How to Get a Shoutout on Instagram in 2021

Are you an Instagram user who wants to increase the number of followers? One of the efficient ways to do that is to opt for a shoutout. It is an easy, affordable and effective way to attract the attention of other person’s followers and encourage them to subscribe to your account too.

You may wonder how to get a shoutout on Instagram. In fact, there are several ways of getting a shoutout as well as several types of solutions existing today.

Look: this article will tell you about the notion of an Instagram shoutout, its types and how to get them put a minimum of effort.

What is an Instagram Shoutout

Instagram is a powerful marketing tool used by over 70% of advertisers. It means that marketers constantly look for robust ways how to make advertising campaigns on the platform more effective and let a bigger number of people see them.

One of these approaches developed is a shoutout. It is a process when one user promotes another IG user on his or her account. How does it look like? One of the users creates a post or a story that shows benefits or @ mentions another user as well as contains a call to action to check the profile, products or services offered by this person.

In fact, a shoutout is one of the categories of influencer marketing. Therefore, they can be of the following forms:

1. Voluntary.
2. Paid.
3. S4S (shoutout for shoutout).

Some users agree to advertise other people’s accounts or products only because they do like them and want to share a piece of advice with their followers. However, there are users who do not mind taking money for promoting other brands and companies by means of shoutouts. Usually, these are influencers with a bigger number of followers whose engagement rate is high enough to influence others.

Types of Instagram Shoutouts

In addition to several forms, Instagram shootouts can be of several types. They depend on the way how this shoutout is represented as well as a reward is given for it. Moreover, its choice depends on the goal you wish to accomplish by adding it. Some users want to advertise their brands or products while others hope to attract multiple followers thanks to it. In fact, each of the following types is efficient enough to meet both of these goals but some of them such as S4S will give better results on follower attraction. However, it will provide you with a big number of subscribers only if you select a relevant account for a shoutout (more information on this topic can be found lower). Now let’s get more detailed information on each of the shoutout types existing today.

Shoutout With Product Photo

When a user wants to increase brand awareness as well as sell certain products, it is important to select a shoutout with a product photo for this purpose. The last one will display the benefits of the product for sale, while a description of this post should be focused on the necessary elements of the photo. It is very important to provide @mention of the brand in it as well as add several effective hashtags for it to go viral.

Shoutout without product photo

Sometimes it is not obligatory to add a product photo to promote it via a shoutout. Let’s imagine that you sell photo cameras: there is no sense to add an image of a camera, it is better to provide several high-quality shots made by it to focus on its benefits. The same goes for some dishware: it is better to display other what a delicacy you can cook with the help of a pan rather than add its image. However, a key moment in such kind of shoutout is a comment to the post. You should clearly explain what has helped you to achieve such great results and drop a CTA to encourage others to check the product following the link to the company’s profile.

Shoutout on Story

Not only posts can be used for shoutouts. It is possible to make them creative and use stories for this purpose. The maximum duration for a story video or number of photos is 15 seconds, so it is possible to make several screenshots of the user page and posts, add your personal comments in a short video post as well as accompany all this with overlay text messages and graphics to make it funny and interesting.

There are many examples of stories on how people try on clothes, cosmetics, use goods for sale on practice to show their pros and cons. Many of them include mentions and links to the company’s Instagram pages and encourage users to check them.

Like for a Shoutout

One of the ways to find an account to exchange posts or ask to add a shoutout of yours is to like pages that are similar to yours. These might be profiles of people who have similar hobbies or work in the same sphere. You can like their posts to show your interest in cooperation. In some time, you can ask to exchange a post about your brand for a certain number of likes.

It often happens that accounts with not many followers are not interesting to others for a shoutout, however, every account does need higher engagement rates and they can agree to add a promotional post in exchange for likes, so why not try your luck?

Shoutout for Shoutout

S4S (also SFS) which is translated as a shoutout for shoutout is one of the most popular marketing approaches that do not require a monetary investment. It means that users exchange free shoutouts with each other allowing their followers to get acquainted with a new account of a company or product/service it offers. Each of the parties gets a benefit, in this case, increasing engagement on the page to a certain extent.

Looking for an opportunity on how to get an Instagram shoutout for another person, it is important to follow certain rules in the choice of another account. You can find more tips at this point below.

How to Find Relevant Accounts for Shoutout

It seems very easy to get a shoutout but what about its efficiency? In fact, not all accounts agree to advertise other people and brands’ profiles. Moreover, there is no sense to offer shoutouts to users who have little in common with your IG account. People interested in a healthy lifestyle would hardly ever subscribe for an account sharing examples of a bakery. You got it, right?

Therefore, there are three basic points to consider if you want to learn how to get shouted out on Instagram.

Similar content

Experts advise putting more effort into finding potential companions for shoutouts. The first criterium for a user to consider is the type of content posted by the account. Naturally, it should be close, similar or connected in some way with your regular posts. People who enjoy traveling would be interested in the national dishes of other countries or some products to use on-the-go. It is important to check several recent posts with the highest level of engagement and compare them with your own content. If you see that your posts can be appreciated too, it is possible to contact the account holder.

Similar audience

One more factor to consider choosing an account for a shoutout is what kind of audience do inmates it. Probably, accounts devoted to fishing and hiking would attract men more often, while fashion and treatment are a sphere for ladies, first of all. One more important aspect is the median age of followers – not all millennials will like modern fashion trends by the way. But the most important thing is the location. If you offer certain services in one city, there is no sense to attract followers from another state or country.

Experts advise searching for accounts that have a similar number of followers as well as true engagement features. It is strange to see only 40 likes with the account that has 40,000 subscribers – probably they are fake or purchased. Consider the engagement rate and tone of the profile to avoid attracting spammers!

Hashtags

The easiest way to find accounts specific to your industry is to use relevant hashtags. It is enough to begin entering the hashtag and Instagram will hint you about the most popular hashtags on this topic. Choose hashtags according to its relevance since too popular accounts may not be interested in S4S with you.

How to Contact Other Influencers

When you have decided what accounts are suitable for shoutout exchange, it is necessary to show your initiative. It is possible to do that in two ways.

Directly

Sometimes there is no sense to wait long if you have conducted a thorough analysis of the account to cooperate with. It is better to undertake actions and contact a person or company directly following a certain structure of the message. It is better to connect via an email or Instagram Direct message if there is a button in the profile.

1. Use a personal approach. Introduce yourself and mention how you appreciate something from this account.
2. Make your offer. Tell the reason why you have sent this message and what benefit your cooperation can bring to both of you.
3. Encourage for the next step. Ask a person to contact you if he or she is interested in this offer. Suggest looking through your profile to ensure that your audience can be interested in the account of this user.

React to Their Posts

One more approach on how to get free shoutouts on Instagram and learn more about a potential candidate is to check his or her posts and react to them with likes, comments, saves, etc. It would be right to engage with user content and get yourself noticed. When a person sees your interest in the posts added, he will remember you and create a certain (probably positive) impression about you. Consequently, you will build your reliable basement for a successful shoutout.

Other Ways to Get Shoutouts

There are several more ways to get shoutouts on Instagram:

1. Enter shoutout contests
   It is possible to get a free shoutout taking part in the contest run by some users. Usually, the rules of such contests are quite simple and it is enough to subscribe for some pages or leave comments to become a potential winner.
2. Get shoutouts from brands
   If you use a product of a certain brand actively and add it to your posts, you can tag the last ones with the name of the company account. It often happens that brands make reposts of their customers and you might be lucky to get a powerful and free shoutout instead.
3. Send a free product to an account holder
   It is possible to get a shoutout by sending an example of your company product to a user and ask to promote it on the platform.
4. Provide a user with a giveaway opportunity
   If you sell certain products, send two or more of them to an account holder for free with the request to use them as prizes for certain activities. Ask to include your brand profile mention too.
5. Offer to create unique content together
   Every influencer is looking for innovative and appealing content. It often happens that you run out of creative ideas and need a boost. Let you be such an inspiration and encourage this person to create a great post together to see how your audience will react to this. Then, you can expect for @mention undoubtedly.

Paid Shoutouts

It goes without saying that paid followers do not provide that level of engagement as true fans do. The same goes for paid shoutouts: there are not many chances that the audience of accounts that sell shoutouts is real and you will achieve the goal set. Moreover, it is important not to suffer from scammers who take the money and do not provide any benefit instead. It is not a secret that some accounts are sold or rented, so you may be cheated easily.

Of course, there are users who provide paid services providing shoutout example. You can turn to them if you have no time to increase your follower number organically, but it is better to opt for this chance only after trying other methods of attracting shoutouts.

Tips go Get Effective Shoutouts

It is not enough to find a user for S4S, you should impress his or her followers with your content. Therefore, it is necessary to follow several simple tips of this kind:

1. Use screenshots
   One of the ways to inform users about a certain account is by making its screenshots. They can be used as photos for a post.
2. Check shoutout apps
   There are applications created with the goal to connect brands with influencers. The most popular shoutout apps are Shoutcart or NeoReach, BuzzStream or BuzzSumo. It is possible to find influencers based on the industry and keyword there.
3. Include “@” sign
   It is a tag sign that proceeds the IG account name and acts as a link to the user page. It is a key to a successful shoutout, so ask to include it in the post.
4. Create powerful content
   When you use a shoutout opportunity, your post should be cool enough to interest followers and convince them to check your profile. Therefore, think of the content twice before sending it to your companion.

Conclusion

A shoutout is a great marketing approach that can be used by every influencer who wants to increase the number of followers significantly. What is great about shoutouts is the fact that you can benefit from them free of charge and without any limits. You can try this approach as often as you wish if you are lucky to find accounts to help you, so take advantage of shoutouts and let your account grow to attract the right followers.