We finally crossed over into 2021, and THIS is the year that you have decided to be serious about growing your Instagram account. You know it’s going to take some work and some time, but you are focused and determined to make it happen. Where to begin?
Instagram has become the second-most popular social media platform, behind Facebook, with over 1 billion users a month. If you are using Instagram for business purposes, you want to be active with your account. You want to be in the same place as your potential customers, and with over 1 billion users, there is a good chance you can find them on Instagram.
So, where do you start? Here are 5 tips that will not take much time at all to help you grow your Instagram account.
- Post on your Grid
This may seem obvious, but it’s important to note that posting frequently on your grid is pretty important. If you get discovered by someone searching for something that they find in your grid, chances are this person is going to check out your profile and some of your other posts. This is why it’s important to have material on your profile. Make sure you have a good variety of content on your grid to capture your followers’ attention.
- Research Hashtags
Hashtags have become extremely popular when it comes to social media, but they are not going to benefit you if you are not using them correctly. Many people will use them for fun or to be funny when they are posting (e.g. #idontknowhowtouseahashtag). However, if you do some research and use them correctly, you will notice your Instagram likes can spike in volume quickly! You want to make sure you have a variety of hashtags geared toward different topics but still related to what you are posting.
You also don’t want your hashtags to be so popular that they disappear in a search because they are replaced almost immediately with newer posts that have the same hashtag. I like to research hashtags that have been used between 100-500K times. Hashtags that fall into this amount are popular but will stick around on the search page longer than a few minutes or seconds.
- Engage, Engage, Engage
Since Instagram is a SOCIAL media platform, it’s important to be SOCIAL! Interact with your followers and potential future followers. Like their posts. Comment on their posts. Follow other accounts. Just make sure you are sincere and are developing a relationship, not just checking something off your to-do list.
I like to use the 10/10/10 rule. Aim for following 10 new people, commenting on 10 accounts, and liking 10 posts. You can do this daily or monthly or however often you want. It all depends on how fast you want to grow your following. The more engagement, the more your profile will grow.
- Post at the Right Time
What is a good time to post on Instagram? It’s different for everyone. If you have an Instagram Business account, you can view your analytics to see when your followers are looking at your content. Then, you can plan your posts around those time to help grow your Instagram following.
- Use Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories, or ephemeral content if you want to use the technical term, has become one of the most popular forms of content. Since Instagram stories are at the top of your feed, it’s one of the first things people look at. You need to be there!
To make your Instagram Stories exciting to your followers and future followers, try creating interactive content. Create polls to get to know your followers better. Tag other accounts that are relevant to what you are posting. Make your stories shareable. All this will help grow your following faster. You can even go live with other accounts to capture a new audience.
Constantly being active on both your Instagram profile and other people’s profiles is the number one sure way to grow your Instagram following. It can take some time, but the payoff is well worth it. If you include these tips in your social media planning, you will find that your digital marketing will start to pay off.
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