We’ve been talking lately about how exactly to boost your organization marketing with Instagram. Contrary to what lots of people still believe, Instagram is not only a fun app where you can post food, holiday and family pics.
Instagram has turned into a powerful brand-building, audience-building and content-marketing tool for businesses. It has over 200 million active monthly members sharing 60 million images and 1.6 billion likes each day.
A note of caution: there are many people on the market who promise to grow your Instagram followers by the thousands, but beware. Most of them use fake accounts developed by bots to inflate your numbers.
These kinds of followers have zero value. Actually, they are able to even be dangerous, wanting to steal your password or photos or infect you with a virus.
According to the data security company Imperva, these bad bots take into account 28.9 % of bots on Instagram.
The ultimate way to build your Instagram followers is by being authentic to your brand as well as your audience.
Here are 3 ideas to help you get real Instagram followers:
Tell a tale with Hashtags
It’s great to use your business name as a hashtag, but you need to think beyond that.
To be able to use your Instagram posts to obtain followers, use other hashtags that tell the story of the image you’re sharing. You need to start a conversation if you are sharing posts for things such as:
Events
Promotions
Contests
Product launches
A good example of a brandname who does this well is @Tostitos. They use the hashtag #GetTogetherAlready to encourage people to gather and share their chips, and to use the hashtag if they share photos of these meetups.
By using engaging, relevant hashtags, you could be discovered in Instagram searches and hopefully build up followers on Instagram.
Get Creative
Instagram is about photos, so many people think of the caption as an afterthought.
Don’t neglect the image caption! You will generate engagement and promote sharing by using descriptive words that may engage, inspire and entertain your followers.
Here are some ideas to help you build up followers on Instagram with your posts:
Use questions in your caption. Write your question at the beginning of the post so that people see it first.
Get personal together with your post. Tell a story about yourself, or how your product helped or inspired someone else.
Ask people to tag others. Asking people to tag three of their best friends or tagging someone they’re grateful for brings other potential followers into the equation.
free instagram followers of a brandname that does personal posts well is the @NatGeo Instagram account.
They create breathtaking Instagram Stories with informative captions to teach an individual on the plight of animals around the world.
Remember in terms of using Instagram posts to obtain followers, it’s all about being authentic. Don’t use questions in every single post or tell an individual story that isn’t genuine.
Go Local
One of the best ways to build your Instagram followers is to become familiar with your neighbours!
Whether you’re creating Instagram ads or want to promote your event in a specific area, you can see what’s going on near you by going to the search page and clicking on the Places tab.
Type in the positioning to start to see the geotagged posts for that area. Then visit relevant and recent tagged posts – not those of competing businesses, obviously – and leave a comment or even an emoji and follow the person if you like everything you see. Hopefully, this is the start of a natural interaction.
For example, if you offer life coaching services, you can type in your location accompanied by “entrepreneurs.” Local entrepreneurs may be looking for more work and life balance or help with life goals or career challenges.
Similarly, should you have a physical location that folks have checked into on Instagram, touch upon those posters’ pictures to make sure they’re alert to your Instagram presence, and then follow them.
These are some of the best methods to build Instagram followers the right way: no bots, no shortcuts, just tried and true ways to build relationships your audience and turn them into followers!
Susan Friesen, founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING Advisor. She works together with entrepreneurs who struggle with getting the insufficient knowledge, skill and support had a need to create their web business presence.