10 Ways to Get More Instagram Followers
If you are trying to start up a business or grow a brand, Instagram can be an extremely helpful method of getting your name out into the world. It is the most useful social network for social media marketing. For the most part, all you have to do is make sure you stay social, which is fairly easy to do with a social media account just for your business.
With millions of users, the social media platform gives you unlimited opportunities to gain, maintain, and grow your following. The key is to make sure you are using the platform the right way for it to do what you need it to do.
That’s right, there actually are wrong ways to use Instagram when it comes to getting more followers of your brand. The good news is that we are here to help to grow your company in the most efficient way.
We have the top 10 things to do that will help you grow your Instagram account following and in turn, grow your brand.
Fairly new features make growing a business smooth and easy, no matter where the user is in the world. Especially considering how fast word spreads just by followers tagging each other in posts, and by sharing a business’s ad and other promotions.
To think, growing your business can be done with just a click of the button, even if it is a different user’s button.
Creating your Business Profile
Social media, something originally created to help keep friends in touch with each other, has now become one of the major methods of starting a business and growing your own brand. By simply downloading the Instagram app, you can reach more potential customers, making Instagram marketing a force to be reckoned with.
You can use the app to curate an Instagram strategy. The platform itself has tools just for business users, such as profiles, analytics, and offers the user the ability to create their own ads using posts in the app.
The platform itself now has features that make growing a brand or business so much easier than it used to be.
Profiles
Instagram now also offers accounts designed specifically for users that want to be known as a business. These account holders have the ability to choose how they interact with customers. Use your profile and Instagram bio to reach more people.
Now, with a click of a follow button followers can contact the business through calling, texting, or even emailing, as well as get directions to visit the business in person. This button will be next to the button users click to follow a page.
The one thing about these Instagram profiles is that to obtain one, users have to already have a business Facebook page. This is so that not only will the company behind the platform have payment credentials, but also so that the business’ contact information can simply be repopulated if they want it to be.
By utilizing social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, not only can entrepreneurs spread the word about their brand, but they can truly connect with, not only returning customers but also gain new customers.
Instagram, specifically, is a platform where you share pictures and videos of your products, your brand, and your company in general. It is a great way to get information about who you are and what you do to the millions of users of the visual social media platform.
This personal connection is what will help you put a face to your brand. This face will be what represents the unique characteristics of your business and company. You can then drive people to your website homepage with this face.
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By having this connection you will be able to keep customers, returning and new, up to date about upcoming events, such as sales and other promotions.
You can also create interesting stories to help market your brand and enhance follower interactions. This will allow you to offer discounts, specials, and hold special contests or giveaways that will keep your followers interested.
Being able to create Instagram ads straight from the app means businesses can promote faster and easier, which means more connecting with their customers.
Businesses will now be able to pick a published post to add a button that will entice viewers to take action, such as making purchases or visiting websites. They will even be able to target the ad to specific audiences, which Instagram will have a few suggestions for.
Promotions will run for whatever amount of time the business owner needs.
Even those new to the task of creating effective ads can start creating them in just a few simple, easy clicks of a button. However, this tool will not have as much customization as tools like Facebook’s Ads Manager may have.
Networking
Network, a word that is often associated with computers, but it also means making connections with people to help you grow your brand.
Using Instagram is a great way to connect with like-minded people which will help you expand and work with other brands and influencers which will get your products in front of more users. Influencer marketing is actually one of the easiest ways to reach new audiences.
Stay in the Know
Having an active presence on Instagram will actually help you stay in touch with the most current trends. Make sure to post on a regular basis. Consider using a posting schedule to stay up-to-date.
This is important for a number of reasons, one being that it will help you interact with real followers on a much more personal level, rather than just trying to sell your brand.
This is important because followers are more likely to be interested in profiles of businesses that are relatable and not just corporations that are only out to make money.
Knowing Your Followers
Know your target audience and demographics. Instagram business accounts give the holders actionable information about their followers. This information tells the business who their followers are and what Instagram posts are more effective.
Learning the behavior of followers allows users to create the most relevant content at the time of posting. This means that keeping up with trends and other relative information will be much easier.
The Insights feature will display information such as top posts, engagement around posts, data on followers, and who the posts are reaching.
Business users will now even be able to see where their followers are located, what part of the world they are from. They will even be able to find what city a follower is in.
This type of information is extremely useful when it comes to creating and posting marketing content to the profile. This will help marketers create posts that optimize their reach and interactions.
Gaining Followers
Followers are vital for any serious Instagram marketer. Although you can now easily buy Instagram followers from vendors like Buzzoid.com, there are free ways to also obtain them.
Using the following tips will help you make sure you are using Instagram in a way that will help you, and not hinder you.
#Hashtags
While consistent posting of new and exciting things on your Instagram page will help you keep your current followers, making sure you use relevant hashtags will actually help you grow your following.
These hashtags are what will bring your page up when users go searching for things. One thing to remember is that all social media sites use different hashtags, so you will want to make sure you use the ones that are top-rated for Instagram specifically.
You can use hashtags on regular posts and in your stories. This will get your brand in front of people that follow specific hashtags. You can do this by using stickers or just adding the hashtag into the caption.
Instagram hashtags that are the most popular include #love, #beautiful, #like4like, #picoftheday, and more.
To find hashtags that are both popular on Instagram and that are relevant to your brand, you will have to do a little research. You can do this by using IconoSquare or Webstagram.
These tools allow you to search for specific hashtags and give you information such as their popularity. You can also just type hashtags into Instagram to do a similar search.
One tip is to create hashtags for specific areas of your business. This means having 5 hashtags for your brand, product categories, locations, and other specifics.
Try to avoid using spammy hashtags, though. They will cause people to click the unfollow button very quickly.
Filters Change Everything
Drive traffic with your content filters. Shockingly enough, Instagram users all respond to photo filters in different ways. Some filters are actually more liked than others, meaning that some lead to follower growth.
Studies show that the Mayfair, Hefe, and Ludwig filters tend to get the highest number of responses. Other top filters include not having a filter, Lark, Clarendon, and Gingham.
IconoSquare can give you the most up to date list for the top filters on Instagram. It can also keep track of which filters your specific audience tends to prefer. Use these filters to create quality content that attracts your target audience and boosts brand awareness.
Timing
Now that you know how to get your brand in front of those searching for things, and how to get the best reactions, you need to make sure you are posting at the most opportune times.
Analyzing the successes and failures of past account activity will help you really nail down when to post things. Again, IconoSquare and other Instagram analytics tools can help you do this too.
The tool can give you information on your posting history and the interactions your posts received. This includes what days are best and about what time of day you get more engagements.
To help you with this, there are actual applications or tools that allow you to schedule posts to be automatically published during your peak times.
It’s A Competition
The good thing about Instagram is that it is public which means you can check out your competitor’s audiences and actually interact with them. Chances are if they are following a brand similar to yours then they are interested in what you have to offer too.
To successfully interact with these followers you can follow their accounts, like a photo or two, and comment on their posts. One thing that will really help you excel is to make sure to be yourself. Add some emojis and other personal touches when you engage these potential followers.
The more you give, the more you get when it comes to interacting with your audience.
Sponsoring
This step is “a penny spent is a penny earned” kind of process. To start this process you will need to find accounts that have over 20,000 followers and provide an email address. These profiles are the ones that will be open to sponsored posts that will be seen by a large number of potential followers.
You can search for keywords in Instagram or Webstagram to help you find these profiles. Once you find them you can get their pricing information for sponsored posts or stories.
Depending on your product you may have to send them a product so that they can review it.
Remember that high engagement rates with fewer followers is actually better than high volume of followers and lower engagement rates.
More Tags
While we talked about the importance of using the right hashtags earlier, we are now going to talk about geotags. These tags are your location at the time of posting. They can be the city you are in or even a specific venue that you may be set up in.
Your location not only has a specific feed on the media platform, but it also has its own Story and hashtags. Posting to this feed and interacting with customers in the area are a great way to build your following.
Keep it Tight
One thing you want to avoid is having a page that is all jumbled up with no sort of rhyme or reason to your posts. Once users find themselves looking at your brand profile, there is very limited time to make a good impression. Impress with unique Instagram captions and an organized page.
In your captions, be short, sweet, and direct. Use a call to action or clickable link to make things short and simple.
Be sure to utilize the Highlights feature. Doing this will help keep your stories organized and easy to understand. Remember your stories last for about a day so this feature can keep them hanging around for newcomers to see and follow.
You can use the Instagram feature to create trailers for your profile, give information for your products, promote your products with inks, and organize your Stories using different themes.
Once they follow you, they won’t miss any more stories you post.
Helps to Ask
One of the easiest ways to get on someone’s Instagram feed is to simply ask for them. Never fear asking your audience to help you by asking them to follow you. Just remember to do it on occasion and not too often.
Those that have Youtube channels ask people to follow them at the end of every video, you can too. Just add it to the captions and posts every now and then.
Never underestimate the power of suggestion. This could be the difference in getting one more user or not.
This can also be a good way to reach new customers that may not be addicted to Instagram like some are. By asking your current followers to invite their friends and family to follow your Instagram page, you can reach even more people.
These are the people that will be interested in what you have to offer but may not necessarily turn to Instagram automatically when they go looking for information. Now, their friends can point them in the direction of your business, brand, and/or products.
Be Trendy
Never be afraid to use current trends to your advantage, whether it topics or hashtags. Hopping on to trends will give you boosts in users discovering you for the first time along with upping your number of followers.
Trends can be topics or events such as holidays, fashion trends, political happenings, or whatever activities may be trending at the time. To help ensure you don’t miss the fun holidays, you can mark dates in your calendar.
Just an FYI, there seems to be a fun “holiday” at least once a month if not more. These include national donut day, pajama day, and other crazy things to celebrate.
Use more than one type of content too. Try to post or repost Instagram content like Instagram photos, Instagram stories, Instagram Live videos, stickers, memes, and more. Make sure your new content is high-quality, though. You can base your content on templates if you need ideas.
Giveaways Get You A Ways
The fastest way to spread your brand is to get your current followers, or some potential followers, to tag their friends about one of your posts.
These tags will improve your engagement rates for the post, but it will also affect your landing in the complicated algorithm that Instagram uses to show people more about their interests. Plus, these tags work as recommendations from friends which is never a bad thing when it comes to growing your brand.
One of the best ways to get people to tag each other in your posts is to do giveaways. You have probably seen some of these on other social media platforms and other profiles.
The concept is to have a giveaway or Instagram contests in which users have to like, comment, and follow your page or post, as well as tag a set number of friends for their name to be entered into a drawing. Encourage UGC (user-generated content). This shows that real people are interested in your content.
These giveaways get your brand in front of people that may already be following you, as well as in front of people that may have never heard of you up until now. This will encourage new users to interact with you and follow your brand.
Some giveaways will not only benefit the user that commented but also will benefit the person they tagged in their comment.
One key thing to this is that social media platforms have their own rules and regulations when it comes to promotions like this. There may also be legal matters that you will need to be aware of before publishing a promotion.
Conclusion
When it comes to using social media to grow your business and your brand, you have to be careful in making sure your presence is a positive one. This means making sure you are using the platform correctly and increasing your follower count. If you do use services like Buzzoid to buy Instagram likes, make sure to not overdo it.
Though you may not realize it, there are wrong ways and right ways to use Instagram to expand the size of your audience.
By utilizing the tips and suggestions mentioned in this article, you can be assured that you are on your way to growing your business. Instagram makes growing your own brand or business very simple.
Another great part of the platform is that it is used by potential customers all over the world. This means that businesses can now reach people no matter where they are.
These users are also the key to spreading the word about your business and/or brand. The fastest way to get new followers, which turn into customers, is through their friends. Instagram makes this word of mouth so easy to accomplish with just a click of a button.
No matter what, one thing you need to be sure of is that you keep in mind that it is called social media. This means you need to be social with your audience and to always just be yourself.