How to Build an Engaged and Vibrant Instagram Community

Where to start?

At the beginning, it is important to take care of the aesthetics of the profile, so that it is consistent and pleasing to the eye, and at the same time attracts attention. It is one of the important elements of running a profile on social media. When posting on your profile, add good quality photos - no one will want to see the blurry ones. Once you've created the perfect photos, you can use the apps to help you keep your profile clean. The most popular applications are Lightroom - for adding colour to your photos, or Photo Retouch, which will allow you to remove unwanted objects or people from the photo.

Building a community

Building an engaged community takes time and dedication, without them your actions will be ineffective. When building a community, it's important to have a long-term plan of action, which is to develop strategies for your social media activities. You have to be patient in this situation, Rome was not built in a day. When creating posts, think about what you want to convey to the user - think about the benefits the recipients will have when they read your post. The content should be both interesting and engaging. Your Instagram activities should be regular as you will get a higher hit rate rated by the Instagram algorithm. You have to remember that building a community is not only about getting new followers for your profile, it is also about keeping current followers - which is much more difficult. Start analyzing which profiles with different content are more engaging and think why that is.

Involvement of observers

You gain audience engagement through your actions. After publishing the content on your profile, check the comments of your recipients. In the eyes of your users, your profile will be credible if you interact with them. Publish not only content but also infographics, tips that will be helpful for your fans. Many people prefer to read the infographic rather than the content in the description because it is better absorbed by the human brain.

The application that will help you create infographics and many other interesting materials is Canva, which works on both the phone and the laptop. Another element that is also important, when creating a post, are hashtags. The maximum number of hashtags that can be included in a post is 30. However, until recently Instagram recommended adding only 9-11 hashtags, and the new guidelines suggest that you should limit yourself to 3-5 hashtags. However, we recommend that you test it like any other variable. 

When coming up with hashtags, focus on what is shown in the photo and what it is about. If you put a hashtag unrelated to the post, it will not be beneficial for you and the post may reach a user who will not be interested in your profile. The last thing you need to pay attention to are posting hours. Check and test what times of days your users are most online. Thanks to this, you will find out what are the best publication times for you and the engagement will be greater on the part of users.

If you want to know more about the users, be sure to read "How to make users come back to our social media channels?" 

How do Instagram algorithms work and how to use it?

Many factors contribute to the operation of the algorithm. The first and the main one is interest. I mean everything that interested you on Instagram, posts, stories, videos, mentions, posts sent to other users, as well as shared content of other profiles in your story. Instagram, with the help of your actions, "suggests" similar posts, that is, shows more new things that you may be interested in. Any of your previous behaviours on Instagram will correspond to what you currently see on your profile. The algorithm not only limits likes and comments, but also all actions, such as saved posts. The Instagram algorithm also checks how much time the user has spent on a given content; this is because the algorithm wants to best match the content that is of interest to him.

Time is another important factor. This is the time when the user post on their profile. This is of utmost importance as Instagram wants messages posted by the sender to be fresh. Each new post has priority in showing the audience something new than the post from a few weeks ago. The platform wants to show recipients something that is current and new for the user. An important aspect that was discussed earlier is the time your users are available on Instagram. This is critical to the reach of your content.

Relations also play a very important role. The Instagram algorithm tries to make posts that reach people who are somehow close to this profile. It tracks our every move, e.g., if you comment on a user's photo or you are tagged under a post, Instagram will see it as a link. In this case, the algorithm will show you more posts related to the given profile. The application follows our movements on the platform to be able to better match the content that interests us.

The frequency is also analyzed by the Instagram algorithm. This is related to the appropriate matching of the content to your interest. If you are active on the platform, the posts will appear in chronological order, and when you spend less time there, the algorithm will present the posts according to your preferences.

Have you ever wondered what role do the people you follow play? Following other users is very important on Instagram. Based on the users you follow; it displays relevant posts that will be of interest to you. If you follow a lot of accounts, Instagram filters and controls what posts it should show you.

Using Instagram works like frequency. The more often you are available in the application, the greater the chance is that you will see more posts that Instagram supervises taking into account your preferences. If you use it once a day, the algorithm will show you the most important posts throughout the day.

Do you want to know more about the content marketing strategy? Click link.

Stories algorithm

Stories always appear on the home page of every profile that comes from the accounts you follow. The stories are shown at the very beginning for a reason. The story algorithm works in such a way that the user sees what he is most interested in and with whom he has a close relationship on the platform. These are the accounts with which you interact most often, e.g., comment, share, etc. Updating on stories is an important element, everyone who opens the application will see the latest last-minute relations, and the algorithm does not interfere with the number of stories added by the user. Even so, it's important to share new messages with your account's followers at different times of the day so that they can stay informed. The app also tracks how much time the user has spent watching stories. It also sees whether the recipient has rewound or stopped the relationship. The activities of stories are great at helping to keep your followers engaged. Lots of functions that are there make it easier to interact with the recipient and interest him with a given topic. Using functions on stories will allow you to get to know your followers and engage them in your profile. The main advantage of stories is its live broadcasting capability. At this point, your story will stand out at the start of all stories, and your followers will also get a notification that you are streaming live. This is a great time to interact with your audience and be noticed by your users.

Reels algorithm

Rollers are the newest feature of Instagram, which was introduced in Poland only this year. Other countries are still waiting for Instagram to introduce them. Unfortunately, inline skates are only available for professional accounts for now, other users still have to wait. The advantage of rolls is that they generate a lot of impressions, but the disadvantage is that we are not able to define the target audience. Creating a roll for your account is very important as Instagram favours creators who use the latest features of this app. With this feature, you can easily advertise various discounts, sales and much more. It is worth creating interesting content that will attract the attention of such a wide audience.

Explore algorithm

The export tab works similarly as in the case of interest. The algorithm helps the user to discover new things that may be of interest to the recipient taking into account previous interactions with the content. These are recommendations from the platform suggesting interesting content that could potentially be interesting to the recipient, based on previous actions taken. In this tab, when building predictions by the algorithm, 3 factors are taken into account: the probability of liking the post, saving the post and sharing the post.

What conclusions can people who build their own or corporate Instagram accounts draw from this? Your actions should be based on a specific strategy. Then start typing and encourage your users to discuss. Use call to action, it will allow users to interact. Another important tip for you is to be on time. Create up-to-date posts to keep your audience fresh - the algorithm loves it. Choose your hashtags carefully. Pay attention to what hashtags your potential followers are following. Observe when your audience is active and post at this time. Use different types of publications.

Why not buy followers?

There are several important reasons why not to take this step when you want to appear in the world of social media. Having fake followers undermines the credibility of the account and the person who presents themselves on the profile. Before starting any cooperation, many brands analyze whether the account is being followed by real recipients. When a person decides to buy followers, they must take into account that these will not be real accounts that will generate traffic. These are empty accounts and add nothing to your profile - just the number of followers. When creating a profile, we must be credible, systematic and, above all, honest in our actions. The most valuable followers are those who pressed the follow button themselves. 

Every influencer started with something. Each person who wants to appear as an influencer in the future must engage their recipients and, at the same time, must create attractive content for them that will attract their attention, thanks to which they will want to stay longer. Another important thing is that Instagram in its regulations forbids the use of this type of solution to become an "influencer". The robots of the platform check fake accounts on an ongoing basis, and the effects of this can be unpleasant. If such a situation occurs, you may lose large ranges due to the algorithm, which will be difficult to rebuild. To sum up, for your profile to gain audience engagement, you need to be systematic, your commitment is the most important thing, it is thanks to your actions that you build your profile. Give yourself time and you will see what effects you can get.

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