minimalbelle - Blog Post 12

PR TIP: Discoverability tips for Instagram and TikTok that you may not be utilizing

Try out a few nifty tricks to help your

content to be more discoverable on IG and TikTok

Hi creators!

With Instagram's ever changing platform, we are all going through it. Low views, faulty in-app editor, and even lost content. I find TikTok to be a more stable platform but it can sometimes be as unpredictable as Instagram. If you are anything like I was, you have tried all the guru recommendations and nothing seems to be working.

As frustrated as I have been with the IG and TikTok algorithms, one thing that has surprisingly remained consistent is that my content is still being discovered where it matters. I am still being contacted by brands and there has not been a reduction in sponsored opportunities. I take this as a win, and continue to focus on creating a mixture of quality content and organic/raw content.

Here are a few tips to keep you discoverable where it matters:

Hashtags

Make sure that part of your #hashtagstrategy involves using niche-specific tags. If featuring a specific brand, use some of the hashtags followed by the brand. Before you post, select advanced setting and under write alt text, describe the photo or video. Include the hashtags you used in the caption in this section, as well. Be careful not to use hashtags that are tied to specific campaigns because these tend to grant the brand usage rights and you don't want the stress of figuring that out if your content is reposted without permission.

SEO Optimization

You can help your images and videos to be more easily discoverable on Tiktok and Instagram by placing significant words, phrases, and hashtags, also known as keywords, in the content and/or in the caption of the post. Consider the next two TikTok video examples. In the first video, keywords are included in the video itself, such as the brand name and product type. It also includes a large title with the type of product being featured. For the hashtags, I imagined under what searches I'd want people to find my content. "# onthegomakeup" is one of them. A tip for tiktok specifically is to type into the search bar a word or phrase of interest, and it will pull up what people have searched regarding that word or phrase, ranked from most to least searched. See example below.

The northwest-pointing arrow indicates that the topics listed are #trending. This is helpful because whichever topics apply to your video can be listed in your caption or applied as hashtags either in your video or caption. They could also be used via text in the video or picture itself.

#HotTip This list can also be inspiration for creators who are going through #creatorblock! While this example is from TikTok, the search bar functions similarly on Instagram and can be used both as a source of inspiration and as keywords on your content.

In this second video, I chose hashtags with the intention that my video is found when people are looking for SPFs with a high sun protection factor (# spf50) and sunscreens that would be suitable for darker skin tones (# sunscreenfordarkskin, # sunscreenforblackpeople). I also used large, legible captions in the video, which included the name of the sunscreen. In some videos, I have actually included keywords as minimized texts placed in the corner of the video.

TAGGING

This may seem obvious since most of us are already tagging the brands that we feature in posts (if you're not doing this, start doing it! And make sure to either watermark your videos or put a copyright note in the caption 👀). Apart from brands, have you considered tagging agencies? Magazines that feature similar styles of content to yours? Maybe even that celebrity (could be a skincare celebrity) whose comment or activity you're referencing in your post? These are more avenues that allow you and your content to be discovered by a wider audience, so take advantage of them when you can.