Forget 'Viral.' How to Get Likes on Instagram, Actually.
Look, I'm going to be straight with you. I was talking to a new client last month-a fantastic little bakery in Minneapolis-and they were completely obsessed with a single number: their likes per post. They were spending hours agonizing over hashtags, posting times, all of it. And their engagement was flat. Why? Because they were asking the wrong question.
The question isn't "how to get more likes on instagram." The real question is "how do I get people to actually care about what I'm posting?"
I've been doing this since 2010, and honestly, the endless chase for vanity metrics is probably the single biggest waste of time for small businesses. We’ve got to stop. Likes are nice, they're a signal. But they aren't the business itself. They are the start of something, not the end goal.
First, Let's Be Honest About What 'Likes' Actually Mean
Here's the thing. A 'like' is the lowest possible form of engagement. It’s a mindless double-tap someone does while waiting for their coffee or, let's be real, sitting on the toilet. It doesn't mean they're going to buy from you. It doesn't mean they'll remember you tomorrow. It just means your photo was momentarily pleasing.
And frankly, the advice out there is mostly garbage. "Join an engagement pod!" "Buy 1000 likes for $5!" Please. Don't do that. It’s like stuffing your tip jar with your own money-it looks good for a second, but you haven't actually earned anything and you look foolish. You're just telling the Instagram algorithm that your content appeals to bots in a server farm somewhere. Not helpful.
What a 'like' should be is an indicator. It's a sign that someone is raising their hand, saying "Hey, I'm mildly interested." Our job isn't just to collect those hand-raises, it's to turn them into a conversation. A sale. A loyal customer.
You Can't Just "Hack" Your Way to Engagement
I see so many businesses trying to find the one weird trick that'll get them on the explore page. The magic hashtag. The perfect filter.
Listen, your content still has to be decent. I'm not saying you need a professional photographer on retainer, but blurry photos of your product in bad lighting aren't going to cut it. But you do not need a massive production budget either. Most of my clients find that just having a few core "pillars" of content-like, for a coffee shop it might be 1) behind-the-scenes coffee making, 2) customer spotlights, and 3) local community events-is more than enough.
The problem is that even with good content, you're still just one post in a sea of a million others. You're being passive. You're hoping someone stops scrolling.
Around 2018 I had this realization... what if we stopped hoping they'd engage and started inviting them to?
Okay, So How Do You Make People Actually Care?
This is where I get into gamification. Yeah, I know, it sounds buzzwordy and annoying, but stick with me. It’s not as complicated as it sounds. Basically, it just means turning a passive experience (scrolling) into an active one (playing).
People are wired to play. We love a challenge, a chance to win, a little dopamine hit. They might not 'like' another picture of your product, but they absolutely will play a quick game to win 15% off of it.
For years, this was hard to do. It required custom coding or clunky, expensive platforms. But now... it's gotten so much easier. I've been using this platform, Faisco, with a bunch of my clients because it's built for small businesses who dont have a marketing department. (I've tried them all-Gleam. io, Woobox, you name it-and they're either too expensive or too complicated for the average shop owner).
I had a client, a coffee shop in Chicago, who was struggling to grow their Instagram. We set up a simple "Whac-A-Mole" game using Faisco. The prize was a free espresso shot with any purchase. To play, you had to follow them on Instagram. In two weeks-two weeks-they got 1,101 new, real, local followers. And the likes on their posts? They naturally went up, because now they had an audience of people who had actually interacted with them.
Games That Actually Work (And Don't Cost a Fortune)
Here's what I've seen work over and over again.
There are these "Instant Draw" games like a Lucky Spin or a Scratch Ticket. These are pure gold for getting email subscribers or direct engagement. I ran a Scratch Ticket campaign for a craft brewery out in Phoenix; the prize was a BOGO pint. We put the link in their Instagram Story. They got 3,008 story views in 10 days. Why? Because people felt they had a real chance to win something instantly. It's that immediate feedback.
Then there's the "Reactive Games" like Whac-A-Mole or Burger Stacker. These are brilliant because they're skill-based, which makes people want to share their scores and challenge friends. That’s organic marketing you can't buy.
And the seasonal stuff is just a no-brainer. Faisco has all these templates for Christmas, Halloween, Black Friday... I used their "Fill My Christmas Stocking" game with three different retail clients this past December, and each one saw 300%+ engagement compare to their regular holiday posts. It cuts through the noise.
The best part? I can set one of these campaigns up for a client in under 10 minutes. No agency fees. No waiting for a developer. It just... works.
So, What Can You Do This Week?
Alright, let's make this practical. I don't want you to just read this and go back to staring at your like count.
- Stop obsessing. Seriously. Take a deep breath and accept that 'likes' are not the goal. Building a real audience is.
- Find a tiny prize. What's one small thing you can give away? A 10% discount code? A free sticker with the next order? A 2-page PDF guide? It does not have to be big.
- Try a simple game. Honestly, just go try a tool like Faisco. Set up a "Lucky Spin" game. It'll take you a few minutes. Make your tiny prize the reward for playing.
- Put the link in your bio. Change your Instagram bio link to the game link and make one post about it. Say, "Want a chance to win 10% off? Play our new game! Link in bio."
That’s it. You're not going to get a million followers overnight-and you should run from anyone who tells you that you will. But what you will get are real people interacting with your brand in a fun way. You'll get email sign-ups. You'll get more foot traffic. And yeah... the likes will come, too. But by then, you might find you don't care about them as much anymore.
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