‘Gram Central: Up Your Instagram Game with These Tips for Real Estate Pros 

Grow your presence on Instagram the right way, and steer clear of shady growth tactics.

By now, you’ve learned to appreciate the ‘gram life and have figured out the basics of visual-first posting. So...now what? While all social media platforms have their own tips and strategies to build a following, Instagram’s growth culture is especially interesting. It’s also one that’s historically been fraught with shady tactics and underhanded schemes. So how can you get growing on IG without falling into those traps? Read on to find out.

Share your Stories!

We mentioned Instagram’s Snapchat clone in our last article. Stories functions almost exactly the same way that Snapchat does (you can check out our Snap intro here if this is all new to you. We’ll wait!). 

While IG does lose points for a lack of originality, it’s a great feature to boost engagement. Some 500 million people watch Stories on a daily basis, and 50% of all businesses on IG post regularly to Stories.

In other words, Stories shouldn’t be ignored. 

Stories also offers various cool and unique features. You can use hashtags and handle tags within your Stories to link them to relevant topics or pages. They also offer features that are similar to Snapchat like filters and stickers. Stories posts, like your Snap Story, last for 24 hours. However you also have the ability to save parts of your Stories to your profile in a section called “Highlights.” Highlights live for as long as you want on your profile and are a great way to showcase longer-form content you think users would want to see after the initial expiration.

Bonus: Want your highlights to really set your profile apart? Take an extra few seconds to create a custom icon for them!

Seriously...start hashtagging!

“Here we go again with the hashtags…” - you, right now. We get it, we mention hashtagging A LOT when it comes to Instagram. But there’s a good reason! IG is the ideal hashtag platform. You can use tags in posts, in Stories, in your bio, not to mention the option to follow hashtag streams. Hashtags are the most important avenue for users to find your content. 

We’ve covered the ideal mix of tag types before. It’s also important to continuously try new tags and ensure that the ones you’re using remain relevant and useful. Experimenting (within reason) can be a great way to show your unique voice. While going totally rogue isn’t recommended, sometimes long, silly tags work well. They won’t do anything for your discoverability - since a long, made-up tags aren’t something people search for - but their presence alongside a majority of mainstream tags can be fun and give a more authentic voice to your content.

Another important thing to remember when choosing hashtags is how IG’s hashtag following functions. Users have the ability to follow streams of anything tagged with a specific hashtag. They also have the option to unfollow “similar posts” in a hashtag stream that they dislike. This means when you use an irrelevant tag, you may get more eyes on it initially...but they’ll be the wrong eyes. People will tell Instagram to stop feeding them content like yours, which will hurt you in the long-run.

Grow this way...

Like Facebook, Instagram has been working to adjust their algorithm to provide a better experience for their users. The platform has gotten sophisticated enough to pick up on a lot of the old tricks for growing your following fast. Today, your best bet for growth is through authentic, relevant content and interactions. 

For your own postings, focus on creating quality content, with high-end imagery and well-crafted captions. Use relevant hashtags and location tagging. Settle on a brand aesthetic and stick to it so there’s no mistaking your content when followers see it in their feed.

When it comes to connecting with others, try to set aside a consistent amount of time every day to like and comment on other relevant posts. One method to try is the $1.80 strategy. The idea is to leave your “two-cents” by commenting on the top 9 posts for your top 10 relevant hashtags. Leaving short but thoughtful comments on other users’ content within your niche is a great way to show that you’re engaged with the IG community.

...Not this way!

Remember those shady tactics we mentioned? Seriously, steer clear. These can include things like buying followers, spamming your posts with dozens of irrelevant hashtags, trying to skirt the 30 hashtag limit but adding multiple comments with tons of tags, or using the notorious follow-unfollow method. Buying followers and using dozens of hashtags in your post and comments are two major no-nos that Instagram will punish you for (hello, shadow-ban). 

Follow/unfollow is a bit more complicated. This is a great deep-dive into why the method can work...with major drawbacks. Which is why we recommend focusing on meaningful engagement, rather than your follower total. 

Analyze it!

Now that you’re flexing your ‘gram skills, it’s time to see how your work has paid off! Instagram’s Insights tab is available to all business accounts (still using your personal account? Check out our tips on how and why you should switch).

Instagram’s analytics can be found from your profile page by clicking the options menu, then selecting “Insights.” 

There are three sections in Insights you can check out:

• Activity: This section looks at things like interactions on your page, your reach, impressions, and discoverability from the last 6 days. You can find things like how many people have visited your profile and how many emails or clicks to your site from the buttons on your profile.

• Content: This section looks at your posts, Stories, and paid promotions. You can see stats for the set 6-day period or click the option to “See All” under each content category to view posts from further back.

  • After clicking “See All” you have the option to adjust the type of posts, metrics, and timeframe you’re viewing. This is a great way to look at a specific period of time or compare things like how video posts perform vs. photos. 

  • You can also look at any specific post to view more detailed stats by clicking on it, then clicking “View Insights.” This will give you information about the individual post’s reach, likes, shares, comments, bookmarks, and profile visits. 

• Audience: If you have less than 100 followers, this section will only show the number of new followers you’ve gained since the previous 6-day period. After you reach 100 followers, you have access to more information, including:

  • Gender 

  • Age Range 

  • Top Locations

  • Followers (the most active times of your followers)

Side Note: need a refresher on what some of these terms mean? Check out our marketing dictionary!

Using Instagram’s Insights allows you to see specifics about when your followers are on IG, what kinds of content perform best, what content attracts the most new attention, etc. These factors can then help you decide what to post in the future to keep giving your audience what they want.

Bonus Tip: Reposting

One final advanced option on Instagram is reposting. IG differs from platforms like Facebook and Twitter in that you can’t easily re-share something from another account. There are, however, ways to repost if something is too good to pass up. Reposting generally requires the use of a third-party app. You can check out this great article on which apps are both functional and trustworthy.

A few things to keep in mind before you start reposting:

• Reposted content can never replace original content. It’s a nice supplement here and there, not the main focus.

• Always know who you’re reposting from. By sharing someone else’s content you’re affiliating your brand with theirs so proceed with caution! 

• Always always always give credit where credit is due by tagging the original creator. This is optional through a lot of reposting apps, but proper attribution is a big deal to Instagram users. Tagging the original account is a nice way of building connections with other users and avoids any appearance of stealing or misusing others’ work.

Bottom Line

Growing your presence on Instagram is more than increasing your follower count. By focusing on quality content and authentic engagement you can grow your account in a sustainable way.