7 ways to grow your Instagram following

Currently one of the most popular social media apps on the market, Instagram is now a fertile ground for growing internet fame and promoting brands and businesses. However, with the vast amounts of competition across the site, growing an authentic following requires a careful and strategic approach. Below is seven of the key steps one can take to growing a genuine following on Instagram.

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1. Tune your profile

There are surprising amounts of Instagram accounts that neglect to do it.

Carefully create every piece of your Instagram profile to evoke your brand and appeal to your target market. Craft your username to contain keywords relevant to your business so that it pops up when people search for your services. Use your bio to succinctly describe what your business does and what makes it great. Post carefully crafted images that evoke your business. Put together a profile that looks promising to follow.

2. Get your hashtag out there

By now, pretty much everyone knows that a major key to getting word of your brand across the internet is to create your own custom hashtag – #jennyssalon, #eatatjoes, #mikesgarage, whatever might be relevant. However, according to SMMRank online media platform it’s simply not enough to just throw your hashtag out there and hope that people will not only use it, but also associate it with your brand.

You need to go a bit further than that if the hashtag is going to gain any real momentum.

Consider the places that you advertise your business, both online and offline. Digital ads? Posters? TV or radio ads? Billboards? Put your hashtag in all of them. Feature it prominently next to your logo. Not only will this get your hashtag out there, it’ll also ensure that it’s associated with your brand.

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3. Look into influencer marketing

Marketing your Instagram profile (and your brand in general) through influencers might, be one of the most effective approaches to marketing.

Really, think about it.

Internet celebrities have some seriously loyal followings nowadays – hearing your brand recommended to them by a third party that they trust is likely to do a lot more to entice potential customers to your brand than any direct advertising.

Of course, you’ll need to ensure that the influencers you choose to market you have decently sized followings that cross over with your target market; but considering the sheer amount of prominent individuals to choose from on Instagram alone, chances are that you won’t have any trouble finding the right one.

4. Post at a consistent rate

It goes without saying that what you post ought to be engaging and relevant to your business; but besides that, if you’re going to keep your profile prominent, you need to be sure that your posts are also consistent.

Settle on a certain number of posts per day (and think out the number carefully – too few will likely cause you to get lost in the sea of other content, but too little might come off as spammy).

Then decide when they’ll be posted (consider the time zones of your target market, what time they’ll most likely be looking at their feeds, and so forth). Then, schedule the posts ahead of time to ensure that this schedule is maintained. Followers and newcomers who can rely on your content to be both engaging and to crop up on their feed at a consistent rate are much more likely to become genuinely loyal followers.

5. Participate in relevant conversations

An Instagram profile that simply makes posts and does nothing else is apt to come off as a bit detached. If you’re really going to get your name out there and gather a loyal following, a key tactic is to actually engage with other Instagram users – especially in conversations that are likely to interest your target market.

When followers comment on your posts, engage with them – let them know that you are hearing their feedback, and that you appreciate their support and loyalty. But take it beyond your profile, too – follow other accounts that relate to businesses like yours, and engage with them, and their followers. Get involved in conversations about matters relevant to your target market – though, of course, do so in a manner that averts stirring up controversy. Doing so will not only introduce your profile to a host of new potential followers; it’ll also give new followers the sense that your profile, and brand in general, has a team of actual human beings behind it, who are interested in actually engaging with the community, rather than just selling a product or promoting a brand.

6. Tap into what appeals to your audience

Whatever your brand or business may happen to be, it has a specific target market – a market with specific demographics, who have specific interests, and are likely to follow specific things.

Do research into what your target market enjoys. That’s to say, organic research – go onto chatrooms and websites frequented by your target market and follow accounts that they follow. Keep an eye on the sort of things they talk about and use this to inform yourself about what is popular among them now, and what will likely be popular in the future. By tapping into these interests and catering to them via your Instagram account, you’ll be much more likely to draw the interest of potential customers.

7. Prompt your followers to help

Last, but not least, is this one. And that’s referring to small things here – stuff like ending a post with “don’t forget to drop a like!” or “hit like if you can relate!” Minor prompts like that, which ask very little of your followers and only take a moment of their time could result in a serious influx of likes – which, in turn, will push your account up on the algorithm and make it far more likely to be found by fresh followers in the future! In addition, of it you always can buy high-quality Instagram followers on Instagrowing. This will make it possible to get new subscribers as soon as possible.