Today, Instagram has grown to become an essential marketing tool to most businesses since it provides business owners with a platform to reach out to a broader audience. However, to effectively sell your ideas through Instagram, you must have a significant number of followers. But how do you obtain these followers?
Instagram is a very competitive platform. Although it has more than one billion monthly users, managing to win over just ten thousand followers is a hugetask, especially for smaller brands. Nonetheless, if you follow the tips discussed below, you may increase your chances of winning over more followers.
1. Select Your Hashtags Wisely
A century ago, there was no such word as a hashtag. However, this word means a lot today, especially for people who wish to sell their ideas online. Yes, Instagram has managed to introduce new features, which increase your levels of creativity in promoting your brand. But, if you forget the basic concepts, such as using the most appropriate hashtags, these features will do you no good.
- Advertisement -
To optimize the penetration of your posts, you should always incorporate relevant hashtags and location tags. This is particularly important when using the Instagram Stories feature. Ideally, Instagram Stories are shown on the Instagram Explore page; Instagram users don’t have to follow you for them to view your content. However, your content will be categorized into a specific location and hashtags.
If you use relevant hashtags, any Instagram user can view your story by using the location or hashtag stickers. Thus, the use of location tags as well as hashtags will help improve the effectiveness of your feeds since it will reach out to a broader audience.
Live events are a gold mine for more followers. People like to associate themselves with celebrities and popular trends. If you find yourself in one of these popular events, do not hesitate to share a video or a photo of yourself or your brand in the event. Using the location tag or a trending hashtag for the event will help improve the authenticity of your post, and thus increase the following from other Instagrammers.
When choosing a hashtag, do not go for the more general hashtag. Try to select hashtags that are relevant to your line of specialization; you do not want your feed to buried among millions of other posts that have used that popular hashtag!
2. Share Your Instagram Content on Other Platforms
If you want to get more followers, it is crucial to consider social media as an interconnected system, where Instagrammers are also using other social media platforms. Your strategy should be a part of a more extensive marketing effort that extends outside the Instagram app. Sharing your Instagram posts on other platforms may appeal to viewers who had not come across your work while using Instagram.
Some of the platforms you can use to share your Instagram feeds include your website, email, Facebook, and Twitter, among others. You might be surprised by the number of Instagram users you can lead to your Instagram page through these platforms. Some of the methods you can use to cross-promote your Instagram content include:
• Integrating your Instagram post into your website: this is one of the most straightforward procedures that can increase the number of followers by tenfold. If you have a website dedicated to your brand, you can always use various plugins to integrate your Instagram work on your website. People who visit your site will be able to see your Instagram feeds, which might convince them to visit your Instagram page.
• Consider adding Instagram into your email marketing campaign: If you run an email marketing campaign, you should try and lure your email list towards your Instagram page. When you design your email in a way to incorporate your Instagram hashtag or posts, you increase your chances of obtaining new followers from your email.
3. Collaborate with Popular and Awesome Brands
Joining efforts with other brands in a co-marketing campaign can help develop your course. All you need to do is spot a potential brand that complements your brand and partner with it in your Instagram marketing. Teaming up with such brands will help broaden your outreach and thus, introduce your ideas and brand to a new audience, which might translate to followers.
You should not just collaborate with other brands blindly. You should make sure that the collaboration will benefit both your audiences. Besides, it does not have to be costly. Do not always go for the big giants on Instagram; sometimes, collaborating with smaller brands, with even below 10k followers, can still introduce you to a new audience and still help get you more followers.
The best way to take advantage of this strategy is to consider collaborating with brands from different industries. Once you have identified that the collaboration will help build your brand on Instagram, do not shy away from going ahead with the partnership just because the brand is in a different sector. These collaborations, in most instances, end up complementing each other.
4. Strike Partnerships with Influencers to Reach Out to Their Niche
Influencers will help you reach out to Instagram followers on a more personal level. When you use influencers in promoting your brand, you will manage to develop genuine trust and loyalty with your Instagram followers. Influencers generally play the role of ambassador for your brand in this partnership.
While using an Influencer to produce sponsored posts might introduce you to a new audience, you can only manage to get more followers if you use these influencers consistently and on a long-term basis. If the one time sponsored post drew a lot of positive response from the influencers’ followers, you could develop a lengthier working relationship, up to one-year long projects, to fully win over these followers. You can also use other promotional tactics such as running competitions and giveaways to help boost your course.
Instagram users can easily notice an ad post even when it’s uploaded from an influencer’s page. However, if these posts become consistent, it loses the touch of just being an advertisement, and resultantly draws an honest response and genuine energy from these viewers. The long-lasting collaboration will touch followers on a more personal level and eventually lead to building loyalty and trust.
5. Come up with Instagram Ads That Will Aid towards Increasing Your Instagram Followers
Instagram is a difficult platform to penetrate, particularly for the less aggressive brands. However, if you have the right ad for your potential followers, you have an excellent chance of increasing your number of followers.
Coming up with your Instagram ad campaign should not be a demanding task; it can, however, be very stressful and nerve-wracking, particularly for people who are new. All you need to do is learn from the experts on the platform to be able to start. Once you have started, you should be consistent in developing your ads and maintain a considerable level of patience.
There are numerous kinds of Instagram ads to pick from. These ads include photos and video feeds, and videos that are usually shared on the Instagram Stories ad. You can decide to go with whichever method that works best for you. The primary objective is to target the right audience in the most appropriate and effective manner.
New brands and influencers should not worry about targeting an audience. Instagram has put an effort in presenting your sponsored posts with the right audience. Instagram brings together a similar audience that you can share posts to. Alternatively, you can come up with your own custom audience on the Instagram app. All you need to do is select a given interest, the age range, and the gender you would wish your post to reach out to.
When you create a custom audience, make sure that your content appeals to this audience. Failure to which, all your efforts will be in vain and will not yield to followers that relate with your brand. Hence, before you can share an ad, ensure that your post resonates well with your audience.
Final Thought
Instagram is an excellent platform that can help drive sales, improve brand awareness, and sell products to people with a personal touch. However, to achieve this, you must have enough followers. Creating new followers on Instagram is both an easy and daunting task in equal measures. Although there are approximately 1 billion users every month, you must have effective strategies to attract the right audience. With the right content and bespoke Instagram marketing campaigns, you will be in a better position to increase your followers.
