This is a common question that is asked by many Instagram users on a regular basis. Being aware of the importance that is placed on likes and other forms of engagement on the social network by Instagram’s algorithm is crucial for any Instagram user who wants to expand their influence. The key is knowing that getting likes, as well as comments and views, will help improve your popularity within the Instagram world and this translates into Instagram promoting your account and your content more as your popularity increases.
Promoting means your profile or your posts will appear higher up in the list of results if people search for hashtags that you have used or search for the name of your account or even the location you are based in. It will help you to get results faster on Instagram, therefore, it is essential to have this information and also to know how to make it work to your advantage.
How to get Instagram likes?
The traditional way of getting Instagram likes is to post content and hope that people will take the time to have a look at your profile and respond positively to what you have posted. This is a hopeful approach and one that can be successful, though it relies on word of mouth to gain traction and will surely take a long time for the benefits to come to fruition. If you want to get ahead quickly and start getting a lot of likes right from the go then there are more proactive ways to do so. Such as.
Using hashtags
A very simple tactic but one that can be extremely effective. Depending on the content of your post, pick hashtags that are relevant to the general topic of your post and also add in a few more that are more specific. People will search for topics based on hashtags related to their interests.
If you offer content that is relevant to them, they are more likely to give you likes. However, it is important that your content is relevant to the hashtag as if it’s not, it could lead to negative feedback which, in turn, sets you back. It is also worth your while to attempt to create your own branded hashtag, one that people will see and know that it’s yours. Another idea for hashtags is to find popular ones and, if they’re relevant, use them in your posts.
Interact with other people’s content
This is a case of ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. By going out into the Instagram world and identifying other Instagram users in the same area as yours, you can catch their attention, as well as that of their users, by interacting with their content through likes and comments. This way you are getting your profile out there among other profiles which operate in a similar area and it is quite possible that you will attract the attention of people who are interested in them as they undoubtedly will be interested in whatever products or services you offer if they are of a similar nature.
What time is it?
Think about the time of day when you are posting. This is a complicated one as Instagram is a global social network and, if you are ambitious, you will want to have people from all across the world engaging with your content. However, the best idea is to focus on the routine people have wherever you are based and go from there. Posting early in the morning or in the late afternoon is not generally a good idea as people will be commuting to and from work. The best times to post tend to be during the middle of the day when people are bored at work or later in the evening, from eight o’clock onwards, when people have finished dinner and are settling down after a long day.
Location, location, location
Wherever you are based, you will always be able to draw attention to yourself by adding your location to your posts. This means that it will be more likely to be seen by those Instagram users who are in the same area and, in turn, especially if you are offering a product or service that involves a physical location, you are more likely to grab the attention of locals and get more likes and interaction.
Paying for them
If all else fails, another option to get more likes that are proving to be quite popular at the moment is that of paying for this feature. There are numerous websites out there – insta4likes is just one of them – where you can contact them and arrange a deal which involves you paying the website for a set number of Instagram likes provided by real Instagram users. These likes are then yours to add to the posts you wish as you upload them to your account.
You just choose the amount you want and the users will like your content. It’s a straightforward interaction that guarantees you get the likes needed to increase the engagement statistics for your account and, hopefully, give your posts the boost needed to reach a wider audience. Likes aren’t the only thing you can buy from these sites; many of them also offer the chance to pay for Instagram followers or comments. These tend to come from real Instagram users but there are some sites that use bots to perform these tasks so be aware of the ones you are dealing with.
These are just a few of the easier ways to make the Instagram algorithm work for you and increase the number of likes that you can get as you focus on building your popularity on the social network.