Instagram is the second most used social media site after Facebook. Today, it has nearly 900 million users worldwide and is widely popular among the youth.
With such an enormous user base, businesses miss no opportunity to mark their presence on the platform and boost their brand visibility.
Instagram is a great platform for businesses to promote their brand, product, and services in front of a huge audience. It is a crucial part of their social media marketing strategy.
If you are a social media executive in the company you are working, you would have been asked to grow the brand on the social media platforms.
And this is why you are here; to find out how to increase followers for your company’s Instagram business account and drive more user engagement.
It is very likely that you have your own brand and looking to promote your business on the Instagram platform.
Well, whatever it is, I will help you with it. In this write-up, I have discussed 7 effective ways to get more Instagram followers and increase engagement on your posts. Let’s find out.
How to Increase Instagram followers? How to Boost Engagement?
If you have just made your Instagram business account and want to build your followers list, here is how you can do it. The points mentioned are combined for both, i.e. getting more Instagram followers and increasing engagement.
1. Optimize your brand profile
First things first! Before you begin to think about growing Instagram followers, your Instagram profile must be perfectly set up. There should be a brand image, email address, brand info, website link in bio, etc.
Mentioning the link is highly necessary because it is the best way people can check out your website and get to know about your brand (if it is not popular).
Optimize the profile in the best way possible so that if anyone comes to your page, it gives a professional look. Try to have the same profile picture in all the social media platforms. This makes it easy for people to recognize your brand no matter which platform they are using.
2. Start Posting Regularly
Consistency is the key to success, and it applies here too when we talk about how to get followers on Instagram.
Your followers’ count won’t increase if you are not consistent with your posts. You need to post regularly. There should not be too much gap in your posts. A minimum of one post per day is a must. The more you post, the more engagement you will have.
When irregularity comes in your posts, you will start losing those few followers as well which you gained when you were active.
3. Focus on Quality Content
When I said in the above point that you need to post frequently, no way I meant that you should post anything just for the sake of posting.
The best way to get more followers and increase engagement on Instagram is to give quality content to the audience.
Think creative, follow the current trends, identify what’s getting viral and then try to relate it with your brand. You need to have out-of-the-box thinking. It can be time-consuming but it would be worth.
That’s why I have always said, a social media executive should be someone who has a creative mind and can brainstorm to bring in new ideas, and not just someone who is simply posting on the social media platforms.
When you display your creative side by adding a bit of humour to it, which we can also call memes, people will love it. They will engage with your posts and would not hesitate to click on the follow button.
4. Engage in Comments
Not replying to comments and expecting the engagement to rise is like expecting to get marks without writing anything on the exam paper.
Not possible, right?
I can understand not being able to reply to too many comments if your brand is popular and has a good follower base, but you would not be getting too many comments in the starting.
And this is why you need to give value to each and every comment made by the user on your posts. It shows friendliness. When you engage in a conversation, not only it increases the engagement but people are motivated to leave a comment more often than not from the next time.
Apart from this, you should engage in other brand’s posts as well. Brands that are popular and focus on the same niche as yours can help you increase your Instagram followers if you interact with their posts. Some people will surely notice you in the comments and will likely give a follow.
5. Use Hashtags
On Instagram, the game of engagement is all about hashtags. Plus hashtags are very helpful in getting Instagram followers for free.
Instagram Hashtags provide you with a wide organic reach and can do wonders for your brand without having to spend on Instagram ads.
But there’s a right way to use hashtags. First of all, avoid using hashtags that are not relevant. I have seen pages putting up too many hashtags in the post caption. Never do that. There is no point making your posts reach such users to whom they are not relevant.
So, find the top and trending hashtags related to your niche and use them accordingly. Set a limit for your hashtags. If they are too much in number, it can distract the users from the post.
Secondly, when you use Hashtags, mention them after some space so that it gets hidden after the caption. Write your caption, press the enter key a few times, and then specify your hashtags.
This way, your hashtags would not be displayed to the users unless they tap on “read more”.
6. Find the Right Time to Post
Timing plays a crucial role when posting on Instagram. You should not post whenever you feel like.
Prepare a schedule as to when you are going to post and what are you going to post; whether a normal post, a story, a video, etc.
Engagement would be high when users are most active. But how do you find the perfect time to post? Though there is not a defined a time that could guarantee that it is the best time to get engagement, studies have found that 8 am to 10 am, and 4 pm to 7 pm is probably the best time to get your posts noticed.
7. Reach out to Influencers
One of the best ways to get more and real Instagram followers is by reaching out to Influencers. Influencers can take your brand to new heights by promoting it among their followers.
Contact any influencer. What they charge depends on the number of followers they have and how popular they are on the platform.
Final Thoughts
Some other methods to boost engagement and increase your Instagram followers would involve posting Instagram stories, doing Instagram live, creating shoppable posts, running user-generated content campaigns and much more. You will find plenty of ways over the Internet.
Write down the most helpful points and include them in your Instagram marketing strategies.
Do you know you can add an attractive Instagram gallery section on your website and tag your store products on the posts, similar to Instagram shoppable posts?
Find out more by clicking here.