There was a time when it used to be so easy for someone to gather Instagram followers and 5000 was not a big count. You’d simply open an Instagram account, post some inspiring images, slap on some interesting #hashtags and then people would discover your profile and follow you over time.
It didn’t require much of a strategy and not much hard work. As long as your feed was updated regularly and looked interesting, it just happened. Those were the golden days for the few existing Instagram giants, but things have changed now. Now, even getting your first 1000 followers on Instagram can seem to be a tough slog and reaching 5000 is even more of a big deal. However, this is not unachievable, and here we will discuss how.
But first, if you are looking for new ways to grow your following online, you might want to consider using an Instagram growth service like Growthoid. Moreover, if you are going to use an Instagram growth service, just remember to do plenty of research first to ensure that you are making the right choices for your Instagram goals.
Getting 5000 followers! Concept clarified
At the very first point, here’s a quick warning “Instagram followers are not everything when it comes to your online promotions.” However, you have to frame the concept of the Instagram following count differently.
The question shouldn’t be exactly
“How can I get more followers on Instagram?”, but
“How can I effectively use Instagram for more business through it?”
When the question is reframed this way, we are closer to the actual focus of attracting people to your Instagram account to do business with you. So, getting your first 5000 followers on Instagram becomes a great leap if the followers rightly fit your ideal customer persona and want to do business with you. What is the point if it is not so? Hope the concept is clear, let’s continue.
We are going to discuss some pro suggestions which worked well for Instagram marketers to win genuine client through this social media platform. These will work only if you invest time and take a strategic approach to implementation.
1. Offer value
To start with, the key concept about social media marketing to keep in mind goes as;
“Every social media platform, including Instagram, is largely focused on the exchange of value. People tend to follow your page only if there’s something valuable in for them. If you are simply promotional and not helpful to them with valuable content or you remain just plain and boring, you are not offering anything worth to consider you.”
So, each Instagram marketer should work around the strategy of offering help to people which might one day return as them doing business with you.
So, don’t sell! It is not of value. While strategizing for Instagram, think how you can:
- Help people?
- Share valuable information?
- Assist them in decision making?
- Educate them?
- Entertain them?
The best advice is to sit back and delineate the top 20 things you can do to help your target customers effectively. However, don’t do it with a sales bias and also selflessly without expectations. Try to simply add more value and give away something that people will not be hesitant to pursue.
2. Promote your account OFF Instagram
You can put forth the best Instagram content and also offer value to the target audience, but still, no one is going to find you out if you are not telling people that you exist. This may sound to be a very basic tip, but the most effective one. If you want to reach to your first 5000 ‘real.’
Instagram followers, then you have to put your link everywhere. For example, a basic driver of traffic to your social media pages is, you believe it or not, using your email signature to get the Instagram following.
This is a pretty cool approach. The best approach is that you include links to the social media channel and features a live Instagram feed at the bottom of your mail to encourage readers to jump over and follow, they are likely to do if you know to them through emails, which is an easy win over.
Besides email, here are some other offline and online marketing touch points which you can use for Instagram promotions.
3. Insert Instagram account links at your websites and blog posts
You can create a graphic at the bottom of your webpage to encourage the visitors to check out your Instagram feeds too. It is also ideal to set reminders on your blog posts to follow your feeds along with the reason why following you is a good idea. This is an important point as you really need to give people the reason why they should follow and what advantages they get, otherwise why they should bother?
4. Add the Instagram handle to business card
Your physical office premises can also be a driver to Instagram followers. Just add a sign on display a poster with an Instagram offers. Say, for example, each month a new follower will get a $50 voucher for X products. Of you can display a hashtag contest as to win an amazing gift on following you and participate in the contest. Here also, tell people why they should do it.
5. Add to all your presentations
If you run public presentation or speeches, then add your Instagram profile too to the slides. This will be successful if you are an interesting speaker as people want to be in touch with you through any live social platform to get updates.
6. Facebook groups
If you are not active on Facebook groups, then also you are missing out on valuable business. It is a key opportunity for businesses to grow Instagram following through Facebook groups.
You can be active on whichever social media platform groups in your niche and effectively use this to showcase the value of your Instagram feeds there to get people redirected and follow you. Try to be consistent on these Facebook groups by posting Instagram follow threads.
All the above tips point towards giving people an insight into you and your business in such a way to prompt them to tick and add you. So, be authentic and never press yourself too hard to be perfect. The days of perfectly curated content are over, and people now want you to be real and human to trust you. Tell them stories behind your business, let them relate, and you will start gaining more Instagram followers naturally.
