. 10 to 15 seconds length.
Is instagram a marker?
Yes Instagram is a registered trademark and thus protected in almost all countries of the world. You can find out more about instagrams, business figures, turnover figures and much more at Wikipedia: Instagram.
Who owns Instagram?
Instagram isn’t that old yet. After only a few years, the network was bought up by the two founders. The new owner is Facebook. Instagram is now officially part of Facebook Inc.
Did you know? Also the advertisements are organized over the Facebook advertisements M;anager. Although Instagram also allows the app to advertise ads internally, Facebook Ads Manager is much more accurate.
How many employees has Instagram?
In 2010, Instagram started with just 13 employees, today there are thousands worldwide. Especially since the acquisition of Facebook, Instagram has evolved. From Ads to IG TV.
Is Instagram the same as Facebook?
Instagram and Facebook differ in many respects, but are also similar. The biggest difference lies in the target audience, the target audience of Instagram is much greater than comparison to Facebook. Facebook now serves almost all age groups, most of whom are between 20 and 50 years old. On Instagram, as described, the target group is significantly younger, usually the users are between 15 and 30 years old. Another big difference lies in the use of media. On Facebook names of all kinds shared by the content, articles on other websites, as well as events but also news. In Instagram, everything focuses on news, comma images and video material, as well as small postings from everyday life, the so-called stories.
Instagram is also faster-paced and is mostly accessed from mobile devices, via App. Facebook, on the other hand, is also used by many as a communication tool from their desktop PC and notebook. This again reflects the differences between the target groups. Depending on the product or service or target group they use, you should focus on a social network, especially at the beginning. This saves you a lot of time and allows you to effectively manage a network.
What can you do with Instagram?
At Instagram, almost everything focuses on posting new photos and videos. The whole thing happens in two forms. Either you post the photos and videos in the Instagram Feed, which is Instagram’s timeline where all postings are archived chronologically. On the other hand, instagram stories are often used. Instagram Stories are very private and show personal life, from morning to night. Each channel has its own particularities, bloggers and influencers sharing every moment of life, from getting up in bed, to breakfast, to going to sleep, companies show a lot, even a lot you would not have shown before. What’s the matter with you? Because you can!
It used to be extremely difficult to get into the media. Especially for young fashion designers or fashion companies, it was very difficult to get placements in a fashion magazine. We don’t even need to talk about advertising in TV channels or placements in other magazines. Today, thanks to Instagram, but also social networks such as Facebook, YouTube and tiktok everyone can constantly post anything new. Wonderful new world!
What is Instagram Marketing?
Instagram Marketing deals with all the peculiarities and features that the social network Instagram brings with it. As Instagram Agentur concepts and strategies are developed with which companies know, for example, how to proceed step by step with Instagram. Especially when the work is divided among several employees, it is important to have structure and planning.
If you are planning your own Instagram Marketing, you should also create structure and planning. What do I start with? Where am I going? All this I have to keep in mind. This concept, this strategy is pursued day by day. Based on the experiences and learnings you gain every day, you can gradually optimize your Instagram Marketing. The big goal in Instagram Marketing is reach. The more range a startup gets, the more information it can send. The community is therefore a central component of Instagram Marketing. Another central component for many companies and online shops is advertising on Instagram. Because, how can you make money on Instagram? Of course just as everywhere, through the sale of products and services. Advertisements help to reach additional people in addition to organic traffic, i.e. reach that can be generated without advertisements.
What is range instagram?
Reach on instagram corresponds to the amount of followers who have seen a posting. Two factors are distinguished within the range.
Simple range, the so-called views, correspond to the amount of ads that our posting had. A person can get our posting displayed several times. A new view is generated with each new display. In contrast to this is the unique range, so-called unique views. Only individual persons are counted here. It does not matter whether a single person is shown the posting several times or not.
Both factors are important in advertising. If you remember classic commercials, you know that here you often see an advertising film, that you rather remember the brand, you buy the product in the online shop or in the supermarket. The same applies to reach, the more often a person sees the brand or the product, the more likely they are to decide to buy it. When considering mere reach, e.g. when launching a product, the focus is more on unique views, so that the advertising agency can calculate how many people have been reached.
What are Instagram Ads?
Instagram Ads are ads that are displayed within the social network. Ads look like normal postings or stories, they only have a small hint to “sponsored post”. Instagram ads are very effective, as are ads on other social networks. Especially because the target groups can be determined so precisely, according to geographical view, for example all people in Berlin, as well as according to gender, e.g. only the women in Berlin but also things like the old and the interests play in. A certain coat or an expensive leather jacket can only be played off to a certain group of people who can most probably afford the expensive leather jacket and who already have similar interests, e.g. similar brands and products.
How much does advertising cost on Instagram?
The price for advertising on Instagram is not fixed. Depending on the current booking situation of the competition, number of people online, many factors are involved. In a rough rule of thumb, however, one can say that the prices per view can be between 5 cents and 5 €. Depending on how well the ad was made. That’s why many people trust us as a social media agency when it comes to campaign management. Even advertising campaigns on Instagram tend to go in the direction of € 4 to € 15. When it takes 100 views to create a purchase, the costs explode quickly. However, in collaboration with the social media agency, he manages to push prices below 1 €, which can quickly make good profits and earn money on Instagram.
How to make money with Instagram?
There are two ways to earn money on Instagram. One way is the classic sale of products. As described above, it is then a matter of building up your own community, within the group new products can then be presented.
You can besides arose in the social networks a completely new line of business, influencer marketing! Young, hard-working bloggers, who gradually won more fans, today reach millions of people and are the new stars, the social stars! As an influencer you can earn really good money, if you want to know how much you earn on Instagram you can calculate the costs and prices at Influencer Fee: Instagram calculate price. Influenza earn their money either with paid postings, which are postings that are paid directly or with affiliate marketing. Afilliate marketing is a classic from online marketing. You get sales commission. If, for example, an influencer posts a new expensive leather jacket, the link is clicked by 100 people, 40 people buy the leather jacket and the influenza receives a €10 commission for each jacket, it is €400 for this posting.
If you want to read more about Instagram, check out the social media agency’s blog:
