Hi! Are you ready to up your Instagram game by 10, 20, or 100%? Maybe you have a brand to promote, maybe you’re an influencer, or maybe you just want to have a bigger impact on the internet. It doesn’t matter. Growing your Instagram following doesn’t happen organically. You have to strategise and put in the hard work for a longer-term investment. Don’t worry! I’ve got some strategies that will get you started. Let’s build your following.
Understanding Your Niche and Audience
Before you can be engaging and attractive and cultivate a following that endures, you first need to know whom you’re speaking to.
Define Your Niche
Your niche is not just about what you post, but what you stand for. Are you big on ethical fashion? Beautiful faraway locations? Gourmet cooking? By pinpointing your niche, you can produce more targeted, cohesive, niche-specific content and, in doing so, communicate directly to the interests of your followers. A knowledgeable niche can take your Instagram from a chronicled diary of a generalist to becoming a specialist reference library.
Know Your Audience
Second, figure out your niche and get a handle on your audience. Who are they? What are their passions? What do you gain by knowing them? Instagram Insights are a great resource for demographic and behaviour analysis, though it’s perfectly fine to just poll and query your audience to find out more about them. That way, you can be sure to keep your content strategy clicking along with your audience so that the relationship is always relevant.
Crafting Engaging, High-Quality Content
Content is king, and Instagram is the king of content. Here is our guide to creating content that not only clinches your followers but also thrills them enough to stick around.
Focus on Quality Over Quantity
Each entry should be chosen with care. Buy some good photographic equipment or learn how to whizz up some of your images on Corel Photo-Paint—you want every shot to be enticing. And bear in mind that a pretty picture is all very well, but it must also make good business sense—your ‘product’ should look inviting and thoroughly professional.
Diversify Your Content Types
While images are still the most important form of content, don’t be afraid to use other content types: create videos and reels for longer content, and use stories. Diversifying your content types will keep your feed fresh and give you more tools to use to engage your followers—for example, a video could convey behind-the-scenes bits or tutorials, while a story could be something simpler or something meant to add a quick personal touch.
Optimizing Engagement Strategies
It’s about engagement—encouraging comments, Likes and shares from the same set of people regularly.
Encourage Interaction
Make sure to ask questions in each post or tell them to tag friends, which will help your posts perform better (thanks to Instagram’s algorithms), and it will make your followers feel more connected to a community.
Regularly Engage With Your Followers
But most importantly, don’t put up a post and then ghost: reply to comments and messages. You’ll be building relationships and demonstrating loyalty to your target audience, conveying you’re interested in learning as much from them as they’ll learn from you and that you’ll engage regularly. You’ll remain ‘top of mind’, too.
Leveraging Growth Tools and Analytics
For that reason, you need the right technology and data to optimise your strategies.
Use Analytics to Track Progress
Tools such as Instagram Insights or third-party apps such as Iconosquare can give a great deal of data as to what is working and what is not. Use metrics such as follower growth, engagement rates and post-performance to refine your strategy moving forward.
Experiment With Advertising
Instagram helps you increase your following and get more people to see your content. You can target the right audience, the right age, etc. If you have a small budget, it can really make a difference if it is applied wisely.
Conclusion
It’s less about getting likes and follows, and more about that your strategy includes creating engaging content, being present, acting on the insights you glean, and adapting to create even more traction. Follow these tactics day in and day out, and your following will grow, but more importantly, your audience will love you.
FAQs
How often should I post on Instagram to keep my audience engaged? So, ideally once a day, though that can be increased or decreased depending on what you want the rate for. Once a day you’re keeping your feed (and their feed) up to date and not going too long without a post, but not posting like five times a day and overloading people’s feeds and notifications.
What’s the best way to find the right hashtags for my posts? Research—use Hashtagify (or any other relevant tool) for popular hashtags in your niche. Use a combination of high-volume (global language) hashtags with more niche hashtags; that way you’ll get increased visibility to your broader and more targeted audiences.
Is it worth buying followers to boost my Instagram profile? No, this is not a good idea. Though they are cheap and easy to achieve, these followers are not real, involved users who will engage in the kind of valuable discussions that real community building depends upon. While organic growth might take longer, it also ensures you build a more engaged and committed following.