Instagram has changed quite a bit in recent times, but one thing is evident that only posting good photos does not guarantee that your followers will grow. Instagram's success doesn't happen overnight, as growth takes time. It means that you must be aware of how to grow Instagram followers without spending any money to pay for engagement or advertisement. There are various aspects that you have to consider and some actionable strategies to grow your Instagram followers. How you grow your following to connect with a fraction of over 500 million users basically depends on your goals of getting these followers.
Instagram and its Influence
Instagram has come a long way since it started in 2010 as it has more than 1 billion active users, and most of businesses are beginning to take note of it. For this rapidly growing platform, different companies are reacting more and more, and out of the top 100 brands in the world, 90% of them have an Instagram account.
With so many brands and businesses on Instagram, there must be some incentive to use it consistently, as it is not to post some cool photos of the brand only. There are various methods to generate sales, leads, and much more via Instagram from the top brands to the small to mid-sized businesses.
This platform is still relatively new as compared to the other social media sites, and all the time, some new app updates keep on rolling. One can grow Instagram followers organically and increase engagement over time with a massive following and that is full of real fans and not the fake ones.
Benefits for Instagram for Business
To grow your business on Instagram, you have to stay updated and capitalize on all of its new features. There are so many benefits of Instagram, and you have to tap these benefits by knowing how to grow Instagram followers for business.
- Purchasing power
The sales power that Instagram holds, no one wants to miss out on this platform, as over one-third of Instagram users have used this particular app to purchase a product online. At the end of the day, it is the sales that the majority of business owners strive for.
- Advanced targeting options
The ad platform of Instagram has access to some of the most advanced social media targeting options. You have options to advertise to people by age, behavior, and interests, and this means that you can hone on the specific target audience within millions of Instagram users who are already likely to purchase.
- Trackability
You can track your sales and leads through the Instagram ads as you can see ROI clearly. This is quite an obvious benefit of Instagram as its Ads Manager platform is the same as Facebook. Everything can be seen from link clicks to leads and conversions, and you will be able to see the cost per result on the campaigns that you run.
- Quality brand building
Instagram has paid advertising capabilities that are one of its great features, but it also has organic functionality. Organic functions are the results that one can achieve without paying directly for them in advertising. When a consumer follows your brand on Instagram, he/she makes the active decision to see your posts on their timeline. This shows quite a substantial initial interest on their part, and from there, you can continue to build a relationship with them.
- Extra features for business profiles
Instagram differentiates accounts by personal and business accounts, and if your account is turned into a business account, you will be able to unlock different features to help with your business promotion. These features include a call to action button for the visitors, the ability to promote your posts, and access to account insights.
8 Ways to Grow Instagram Followers
With the passage of time, Instagram is getting more popular than ever, and out of more than a billion active monthly users, most of the people follow at least one business account. This means that there is a whopping number of people on Instagram who view and engage with branded content every month. The following are the eight possible ways on how to grow Instagram followers.
- Use the right hashtags
Your main goal on Instagram is to regularly engage your current audience while also growing your real followers. When you post new, attractive, and engaging photos, this will fulfill the first requirement, but hashtagging your photos will be extremely important to growing. Hashtags make it very easy for the people who search for specific terms to find your photos.
- Post at the right times
Considering your posts' timing is very important as a targeted approach includes analyzing what in the past has worked for you and what hasn't. You can quickly get a detailed analysis of your engagement and posting history. This will also help you with the best times of the day and the week's days to post on your Instagram.
- Use high-quality filters
The Instagram community also responds to certain photo filters in more favorably than others. When you use these preferred filters, this can have an impact on your engagement. Keep in mind that your particular audience filters are more important than the general Instagram community's favorite filters.
- Use geotags to post local discovery
Besides hashtags, you have the option to make your Instagram posts and Stories discoverable by tagging the location; it could either be your city or the venue where the video or photo was taken. Locations have their own Instagram feed and their own story, but hashtags can also contribute when you happen to use a location sticker in your own actions.
- Organize your stories into highlights
When a potential follower visits your business profile, you have a little time to convince the follower to follow you. One way of using this is by using the Highlights feature on the face to organize your Instagram stories to communicate your account. This is another way of how to grow Instagram followers organically.
- Ask for more followers
It would be best if you were not afraid to occasionally ask your audience to follow you, the same way as the YouTubers ask their viewers to follow them. This is an integral part of how to grow your Instagram following. Some people might enjoy your Instagram post, but they need a nudge before they start to follow you. This can also be done in your Instagram captions.
- Hop on trends
When the opportunity is there, aligning your content with the trending topics can really improve engagement and discoverability. You can make use of the wave of a trending event or subject in a way to boost your brand awareness and engagement. A good idea on how to grow your Instagram followers is to mark the relevant events in your calendar and prepare quality content in advance.
- Run a giveaway
The best kind of comments that you can get on Instagram is when a user tags a friend. Not only such comments contribute to the engagement of your posts, but these comments also make it favorable for the Instagram algorithm, as each tag brings a new audience member to you who have arrived through a recommendation, and there are chances that you can potentially win the member as a follower.
Conclusion
Instagram can be an excellent home for your brand and products if you focus on engagement as well as your followers. This can lead you to a healthy stream of revenue for your business. When you spend time creating visuals on Instagram, you would certainly want these to be found by the engaged audience who might become your customers. It is obviously not easy to grow Instagram followers, but it is very much possible with hard work and dedication.
