Going live on Instagram is a really popular strategy for bloggers, brands, and influencers. The social media giant is clearly keen to reward people who are using its platform to go live, but it is not always easy to get started.
The benefit of this approach to Instagram is that you are usually rewarded by showing right at the top left of peoples’ feeds and with a little red ring around the profile picture and a tag to show people that they can watch something happening in real time.
When you log on and see somebody’s stream has thousands of views, it can feel a little intimidating. As for a new brand or blogger, it can feel really hard to get to any sort of respectable level of followers.
In this guide, we’re demystifying some of the methods of getting a lot of viewers and discussing some tactics you can use to try and replicate the huge bloggers and fashion brands to try and get an army of fans watching your videos.
Where to begin?
At the very start, it is important to be realistic. It can be really hard to build up a decent level of followers, and you may have to invest in the video platform.
You can buy Instagram live views to help to grow your video, fanbase of viewers and ensure you have someone to engage with, as well as avoid the embarrassment of going live to just a few select watchers.
What is Instagram Live?
Before we explore some of the tips and tricks to grow viewers and the methods used by fashion bloggers and brands, let’s look at what Instagram Live is.
This is a broadcast that can be started at any time or scheduled in advance. Instagram also has “Rooms” where people can go live together in groups of up to four, even from separate locations.
Instagram Live is an interactive platform with the chance for people to leave reactions and comments, and as Insta pushes for more people to use the streaming function, they tend to reward those who are doing so, making it a great way to grow your account and build interest.
How People Get a Lot of Viewers
There are a lot of different techniques involved in getting viewers, and though slightly different methods may work for different accounts and users, there is a general formula and some tips that people can use in their broadcasts.
Have Something Interesting to Show People
Even if you have an amazing, engaging personality, it isn’t always enough to just go live in your office and expect people to watch.
Instead, give some thought to what you are going to actually show people. Fashion bloggers can do this to great effect, usually by showing off their outfits and providing product reviews. For example let’s have a look on the Insta account of Chriselle Lim with 1.4M followers.
You can also make use of the fact that the industry has a lot of events, and people love to visit them. If you can’t visit those events yourself, then what are you going to do? Log in and try to find someone who is filming the event on Instagram, of course. By showing people an event they are interested in participating in, you can ensure you actually have something to entice people. For instance, fashion blogger Alina Frendiy (1M followers) from Ukraine on Milan Fashion Week:
Similar tactics are used all the time by travel bloggers, who have proven to be some of the most-savvy users of the feature over the years. They are usually on the go and visit new locations, which means they have exciting things to show people on their channels. Who doesn’t want to live vicariously through a travel blogger and their experiences?
You might want to get a little creative with this, but ensure that you are here for a reason and with a plan. You shouldn’t just go for the opportunity to ramble at your fans, especially not while you are still building up your fanbase. If you go live once and manage to bore your audience, don’t expect them to come back.
Appear at the Right Times
It is important that you don’t go live when it isn’t a success. So, if the majority of your audience is at work or they are likely to be asleep, being live is simply not going to achieve anything.
There are a lot of great resources on the best times to post on Instagram and the best times to go live to try and maximize your viewers. Think of it like running a television channel, you wouldn’t schedule your hit show to go out at 4 am when the majority of people are going to be sleeping.
The right time can vary depending on a number of factors, and your target audience will dictate this, so it is worth keeping the statistics and gathering information regarding when you go live and the sort of reaction this gets. Here are some basic things to consider when choosing the right time:
- Day of the week;
- Whether it is a regular day or a holiday;
- Time of the day.
Incentivize Viewers
Another way to get people to watch your broadcast is to give them a simple incentive. For instance, some streaming on Instagram Live will introduce contests or give out discount codes on their streams.
This is a way to encourage people to watch your broadcast and continue to pay attention all the way through. From here, you may have a chance to try and spark people’s interest.
Plan and Hype the Broadcast in Advance
While there are times when the opportunity might present itself to go live, most of the top broadcasts happen after some planning and some hyping.
If you already have a lot of followers on social media, you can use this to your advantage. Tell your Twitter or Facebook followers you’ll be live at 7 pm, for example, and watch them queue up to see the content.
On top of this, planning can allow you to know what you are going to say and how you are planning to engage with your audience. A “script” might not be your style, but this doesn’t mean you don’t need to do any planning.
If you are mentioning promotions or providing a call to action for your viewers, make sure that this is clear and that you have all of the information before the broadcast starts.
Summary
At the moment, Instagram seems to be putting a lot of focus on its Live content, growing the site into a streaming platform as well as image and video-sharing juggernaut. It makes perfect sense for the average user to take advantage of this and use the streaming functionality to grow their channel and even grow their business as a result.
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