Spoiler Alert: don’t waste your money and account health on cheap hacks
As you open up your Instagram account, you notice 99+ new notifications. Amazing! You think to yourself.
You open it up; the post has been live for two hours. So, like 45 new likes per hour.
You’re actually trending behind your normal engagement level. With over 20,000 followers, getting 200 likes / comments on a post should be no problem right?
So you get frustrated, and Google “buy Instagram likes”. You find a service, drop $7 and shoot your photo up to 300+ likes. Whew, back in the safe zone, where people’s perceptions about your brand aren’t negatively impacted when they see the imbalance.
But buying likes and engagements is just like a drug:
- It feels good, for now
- Is slightly addictive
- Has long term consequences
Now that we’re about 10 years into the social media age, trends are clearly forming
Some clear no-no’s are forming as well
Do you know what those “no-no’s” are?
1) Instagram’s algorithm is smart and can sniff out anything weird going on
Long gone are the days of bots that automate likes, commenting and follow/unfollow. Same for buying fake likes / followers.
Instagram knows instantly when a new device logs in to your account, based on something as simple as IP address / location. Not to mention things like Device ID, GUID, and more.
As a result, countless Instagram users have been shadowbanned or straight up suspended for using bots.
I think it goes without saying, but buying fake likes and followers demolishes your account health. Don’t risk ruining your page’s natural engagement.
Instagram has five factors upon which they determine the account “health”. Think quality score in ads, but for your actual account.
Do it the slow and steady way if you need to – creating amazing content and engaging with others on IG in a natural way. Or, use ethical growth hacks like the next section explains.
2) the most effective way to grow, and has been, is to have users find you organically based on the quality and virality of your content
After running hundreds of Instagram growth campaigns, I’ve found that the healthiest way to grow is through Influencer shout outs, contests/giveaways and through viral reach.
Viral reach occurs when your content makes it into the “Discover” section on Instagram.
Getting into “Discover” can be “hacked” by getting an account with a large, engaged audience likes, comments or shares your post. Their followers will see your post in the Discover section.
It can also happen from using hashtags that relate to your audience’s interests and past engagements. Be sure to tag big accounts and hashtags in your IG Stories and posts if it’s truly relevant.
3) Focus on the content and utilizing all Instagram has to offer
Instagram has changed its algorithm to favor a variety of content types – Stories, Lives, video posts, IGTV and wall feed image posts. Try doing collaborative IG lives!
You don’t need to post to your “wall” every day. The new standard is 3 posts per week.
That’s enough to keep a natural, high level of engagement. The Instagram team realized that people want to use Stories for real-time posting, and Wall posts need to be more calculated and well-produced. So they dialed it back from 1-3 times per day, to 3 times per week.
Also focus on using all the capabilities of Instagram – Polls, Q&A, location tags, countdowns and reply to ALL comments, ideally within minutes.
When posting to the feed, make sure to write comments that invite a reaction – create discussion and even test polarizing perspectives so that users can create comment threads on your posts.
Hope this was helpful! Want to speak with an Instagram Virality Specialist at K&J? Apply for a free session here ($500 value): https://bit.ly/2VHa6Zq
Much love,
Jonathan, Managing Director