Hearts, double-taps, or faves all mean one thing on Instagram – likes.
Likes are usually the first form of interaction users have with your content and hold the power of validation on the platform for your brand.
Now here’s something to think about:
“Since 2017, the average engagement of each post has shot up by 416%” – Source
That may seem redundant until you know that Instagram has over 500 million daily active users who share more than 95 million pictures and videos every day as well.
That’s a massive beehive of activities! And we’ll see how you can quickly attract it in your direction for likes on your content:
1. Post-High-Quality Videos and Pictures
To get users to like your content, you can take some practical steps:
Show a Face
It can be anyone’s face, doesn’t have to be yours. The reason is that it’ll increase the chances of your post getting liked by 38%.
Use the Right Colors
Typically, blue centric pictures get 24% more hearts than red ones. Single colors over multi colors also boost your “likes” probability by 17%.
Carefully Pick Your Filters
The best filters for your content are ones that correct exposure, increase contrast and have a warm tone as they have proven to produce the best results. It’s best practice to use Instagram’s editing tool instead of the pre-programmed filters they offer.
Change Things Up
Instagram has some great tools to help you keep your posts unique and fresh. Here are some of them:
Boomerang
With this tool, you can create video loops, either frontward or backward.
Like this:
Focus
You can use the focus tool to blur irrelevant backgrounds and keep people’s faces as the focus.
Superzoom
The superzoom tool allows you to zoom in on a visual in order to emphasize a specific detail.
Here’s an example:
2. Use Hashtags the Right Way
The last thing you’d want to do if you’re hunting for likes is annoy Instagram and its users. And you’ll do that if you don’t use hashtags correctly as the platform could flag your posts for spam and hide them from users.
Posts are usually tagged as spam if you use the same hashtags repeatedly or different hashtags that are irrelevant to the content they are attached to.
To use the hashtag feature correctly, ensure that they are relevant to your posts or on a trendy topic relating to your brand or a topic that everyone’s buzzing about.
The feature will allow other users to find your content, even if they don’t follow you, so use them tactically to aim for your target audience.
Check out best practices for hashtagging the right way:
Try to Stick to Relevant Tags
If you don’t do this, users will opt for the “don’t show for this hashtag” option and you’ll end up either being flagged or irritating people which means no likes.
Place them Appropriately
You can place 2 to 3 hashtags in your post caption even though Instagram permits 30 per post. If you need to use more than a few, a great method would be to include them in the comment section, which is out of the way from your major hashtags.
Use Different Ones
Which hashtags do you go for?
Not the ones other users are using. Placing something like “#like4like” makes it obvious that you’re simply just fishing for double taps instead of trying to connect with like-minded users.
Worst of all, bots jump at such hashtags, meaning your stats would be valueless.
A good example to follow is when the brand Chanel got bloggers to post user-generated content with the #chanel5 hashtag. The results were amazing, as posts with the hashtag pulled in 900,000 likes in the first month alone.
Hashtags can be a very quick way to get a lot of likes if done correctly.
3. Buy Likes
This method is as easy as it gets. All you need to do is visit websites like iDigic, Famoid, etc. And buy likes on Instagram by opting for one of their “likes” packages.
4. Tag Relevant People to Your Content
What’s the purpose of tagging users?
To motivate them to engage with your content and repost it to other users or it could be to credit them if they took the video or photo you posted.
And it works great for getting likes because they’ll receive a notification when you tag them and most likely engage with the content. To do this you can use Instagram’s tagging functionality or write @-mention in your caption.
5. Write Compelling Captions
Tell your story with both words and visuals. An amazing visual with great text gives users the complete package.
Here are some ideas:
Ask questions
Questions can capture the viewer’s interest and take out any promotional vibe they may get.
Add Some Humor
The formal approach may work for other platforms but on Instagram, it falls flat.
This is Why:
“64% of 18 to 29-year-olds use Instagram”
Meaning the suit and tie approach would be a miss with such demographics. So spice up your posts with something that the millennial and Gen Z crowd would find amusing.
Replicate the Love
If you have certain followers mentioning your brand or your profile, replicate the love and include them to your captions occasionally.
One-Liners
Sometimes less is more. A simple song lyric, quote, or phrase can highlight the message of your photo or video stylistically.
6. Add Location
Tagging your location makes it extremely easy for you to put your brand on the map. Users will be able to discover your content quickly. Data even shows that posts with a location tag are viewed more by people on Instagram and get 79% more engagements than posts without location tagging.
And it’s quite simple to use this feature:
- Hit “Add location’
- Browse for your location
- Choose it and post your content
After doing this, the location field becomes clickable by users. When a person clicks on the location added, they can view all the videos and photos for that place.
Your brand will be associated with the platform to that location. This means that users who search for anything relevant to your brand in that location will get to see your content and the content of other users that relates to your profile.
7. Take Advantage of the Explore Page
The explore tab or page contain personalized content and curated topics relevant to the user based on their previous engagement patterns and actions. Wired tagged it “the most truthful page on the web”.
It’s crucial to take advantage of it if you’re looking for more likes via brand recognition. Ranking high on the explore page will pull in new followers as well as a steady stream of users ready to double-tap.
While the factors for placing high on the explore tab aren’t completely known, there are certain criteria Instagram most likely considers when placing content on the page:
- Posts similar to what people previously engaged with
- Posts with high engagement
- Posts from profiles similar to profiles the person already follows
So how do you take advantage of this?
Understand your Target Audience
Know who you’re targeting. Their interests, who they follow, the kind of posts they engage with, etc. With the information create a persona and aim your content at it.
Align Your Content
Churn out content that’s based on how your audience engages with posts on Instagram. For instance, are they more inclined to videos or photos? Whichever it is, create content that matches with it.
8. Maintain Consistency
Your followers need to know what to expect and when they’ll likely see your posts. It gives you credibility and authority in your niche because you always have something relevant and useful to offer your followers.
It also helps brand recognition as 93% of organizations rely on consistent delivery of content for awareness. But it isn’t just about the consistency, you need to ensure that your posts are meeting your followers at the right time.
Study your audience and know when they’re most active on Instagram. Remember you’re gunning for engagements via likes so you want to send out posts when they’ll be able to interact with it.
This applies to the timing as well and not just the days of the week. If you notice your posts get more likes at particular hours and days, you may want to stick to those periods to deliver your content.
Conclusion
Likes offer your brand and content validation on Instagram but they can be hard to attract when you don’t know the right moves to make. Methods like location tagging, understanding your audience, and writing compelling captions can make the process seamless and pull in those double taps!
What method has worked best for you to attract likes? Share below!
