Instagram FAQ — All You Need to Know

Clara -

We’ve collected all the frequently asked questions about Instagram and promotion on the platform.

If you’re reading this story, you already know what Instagram is and why every blogger or entrepreneur uses it. So with no introduction, let’s move straight to the point — frequently asked questions about Instagram.

What are Instagram promotion methods?

With the implementation of new Instagram features and algorithms, it’s getting harder to promote your account without paid ads. But still, there are some relatively free (and yet effective) ways of promotion.

Follow/Unfollow

This method is somewhat controversial, but if you use it wisely, it may work rather well. To make the method work, follow people who have the same interests as yours, who create similar content, and pay attention to the content of your own account. No strategy will do the job if your page is empty or full of useless posts. Don’t follow random people. With Combin, you can find the accounts that will potentially like your page and will follow you back.

To get genuine followers but not bots, follow active users, i.e., commenters or likers. But don’t exceed Instagram daily limits (we’ll talk about them below).

Mass commenting

If you want to gain new followers using this way, try to comment as a real person. No need to post short words or emojis because Instagram will consider them as spam and will not promote the page of those you comment. And people rarely react to such bot comments, so if you want to attract people’s attention, comment like a human.

Mass liking

A rather well-working strategy, by the way. The principle here is similar to the one with follow/unfollow. You should like those users which most possibly will like you back. Same interests and related content are a must. This is an easy and free way to get the target audience to your page. This can be done either manually, which is rather long, or via specialized software. But again, don’t forget about daily limits.

Mass Story viewing

Or sometimes it’s called mass looking. Many users start noticing that a number of their Stories views increased a bit. The reason is mass Story viewing. It’s a relatively new way of Instagram promotion. Some tools allow users to look through millions of Stories per day. What’s the point in that strategy, you wonder. The thing is that it may work really well with micro-accounts. Users with big followers counts will hardly notice who watch their Stories, but people with a small number of followers usually do. Millions Stories views sound tempting, of course, but developers of such apps recommend viewing about 200–300 thousand Stories daily.

Engagement groups

These are groups in DMs where all the members enhance each other’s activity — like and comment on each other’s posts and view videos of one another. The primary purpose of such groups is to drive up the ER and get their posts on the Explore Page.

What are the daily limits?

Instagram doesn’t officially claim how many likes, comments, f/u, or Direct messages users may do daily, but Instagrammers test it by themselves. Though precise limits are not covered, there are things that influence your daily actions restriction.

  • Age of your account
  • Followers count
  • Engagement rate

New Instagram accounts (not older than three months) have stricter limits, that’s why it’s so important to increase your automatic actions on Instagram gradually. Instagram analyzes your previous activity, and it may look suspicious if your activity boosts at once.

Follow/unfollow limits

The daily limit for follow/unfollow actions is about 200–300 a day, BUT if you only start using automation services, gradually increase your actions. Instagram will suspend you if after two years of non-active use you will follow and then unfollow up to 300 per day.

Likes limits

Not more than 1,000 daily. But again, it all depends on your account. To protect your account from getting flagged, do not exceed 600 likes a day.

Comments limits

Accounts older than one year can leave 10–15 comments per hour. Another essential thing in automatic commenting is comment duplicates. Instagram analyzes and recognizes them, so text different things under different posts. In Combin, you can do it easily.

Direct messages limits

Send up to 50–80 DMs to keep your account away from the danger zone.

Important note for your automation experience — don’t automate everything at once. Optimize and change your automation actions, mix strategies so that Instagram will not detect you use some third-party tools for that. Leave some of your tasks organic. For example, direct messages or comments can be easily made manually.

Hashtags

I won’t talk too much about hashtags here. Everything I’ll point out is that you should mix hashtags of different density, use real-time popular hashtags (only if they can be somehow reflect your post or business), and avoid putting the same hashtag pack under each post.

How do Instagram algorithms work?

Simply put, Instagram shows you only the posts you will possibly react to. The platform analyzes your interaction with other blogs and showcases publications that are interesting for you. Sometimes Instagram is wrong, and the posts we see on the Explore Page or in our feed are not at all valuable for us. Then Instagram analyzes our activity again and decides whether to show us similar content next time or not. Similar principles work in Stories and IGTV.

Does shadowban exist?

To make a long story short, it does. Sure, there are opinions that shadowban is a myth, but it’s very easy to check if your account got shadowbanned. A removed post, having your account reported, getting over the daily limits are factors that may lead to the shadowban.

How to make money on Instagram?

Unlike YouTube, Instagram doesn’t pay its bloggers for the content they make on the platform. So the bloggers need to find something else to make money on. What can an Instagram blogger do to monetize their time and efforts?

  • Selling ads

This method is a perfect fit for bloggers with high ER because followers of such influencers will more likely react to the ads and buy a product. But some brands prefer to work with micro-influencers.

  • Shoutouts

When a blogger posts something with an offer to follow some particular account. This is a nice way for blogger with not a vast audience to promote themselves or other similar bloggers.

  • Merchandise

Bloggers selling clothes, coffe cups and teacups, or stationery with their names or logos on them are also typically rather famous and have a loyal audience who buy this stuff.

  • Checklists or other value

If a blogger is a professional in some niche, it’s an easy way to sell the knowledge at a reasonable price. For example, fitness bloggers or trainers can sell tutorials with exercises; fashion influencers can make up lists with new trends or something similar. The main point here is to sell something really valuable and unique, not something any of us can find on the Internet for free.