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Last updated: November 2024
Want to grow an audience and increase your reach on Instagram in 2025 and beyond?
In this post, I’m taking a brief look at the Instagram algorithm and sharing several future-proof tips to help you increase your reach on Instagram without having to spend hours working on it!
As Instagram continues to make changes to its algorithm (sometimes against the wishes of the majority) so too do the challenges and opportunities associated with increasing reach and engagement.
Recent shifts in the Instagram algorithm have placed greater emphasis on certain types of content, with a notable change recently from favoring reels to instead prioritizing stories and static posts, especially carousel posts.
Each of these tips are really super quick to do right now and will get you results the very next time you post! These are the very same strategies I use to grow organically and authentically on my Instagram account.
The first thing I recommend is to optimize your Instagram profile. People search Instagram to find all sorts of things from travel destination reviews to handmade craft items.
You need to ensure that you are using relevant keywords to make sure your profile is easily discoverable in searches.
If you’re not sure what keywords to include here are a few tips:
After you’ve added your keywords, ensure that you’ve also added a link to your website or a landing page. This means that getting found in searches can lead to more traffic to your website or landing page.
If you optimize your profile, you’ll start to get discovered more often. Plus, with a polished profile, you’ll also make a strong first impression increasing your chances of attracting and retaining new followers.
Now you’ve optimized your profile, the next thing to do is to check your insights!
Go through them with a fine-tooth comb.
~ What are your top five performing posts?
~ How were they discovered by people?
~ What was the image or video about?
Whatever the winners were, try and post more just like them!
You could quickly repurpose the top three into different types of posts such as a carousel or Reels and then share again.
Here are some tips to help you repurpose your content more effectively.
Simply put, your content will reach more people if it’s really good.
Whether it’s informative, inspiring, entertaining or motivational your content just needs to capture the attention of your audience and encourage them to like, comment or even share it to their stories.
If you run an online business check out this set of Instagram business templates for online brands.
Or, if you’re a service provider have a look through these post ideas for VAs and get some great content ideas.
To learn about how different social media Canva templates can help you reach different goals with your social media out my blog post on the best social media graphic templates.
You can also get some useful ideas from my blog post about branding your content on Instagram if you need to give the look and feel of your content an upgrade.
When writing your Instagram captions, be as detailed as possible. Use the keywords from your profile and incorporate related words and phrases where appropriate.
Additionally, you can optimize your posts for search with hashtags and geotags. Here are the basics for Instagram SEO:
Don’t forget to be more explanatory within your captions. However, you don’t need to too much time on this, just try and be more descriptive in your captions.
When it comes to increasing your reach, it’s not just about trying to reach new people all the time. It’s so important not to forget your current audience on Instagram. By engaging with them it’s like reaching out to them and reminding them you exist.
Make it a priority to respond to your comments and messages promptly, showing your followers that you value their input and feedback. Also, take the time to like and comment on posts from your most engaged followers, initiating meaningful conversations and helping to build relationships.
Instagram carousels are a great way to engage followers with multi-image or video posts that keep users swiping through.
Carousels allow you to tell a story, share a series of tips, or highlight multiple products in a single post. Each swipe on a carousel increases your engagement rate, and Instagram’s algorithm often shows carousel posts to users multiple times, showcasing different images or videos within the carousel.
This gives your content more opportunities to be seen, drawing in followers who may have missed your first image or slide.
To make more of an impact, make each slide visually engaging and valuable on its own, encouraging people to swipe to see the next slide all the way through.
General hashtags are still relevant, especially for newer or small accounts, and using the right ones in your posts will help increase reach on Instagram.
Research popular hashtags within your niche or industry and include them strategically in your captions or comments. Aim for a mix of broad (400k – 800k) and specific hashtags (10k – 390k) to maximize your visibility and attract people who are interested in your content.
Tip: keep them saved in topic collections on a spreadsheet, Google document or scheduler like Planoly, Later etc.
Don’t miss this free resource download 👇
One thing I recommend is sharing more Instagram stories. When I did this, I started to notice that my stories weren’t just reaching my followers but they were often seen by non-followers too!
You can do this by sharing stories with interactive features like polls, quizzes, or question stickers to encourage engagement. As the more engagement your stories get the more reach you’ll get too as your stories will get shown to a wider range of people.
Ensure you are regularly sharing stories, so that you get seen more by your current followers and also to increase your visibility and discoverability – ultimately leading to new followers.
If you have a Facebook business account, you can schedule some of your stories so you don’t have to manually post them from your phone every time. I find doing this so helpful so I can batch schedule a few and not have to even think about it for a few weeks!
If you’re looking for engagement ideas for your stories have a look at this engaging Instagram Story templates kit with a variety of interactive and fun stories to entertain your audience.
Ok, so I don’t need to tell you that short-form videos can really boost your reach on Instagram!
The following tip is great for if you’re having a bad hair day, you’re out and about, away from your desk, or you simply don’t want to record a face-to-camera video.
Here’s my quick and easy reel creation method:
1. Find video clips that are free for commercial use. So search on Canva.com or Pixabay.com.
2. Choose a clip that relates to your brand in some way. For example, pet businesses could use a cat or dog clip. Eco-friendly brands could use a clip of forest trees, leaves in the breeze or a waterfall – you get the idea.
3. Upload to Reels and add some text and a short caption. This could be 3 things you did this week, an inspiring or entertaining quote, your brand ethos, a new product teaser (coming soon…!) or just asking your audience to subscribe to your newsletter.
4. Post it with some suitable music and there you have it, another quick and easy way of boosting your reach on Instagram.
Here’s an example:
However, if you don’t have time to create your reel videos from scratch – then consider this reels template kit. It includes a great selection of easy-to-edit short videos you can use for your reels and stories.
Ok so now you have some ideas on what to post next that’ll boost your reach on Instagram. I hope you’ve found these quick-to-do tips helpful.
If you’re looking for help with your social media content, take a look around our social media templates to help give your IG feed a glow-up and help speed up creating your content.
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