Social media networks, particularly Instagram, are becoming more popular nowadays. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, Instagram offers its users a better environment to interact. Its less complex algorithms enhance user’s visibility, therefore, making it a more reliable promoting medium. According to research, Instagram is the fastest growing social site. More business accounts are created daily.
Businesspersons are striving hard to get more followers to facilitate their recognition and promote their brands. I bet you too are among the business persons who need more followers. But how do you get more followers on Instagram?" someone may advise you to buy fake followers. But will this significant number of counterfeit Instagram fans drive any profitable traffic? The answer is no. In this post, you will learn easy steps to getting more real followers on Instagram for free, followers that will be beneficial to your business.
Tips to Increase Instagram Followers
Here are 16 tips on how to increase Instagram followers within a precise time:
1. Define Your Target Audience
It is always advisable to know your potential buyers while promoting any brand. In this case, you need to know who your target followers are. Establishing the target followers is essential in whether you are starting a new Instagram account or you are expanding the existing followers' list.
While building your prospective followers, you base your research on the content or service you wish to promote. You do not want to target followers with the least impact on your brand. Therefore you need to understand factors that may limit interactions between your target followers and your brand.
Once you have identified your potential followers, you will be able to create engaging content that will draw their attention to your account.
2. Craft a great Bio and Profile
Instagram offers you a space that can hold only 150 characters on your bio plus 30 characters on your username. Therefore, while crafting bio, you will have to be creative and precise. Your bio has to be effective. It has to portray the real you and your brand. More importantly, keep your call to action in mind while crafting bio. Here are some guidelines that can help you create a convincing bio;
- Your actual name or the name of your brand - be accurate and precise on what you deal with to enhance a fast connection between you and your prospects.
- Expertise and experience- inform your potential followers about your knowledge and skills, as this helps build trust.
- Hashtags- the use of hashtags in your bio will help increase engagement by giving your followers a channel to share their content with you.
- Call to action - remind your audience what you would like them to do and why they should do it. You may also show your target followers how to do it.
An engaging bio with irrelevant profile pictures could be useless. Therefore, you have to have a quality profile photo of you or your brand. You can also use your company's logo. Using a distinguishable figure makes it easier for your target audience to identify you. Also, your bio should be dynamic; keep updating it as your skills experience and brand change.
3. Optimize your Instagram Account
Instagram does not offer the same level of account optimization as other social media platforms. Therefore, you will need to be more creative to make your account stand out of millions of profiles on the Instagram platform. Your main goal of Instagram account optimization is to be more visible and gain more followers.
But without an optimized page, how will thousands of potential Instagram users notice you? While optimizing your account, always try to be precise and clear.
For example, if your brand name is too long, try as much as possible to make it shorter to something, your prospects can recognize and differentiate easily. Let your target followers search and identify you or your brand quickly.
Also Read: How to increase Facebook Followers easily?
4. Have a Thoughtful Instagram Strategy
A marketing plan is an essential element for every business. In this case, you are marketing your Instagram account. Why do you want to have more followers on Instagram? Do you want to advertise your products or drive traffic to your website?
Always keep your goals in mind while creating Instagram strategies. Goals keep you focused. Your goals also help you keep your account consistent. They will help you create engaging content that will attract new followers and retain loyal followers and therefore getting more followers.
5. Share Engaging Contents
The term contents stand both the images and captions. Both should be captivating since Instagram is a visual site.
For example, when you are using an Instagram account to advertise or sell your products, it is vital to have a quality image of the product. Besides, you have to add a caption that precisely describes that product.
The photo helps attract users as they scroll through posts. When the image attracts a user, he will probably read the caption and possibly react. Excellent content increases the engagement rate and also promote your content. Engagement rate refers to the total number of likes, comments, and shares you get per post.
While you strive to improve the engagement rate, you also aim to get more followers. Excellent contents get your followers liking, commenting, and sharing your content, hence reaching new potential followers. Besides, a high engagement rate gives you Instagram algorithm boosts, which make your content more visible.
6. Keep Content Consistent
Instagram has millions of users who also need followers. You do not want your current followers to forget that they once followed you. Therefore you have to keep a constant flow of content. To do this, schedule a regular posting plan and stick to it.
According to the research, sixty-three percent of Instagram users login to their accounts at least ones per par day. Averagely eighty percent of total users research and discover new products on Instagram and decides whether to buy the products or not.
If you keep updating your account by posting at least one captivating content per day, how many real followers would you get from the significant percentage of users per day? A business's Instagram accounts should be updated several times per day.
7. Post Contents Followers Want
Different users have different tastes of content. While defining your target followers is essential, also understanding the type of content they like is much essential. Some posts perform better than others.
Your goal is to win more followers, and therefore you must try as much as possible to create content that pleases your existing followers and gain their trust. You do not want to lose any of your followers. When your content engages your followers, it means they will share with their other friends of like character, meaning you will have higher chances of winning them too.
Always be ready to do something extra and better, no matter how small it may appear, it may make a big difference on your account. While running an Instagram business account, you can invest in Instagram analytical tools that will help you track and analyze content across other accounts. Hence you will always be trendy.
8. Post Contents at a Regular Interval
The frequency to which you post content on your accounts depends on the type of content your followers want to see and the time you dedicate to creating these content. The new Instagram algorithms have greatly affected the visibility lifespan of a post on Instagram. The lifespan is now dependent on the engagement rate.
But this does not affect your posting strategy. Your content may still appear on your follower's feed days after you post, depending on how much your content was engaging. While other users post at an interval of thirty minutes, you can set a range of up to 6 hours or even more if you can create content with a high engagement rate.
9. Use Relevant Hashtags
Instagram hashtags are some of the best features you can use to increase the engagement rate and win new followers. You have to research the best hashtags if you want to use them to increase the engagement rate.
Find the most popular hashtags in your niche. You can also create your own branded hashtags and use them in your post. Also, running through your competitors and influencers profiles can help you define the best tags to use on your post. Besides, some tools can help you get the most relevant hashtags.
Using popular and most relevant hashtags could be as effective as using any other strategy in this post.
10. Schedule your Post
What is the best time to post new content on your Instagram account? The time frame dictates your visibility on any social site. Therefore knowing and publishing at the best time possible may effectively increase your engagement rate, which is crucial while targeting new free Instagram followers.
Here are two main factors that help you determine the best time to post on Instagram.
- The demographic area - where are most of your target followers and loyal followers located?
- Time – when are your target audience, and existing ones are active on Instagram.
There are tools that help you post your content at the right time if the right time is not convenient for you. All you need to do is create content, add it to those tools, and set up a time for posting.
11. Use Instagram Nametags
Like other social media platforms, Instagram has a feature, nametag, that helps have people you meet offline, maybe in meetings, schools, among other places, quickly follow you. The feature shows your username in a format that can be scanned by your prospective followers through mobile phones.
Having your user name on your mobile phone can help you get more followers in real-time, even when you are offline.
12. Follow Relevant Users
If you just created a new Instagram account, you will probably not have many followers at first. Therefore, you will need to follow other real Instagram users. That way, the users whom you follow will visit your page. If you have engaging content on your profile, which they like, you will have a higher chance of winning them too, and you will end up having a couple of real followers.
If you want to grow your follower list real fast, you will have to follow pages with tons of followers, accounts of the same niche as you. You then need to check if the followers are real- some tools can help you check if the followers are real. You can also follow renowned influencers and show interest in their posts. Liking commenting or sharing their post will enable them to identify and track you back instantly.
13. Tag Relevant Users
While you are creating content, tag other real Instagram users on your story. When you tag someone, they receive a notification. In such a case, the tagged users can click on your account, and they can share that content with their followers, and you may end up getting many followers from one of your posts.
14. Connect with your followers or Audience
Having followers may not be useful if you do not interact. Interactions help you build trust among you and your audience. Communication may be through social communities and groups. Your prospects may ask you about your products.
On answering those questions, you win their trust, and they might even follow you. Besides, when you like, comment, or share posts from your followers and prospects, they may do the same in return and therefore increasing engagement rate.
15. Use Interactive Features
Instagram has tons of features that help their users interact effectively. Such interactive features include; poll stickers, question stickers, clickable links, and location-based stickers. The features work effectively with your content.
When well used, these features create trust among users and increase the engagement rate, which is essential in attracting new Instagram followers. Besides, these features help your target audience identify you easily; thus, you get more free followers in real-time.
16. Promote your Instagram Presence on Other Social Network Platforms
While your goal is to increase Instagram followers, you have to let your account be visible to as many people as possible. Make it easier for your target audience to find you through sharing the link to your Instagram account on other social media platforms on which you have a significant number of followers.
You can also add your profile link in personal and business websites and blogs, as this will enable you to target more followers from the traffic that visits these websites. If you start a new account, you should post some content on your profile before you start sharing the link.
Conclusion
Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms. It has over one billion active users. Therefore, striving to get a reasonable percentage of followers is essential to you and your business. Using a robust, proven set of strategies while trying to increase followers is a guarantee to meeting your objective.
Always use natural means to accomplish your goals. Do not consider to spend money on buying fake social media followers. Fake followers will have no impact on your profile and business. Instead, they leave you broke with no expected good. Besides, counterfeit followers may have adverse effects on your account.