What started as a nice little addition to the Instagram feed of big brands is now an essential part of any Instagram marketing strategy for big and small businesses.
To give you the best answer to the question of how to host an IG takeover, it is necessary first to explain what an IG takeover is:
An Instagram takeover is a popular IG scenario where a brand lets another outside (or inside) host run their Instagram account for some time. The hosts can post their own content to their Instagram feed, create Instagram Stories, or go live.
Now that we’ve clarified what we’ll talk about today, let’s get down to business!
Instagram Takeover 101
Although we’re here to explain how to host an IG takeover, we’re sure that you’re also interested in answering this question:
Why do people do Instagram takeovers?
Whichever way you decide to execute them, IG takeovers are a sure way to get many benefits for both parties.
The company’s Instagram account gets a surge of new followers, spices up its content calendar, increases brand awareness and engagement, builds more genuine relationships within its community, and encourages user-generated content.
The Instagram takeover partner – an influencer or a community member hosting the takeover – gets to enjoy the same amount of benefits, by the way. By managing the brand’s account for a while, they get exposed to a new audience and increase their following.
So, it’s a win-win.
Let’s look at the perfect example of a win-win Instagram takeover scenario:
Shreya from @codewithshreya, who was doing an Instagram Stories takeover with Coding Vibes, perfectly blended within the Coding Vibes’ following.
By answering their audience’s questions, she:
1) She generated a ton of engagement on the brand’s profile.
2) She got a lot of exposure with a perfectly targeted audience.
Of course, the benefits you would get largely depend on which route you decide to take when doing Instagram Stories takeovers.
Key Reasons Why Your Brand Needs An IG Takeover
If you’re hoping to give your Instagram presence a boost, look no further than an Instagram takeover.
Why, you may ask?
Well, here are the top three reasons why your brand needs an Instagram takeover:
- Serves As A Great Hype Machine An Instagram takeover is like having a personal hype machine. Inviting someone to post content on your company’s Instagram account can generate fresh and engaging content showcasing your company culture, behind-the-scenes moments, or new product launches. Plus, collaborating with an influencer, employee, or partner brand can also help you attract interest from your target audience and gain new followers.
- Builds Credibility Want to establish yourself as an authority in your industry? By partnering with an influencer or industry expert, you can leverage their knowledge and expertise to showcase your brand’s knowledge and authority in your field. That can help you attract new followers, build credibility, and increase your brand’s influence.
- Increases Brand Awareness An effective Instagram takeover can increase your brand’s awareness among your target audience. By promoting the takeover on your company’s Instagram Stories and other social media channels and using a branded hashtag for the takeover, you can attract new followers to your Instagram account. During the takeover, encourage your takeover host to cross-promote the content on their Instagram account, increasing the reach of the takeover. You can also use Instagram live videos to engage your audience and promote the takeover.
To ensure a successful Instagram takeover, create a strategy that outlines your goals, the type of account takeover you want to run, and the takeover content.
On that note, you can do Instagram Stories takeovers, a full account takeover, or a partial account takeover to showcase your brand’s unique personality. And, of course, be sure to pick an Instagram takeover partner that resonates with your target audience and aligns with your brand’s values – which brings us to the “who” part.
Who Can Host An Instagram Takeover?
Instagram takeovers are typically run by one of the three following types of hosts:
- Influencers – These are arguably the most popular Instagram takeover hosts that can introduce a brand to their specific and niche audience and drive a ton of targeted engagement. Of course, a detailed investigation into an influencer’s credibility, overall style, and community engagement should be performed to ensure they’re the right fit.
- Employees & Team Members – Company employees take over the account to show behind-the-scenes and company culture. Granted, employee takeovers won’t typically bring many new Instagram followers, but they’re a fun way to raise brand awareness, entice engagement, and gain credibility. Also, it’s a nice way to showcase a new product launch or preparation.
- Members Of The Community & Regular Customers – Choosing customers as Instagram takeover hosts is an amazing way for companies to show credibility, generosity, and relatability. Plus, it’s a great way to drive engagement on the company’s Instagram account via user-generated content.
How Instagram Takeovers Work: 6 Easy Steps To Host A Successful Takeover
Now that we’ve answered the questions of who and why, it’s time to share some concrete tips and tricks on hosting an IG takeover on your brand’s Instagram account.
1. Determine Your Goal
Of course, defining the specific goal is always the first step in any action. You must have a clear vision and end goal to pick the right guest for your IG takeover, decide which metrics to follow, and define a game plan.
2. Decide On Takeover Logistics & Content Format
The Instagram app allows for various types of takeover formats. It’s up to you to choose which type makes the most sense for your personal brand and goal.
Here’s what we mean by that:
A product launch event will typically get more attention if done in a live setting. And if your feed features light and cheerful colors and filters, then you probably wouldn’t want to have posts by an influencer with a dark and gloomy aesthetic; it wouldn’t look authentic or natural on your feed.
With that said, Instagram takeovers usually run in these three categories:
- Instagram posts, where takeover guests post videos and photos directly to a brand’s IG feed.
- Instagram Stories, which is perfect for brands that want their aesthetic to remain unchanged by different styles. They can instruct the takeover user to use IG Stories for these purposes.
- Instagram Live is an interactive, short form of a takeover that lets guests interact with followers in real-time.
Again, deciding on a type of takeover format largely depends on the goals of the takeover campaign and the level of trust between a brand and guest.
Of course, any format would bring results.
Let’s get into the details of these IG takeover formats to get a clearer picture of each approach!
Instagram Posts
This approach is great for longer takeovers that will last around a week.
An influencer or a community member posts directly to the brand’s Instagram gallery. These posts usually include “a-day-in-the-life” or “a-week-in-the-life” type of posts in the case of an influencer, where they show how the brand is involved in their daily work or life routine.
For instance, the artist Lee Nowell-Wilson took over the IG account of the contemporary gallery IA&A at Hillyer for a #takeovertuesday, and his work blends perfectly with the rest of the grid. You can check out one of his posts here.
IG posts are a great format to keep your guests from having full access to your account. They can create the posts and send them to you for approval and posting.
That way, you’re allowed more control.
However, in terms of your style and aesthetic, this can get tricky sometimes, as the content style might not necessarily blend in nicely with your grid tone.
Instagram Story
IG stories are a fun and interactive format that leaves room for lots of creativity. Plus, it’s a chance to have multiple guests and do a whole series of Instagram Story takeovers for a specific campaign, for example.
You can mix it up and have a different influencer do an Instagram Story takeover each day for a week.
Oh, and here’s another great benefit:
Your gallery remains intact – while you still get all the perks in terms of engagement boost and a ton of following.
Instagram Live
Letting your guests go live on your IG for an hour provides a great environment for interactivity, promotion, and brand awareness building.
You’d have to provide full access to your account, though, so make sure it’s someone you completely trust to have your business’s best interest at heart.
IG live takeover is an awesome format to let your guests’ audience in on your major events, milestones, or simple Q&A sessions that can help get your brand on their minds and direct some of the following your way.
3. Don’t Forget The Hashtags
As you can tell, much work and joint effort go into organizing and executing an IG takeover. So, don’t miss the opportunity of giving it the spotlight it deserves.
Develop a killer hashtag strategy to gain visibility in the searches and secure the long-lasting effect of your results.
Include your pre-planned hashtags if the Instagram takeover is part of a pre-designed campaign. In other cases, explore the popular ones like #takeovertuesday and #takeover – but don’t overlook some less competitive ones, like #livetakeover or #takeoverlive.
It’s all about balancing the general and the more specific hashtags.
Going all general comes with the risk of not getting noticed among the millions of posts. In contrast, the combo of the general and specific ones gets you enough traffic and creates the best chance of getting discovered by the target audience.
Or, leave the heavy lifting to us, and let our hashtag generator create a bespoke set of hashtags for each of your campaigns.
4. Promote Your IG Takeover
Now that you’ve decided on the right guest and format, it’s go time.
Well, not right away – in a second.
You still need to ensure your and your guest’s team effort doesn’t get unnoticed on social media.
Promote the upcoming takeover at least a day in advance to secure the best results. And we’re not only talking about posting a single post or Instagram Story; far from it. You should utilize every channel to get your interested audience to mark their calendars.
On that note, use the same takeover event promotion image to invite your and your guest’s audience. Cross-promote content on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and any other social media you and your guest are on.
5. Launch Your IG Takeover
Finally, it’s game time!
Whether you decided on a full account takeover where the guest goes live and has full control – or a curated approach where you approve all Instagram posts – your job is not done yet.
Make sure to be present in case anything goes off-script. Even if everything runs smoothly, be sure to monitor the comments, take part in the conversation with your Instagram followers, and use this opportunity to show character and credibility.
6. Analyze And Optimize Your Results
No, you’re still not done…
IG takeovers are a powerful marketing tactic. However, it takes some analysis of the key metrics, including likes, comments, and direct messages, to truly understand its impact – and learn what to optimize in the future.
Sounds fun, right?
Well, it can be if you’ve got the right tools to help you out – and we’ve got just the perfect solution:
Manage and track your IG takeover results from a super intuitive dashboard with FlockSocial – and get your target audience’s attention quickly!
IG Takeover FAQs
Q: How do I host a successful Instagram takeover?
For starters, you need a clear strategy and plan. You should set specific goals and expectations for the takeover – including the type of content and the timeframe. Then, choose your takeover host carefully based on their relevance to your target audience and your brand’s values – and be sure to provide guidelines for your takeover host, including tips on promoting the takeover and engaging with your audience. Most importantly, don’t forget to promote the takeover across your other social media channels to attract interest. Finally, track the takeover’s performance – and analyze the results to determine its effectiveness.
Q: How often should I host Instagram takeovers?
The frequency of your Instagram takeovers depends on your specific goals and your audience’s preferences. It’s best to plan your takeovers strategically and space them out to avoid overwhelming your followers, though. Consider hosting one takeover per month or every few months, depending on your takeover partners’ availability and overall social media strategy.
Q: Should I share my password with another user?
Sharing your Instagram account password with another user for a full takeover is not recommended. Instead, consider using Instagram’s built-in features to allow partial account access, such as granting access to your Instagram Stories or creating a separate login for your takeover partner. Alternatively, you can work with your takeover partner to make their content and give them access to images and other materials that they can use to promote the takeover.
How Can Flocks Social Help You Grow Your Instagram Account?
Flock Social is an Instagram growth service offering numerous benefits for brands and influencers alike. We’re not here to show off, though, so here’s a quick overview of how Flock Social can help take your social media game to the next level.
For starters, we make it easy to set up your account. With a few clicks, you’ll get access to an online dashboard to connect your Instagram account securely.
From there, you can set up your targeting by adding Instagram accounts – including influencers in your niche, competitors, and similar accounts. You can also add hashtags and set up filters to optimize your targeting even further.
But that’s not all:
Flock Social also provides a range of advanced insights for tracking your progress and optimizing your strategy.
The insights dashboard lets you monitor your follower growth, engagement rates, and other important metrics. That can help you make informed decisions, adjust your targeting, and improve your overall performance.
Need help along the way?
Flock Social offers friendly support to help you anytime you need it. Whether you have questions about using the platform or need help optimizing your targeting, the Flock Social team is here to help.
Most importantly, though, we guarantee meaningful engagement from real users. Your Instagram followers, likes, and comments will come from real people who are truly interested in your content.
With us, you can build a real audience that will support your brand for years.
So, what are you waiting for?
Flock Social is the growth service you’ve been looking for to boost your Instagram presence and attract new followers!
Conclusion
That would be it on the topic of how to host an IG takeover. Here’s what to keep in mind:
Instagram takeovers can be a powerful marketing tool that can result in follower growth and engagement and increase brand awareness.
And, as mentioned, a successful Instagram takeover can come in many forms, including a full or partial account takeover, employee takeover, influencer takeover, Instagram Live video, and takeover Stories.
The key is to have a well-planned takeover strategy that aligns with your brand’s Instagram presence and target audience.
To ensure your takeover is effective, following the Instagram takeover guidelines and having an approval process in place is essential. And don’t forget to track your takeover’s performance and gain valuable insights for future takeovers.
To conclude, Instagram collabs provide a unique opportunity for your brand to showcase your content while collaborating with a takeover partner to reach a new audience.
As you prepare to host your first successful Instagram takeover, consider using Flock Social to grow your Instagram account even further. Sign up today and take your social media game to the next level!
