Instagram has nearly one billion monthly users that consistently engage with content on the platform. On top of that, over 80% of Instagram users follow and interact with a business account on a daily basis.
This makes Instagram a great social media platform for businesses to promote their brand. However, many businesses are unaware of how exactly to grow their Instagram following and improve engagement on the platform.
This article will cover some of the best tips for growing your Instagram account and increasing the engagement on your posts.
Table of Contents
Post Consistently
Studies have been done and they show that the more often you post, the more engagement you receive.
The recommended amount you should post is at least once per day. Some accounts post up to three times per day, but any more than that will likely lead to diminishing returns and brand dilution. So only post one to three times per day.
You should also try to post every single day.
The reason this strategy works is that you do not want people to forget about your Instagram page. Remember, people have short memories and if they do not see you posting frequently, then they will forget who you are when you do eventually post. This means less engagement on your post.
Less engagement means that your post will rank lower on the news feed, which eventually leads to less growth.
Don’t Only Post Pictures
Only posting pictures was a good strategy when Instagram was new. However, Instagram now offers multiple different forms of media. Your followers will expect more than just pictures. Quite frankly, they will become bored if you only post photos to your account.
Now, your videos should still be high quality and brand-worthy. However, your Stories do not need to be amazing. They just need to be good enough for people remember your brand.
As for live videos, just make them about a relevant topic to your brand. This could include an “Ask Us Anything” or a live tutorial. Anything that engages you with your customers is excellent for business.
Use Good Hashtags
Hashtags are one of the misunderstood things about Instagram. Some brands will put the maximum amount of hashtags, 30, into a post.
This is the wrong way to do things. First, Instagram will disregard posts that have too many hashtags because they will view it as spam. More importantly, your customers will see that you use a lot of hashtags in your posts and not engage with it.
It just does not look useful to the average Instagram user. They will instantly recognize that you are trying to game the system, which is something that they do not like.
The optimal number of hashtags is 9 hashtags. Again, do not put 9 hashtags into a post just because you can. Only use relevant hashtags that other accounts use. Other accounts using the hashtags means that they get some sort of search value.
You should also use your brand name as a hashtag. This makes it much easier for users to find your brand if they search for it on Instagram, which will help fuel growth.
Do Brand Collaborations
Brand collaborations are another excellent way to grow your Instagram account. You can partner with other brands or pay Instagram influencers to promote your brand.
An example of collaboration could be allowing another brand to use your Instagram Stories and them allowing you to use their Instagram Stories. It is a fun way to expose your brand to new followers.
For those of you with a bigger budget, paying Instagram influencers to promote your brand is another great option. This works well for any niche, but it works particularly well for those of you that still a physical product. If you sell dog food, then you could have an influencer in the dog niche promote your dog food.
The possibilities are endless when it comes to paid promotion and brand collaboration. There are a few things you should look out for though.
- Check their engagement and followers
You want to make sure the brand you collaborate with has about the same amount of followers and engagement that you have. They can have more, but it will be much harder if they have a lot more followers than you. Engagement is also important as it can tell you if they have fake followers.
- Make sure the ROI is good
Of course, you will never truly know the ROI unless you go through with the plan. However, you should have a good general idea about the ROI that you should receive with a paid sponsorship. Fortunately, the cost for having an Instagram influencer post something about your brand is not that high anymore. This is especially true in the more specialized and smaller niches.
Interact with your followers
A great way to improve engagement is to interact with your followers. Easy ways to do this are by replying to comments, liking their comments, and even going on their page and liking their photos.
This makes it look like you care about your customers. Plus, users will come back to your post if they see that you actually take the time to reply comments. Furthermore, everyone likes a brand that interacts with their customers.
Cross-Post
Cross posting is a pretty simple concept, but most Instagram accounts do not take advantage. Basically, you want to remind your followers on other social media accounts that you have an Instagram account.
You can easily do this by posting unique content through skyscrapping techniques guest posting outreach and then telling your Facebook followers about the content. This will encourage your Facebook followers to visit your Instagram page and hopefully interact with it.
It could lead to growth and engagement.
Cross-posting is such an easy method that there really is no reason you should not cross-post.
