Instagram is a visually engaging way to connect with current fans and new customers. Because of this, Instagram is an essential part of your social media strategy.
Instagram offers businesses and entrepreneurs a higher level of engagement than you might expect. A recent study by Forrester found that well-curated Instagram posts by recognized brands had a rate of engagement that was 58 times higher than Facebook and 120 times higher than Twitter.
But before you can start communicating with customers on Instagram, you need to understand more about growing your following. Follow these three tips to help you not only increase your followers but grow a fanatical following on Instagram for your business.
Grow Your Following Organically
The key to growing a fanatical following on social media is to gain followers by playing by the rules. If you want to grow a following that is authentic, you need to resist the temptation to buy thousands of followers.
Instagram is full of fake accounts. It is also full of people who are happy to sell them. If you buy followers, it will be obvious to the real followers you develop. This is because a purchased follower will not provide real interactions.
Instead of purchasing followers, you can use hashtags to make your content more visible to the wider Instagram community and hide photos you don’t want more widely distributed. The best rule for businesses is to use hashtags that are relevant to the content that you post.
Including dozens of abstract or loosely connected hashtags on your photos will mislead users. If they search for a hashtag and your photo does not match it, they will not look at it and they will not follow through to your page.
If you are new to the hashtag business, you can utilize the help of online services like ritetag.com or hashtagify.me. These services will help you find appropriate hashtags that will help you make the most of your content.
Create Varied Content That Is Both Business and Personal
Your Instagram page should not be all about the specific products and services that you offer. Social media is a great place to increase your brand power. But both the service and users agree that it is not a place to push a direct or hard sales.
Instead of putting up a constant stream of promotional shots of your product, consider adding personal content that your followers will engage with.
You can create engaging content in a few ways. One way is to encourage your followers to create posts and tag your business in them. Then, you can ask for permission to repost them. This works well because it demonstrates that your followers appreciate and respond to your brand.
You might also want to get involved with trending content. Getting involved with trending content needs to be both timely and appropriate. You need to make sure that the trend is not yet dried up before you post your content. You also need to make sure that it is appropriate for your customer base.
Host a Contest or Competition
Contests are a great way to draw encourage the growth of your followers and to get your current followers to engage with your content. Competitions offer a positive following cycle for Instagram. The most people that get involved with your posts, the more popular they will become. The more popular your Instagram feed is, the easier it is to acquire organic followers without having to do much else.
Instagram makes it easy for users to connect and share beautifully curated content. You can grow your fanatical following by creating content that is both relevant to your business and to your followers’ wider interests.
