Instagram Growth-Hacking Strategies for 2022

Social media is something that every brand is aware of because it’s critical to the growth of an organization.

10:59 29 December 2021

Instagram specifically is one of the biggest platforms that brands need to make sure they’re using in today’s day and age. With over 1 billion annual users, Instagram boasts an impressive reach.

There are dozens of articles out there about growing your brand’s social media account and creating new posts - but what are the best growth-hacking strategies? Our favorite experts shared their top tips and tricks for growing your brand through Instagram and how to maximize growth on the platform.

Check out the rest of this article to see what our experts recommend for growing your brand on Instagram in 2022.

Word-of-Mouth

Remember that we live in a world where people tend to distrust brands and companies' words on their own product because they are aware of the bias. In order to avoid this, you can use challenges, incentives, and giveaways to encourage others to post about your brand, product, or service and get the word-of-mouth flowing.

“One of the reasons social media is so powerful goes back to the idea of word-of-mouth being the best advertising tactic,” says Brandon Amoroso, Founder and CEO of electrIQ marketing. “Studies have shown over and over that we need to take advantage of this and use things like hashtags and digital word of mouth to let people know about our products in a way that makes a bigger impact.”

Target Marketing

Target marketing is a way to identify and communicate a message to a specific group of people. This is able to be done through social media, like instagram, by catering to the specific demographic and target preferences.

“Use things like music, hashtags, filters, and more to make sure your media makes it to your intended audience,” says Jeremy Gardner, CEO of MadeMan. “The ultimate goal of social media marketing is to make sure your target audience sees the material. You can do this by analyzing what the target market is viewing most frequently and what they’re most likely to be drawn to interact with.”

Collaboration

Collaboration can be used to work on a project, promote a campaign, or even on Instagram. Collaborating can help come up with new ideas or even reach an entirely new audience. Learn to interact with your consumers on Instagram through collaboration with influencers and other brands that they’re already watching.

“Collaboration is nothing new to someone in the business world, but it typically involves working with another brand or company,” says Chris Vaughn, CEO of Emjay. “Social media platforms like Instagram have changed this by allowing collaboration between brands and popular people on their platforms, usually referred to as influencers, to promote the brand, product, or service to their followers.”

“Collaborating with big influencers is a fantastic way to get the word out about your brand or product,” says Seb Evans, Co-Founder of Banquist. “If you can land your product in front of all of those followers that an influencer has with the support that the influencer can give as well, you have a ticket to the top of the Instagram feed of the people you want to market to. By doing it this way, you can cater your ad to the same audience that likes that influencer to make it more relevant to them too.”

Let Them Get To Know You

People are naturally curious. With everything being available just a few clicks away, it’s no surprise that customers want to know more about a brand than their product, logo, and name. They want to know where the brand came from, what inspires them, and how they’re helping the world around them. That’s a big idea for the millennial generation and generation Z. Both of these generations are drawn to organizations who are passionate about what they do, especially when it lines up with their personal beliefs and values.

“By sharing more personal information about your brand, you’re letting your customers find you and learn more about your products or service in a way that feels less forced and more organic,” says Jesse Richardson, CEO of The Brothers Apothecary. “This leads the customer to you by letting them see more about you and their natural curiosity will carry them through learning about your brand.”

“The more you put out there for them to find, the more connected they’ll feel, '' says Daniel Patrick, Founder of DANIEL PATRICK. “Take them behind the scenes, show them the faces of the people who make the brand what it is, show where your supplies come from, what to expect, ect., etc. Instagram lets you share things in several ways so you can customize the content of the posts based on the media you’ll be sharing through photo and video posts, stories, and reels.”

Listen To What They Have To Say

 

Instagram is fantastic about allowing two-way communication with clients. They can comment on your posts, tag you in something, or even send a message directly.

“Take advantage of the plethora of feedback you’ll get on Instagram,” says Dylan Trussell, Co-Founder of Culprit Underwear. “Sure, there are ‘trolls’ that are just out to complain about things, but in general, Instagram is a great place to see what people have to say about your campaigns or your brand.”

“Use Instagram to form relationships with your clients,” says Jason Wong , CEO of Doe Lashes. “Move it from a consumer-supplier relationship where everything is transactional to a relational experience by engaging them in questions and letting them know you value their opinion on things that you’re doing within your brand. After all, they’re the ones who will be investing in your product.”

Remember Your OG Customers

“Don’t forget about the people that brought you to where you are today,” says Melanie Bedwell, E-commerce Manager for OLIPOP. “It’s easy to get excited about growth and reaching new audiences, but don’t forget about the people that have been interested in your brand from the start. Let them know you value their support and ask for their input through Instagram polls. Let them know about things that are happening prior to the main release - make them feel valued and special.”

Your original customers are the ones who have supported your growth, so it makes sense that you’ll want to make sure they stay on board as the brand continues to grow. Some brands do this by letting them know about product launches before they hit the website through Instagram posts or stories. Others will provide a challenge to their customers to share something they’ve bought in the past and why they love it. This goes back to our word-of-mouth idea above.

Conclusion

It sounds like the best thing to do as you get started is to keep your customers in the front of your mind. Analyze who they are and what they are drawn to in terms of advertising through social media.

After that, you’ll want to make sure you’re engaging them on the platform in a way that both allows them to feel valued and heard but also gives you a plethora of feedback so that you can make future posts even more tailored to your target market.

Finally, you want to make sure you’re remembering the people that brought you to this point. Make sure that with changes you might be making to grow your Instagram followers that you aren’t pushing away the very people that have carried you this far. Keep them engaged by asking questions and opinions or even let them know about some things before you launch the sales on your website.