Instagram has become one of the most powerful social media platforms. It has over 1 billion active monthly users, making it an excellent tool for businesses, influencers, and individuals looking to grow their brand or personal followers base. However, with so many users on the platform, it is definitely challenging to stand out and build a substantial followers base.
Here are ten expert tips for growing your Instagram followers:
Optimize your Instagram profile
Optimizing your Instagram profile is crucial for attracting new followers and building a strong online presence.
Choose a clear and professional profile picture (or a logo, make sure it's recognizable when it's small on a Feed view), write a concise and engaging bio that accurately describes your brand or personal image, and include a link to your website or blog. You may also use social media reference landing page services that allow you to create a landing page with clickable buttons that direct visitors to different URLs.
Make sure you have a few stories always visible on your profile. New visitors will have a quick look at those to understand who you are and what your profile is about.
Use relevant keywords throughout your profile (we'll speak about that later in the article), categorize your profile, and choose a cohesive color scheme and aesthetic. Regularly update your profile with new content, including high-quality photos and engaging captions.
Post high-quality content
To attract and retain followers, you need to post high-quality content consistently. Invest in creating visually stunning content that aligns with your brand, is engaging, and offers value to your audience.
Choose a cohesive visual aesthetic, plan your content in advance, use high-quality images, edit them to enhance their quality, write engaging captions, and post consistently. You can also hire graphic designers if you don't have internal resources. Remember to stay true to your brand or personal image and adjust your strategy based on your audience's response.
Use hashtags
Using both popular and niche hashtags on Instagram can be a great strategy to increase the visibility of your posts and expand your reach.
Popular hashtags have high search volume and can expose your content to a wider audience beyond your followers. Although, as they're broad, your post might get lost in the crowd very quickly.
Niche hashtags are specific and focused hashtags that target a particular audience or topic. They're used to categorize content by a specific theme, industry, or interest, and help people discover and engage with content that is relevant to them. By using them, you can increase the likelihood of your posts being seen by people who are more likely to engage with your content.
By using both popular and niche hashtags, you can ensure that your content is seen by a diverse range of people and attract new followers who are interested in your niche or industry. It can also help you track your performance and gain insight into what works best for your account. You can use Instagram Insights to see which hashtags are generating the most engagement for your posts and adjust your strategy accordingly. This can help you optimize your use of hashtags and increase your reach and engagement even further.
Remember to use relevant and specific hashtags that accurately represent your content and brand, and to regularly monitor your performance to optimize your strategy.
Engage with your audience
Engage with your audience by responding to comments, liking and commenting on their posts, and actively seeking out new followers. This helps to build relationships and foster a sense of community, which can lead to increased engagement and follower growth. Here are a few ideas:
- Respond to comments and direct messages: Responding to comments and direct messages shows your audience that you value their input and are interested in their thoughts and opinions. It can become painful if you're getting a lot of messages, but try to take the time to respond to each comment or message, even if it's just a simple thank you or emoji 😀
- Ask questions in your posts: Asking questions in your captions is a great way to encourage engagement and start conversations with your audience. Make sure to ask open-ended questions that invite discussion and encourage people to share their thoughts and experiences.
- Host giveaways and contests: Hosting giveaways and contests can be a fun way to engage with your audience and incentivize them to interact with your content. (More on this later in this article)
- Share user-generated content: Sharing user-generated content is a great way to showcase your audience and give them recognition for their contributions. Make sure to tag and credit the original poster. Don't be a scoundrel!
- Use Instagram Stories and live videos: Instagram Stories and live videos provide a more personal and interactive way to engage with your audience. Use these features to share behind-the-scenes content, answer questions, and showcase your personality, workplace, coworkers, routine, ... etc.
- Follow relevant accounts and engage with their content: Following relevant accounts and engaging with their content can help you build relationships with other users and increase your visibility on Instagram. Make sure to leave thoughtful comments and share content that aligns with your brand or interests — don't copy/paste the same messages over and over though in order to avoid the spam filter.
Run contests and giveaways
Running a successful Instagram contest or giveaway involves setting clear goals, choosing an attractive prize, determining the rules and entry requirements, creating a visually appealing post, promoting your contest or giveaway, selecting a winner, and following up with them.
Before starting, identify your objectives. Are you looking to increase engagement, attract new followers, or promote a new product or service? Next, select a prize that is relevant to your brand and appealing to your audience. Decide on the rules, such as how people can enter and what they need to do to qualify. This could include following your account, liking the post, tagging friends in the comments, or sharing the post on their own account.
Create a post that clearly outlines the rules and requirements for the contest or giveaway, and make sure it's visually appealing. Promote the contest or giveaway on your Instagram account, website, and other social media platforms to attract as many participants as possible. Choose a winner based on the rules you set out, and announce the results on your Instagram account and other social media platforms.
Contact the winner directly and arrange to deliver the prize. Follow up with the winner and request their permission to share their information and photos of them with the prize on your Instagram account.
Collaborate with others
Collaborating with other brands and influencers on Instagram is a great way to expand your reach and engage with a new audience. To get started, you'll need to identify brands and influencers whose values and audience align with your own.
Once you have a list of potential partners, reach out to them with a clear proposal that outlines the benefits of collaborating together (via DM, comment or email — try to look for it on their website or blog if ever they're trying to hide it). Be sure to highlight what the benefits are for both of you — whether it's exposure to new audiences, access to exclusive content or products, or an opportunity to collaborate on a new project.
When creating content for your collaboration, keep in mind that it should be engaging and relevant to both of your audiences. This could include co-branded posts, Instagram stories, or even live streams.
Don't forget to use relevant hashtags and tag each other in your posts to increase visibility and engagement. You may also want to consider offering a discount or special offer to your partner's audience as a way of saying thanks and encouraging them to engage with your brand.
Post at the right time
Posting at the right time on Instagram is essential for maximizing your engagement and reach. Your content is most likely to be seen by your audience when they are active on the platform, otherwise it will get lost in the clutter. Try to analyze your audience and their behavior to determine the best time to post.
Instagram Insights or other analytics tools can provide you with valuable information about your audience's behavior, including when they are most active on the platform. Use this information to experiment with posting at different times and track your engagement rates to see which times work best for your account.
It's also important to consider your time zone and the time zones of your audience. If you have a global audience, you may need to adjust your posting schedule to accommodate different time zones. You can use scheduling tools to post at the most optimal times for your audience, even if you're not available to post manually.
Use Instagram Ads
Instagram Ads are a way to promote your content, whether it's a personal account or a business. As mentionned earlier, Instagram has become a VERY popular platform, and it can be hard to stand out among the millions of users on the app. By using Instagram Ads, you can increase your reach and get your content seen by more people.
With Instagram Ads, you can choose who you want to see your content based on factors like age, gender, location, interests, and more. This way, you can target your audience more effectively and reach the people who are most likely to be interested in your content.
Instagram Ads also give you more options to customize your ads and make them more engaging. You can use videos, photos, carousels, and other formats to showcase your content and make it more visually appealing. You can use Instagram Ads to drive traffic to your website, promote sales or discounts, and increase brand awareness.
Instagram ads are too expensive? Look at our next tip!
Automate your Instagram with auto-like & auto-follow
It can be challenging to grow your account and engage with your audience consistently. One way to make this process easier is by automating certain tasks, such as Like, Follow or Watch Story.
Auto-liking is a feature that allows you to automatically like posts that fit certain criteria, such as hashtags or location. This can help you engage with other users in your niche and increase your visibility on the platform. By liking other users' posts, you're more likely to get noticed and gain new followers.
Auto-following is a feature that automatically follow users who fit certain criteria, such as those who follow similar accounts or use certain hashtags. By doing this, you increase your chances of getting followed back and gaining new followers.
Automating these tasks can save you a lot of time and effort. Instead of spending hours manually liking and following other users, you can set up automation tools to do it for you. This frees up your time to focus on creating high-quality content and engaging with your audience.
Suparise is the best way to automate your Instagram in 2023. It comes with a simple set of features, that lets you automatically like and follow without getting overwhelmed with complex parameters. Pick a few competitors, pick a few hashtags and let the app do the hard work for you everyday!
Analyze your performance
Regularly analyzing your performance on Instagram can help you identify what's working and what's not. Use Instagram Insights to track your follower growth, engagement, and other metrics. Use this data to adjust your strategy and improve your results.
Growing your Instagram and getting more followers takes a lot of time, effort and money. But with the right strategy, you can achieve great results.
Follow these expert tips! To sum up:
- optimize your profile so that it looks good
- create high-quality content
- use a mix of broad and niche hashtags
- post at the right time
- engage with your audience
- use Instagram ads
- automate your Instagram to attract relevant users
- throw contests and giveaway prizes
- analyze your performance to continuously improve your results
Remember that consistency and authenticity are key to building a loyal community of followers that will engage with your brand, content, product & services.
This Instagram tutorial was written by the Suparise team.
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