Instagram is a highly engaging social media platform that can help to grow your blog traffic. In this article, we’ve discussed ways you could leverage this powerful tool in order to capture the attention of new visitors and drive quality traffic back to your site.
Instagram turned into a marketing tool for bloggers by featuring square-shaped snaps of people on vacation, selfies, and food pics. What began as an innocent social media app has now grown to be one that can help build audiences in the blogging community through targeted traffic from high-quality sources.
Over a billion individuals use Instagram on a monthly basis, which means it's one of the most popular social media platforms out there. Tons of different brands – from beauty companies to subscription services to bloggers and larger big box brands – have found major success on this platform by building their brand or engaging with followers in various ways.
The secret to driving traffic from Instagram is in understanding the psychology of social media sharing.
With limited capacity for links, you need a strategy that will not only drive engagement on your posts but also generate clicks back to your blog post or site.
Three Words for Success: Link in Bio
In order to post a link on Instagram, you'll need to use your bio. In posts with captions or comments, for example, most people won't take the time to copy and paste the link into their browser window.
However, your bio on the site allows for a link to be posted. This can lead to increased traffic to various parts of your blog, such as its homepage or certain posts or brand partnerships.
Hitting this particular aspect of traffic generation has two sides.
Keep your bio up to date by updating it with the link of your latest post or changing it depending on where you want to drive the traffic to.
However, sharing a link to your blog post is not enough if you want to increase traffic. Link in bio is only successful when you make your followers aware of it. Make sure you make the most of Instagram Stories, Reels, and Feed to promote the link you added in the bio and get the word out.
Use images and videos to stand tall in a sea of content
Social media is a visual world. On Instagram, posting images that attract followers to your blog and showcase your expertise is vital.
Step into your content creator's shoes. Create eye-catching visuals and share them with the world to make a lasting impression on your audience! Experiment with Instagram filters, color overlays, and cool fonts for captivating posts that will keep people wanting more from you in their feed.
Canva is a free online photo editing and image creating tool. The interface is easy to use, yet the features are advanced enough for more sophisticated bloggers. You can create stunning graphics by using pull quotes from your blog content or bold titles over images of video thumbnails on social media feeds.
You can also use Canva to make your Instagram posts more interactive by using hashtags and logos.
Video content is currently surging in popularity among nearly all social media platforms, and Instagram is no exception. Videos have the added bonus of generating longer engagements with your posts when posted on an account feed. Tell your followers about what they'll find in your latest article by including a video teaser or direct link to it!
Keep viewers glued to your posts by including videos in both stories and the regular feed. The more engagement you get, the higher up on their feeds they will appear- leading them right towards that link in your bio!
You can also remove background and place your calls to action to put emphasis and place your calls to action on images in bold, eye-catching ways. Direct followers back to your bio with every chance you get!
What about captions?
What makes or breaks a marketing campaign? The combination of engaging content and successful persuasion is geared towards driving traffic to a website.
Your Instagram captions allow you to use a wealth of creativity. You can't include links in your caption, but that doesn’t mean it's without its uses. Use them as an opportunity to draw attention back to your blog and increase the traffic there!
Your captions have loads of possibility- despite not being able to utilize relevant links, they make up for this with their creative potential.
In the course of Instagram Marketing, it's crucial that you motivate your audience to act or purchase. A call-to-action is a clear directive on what steps you want your audience to take and reinforces this action with engaging content that will inspire them to hit your website bio and click for more information.
Your caption can be quick or more in-depth. Quick captions often offer a tease for your blog posts while longer captions aim to provide all the information necessary to encourage viewers into action-- commenting, liking, and sharing that post's link.
Hashtag, hashtags, and then some more hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to get your content seen by the public. If you have not yet amassed thousands of followers, adding hashtags at the bottom of your Instagram post will act as keywords and directories for people who want more information on something related to what they just saw in that image.
For example, if you had recently posted about marketing hacks - or any topic that has many different topics associated with it - you could use your current following's interests to find appropriate tags (i.e., using #marketing) then include them below your caption so your audience can easily see posts relevant to their interest.
The use of hashtags can make your content more visible to a broader range of potential followers, as well as encourage more engagement. This will result in you getting likes and views on your blog through refined attention-grabbing content and clear calls to action.
Be sure to pick a few hashtags that represent your blog's brand, and be sure to include them when posting content. You can also create exclusive hashtags for your posts so others are able to find and share their experiences too. Let those who follow you know about your branded tags so they can use them as well.
When you are using hashtags on your posts, make sure to use ones that reflect your content. Anything too broad or general will likely just end up getting lost in other people's posts.
Last but not least - Engagement
When setting up and using social media profiles to support a blog post, one of the most important things to keep in mind is that you will not be successful if you don't engage with followers on a regular basis.
Engagement means not just posting content on your page and letting it go unnoticed.
Engage with others by liking, commenting, sharing photos and videos depicting their interests, tagging them for contests or promotions - anything that shows interest back! People love feeling like they're being heard and appreciated, so make sure to dole out some compliments too as a thank-you after someone has engaged with you. Connecting with fellow bloggers is an amazing way to build new friendships and gain more exposure for your own work through cross-promotion. Share their content when you see something that interests or resonates with your audience; give them props by tagging them so they can share it back if they like what you have said. This puts both of you front-and-center for a wider range of potential readers!
While it's easy to focus on the aesthetic appeal of your profile, you need to make sure that people want to interact with you. This is why building out a social persona for yourself becomes more important than having an aesthetically pleasing grid feed.
If you want to grow your blog or website traffic, Instagram is a powerful tool that can be leveraged for success and higher conversions. Keep these tips in mind when posting content on Instagram so that you're optimizing the platform for maximum engagement.
