After hours of researching the best practices to reach non-followers on my restaurant client’s IG account, I keep accumulating the same 8-10 “Best Practices” on every website.
I thought I would put it out here and see if any of you have cracked the secret that nobody is talking about to reaching non-followers?
Best answer by hannah.bradach
For most of our clients, the ways that seem to work best is:
Content that you can tag business partners in so they’ll reshare
Also good if you can post Reels with tagged collaborators, or can offer something to micro influencers like a free date night in exchange for a Reel where your business is tagged as a collaborator
Occasional giveaways that involve sharing or tagging a friend
Copy that encourages comments like a tag a friend that you’d take to this happy hour (something more fun but just to give the goal)
Paid promo of posts that exclude current followers if it’s within budget
For most of our clients, the ways that seem to work best is:
Content that you can tag business partners in so they’ll reshare
Also good if you can post Reels with tagged collaborators, or can offer something to micro influencers like a free date night in exchange for a Reel where your business is tagged as a collaborator
Occasional giveaways that involve sharing or tagging a friend
Copy that encourages comments like a tag a friend that you’d take to this happy hour (something more fun but just to give the goal)
Paid promo of posts that exclude current followers if it’s within budget
I recently read that Instagram has shared it judges Reels on how much engagement they receive within the first 30 minutes of posting to decide how widely they should be distributed to users’ feeds. So I guess take that for what it is worth. :)
I’ve seen good reach by using timely hashtags tied to trending topics and posting short, engaging videos with captions—those pull in way more scroll-stoppers from outside my usual audience.
I boosted engagement on a few of my posts using https://buzzvoice.com/instagram/likes/order and noticed a spike in reach, even from non-followers. I think the early engagement helped push the content onto Explore more often. Also, using popular audio and posting carousel formats has brought in new eyes. Mixing trending topics with niche hashtags that aren't too saturated worked better for me than generic popular ones.
Got to say the easiest way to reach non-followers on Instagram is Reels. Grid posts and stories just get attention from followers unless you collab, and even then it’s difficult to judge the exposure unless you’re the originator of the post.
But even then things can be sketchy and at the whim of the algorithm. Jury still out on what, if any, impact hashtag choice has these days. But trending audio can help and jumping on trends.
As an end user you’ll notice if you watch a type of Reel for a certain duration, or engage with a type of content on Reels the algorithm will quickly force more of the same from other accounts and the same account pretty quickly. You have to balance if that exposure on a trend/audio serves your overall strategic goals though. If they don’t covert to followers was it worth it?
I recently read that Instagram has shared it judges Reels on how much engagement they receive within the first 30 minutes of posting to decide how widely they should be distributed to users’ feeds. So I guess take that for what it is worth. :)
This is similar to TikTok, where it judges based on the first 100 people it shows the content and how they interact with it.
Create an Account
Current Sprout Customer or have an account already? Login for community access.