If you’ve been using social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to build an audience and market your business, Instagram is a great marketing channel to use too.
Instagram is a social network that allows you to communicate with people visually, through pictures and videos using your mobile phone. You simply upload a picture or video from your phone, choose a filter to alter your image and publish it onto Instagram. You can also share other pictures from other Instagram users, comment on them and like them.
What makes Instagram an important social network to use as a marketing channel is that there are 1 billion active monthly users. Plus, Forrester research found that user engagement with Instagram posts far outweighs that of Facebook or Twitter.
Researchers found that on average brands’ Instagram photos generated 58 times higher user engagement per follower than Facebook posts and 120 times higher engagement rates than tweets. And, because you can’t add clickable links to your posts, only in the bio section of your account, Instagram is not saturated with marketing messages.
If you’d like to take your Instagram marketing to the next level, and increase the results you’re getting from your current Instagram marketing efforts considerably, download my FREE Instagram report, titled The Top 15 Instagram Marketing Strategies That Drive Traffic And Sales. Simply enter your name and email and I’ll instantly send you the report.
This is why having an Instagram marketing strategy can really be beneficial and working towards attracting top Instagram followers and building a large and engaged audience can really help increase your brand awareness and promote your business.
There are many ways you can get social media followers.
Customize your account
First, to attract more top Instagram followers, customize your account so it becomes follow-worthy. In other words, make sure your bio is complete and you have a profile picture. Your bio should also include a call to action, redirecting people to your sales funnel.
For example, if you sell insurance and your funnel starts with a free phone consultation, make sure you include a call to action such as:
“To discover how to save on health insurance and speak to one of our representatives, book your free consultation here LINK”.
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver for example, often changes his calls to action depending on his Instagram marketing strategy.
Then, to get more social media followers, publish images consistently that are unique, interesting, fun or aesthetically pleasing.
Remember, Instagram is a visual platform and acts as an online magazine version of your business. So make sure you put together an Instagram content strategy. In other words, the style of pictures, the text fonts on your pictures and the colours match your branding and are consistent, so you can attract top Instagram followers.
The brand glossier for example have a very effective Instagram content strategy. The brand publishes pictures aligned with their brand aesthetic, you’ll notice they all feature light pink, which is the same light pink colour used in their logo.
Engage with other Instagram users
The second secret to getting more Instagram followers is to like and comment on other people’s pictures. Instagram users tend to follow people who are the most engaged. So the more you engage with other user’s content, the more followers you’ll get.
Plus, when you engage with other user’s content, a clickable link redirecting to your profile will be displayed next to the post for everyone to see. The key is engaging on content that is popular and of interest to your target audience.
For example, should you be a nutritionist, wanting to build a following of people interested in improving their nutrition, type in the search box “nutrition” to find relevant and popular content to engage with.
If you’d like to take your Instagram marketing to the next level, and increase the results you’re getting from your current Instagram marketing efforts considerably, download my FREE Instagram report, titled The Top 15 Instagram Marketing Strategies That Drive Traffic And Sales. Simply enter your name and email and I’ll instantly send you the report.
Use specific hashtags
The third secret is using specific Hashtags when publishing images according to your Instagram content strategy. When the hashtags #FF (which stands for “Follow Friday”) and the hashtag #instafollow are used, people experience a growth in social media followers.
To add hashtags to your Instagram posts, simply take a picture or record a video, then choose a filter if you want to, then type a caption and add your hashtag in the caption. If you’ve already published a post and would like to add hashtags, simply edit the post. Alternatively, you can add hashtags in your comments.
Follow people
The 4th secret is to follow people. The more people you follow, the more social media followers you’ll have as people tend to follow back.
By following a few top Instagram followers a day, expect 20 or 30% of them to follow back, provided your account is follow-worthy!
Host competitions
The 5th secret is including competitions in your Instagram marketing strategy. If your giveaway is original and has high perceived value, chances are a lot more people than usual will want to follow you and participate in the competition.
Plus, high value competitions tend to be shared more than standard posts, and therefore allow you to experience “word-of-mouth” marketing.
Promote your Instagram account
The Instagram strategy number 6 is promoting your Instagram account offline such as your business cards or flyers, and online using your other social networks or even by sending an email invitation to your email database.
In addition, adding an Instagram widget on your website will also promote your account even further as well as adding an Instagram tab on your Facebook page.
Use Instagram ad campaigns
Secret number 7 is to leverage the power of Instagram ad campaigns. By promoting your Instagram posts, you’ll be able to reach your target audience faster and relatively cheaply.
Thanks to Instagram ad campaigns, you can promote your posts for as little as $5 a day and when you implement this Instagram strategy, more people will see your posts in their newsfeed. If your posts are engaging and interesting, chances are a percentage of them will follow you. When you have 100 followers on Instagram, you will start getting engagement whenever you post something on Instagram.
Try and avoid using stock photo images in Instagram ad campaigns as they usually are not original enough and have been used too many times and therefore don’t stand out. Plus, try and avoid adding any branding to your image as it will make your ad look too much like an ad instead of looking like a standard post.
Tag people
Lastly, secret number 8 to increase Instagram followers is to tag people in your pictures when relevant. When you implement this Instagram strategy, these pictures will appear in the newsfeed of the people you’ve tagged and therefore increase the exposure of your account and potentially increase your followers.
So to recap, here are the 8 secrets to increasing your Instagram followers:
- Become follow-worthy
- Like and engage with as many pictures as possible
- Use specific hashtags
- Follow people
- Host competitions
- Promote your account offline and online
- Leverage Instagram ad campaigns
- Tag people in your posts
If you’d like to take your Instagram marketing to the next level, and increase the results you’re getting from your current Instagram marketing efforts considerably, download my FREE Instagram report, titled The Top 15 Instagram Marketing Strategies That Drive Traffic And Sales. Simply enter your name and email and I’ll instantly send you the report.
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About the Author
Corinna Essa is known internationally as the go-to person when it comes to social media marketing.
Corinna owns a social media marketing company helping businesses around the world leverage the power of social media without doing any of the legwork. Her company has been featured in many media outlets including Sky Business news, Working Women magazine, Ymagazine, Tasmanian Times, Channel 7 and 101fm.
Corinna is also the author of 2 bestselling books “Money On Demand – The 16 Fastest Ways to Becoming a Millionaire Online” and “Reach: The SECRETS to converting your social media audience into your network marketing downline fast”
Hello Corinna, I think some of strategies I do follow to gain my Instagram followers but to engage with Instagram followers are very time consuming. I could be wrong though!!