Learning how to build an Instagram following is essential for any organization or company that has a brand to promote.
Instagram can be an important marketing channel for your brand and an opportunity to build a loyal audience that grows with your business. Instagram has become the backbone of many brands when it comes to promoting their brand on social media platforms.
If you are not satisfied with the number of followers you have on Instagram, then these Ideas will help you grow quickly. The larger your audience grows, the more opportunities you have to engage with users and share your ideas with them. That will translate to more business opportunities for you.
How to Build Your Instagram Following
There are 11 proven ways one can use to build an Instagram following
- Optimize your Instagram account
- Use Hashtags
- High-Quality Filters
- Organize Your Story Highlights
- Jump on Trending topics
- Ask for more followers
- Use Instagram Live Often
- Pay for sponsored posts and product reviews
- Run a giveaway contest
- Be Consistent
- Monitor follower growth closely over time
1. Optimize Your Instagram Account
Before you start to source for means to gain followers on Instagram. One of the most important steps is to make sure your account is fully optimized. Let your brand’s Instagram bio be like a website“homepage” where people can quickly get all you are about.
To create more awareness about your brand, you have to use a bio, image captions, a proper username, or profile image. This will help form the foundations of your brand identity. The link in your bio is important as it will help to drive Instagram traffic to your site.
Also, make your username search-friendly as possible, which means picking a name as similar or the same as that of your actual brand name. If your business name is longer, shorten it to something your audience would easily recognize.
Pro-Tip: Try to avoid adding numbers or special characters to your username except when you are left with no other option. If possible, make sure you use the same username for all the social media handles you already created.
2. Use Hashtags to Reach Strangers
Your main goal is to make sure your current audience reacts to your post regularly while you also get more followers on Instagram. Posting new, interesting, and engaging photos will make your audience react to what you post.
To increase the number of people who react to your post, you will find hashtagging your photos extremely important. Hashtagging makes it easy for people searching for specific terms to find your photos.
Just like with Twitter and other social media platforms, users on Instagram choose some hashtags over others. If you use popular Instagram hashtags within your photos, your photos will likely reach new users and be discovered.
Here are some of the popular hashtags people use on Instagram
#Love, #instagood, #photooftheday, #fashion, #beautiful, #happy, #cute, #like4like, #tbt, #followme, #picoftheday, #follow, #me, #art, #selfie, #summer, #instadaily, #repost, #friends, #nature.
If you want to tag your photos using the proper hashtag, you will need to find the most relevant hashtags. This means doing the appropriate research to make sure you are using hashtags that don’t only describe your brand but are also being searched for on Instagram.
You can use Instagram to find related hashtags and their popularity if you search for any of your target keywords directly in the Instagram app.
Instagram allows for a maximum of 30 hashtags per post. Note that the popular words will change over time, so make sure you revisit your hashtag keywords every few months to ensure you use the best possible terms.
You can also get hashtag ideas from similar accounts that have the kind of following you aspire to.
3. High-quality Filters
Using the right pictures can help you get followers on Instagram. Filters on Instagram are used to enhance the quality of the picture you want to post.
The Instagram community responds to some photo filters than others. Using these preferred filters can have a great impact on the number of people who engage your post.
Here are some of the most popular and recommended filters on Instagram;
Normal (No Filter), Clarendon, Juno, Lark, Ludwig, Gingham, Valencia, X-Pro II, Lo-fi, Amaro
4. Organize Your Stories into Highlights
Whenever a potential follower comes to your business profile, the way your posts are being organized can convince them to follow you.
The way you can do this is by using the Highlights feature on your profile to organize your Instagram Stories in a way that communicates what your account is about to anyone that visits your profile.
Since Stories can only last for a 24-hour, you can highlight to give them a second life and entice others to follow you so they don’t miss out on more Stories in the future.
You can use Story Highlights to build an Instagram following by:
- Creating trailers that tell your audiences what your account is about
- Organizing your Stories into themes (like places you have been to)
- Explaining your products through pictures and videos
- Promoting your products using swipe-up links (you need a minimum of 10K followers and an Instagram Business account to do this with your Stories)
5. Jump on Trending Topics
Participating and creating content on trending topics or hashtags can improve discoverability and engagement.
For example, you can ride the wave of a trending topic or event, such as a holiday, in a relevant way to boost your engagement and brand awareness.
You can participate in one of the many “hashtag holidays” that exist, such as #Mothersdays every year. Mark relevant events in your calendar so you can prepare quality content in advance.
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6. Ask For more Followers
Another way to build an Instagram following is to occasionally ask your audience to follow you.
In the same way, YouTube content creators ask their viewers to follow them at the end of their videos, you can also ask viewers to follow you for more content.
You can also use your captions, work them into your content by hinting at content that’s coming up that they won’t want to miss and how your content will be of benefit to them.
7. Use Instagram Live Consistently
Live video is the key to running a successful marketing strategy on Instagram or another social media platform. You can use Instagram Live to stream videos to your followers and engage with them in real-time.
Your followers will also receive a notification when you start a live video. Once you finish your live stream, you can upload it to your Story for 24 hours.
Instagram Live is interactive. Your followers will comment while you’re living, so try to acknowledge their comments.
Some ways to add more followers on Instagram Live include:
- Influencer takeovers
- Hosting an AMA (Ask Me Anything) or Q&A
- Hosting a talk show
- Going behind the scenes on your operations
- Sharing a current event
- Running product tutorials
8. Pay for Sponsored Posts and Product Reviews
Another way one can build an Instagram following is using influencer marketing and exposing your brand to a wider audience.
Try to work with larger Instagram accounts in your industry, like notable influencers in your space, to share your content with their audience
You don’t necessarily need Instagram influencers with a high following to add more followers on Instagram. You can promote your brand with an influencer that has a high engagement rate (likes and comments relative to follower count).
9. Run a Giveaway Competition
One of the best kinds of comments you can get on any social media post, not just Instagram, is when one user tags a friend. This tag brings you a new audience member who came through a recommendation and who you could persuade to be your follower through your content.
One can encourage this act by posting relatable content that begs for 1:1 sharing. But a more reliable way to get your audience to tag their friends is by running a giveaway that encourages your audience to tag a friend and follow your account.
10. Consistency is Important
Most of your followers won’t follow you for what you posted in the past but for the promise of what you will post in the future. Your audience wants to know what they are going to get if they hit that Follow button.
Having a page with consistent content and a consistent posting schedule can have just as much of an impact on building a following. Even a simple pattern can entice new followers, as long as it is communicated at first glance to anyone who lands on your profile.
Consider your Instagram bio and your last nine posts as your first impression on Instagram.
The layout of your grid is an often-underestimated way to get creative with the aesthetic of your feed while adding a rhythm to your publishing strategy and consistency that’s worth following.
Many accounts that adopt this approach are often able to spend less effort on creating content by focusing on converting visitors into followers, producing text graphics or other content with a faster turnaround, and streamlining the overall production of their Instagram content.
11. Monitor Follower Growth Closely Over time
It’s not enough to get more Instagram followers if you’re losing them. Keep an eye on the rate at which you’re growing as well as how engaged your following is overall.
With an Instagram Business account, you also get an Instagram Analytics dashboard, which offers valuable insight for free.
You can see how many people are checking out your profile, how many people your posts have reached, what your top posts are, and where most of your followers are from.
You can use this data to diagnose where you’re falling short and where you could do more.
Look for patterns in the posts that were the most engaging and try to replicate that in your future content.
How to build an Instagram following FAQ
This section includes the most frequently asked questions about how to build an Instagram following
Steal your competitors’ followers, Use geotags on Instagram posts, Organize Stories into Highlights, Post-user-generated content, Collaborate with other brands, Post at the best times, Livestream on Instagram Stories
Fill out your Instagram bio, Find your audience through hashtags Post relevant and engaging content
and Publish consistently, Start a conversation with your followers, Use Instagram Live.
The fastest method is to buy 1000 followers, here on mediaboosternig.com. However, If you wanna grow it organically, It depends on many factors including the account opening date, the niche and your connections. I assume that you have recently opened your Instagram account and you have no platform to connect your Instagram account. You are not connected to any Instagram campaign.
It may take up to 3 months for you to get your first 1000 followers if you engage in Instagram activities like; comments on public posts, like public posts, use hashtags, and so on.
Summary – How to Build an Instagram Following 10 fastest ways
To sum it up, Instagram can be a visual marketing channel for your brand and an opportunity to build a loyal audience that grows with your business.
Instagram has become the backbone of many brands when it comes to promoting their brand on social media platforms. Here are 10 tips that can help you build your Instagram following.
- Optimize your Instagram account
- Hashtags
- High-quality filters
- Trending topics
- Ask for more followers
- Instagram Live
- Pay for sponsored posts and product reviews
- Run a giveaway
- Consistency
- Monitor follower growth closely over time
Do you have any questions or comments? Use the comment box below.