ByWould you like to increase engagement on Instagram? Do you want to get more likes on your Instagram posts?
The biggest currency on Instagram is Likes. When you get more likes your Instagram post will move higher in the newsfeed. It will also get future posts to move higher instantly as this is how the Instagram newsfeed works. Instagram shows people posts from people they have interacted with in the past.
More likes get you an array of other benefits like more followers and traffic as people will checkout your entire account if they like what you share. If planned properly likes can become an important component of your overall Instagram strategy.
Therefore, to help you take advantage of all these benefits, I have written this guide on how to get more likes on Instagram…
Share images that work:
Images are probably the most important part of your Instagram posts so let’s start with them. As you are sharing an image to get more likes think about what drives your followers to like posts. Look at your old posts and analyse them. See which ones got the most likes.
If you have a new account or haven’t posted much in the past, you should checkout your competitors’ accounts and see what they are posting and what’s working for them.
Once you are certain about the type of images that get likes you can create similar ones and share them.
There are mainly two types of images you want to share, photos and designed images.
If you are sharing the photo by itself, you can just add a filter and it will be ready for publishing. A study from Track Maven found that for maximum interactions you should use the Mayfair filter or not add one at all as posts without filters perform second best.
But if you are sharing a predesigned background image on Instagram you should add some overlay text like a quote or a fact or something entertaining that will get you more likes. Entertaining and useful content perform well.
An example of a company that shares both photos and designed background images is Canva. If you visit their account you will see several photos like the above which offer testimonials from their users.
And several designed images like the above. It’s good to keep varying between photos and designed images.
Use call to actions and hashtags in captions:
If you want likes, ask for them. Social Bakers found that tweets got retweeted more when people asked for retweets.
Hence, if you want more likes on Instagram you should ask for them too.
You can do this by adding a simple message like ‘Please like this post’ in the caption. Placing it as overlay text on the image can help too.
A company that regularly publishes engaging quotes and asks people to like them with a message in the caption is Foundr. They have used it to get a lot of likes. This has helped them get over a million followers too.
The aforementioned study from Track Maven also found that posts with 11 or more hashtags got the most likes on Instagram.
So, you should add at least 11 hashtags every time you publish. You can add more, but be careful not to put more than 15 as your post can end up looking spammy.
If you are sharing something popular you can use some hashtags from this list of 100 best Instagram hashtags for likes. They work great for posts on general topics.
But if your posts belong to a niche you should use a tool like Brand24 to find relevant ones only. Read my post How to Find Top and Trending Hashtags to Use on Instagram to learn how to quickly find hashtags with Brand24.
Schedule at best times:
Track Maven found that posts published between 10 PM and 3 AM get the most interactions.
But to get the best results you should find your own best time to post. So, find out what your best posting times are and schedule your posts using a good Instagram scheduling tool. I have listed the 7 best Instagram scheduling apps here.
Reshare on other networks:
If you have a following on other social networks it would be wise to reshare your Instagram posts onto these social networks. They will lead your friends and followers from these accounts onto your Instagram account, thereby getting you more likes. Instagram lets you automatically share posts to Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter when you publish. You should try it out.
Like others posts:
Neil Patel randomly liked photos of people he didn’t follow and found that for every 100 likes he made he got back 21.7 likes and 6.1 follows. This strategy continued to work even if he didn’t follow these people back.
Therefore, make it a habit everyday to go through the popular Instagram feed and the feeds of popular hashtags and like posts you find entertaining or useful. Soon you will gain both likes and followers.
Run like and tag to win contests:
Like to win contests are an easy to implement Instagram marketing tactic to drive up engagement. For this contest all you need to do is post a picture on Instagram and ask people to like the post to take part in the contest. As it is an easy task plenty of people will do it. If your engagement is suffering this will be an easy way to boost it.
For stronger results run a like and tag to win contest where you ask people to not only like the post, but also tag someone they know in the comments. Some of the tagged people will also like the post and tag someone else.
A like and tag contest will increase both likes and comments.
Drinkwel has run plenty of like to win Instagram giveaways because they work. In the above example they asked people to like and follow them to take part in the contest. They also mention that users get a 2nd entry if they tag a friend.
They made the prize a bottle of Drinkwel. This ensures that only relevant people will like their post and follow them.
These are the 6 best ways to get more likes on your Instagram posts. You should try them all out. Start with the first 5 as they won’t take up much time. The last one, running a like to win contest, will take a little extra time. It requires some planning, but is still easy to run.
How do you get more likes on your Instagram posts? Did I forget to list any other important techniques? Please leave your comments below.
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