When the budget is exhausted, and the standard free promotion techniques like contests are boring, you have to use other methods. Here are 12 free ways to promote on Instagram that work. Let’s talk about ways of free promotion on Instagram.
Ways to promote on Instagram
Add the right hashtags to your posts
Hashtags are a simple and working way to promote on Instagram. The main thing is to choose the correct phrases. The Wordstat service will help with this. Enter a general query on your topic in the search bar, and choose medium- and low-frequency phrases for hashtags. For high-frequency queries, it isn’t easy to reach the top and attract an audience. Another important thing is not to put a dozen hashtags on one publication. 2-to 3 is enough.
Use Geotags
The Geopoint should be placed where your potential target audience is located and not yourself. For example, a travel company organizes trips to Olkhon Island in the central part of Lake Baikal. In the post, you can put a geopoint “Lake Baikal.”
This is one of the free ways to independently promote your account on Instagram since there is a chance to attract an audience interested in vacationing on Lake Baikal. By the way, to further promote your account, for example, using targeted advertising, you can quickly collect an audience by geotags through Pepper.
Answer questions in stories
Instagram users often ask questions in stories and even more often share something. Work with the most active users who might be interested in your product. To do this, you need to monitor what they post and answer stickers with questions. The bottom line is that this way, your profile will be more noticeable than when using mass promotion techniques.
Ask questions in stories
Ask questions more often in stories, and place a “test” sticker with two possible answers. You can ask subscribers about anything: “Skip training today for the sake of the exhibition?”, “Will I get a short haircut?”, “Where to spend the weekend – in St. Petersburg or Moscow?”.
For example, a photographer can ask his subscribers to help with choosing photos that will be presented at the opening of his own studio. The opinions of family members on this matter were divided. Ask subscribers any questions, and it helps in promoting the account.
Post provocative posts
Try diluting your profile with a few provocative posts. Of course, some members follow the profile to have fun with the posts and not because they are interested in you. But you will also have an interested audience that will use your products. Interesting creatives always attract attention. Create provocative posts and funny Instagram stories to get more audience.
Offer colleagues mutual PR
Mutual PR is not an advertisement of your competitors but the support of specialists from related niches. PR can be carried out in the format of posts, stories, and live broadcasts with a link to the profile of another specialist. This free method of promotion on Instagram will bring you closer to your audience, increase your reach and increase the number of followers, which means potential customers.
See what mutual PR looks like between a store that sells cotton cords and handmade artisans who buy goods in this store.
Arrange a challenge
Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge? Well, when everyone doused themselves with ice water and made donations. Famous people, bloggers, and company employees took part in it and challenged others.
For Instagram, this can be adapted as follows: a team of employees does something extraordinary, for example, helps a local shelter as part of a week of help, talks about it in stories and posts, and encourages other companies with a packed audience to support the action and tags them.
Why is your call likely to be answered? So you can quickly and cost-effectively attract an audience, increase activity, get publications in the media, and possibly earn money. When the person you challenged accepts the challenge, the confirmation post will say something like “received the challenge from @… and are passing @…”. Those who see the story will see the mention; those who see the mention will go to the profile; those who go to the profile will subscribe.
Make collaboration with others
Similar to the previous version, you need to agree in advance and work together. Here, how this will happen depends on what you are doing. The banalest way is to arrange a joint photo shoot with items that characterize the activities of both companies.
If there is an opportunity to create something, then it is better. For example, Puma collaborated with Soyuzmultfilm and KFC with the Yunost brand. You can earn and get subscribers since a collaborator partner marks you in their publications.
Take part in live
Come to the broadcast of profiles with several subscribers up to several tens of thousands (otherwise, you will not be noticed), write comments, answer questions, ask your own, and send applications for participation in the broadcast. In short, do everything to be noticed.
Sometimes brands come to the comments entirely unexpectedly, but they were noticed and possibly subscribed: Be active and you will be noticed. This also works with live events: many people will see your message (comment), and some will go to your profile.
Yes, it seems strange, but if it looks natural, then why not? Most importantly, do not write comments in the style of “Oh, cool, and by the way, we have discounts up to 50%” or, even worse, “Hurry, only today is a sale!”. Most likely, you will be kicked out. Just be an active participant in the broadcast without imposing.
If what you write seems interesting to other participants, they will not be too lazy to look for your profile after the broadcast ends (yes, you won’t be able to go straight from the broadcast to the profile). And then it all depends on the quality of your content.
Promote your Instagram page through Pinterest
It is believed that Pinterest brings good traffic to websites and blogs. It’s easy to believe this. Pinterest works like Google Images, meaning search results are displayed as images with descriptions. It is usually used to save exciting ideas, recipes, bows, and goods. If your product is something visual, then this method is suitable.
It would help if you designed your Pinterest boards and put in the closest hashtags and Instagram links. Leave a link to your Instagram account on other social networks. Traffic is never superfluous. Develop your business in all possible directions.
Broadcast live
Live broadcasts always attract users. Do not be afraid to share your thoughts or seem funny, be sincere. This will win over your subscribers. The audience willingly subscribes to accounts they find interesting and useful content. Experiment, communicate with specialists from related niches, and act as experts in other accounts. Live broadcasts are an effective way to increase your visibility and attract new audiences.
Connect with your audience on IGTV
IGTV is an Instagram video service, in fact, an analog of YouTube. The service allows you to publish a video in a vertical format, up to 1 hour long. If you have something to tell your followers, use IGTV. This is especially true if you already have a YouTube channel.
Let’s Summarize
All options for free promotion on Instagram are realizable and aimed at getting you noticed. And then, as we said, it all depends on how exciting content you publish.
She is a devoted blogger who likes to write about technology, social media and blogging. She leads a simple life and would like to help people through her writing skills.
