Instagram has quickly become a highly popular, widely followed social media platform with an international following of more than 300 million people.
The platform is used by millions of businesses from across the globe with high levels of success. These businesses upload attractive images and compelling content that has enabled them to garner a huge following that only continues to grow.
If you use Instagram for business but have barely grown your following, fear not.
Read on for our top tips on how to grow your Instagram following:
Post consistently amazing content
There’s no room for error on Instagram, and that means that ALL content, including images and videos, needs to be of the highest quality, all the time. Instagram is all about appealing, beautiful, carefully crafted images. Other platforms, such as Snapchat or Facebook, can get away with poorer-quality images, but since Instagram is ALL about the visual, your images need to be perfectly planned and exquisitely executed.
Stick to a schedule
You also need to have a posting schedule. There’s no use in posting randomly as and when you have a great image: you need to be organised and consistent. Once or twice per day is recommended although if you really want your account to grow, we advise that you ramp that up to three or four times per day for ultimate growth (see here for our guide on how often you should post on Facebook and Twitter).
Don’t overdo it
Although we mentioned above about the importance of posting consistently and regularly, there is such a thing as too much posting. When you post more than four times a day, you run the risk of overwhelming people and losing followers. Start out gradually, once or twice per day, and as your account grows work your way up to three (maximum four) images per day. Use the below formula to determine your posting frequency:
1-2 times per day: 1-1,000 followers
2-3 times per day: 1,000 – 10,0000 followers
3-4 times per day: 10,000 – 50,000
5-6 times per day: 100,000 – 500,000 followers
8-10 times per day: 500,000 to 1 million followers
Craft captivating captions
An outstanding caption can go a long way, so make sure that you are crafting them in a captivating, attention-grabbing way.
Establish whether your audience prefers long, detailed captions or short, clever captions. Also, include a handful of hashtags (between three and five is recommended) and ensure that those hashtags appropriately describe your image and represent your image or photo. Contrary to popular belief, it’s better to use less popular hashtags, as the hashtags followed by millions of people stand less chance of being found while the more descriptive hashtags are more likely to be found by people who are searching for specific information.
Engage with your followers
Finally, as with any social media account, you need to engage with your audience by asking them questions in your captions and responding to them if they ask any questions. Also, make a habit of leaving comments on other people’s profiles, as this is a great way to lead people to your own page (and hopefully follow if they like what they see!)
Social media has dramatically changed the way that businesses market themselves, but if you can learn the ropes of some of the most popular social platforms out there, you stand a far better chance of spreading the word about your brand and hopefully increasing sales!
About 8 Ways Media
8 Ways Media is a leading branding and web design agency with a wide international client base. Offering the most creative marketing solutions around, this company delivers exceptional results to businesses of all shapes and sizes. Get in touch today if you are seeking services from a contemporary web design agency with a unique, bespoke touch.
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