It is hard, confusing, time-consuming, and frustrating to grow your Instagram followers.
Do you remember feeling this way at some point during your Instagram journey? Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
In this article, we’re going to share 16 Instagram tips that have worked for us. Hopefully you’ll find some new ideas and strategies for growing your Instagram account in this post. Maybe they won’t all resonate with you, but we hope you’ll find some useful tips.
1| Improve Your Profile
Let’s start with optimising your profile. You want to lay a solid foundation on which to build your account. It will be harder to attract your ideal audience if you don’t have an optimised username, bio, profile photo, etc.
– YOUR USERNAME
You want to avoid making your Instagram username seem like an old screen name. It is always advisable to keep your username straightforward and simple. Think of creative ways to avoid adding numbers to the end of your ideal username if it is already taken. You can always add a period (for example @pearcemedia becomes @pearce.media) or an underscore (@pearce_media), however try not to use more than one within your username.
– YOUR PROFILE PHOTO
Profile photos should be easy to recognise so that you can be quickly identified. Use a clear brand logo on your Instagram account if you are representing a brand. If you’re creating a personal account, upload a photo of yourself (this also makes it more relatable). You should use a close-up photo of yourself and avoid full-body shots, as they are difficult to identify in the little profile photo.
– YOUR BIO
There is a lot of value in the little space that is your bio. What should your followers expect from your account? This is your chance to tell them. Be clear about what your account is all about.
2| Investigate your competitors
Since your competitors target the same audience, you can learn a lot from them about what has been successful and what hasn’t. It’s also the perfect place to find your target audience, since they’re likely already following and commenting on your competitors accounts.
– A GUIDE TO FINDING YOUR COMPETITORS
Look at other accounts that are using your niche hashtags to find your competitors. Look at the top posts using your niche hashtags and the accounts posting them.
3| Connect with other similar accounts
Get in touch with Instagrammers who have similar audiences to yours and promote each other! Your Instagram stories can feature each other’s content or you can repost some on your own feeds.
4| Post regularly
Posting frequently is key when you want your account to grow quickly. In short, the more posts you make, the more exposure you will receive and the further your reach will be. We recommend at least posting once per day on Instagram while you are trying to grow your account. Your reach will be even greater if you post up to three times per day.
5| Prepare in advance
The stress of posting multiple times every day can be overwhelming. If you plan your content ahead of time, you can reduce this stress and save time. It’s easy to schedule your Instagram posts with the many Instagram schedulers available, just do some research on which ones will work best for you.
6| Engagement pods
A great way to increase engagement is to use engagement pods. There are small groups of Instagram users who decide to leave comments on each other’s posts and like each other’s pictures. By doing this, the reach of the post will be increased.
Get together with other creatives in your niche and start an engagement group.
7| Get involved with other accounts
It is very important to engage with other accounts in order to grow your own account. By commenting on another user’s post, you’re making your account visible to other users who engage with that photo. You are also connecting with those accounts on a personal level, which will lead to them following you and engaging with your content.
At least 30 minutes of engagement per day is recommended. It’s up to you whether to do that all at once or in small increments.
8| Organise an Instagram contest/giveaway
Instagram giveaways can be a great way to grow your following. You’ll notice that I used the word “can.”. . . For example, if you run a giveaway incorrectly, you could gain a lot of followers who are not your target audience, and they’ll unfollow as soon as the winner is announced. Alternatively, they will follow you but never engage with your content.
Giving away something specific that you know your audience will like is a great way to ensure that you will gain targeted followers. Your engagement rate and statistics will suffer if you gain the wrong followers, so it is important to get relevant followers.
9| Post shareable content
It is likely that you will have your content reposted if you post incredible content. Getting your content reposted is an awesome way to reach your target audience! It is now super simple for people to share your Instagram posts directly to their Instagram stories. By doing this, their followers can click through their story and be taken straight to your post!
A quote post is one of the most commonly reposted types of content. A good way to get some potential reposts is to create cute graphics and post them to your feed. If your brand and logo appears somehow in the graphic, so much the better!
Make sure you are properly credited if someone reposts your content. This is proper Instagram etiquette. You shouldn’t let another user repost your content without allowing their followers to see where it came from.
10| Geotagging
A geo-tagged post is always a good idea. This is similar to adding a hashtag in that people can view posts by location. By adding a location to your Instagram posts, you are geotagging them. It’s especially useful if you wish to attract local followers, but even if you do not want to target a specific location, it will still expand your reach.
Research shows that posts with geotags receive 79% more engagement than posts without them! You don’t want to miss out on the engagement boost that comes with including a location. Instagram stories can even be geotagged to get more attention.
11| Tag other accounts in your posts
Don’t forget to tag relevant accounts when posting on Instagram! As a result, you will be able to reach their audiences through their tagged section on their profile.
Furthermore, this is a great way to get these accounts to like your posts. When we are tagged, we always like the posts. It will help get your post on the explore page if large, popular Instagram accounts like your posts.
12| Understand your audience
You should spend some time determining your ideal audience. Focus on one specific person you are trying to reach, and tailor your content to that person. Rather than trying to reach every user, it’s better to focus on one niche rather than trying to please everyone. You can also be more specific with hashtags by narrowing your focus.
13| Immediately respond to comments
Your posts will perform better if you get engagement faster. The post will be recognised by Instagram as a popular post and viewers will see it more often. “Don’t post and ghost!”. Meaning, don’t simply post and then disappear. You should stick around for up to 30 minutes after posting so you can respond promptly to any comments. Conversations within captions and comments are a wonderful way to engage your audience.
14| Monitor your analytics
It’s like trying to bake a cake in the dark if you post to Instagram without paying attention to your statistics. Rather than guess if you’re doing things right, keep an eye on your statistics so you can know what’s working.
You should know what time of day your followers are most active, which posts perform best, and which hashtags are bringing engagement. All of these things will help you post content your target audience is going to love.
You can view analytics on Instagram business accounts, however if you need something more robust, contact us at Pearce Media and we can help.
15| Boost your posts
Although promoting posts may seem daunting to you, it’s so easy and so beneficial. By boosting your posts, you can reach thousands of people for as little as R50! In addition, you will ensure the post will reach the right people.
IMPORTANT: You need a business account on Instagram in order to promote posts!
16| Use multiple social platforms
Even if you don’t have a large audience, you have an audience that loves you. Your social media accounts should be promoted across all platforms. People who love you on Pinterest are likely to love you on Instagram as well. If people enjoy receiving your weekly email newsletters, they’ll enjoy seeing your daily Instagram posts.
Don’t forget to post your Instagram link everywhere. You should also tell your friends and family when you start – they are likely to be your biggest supporters at the beginning, and any support is helpful.
Would you like to expand your audience, attract paying followers, and become an expert in your area of expertise? Contact us HERE and we’ll help you take off!
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