Instagram likes matter – a lot. Posts without likes never hit the Explore page or help you grow your follower base. And if you’re posting and not growing, what’s the point? Right? What we’re going to show you is:
- A simple step-by-step process to help you increase your likes.
- Strategic types of posts that almost guarantee a higher number of likes.
- Why spending money on marketing may be a good choice for you.
If you’re tired of your posts not receiving the engagement you know they deserve, start with step 1 and you’ll see a massive improvement quickly.
1. Don’t Use Filters ❌
Filters transform the way you look. You can have super clear skin, different color eyes or a completely new look with filters. But there’s also another thing you’ll have: less engagement.
Data across multiple studies show:
- Posts with filters receive less engagement.
- People are starting to view filters poorly.
And it makes sense. When you look at your feed and see dozens of posts from people who look exactly the same, you know why people are ignoring filters.
For your next posts, ditch the filters and see how much of a difference they make for your engagement, especially likes. You may have to change up the style of posts you make, such as taking a selfie at your desk instead of somewhere else, but it is worth the effort.
2. Create a Hashtag Strategy
Hashtags are one of the ways to get more instagram likes that people are using less and less, but they always work for our internal testing. We’ve grown quite a number of accounts and once we add hashtags, it’s a lot easier to gain traction on our posts.
You never want to go in and add dozens of hashtags to a single post because it will look unnatural.
Instead, here’s what you need to do to succeed with hashtags:
- Research the tags you want to try using. How many people use the tags? Are they too saturated?
- Find high-volume hashtags and low-volume ones to be able to increase your likes confidently.
What we recommend that you do is find 30 – 40 good hashtags that you can use for multiple types of posts. If you rotate between hashtags and add in high- and low-volume ones, you’ll start getting more people to see your content based on the hashtags you enter.
3. Run a Likes-Base Contest
Contests are fun, and people will always want to win something for free. Some contests require people to tag a friend or two, which is great for follower growth, but you can also use this same strategy to increase your likes.
What works very well for accounts and brands of all sizes is running a contest that requires a user to:
- Follow your account
- Like one of your posts
- Tag a friend
If you have more than one account, you can ask the person to follow each of them to be entered in the drawing multiple times.
But you will need to give something away for free, which is 100% up to you and the niche you choose.
4. Ask People to Tag Their Friends 📢
Even if you’re not running a contest, you can ask people to tag their friends in the comments. Tagging is a great way to get more followers, and it will also help you get more likes in the process.
A simple, “tag your friend and ask them to like this post” will suffice.
Your followers will be more than happy to help you by tagging their friends who might find your posts interesting or insightful.
5. Add Your Post Location📍
Location tags are a great way to boost your post likes, but people want to see posts from somewhere interesting. If you’re posting from your small town with 5 people, chances are this strategy won’t work for you.
But if you post from one of the following, you’ll be shocked what tagging your location can do for your likes:
- Major cities
- Sporting arenas
- Tourist hotspots
If you go to Trevi Fountain and add your post location, anyone who looks at the location will see your post underneath the Recent tab. Posts that get even more traction will be under the Top tab, which will help them get even more likes.
6. Hop on a Meme or Trend
Trends come and go, but the engagement they send your way is priceless. You need to be quick with this step because there’s no guarantee of a meme or trend that’s popular today being popular tomorrow.
But, what we want you to do is keep a close eye on the trends or memes that are working very well right now.
If you see a new trend, follow it and create content around it immediately. While this is a short-term solution for getting likes, we can confidently say that it works time and time again.
7. Post a Variety of Content Types
Posting on any social media platform is tiring. You have to post to keep engagement high, and your creativity suffers as a result. And at the end of it all, you’ll be left creating posts that are very similar over and over again.
And when you fall into this rut, you’ll watch your likes go down.
Posting various types of content takes a lot of effort, but it’s worth it in the end. You’ll want to add the following to your rotation:
- Stories
- Videos / Reels
- Images
- Carousels
On top of varying the type of posts you make, also change up the content. Post behind the scenes reels, selfies and anything that is not within your normal routine.
8. Add a Call to Action
Your followers want to see your posts and have a vested interest in you as a creator. Follow in the footsteps of big brands and influencers and add a call to action to your post.
Why?
It’s simple. Adding a call to action is quite powerful because it’s telling someone exactly the next steps that you want them to take. A simple, “like this post” can increase the number of likes you receive.
We don’t want you to take our word for it. Add this type of call to action to your next post and see what happens.
9. Post at the Right Time & Consistently 🕒
Consistency is key to getting likes on Instagram. You must be consistent to:
- Post on a schedule.
- Post at specific times.
But we’ve heard bad things about scheduling tools, such as Hootsuite and Buffer. Both platforms work well, but there are reports that engagement falls when using a tool like this.
Instead, try to commit to posting most of your content manually.
Posting at the right time is necessary, and you have to consider the timezones of your followers. You can see this information within the Insights tab. Ideal times to post based on tons of data are:
- 10am – 2pm on weekdays
- 10am – 4pm on Tuesday and Wednesday
Experiment with different posting times to see what works for you and what doesn’t. Your goal is to post at the best times when your followers are more likely to be online and see your posts. Otherwise, your posts will be drowned out by the sea of other posts people make.
10. Share Your Content Across Platforms
Do you have a following on BlueSky, TikTok, Snap, Facebook or any of the other social media networks we’re overlooking? If so, share your content across these platforms so that it’s easier for you to:
- Quickly get new followers.
- Increase your likes.
Followers or subscribers across multiple social networks have an interest in you and the posts that you make. Share your Instagram posts any time you can to help them have an easier time following and liking your content.
11. Invest Money in Buying Likes 💸
If you’ve followed the first ten steps on how to get more likes on Instagram, you’re in good shape. Likes are going up and you’re well on your way to the engagement goal that you have for your account.
You can now level up your likes by buying them.
It’s a bit of a taboo subject among social media marketers and influencers, but many choose to purchase likes because they’re affordable and work well. We do recommend that you monitor this process very carefully because you want to:
- Buy likes from real accounts and not bots.
- Avoid purchasing likes from more than one provider at a time.
We’ve had good success with this step, but it is optional if it’s not something in your budget just yet.
How Many Likes Do Normal Posts Receive?
Likes depend on the niche and amount of followers you have. We’ve seen some posts get 1000s of likes and others get 10s, but both were high for their respective niche and followers.
Should I Set My Profile to Public?
Yes. We recommend that you set your profile to public because private profiles are only seen by existing followers.
Why is My Engagement Going Down?
Instagram’s algorithm is a mystery. Read any forum or group on marketing, and you’ll see people asking how to get more likes on Instagram because their engagement completely fell off the cliff.
Why?
No one knows. Engagement will fluctuate. If you notice a steep decline in engagement, keep posting and follow the steps above. With consistency, you’ll start getting more comments and likes again.
