Instagram is a tough nut to crack unless you are willing to put down a few thousand dollars per month. It is pretty easy if you are a beautiful or sexy woman or if you are a rich and handsome and interesting man. However, even though beautiful women have a free pass to Instagram success, it is still very difficult for them to sell anything (even clothing). If you are not willing to overpay for success on Instagram, then you will have to take on board some of the tips listed below.
1. Copy What You See
Instagram is stuck in a recycling loop, repeating the same/best content over and over from different influencers. It is what is known in the writing community as the Google paradox.
Have you ever noticed that when you Google a real question, like “How to remove blisters from a foot,” how the first page of Google is covered with articles and videos offering the exact same advice? Yet, when you read the advice, it is so generic and misinformed that anybody could have written it. Well, this is because of the Google paradox. When writers are creating content, they Google the answer and they rewrite the first answers they find. They then rank up and their content appears on the first page, and the whole process repeats over and over again.
A similar thing is happening with Instagram. The content that performs the best is shunted to the top. The people who copy it see similar success, so people just copy what they see over and over. And, where it may seem like a good idea to be different and think outside the box, the fact is that Instagram is going to reward those who create content that its metrics already say is popular. Ergo, you should copy the types of content you see, but make your own version so that there are no copyright issues.
2. Copy Your Competitor’s Best-Performing Posts
If you want to take a more direct approach, then don’t copy the big hitters on Instagram. Instead, copy your competitors. Look at their best-performing posts and copy the content. Again, it is not about duplicating their content, it is about taking what they are doing and creating content that is similar. Alternatively, you can give yourself a leg up in the race by buying popular Instagram accounts and promoting your services and businesses through them. It can be expensive if you want to buy very popular accounts, but you can buy low-priced accounts and buy Instagram account profiles to start with. Then, when you are bigger and have a bigger budget, you can buy influencer accounts and exploit them to get ahead of your competitors.
3. Post – Promote – Post – The Instagram Content Sandwich
You have probably seen posts that have several parts. You get to see an image, then you click/tap right and you see another image or a video. This is how it works on Instagram, and it works that way on reels, stories, posts, etc. If you are looking to market your services and products, then do an Instagram sandwich. This is where you create an enticing post to start with, then people click right to see your advert, and they click right again to see more of your enticing content.
Amateur models do it all the time. They post a picture of themselves looking hot. The next image in the slide show is them promoting some piece of clothing or makeup. The next image in the slideshow is her looking hot in something else. It is a method as old as Instagram itself, and it is so popular because the Instagram sandwich is still effective.
4. Get Your Acquaintances and Facebook Friends in On The Action
If you are starting out, or even if you have been on Instagram for a while, you can get a lot of traction by having people you know click the like (heart) button on your posts. If you can drum up a bit of support for your content through your Facebook friends and/or your real-life friends, then try to have them click the like button right after you post. The first few hundred people who see your content are the most important. If people act positively during that early period, then Instagram is more likely to recommend it to other people because it is a signal that your content is of good quality.
5. Copying TikTok For Some Shameful Success on Instagram
There is a trend/ trick that still works. You download other people’s TikToks without the watermarking, and you post it on your Instagram account. You almost never get a copyright strike, and many times, the content gains lots of followers. Throw a few of your ads on there or a few links to your stuff. Then, after a month, you delete the copied content and nobody is ever the wiser. You enjoy the free attention without having to do the work yourself. The only people who fail in this method are the ones who keep the content. Keeping the content sets you up for bigger copyright strikes in the future when the original creator goes through your back catalog and sues you for the massive amount of copied content.
6. Brand Your Content, But Not In The Way You Think
When people think of branding their content, they think of logos and such. And, where these things have their use, they are not the best Instagram tools. You need to brand your content in a far smarter way. Have you heard of Khaby’s hand gesture? A guy named Khaby made Instagram videos where people did dumb stuff and he debunked it. When he made his point, he also made a hand gesture. That was his brand. People now know his content from the way he spread his brand. Andrew Tate did a similar thing, but his branding move was a song by Indila called “Tourner Dans Le Vide.” When people hear the song, they think of Andrew Tate. It is a very powerful branding tool that you can use yourself if you can think of a way that separates your content from that of other people.
