14 Instagram Hacks You Should Know About in 2020

Instagram is the hottest 🔥🔥 thing on the market right now. To this day, it is still the fastest growing social media platform. Naturally, Instagram is a place where you want to be and set camp.

But of course, it’s not as easy as you would think it is. Sure, you picked out a name, set up your profile and even started creating posts. But without a solid marketing strategy in place, you’re left with five likes and 18 followers. What should you do?

You can turn to ads. They are costly and when done incorrectly, you lose more money than gain followers.

If you’re not ready to shell out some cash, then you have organic marketing. And you’ve heard it all before - it’s time consuming, hassle and tiring. When you’re building a business from scratch, of course it’s all those things! Not for long, though.

Did you know that there are great Instagram hacks you can do that will help increase engagement, attract followers and can turn curious eyes into real, paying customers?

Yes, you heard that right. With the right technique and strategy, you’re on your way to becoming a full-time entrepreneur.

Check out these awesome Instagram hacks you should know to increase and build a community on the platform.

Here's our 14 Instagram hacks you need to be using:

1. Add Hashtags in The Comments

We all know about the power of hashtags. However, when used too much, it can look messy and spammy. And of course, you don’t want that.

Here’s how you should do it: When you post on Instagram, copy and paste your hashtag set on the comment section.

This way, it’s hidden to anyone at first glance but you still get its real benefits.

2. Share Your Photos on Other Platforms 🔗

If you are one multiple social media platforms but you’re posting different content for each platform, no wonder you’re on a burn out!

Instead, when you post a photo on Instagram, there’s an option to share them to your other social media platforms. Select all the platform you want the photo to be sent to, and you’re done!

This can help get your message across different platforms, which means more reach, more potential customers!

3. Use Hashtags Wisely

Performing a strategic hashtag research is one of the main things you should be doing for Instagram. Aside from creating great posts, that is.

Ever wonder why your post is not getting the visibility you expected even though you have 30 of Instagram’s most popular hashtags?

Well, that’s exactly why. When you use hashtags with millions of posts, your post will immediately get buried under thousands in just a minute!

We recommend using a variety of hashtags with > 500k posts, > 100k posts and if you’re feeling a little bold, less than 1000 posts.

This Instagram hack will ensure your post will be seen and reach more audience because there is not a lot of competition in that hashtag.

Here's some more tips to optimise your hashtags.

4. Liking Before Posting ❤️

Forget about the follow and unfollow method, they have been proven over and over again that those just not work anymore! But this one for sure will.

Before you post a photo on Instagram, go ahead and like the posts from the hashtags you will be using in your upcoming post.

It allows the users that you liked from notice your profile and maybe even check out your profile. And once they see you have similar interests, it might just trigger a like and a follow!

5. Longer Captions Perform Better

Remember when livejournal and blogspot was a thing? Yeah, but now we’ve moved to Instagram.

More and more, we saw people are preferring longer captions on the platform. While most businesses shy away from this, those who do use it are seeing great returns.

There is something special and intimate about sharing more than just a few strings of words. And according to research, the longer, the better!

6. People Love To See Behind The Scenes 📹

A painting is always great to look at. But these days, people also want to see the process behind the masterpiece.

Depicting the process from beginning to end of a certain piece whether it’s a dish or a makeup look can attract curiosity and more eyes to your profile.

7. Share Your Post to Your Story 🎞

Instagram stories get more engagement than a normal post these days. And a great way to increase reach and engagement on your post is by sharing your post to your story.

But we would be careful about this Instagram hack. While it’s an awesome way to attract your followers and make them see your posts, it’s also easy for them to completely ignore your feed when done too much.

Carefully select the posts you share to your stories, create a sneak peek by adding a gif or emoji and it will allow the curious eyes to click and view your post.

8. Share Other People’s Posts

This sounds cliche, but social media is all about being social. And the only way to be social is by interacting with other people. Sharing other people’s posts is a great start for this.

Make sure you tag the account on the story so they will be notified you shared their post. Maybe, in return, they’ll do the same for you!

9. Always Add The Location. Always.

Did you know that posts with a tagged location gets 79% more engagement than those that don’t?

When you tag a location, your post will be visible by anyone who clicks on that location. Add this to your awesome hashtag strategy and you’ll be reaching more audience in no time!

10. Get More Followers Through This Awesome Strategy

There are many ways to get more people to follow you. There are ads, organic posts, hashtag research and even buying followers. We strongly don’t recommend the latter, it can get your account suspended when caught.

However, putting aside some time each day to follow this strategy can help you gain organic traffic.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Research accounts with a following similar to your target audience
2. Turn on post notifications for these accounts
3. Leave a nice, thoughtful comment as soon as they post
4. Follow their real followers
5. Repeat.

This is a sure-fire way to attract a community that is identical to the people you are trying to reach.

11. Insert Line Breaks for an Easier Read

Remember when you said longer captions are new ‘thing’ on Instagram? That’s right. But with Instagram’s caption layout, it can be quite tricky to read and can have people scroll past your heartfelt caption.

Adding line breaks is the solution. This ensures your caption is easily readable in chunks of sections and keeps your audience reading and entertained.

Here's a linebreak formatting tool you can use.

12. Get More Followers Through Contests and Giveaways 💰

Looking for an instagram hack to get more followers as quickly as possible? Give out something for free.

Many brands and businesses are using giveaways and competition to grow their following fast and easy. And there are many types of contests you can run if you’re interested.

A bonus entry content is one of the most popular on the platform. It works by running a giveaway on Instagram, but also allowing them to increase their chances of winning by following you on your other social media platforms as well.

Another idea is to run an Instagram sweep stakes and it’s so simple to do and can bring in thousands of followers in days. Here’s all you need to do: choose a contest app of choice, full out all information needed like prize and criteria, create an Instagram post that directs them to your contest page and one of the criteria is that they should be following you to win.

While there are many more variety of contests you can do on Instagram, your only limitation is your imagination. So get creative as you can and start running those contests. We all know, it’s the best way for engagement and drive sales.

13. Post Reviews

People love to know what others think about what interests them. Posting reviews of your products and services can help turn them into paying customers.

It not only allows them to get a feel for what other people think about your product, but also increases their curiosity and interest in the said product.

14. Be Consistent

Instagram is visual and creative by nature. Once you have your branding in place, make sure to strictly follow them to achieve consistency throughout your posts.

Nobody wants to follow an account where you don’t know what they’re going to post next.

Creating a month’s worth of content calendar beforehand can help you keep in line with your branding assets and marketing strategy.

Luckily we've written a guide to help you continue being consistent!

Wrapping up...

Instagram has continued to prove itself to be one of the best marketing channels for any businesses. Through implementing a solid marketing strategy and knowing the ins and outs of the platform, there is a lot of potential to see success on Instagram.

Are you interested in trying one of the Instagram hacks we mentioned? Do you know any other Instagram marketing hacks in 2020 we should also know about? Let us know in the comment sections below! We’d love to hear your thoughts.