My Secret to Write Golden Instagram Captions with Storytelling Formulas! 

Instagram captions are one of the best formats to scale the relationship with your audience & get more sales for your business. 

But to nail your Instagram captions, you need to learn storytelling formula used by big brands to sell out their inventory. 

I’m talking about frameworks used by marketing teams at Fenty Beauty (Rihanna’s Brand) & rare beauty (selena Gomez’s brand). Both of these brands nail their Instagram captions with help of clever word play & storytelling. 

But to begin with you need to understand how storytelling helps businesses to scale their business & build a better relationship with customers. 

What Brand Storytelling stands for 

Storytelling for brands isn’t telling fairytale to your audience to make them fall in love with your brand. 

It’s about making your audience understand what the brand stands for by telling the audience a compelling story about how your brand do business differently than the competitors. 

In a short sentence, Brand storytelling is walking your ideal customers through a journey to help them understand your brand messaging. 

How Selena Gomez’s Rare beauty used storytelling 

Recently after the controversy between Hailey beiber & selena gomez. Selena went live to thank her audience for supporting her & during the controversy & trends about her vs hailey beiber. Sales for rare beauty also went up as the audience was trying to support her. 

During this time period she went live and shared the vision and story behind her new beauty kit. That it’s for everyone for every skin tone, all the attention was on her brand. 

And she put the story out there that her brand stands for “everyone”. No barriers! 

After that her marketing team started running Ads with same statement as Ad heading on every single platform! 

That’s brand storytelling in practicality, real brands don’t tell shiny stories. They tell right stories at right time to make people connect. 

And that’s what your Instagram caption need, not glittery emojis to spark storytelling. But simple storytelling to make people engage. 

How To Use Storytelling In Your IG Caption Writing Process 

I have seen creators with 2.3-5M followers sell less than 10 products when working with brands. Same stands for brands, without using compelling stories & building audience connections. You will eventually fail to capture the best of your audience. 

That’s why it is important to use storytelling in your Instagram captions. How? 

Focus on Making Followers click

Your story won’t work to convert, if no one reads. That’s why you need to work on starting lines of your caption. Try to make the first few lines intriguing enough for readers to not lose the connection. 

This starting part is more about your understanding of writing better titles as you will need to sum up the message of story in starting to make people read. 

Your Story need to be simplified 

A complex story can make a bigger impact on your audience as they will perceive it as a more valuable story. But at the same time, research shows that brands should focus more on making their business more memorable. 

That’s why simplified stories in captions to help a broader audiences will help your audience to remember the message of your post & brand. 

Try to focus on using words that make it easier for your audience to see the vision behind your brand. The easier it is to see, the higher impact you will have! 

Ending comes before interval 

This is the principle used by Pixar to write amazing stories. And it works for brands too. 

The reason why ending is far more important than interval is because you have to remember what you want your audience to have at the end of the story. 

If you can figure out how you can leave your audience with a good ending to understand your post. You can fill the middle part of the story easier. 

Endings are hard even for great storytellers. 

To Sell Better, Ask this 

You need to ask this question to find the importance of storytelling to sell products in Instagram caption. What question? 

Ask yourself: Why you need to tell this story to make them buy? From the answer you will understand what is the key message you want to spread through your story. 

When you know that, the caption writing gets better and easier. 

Storytelling In Instagram Stories Vs Captions 

My personal beliefs are storytelling in IG stories is far more effective than captions. The reason behind is narrative behind stories is people don’t expect you to deliver the value like original posts. That’s why storytelling in that format can impact your relationship with audience in a good way. 

But regarding followers growth & organic reach, you have to use storytelling in captions because that’s how you gain new followers. 

Storytelling In Instagram stories is for community building, on other hand in captions it stands out for follower growth & product sales. 

Instagram Storytelling for building 540 True Fans 

I’ve been very straightforward & transparent with my audience & storytelling was part of my strategy from beginning of my journey. 

I wasn’t highly active on Instagram but constant use of storytelling resulted in me gaining 540 newsletter subscribers in 2 weeks of launching my first edition. 

Why this happened? My newsletter was my product here. And I was very clear from the beginning about why I started, what’s my goal and much more. 

My audience understood the brand story of The Social Juice (my newsletter) which resulted in getting 10% of my IG audience to sign-up within two weeks. 

That shows power of storytelling to build businesses with ease & no-pain. 

Takeaway 

Instagram storytelling for captions is simple to explain. I told you simplify the message, figure the ending, have an attention grabbing starting. But you know what? Your first Instagram caption will be bad at story but you will get better with practice. 

This is a life-changing skill and once you master it. You will have a better chance at audience building, networking and much more. Important part is you start doing the practice work! 

Instagram Vs TikTok Strategy: Understand Differences To Grow Followers! 

Instagram reels isn’t a replica of TikTok, it might feel like you can repost your content from TikTok to Instagram reels. To go viral on both platforms but you might ruin your brand audience by doing so! 

When Instagram came out with reels, everyone started pushing out TikTok reposts to grow faster on Instagram. It worked for few months, but now the state of Instagram reels is different & it changes from time to time. 

State of Instagram Reels In 2023 

We kicked off 2023 with some serious announcements from Instagram’s CEO confessing that Instagram pushed more reels than photos. And they will settle things back to normal meaning pushing every single piece of content at the same rate. 

After that Meta’s Earning Report 2022 came out, In the statement regarding Instagram. 

Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that to make people create & watch reels they tried to give new format a boost until 2022. Now, reels can grow on their own. 

And that brings us to current state of reels, which is reels aren’t as organic as 2021. But the time spent by Instagram users is increasing, now more than 20% users spend their half of the time on reels tab. 

That’s why IG reels needs to be part of your overall Instagram strategy. 

State of TikTok 2023 

Changes to Tiktok algorithm are bigger than Instagram reels. Increasing the arguments regarding Tiktok Vs Instagram strategy, here’s what you need to know regarding these changes. 

First Tiktok recently announced a new monetisation feature called “Tiktok Series”.

TikTok believes in quality content & they have mentioned these priorities over and over again. This time with “TikTok Series” the platform wants creators to create long-form content to make Tiktok users more engaged within the platform. 

The creators can charge upto $190 for content series. Your Tiktok series can have upto 80 videos with length of upto 20 minutes. 

This new era of paywalled content on Tiktok will bring more engagement & money to creators. 

Second TikTok’s Creativity Program aka “Creative Fund 2.0” 

The platform introduced a new creator fund called “Tiktok creativity Program” and creators can apply for monetisation of video content. But this time there is a change to help deserving creators make more money. 

In creativity program, creators apply for monetisation for a specific Tiktok video and the video has to be over 1 minue length or minimum. Plus, Tiktok will review Originality & creativity of video to consider monetisation. 

Final Take, What these changes tell us? 

These changes tell us that Tiktok wants original & long-form content to exist on platform. Tiktok was know for trending sounds in 2019-2021 and it still represents that part of social media. But now the platform seeks originality & wants to be a content hub like Youtube. 

Understanding Instagram Strategy 

I’ve advised 1000s of marketers, SMBs & creators that only reason Instagram never dies is because it’s the most personal platform & middle child in the family of Social Media Platforms. 

The audiences on Instagram want to see memories, highlights & content from their friends, families & connections. And they discover new creators & businesses based on what Instagram knows about them. 

And Instagram gets the knowledge from who they follow, what they or the people they follow like. It’s all interconnected. 

And that’s different from Tiktok. On Instagram while creating reels, you have to remember to make sure you focus on creating content more valuable for your existing followers. 

When you create valuable content for them. You will get better engagement from them and as Instagram’s audience is interconnected & the platform knows the interests through the audience. You will go viral & get more engagement. 

Meaning key to a great Instagram reels strategy is focusing on fulfilling your current audience with value to get more engagement from non-followers. 

To do that, you need to be more focused on understanding your followers how they react to different posts. After that you need to find what other creators & businesses are doing to find what works. 

Both of these will help you in creating content within your expertise, without any pressure to jump on trends. Why? As you now understand what strategies & tactics work for your audience better than those Instagram fast growth gurus. 

Decoding TikTok Strategy 

Above I mentioned Tiktok is different with context about how Instagram’s audience is interconnected & existing followers make a huge impact on virality. 

Tiktok is opposite, People use it to discover new solutions, trends, Ideas & businesses. They aren’t interconnected with most of their friends. Unless Tiktok asks you to connect contacts & 70% people usually don’t follow their friends after connecting their contact lists. 

Tiktok users are on Platform for new content discovery. You see content based on what you like, the personal connections doesn’t matter as much as they did on IG.

That’s why brands on Tiktok try to create content that targets a broad share of platform. Because people are hear to build new interests, and discover new businesses. 

First, Brands try to create content that appeals to 90% of people interested in X topic to go viral or gain exposure.

For example, @Bose on Tiktok create funny reels about their new products to reach most of the audience. 

Second, They create educational & focused content to keep the existing followers engaging + connected with their brands. 

To explain Take @schick on Tiktok creating story-focused content to make sure the connection between newly gained audience starts building. 

Third, Brands try to stay relevant by discussing points that audience mentions in comments. To make people believe they are listening to everyone. 

For Example, McDonald’s Tiktok manager replied to a follower who said nobody will read this. This act shows a lot & the screenshot of this comment gathered 13k likes on Twitter. 

Showing how engaging in comments can also impact your audience + you can end up gaining more attention on Twitter or reddit. 

Packing all this up, TikTok strategy For Brands & Creators is a mix of broad content to target new followers & insightful content to keep the followers engaged. 

And engaging is similar to Instagram, It’s important on both platforms. 

Instagram Images Vs TikTok Carousels 

In the state of Instagram reels, I mentioned that IG is back to prioritising every single format equally. What does that mean? 

It means that Instagram Imagery content is here to stay & it is gaining organic reach. 

Comparing it to Rival Platform, now we have carousels on Tiktok. And this feature is highly organic when we compare it to Instagram carousels. 

Tiktok carousels are an amazing way to post imagery content on platform and you can share more than 10 slides with ability to add trending sounds. On Instagram, You can only have 10 slides with no sound adding feature. 

Instagram carousels seem to take a loss here in terms of organic reach & Format freedom. But this format is one of my favourite to build an engaging audience as your audience tend to spend more time consuming your content. 

Another difference is Instagram carousels are heavily used to share long text based & engaging content. On other hand, most of the use regarding TikTok carousels is still associated visual images with no text. Also, Tiktok carousels are being used to promote 18+ content as many creators are adding only fans content in-between slides. 

Which brings this fight between both platforms to 1-1. Instagram carousels in your IG strategy stands for community building & improving the connections with your audience. TikTok carousels are here for organic reach for beautiful imagery content but it is catching up. 

My personal take, Don’t fear to share insightful text based carousels on both of these platforms. 

Influencer Marketing On Tiktok Vs Instagram 

This honestly is a big point of discussion to help businesses understand how influencers move differently on both platforms because the nature of platform & audiences is different. But to explain what makes the most impact on influencer marketing regarding Tiktok & Instagram is: 

The probability of reaching the number of followers the influencer have on the platform. While I explained that Instagram is more personal & the focus is on existing audience. 

Due to that reason, working with Instagram influencers results in brands reaching most of the audience through IG Stories & Reels or Imagery Content. And the number of followers brands want to reach are achievable. 

On Tiktok, As the connection isn’t there due to nature of the platform. Sometimes it results that Brand deals don’t reach many existing followers & also fail to go viral. But this can also turn upside down as In few scenarios, The content goes viral & Brand reachs more audience than expected. 

Overall it hangs up at testing, you need to be more focused on testing different influencers, Ad creatives to be successful at influencer marketing on both of these platforms. 

Tiktok Advertising Vs Instagram Reel Ads 

I won’t compare Tiktok Advertising to Instagram Advertising as it is more logical to compare it directly to Video advertising part of Instagram Advertising. 

Tiktok Advertising takes the lead here, the platform has introduced a lot of new Ad formats & targeting options to help advertisers while Instagram reels Ads haven’t seen much development since the introduction of the format back in 2021. 

I hope to see more investment from Instagram to make reels ads better. But for now Tiktok Ads gets the crown! 

Another reason I’m giving the crown to Tiktok is free resources built by the platform to help advertisers. 

You have Tiktok Ad Insights Library, Keywords Library and Tiktok Academy to help marketers with advertising on the platform more easily. 

TikTok Live Is Making An Impact 

Instagram live is fading away & I don’t remember when I watched a random Instagram live. Because Instagram stopped pushing lives back in 2018-19. 

But Tiktok lives are booming and the discoverability of other people finding your live is very high. The platform is pushing the live sessions like regular videos to relevant audiences. 

Apparently how Tiktok Live works is very fishy, because a recent survey I did of 40 marketers they mentioned that most of Tiktok Lives recommended to them in “For You” page where based on their account location. 

Marketers based In Germany & Belgium received Live suggestions in Dutch & German even though they never engaged with Tiktok content in that language. 

That’s my only concern regarding Tiktok Live. Overall it beats Instagram live & this feature helps you be more interactive with your audience. 

Which Platform is Best For You? 

It depends, you need to your market research & study your consumers where they hang out. 

I certainly hope this post provided you insights that brought clarity & knowledge to you regarding Instagram & TikTok Strategy. You can subscribe to my newsletter below to receive more algorithm & data backed insights about social media marketing.

How To Write Viral Titles like Mr.Beast

We have been told not to judge a book from its cover. But the reality is that this bias only works if we are provided context regarding the something and we still don’t show interest. 

When you have absolutely 0 context about a book or piece of content like Youtube Video. Your Title Matters! 

That’s why you need to learn secret to craft better Titles for your social media posts & Youtube Videos. 

Use of I & You in Your Title

When you use “I” in the title you are building curiosity and relation with your audience. Because the title is introducing what you did and people interested more in your persona will like it. 

And that helps in community building & strengths the relation with your audience. 

Mr.Beast’s most viral videos with around 250M views include “I” in them putting him in context with something crazy. 

That builds the relation with his audience because MrBeast = crazy stuff. 

Using You (Target Audience) or “X person” in the video title attracts new audiences because now it’s about them. 

If you watch Mr.Beast’s early content, he is using “Pewdiepie” & “Logan Paul” in context to steal their audiences because he was relevantly small compared to them. 

That type of title builds audience focused on other people or a general audience helps to channel growth for his own community. 

Using Factors In Youtube Title Endings 

The ending words of your title are game changing because where the sentence reading time ends. They click on your video! 

There are many factors used in Youtube video titles to build that hype to click & watch: 

First is Time frame, mentioning a time frame in your title gives people an idea of what they will find in the video. 

Like “I survived 50 hours buried alive” that gives context about they are going to watch a time lapse of how the hours went during that time. 

Another example would be “Learn basics of Marketing In 10 Minutes only” that gives users a lot to consider watching your videos. 

Second is List structure, To mention a list of things they will learn in the video. This framework used by some of the biggest channels like watchmojo, nectar, jubliee & many others. 

Mentioning a number factor about X amount of things in the video makes people feel they get more in less time. 

Third is possession factor, what they will get out of the video. Used by fitness coaches, finance related channels and many others. 

It’s about mentioning in your title what the audiences gets out of the video or your content. Will they do better at finance, business or marketing? 

Will they have a better understanding of X topic? 

You have to mention these factors in the video to make them understand the value the video holds. 

For example: “10 YouTube Tips to make you a better youtuber” - You will be better at YouTube at the end of the video. 

Context like this in video plays an important role in building trust. But remember don’t overpromise in a title! 

Study your Video & Find Desire 

Overall the secret to writing best title like MrBeast is within your video. 

Understanding how your audience will feel after watching the video & what desire your content fulfilled of X audience. 

When you know the desire fulfilled in it, you will be able to write the title that attracts your ideal audience. 

Because desire based titles attract the audience faster and you can never go wrong with them. 

Now, are you ready to write your next viral title to become like MrBeast?

I think you’re right but remember you have to keep up with latest social media trends & changes. To do that, scroll a little & subscribe to get alerts about latest social media changes & resources to help you! 

Tiktok Marketing In 2023: Advanced Guide on Organic + Paid Tiktok

I have consulted with top DTC brands and businesses to help them with social media. Here's how top brands are using TikTok to generate more brand awareness and sales.

Beginning with TikTok Ads

TikTok is a trending platform; it's in a growth bubble. In this stage, TikTok ads can generate a lot of word-of-mouth more than other social media platforms. A current TikTok ads report shows that users on TikTok are 37% more likely to purchase than other platform users.

Here's how to get the most out of TikTok ads!

1. Dropping Cost Cap

With TikTok ads, you need to first test your ad sets like Facebook or Google Ads. To figure out your best CPA with current demographics.

When you have found the best ad set, run an ad with an accelerated budget like $1k. Then, lower your cost cap to the lowest possible means at a rate where your ad can run!

What will happen? With this, TikTok will try to spend as low as possible and deliver the same results.

This works very well but sometimes ads stop due to a really low CPA setup. Then, try to raise CPA by a little budget raise!

2. Why Keeping CPM low on TikTok is the best strategy?

It's because of the audience definition. It's a growing platform, and the new users are joining, and they have undefined interests that the algorithm might not have defined. This happens with most platforms in the beginning. That's the reason most of the advertisers in the beginning got the best results in the beginning of Facebook, Instagram, and major platforms.

Setting a low CPM is not a bad idea and it generates more brand awareness.

When your average ad CPM starts to rise, you should try to create a brand new pixel and switch the old one. This worked for us and it's a great tactic.

3. Never download and run videos by creators about your brand as ads

The best process is to reach out to the creator about using the content and use Spark Ads to get the most out of the organic reach and paid ad spending. Uploading creative from your own TikTok account or your partnered influencers is the best thing to do to get more out of Spark Ads!

Creating UGC Content That Works

1. You need to train creators about your Brand’s content formats. It seems like a small world when reaching out to creators, until you talk to them and realize they don't have same trends and products on their feed that you want them to create content for. That's why you need to train them.

Train them what? You have done your market research and know your audience and competitors. The creator is unknown to all these things. That's why you need to educate the creators about your competitors and content formats supposed to go viral.

I recommend creating an influencer kit to help the creator with content creation for you.

Second, Angles and timelines, to get more out of one-piece of UGC content. Edit the content in CapCut or any desired editor. Have at least more than 2 versions of an ad with the same content with slight changes in transitions or timelines.

Third, Don't ask creators to replicate their most viral piece of content because that might not work for you. Most of the time, it looks not real and connecting to the audience.

Last, Real UGC connects with users with a storyline and copy that makes them buy. Storyline and copy depend on you, but the tone of your story is in the hands of creators. Both need to have a positive approach!

Doing Organic Growth On TikTok with No UGC

Achieving 1,000 followers on TikTok is really important for anyone looking to sell something to the audience because you can't add a link in your profile before reaching that milestone.

Here's how to reach your first 1k, 10k, and then 100k TikTok followers!

1. TikTok has a user-friendly feed, not creator-friendly: That means focus on CTAs. What I mean by not creator-friendly is that most users don't leave a follow sometimes due to the fast pace of the content and short attention span of users. That's why focus on adding "Follow for more" or "watch next part" these type of CTAs in the end!

2. Consistency: Try to be more consistent with your content and build a consistent loop of content to hook people to follow you for a certain type of content.

You can study if a platform rewards consistency or not by looking at the stage of theme pages on TikTok. Movie theme pages are growing everyday with replica content. That means you will have an advantage because you have consistency + original content.

Using Hooks To Make People Stop and Watch!

You need to sound relatable to Gen-Z to make them follow you and buy your product. That's why use Hooks that might make them stop. Here are a few Hooks that worked for me and you can use them too!

1. I wanted to gatekeep this, but it's too good not to share.

2. My Toxic Trait is X and this X product fulfills it.

3. Name something you recently found and wish you knew earlier!

4. Here's a lazy hack to get things done (+ product link) or another similar hook is how I get more done as a lazy designer or marketer (+ Product linking).

5. I'm not gonna lie, this might be the best product on Amazon or TikTok!

6. You may not know this, but it's actually possible!

7. Start with your hook with Why. It's the most effective, but you need to give an effective "Why" to make them stop!

Use any hook, make it relatable by using a popular Hook format like one from above and that will make people watch! Not this: "Stop scrolling" and "Stop this" or that! That doesn't work and is annoying.

TikTok lives are a great way to grow followers and sell products!

It's all about making them more interactive by guiding your audience to launch emojis and do this interactive action to connect with you. These lives show randomly on many feeds, and they are organic. It's not limited to just your followers. That's why try to go live more and more to gain new followers and build engaged following!

Importance of Adapting to Niches

When you are on TikTok, you are not just on TikTok. You are living on a part of the platform that's unknown to other people. That's why when creating content for a niche, you need to adapt to keywords and content style used more often in your niche than others. For example, if your niche has trendy content with words like "seasoned" or “algorithm” going viral. Then, you should adapt to those words to increase chances of going viral!

Ending with Trends I have noticed with TikTok

I have tracked TikTok updates for the last 6 months. It's going to be the best platform for DTC brands and e-commerce brands. The Chinese version of TikTok is filled with product integrations that will make TikTok the best when launched. Apart from that, TikTok has launched many new tools for advertisers like Attribution manager for TikTok Ads and Creative Tools to help advertisers find trending content on TikTok within their niches with a single search.

I hope you liked this TikTok Guide, can't call it a guide. I tried to keep it short and valuable.

A Bonus Tip from Reddit

I posted this guide on reddit and u/roxypompeo blessed the community with a replu filled with value. You can read it below:

Our brand invests heavily in TikTok ads (~$1M/yr budget or $100k/mo). Although relatively top level, I can attest that a lot of what you shared here is pretty spot on for a starting point and can be really useful for someone brand new to TikTok.

A few more pieces of advice if I may add: Run your ads with the objective of VTR as opposed to CPA. TikTok’s algorithm allows it to have the potential to be a huge awareness driver. Getting a bunch of eyeballs on your ad and your product plays into the increased likelihood of virality. You don’t need to pay to get people to click a link. Create an awesome piece of content that people find entertaining and valuable, and they’ll go find your product themselves.

You mentioned working with creators, but I just want to make the clear distinction that if you plan to use UGC as an ad on your channel or Spark Ad on the creator’s channel, you must pay them a separate fee to cover advertising rights on their asset. This seems basic but may be new info for those starting out.

The best advice I can give directly from the TikTok partners we work closely with on a weekly basis: MAKE TIKTOKS, NOT ADS. The assets you put paid behind on TikTok should look completely different than any other kind of advertising you’re doing. The ads that will perform the best will be 100% native to the platform.

A Quick Guide to Pinterest: Here’s how to Get Traffic & Sales from Pinterest in 2022

I’ve been creating content on Pinterest from last 2 years and had the opportunity to talk to Pinterest Ad Partners and verified creators. I would like to share the results and lessons with the community I learned and some failures with you.

Current State of Pinterest:

Pinterest saw an increase in user base during covid breakout and then downfall. But in Q2, The platform saw 9% in revenue showing advertisers trust in the platform. Pinterest Ads is the key for success for e-commerce brands and some selected niches. Coming to the organic part, the platform is focused more on creator marketing and idea pins. Why? Creator marketing is booming I won’t go deep on that but they are focused on Idea pins because that keeps users on platform due to no-link allowed. At last, the Pinterest Men’s user base Is growing faster than ever.

Content Practices For Pinterest Growth

Idea Pins are the most organic part of Pinterest. They don’t have link to the website feature. The key strategy is to focus more on working on your CTA to drive them to your profile where your links are available. Create engaging idea pins with more than one clip, creating an engaging carousel using AIDA formula. Building Attention in the first place, Interest in the second and fulfilling the desire in third place and linking them to your website with adding CTA in the end.

Pinterest Inspiration: Most Users go on Pinterest for inspiration for their next purchase, outfit for them or their house. We can’t neglect that how good Pinterest AI is at recommending users the content that fits the whole feed when they open the app. That’s why from Day 1 try to maintain the aesthetic of your niche. Sitting down for 1 hour before starting Pinterest to find top 5 aesthetics in your niche will help you get better results in long term. The problem is actually failing to understand the aesthetics because I am always redirected to normal user boards when I click on posts that make me click for more. That’s why that’s the part you need to focus most on!

Consistency is linked with Pinterest more than any platform. You need to be consistent with pin publishing and repinning strategy. What’s the bad advice? Most Pinterest Gurus advise you need to create 10-15 pins per day but that completely wrong and spammy. What you need to work on is be consistent with publishing quality pins 2-5 pins per day with a good repinning strategy. A good repinning strategy is meaning your repinning posts to build aesthetic boards along your published pins to get more people follow your boards leading those boards to rank on Google. And that works and can be done consistently without burnouts on the side.

Content Distribution: To get more eyes on your Pinterest pins you created with your valuable time. You need to network with Established Pinterest creators and join their boards and repin your pins in them for more targeted traffic. This part can be difficult, because I see most established creators don’t accept direct requests. Try to network with them through other platforms like Instagram and Twitter.

Pinterest Ads work or not?

Tune into any advertising conversations on Reddit, quora and twitter. They say Pinterest Ads don’t work. We can’t prove that because results from Investors and revenue growth shows us the platform is being utilised.

Pinterest Ads is not like Facebook & TikTok Ads

These platforms have nearly double the monthly active users of Pinterest which clearly puts the reality in front that few niches on the platform are extremely small and it costs more Ad spend to target them. That’s why I recommend you doing your research before investing into Pinterest Ads + I would like to tell that you can actually book an call with Pinterest Ad Experts to get more information about your target market.

UGC Ads perform better than Regular Ads

UGC content is booming on Tiktok and Instagram, the scenarios are the same for Pinterest and even better. Working with Pinterest Verified creators will give your Ads far more creditability and that content that fits the audience always work.

A/B Testing your Ad Copy is important

Placing your Facebook Ads copy over Pinterest is not going to work and those Pinterest Ads Is not working to work . Also, you won’t get the same results from Pinterest campaigns, The KPIs that determine success of your campaign are different on Pinterest. That’s why analyse your Pinterest Ads better to track the KPIs and to find Ads you need to use for retargeting.

Keep Your Boards Organized even if you are running Ads

Yes, how your profile looks matter because for social proof. The chances after seeing your first Ad. The viewer will look into your boards for the proof of work. That’s why keep your boards organized to build social proof for your Ads.

Frequently Asked Questions About Pinterest Marketing

How to do Pinterest Keyword research?

Everyone talks about how finding best keywords is the key to success on Pinterest. But it's not that simple. Most Users on Pinterest are looking for inspiration and new solutions and ideas, which means they are not searching same questions on Pinterest that they do on Google or IG. That's why you need to search few keywords mentioned on your website in Pinterest. Analyze the results and don't look at the keyword you searched. Look at alternative keywords mentioned along the main keyword. Those keywords are fitting Pinterest aesthetics and that's the reason those pins are ranking on Top.

Another way to do better at picking keywords for your titles is to use Pinterest Trends. This way you will be able to find which keywords are growing on the platform and what type of pins are ranking on those trends.

What's the best Pinterest posting strategy?

First part of my posting strategy is to maintain aesthetics of my niche in my pin designs. Having your Pin design fit the aesthetics is the starting point. After that, creating Targeted boards and pinning your pins to different boards but every board is focused on different section of keywords in your niche. Now, you can fill the board with your pins alone. That's why you need to repin trending posts in your niche or that board category. To make it stand out of Pinterest on search engines like google and Bing. Repeating these steps consistently lead me to success on Pinterest. Another bonus point is if you can get into Top Pinterest boards created by other creators and repin your pins on their boards which is very beneficial.

What are best Pinterest Marketing Ideas?

  1. Utilize Idea Pins for more organic growth
  2. Distribute your Pins across other Social media platforms.
  3. Add your Best Pins to Your Blogposts or website.
  4. Apply for Pinterest Rich Pins from the start.
  5. Update your Boards from time to time.
  6. Work with Pinterest Verified Creators for better results.

How much Pinterest Traffic can you accept from posting consistently?

The chances are you can get huge amount of Pinterest impressions but still fail to divert that traffic to your website. So, What's the best thing to do? You need to work on your Call-to-actions that you are using right now. Optimize them with better copywriting to convert more Pinterest impressions into real time traffic to your website.

How to keep up with Pinterest Trends and Updates?

I track Pinterest updates and trends every week and share them with 3,000+ people. You can subscribe below to receive them for free.

Social Media is Easy. It’s time to cut the BS and discuss What Works and What Doesn’t!

 

Hi, I’m a social media manager who’s sick of  all the social media marketing podcasts, blogs and gurus that sell you the same idea everyday. It’s so sad to see, leading podcasts like social media examiner and many others always talk about beginner stuff on podcast and leaving with no-value. **I will try to explain every platform and what they are up-to and how you can utilise them!** 

Don’t Go for All Platforms at Once 

It always feels like most people do marketing on every platform possible but that’s not true. That’s where social media presence actually dies. Every platform needs different format of content and requires time. Doing that is likely impossible due to time consumption. Asking your social media manager to do all social’s is a dead game. You will do the best for your business when you will focus on one platform. Try to dominate one niche on one platform. 

My best advice to most of my clients is to give a platform solely 90 days and be consistent. You will do better than you have ever done. 

Repurpose Your Content after 90 Days 

You have your content and one social media platform figured out and the next step for you is to start repurposing that 90 pieces on other platforms to get more leads out of your existing content. To repurpose content on other platforms successfully, you need to understand how other platforms work. I have listed how every platform works and what you need to do! 

Instagram 

The platform is aligning towards video content more and more. Last week, Instagram announced complete transition from Video To Reels means only 1 video format exists and it’s reels. 

How To get most out of reel? Reels haven’t received a really great response from

Few niches. But few niches are doing great with reels. Focus more on keeping the reels short and sweet and under the 14s Barrier because that’s the point after which chances of your reels going viral decrease second by second. It’s best to keep reels short and jump on TikTok trends early! 

Carousels: For Businesses, Instagram carousels are great for selling products. Create carousels using storytelling to turn the audience into customers. The Major benefit of carousels is they are great for explore reach and with 90 day consistency. 

Single Images: Single images on Instagram are nearly dead but from last 6 months. I have monitored that their is a rise of hashtags reach on Single images which is a great sign. Apart from that, Making your single Images more visual appealing from graphic design perspective works As graphic design niche is very active on IG still and great design can attract a majority of people. 

Challenge & Strategy: Instagram engagement rates are dropping from last few years and it’s a major issue. You can’t deal with that, but their hasn’t been major issues with stories engagement. And Stories are best for selling, that’s why try to keep your stories valuable and engaging because your story views depend on content interactions. You need to focus on getting more out of current audience than running for new audiences. 

To scaling and growing fast on Instagram, engaging within the community is crucial because of its falling user base. 

State of Instagram is falling User-base and less usage per day from their users due to Tiktok and Bereal. That’s a lesson for businesses on IG to build a community that’s active on IG. To keep the engagement on a level, where IG promotes your content to more people. You have to engage with others. 

After that it’s algorithm’s work to promote it to more people. How’s that done? It’s explained here! 

LinkedIn  

LinkedIn is no longer about meaningful connections and stuff anymore. It’s more of a professional version of Instagram and Facebook. And it’s on the way to turn into Tiktok. A recent conversation with member of LinkedIn’s creator accelerator program enlightened me to their plan to focus more on Video content. The platform is organising events with video content creators like Nas Daily to teach existing LinkedIn creators about video content. That’s the current state of LinkedIn! 

**What works on LinkedIn?** You need to test out posting times on LinkedIn. The key reason to do that is you have to find when your followers with a huge list of connections are active because then algorithm will push your content further to their connections too. Giving you more reach! 

Consistent posting, LinkedIn doesn’t require everyday consistency like IG or Tiktok. Posting 3-5 Times a week is great for keeping your account relevant.

Comments are actually great for leveraging your account. LinkedIn is filled with tons of shitposts and your niche probably has it too. I have gone rogue in few times a comment and many times my comment gets more likes than posts because of my honest opinions. Try to consume content and serve your opinion in comments. That works as platform is still a little organic! 

**Challenge and Strategy:** Like Instagram, on LinkedIn carousels perform really well but not from the day one. In the beginning, you will see absolutely worse engagement on your carousels. But be consistent with carousels. 

White space: Have a certain amount of white space in your text posts to make people click “read more” on your text posts. Most creators use three lines in the beginning with white space and lead people to click read more with third line. 

Finding Your fellow Big creator that you can network with and tag in posts and get more eye balls on your content. Most new creators try to tag big creators and try to milk  or steal their followers. It works too, but they will only reply if you added a conversation friendly mention in the post. 

**Don’t do this on LinkedIn:** Never include links in your post, always mention links in your first comment to keep your engagement up for the post. Second, don’t post video content in Tiktok or Instagram reels layout. Try to utilise them gor 1080x1080 layout which is more consumable on LinkedIn. 

Pinterest 

I had an opportunity to talk to Pinterest employee about their plans for Pinterest. They are pretty much focused on Idea pins and this was before Pinterest announced Idea Pins Ads two weeks ago. With this new Ad format launches, you need to adapt to Idea Pins as much as you can! 

What Works on Pinterest? Pinterest is pretty niched and it might not work for your business due to your niche. But the platform is known for most buying-oriented audience which is great for E-commerce and SMBs. 

  1. Reaching out to existing boards by Pinterest creators that show up on Google Searches. Your first step needs to be create your Pins in a design that’s friendly in your niche and after you have few pins published. Reach out to creators that run major boards in your niche. Well established boards show up higher on Google and that’s why it’s a focus point. But most of the time, it will be harder to connect with those creators. Try to connect with them on IG or other platforms. 
  2. Pinterest Ads aren’t worth it and it’s majorly used by Big businesses for brand awareness. 

**Strategy**: Focus on Idea Pins, they are highly organic and require less time to consume and create too. That’s why try to repurpose your Instagram or Tiktok content on Pinterest. This platform can’t be your key focus for your business because of the hard conversion rates and history of followers on Pinterest being invaluable. 

That’s why you should focus on content repurposing and never forget Adding Optimised CTAs to your Idea pins or regular pins too. 

Why? CTAs and Idea Pins, Pinterest doesn’t push blog links as much as it did because they have realised that users tend to spend less time on Pinterest due to blog links. That’s the key reason regular video pins were turned into idea pins that doesn’t support links. 

Twitter 

Twitter is filled with rants and platform riders that think the platform is best for growing business on but it actually lacks a lot of niches that fail on platform. Most e-Commerce platform fail at twitter because they treat twitter like announcement tab and just announce products and think that will bring in engagement and that’s why they fail! 

What Works on Twitter? 

Single-line Tweets with relatable stands out on Twitter. Most businesses need to treat twitter as a brand awareness tool in the beginning to build the community. Why? Because with content focused on selling you can’t leverage your account. To get people, talking post relevant tweets to your target audience. It could be memes, hot takes or retweets from best creators in your niche. Anything will work, if it’s relatable to your audience. 

Replies, Twitter is the only place where your target customers expect replies from you due to its conversation friendly UI/UX. That’s why you need to be active in replies within your account and niche. 

Threads, They are great for engagement but don’t work for every niche because some niches on twitter don’t like to consume long form content. With Storytelling in threads, you can build the audience loyalty. 

If your business lies in entrepreneurship, marketing or business category, educating your audience through marketing or business threads will also build a following for you. 

**Like LinkedIn, On Twitter you can’t add link to your first tweet because your engagement might drop on that tweet.**

Reddit 

Reddit is different from other platforms, in simple words on other platforms you build a following around your content style. On Reddit, it’s a pre-built audience and your content may not always suit them. 

Accept failures, don’t try to promote your business without context. Without clear context about what you are linking in your post will not generate sign-ups. You Amy have posted a great post with 500+ upvotes but it won’t generate many sign-ups if you failed to link the product with your content correctly. 

A major factor you need to focus on is Timing and headings. Test different timings and headings to get the best reach. Most of the time, Reddit communities start being more active from 3.00 PM European central time. 

Try to write Reddit posts short and easy to consume. You don’t have to convince a user on every single point. One relatable point can cause an upvote. It requires great write-up sometimes you achieve it and many times you don’t. But try to keep your points more convincing! 

Tiktok 

I would be eventually lying if I said Tiktok is hard to crack. It isn’t but here’s what you need to doing on TikTok. 

  1. Be more consistent on TikTok, the platform requires high consistency and the biggest factor is regular posts on Tiktok tend to reach less follower base than IG. If you have 10k followers on IG, you will reach more followers on regular bases with reels but will have less viral reach. On Tiktok, regular posts with 10k followers can have less engagement while few posts can reach massive audiences even millions of views. That’s why more consistency to grow on Tiktok is essential and beneficial too. 
  2. Always link your next piece of content in your current post. Leave ideas and hints for your next post to make people leave you a follow. 
  3. Focus on highlighting keywords in your Video thumbnail because when a search query related to that term is made. The chances of your video showing up increases. 
  4. Focus on CTAs and Hooks to make people watch the full video. 

**Strategy:** Launch a content series that represents your account, This works and makes people check other parts from the series. Literally exposing your whole profile to the viewer, making it easier for them to leave a follow. 

Facebook 

Apart from Ads part, Facebook is ruined and only two things you need to focus on is Facebook reels and groups. 

  1. Try to repurpose your Instagram reels or TikTok’s on Facebook and not from Instagram quick-sharing option. Share the videos manually from Facebook’s post creation tab for better reach. 
  2. Try to utilise Facebook groups, be active in groups that lie in your niche and try to extract as much as low customers through content sharing within those groups. Also, building your Facebook group is beneficial for audience building. 

Advertising State: 

I won’t go all in on Advertising because that’s a part that needs to be discussed for every platform individually but Facebook currently is used as an advertising platform more than any other social media expect TikTok. 

That’s why I would like talk about two things only, With new iOS changes you need to track your Ads better because the privacy data issues are causing lack of data for advertisers to keep track of their target audience. I prefer using 3rd party data tracking to get the most out of Ads nowadays. 

Creatives in Ads are more important than ever. Like TikTok is filled with UGC Ads. It’s not a bad thing to have UGC Ads on Facebook. These creatives perform well and trusted by users. 

Most of Facebook Ads work is done on the backend by AI (in clear words FB controls 90% of your Ads), but you need to set better objectives to reach more audiences and get better results. 

Facebook Ads don’t work for many people because of their irregular Ad scheduling too. You need to create a loop of Ads retargeting your target audience to close the most amount of customers. A recent Harvard study shows it takes more than 4 impressions from a brand to make people buy the product. That’s why Facebook Ad retargeting is important! 

Conduct  a market research because your user can be on Snap, YouTube and Other platforms too! 

Most people go for these major platforms when thinking of marketing their products but Your target audience can be sitting on some other platforms too. That’s why always conduct a market research before focusing on one social media platform. It can a paid survey done through an agency or even a Google’s Ad Campaign. 

What Helps in Social Media Marketing not directly but indirectly? 

Building Audience personas and then creating content. This helps in reach you target audience on a better level. 

Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook & Twitter goes through more than 10 Updates per month! 

These platforms evolve on daily basis, but the algorithms have the same purpose to serve relevant content to the customers and generate revenue through selling that attention created by content. 

What does the evolvement and the new feature launched mean to you? They mean a better chance to interact more with your audience. That’s why adapt those changes and new features on daily basis! 

I hope this post helped you to understand social media better. AMA about social media in the comments and you can subscribe to my newsletter where I break down social media strategies of brands  every week and track social media updates!

7 Steps To Get Verified On Tiktok in 2021

Getting verified on Tiktok is easier than instagram. You just need to focus on some of the steps, I am going to mention!

But getting verified on Tiktok is an automatic process, you cannot manually apply for it.

Good thing for you is that if you follow these steps, on any random day you will get verified and that will make your day!

1. Build Authority In Your Niche

If you post random stuff on your tiktok Account, there is no chance of getting Verified.

You need to stick to a niche (topic) and post only about that topic. So, that you attract targeted people that are interested in your videos about that topic.

What will happen if You do that?

Then Tiktok's algorthim or staff will realize  this person is pretty famous in this niche or community.

And this will give tiktok a signal to consider verifying your account.

2. Don't Steal Content

If you steal or repost content of other tiktok users, then you are not eligible for verification.

But if you post Original content you are in a good place but always remember to use original sounds and music from Tiktok library.

Because when Tiktok starts verification process, they are going to look over quality of your content and see how active are you on platform.

And then if they don't found any flaws. Then it's a green signal and they will continues verification process.

3. Collaborate With Verified Creators

This is one of the best strategy to give Tiktok signals that you are genuine and have a strong connection with other community members.

You need to find the creators that are verified in your niche and see what type of content they post. Then, try to collaborate with them and try to post better content then those Creators.

This will help you know what works in your niche and also to get huge Support from the community.

I really recommend you to work on this step because most of the people that got verified at less than 10,000 followers had a great Connection with other big creators.

4. Follow Tiktok Rules

If you are not following the rules, you will never get verified. And I know 99.9% of users don't read the rules and they dream of verification badge.

So, I recommend you read these Terms of Services and Guidelines to know if your content is following them or not.

5. Be Active On Other Platforms

You need to have a great presence on other platforms like Instagram and Twitter.

As, Tiktok staff will must consider to have a look at the creators profile on these platforms. So, keep the content clean on these platforms to increase the chances of getting verified.

More than that if you're verified on any of these platforms, you have 90% more chances to get verified easily.

6. Appoint PR agency

A PR agency can help you to gain publicity in any industry you want and you will get editorial coverage by big media houses. In simple words, these agencies will publish articles about you on big websites.

But How it help you get verified on Tiktok?

When Tiktok staff will search your name on Google, they will see those articles published about you and consider you a well-known personality as your searchable on google.

I can tell you PR agencies makes your work easy, you just need to sit back and they will do everything to get you verified.

7. Be Consistent

You need a consistent growth and posting schedule. Many Tiktok staff members have stated that you need to have a consistent growth of 200-1000 followers per day and 1-3 posts a day.

+ Jump on Trends consistently to get noticed by the staff as they always keep eyes on trends and I have seen many people get verified because there video got pretty viral on a particular trend.

So, at the end Consistency is what you need in your hands while focusing on these steps.

F.A.Q

How much Followers you need to get verified?

Follower count doesn't matter but let me tell you what's better than that!

Start Focusing on Fans when you have 1,000+ chances of getting verified increases as Tiktok staff focus more on fans count.

Can you buy Tiktok Verification Badge?

No, you can't buy verification badge and be aware of scammers when you search about tiktok verification.

When you search about Tiktok verification on YouTube, in every video's comment section scammers are ready to tell you that they got verified. But it's fake, they just need your money.

Don't get fooled!

Do Video Quality matters?

Most of the people in Connection with tiktok staff recommend to keep updating your gear to level up quality of your videos.

End-Thoughts On Tiktok Verification

Many Creators are popular but still don't have verified badge because either they are in a big niche or don't follow guidelines. But if you follow these tips, no matter what you can increase the chances!

7 Ways To Beat Instagram Algorithm 2021

The Instagram algorithm is the primary reason everyone is still scratching their heads trying to figure out how to use instagram for business.If you want to get it right, then you need to check these ways out!

How come these ways can work for you?

Algorithms are designed by programmers, but you or me are instagram users trying to grow Followers. So, I read the documentations and researched how your posts are ranked on Different Instagram sections.

Now, After doing analysis of more than 1,000+ posts. I have found the key tactics to beat the Algorithm and way to grow 40-50+ followers per day.

After doing introduction of 1-2 mins, let's get into these ways:-

1. Use Right-Sized Hashtags

We are not talking about using just hashtags, but hashtags of right size. The most common mistake you make is using wrong size Hashtags.

Most people have less than 2,000 followers and use Hashtags with more than 500k-1 million+ posts.

How can you find right hashtags for your account?

  1. Check how much likes you have on last three posts and note it down.
  2. Then, visit the Hashtag you want to use and note down the average amount of likes every post on Hashtag gets!
  3. If the hashtag posts and your posts have difference of more than 100+ likes. Then you shouldn't use that Hashtags.
  4. In terms of recommendation, I suggest if you have less than 5,000 Followers you should use Hashtags with 30k-600k posts. If you have more than that use Hashtags with more than 100k-500k+ posts.

Most people blame that Hashtags don't work but they don't apply these rules I mentioned. So, from now start using hashtags suitable for your account.

*Extra Tip*: Hashtags don't work on multiple image posts, as per my research!

2. Use Alt Text

Many people ignore this Feature or even don't know about it. But as a Marketer, I can tell you that whole internet(Instagram) is filled with images (Posts) and to find the best images(Post) to show users, Alt text is used by Algorithm.

So, all the photos you see on top when you search on Google have alt text used manually or automatically. But why it's important?

Instagram Algorithm or any type of Algorithm is not fully capable to tell what's in the image or your post. So, to clarify what's in it Alt text is used.

This helps Algorithm know that what your image or post is about and your post reaches right audience!

How to Use Alt Text?

  1. Select a photo or video you want to upload!
  2. Under the "Also post to" you will see section named "advanced settings" click on that!
  3. Then, you will see the option called "Alt Text" click on that and what's your post about!
  4. You have to include Keywords in Alt text to reach more people!

Some people don't believe that this helps in beating instagram Algorithm. But I can assure you that Internet will fail to show you right image results. If Alt text went away as Artificial Intelligence is still in development.

So, Using Alt Text is a wise thing to make algorthim work in your favor!

3. Comment more often

Most people complain that instagram algorithm don't promote their post to new people and that's why there growth is slow.

But I don't complain but Comment more than sometimes I like posts. Why? Because Comments are like banners the more banners you have across the city for a show, the more eyes are there to see you.

Just like that the more you comment, the more people visit your profile. Then, your Content is there to turn that visitors to followers.

End Goal: If Instagram Algorithm don't promote your content, Comments are the way to self-promote!

4. Add Keyword To Your Instagram Name

Another way to escape and beat Instagram Algorithm is to add keywords to your Instagram name (not username).

This will help you to get more Followers as when someone search something related to that keyword your account will show up.

For Example- When someone searches for "Fashion", if your Instagram name is just your own name like Jasmine. There is no chance your account will show up to get more Followers.

But If your Instagram is "Jasmine- Fashion Blogger" your account will show up to many people and you will get more profile visits and Followers.

This is a great way to grow without depending on Instagram Algorithm and get Highly targeted audience.

5. Build Connections In DM's

Instagram Algorithm knows who is in your DM's and then they suggest your account when someone follow that Account in your DM's.

That's why you need to build Connections with other Creators or Influencers in your field to give algorthim signals that you are part of that community.

Then, you will get Followers through suggested section when anyone follows a Creator or Influencers who is in your DM's.

Another similar hack to beat the Instagram Algorithm In 2021 is to be in comment section of big creators of your Industry.

This will help you to connect with them and steal their followers by posting valuable Comments that catch eyes of people.

Also, many accounts have started pinning valuable Comments and this feature helps you to get the attention you deserve from the targeted industry.

Connecting with right people on Instagram is the way to go to beat Instagram Algorithm 2021.

6. Use Instagram Reels

Instagram recently copied tiktok and launched instagram reels. But seriously this was the best thing Instagram did last few years. Why? Because this made growing instagram Followers easier than ever.

Seriously, like you can post a reel and close instagram. Then after few hours you wake up to 100 new Followers and 10,000+ views.

But How to go viral on Instagram Reels?

  1. Use Trending Sounds
  2. Keep Your Reels under 15 seconds
  3. Add Transitions
  4. Use Targeted Hashtags with 1 million+ posts to reach more people.
  5. Make your reels relatable.

Instagram reels are highly organic, and reels that go viral on Instagram are relatable.

Recently a Creator grew from 100k to 1 million+ followers by posting relatable content to it's Industry.

So, the best way to beat reels algorthim is to be relatable.

7. Do Instagram Lives

Instagram is really pushing live feature, like now you can go live with more than 4 users.

And thus feature is going to help you out a lot because lives are the best way to get more Engagement as your followers get notified when you go viral!

But may be you are thinking how can live Feature help me beat instagram algorthim and grow followers.

It's simple, you need to go viral with other Creators at your level of Followers or more Followers than you.

This helps you get new followers within few hours, when the instagram live session ends. You probably will have gained some new Followers.

One of the Instagram Creator I Know did a live with Neil Patel (Digital Marketer with 100k+ followers) and he gained around 500-1,000 within few hours.

You can bet on Instagram Live to beat algorthim when you go live with other Creators. Especially, now when 4+ users can go live together chances of growing followers are grown!

F.A.Q

How Instagram Algorithm Works?

Instagram Algorithm has one important role to do which is to keep most of the users on the platform. So, the algorthim do everything to keep the users on platform.

Why Hashtags don't work?

If hashtags are not working on your post, then may be your using Hashtags with millions of posts. You should use Hashtags with suitable for your account.

For example, Use #instagramalgorthim with 100k+ post not #instagram with millions of post. So, you need high engagement to rank on hashtags with millions of posts.

My Tip:- Use Hashtags wisely, according to your engagement rate.

How Instagram ranks post on explore page?

There are three factors that help you rank on Explore page:-

  1. Saves- Instagram recommend people posts based on what they save in their collections. So, focus on getting more saves!
  2. Carousels- This is a pretty strange factor that works, Hashtags don't work pretty good on carousels, but they get easily ranked on explore page.
  3. Likes & Comments- Users are suggested Content they interacted with, so you need to post similar content to other creators. So, that instagram suggests you!

Did Instagram change algorthim 2021?

Yes, with new updates Instagram is focusing more and more to make authentic Creators more discoverable. This year Instagram is guiding content creators on how to build their presence on Instagram.

If you are a Creator then, follow @creators on Instagram. It's an official account owned by Instagram and they collaborate with other creators on that account + give tips to help you grow your audience.

How Instagram Story Algorithm Works?

Instagram story algorthim is pretty simple. To get more story views you need to make your stories more interactive like you should use instagram polls. But why?

Because the followers that interact with those instagram polls will see your next stories fast. As, your stories will appear first in their feed due to that interactivity.

Then, Instagram will also start pushing your stories to other Followers!

Why your likes dropped?

Recently, my new accounts likes was dropped from 200 to 100. But the main reason was my Content quality was decreased. Your every post reach 10% of your Followers at first, then if the response is good.

Then post is shown to other Followers and starts ranking on explore page or hashtags.

How To Optimize your Instagram Bio?

In your Instagram bio, the first line should be about your account, then your speciality or why you started this account. In third line, I recommend you to add call-to-action if you have a website.

You should have 3-line bio as 4th line is not readable unless you click on read more.

A perfect instagram bio tells people what to expect and why they should follow you.

How Instagram Reels Algorithm Works?

Instagram reels algorthim works exactly like Tiktok's algorthim. Hashtags don't play an important role in both cases + most of the reels that go beyond 100k+ likes don't even have Hashtags.

You just need to jump on Tiktok trends and keep your content under 15 seconds to reach more and more people.

So, if you known how to go viral on Tiktok, then you just need to remove Tiktok watermark and repost it on Instagram.

How Instagram algorthim recognize your posts and how it affects your engagement?

Instagram uses Artificial Intelligence to recognize your posts and you can check what instagram thinks your post is about.

You just have to visit your Instagram post on desktop and then preform these steps:-

  1. Right click on your mouse or laptop and then click on inspect.
  2. Then press CTRL+F and type Image may contain.
  3. Then you will find how instagram recognized your post.

If Instagram recognized your post incorrectly, then your post will not rank on Hashtags you used or on explore page.

That's why you should use Alt text to help instagram recognize your post correctly.

Should you use Instagram Engagement Groups?

Based on my opinion engagement groups have always worked for me to gain more likes and Followers because after using them you just need to put high quality Content.

In 2020, I saw nearly 10-50 accounts went from 500 to 10,000 followers using engagement groups and posting on daily basis.

Do Contest and Giveaways help to gain Followers?

Yes, Giveaways help you get Instant Engagement and help you reach more people. But don't do money or gift card giveaways because they are spammy and the followers you will gain will unfollow after giveaway ends.

Instead of that, giveaway something that can help them out and resonate with your niche. Like I post about social media on Instagram, and I did giveaway of content calendar and my Audience really loved it + my engagement rate doubled.

So, genuine giveaways are the way to go!

Should you do Instagram Shoutouts?

These Shoutouts really help you to exchange audience with other Creators and you can really gain real Followers. But you need to find the best Creators at your level with high Engagement.

Tools I use To Beat Instagram Algorithm

1. Viralfindr.com

This tool really helps me to find Content that works on Instagram and always help me grow instagram followers fast with high quality content ideas.

I really recommend you this tool, if you struggle with Content ideas!

2. Ninjalitics (Not just analytics)

To track Insights and know how is your engagement rate compared to your followers, you need this tool.

Also, you can track the most used hashtags by your competitors and then use them to grow likes.

3. Canva

To create beautiful posts and stories you need this tool. I swear when trying to grow your account this tool is a must.

You can also use canva to schedule content for your social media accounts.

4. Milkshake

This tool helps you to create mobile friendly landing page to turn your Followers into subscribers.

With this you can easily grow you email list and this will help you easily monetize your Instagram account.

End-Thoughts On Instagram Algorithm

The Algorithm is never against you, you just need to put in the work and implement these Strategies. Then, it's all about quality of your Content.

I saw a huge drop in my engagement when last week, I just posted random posts. But it increased again when quality increased.

Most important: Most people fail because they think they created a great post and it fails. Then they don't post anything for next two days due to stress. Don't do that be consistent and post everyday don't just ghost after you had a bad post.

Focus on value and purposes!

By the way, There are many articles on Google that show on top when you search "instagram algorthim". The main reason why they are on top is they are too long and Clickbait.

I tried to put everything in fewer words but still it is quite long. But if this article really helped you share this with others. So, that the real tips could rank on top.

30+ Creative Instagram Story Ideas that Go Viral In 2023

👋Hey, We got you covered with best high-performing Instagram Story Ideas.

We know how important Instagram stories are for you, which is why we are here to give you new ideas that keep your audience engaged and helps you get more views.

Now, I'm going to show you some ideas that are already proven to work for any instagram Account.

1. Share a book you're reading

Book recommendations are powerful because they help people discover new books and authors. It's like sending them a personal message with a recommendation for an amazing story.

So, build a good relation with your follower by using this idea!

2. Share a hobby that didn't work

Some hobbies that seemed like a good idea at first, just don't pan out.

I once tried a new hobby every month. Some hobbies worked, but some didn't, and I ended up spending lots of time and money on things.

So, share one that didn't work for you with your Instagram Followers.

3. Do an ask me anything

Get the questions asked better and more frequently. Answering questions makes people feel good about asking you more questions in the future. Also, people seem to be more engaged when there are questions involved rather than just surveys or having a person answer """"yes"""".

A good way to think about it is this - Ask me anything makes your followers more likely to get directly involved in something (like starting a thread on a forum).

4. Share your favorite YouTube channel

If you are anything like me, you probably have a favorite YouTube channel. You may love it more than you like your own self.

Now it's time to share it with the world. This is where instagram comes in, share that channel on your stories for your followers.

5. Post photo of your workspace

You’ve probably seen this tip floating around Facebook or LinkedIn: share a photo of your everyday workspace when you come in. Sure, this can be funny “if you’re working on a serious project and can pull it off.

But it also shows people you care about your work and what you do. It may not be the most compelling piece of content, but it does communicate who you are as a person.

So, sharing your workspace on your Instagram looks like a good story idea.

6. Offer a money saving tip

The best way to earn money and save money at the same time is to share money saving tips, deals, and strategies with other people. This will allow you to build a community of people who are willing to help each other out.

Saving money is hard so don't assume that everyone else will be willing to do the same. But your follow will still thank you for sharing an amazing tip in instagram stories for free.

7. Do a before and after

Before and After are Instagram stories where the same photos are posted at different times. Before shows what the image looks like before the change.

After shows what the image looks like after the change. Before and after can be used to show what your audience will see before someone else changes the content on their feed.

These are very powerful images because people get emotionally involved in the moments they see them — before and after are connections made.

8. Share Behind the scenes

The best instagram stories are the ones that show you what goes on behind the scenes while creating an image. If you're consistently creating pictures with your camera over your trusted person (e.g. your mom), it's ok to show some of that behind the scenes activity on your instagram story.

While not all of us have the time or resources to go behind-the-scenes, seeing the process through others eyes can inspire others to keep going when things get tough.

9. Share a quote

Connections are the lifeblood of your business. Without connections, you can't deliver what you promise. The best way to build them is by using motivational quotes to pull your audience into your story.

The more you connect, the more inspired you'll be to create content and drive client engagements through Instagram stories.

10. Promote a Blogpost

When you have a blog post that could generate a lot of traffic, it's best to promote it on Instagram as soon as you publish it. People who see your posts often tend to follow you and share your stuff.

If you put up a post on your blog on a Thursday and then shared it on Instagram on Friday, someone who goes to the site on a Friday might see it before she sees it on the homepage on Monday.

So, by promoting the post on Instagram early, you'll be ahead of the competition and get more exposure for it.

11. Share a throwback

Why not use Instagram's Stories feature to share pictures from your past?

This is a great way to bring nostalgia to your followers while also getting Instagram growth faster – by getting their attention!

12. Post your phone wallpaper

Wallpapers can be important. When it comes to social media, though, an often overlooked element is showing your phone's wallpaper.

This is a way for you to let people know what’s going on in your life without having to message them.

It also has the added benefit of setting the tone for your entire presence on social media.

13. Share a tutorial

One of the hardest things for new Instagram accounts is managing your followers. If you show a tutorial on your Instagram Stories for your followers, they’ll be more likely to keep following you and share your posts.

The best kind of Instagram tutorial is one that lets people know what you did and why it was important.

14. Share a followers message

Every received a message that appreciated your Content, share it with your other Followers. Your followers will also relate with that message as they like your content.

Even it's a hater, don't feel demotivated but look up with confidence and share your opinion.

15. Comment on a trending news

Your followers like to see what other people think – even if it's negative or negative about them!

If you want your Instagram stories to be full of engagement, then it's worth providing a feedback on a Trending news.

16. Share a post from 3 months ago

A fantastic way to stay connected with your audience is to share 3-month-old posts from your feed.

It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to build trust or sell something – people will read far more frequently if they can see that someone matter-of-factly shared an old post with them.

17. Do a product review

There are thousands of products on offer in the fashion industry. Not all of them will be the right product for you. Some will be similar, but not quite what you want.

Others will be similar but not perfect.

Only by reviewing products on your Instagram Stories can you see which ones stand out from the rest. Take a look through the following steps to help make that decision.

18. Do an Takeover

Instagram takeover is a tactic used by Instagram influencers to gain more followers and interest in their accounts.

When you follow someone on Instagram, they can select one of your photos and request that you appear on their profile.

If you're looking to grow your own following, follow someone who will help drive traffic to your profile or product, or draw in new followers who might be interested in what you have to say.

19. Share your worst post

The trick with sharing worst post is to make sure it has a happy ending.

Share your photo of the challenge with the words "I grew up" or "learned a lesson" or "it wasn't for me” instead of “failed” or “devastated”.

20. Celebrate a small win

Share a small win on Instagram with the hashtags ‘work’ and ‘get inspired’.

Embark upon a journey that reflects your interests, and highlight the small successes along the way.

21. Use Instagram Polls

Creating beautiful stories for Instagram is an excellent strategy for gaining followers and exposure.

In the same vein, using polls to determine what trend is taking over your feed or which Instagram story is going to be your most viewed is an excellent way to influence what your account looks like.

It's also a great way to get free content as you get to know what your audience likes.

22. Mention Your Favorite Instagram account

Share an account that you like and their content helps you a lot.

See, many people are sharing their best on Instagram, your one share can help them a lot.

23. Share Your Spotify Playlist

Your Followers can directly visit your Spotify playlist through Instagram stories as both platforms have partnered to enable this Feature.

So, sharing your Spotify playlist is a great story idea.

24. Use Instagram Templates

Instagram has its own story templates. Follow these steps to use them:-

Share this blog, if you didn't knew about this instagram hack!

25. Share your personal mantra

Instagram is filled with people sharing their happy moments and that make people think they are living a bad life.

So, to make them feel good share your personal Mantra with your Followers.

26. Tell what did you want to be as a kid

Our thoughts change as we grow more and more. Like, I wanted to be a singer but here I am telling you story ideas about Instagram.

Now, it's your time to share the past dreams vs young dreams.

27. Do a Time lapse

People really like time lapse and you should try creating time lapse, just open your Mobile's camera and start creating!

Or you can Google about how to create time lapse!

28. Share how you'd spend $1000

Tell your Followers that how will you spend $1000 if you got it for free.

+ Try to ask them how they will spend $1000 if they got it for free.

29. Tell who inspires you

Everyone have a Friend or a person that always inspires them to keep going. So, tell your Followers who inspires you and mention them if they are on Instagram.

+ You can ask your Followers to tell who inspires them.

30. Share 5 things you couldn't live without

We are living in an era where we can't live without few things like Internet. One click and we are disconnected from whole world.

Besides that share 5 things you couldn't live without.

31. Share what people do wrong

We all do somethings wrong but when we realize that it's wrong we, correct it. So, sharing something that people do wrong can help people a lot.

+ you can ask their Opinion on things like that!

32. Post a meme

Lighten the mood of your followers by sharing a meme related to your niche or any meme your Followers can relate with!

Memes are a great way to build a great relationship with your Followers.

End-Point

I hope you liked these content ideas, bookmark this article for future as we will be adding 10+ new story ideas for month for only you!

Different-Different Story Ideas help you to keep your followers engaged and posting 1-5 stories per day is must for Growing Followers this year.

10+ Tips To Get 10k Instagram Followers In 2021

The Instagram algorithm doesn't promote your posts and help you get new followers. Then you need these tips to beat the algorithm. Growing on Instagram is complicated, the algorithm keeps changing but you will know few basics that remain the same.

As I am writing this my friends account reached 1,000 this week and he was stuck at 310 followers for a month. I just made few changes and told few secrets used by me for my clients. Good for you, I have mentioned those secrets to help you reach 10,000 followers this year.

After wasting like 1-2 minutes doing introduction, here is the roadmap:

1. Optimize Your Account

Optimizing your account is as important as wearing mask in this pandemic. But why? To make people follow you when they visit your profile. Here are 5 steps to do that:-

  1. Have a clear username, like this @jessicadesigns.
  2. Add a keyword in the name section, like this 'Jessica- Interior Designer'.
  3. Mention what you do, your achievements, in the first 2 lines of your bio.
  4. Add Call-to-action in the last line if you have a link in your bio.

Here is a perfect example of optimized bio:-

2. High-Quality Content

Everyone thinks they are posting quality content, including me. But it's not about you that you think that's high quality. It's about your followers if they think your post is shit, accept it.

For example- When I wrote this blog my mind said, "dude, it's complicated make it simple". But if you found this simple, then it is.

High-quality Content makes people-

  1. Resonate with your ideas.
  2. Follow you.
  3. Share their opinion.
  4. Save the post.

So, start creating content that makes people do these things. *Bonus* quality content also makes people follow you on other platforms.

3. Comment more than you like

Social media platforms are all about connecting with people. Instagram is a photo-sharing platform, so most people share their best moments or content here.

But Why do they share them?

They want to be talked about, appreciated or may be want to hear your opinion. So, that's what you need to do comment on their posts, give your opinions. A genuine comment or opinion will make them visit your profile and your quality-content will make them follow.

"Valuable comments attract value based audience".

4. Have A Content Calendar

Content Calendars are the new hype, but why? Calendars help you to be consistent, organized and in tracking your account's performance. These calendars can be created by an individual or you can appoint me to create one for you for $10.

Why You should create or buy one?

  1. To know what you have to post on daily basis.
  2. For having Consistency.
  3. Preventing Burnouts.
  4. To post on right times and schedule.

Next time, if you forget posting on Instagram due to a busy day or burnout. Remember, sticking to a calendar will prevent that and make your work easy. Why? Because you can easily schedule your posts through tools like later and sprout social, according to your calendar. Isn't that easy?

5. Use Researched Hashtags

Stop randomly copy-pasting hashtags that you found on google. You need to know how to research and use hashtags to help you get more likes and followers. So, To find hashtags that work you need to know, these three factors.

  1. Hashtags Size, Choose Hashtags with less than 1 million posts if you have less than 10,000 followers.
  2. Your Post, Instagram Clearly told if your post don't relate to Hashtags they will not promote it.
  3. Types of Hashtags, you should use different type of hashtags based on industry, location, topic and other factors to have broad reach.

So, on basis of these 3 factors research your ideal hashtags to help you grow your Instagram account. But, If you need more details about finding Hashtags, subscribe to this blog!

6. Instagram Lives With Other Creators

The power of Instagram lives is unbeatable, my friend Dave when he was on the way to reach 100k followers. He did Instagram live with two other Creators in his industry.

After that he gained 1,000+ followers in 60 mins. But why Instagram Lives are one of the best ways to grow in 2021?

Because you get live attention from your audience and when go live with other Creator. There audience focus more on finding who you are and your specialities, which makes them visit your profile.

I consider that even you have 40 followers, instagram lives will result in building deep connection with your Audience. Also, doing live with small creators will deliver great results.

7. Join Facebook Groups

Facebook is pretty much dead, but groups and marketplace are still growing as no other platform does it better. Here is how, you can use groups to grow Followers:-

  1. There are groups on Facebook for anything to everything. So, find and join group with people who like what you post on Instagram. For Example, Maria posts about fashion on Instagram. She will join a fashion focused group.
  2. Share your tips and content in those groups and always leave the link to your Instagram account.
  3. Don't spam group with shit.

This will help you gain loyal + targeted followers who will always like and engage with your Posts. But you need to find an active and Targeted group not any random.

8. Instagram DMs

Many people have lots of like but the comment ratio is like very low. The reason behind this is they have followers but not Community. On Instagram, that community is build through DMs why?

Because content is the reason they follow and like but if you are in their DMs you have a human-connection with them. People like when you take out time to talk with them, no matter they are your regular followers or a big content creator.

Why you need to do this?

  1. You need to DM, other people or businesses in your industry to make connections with them. This will help you to gain attraction from your industry.
  2. When you DM your new Followers, they will feel delighted by a thank you message.
  3. People in your Dm's are more likely to comment on your posts.
  4. Even your account gets hacked or deleted those people will immediately follow your new account.

Instagram Dm's are a great way of building community that not just likes your Content but also comments and buy your products if you have a business or a course.

9. Instagram Reels

Copycat of Tiktok can easily help you grow your followers as it's Organic reach is pretty similar to Tiktok. But there are some basics you need to know, for going viral on Reels.

  1. Use Only 10-15 Hashtags to get the most reach.
  2. Post what trends on Tiktok.
  3. Add Text to your reels, must keep it in right ratio.
  4. Transition can help you a lot.
  5. Keep the reels under 14 seconds.

If you follow these tips, chances of growing followers and going viral is pretty high. *Bonus* Post Instagram Reels and go offline for 1-2 hours, always works for me for high engagement.

10. Ads or Shoutouts

Looking for a more easy way to grow your following, then you need to get the money out. Instagram Ads and paid Shoutouts are the one you need to grow with money.

These both ways are capable of helping you a lot and can lead to easy growth. You just need to execute this way, correctly.

11. Cross-promote Your Account

Some platforms are highly Organic and can help you build your Following on Instagram. Like, you can use Tiktok and Clubhouse to grow your Instagram.

Be active in clubhouse rooms, share your thoughts and at the end ask those people to catch you up on Instagram. This helped me grow 2,000 Followers in one week and those Followers were highly interested in my content. Same with tiktok, when a person from Tiktok follows you on Instagram they are more likely to comment + buy your stuff.

Cross-promoting is a great way to build a loyal fan army on Instagram, let that happen!

End-Point

I didn't include some ways like Instagram stories they have different approach on your growth. But I can assure you that this is a complete roadmap to success on Instagram and you need to follow this!