Nowadays, almost every person, especially Millennials and Gen-zers, is taking photos using their mobile phones. And the good thing is that those photos, from concerts, events to even a simple family dinner, end up on social media, especially on Instagram.
Instagram has over a billion subscribers, and half of them almost use the platform daily. The reason is that people love sharing photos, stories, and videos with their friends, loved ones, and even to the world. Because of its enormous number of subscribers, the platform becomes highly attractive to a lot of brands, businesses, and advertisers that are looking to promote their products or services, gain more followers and generate sales.
If you aim to expand your reach, build engagement and grow your followers on Instagram, consider implementing these five useful methods;
1. Optimize Your Hashtags.
You might have probably known about hashtags since they are very famous across different social media platforms. However, most brands and marketers haven’t fully utilized hashtags when it comes to their marketing strategies. While there’s nothing wrong with creating your own hashtags, experts highly recommend using trending and popular hashtags that are relevant to your niche to connect with the right audience efficiently.
To easily know which trending and popular hashtags best fit your niche and marketing campaign, you can use hashtag generator tools like Hashtagsforlikes. These tools can provide the most relevant and trending hashtags there is across social media channels, especially on Instagram.
Moreover, while Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags that can be included in each post, we recommend only using up to 11 hashtags for optimal engagement and to avoid making your post look spammy. If you need to add more hashtags, you can place them all to the first comment of your post.
2. Follow Prospective Users
Another strategy to attract people’s attention is by following their account. However, make sure that those people who you are going to follow are showing interest in products or services that are similar to yours. To do that, you can visit your competitor’s Instagram account or an Influencer account that discusses related topics similar to your brand. Once you’ve found them, you can interact on the comment section on one of their trending posts and follow users that show interest. Also, aside from following prospective users, visit one of their posts and make sure to like and leave a comment to make them notice you.
Also, while hashtags allow people to find your post, you can also use hashtags to search for people who are currently looking for products or services that are similar to yours and for the very same reason, you can use the hashtag generator tool. Once you do, make sure to follow them and like the last three photos they’ve posted. This process will make them feel that your intention is genuine and more likely follows you back in return.
3. Produce High-quality Content Consistently
Your content should be able to generate engagement effectively to make sure that your account is getting a lot of followers. However, you can only do that by producing high-quality content consistently.
According to research, high-quality content attracts more audience than those that can be easily found elsewhere or generic content. You should also consider your posting frequency and the best time to post. Some experts suggest that posting at least once a day can keep your audience engage and attract new followers. Posting more than three in a day, on the other hand, can only make your account looks spammy.
Furthermore, to make your content more engaging, make sure to use the right filters. According to some research, images that are filtered get 21% more views and comments than unfiltered ones. Also, consider adding some Emojis in each of your content since these tiny images can easily evoke emotions. According to Instagram, most of their users use at least one emoji on each of their posts.
4. Take Advantage Of IGTV and IG Stories
Lots of Instagram users love IGTV and IG stories. In fact, some people use this Instagram feature when looking for products or services. Videos are proven to be more engaging than static images since the message being relayed is quickly understood by the viewers. When creating videos, don’t forget to include at least three best popular hashtags, particularly branded and keyword hashtags if you already have one.
- Check Your Insights
Thanks to Instagram analytics tools, you can now check the data for each post including the top posts, engagement, each, demographics, gender, etc. Evaluate this data regularly so you can determine areas where you can improve your strategy.
Instagram is constantly changing and it’s up to you to keep up on those changes. Follow these methods, and you have good reasons to boost your Instagram followers.
