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Today, Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms. Actually, data collected from statistics show that it has over 800 million monthly users. With the advancement in technology, the internet is now accessible through our smartphones as well as tablets. This in turn has led to skyrocketing user engagement in social media every single day.
80% of the Instagram accounts today happen to be business accounts. In that case, the platform can play a good role in Direct Marketing of your brand and products. All in all, this can only be possible if you have enough audience to advertise to, hence the need for more followers. I know it's not easy to get people to like what you do therefore you have to be tactical.
In that case, this article will be aimed saving you all the trouble of buying followers. In turn, helping you through a few easy steps that you can consider in order to gain more followers to your favorite Instagram account.
1. Frequent posting. If you want your Instagram account to improve on the number of new followers, you should be ready for a few sacrifices. You have to dedicate your time in order to get the desired results. Actually, a market study by Tailwind which had a chance to perform survey on over 100,000 Instagram accounts in 2017 showed that the posting frequency was a major factor. In that case, they realized that people who posted at least one or two times each day had a higher followers' growth rate than the people who rarely made any posts. By being consistent in posting, your posts get to appear at the top of your followers' timeline. This in turn will increase the chances of your posts being shared therefore the algorithm that places post chronologically will pick on your account.
2. Concentrate more on live videos, videos and stories. Initially, Instagram started as platform where people could share photos only. However, with a few advancements on both technology and the software, it can incorporate other features.
This has enabled the particular companies to engage with their customers in a better and more involving way. Research shows that today people engage more in stories and live videos more than they do with photos. Opting for the videos too would place you at an advantage over most brands. In addition to that, when you go live on Instagram, your video happens to take the first place on the status grid. This increases the chances of more people viewing it because an average of 250 million people uses their statuses on a daily basis.
3. Collaborations By collaborations, I'm talking about partnering with other brands for sponsorship programs. This can help grow the rate at which your followers are increasing especially if the partner is a bigger brand with more followers than yours. This exposes you to a larger audience therefore more people will get the chance to view your profile and products.
If Instagram is your marketing platform and it works for you, the influencer marketing program will do you right.
4. Analyze your audience For you to get someone to like what you post, you have to tap on their best interests. For instance, you cannot talk about face masks and lippies to a man who is interested in Football and games. There is a 100% chance this kind of thing will not capture their attention.
In that case, it is advisable that you get to know your target audience by analyzing the things they like most on social media and what they do behind the scenes. In a case where one loves Fashion and designs, you can post something fun about the trending fashion designs in the market. They will always be looking forward to seeing your next post.
Do your personal analysis too on the posts with the most user engagement. This can help you to know what your followers like the most. The insights part will help you on this. At times you can get a number of people who do not follow you have viewed your post. These people happen to be potential followers who might result to following you if they like what you do.
5. Sharing User Generated Content By user generated content, I'm talking about any content that is created by users of the Instagram system which is then publicly displayed for other people to see.
This way, certain brands take the best content found in the web then featuring it on their own platforms while giving credit to the initial creators. This has two major importance to the brand. One, they will be able to create a spirited audience by giving them the content they love most. Secondly, you will be able to adapt to the trends of this socially dependent generations who will likely purchase products they see from social media hence good potential buyers.
6. Good Timing What most people don't know is that not every time on Instagram is a good time for posting. More to that, it differs from one brand to the other depending on the real and potential followers online.
Here you'll get to see a full analysis of when your followers are most active in terms of day and hour. On the other hand, if you do not have a business account, you can consider using tools that analyze Instagram data like Buffer and Iconosquare to find the best timing.
7. Run contests This is very common among most brands. The popular ways brands involve their followers on Instagram to increase their reach include;
This will expose you to a wider and whole new audience who might gain interest in your brand. If they get impressed by what you post on your profile, they will definitely follow you.
8. Engage the fans To start with, you should know that the more the engagement of a certain post, the more the likelihood of it appearing at the top of the news feed. More to that, the post will appear among the top post in the explore feed.
This will make them feel appreciated therefore they will feel a great need to do the same over and over again. In other cases, you can ask for their input on certain things. You can ask them for reviews in the comments box. This will improve your engagement with your followers.
9. Use Quality Hashtags The fact that Instagram users do not get tired of hashtags like in other social media platforms, puts you at a greater advantage. Be sure to do an intense study before choosing the hashtags to use on your posts.
Things like adding tags of location or trending things can expose your posts to a larger audience who have followed those tags. Actually, with the new software upgrade, you can follow a certain hashtag.
Instagram limits you to thirty hashtags per post therefore make sure you use them wisely. This will increase your engagement with your followers while earning you more followers from the people who will visit that particular hashtag.
Tools like; AutoHash, FocalMark and Display purpose could prove helpful by giving you the best suggestion of hashtags to use.
10. Cross-posting Let your fans on other social media platforms like Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter be aware of your existence on Instagram by sharing your Instagram posts to these platforms too. By cross posting, you will increase your engagement than when the post was originally posted.
With that guideline on how to gain more followers on your Instagram account, I hope that you are able to achieve the target number of followers that you are speculating. This will increase the size of your audience which will in turn increase the interested customers to your brand and products.