We’ve all seen those Instagram accounts go from zero to hero in mere weeks. While some resort to buying followers (bad idea, by the way), others have simply found their niches on the network and have tapped into what their audience wants to see. Therefore, Instagram works brilliantly in promoting products and brands but as it’s a visual platform and it can be hard to find your niche – particularly if your core business isn’t something that can be beautifully illustrated via imagery.
When starting out on this social platform, it’s important to identify your niche, stay away from anything that resembles spam and be as genuine as you can. Here are seven more ways to help you grow your Instagram tribe organically:
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1. Post often and be consistent
While this may seem pretty obvious, posting regularly is the best way to attract interest and followers on Instagram. The ideal amount of posts varies, depending on your audience, but posting high-quality images 3-6 times a day definitely grow your views and, in turn, your followers.
Make sure what you do post really speaks to your niche and don’t continually repost your own images. The Instagram audience can be fickle and will unfollow in an instant if they don’t like what they’re seeing. If posting so frequently doesn’t suit your brand, keeping the posting low quantity but high quality is the way to go.
There are several apps, both paid and unpaid like Hootsuite or ScheduGram, that can help you to keep on top of your posting schedule. Instagram has recently released their multiple user functionality, so you can switch between accounts within the app, rather than logging out and logging in as you previously had to do.
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2. Comment and follow back
This one of those tasks that we are often too busy to do, but taking the time to reply to comments on your own images and commenting on others posts will increase awareness of your profile, at the very least. Ideally, you want to add something of value in your comments and strike a chord with viewers within your target audience. A great way to engage your followers is by asking them a question. It may just give you a great insight into what you should be posting.
It’s also a common courtesy to follow back those who follow you as it creates a connection and shows value creating a community, rather than just increasing your follower count.
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3. Use #hashtags
Hashtags make your images searchable, therefore the more hashtags, the better. Use tags that suit the kind of audience that you are after and what appeals to them. It’s also a good to jump onto already established hashtags like #fitspo, #latergram or #ThrowbackThursdays.
You can add up to 30 hashtags per image but make sure they are relevant to the image and if you don’t need 30, don’t use 30. It can come across as spammy. There’s a great new app called Grama that allows you to type in a keyword to search a list of relevant hashtags that you can copy and paste into your post.
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4. Ask followers to ‘tag a friend’
It may seem simple but giving your followers a call to action will probably prompt them to do so. Asking them to ‘tag a friend’ beneath a motivational quote or a #TGIF image is a great way to raise awareness of your profile and you might just capture a few more followers along the way.
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5. Run a contest
Whether your business is product or service-based, there is certainly an opportunity to run a giveaway or contest. One way to do this is to have viewers of your profile repost a specific image and tag you in the caption. Or ask them to use your hashtag on their own images. You could even try a loop giveaway with others in your niche, if you want to collaborate with other Instagrammers.
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6. Collaborate with influencers
Reaching out to popular Instagrammers in your niche and asking them to promote your products or services can be really beneficial, especially when starting out. For more on how to approach influencer, check out our post here. You could ask them if you could “take over” their account as a guest contributor, start an Instagram challenge with daily hashtags or simply repost each other’s images. There’s lots of creative ways to work with influencers, just make sure it’s something mutually beneficial that you are both comfortable with.
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7. Share your Instagram pics on other social networks
This will help your followers on other networks discover your Instagram account – and vice versa. When posting a photo or video on Instagram, you have the option to also share the post on several other networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr. It’ll save you time posting on your other accounts and shows followers on other networks that you are active on Instagram rather than the pushy “Follow us on Instagram”-kind of posts. Linking your accounts is easy – you just need to enter your login and password for each account. Simple!
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