Without any doubt, no other social media platform showcases images on such a large scale as Instagram. Despite being focused mainly on images for the past few years, it has grown to become the world’s third-largest social media platform, with (currently) over 1 billion users.
Therefore, whether you’re an influencer, brand manager, or business owner, Instagram offers many great opportunities, making it a vital platform to include as part of your digital marketing strategy.
52.35% of Instagram followers have under 1,000 followers. – According to Mention.
However, growing your followers, and fast, is not easy. With Instagram having its own set of rules, tips and tricks that sets it apart, what do you need to know to help you?
Here is my list of 12 tricks and tips
To get new followers on Instagram and make those who already follow you stay engaged:
1. Optimize Your Account and Username
Before rushing to figure out how to increase your followers on Instagram, ensure your account is fully optimised. If you don’t have a good bio, image captions, a proper username or profile image, how will anyone know the brand identity of your account? As for your username, keep it as search-friendly as possible, which usually means sticking closely to your actual brand name. Make sure it is attractive, short, easy to remember (and pronounce!) and clearly defines you. Ideally, although it is difficult, use the same name on all social media platforms you manage for your business.
2.Use The #Hashtag Correctly
Find and use hashtags that people in your target audience are most likely to check. With millions of people searching hashtags daily, the hashtag is the simplest way for someone to find your posts and, subsequently, your profile. If a relevant connection is made, these users are more likely to follow your account. Unique, branded hashtags are also an effective way to group posts around hyper-relevant content to your brand and campaigns.
So, try to avoid choosing hashtags that are too generic and refine your reach as much as possible, so you don’t end up lost in a sea of pictures. Also, think about creating your own hashtag and adding it to all your images, which can be very beneficial.
3. Press The “Like” Button And Comment On Other Photos
The simple act of giving a like can make users check out your profile and be interested in what you have to share. Search hashtags similar to those you use and start interacting with profiles that are similar to yours.
4. Share Your Photos On Your Other Social Media Accounts
Instagram allows you to do this directly when you upload a photo, or you can use other applications to help. This way, your other brand followers on other social media platforms will know you are also on Instagram. Sharing across all your media will help make sure that you start getting more distribution and new followers.
5. Share Your Photos Consistently
The worst thing you can do when trying to get followers on Instagram is to post content randomly. Set yourself a number of daily or weekly publications, depending on your ability to generate good content. Once you have a realistic objective, follow it. It is better to reduce the frequency but be consistent than to publish loads of images in one day and then wait for weeks before posting again.
6. Recycle Your Best Photos
If a post performed well, post it again on the rest of your social media platforms after a period of time has passed. You can even repost that same post on Instagram after some months, especially if it isn’t event related. It’s all about redistributing your best content and is a successful strategy used in other content marketing contexts, for example, blogs.
7. Explore Your Creativity
Dare to unleash your creative side and spread your most interesting images. Of course, never forget that it is a public profile, and any wrong step can cause a crisis, so think before you share.
8. Study The Images That Work Best
Certain topics always work on Instagram, such as pictures of kittens, hot air balloons and images of food and cuisine. But I assume it’s unlikely that your business features those things, so difficult for you to apply them to your Instagram business account. Instead, look at which of your posts get the most engagement? You can do this by going to your home page, clicking on insights and then onto content interactions. Here, you’ll be able to see which posts get the most likes, comments, shares, and saves and identify any recurring themes. Once you find out which posts are most successful, you can ensure you post content your followers want.
9. Study Your Competition
Search for your competitors on Instagram, even if they are not direct due to geographic or niche reasons. Study them carefully and discover what they are doing, what seems to work well and also what isn’t. Copy the suitable strategies and avoid the mistakes they have made.
10. Engage With Your Followers
A lot of people make the mistake of failing to engage with their followers. Don’t let that be you. According to the 2020 Sprout Social Index, consumers want to engage with visual-first content like photos (68%) and video (50%), followed by 30% who want to engage with text posts. So, respond to comments on your post. Reply to DMs and build relationships – basically respond to as many questions or comments as possible.
Improving your relationship with your audience could mean the difference between a new customer or follower or not.
11. Make your Instagram followers happy
Happy followers pay off in audience growth. Ensure your content is authentic to your brand voice and personality, connects with your audience and is not just all sales-driven or robotic.
12. Showcase Your Instagram Everywhere
People won’t find you if you don’t promote your Instagram account so make sure your account details are listed on your website, correspondence, email signature and other social networks etc.
Hopefully, with these top tips, you can grow your community on Instagram faster. However, be patient and remember that building a profitable business brand on Instagram is similar to the offline world. It takes time but, when done right, the reward is massive.
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