Instagram is more than just a place to connect with friends and share vacation photos or post a funny video of your dog. Since its inception, the social media platform has grown into a powerful marketing channel used by brands everywhere to connect with potential customers.
What is Instagram?
The photo and video sharing app from Meta has also contributed to the advancement of many creators’ lives who are making money through their personal brands and content. If you’re considering developing your presence on Instagram or starting a business on the platform, you’re in the right place.
How to Increase Your Instagram Followers: 17 Ways to Get More Followers
In this guide, learn how to create content that attracts real followers (not bots) and increases engagement on your posts, stories, and reels on Instagram. How to increase your followers on Instagram: 17 ways to get more followers.
1. Incorporate Reels into Your Content Mix
Instagram started as a photo-sharing app, then quickly evolved into video with the Stories feature. Stories are a more intimate form of video in a vertical format that can only be viewed by friends, followers, and visitors to your page. Reels, on the other hand, are aimed at the general audience, providing more reach through Instagram exploration and thus the potential to go viral.
2. Cross-Promote Content
Cross-promotion involves sharing similar content across various social media platforms (or Instagram accounts). It’s a tactic used to save time and resources. It is also effective in increasing brand awareness and growing your Instagram audience.
3. Optimize Your Instagram Profile
Instagram users are likely to discover you through your content when it appears on the Explore page. If they’re excited to learn more, they’ll browse your profile. This step is crucial in attracting a new follower. A strong brand is an indication to potential customers and followers that your account is relevant to them (or not).
4. Collaborate with Creators and Influencers
While Instagram ads can yield good results, partnerships with influencers can add trust and credibility to your paid promotions. One study found that only 38% of consumers trust brand content, while 61% said they trust influencer recommendations.
5. Build Your Personal Brand Alongside Your Business
If you run a brand tied to the story of its founder, develop your personal Instagram account alongside your business account. Using both accounts can enhance brand recognition and increase followers and sales.
6. Get Featured on Feature Accounts
There are certain Instagram accounts, sometimes referred to as feature accounts, that aggregate the best content in a specific niche – some of which have massive followings. If you can get featured on these accounts, you may attract new followers on Instagram.
7. Build a Hashtag Strategy
Your goal on Instagram is to engage your current audience regularly while also growing your follower count. Hashtags can be used as a way to appear in search results for users looking for content similar to yours.
8. Post at the Right Times
A strategic approach to your social media content calendar involves analyzing user behavior and your account’s performance to discover what type of content works best at what times. When you’re just starting, consider consulting research about the best posting times on Instagram.
9. Engage with Your Competitors’ Followers
Followers of direct competitors are a perfect target for your efforts. After all, they’ve already expressed interest in a product or brand like yours. Engaging with your target audience is a great way to show that you’re open to two-way communication and building relationships with fans and customers.
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Collaborate with Compatible Accounts and Creators
In addition to influencer marketing on Instagram, you can collaborate with other brands and creators on campaigns and content that provide mutual benefit. This works best when both accounts have something to gain, such as access to an audience similar to their target customers.
11. Use Location Tags to Increase Local Discovery
In addition to hashtags, you can also make your posts, stories, and reels on Instagram discoverable by tagging the location – whether it’s the city you’re in or the place where the photo or video was taken.
12. Organize Instagram Stories into Highlights
One element that should not be overlooked on your page is story highlights. Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours, but you can extend the value of the content by organizing it into highlights.
13. Ask for More Followers in Instagram Posts
Don’t hesitate to appropriately ask your target audience to follow you. You can ask Instagram users to follow you for more content. You can do this in your Instagram captions or mention it in your video content like reels and stories. Use common marketing tactics to encourage users to follow.
14. Organize a Contest
One of the best ways to stimulate followership is by organizing a contest. Often, brands and creators ask users to complete one or more actions to enter the contest. These actions can include following the account (and any collaborators’ accounts), liking the contest post, tagging one or more friends, leaving a comment, and clicking on an entry form on the brand’s website.
15. Share User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is any type of content – videos, images, written and audio reviews, and more – created about a brand by a fan, customer, or follower. UGC helps humanize the brand and gives it credibility, as it is seen as a trustworthy review from a real customer. This increases purchase confidence.
16. Use Instagram Live
Instagram Live is a feature that allows you to broadcast live video to your followers. It works similarly to reels or stories but is recorded live and has additional interactive features that allow you to engage directly and monetize your content with Instagram badges and save the live broadcast for reuse in permanent content.
17. Try Instagram Ads
You’ve learned how to increase your followers on Instagram through a number of organic and paid methods, but there’s one last method that many marketers and brands use on Instagram. Paid ads are a great option for gaining followers quickly if your social media strategy includes a budget for paid promotion.
Now that you know how to increase followers on Instagram, it’s time to put that knowledge into action. Develop your social media content calendar, start creating Instagram posts, and get ready to reach a new audience. Don’t forget to engage with your existing followers and adjust your social media strategy as trends evolve and new Instagram features become available.
Source: https://www.shopify.com/blog/14288561-how-to-build-a-massive-following-on-instagram
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