Instagram is absolutely huge and one of the fastest growing social networks. Due to the highly visual nature of the content on Instagram it’s one of the best networks to use especially if you’re in an industry like real estate.

Take a look at some of these impressive statistics:

• Instagram has over 400 million active users
• Over 60% of users log in daily
• 30% of Internet users are now on Instagram
• Over 40 billion photos have been shared
• On average 80 million photos are shared every day
• In 2018 it’s expected that 70.7% of brands will be on Instagram

Engagement on Instagram is huge as well. In fact it’s:

• 10 Times higher than Facebook
• 54 Times higher than Pinterest
• 84 Times higher than Twitter

The majority of Instagram users are 35 years or younger. This makes the platform perfect for connecting with one of the newest and largest consumer demographics, the Millennials.

If you want to take your Instagram marketing to the next level in 2018 then here’s what you need to do.

1) Post Awesome Content

Pretty much the number one tip in any sort of social media or content marketing guide is to post great content.

That’s because it’s easily the most important thing.

If your content sucks then why would anyone want to follow you?

Especially when there’s over 400 million other options out there to follow.

Your content needs to be awesome and provide value to people. Otherwise why would they waste their time?

If you’re a real estate agent for example you should have a lot of inspiration for posts. Things like:

• Any unique features of a listing
• Beautiful listing photos
• Unique landmarks in the neighbourhood

Are a perfect way to showcase your listings and your business without coming across as too promotional.

Social media is not about sales. If all you do is post about your listings telling people to contact you then you’re going to lose followers.

You can definitely post sales related content on occasion but keep it to a minimum.

For more information about the type of content to publish we highly recommend the book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook.

2) Post Regularly

Not posting for long periods of time is one of the easiest ways to lose followers.

Make sure you’re posting content regularly.

You don’t have to go too crazy. You don’t want your posts coming across as spam and you probably don’t have that much time to come up with content.

One, maybe two posts a day is more than enough.

3) Post at the Best Times

If you’re going to be posting regularly be sure to post at the best possible time.

Posting when your audience isn’t around won’t help build your following.

In general I’ve found that the best time to post to Instagram is in the evening. Around 6pm to 10pm in North America.

Evenings seem to be the time when most people are logged into Instagram and more people will see your post.

That being said every audience is different. The best thing to do is test different times over a couple of weeks.

This way you can find out for yourself when you get the most engagement with your posts.

4) Don’t Buy Followers and Avoid Similar Tactics

Buying followers from sites like Fiverr is never a good idea, no matter what social network it is.

Most social media sites now have algorithms that judge the quality of your posts.

If you regular post content that gets lots of shares and likes that’s a sign of good quality.

Social networks like Instagram want to show people high quality posts so they stay on the site.

Good engagement with your posts means your future posts get shown to more people.

On the other hand if you buy 10,000 followers from some click farm in India they’re probably not going to engage with your posts.

When 0.001% of your 10,000+ followers like your post that’s a big sign to the algorithm that the quality of your post is poor.

This means your posts will be shown to less people in the future.

It can definitely be tempting to buy followers. Especially since you’ll get messages all the time from people trying to sell you on the idea.

Unfortunately it’s never worth it.

The only time it is worth it is when you use Instagram’s own advertising platform to get followers that are humans in your target audience.

There are all kinds of other tricks to get followers quick on Instagram. People will tell you to follow and then unfollow tons of people and do things like that.

We’ve experimented with methods like these ourselves and always found them to be a waste of time.

5) Use Hashtags but Use them Smarter

Hashtags are actually quite useful on Instagram as they’re used to sort and categorize posts.

Instagram will let you use 30 hashtags per post.

Most people however will tell you to avoid using lots of hashtags because it comes across as spammy.

These people are correct.

Your photo description is important and if you fill up a ton of space with 30 hashtags that looks pretty bad.

There’s a trick however.

Instead of putting hashtags in your post add them afterwards in a comment.

If you add your hashtags as a comment they have the exact same effect as being in your post.

Plus they’re not usually visible right away. If you get a few comments they get completely buried as well and no one sees them.

They still help your post though.

Do some searching through Instagram and come up with a list of around 30 hashtags for your target audience.

Save these in a note on your phone. Then every time you make a post copy and paste the hashtags into a comment on that post.

You’ll get all the benefits of using a ton of hashtags without coming across as spammy.

6) Use Calls to Action in Your Posts

You’ll find you’ll receive a lot more engagement if you use calls to action in your post.

These are simply instructions telling people to take an action such as liking your post.

Add a quick little “like this post if…” or “tag a friend…” can greatly increase the amount of engagement you receive.

The phrase “double tap if” instead of “like” works incredibly well.

Here are some quick examples:

• Double tap if you’d love to see this view every morning!
• Tag a friend you’d like to invite over to have dinner in this huge dining room!
• Double tap if you’d love to walk your dog through this neighbourhood.

7) Don’t Give Up

Instagram like any other social network or content marketing in general takes time.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

You won’t see results right away. Instead you have to slowly plug away at it and you’ll get results in time.

It can be tempting to give up, especially at the beginning when your following is growing so slowly.

But don’t quit.

Just keep at it a little bit every day. Eventually you’ll see the results you’re looking for.