Each time someone shares your content on Instagram, it broadens your reach to a significantly larger audience. Shares hold the key to going viral on platforms like Instagram, where organic user recommendations are everything. The question is – how to get more shares on Instagram in order to maximize your reach with every post you publish?
Incredibly, more than 95 million Instagram posts go live each day. Instagram is an insanely competitive social media platform, with hundreds of millions of people all competing for the same attention. These days, effective social media marketing begins and ends with social proof.
Shares are particularly effective social signals, boosting both the reach and the credibility of your content in an instant. You need all the shares you can get, but what can you do to proactively steer things in the right direction?
Why Instagram Shares Matters?
The more people are sharing your content on Instagram, the greater its viral potential. It’s worth remembering that content doesn’t go viral on the basis of Instagram’s own recommendations or as a result of high-profile marketing.
Instead, it’s when enough people share something in quick succession on a social network that the snowball effect gets underway. This is why something as simple as a bunch of Instagram shares really can make all the difference.
If you can convince enough people to share your content with their own friends and followers, you’re golden. Recommendations that come from the people you know always carry more weight than those from brands, businesses, or paid ads.
Plus, it’s worth remembering that the Instagram algorithm is programmed to pick up on popular and trending content. Where a post quickly gains momentum with plenty of shares, it’s more likely to be recommended by Instagram’s own in-built search engine. Whichever way you look at it, you need all the shares you can get.
How to Get More Instagram Shares?
Moving on to the logistics of the whole thing, there are several things you can do to start stacking up shares for your posts. Combine each of the following into your publishing strategy, and you stand every chance of going viral or at least broadening your reach on Instagram:
1. Make Your Account Public
First up, the most important thing you need to do is ensure that your account is public – rather than private. Running a private account on Instagram limits interaction with your content to your own friends and followers.
If your goal is to go viral and reach as many people as possible with your content, your account needs to be public. Head into the “Settings” menu on your profile and ensure the “Private” button is toggled off.
2. Enable Push Notifications
It’s also worth enabling push notifications, which will ensure you know when and where somebody likes, shares, comments on, or engages with your content.
After which, you can thank them for taking the time to interact with your posts, which will encourage more people to do likewise in the future. Publishers who interact and engage with their audiences are always more appealing than those who sit silently on the sidelines.
3. Post Engaging Content
Of course, the key to going viral on platforms like Instagram lies in creating engaging content of the highest quality. Your content strategy should focus exclusively on the type of content your exact target audience is into.
User-generated content can be great for bringing variety into the mix, and regular inclusion of video content is a must. Above all else, your content needs to be unique, creative, and of genuine relevance and value to your target audience.
4. Host a Contest
Contests never fail to generate engagement, as most people are powerless against the prospect of a freebie. Run a contest in whatever format you like, and encourage those who take part to spread the word far and wide.
If you can get into the habit of running contests on a regular basis, you’ll benefit from plenty of shares and a tonne of organic followers as a bonus.
5. Post Funny, Provocative, and Surprising Content
The most shareable content on platforms like Instagram is content that evokes an emotional reaction. Or, to put it another way, any kind of post that grabs your attention and makes you think. Content that’s funny, provocative, inspiring, surprising, or even slightly controversial never fails to generate engagement.
6. Use Relevant Hashtags
The Instagram hashtags you attach to your content will play a major role in determining who finds them in the first place. For obvious reasons, this will also heavily influence who subsequently shares your posts with their own friends and followers.
Consequently, you should only ever use hashtags that are 100% relevant to your posts while avoiding the temptation to use too many of them.
7. Posts Frequently
Posting frequently and consistently is also essential in order to retain the interests of those you’ve already got on board. In addition, finding the right time to post (in accordance with your audience’s most active hours) should be prioritized. Make the mistake of posting while your target audience is offline, and you’ll be wasting your time.
8. Use Instagram Stories
Research has shown that effective Instagram Stories can generate up to 300% more engagement than conventional Instagram posts. Hence, making the most of Instagram Stories as part of your broader content strategy is a no-brainer.
9. Write Attractive Captions
Like hashtags, captions play a major role in determining who will take the time to check out your posts in the first place. Something that will subsequently influence how many people share your posts with their own fans and followers.
Captions should be concise, punchy and to-the-point – optimized with appropriate keywords to help the right people find your posts.
10. Use Call To Action Buttons
Strategically-placed CTA buttons can make a huge contribution to a social media marketing campaign. It’s important to remember that the easier you make it for people to do what you want them to do, the more likely they are to do it. Rather than simply asking them to share your posts, present them with a CTA button so they can make it happen with a quick click.
11. Use Different Content formats
They say variety is the spice of life, and this is absolutely the case on social media. Your Instagram campaign should feature a good mix of different types of content – not just the usual static images.
Instagram offers a long list of engaging tools and features for publishers and is adding more all the time. Most of which have a fairly gentle learning curve to get to grips with and can really make the difference where engagement and reach are concerned.
12. Catch the Trends
Leveraging the latest trends on Instagram means keeping your ear to the ground for the next big thing. Don’t make the mistake of attempting to get on board with trends that are already yesterday’s news.
When something big starts making waves on Instagram, get on board with it right away, or not at all. In addition, avoid the temptation to leverage every trend that comes along – stick with those your target audience will genuinely appreciate.
13. Ask People to Share
If you want people to share your content, why not simply ask them to do so? A gentle reminder can go a long way on platforms like Instagram, where a lot of what takes place is somewhat subconscious.
Don’t count on people to share your content instinctively – ask them to do so and thank them for helping you out. Let them know you appreciate them and reciprocate by engaging with their content in return.
14. Buy Instagram Shares
Last up, the quickest and easiest way to boost your reach is to buy Instagram shares from Media Mister. We specialize in 100% authentic Instagram shares from real people, performed manually with no automation. Over the past decade, we’ve helped more than 10,000 Instagram creators get ahead by performing millions of shares of the highest quality.
If your goal is to reach as many people as possible with your content, we can help. Order your Instagram shares online for prompt delivery, or contact a member of our customer support team anytime to learn more.
Conclusion
Technically speaking, there’s nothing you can do to force your content to go viral on Instagram. Even so, there’s plenty you can do to steer things in the right direction. Or at least massively broaden your reach, and bring new followers on board.
Shares hold the key to reaching as many people as possible on Instagram in a short timeframe. Bring each of the activities above into your publishing strategy, and you’ll be looking at a major increase in reach and engagement in no time.
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