When you’re using Instagram for business, one of your primary goals is likely growing your following. However, making your Instagram followers increase is harder than it may seem. It takes strategy, thought and intentionality to really increase your following. If you’re serious about it, here are five methods that are industry best practices that you can use to expand your following.
1. Use A High-Quality Instagram Growth Service
Notice that we said “high-quality.” Unfortunately there are a number of tools that brand themselves as growth services that simply aren’t. Low quality services often use spammy tactics and practices, and the followers you get might not even be real. When you’re looking at services, you’ll want to choose one that doesn’t promise you a specific number of followers.
That might sound counter-intuitive. After all, you want to know what you’re paying for, right? Well, that’s not really the case here. If you want real followers, then a growth service cannot accurately promise you a set number. They’ll give you a certain number of followers, but they’ll be filled with bots, fake accounts and people who will leave your page within a few days. For those that stick around, they won’t engage, which will just hurt your standing in the eyes of Instagram and your potential followers.
Now, using a high-quality Instagram growth service is different. These services get you real instagram followers organically through automating engagement marketing tactics. Engagement marketing means that you go and like some posts of people you want to have following you. Then, they’ll be interested in who you are, check out your profile, and if they’re interested in you, they’ll give you a follow.
Organically growing your following can take a lot of time. That’s why good Instagram growth services exist, and it’s why many people in the industry, like social media managers and agencies, use them. Using a growth service like this lets you outsource that time-consuming task so you can focus on creating top-quality content for your followers to enjoy and engage with each day.
2. Collaborate With Other Brands And Influencers
Collaboration is the name of the game on Instagram, especially if you’re looking to make your Instagram followers increase. When you find someone related to your brand who your ideal followers are already following, you can pitch that brand or influencer a collaboration so you can work together.
People generally trust the brands and influencers they follow. People will rely on their favorite brands and influencers’ opinions when it comes to recommendations, and that’s where your brand can enter the picture. Whether you want to do an Instagram takeover and have someone take over your account for the day or give them some products to do an advertisement on their platform, you can find a way to make collaborations work for your brand.
Before you reach out to a brand or influencer to suggest a collaboration, you’ll want to have an idea of your goals for the partnership. In this case, your goal is to grow your following, so you’ll want to work with the brand or influencer to ensure that the messaging they use asks their followers to go and follow you.
You could do this by asking an influencer to host a takeover on your account where they encourage their followers to follow your account to see their content throughout the day. They can also share your product or service and talk about their experience with it to let their audience know more about you. Or, you could partner with another brand to host a giveaway. Combine some of your products with theirs, you can each post about it, and then in order to enter, Instagram users must be following both of you.
Whatever your plan is for your collaboration, when you suggest it to the influencer or brand, you want to show that it’s a win-win for both of you. By preparing your goals ahead of time and knowing how the other party will be able to benefit, you’ll be ready to go.
3. Use Trending And Industry Related Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to make your Instagram followers increase, because it’s a strategy you can do mostly on your own. It does require a little research and some great content, so if you’re up for the challenge, let’s dive a little deeper.
When you use hashtags strategically, you have the chance to put your posts in front of people who are searching for the kind of content you’re creating. In order to do this well, though, you’ll need to spend some time researching trending hashtags or those popular in your specific industry.
Go into the search section of Instagram and type in a word or phrase that’s relevant to your industry. Then, select the “Tags” section so you can filter the results to just hashtags.
When you look through the results, those with the highest number of uses are likely trending, so you’ll want to use those when possible. You can also look for trending hashtags by scrolling through your Discover page and seeing what hashtags are being used on those posts. These suggested posts are customized for your account based on your activity.
You can also look for newer hashtags that are specific to your industry. Go back into the search bar and type in a keyword or phrase for your industry, and then look through the results to see what hashtags are suggested. When you see one that’s relevant, type that into the search bar and see what related hashtags are suggested for that. You can continue to do this until you have a list of hashtags that you feel are relevant for your industry and potential followers.
If all of this sounds like a lot of work, you can always use a hashtag generator to help make the process a little easier for you. Once you type in your initial hashtag, the hashtag generator will create a list of either random or best match suggestions – you can choose. This is a streamlined way to find hashtags that will probably be relevant for your account.
4. Cross-Promote Across Different Platforms
If you have a following on another social media platform and you aren’t cross-promoting, you’re missing out. The good news is, you’re about to have an easy way to make your Instagram followers increase.
Cross-promotion is simple: you promote your Instagram account on other platforms and encourage your followers from there to check you out and follow you on Instagram. You can plug your Instagram handle at the end of your YouTube videos, add it to the P.S. of your email newsletter or create a few dedicated Facebook posts that encourage people to check out your Instagram account.
This is a great way to grow your following because you’re targeting people you already know are interested in the kind of content you create. You don’t have to explain to them why following you is a good idea. Instead, you can share with your followers from other sites what the benefit is to seeing your Instagram posts, too. If you share a different type of content on Instagram, mention that.
Many businesses take their followers more behind-the-scenes in their Instagram Stories. Chances are you aren’t sharing that same in-depth look on your LinkedIn page. So, you can use that as an invitation to join you on Instagram. Or maybe you create infographics that you share only on Instagram – use that as a reason your fans should join the Instagram train, too.
5. Run Instagram Ads
If you have room in your budget, running Instagram ads is a great way to find the right people to target and help you make your Instagram followers increase. You can create very specific target audiences with Instagram ads, from demographic information to interests and behaviors. You can even create “lookalike” audiences based off of an existing database you have, like your email list. In this case, Instagram would review your email list and find other users who are similar to that existing list.
Instagram ads also look very natural. They fit in well, either as Stories or feed posts, and if you design them well they can be very captivating for your potential followers. In fact, 50% of Instagram users are more interested in a brand after seeing an ad on the platform. You can create any type of ad that fits your brand, from video to carousel to still photo. With the Instagram ads editing software, you’re sure to find the experience intuitive.
Increase Your Instagram Following
There are many other strategies to increase your followers on Instagram. However, if you get started with these five industry best practices, you should begin to see growth. Things like follower growth take time, so you’ll need to exercise some patience as you work on this, but it will be worth it when you have plenty of engaged followers who are just ready to convert into customers.
