Instagram has become a vital component of many businesses, helping them drive profitable traffic to their landing pages and engage their audience.
If your Instagram presence is not quite as robust as you expected, it’s time to step up and improve how you can get more organic followers.
Sometimes, brands try to get more followers by paying for likes and followers. These shortcuts are never worth it as the Instagram algorithm updates regularly to weed out low-quality accounts.
Not to mention, the number of followers that you have on Instagram is meaningless if it doesn’t represent an engaged follower who engages with your brand and helps make purchases.
So let’s get started building your Instagram presence with these easy steps.
1- Schedule your Instagram posts
While the algorithm has changed, creating and managing Instagram content is a vital part of any brand’s strategy to raise visibility.
It’s always smart to schedule content in advance to allow your team to see it at the same time. This will allow them to manage it more efficiently, thus you can reach more people and maintain a consistent schedule across all of your platforms.
2- Avoid fake followers
It might seem tempting to buy Instagram followers in order to increase and boost your popularity, but the backlash would outweigh the benefits of organic growth.
Don’t deceive new users into following you. If they do, it will hurt the account’s credibility. Instead, build long-term relationships with them and avoid buying followers.
No matter how many followers you acquire, they won’t be buying anything. Even if you acquire thousands of followers, they won’t be worth anything to you. People follow brands because they like what they’re posting, and these are actual spenders.
Moreover, if you have thousands of fake followers, your posts will be deleted by Instagram. It will also make them look like engagement graveyards. This will create little-to-no buzz.
Instead, real people are more likely to engage with your posts than those with fake followers.
3- Optimize your Instagram account
One of the most important steps to get started is having your account fully optimized. This will help you gain followers and build also the following.
Without a bio, image captions, profile image, or even a relevant username people will not be able to tell that you belong to your brand. Having your Instagram account all set up is very important to your brand. Plus, the link in your bio serves as the one spot on Instagram that will drive traffic to your site.
If you’re not sure where to start, try marketing or product pages that are related to specific hashtags or keywords on your Instagram account. Creating a landing page that has a bio and linked in bio posts will help users transition seamlessly from your account to a site.
Additionally, your username should be as search-friendly as possible. If it is a long name, shorten it to something that your audience would recognize. It’s preferable to stick to the brand name that you already have. If possible, avoid adding numbers or special characters to the username.
4- Hide Photos You’ve Been Tagged In
In most cases, when someone tags you on Instagram, it’s added to your profile, it will automatically appear in your profile as “Photos of You”. However, you can select which photos and videos to show up on your profile.
To see the posts that were tagged in, go to your profile and click the person icon located below the bio. Next, click on the individual post that was tagged and then click “Edit” in the top right.
To hide the posts that were tagged in, select the posts that you would like to remove from your profile. Then, tap the “Hide From Profile” button.
This will not remove the posts from Instagram, but it will remove the posts from your profile, and prevent people from accessing them.
5- Showcase your Instagram everywhere
How do people find an Instagram account? If you don’t promote your account, it’s almost impossible for people to find it.
Creating awareness and visibility is one of the best ways to get more followers on Instagram.
If you’re serious about getting more followers, then promote yourself and let people know where to find you. Having social media buttons on your website and blog will help people find you easily.
Cross-promote across multiple social media platforms is also a great idea. You can easily get people to discover your account by spreading awareness across all of your social media platforms.
However, You can also build more followers through creative content that’s relevant to the audience. With the features that Instagram has added, such as Reels and IGTV, it’s more than ever possible to create something that will appeal to users.
6- Start a conversation
One of the easiest ways to get people to engage with your Instagram content is through conversation. This is because the majority of consumers want to see visual-first content.
According to studies, 54% of consumers want to see visual content, such as photos and videos. Instagram is the ideal platform for this audience, as it’s known for its engaging caption content.
People are still using social media as their contact point for brands. They’re also looking for support and guidance from their favorite brands and products. Whether it’s for a quick question or a serious chat, they often use it to refer to companies.
Therefore, as a brand, it’s important that you respond to your audience’s questions and comments in a way that makes them feel valued. This will help boost your brand’s credibility and attract new customers.
7- Partner with Instagram influencers
Knowing the value of your audience is very important when it comes to increasing your Instagram followers. The more people interested in your products or services, the more potential buyers there are.
Additionally, getting more followers on Instagram can be done through various means, such as sponsoring user-generated content and holding contests.
Creating a campaign that shows your fans are invested in your content is a great way to prove that they care enough to share it.
Another way to get more followers is by working with established influencers in your industry. These influencers will be able to share your content with their larger audience and this will help you connect with a wider audience and increase your visibility.
Just make sure that the content you create is of value to your audience. This will help attract more followers and collaborations with other businesses. Make sure that the content is engaging and has something of value.
8- Edit your Instagram Stories highlights
Like in Snapchat, your stories only stay on the platform for 24 hours. But, sometimes, they deserve more visibility.
That’s where stories’ highlights come in.
Stories Highlights is a feature that allows users to save all of their existing stories in the same space on their profile.
The Highlights on Instagram are your company’s portfolio. They can be used to show off new products or services, as well as demonstrate various values.
Plus, since the user can only see the first 4 highlights you create, it’s important to ensure that you’re displaying the ones that you’re most excited about.
Moreover, the image that you choose should be memorable and engaging, and it should also depict what type of content the user will see when they tap the highlight.
Change your Instagram Highlights Icon without publishing it to your feed. Even if you don’t have a design or logo, you can still make a highlight icon out of it.
9- Set up auto-complete replies for responses
Unfortunately, responding to user questions and comments is very time-consuming. Fortunately, there’s a hack that will make it easier to handle them. There’s a simple way to streamline the process of responding to user questions and comments on Instagram that will allow improving the efficiency of your Instagram conversation.
This hack works by creating a one-to-two word phrase that will prompt a longer response from you. To do this, just go to your settings, click “business” and select “Quick Replies” then click on “New Quick Reply”.
Type a shortcut that will prompt a longer response. For instance, a “return policy” will prompt a response stating that the product is available for 30 days.
After creating a shortcut, you can either select the Quick Replies bubble icon or you can type the “return policy” shortcut into the comment box to automatically generate a response.
10 – Pin your Instagram post to Pinterest
Instagram’s natural integration with other social networks is limited to Facebook, Instagram’s parent company.
With respect to Pinterest, image-loving platforms still stick together. Instagram still has a backdoor way to allow users to pin their photos to the platform.
On the Instagram app, tap the post to view it in full. To copy a link to a specific post, tap the three dots at the top-right of the image. Then, select “Copy Share URL” to add a link to your clipboard.
After doing so, open the Pinterest mobile app or download it. It will ask you to authenticate your account in order to get started with the app.
To add a new pin, go to the top right of the page and select “+” to add a new pin. You’ll then be able to add your Copied Link to a new Pinterest board or pin.
Developing a successful Instagram following is a complex process. There are many steps that every aspiring Instagrammer should follow in order to get started.
These tips will help you get more followers on Instagram and reach more people and increase your reach.
