In this article we'll take an in-depth look into what kind of actions Upleap will do on your IG profile. By the end of this read, you should have an understanding of what the service exactly looks like and how it can fit into your needs.
The service revolves around the following key points:
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Unique Targeted Audience
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Following of accounts
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Unfollowing of accounts
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Liking of posts
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Story Viewing
Unique Targeted Audience (UTA)
The first thing you need to do, after connecting you Instagram account to our system, is setup your Unique Targeted Audience (UTA). The targeting should encompass people that you would like to attract to your Instagram account. It can be based on Geo Location, Interest, Gender or all three! Let's take a closer look at each of these.
Geo Location Targeting
If you're looking to increase your local reach, then this is what your primary focus should be on. This is usually a great fit for local businesses, trainers, real estate agents, restaurants, barber shops or any other type of Instagram account for which you wish more local recognition.
Based on our experience the best way to get the highest % of follow backs is to target by inserting usernames of Instagram accounts which you know have a good local audience. This can be IG accounts of significant local meeting points such as recognisable restaurants, coffee shops, and other local businesses. Basically, any Instagram that you think is followed by people locals! Even if the "interest" of this audience might not be fully in line with what you're looking for, they are still local and that in itself means a lot!
Pro tip: Make sure to check each of these IG accounts prior to adding them to the system. Make sure that the number of followers is matched by 5-15% engagement on posts.
Interest Targeting
When setting up your targeting make sure to include usernames of Instagram accounts you know are followed by people which have a similar interest to what you're offering. The safest bet is to go for competitor's Instagram accounts and target their audience. This usually yields great results, since those people are bound to be interested in your content.
If you don't have competitors per se use your best judgment. Add usernames of Instagram profiles which fit into the interest of your UTA persona. If you're selling jewellery made from recycled plastic, try targeting Instagram accounts from environmental groups or influencers that have an influence in the sphere!
This might take some trial and error, but once you tap into the right audience you're set to get some amazing reach. Of course, your dedicated account manager will help you iron the path out!
Gender Targeting
This highly appealing feature can be very useful for gender specific products and services. However, you have to keep in mind that this does not work 100% of the time. The reason behind this is that Instagram does not require its users to define their gender and also does not publicly disclose that gender.
Our system classifies users into 2 genders based on their first names. In our experience this is the best way to make an educated guess at scale. You can turn this filter on or off by selecting the gender you'd like to focus on.
Following of Accounts
Once we've identified your Unique Targeted Audience (UTA) the engagement cycle can begin. The first thing we do is that we Follow the Instagram account of your targeted user. At that point the user will see the Follow and will decide whether to follow you back or not.
When doing Follows we need to adhere to Instagrams daily and hourly rate limits. In short, Instagram lets you do only so many Follows in a day or even in an hour. We always try to make sure that we never cross these limits. Since these are not set in stone we use our accumulated experience and knowledge to determine how much is enough. With this in mind, you might see that some days our system will decide to do fewer follows than the day before. We are always trying to get the most growth for your account, but we will never put your account in jeopardy in order to get you more followers. It's in nobody's interest.
In most cases we do hundreds of follows per day and we aim for a 10% follow back. So, the follows should get you dozens of new followers per day. Keep in mind that Follows are only one of the things we do to grow your account. Keep reading to learn more!
Unfollowing of Accounts
Before we get into other ways we grow your account we need to make sure you keep a healthy Following to Followers ration. This means that your "Followings" are not just going to skyrocket. That'll make you look desperate and unprofessional.
After following an account we give the user 2 to 4 days before unfollowing them. Keep in mind that most of the users we followed will not follow you back, so this clean up is justified. However, there are always those that do follow you back. If you establish a relationship with a user (which is our ultimate goal) you have the option to "Whitelist" them. This means that we will not unfollow this account.
By default your total Followings number will never increase more than 800 followers from your starting point. Of course, these settings can be tweaked and changed based on your needs.
Liking of posts
We use likes to enhance engagement on your account. Let's us explain. On Instagram in order to get likes on your posts, you need to actively like posts of people you follow. You gotta share love to get love!
As soon as a user follows back your account we re-visit their profile and like 1-3 of their posts. They're bound to love it! As a reaction to this action we expect that they'll go to your account and like a few of your posts!
We don't just get you followers. We grow an engaging audience for you to capitalize on.
Story Viewing
We do two different types of Story Viewing. We view stories of people you're following (from your "Home Feed") but we will also view stories of people that have not followed you back yet i.e. UTA. The later is a growth method which yields great results in terms of new followers.
Home Feed Story Viewing
This is an important contributing factor to your account engagement on one hand, and on the overall account health on the other. Firstly, as for the Liking of posts, people like to see you engaging with their content and they'll return the favour. Secondly, when we do interactions through your account we need to make sure that we behave as you would in order to avoid triggering red flags from Instagram. A normal users does a number of different actions on their Instagram account. This is part of that general health score process.
UTA Story Viewing
This has much the same goal as Follows. We engage with people at scale and hope for them to re-engage back and follow you back. When we say at scale we mean it. We'll view thousands of stories from people that fit into you Unique Targeted Audience. Although followback % are much lower, we compensate that by using Instagrams much higher Story Viewing limits. You can expect dozens of followers per day when working at full pace!