You need a plan

The first thing you need to keep in mind is having a good strategy. A good plan will help you know what exactly you are trying to achieve. You need to know why you are looking for more followers and what is your purpose.

You need to know your audience

You need to define your target audience. Who are you targeting and trying to reach? Ask yourself questions about your audience such as, Who are they?, Where do they live?, What do they do for work?, When and how do they use Instagram? Answering these questions will enable you to define your audience and give you the chance to determine the right strategy.

Create a consistent brand story

You must present your brand in a very creative way, and you need to keep your brand personality, visual look, and story consistent. Your audience should be able to recognize your posts as soon as they see them.

Craft a great bio and profile

In order to get more followers on Instagram, your profile needs to be appealing and your bio must be well-written to attract new followers since Two-thirds of Instagram business profile visits are from non-followers. Your profile must convince these users to click the follow button.

Share engaging content

A great content is what will get your posts likes, comments, and shares. Everything you post must be appealing for your target audience. It has to be engaging, entertaining, and informative at the same time.

Promote your Instagram presence on other social networks

In order to get more Instagram followers, you need to make it easier for people to find you. If you have other social network accounts, try promoting your Instagram to those followers. Post a link to you Instagram and let them know that you exist.

Share you Instagram account in other communications

Direct more people to your Instagram account by adding a link to all your communication tools is a great idea. Add an Instagram link to your website, email signature and online newsletters.

Use the Instagram nametag

Use the Instagram nametag to give people an easy access to your account. The nametag is a scannable code that allows users to find your account fast. Add the nametag to your packing slips, signage, and product packaging.

Use relevant hashtags

Hashtags are a great way to let users discover your account. It enables them to find content related to your product, industry, or brand. You can choose a hashtag that is popular and related to your brand or create your own motivating hashtag. Stay away from hashtags that are distracting to your audience.

Aim to get featured

Feature accounts are accounts that reshare users’ content on their page, and they usually have a lot of followers. Getting featured by these accounts is a great opportunity to grow your followers.

Tag your location

If your business has a physical location, then it’s a great idea to tag your location in your account. This can help your customers to find you and discover more content about your brand.

Aim for the explore tab

The explore tab is where you find all the photos and videos that you might like from other accounts you’re not following. More than 200 million people visit the Explore tab every day, so it’s a great chance for brands to grow their audience. We will talk further about how you can get the explore tab in another blog.

Follow other relevant users

When you follow a user on Instagram there is a great chance that they will check your account and take a look at your content, and if they are interested, they might follow back. This is a great opportunity for you especially if they mentioned your account to their followers. Aim for the top users’ followers because they have a great influence on Instagram.

Engage with existing communities

Instagram, like any other social network, has a community built in it. Engage with this community. Be a part by liking, commenting, and sharing posts. This will allow other users to see you and notice your account and maybe follow you.

Tag relevant users

If there is a user featured in a photo on your account, you need to tag them. Tagging users will let them see your account and maybe share that photo on their accounts which will give you the chance to attract their followers.

Ask your followers to tag their friends

Your followers can be a great way to grow your audience. Encourage your followers to tag their friends in the comments. Try to use emotional or informative posts so followers can feel that they are doing their friends a favor by tagging them.

Post consistently

Give your users a consistent content. They are following you to see your posts and photos so keep posting and be active. An account with no frequent posts will be forgotten.

Post at the right time

Timing is very important on Instagram. You need to figure out the right time to put on your posts. Consider your audience and when are they mostly active. Try to test different times and check what is the best time for your followers based on their likes, comments etc.

Schedule your posts

Planning your posts in advance can give you an overview on how your account can look like. It allows you to create a cohesive Instagram grid that tells a coherent story. It also gives you time to come up with the best captions.

Write compelling captions

Your captions are very important in increasing your engagement. Therefore, you must create well-written captions that are relevant to your post. Think of what is the best caption you can use from long descriptive captions to short direct captions to questions that would encourage the followers to leave a comment.

Embrace Instagram stories

Use Instagram stories to get a more engaging audience. Try to tag your hashtags and location in the story for more exposure.

Use interactivity features

Use interactive features presented by Instagram such as poll or question stickers. This will get your followers to be more engaged and increase your story views.

Try Instagram Live collaborations

Create more engagement with your followers by using Live videos. This will give users a chance to interact with you through questions and answers and will extend your audience reach. You have the choice to add your live video to your story when it ends allowing followers that couldn’t be live with you to watch it later.

Make most of your stories highlights

Your story highlights are a great way to present your content or brand to the users giving them the chance to take a quick glance on what you do. Try to give your users a nicely presented and informative highlights and make sure to design attractive cover photos for those highlights.

Run contests

Creating a contest will help you grow your audience and engage your followers. Ask your followers to tag their friends or post a photo from your account to theirs with tagging your account to it.

Consider Instagram advertising

Another powerful way to reach new followers is Instagram ads. Create an add that would target your audience by location, demographics, other users, and even key behaviors and interests to reach users that don’t know about your account.

Learn from Instagram insights

Get data on impressions for each post, along with reach, engagement, top posts, and more by using Instagram analytic tools. You can also get information about your followers such as age, gender, and location. This will help you improve your strategy and get more followers.