We all know the power Instagram has and the influence it has over those who use their platform. That is why it is fast becoming one of the most popular tools for small businesses trying to expand their brand. However, trying to grow your following can be challenging and time-consuming. Having a trusted Managed Service Provider means you can rest -assured you’re your business is getting the assistance needed when trying to grow your brand.
A crazy statistic is that Instagram has over 500 million users every day, which makes the app one of the most engaged platforms around. Like any social network, there are smart ways to use it for your benefit. In this post, you will learn a few reliable ways to grow either your businesses brand or your own.
Using Hashtags
One of your biggest goals should be to engage your current audience on a regular basis while trying to still gain even more followers. Consistently posting images that look interesting is only the first step. But a major part of posting these images is using hashtags because it makes them more discoverable, which is extremely vital.
Using hashtags is one thing, but using the right ones is another story. Most platforms have certain hashtags that are more popular than others. Somehow, using popular hashtags means your posts can reach new users and stands a better chance of being discovered. Of course, you need to find the most relevant hashtag that suits your brand best. Hashtags should be used on all your posts, which includes any stories posted.
Over time, you need to revisit your keywords to make sure that you are still using the ones most relevant and that they are still trending. Many people tend to steal hashtags, but you will need to also find your own that is unique to your account.
Timing Your Posts
The timing of your posts is another approach that should never be overlooked. Part of growing your audience involves analyzing what has and has not worked for you in the past. Using Instagram’s analytics for business accounts can help provide you with more in-depth information on the best time to post about your brand. Like the saying goes “timing is everything” and indeed it is. There are times of the day where there is less of a target audience to attract, which means that your brand does not get the full exposure you desire it to have. There is no better time to make use of businesses providing IT Support that companies can trust, as they help businesses reach their goals.
Attracting Your Competitor’s Followers
Everyone or every business has a competitor who is looking to have the better brand. Your competitor will also have an Instagram account that engages with audiences that are similar to yours. Their audiences would have already showed interest in products that are similar to yours.
That is why one of the best ways of attracting a new following is trying to seek out your closest competitor’s audience. The best way to do this is through engaging with them, the more work you put in the more engagement you are likely to get. Simply just following your competitor’s followers or putting something in your accounts bio that they can relate to can help a lot with gaining their attention.
Using Paid Services
Positing on your account is a great way to gain an audience, but there are many other ways that are just as good. If you are serious about gaining Instagram followers then I would highly recommend making use of influencer marketing to expose your brand to even more users.
This step is not free but when used correctly it offers great value. You need to find accounts similar to yours with a large following that has an email address in their profile. You can send inquires because they may not be open to sponsored posts. The emails should ask their sponsored post pricing just in case they do offer the service. Each post may come at a cost but with the amount of exposure your brand gets you could make it all back through all your potential new followers. IT Support Companies can help online businesses with any online needs necessary, especially with the harder technical jobs where a specialized consultant might be needed.
Being More Discoverable
Hashtags are awesome but geotags are just as important because they make your posts and stories more discoverable when you tag the location. Every location has their own Instagram feed and has a story of its own.
When posting stories try to use location stickers, this way your stories become more discoverable. Businesses gain the most value from location tags by posting on a regular basis.
Turn Stories Into Highlights
When potential new followers view your profile they are not there very long which means you have a short period to try and convince them to follow you. Using the Highlights feature on your profile to organize your Instagram stories is a way of introducing these new potential followers to your brand.
Stories only last for a 24-hour period, but highlights ensure that those stories can be viewed again. More followers may become intrigued by your profile and would not want to miss out on any posts in the future.
Request More Followers
This seems like an obvious step to take, but many people overlook it. You should not be afraid to ask people to follow you for more content. YouTube content creators are a great example of this, they ask their viewers to like, follow and subscribe at the end of their videos and this method as proven to work.
Potential followers may like the appeal of your profile but sometimes just asking them to actually follow you might push them over the edge to do so. You can work the question into Instagram captions, any content that you are pitching to your audience or add some hints in your stories that they will not want to miss.