We’ve been talking lately about how to boost your organization marketing with Instagram. Contrary to what lots of people still believe, Instagram is not only a fun app where you could post food, holiday and family pics.
Instagram has turned into 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 several people on the market who promise to grow 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. In fact, they can even be dangerous, attempting to steal your password or photos or infect you with a virus.
In line with the data security company Imperva, these bad bots take into account 28.9 % of bots on Instagram.
The ultimate way to build your Instagram followers is by being authentic to your brand and your audience.
Here are 3 tips to help you get real Instagram followers:
Tell a Story with Hashtags
It’s great to use your organization name as a hashtag, but you need to think beyond that.
In order to use your Instagram posts to get followers, use other hashtags that tell the story of the image you’re sharing. You want to start a conversation when you’re sharing posts for things such as:
Events
Promotions
Contests
Product launches
A good example of a brandname would you this well is @Tostitos. They utilize the hashtag #GetTogetherAlready to encourage visitors to get together and share their chips, and to use the hashtag if they share photos of these meetups.
Through the use of engaging, relevant hashtags, you will be discovered in Instagram searches and hopefully build up followers on Instagram.
Get Creative
Instagram is focused on 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 will 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 someone else.
Ask visitors to tag others. Asking people to tag three of their close friends or tagging someone they are grateful for brings other potential followers in to the equation.
insta like 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 educate an individual on the plight of animals all over the world.
Remember in terms of using Instagram posts to obtain followers, it’s all about being authentic. Avoid questions in every single post or tell an individual story that isn’t genuine.
Go Local
One of the best ways to build your Instagram followers is to become familiar with your neighbours!
Whether you’re creating Instagram ads or desire to promote your event in a particular area, you can see what’s happening near you by going to the search page and simply clicking the Places tab.
Type in the positioning to see the geotagged posts for that area. 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 what you see. Hopefully, this is the start of an organic interaction.
For example, if you offer life coaching services, you can 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, should you have a physical location that folks 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 some of the best methods to build Instagram followers the right way: no bots, no shortcuts, just tried and true ways to build relationships your audience and turn them into followers!
Susan Friesen, founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is really a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING Advisor. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with getting the lack of knowledge, skill and support had a need to create their online business presence.