When you’re looking to amplify your Instagram growth, there are plenty of tips and tricks that you can employ to make your efforts go more smoothly.
There are also some things that you definitely want to avoid doing, too. Mistakes can be costly on Instagram, because they can waste your time and make your followers lose their trust in you.
Neither of those are good things.
So, this article is here to help you know what you definitely need to do and what you should skip when you’re prioritizing Instagram growth for your business.
5 Do’s Of Instagram Growth
We’ve pulled together five of the best things you need to do to make the most of your business Instagram when you’re looking to attract more followers. Let’s dive right in.
1. Choose Organic Growth
The best way to grow your following is through attracting real, organic followers.
You want to engage with them so they know your account exists, but then you want them to make their own decision to follow you. This way, you can be confident that they’re looking forward to seeing and engaging with your content. You’ll also grow at a normal rate, which won’t set off any of Instagram’s red flags.
The one downside to engagement marketing is that it can often take time. To automate this process, you might want to consider using an Instagram growth service that will apply the same methods of engagement marketing that you would use. This is a safe, effective way to grow your following in an organic way.
2. Create An Instagram Marketing Strategy
If you don’t want to waste your time, you want to have a plan in place for your Instagram marketing.
There are many different ways to use Instagram and many different types of content to create. There are feed posts, Stories, Live videos and Reels, just to name a few. If you don’t have a strategy, you’ll be creating content mindlessly and it might not all fit together. Instead, take some time to plan out your strategy.
What types of content do you want to create? When do you want to post each type? How frequently do you want to post? Answer questions like these and you’ll set yourself up for success.
3. Optimize Your Bio
This might seem like a very basic or maybe even unnecessary tip, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Parts of your bio are actually searchable using the Instagram search feature, so you want to make sure you’re using the proper keywords that can attract your ideal followers to your page. Beyond your text, though, you want to make sure your profile looks cohesive overall.
Choose a simple, nice-looking profile picture, fill out your bio and profile entirely and use your highlights. This can give your potential followers a good background on you before they decide to hit follow. After all, before anyone can follow you they need to visit your profile. What they see there could influence their decision to follow you or not.
4. Curate High-Quality Content
Perhaps more than anything, you need to make sure your content is good quality. If someone is going to choose to follow you, they’re giving you some of their time and energy. Don’t waste that with poor content. Create worthwhile posts, find helpful information to share in your Stories and curate good user-generated content to intersperse with your promotional and educational posts. Each post should bring something to your audience, whether that’s knowledge or entertainment. So, take some time and plan out excellent content.
5. Find Your Best Time To Post On Instagram
Believe it or not, you need to do some research to determine when the best time to post is.
Chances are the most convenient time for you might not be the best time for your audience. It’s important to post at the best time for your followers because when they engage with your post right after it’s been published, they’re telling the Instagram algorithm that it’s an excellent post.
Do some research into the best time to post, and then look at your own Instagram analytics to see when your particular audience is most active.
5 Don’ts of Instagram Growth
So, now that you know five things that you definitely need to do for your Instagram growth, we’re going to talk about five things you definitely need to avoid if you’re working to expand your Instagram following.
1. Don’t Buy Fake Followers
It can be tempting to find somewhere online that promises you thousands of followers for a couple bucks. Unfortunately that’s typically too good to be true. If you end up with the number of followers you paid for, they’ll probably be bots that aren’t actually going to engage with your posts. This brings us back to our first “Do” tip - focus on organic growth. If you need to invest in an Instagram growth service, that’s a great way to outsource the task of finding followers without bringing in a bunch of bots.
2. Don’t Ignore Comments & DMs
When your audience reaches out to you, you need to engage back with them. They have taken time out of their day to write a comment on one of your posts or send you a direct message. You have a great opportunity here to respond to them and start a conversation. Not only will you gain insight into your followers, but you’ll also teach them that it’s good to engage with you. If you ignore all of their messages, they might stop commenting or DMing you in the first place, which can hurt your engagement.
3. Don’t Post Without A Caption
While Instagram is, indeed, a very visual platform, never skip your caption. It’s an important part of posting, as it’ll provide context and give your audience more information about your photo or video and your brand. And, if you post photos without captions, people might think your account is a bot and that you aren’t creating real content, and they might choose not to follow you.
4. Don’t Use Banned Hashtags
Avoid banned hashtags as much as possible. This can be a tricky thing to do, because the hashtags that are banned won’t always be the most obvious ones. Sometimes they’re seemingly innocent hashtags. So, it’s a good idea to periodically check for banned hashtags online to see what isn’t viable on Instagram at that time. If you do use a banned hashtag, Instagram will suppress your post, and if you use too many it will begin to reflect poorly on your account and could impact your follower growth.
5. Don’t Set Your Profile To Private
This might seem really obvious, but keep your business Instagram profile public. If you set it to private, you won’t be able to reach new people. Your follower growth will grow stagnant very quickly. Instead, keep your account public and continue to engage with people that you would like to have following you so they can come and see your profile.
Start Growing
So, now you know the top five tips to grow your Instagram following and the five mistakes you should avoid making. Follower growth isn’t easy, but with these guidelines you should be able to make good progress. Just remember that social media is a long-term strategy, so you’ll need to commit if you want to see results.
