9 NEW Instagram Hacks for 2026

This episode of the Massive Agent Podcast breaks down 9 powerful new Instagram growth hacks that feel like a cheat code. 

If Instagram is part of your marketing and lead Gen strategy for 2026, this is an episode you’ll want to take notes from.

These hacks will work for you to get more views, followers, reach, and clients even if you have a small following.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:34

In this first episode of 2026, I have eight brand new Instagram hacks for you to help you crush it in 2026. Let's jump into them right now.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

The Massive Agent Podcast. With lead generation tips and strategies to give you more leads and sell more homes.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

I love to buy houses. I like to sell houses.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Takes brass balls.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Wait a minute.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Leads a week. I've had better. Oh, have I got your attention now? Here's your host, Dustin Brome.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

What is up, guys? Welcome to episode 420 of the Massive Agent Podcast. I am your host, Dustin Brome, here in Salt Lake City. And if I was 18 years old again, I would be giggling uncontrollably at the fact that it's episode 420. But I'm 42 years old, so it's not that funny. But still noteworthy, which is why I'm why I'm talking about it. Anyways, uh, episode 420 of the show. First episode, no, second episode of 2026, because the first one came out on New Year's Day. So I lied earlier, I think, in the intro. Anyways, I'm going to break down eight new Instagram hacks that absolutely matter right now. Each one of these is super tactical, and you can implement them today in the content that you're doing, in your stories, in your posts, in all of it. Some of it you can use on other platforms other than Instagram. There's a couple of them that are specific to Instagram, that these features, these hacks, if you will, do not exist on other platforms, which is very unfortunate. But if you want to do better content and attract more followers, attract more, attract a bigger audience, and ultimately, because the whole point of all of that is to attract more clients to you, you are in the right place. And this episode is the episode you've been waiting for all year. You've been waiting for this all year. Now, okay, some tough love here to start the year. Most agents are living in a state of like lead dependency where you are relying on someone else for your business. You are reliant on some. I was about to get kind of graphic there for a second. You're really relying on someone else to feed you your clients and your leads and your business. Okay. And look, I understand for some of you that's all you want and you're good with that. Cool. If you're trying to build a business that has longevity and that scales, and that you can make go from 50 sales a year to 100 and 100 to 200 and so on, you've got to have control. I mean, the problem is most agents depend on portals, you depend on luck, and you depend on platforms that you don't control, that you don't have any control over at all. And it's exhausting. And frankly, it's no way to run a business in 2026. It's 2026. And pretty soon we're going to be halfway through 2026, and we're going to be talking about 2027. And the shit is just accelerating so fast. It's time to take your business as a realtor seriously. If you're not already, and if you are, let's double how serious you take it. That sounded better in my head, but I think I think you get the point. I want to give you the gift of certainty this year, okay? I'm pulling back the curtain on how to win, how to get actual business from social in 2026. So I'm going to give you the gift of certainty. I'm pulling back the curtain on a free masterclass that I'm doing to show you the new formula for social media dominance. I'm breaking down the brand new strategy that top agents are using to net five, six, seven deals every single month without spending all day on their phones and without spending any money on Google ads or Facebook ads or giving your money to Zillow. Consider this the best gift you could possibly give yourself to start your new year. And honestly, it's the best gift you could give your future self is knowing this new formula, this new way of crushing it on social. So I'm I'm taking this training down soon. You can attend it for free while it lasts over at clientsfromsocial.com. Do not go another week. Do not go another month saying, oh, I'll do that later. Or if you did attend it and you only watch 10 minutes, what the hell? It's a 30-minute training. You there's some really good shit there in the middle and the end. So uh get back on the horse. And by the way, like do it when you have 30 minutes. Okay, attend this when you have 30 minutes to actually pay attention. If you're just like, I'm gonna pop in for five minutes and hopefully he gives me some magical thing that solves everything in my business. I mean, you might get a little tip, but I think you want more than the tip, right? This can go sideways fast. Um, so I'm going to retreat from that statement immediately. Dive in, commit, attend the master class for free over at clientsfromsocial.com and do it when you have 30 minutes to attend the entire training, because I'm telling you, the best shit comes at the end. I tie it all together at the end. Clientsfromsocial.com. Okay. Now, if you're still posting, let's get into the show. If you're still posting the same way that you were a year ago, you're already falling behind those who are up on all the new trends, the new strategies, the new hacks, the new features of social media. And today we're specifically talking about Instagram. Yes, some of this, some of these concepts apply on other platforms for sure, but some of these features are only available on Instagram, which is kind of a bummer. Um it is what it is. Now, you're not falling behind because you're bad at Instagram. You're not you're not behind because the algorithm hates you. And it's not because social media is too hard or too saturated. Uh, it's not. Okay, what has changed over the last year and especially the last two months? The last two months, I'd say the last quarter. Okay, the last three months. The last quarter, what's changed is how people who are consuming Instagram content decide whether or not to watch you or ignore you or leave your profile forever forever and never come back. Like you need to understand consumer behaviors and what makes them do those certain things. And I'm gonna break that down for you. So if you're wondering how do I get people to watch my stuff, I'm gonna break that down and I'll give you some specific tips. And by the way, the free masterclass at clientsfromsocial.com dives really deep into that, like really deep. So in this episode, I'm gonna break down the exact shifts that are quietly separating the creators, the accounts that grow in 2026 from the ones that stall out or fizzle, even when you're posting consistently. Okay, you can be spending a ton of time posting consistently, doing all the right things as far as like checking the box, like I'm posting, and still get zero results. And that sucks and it's frustrating. And so we're gonna fix that today. We're gonna start with some tactical stuff. And it's not theory, this is not motivational stuff, this is not conceptual. These are practical, actual adjustments that can change what happens in the first few seconds of your content, the first swipe, and the first click. Okay, if Instagram is feeling harder now than it than it used to be, you're not alone. Okay, but stay with me. This episode is going to rewire you, uh, rewire your brain on how you think about content. The first hack that I'm gonna give you, the first tip. I got I gotta be careful. I told you I was gonna retreat from the whole you want more than the tip thing, but here we are. Here we are again, saying it again. Damn it. Okay, number one, you have to make your grid, your profile, bingeable. You have to make your profile bingeable. This does not necessarily apply to Facebook. Now, you you do need to have a bunch of information that makes you interesting and lets people know what you do, where you do it, and and all of that. If people land on your Facebook profile and they don't know what you do and where you do it, you're failing. You're you're what we call a secret agent. So go fix that shit. But Facebook doesn't have all your content in one big grid the way Instagram and TikTok does. And even to a certain extent, YouTube, right? But this is really for Instagram and TikTok. Your grid, your profile needs to be bingeable. So when you look at it, I want you to go look at your Instagram grid. Just look at the top nine images, those thumbnail images. Is there anything there that would make you click it out of curiosity or interest if you didn't know you? If you were a stranger landing on your account, like, oh, here's a here's a real estate account or here's this person or educational on this, that, and they land on your account expecting a certain thing. Is there anything about your thumbnail images that will make them click? If not, you need to add text. You need to add interesting scenes. Go look at mine at Massive Agent. There's a reason why every single one of mine has text on it. Some of you might think that doesn't look very pretty. It doesn't look all aesthetic. Well, no shit. It's not meant to be a museum. It's meant to get people to click and binge the way they do on Netflix or whatever, right? They're going through Netflix or at the wine store. You're looking at all the labels, and you're choosing what you're gonna get based on the price and the label, right? It's the same thing when you're scrolling somebody's Instagram profile. The thumbnail needs to be interesting, it needs to grab attention, it needs to make them curious, and it needs to make them want to click. So add text hooks to your thumbnails for all of your content on Instagram and uh and TikTok. And do it on Facebook as well, because actually, when they click into reels or videos, they can see all of your content in a grid on Facebook too. So, yes. Just make it a habit. Wherever you're doing sort form content, make sure you pay attention to the thumbnail, hit the preview image, and put text on it so there's a text hook that makes people think, ooh, that looks interesting. I'm gonna watch that. Number one is make your grid bingeable. Number two, obsess over the start of your content. The beginning, the way that your content starts out is everything. If you do not grab someone's attention in the first one to three seconds, they just scroll onto the next one. And then you could have had such a beautiful, like incredibly uh like so educational, like so moving and touching and beautiful, and like the the most maybe you you you blacked out and you communicated better than ever before in your life, but it happened 45 seconds into a video and it starts out slow and no one ever freaking sees it. You have to obsess over the start of your video. You have to get very good at hooks. Again, I highly recommend if you don't, if you aren't great at hooks, you would go to clientsfromsocial.com and attend my masterclass and let me teach you some of these things. Hooks, learning how to do hooks, it takes a little practice and it takes a paradigm shift for some of us because you have to think about content in a different way. Instead of thinking of it as, hey, here's what the video's about, and you just tell on the topic, you have to grab their attention with something that makes them interested enough to stick around to find out the topic. So the hook is what somebody sees and or hears in the first one to three seconds, and you have to obsess over the way your video starts. So do not introduce yourself. Introducing yourself is the kiss of death for content. First off, it's wildly unnecessary. Why are you introducing yourself to a stranger? They don't care who you are, they just care about what the video is about. They don't know you yet. And if they do know you, why are you introducing yourself to someone that already knows you? It it's a massive waste of the first three to ten seconds of a video. Like the most valuable, important part of a video you're wasting by introducing yourself. So knock that shit off. At a minimum, just start saying the thing you want to say. And ideally, you take a little extra time and practice on how to come up with a great hook. So pay attention to those who do great hooks. I think I do pretty good hooks. So you can take some of mine. Or uh go into my actually go to, if you're not attending the master class or you already have, go into my Instagram bio. Okay, click the link in my Instagram bio, and it's somewhere in there I have an opt-in thing to get my list of a hundred hooks for real estate videos. Go get that and use that and practice. Number three, the third hack. Don't, oh, this goes. I I was genius when I wrote these actually, because number three, it's the perfect segue from number two to number three. Number three is do not give away the topic right off the bat. Don't tell them, today I'm gonna talk to you about FHA loans. Today I'm gonna talk to you about this neighborhood. Today I'm gonna talk to you about my new listing. No, that's not the way to do it. Let's use that FHA loans one. Okay, I'm gonna give you an example here. Instead of saying, today I want to talk to you about FHA loans, and did you know that you only need 3.5% down, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay. If you start a video out like that, telling them what it's about, what if they don't care about that thing? What if you tell them this is about FHA loans and they don't give a shit because they have no interest in buying a house? Instead, you want to teach them about the low-down payment and what that can do for affordability and home accessibility and all this stuff, right? Empowering buyers to get into homes with as little out of pocket as possible. That's what you want to teach them, right? So instead, you start it out by saying, here's how to buy a million-dollar house for 35K. Hmm. That's gonna get anyone's attention, whether they're currently in the market to buy a house or not, that's gonna get their attention because they're gonna make them curious. And then you go on to explain that with the FHA loan, they only need 3.5% down. And then you could explain 3% down is an option and 0% down or whatever. But the whole point is that you can actually get into a house, a million-dollar house for just 35K out of pocket. But it starts with that hook. Here's how to buy a million-dollar house for 35K that grabs their attention, stuns them a little bit. It's a bold statement, and then you've got them, and then they keep watching to find out how the hell you buy a million-dollar house for 35k. Number four, Instagram stories. Okay, in your story, use story captions to uh for your stories to stick out. Okay, so I don't know if you guys have noticed this, but if you're if you're watching a story, if it has a caption in the bottom left, if if whoever posted the story added a caption to the bottom left, it shakes a little bit. As like once the story progresses to that one, it the haptic, the haptics in your phone shakes a little bit and you can feel it. And it pops up. Like so it moves, it pops up, and it it shakes the phone just slightly, just like a little vibration. But that haptic is an extra way to grab attention. So if you want, if you really want someone to see your story, and try not to use the captions in all your stories because then it's just you know, if you use it too much, people just start to tune it out. But in stories that you really want people to see, use the caption. So there's been like I'll use the caption thing. And by the way, as you're creating the story, look in the bottom left on Instagram and it says add a caption. It just says add a caption in the bottom left. You can do a call to action there where it's like comment the word master, reply the word master, and I'll send you a link to my masterclass. It could be uh, it could just be like an emoji with like two eyeballs, like the look emoji. It could be whatever. It could be some fire emojis, it could be a statement, it could be telling them to do something, but it's there to just grab a little extra attention. Uh it helps your story to stick out more when somebody's watching a bunch of stories. So use story captions to get that little haptic and that shake. Uh, I'm sure you've experienced this if you've been watching stories, but have you used it is the real question. Make sure you're using that feature. It's incredible. It may seem small, it may seem minimal, but it's a big deal. Number five, link to other reels. Instagram will now let you link to other reels. So if you're doing a series where maybe there's four videos that you're teaching a certain concept or or you like a certain um yeah, a certain series, like if you've if you've seen my ridiculous uh you know DMs in real life where I'm I drive up and then drive away, you know, that whole thing, I've done like 20 of them. And so it's become a series, and I can link in each one, I can link to the next one or the previous one. So if there's a s if you have a certain video that pairs well with another one, or you just want to get somebody to watch a certain video after they watch whatever, and you just want everyone to watch this one video, you can just link to it. So as you're creating your reel, uh you scroll down in the options right below the caption, and as you're you're you're choosing whether or not you're gonna schedule it, you're adding tags and all the stuff, right before you actually hit post. Look in there for the uh the link to story. It's actually right under the caption. So it's it's not buried, it's right under the caption itself for the post, right? Like the text of the post. It's right under there. It says link to link to a reel. And use that because when someone's watching it, in the bottom left, it says watch, and then you can title it whatever you want. That's a great way to drive more traffic to more of your content instead of you know, what's most likely is they'll watch your reel and then they'll be you know, someone else's reel will be suggested right after. Number six, the story views reset hack. If you, like anyone else who does stories regularly, you watch your story start to get stagnant or stale, and the views go down, let it expire. Okay, let your story expire, wait 12 to 24 hours, and then the very next story you post could and should absolutely go crazy. Do a story that's highly engaging. So something people don't have to think too much about. Maybe it's a poll, maybe it's um a bold statement, maybe it's like one of those tweet, like a hot take tweet image. For some reason, those just crush it. Like those outperform all my reels, or sorry, those outperform all my stories. I don't know why, but I know other creators do it because they just outperform. When you let your stories expire and you wait 12 to 24 hours, the next story you do after should be highly engaging, something that makes people reply or give you their opinion or say yes or no or whatever. Uh just make sure it's engaging. It doesn't have to have anything to do with real estate at all. It could have to do with anything at all. And then the next story you post after that can be more intentional, like uh you have a call to action in it or you're promoting something. But to get the story views juiced, like you can seriously 10x your story views if you post something highly engaging after it's after they expired and reset. So that's the story views reset hack. Number seven, make your content as short as possible. Meaning, if you're asking how long should my videos be, how long should my content be, it should be as short as it possibly can and not a second longer. It it needs to be as long as it needs to be and not a second longer. If you can get the point across in four seconds, then you have a four-second video. If you can get it across in 90 seconds, great. But shorter content works better on social media because, well, there's a few reasons. People have short attention spans and they don't necessarily want to watch a three-minute long reel. Uh, they don't necessarily want to swipe through 20 carousels, which by the way, carousels are doing very, very well right now. Uh, a lot of creators are saying carousels are outperforming reels. I'm seeing that sometimes, so I'm absolutely trying to do carousels and reels. But uh as far as being short as possible, if you a four-second reel could be could be perfect and get the point across. Uh but people want to watch shorter stuff, they want quick hits, and think about it this way too. The algorithm is looking for completion time. So if you if you do a 30-second or a 15-second video and you're getting a ton of people to finish it, as opposed to a three-minute long video that only you know people are only watching 10% of, because it's long, the algorithm sees that and they see the completion percentage. They're like, hmm, only people are only watching 10% of this video, but they're watching 90% of this one. That's the better one. It's the 90%. So retention and view time is key as short as possible. Number eight. Number eight. Do I have eight or nine of these? I can't remember if I said up front if I have eight or nine. I have nine. So I think I said up front that I have eight hacks for 2026. I have nine. I took nine. I took nine. Okay, number eight is if you are if you have a lead magnet, like a local guide or a seller guide or a neighborhood guide or any of these guides that you're creating as a lead magnet where people trade you their email address to get the guide or to get the thing, print it out. Print out the thing. Because it when you think about it, if you can see that something is tangible, when you see it with your eyes, you're like, oh, cool, that's a real thing. Instead of just, hey, I have this guide, I'll send it to you, and you hope it's real. It's like this, okay, this theoretical neighborhood guide, this theoretical, you know, the whatever. So print out the guide. Or at a minimum, just take take the time to do a cover for it in Canva or whatever, print that out, get some other papers, and just show it so that you you have something visible and tangible and actual that you can show people for the guide. Take a picture of it, show it, hold it up. As you're saying, hey, DM me the word the word home, and I'll send you this guide. Let them actually see the physical guide. Your your um conversion on that will go through the roof if you can show the guide. So print out those those lead magnets. And number nine, mix the types of content that you do. Entertaining stuff. And by the way, if you're just doing educational stuff, there has to be entertainment in it. There ha uh uh Shout out to Bam and Eric, the broke agent. He's done a ton of content about this recently, but he but he says and he believes just entertaining stuff is kind of dead. And I I agree. You have to end uh what does he call it? Edutainment. You have to educate while entertaining. So if you're gonna be educational, it better be interesting and entertaining. So entertaining content, green screen stuff, put some personality into it, but give your opinion, give your two cents on whatever it is behind you on the green screen. Memes. If you have a funny meme about the industry or about this, that or about your local area or about the potholes in the middle of Main Street in downtown or whatever, share that stuff because other people in your area will relate to it. Blind ranking videos where you're like, hey, I'm gonna blind rank, you have just have somebody off camera throw you some stuff and you rank them. You could do that. I've done a bunch of those on my Instagram recently. Whiteboard reveals, where you you have a list of five things or whatever, you you have a tape or a piece of paper over them and you just reveal them one by one. Here's what's cool about the reveals. People, as long as you show the the whiteboard or the the blackboard, whatever, behind you, people are wondering what's what's what is that? So just the visual of the stuff covered up on the whiteboard is a hook because it makes people curious. I wonder what's under there. I wonder what those five tips for buying uh my first investment property are. And then they stick around because they're like, I wonder what she's gonna pull off. So mix up your content, try different things. If you see myself or any other creator do something and you're like, you know what, that's cool. I'm gonna do my own version of it for my for my audience, do it. By the way, that's all any of us do, that's all I ever do, is I take inspiration and ideas from others. Maybe it's bits and pieces here or there, or maybe it's an entire concept, and I just make it relevant for you guys, for my audience. So try out different types of content and have some fun with it. Have some fun with creating content because if you're not having fun with it, if you're not enjoying it, people can tell. People can tell that you're bored with it, and if you're putting out boring shit that bores you, that's a problem. So there you go. Now, last week I committed to to doing for the I think it was the third year in the row. I committed to to doing one YouTube video a week over on the Massive Agent channel. And I'm proud to admit that the first one is already up. The first weekly video is already up, where I break down a simple hack for 10xing your Instagram story views quickly. If you want to know how to 10x your story views, I dive deeper than I did in this in this episode, uh, much deeper. I give you a few more uh I get put more meat on the bone, give you a few more ways to do it. Super, super powerful. If you want to 10x your story views, go over to the Massive Agent YouTube channel and check that out. And I will have a new video on YouTube every week that is highly freaking tactical, in addition to the podcast. So thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. I will see you guys next week. Episode 421. Episode 420 is in the books, and I didn't even get the munchies. Take care.