5 Ways to Grow an Instagram Following

Growing an Instagram following for your business/personal brand is a big task, there’s no doubt about it. That being said, everyday users have taken advantage of techniques to build massive followings and generate business through the platform.

The platform, which boasts a 150 million daily active users, and is updating its features at an unprecedented rate is winning the consumer attention game. Through cloning features from Snapchat, they’ve acquired a sizeable amount of Snapchat’s audience. TechCrunch reports that Snapchat’s viewership is down from 15 to 40 percent since Instagram launched their stories feature.

With new features and an attentive audience, putting together a strategy for building an Instagram following is more important than ever. Below, we’ve included five tips we use to drive Instagram growth.

1. Consistent Posting

We’re in the #6ix for Digimarcon.

A photo posted by Cave Team (@caveteam) on May 19, 2016 at 4:00am PDT

Posting consistently is one of the keys to not only building a following but also engaging it. Brands succeeding on Instagram can be seen posting every three to four hours. One of the ways to ensure your content flow is consistent is to plan out which photos you will post for the coming week in advance. We know Instagram works on an algorithm similar to Facebook, so posting regularly and engaging with people is very important to keep impressions and engagements up.

2. Going Live

Live on Instagram is different than other social networks offering the same service. The difference, once an Instagram live video is over it is no longer available to watch. This capitalizes on FOMO (fear of missing out) and prompts followers to join a brand’s live video. The advantage that Instagram Live gives is that it provides an exclusive experience for followers who decide to join. If you’re going live, it’s a good idea to announce when you will be going live on other networks – this way you can leverage outside followings into your Instagram strategy.

3. Partner with Someone

Partnering with other budding brands on Instagram will open you up to a new potential audience. You can partner with others in several ways:

Repost each other’s content with links to each others’ handles in the photo description
Do an account swap for a day to create an Instagram story for your partner’s audience, and get them to do the same for you
If you have a product, mail it out to micro-influencers (people under 10k in following), and ask them to mention the product on Instagram if they enjoyed it. If you have a budget, look to engage influencers by way of product/payment.

4. Use the Appropriate Hashtags and Location Tagging

View this post on Instagram

Whenever you’re telling your business’ story, it’s important to put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes. What are their pain-points? What are their desires? How can you help them?⁣ ⁣ It takes a shift in perspective to connect with customers. And I believe this thinking can be applied to personal relationships too, but that’s a different post. ⁣ ⁣ See the thing is…⁣ ⁣ In life everyone is playing the hero in their own movie. The best way to serve those people as a business is to not compete for the camera, but rather act as the supporting actor to your customer’s lead.⁣ ⁣ Ask yourself:⁣ ⁣ How can you help someone achieve their goals? ⁣ How can you fit in their story? ????: @lo_wes #Entrepreneurial #newbusiness #homebasedbusiness #successtips #businessquotes #mentorship #businesspassion #entrepreneursofinstagram #businessmen #mobilebusinesseducation #entrepreneurslife #entrepreneurmotivation #growyourbusiness #creativebusiness #businesscoaching #businessonline #digitalmarketing #successtip #businessstrategy #businesspartner #businesstip #businessideas #instagramforbusiness #smallbusinessmarketing #mobilebusiness #businessconsultant #inspirationbusiness #socialmedia

A post shared by Jordan Scheltgen (@cavejordan) on Jan 14, 2020 at 3:08pm PST

Hashtags are still a great way to generate exposure and create an Instagram following. Spend some time and research which hashtags are widely used in your industry and go from there. Create a spreadsheet and keep track of hashtags which you should add to each photo. Also, make sure you take advantage of the location tagging, this will make your photo show up in the recent section for that location.

5. Run an Advertising Campaign

Instagram allows you to create ads right within Facebook’s Ad Manager. If you have some budget, this is the fastest way to get your brand exposure, consistently and at scale.

The best way to grow an Instagram following is through using all of the techniques above in some capacity.

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