How to increase followers on Instagram
Social Media

How to increase followers on Instagram: strategies for a community

Instagram, with more than 1,000 million active users in the world, has become one of the main social networks that companies should use in their Social Media strategy this article, I will show you the steps How to increase followers on Instagram a high interaction in the business Instagram accounts (it is important to note that the strategies also work for personal accounts).

It is important to clarify that the number of followers is not the most important indicator in Instagram since it does not speak of the interaction (engagement) of your followers. I suggest combining the tracker’s indicator with other indicators that measure the interaction of the account.

How to increase followers on Instagram

1. Accurately define the Instagram audienceHow to increase followers on Instagram

You must clearly specify the audience you want to reach with the Twitter strategy.

The methods I recommend to define the audience are:

  • Create a socio-demographic profile of the audience where aspects such as gender, age, education, income level, race, etc. are defined.
  • Create a psychographic profile of the audience where characteristics such as personality, lifestyles, interests, tastes, concerns, opinions, values, etc. are specified.
  • Use the People methodology to define the audience that allows creating fictitious characters that are mentioned aspects such as: who he is, where he lives, if he is married or single, where he works, what he likes, what he does in his free time, interacts with the product or service, etc. This is one of the strategies of how to increase followers on Instagram.

2. Personalize Instagram accountHow to increase followers on Instagram

This will give a professional presence to the account, the elements that you must customize the profile of Instagram are.

  • Nickname. It is the “@” of the company that should not have spaces or special characters (accents, ñ, etc.) and should be associated with the company. It is desirable that it be unique for all social networks of the company, for this you can use a tool to verify the availability of the nickname in each of them, I use Namechk.com.
  • Profile name. Select a good name, which should be spelled, meaning it can have space and special characters.
  • Profile picture. It is desirable to use an iconography (part of the logo or independent symbol) of the company since most of the time when the logo on the timeline is reduced it is not understood. If it is a personal account I recommend using a good photo for the profile preferably in the foreground (only face) and sport.
  • Biography of the profile. Create a complete biography for the company profile (around 140 characters) that mentions the brand, what it does and where it does it.

3. Do not just talk about the brand on InstagramHow to increase followers on Instagram

I suggest sharing the content of four types:

3.1. Content of Engagement

The main objective of this type of content is to bring the brand closer to the audience and generate an emotional link. It is important to note that this type of content has no commercial purpose.

  • I recommend that about 4 publications out of 10 be related. Some examples of publications of this type of content are:
  • Greetings on special dates: Christmas, New Year, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc.
  • Greetings on important dates for the hearing: doctor’s day, lawyer’s day, teacher’s day, etc.
  • The emotional phrases associated with the product or an emotion with which you want to relate the brand.
  • The memes associated with the business that do not make negative allusions to people of color, religion, gender, political group, etc. This is another strategy of how to increase followers on Instagram.

3.2. Value-added contentHow to increase followers on Instagram

They are publications that will be useful for the audience and this depends on the type of company. I recommend that about 2 publications out of 10 be of added value.

It is important to note that the added value must be generated with the image or video (animation) and not with the text that accompanies them since people, in general, read the text a little.

One way to achieve this is with a group of images that provide valuable information. For example, a tour company can make a group of images with the places that should be visited if you visit Rome.

3.3. Content Product / Service (commercial)

Commercial content is publications that are aimed at sales. Instagram is a social network where commercial content works very well since it is generally well accepted by the audience.

Examples of this type of content are:

  • Promotions
  • New products
  • How to use products
  • Benefits of the products

I suggest that the number of commercial publications is 3 out of 10.

3.4. Institutional or business content

The purpose of the company content is to show what happens in the company. I recommend that about 1 publication out of 10 be company content.

Some examples of this type of content are:

  • Awards achieved by the company.
  • Anniversary of the company.
  • Certifications of the company.
  • Collaborators of the company.
  • Actions of social responsibility of the company.

It is important to note that the previous distribution is only a proposal and can change according to the need of the company.

It is important to create a policy for generating quality content in multiple formats: images, videos, and animations. and it is important to keep in mind that videos and animations must have a maximum duration of one minute.

4. Some ideas for Instagram posts

  • Use emotional imagesHow to increase followers on Instagram
  • Show the human face of your company
  • Show images behind the scenes
  • Use videosHow to increase followers on Instagram
  • Take advantage of special occasions
  • Send messages on special days
  • Show your products and brand in an original way
  • Use attractive photos
  • Take advantage of the storyHow to increase followers on Instagram
  • Share information about events sponsored by your company
  • Use phrases
  • Be creative to generate emotionsHow to increase followers on Instagram
  • Thank your audience for the achievements of your account

This is an important strategy of how to increase followers on Instagram.

5. Use Instagram Stories and IGTV to grow the community on InstagramHow to increase followers on Instagram

5.1. Instagram Stories

I suggest creating at least one story per day as it has multiple benefits:

  • Significantly increase the visibility of your company’s account.
  • If you have more than 10,000 followers you can make stories with links.

Instagram Stories allows you to upload stories to Instagram and place hashtags and locations where these have been recorded. I recommend using at least 1 hashtag in the story and geolocating the place where it was made. When you upload a story with a hashtag and it is geolocated, the Instagram Stories account will be featured on Instagram in the “Search” section. It is important to remember to put the name of the account in the story because many people will click on it and enter to see your profile.

5.2. IGTV

It is one of the most recent forms of communication on Instagram and should be used by brands.

6. Promote your Instagram account on all possible channelsHow to increase followers on Instagram

Promote the Instagram account in the following channels:

  • Invite to visit the Instagram account with publications in other social networks such as:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Put Instagram on the “Follow us on social networks” option on the website and blog.
  • Feed of the latest Instagram posts on the blog.
  • Create an Instagram tab on the Facebook page. The Woobox.com tool allows you to add the tab for free.
  • Put a link to Instagram in the electronic bulletin.
  • Write the Instagram account on the personal cards.
  • Write the Instagram account on the company’s stationery.
  • And write the Instagram account in the signature of the corporate e-mails.
  • In the events where the company participates, inform the people that the company has an Instagram account.

This is a very important strategy of how to increase followers on Instagram.

7. Make promotional campaignsHow to increase followers on Instagram

7.1. Campaign with influencers

Campaigns with influencers tend to work very well for rapid community growth on Instagram.

It is important to note that there are two types of influencers:

  • Influencers generalists: public figures (artists, presenters, models, etc.) with large communities on Instagram. It works well for products or services of mass consumption or aimed at the final consumer. For example, a clothing brand can send a pint to a model on the condition that they mention in their social networks.
  • Niche Influencers: are people with Instagram communities that are smaller than the previous ones, but who enjoy technical credibility in their audience. This type of influencers works well for specialized service and product brands.

7.2. Make competitions and activations with the audience

The contests on Instagram can help the community grow in an important way.

For competitions it is important to take into account the following aspects:

  • The contest must meet the conditions of Instagram to avoid penalties to the account. If you want to know the conditions you can click here.
  • There should be a lot of clarity in the guidelines of the contest: who wins, who can be disqualified, etc. When this is not very clear it can cause disgruntled users that can even lead to a reputation crisis.
  • It is desirable that the prizes of the contest be associated with the product or service and avoid general rewards (bicycle, trips, etc.) since it can cause community growth in people who are not interested in your product or services.
  • The contest should be promoted with all possible channels (including advertising on social networks) to ensure that the number of participants is as large as possible.

This is another strategy of how to increase followers on Instagram.

7.3. Use Instagram advertisingHow to increase followers on Instagram

Use Instagram advertising to grow your audience. It is important to note that a good segmentation of the campaign must be done to ensure that the growth of the campaign is of the audience of interest.

Some factors that should be taken into account in the segmentation are:

  • Age range
  • Gender
  • Place of residence
  • Interests
  • Devices where advertising will be read

It is important to note that the objective of the campaign should be to strengthen the brand.

8. Other strategies to grow the community on InstagramHow to increase followers on Instagram

8.1. Post in the best schedules

Post at the best times. Some studies show that the best times to publish are 7 am, 12 pm and 5 pm. The following image shows the best times recommended by the company Genwords after a study they did.

It is important to note that when you have an audience with different time zones, this can change significantly. In my case, I live in Colombia but I have an important audience in Spain that affects these hours. Another aspect to keep in mind is that you must try different hours and verify which are actually more effective for your company.

This is an important strategy of how to increase followers on Instagram.

8.2. Follow Followers of accounts similar to yours

Follow the followers of accounts similar to yours, this will allow people related to your business to have the opportunity to know your account. I recommend to follow up to 20 people a day since Instagram limits the people who follow the total accounts and every day.

8.3. Use hashtags (#)

Use between 5 and 15 hashtags (#) at the end of the publication with popular words related to it. The hashtag can be associated with:

  • Popular word (#Facebook)
  • Words of the subject (#Marketing)
  • From the audience (#CommunityManager)
  • Words of the region (# Medellín)

8.4. Use mentions (@)

Occasionally use mentions (@) of people with large communities to seek promotion of the publication. It is important that when the mentions are made that the mentioned persons are helped to promote the publication or the account.

8.5. Identify Instagram content that is most valued by the audience

There are several ways to identify the content most valued by the audience:

  • For the number of likes of the publications.
  • By the number of comments of the publications.
  • Or by the number of people reached with the publication.
  • By the number of mentions in the comments.

Something that can work to identify the content desired by the audience is to ask your followers the topics that interest them. This is an important strategy of how to increase followers on Instagram.

8.6. Be consistent in Instagram posts

The greatest amount of publications must be made, as long as the value is generated in each one. I think that on Instagram many publications do not equal spam.

I recommend sending at least 1 post a day from Monday to Sunday. Tools can be used to schedule Saturday and Sunday publications. I use Hootsuite.com

8.7. Connect with your followers

  • Always respond to direct mentions and messages.
  • Launches questions to your audience.
  • He thanks his followers who most propagate their content.

9. Practices that you should avoid

  • Do not duplicate the content automatically from another social network.
  • Don’t use programs to grow followers.
  • Do not follow accounts that use the hashtag #Siguemeytesigo or #Followback

Those are the important strategy of how to increase followers on Instagram.

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