We’ve been talking lately about how to boost your business marketing with Instagram. Contrary to what many people still believe, Instagram is not only a fun app where you could post food, holiday and family pics.
Instagram has become 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 plenty of people on the market who promise to cultivate your Instagram followers by the thousands, but beware. A lot of them use fake accounts developed by bots to inflate your numbers.
These kind of followers have zero value. Actually, they can even be dangerous, attempting to steal your password or photos or infect you with a virus.
According to the data security company Imperva, these bad bots account for 28.9 % of bots on Instagram.
The simplest way to build your Instagram followers is when you are authentic to your brand and your audience.
Here are 3 ideas to help you to 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 get followers, use other hashtags that tell the story of the image you’re sharing. You wish to start a conversation if you are sharing posts for things like:
Events
Promotions
Contests
Product launches
A good example of a brandname would you this well is @Tostitos. They use the hashtag #GetTogetherAlready to encourage visitors to gather and share their chips, and to use the hashtag when they share photos of these meetups.
Through the use of engaging, relevant hashtags, you can be discovered in Instagram searches and hopefully build-up followers on Instagram.
Get Creative
Instagram is about photos, so many people think about 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 suggestions to help you build up followers on Instagram together with your posts:
Use questions in your caption. Write your question at the beginning of the post in order that people see it first.
Get personal with your post. Tell a tale about yourself, or how your product helped or inspired another person.
Ask people to tag others. Asking people to tag three of their best friends or tagging someone they are grateful for brings other potential followers in to the equation.
A great example of a brand that does personal posts well is the @NatGeo Instagram account.
They create breathtaking Instagram Stories with informative captions to teach the user on the plight of animals around the globe.
Remember in terms of using Instagram posts to get followers, it’s all about being authentic. Avoid questions in every single post or tell a personal story that isn’t genuine.
Go Local
One of the best methods to build your Instagram followers would be 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 location to see the geotagged posts for that area. insta like Then visit relevant and recent tagged posts – not those of competing businesses, obviously – and leave a comment as well as 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 could type in your location followed by “entrepreneurs.” Local entrepreneurs may be looking for more work and life balance or help with life goals or career challenges.
Similarly, if you have a physical location that people have checked into on Instagram, touch upon those posters’ pictures to make sure they’re aware of your Instagram presence, and follow them.
These are among the best methods to build Instagram followers the correct way: no bots, no shortcuts, just tried and true ways to engage with 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 Advisor. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with having the lack of knowledge, skill and support needed to create their web business presence.