When you think about the big names in the social media space, some notable names come to mind including Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram. Most popular for both images and videos is Instagram boasting over 1 billion monthly active users. Most of these users have different tastes and preferences in content such as travel, fashion, sports, fitness, and technology. Many of these preferences form communities where they can engage like-minded users and share content.
One of the most popular communities is the sports community that brings its real-world comradery to Instagram. Due to the popularity of sports and the number of fans that are on Instagram, sports brands are taking notice and include social media as part of their marketing campaigns. With many brands and sports personalities joining in the app, it is important to understand how to engage with their fans on Instagram. Here are a few ways that can be done.
Create fun and attractive video content
Social media is all about content. But not just any content will make the cut, it must be high quality, entertaining and attractive to the users targeted. Since sports create a lot of excitement, fans are more interested in videos that contain exciting moments in sports whether it’s a basketball buzzer-beater, an NFL touchdown, or a world record-breaking moment. Those moments often generate the most excitement for fans and draw engagement. Analysis of games is also great for generating engagement through comments, likes, and shares. Fans love to know what is going on with their teams and some of their superstar players because this helps them bond with their team more.
Know what your fans want
Failing to plan is planning to fail. When it comes to the fans, you must understand what tickles their fancy because, at the end of the day, all content is geared toward engaging them. It is easy to focus on pushing content that elevates your brand rather than what users are interested in. Research into what content they enjoy, the formats, and when to share them goes a long way in guiding the type of content you share. More Instagram followers mean more eyes on the brand, and services like Growthoid use engagement and audience knowledge, to help build followers with no bots. This is how important engagement and interacting with your audience is. Since content is a make-or-break, understanding your audience’s tastes is very important in getting the message out about the sport.
Don’t forget about hashtags
Hashtags are one of the best guides to anything you may be looking for on social media. They are especially relevant on Instagram since they gather similar content which draws users with similar content tastes to engage with each other and reshare the content. Some of the best types of hashtags to watch out for are trending hashtags. Trending hashtags have already gained traction on the application and sharing content already shared there can bring some attention to your page through its proven popularity. Additionally, participating in the comments or recreating content that relates to the trending hashtag works to the benefit of your page. Branded hashtags also help get the word out for your brand especially for events and conferences relating to sports brands. They are unique to your brand which means they will only draw attention to your brand if they get popular.
Make the best out of features
Instagram may seem like any ordinary application with photos and videos but it goes even further than many applications providing extra tools and features to make your content stand out from the noise. Instagram offers different video formats whether short or long through their different features such as Reels, Stories, and IGLive. Short format videos are through Stories and Reels while IGLive can be used for longer format videos. Combined with music and different filters both for videos and photos, content creators have many tools to make their content entertaining for sports users on the application, which helps build more followers. It is important to stay up-to-date with new tools because they add new ones over time and you will not want to be left behind.
Conclusion
Sports and Instagram work well together when you create attractive content, understand your fans, use hashtags and take advantage of the tools on the app. Understanding the importance of these tips will help you create content that is relevant and draw in the kind of followers you want.