Instagram is now one of the best resources for building a brands identity and online presence. It smoothly drives profitable traffic to land pages, increases the conversion rate, and creates an engaged audience. Everything, a digital marketing strategy aspires to do is available on this single platform. Currently, Instagram accounts to over 1 billion active users, with the number still increasing. That’s approximately 1 billion potential customers for your business to target. Instagram is regarded as the favourite social media platform for brand engagement and connecting with your followers. It started as a visual friendly social app and now is one of the most attractive visual media apps for youngsters and marketers. But it goes much beyond than just that. In addition to demonstrating compelling photos to your followers, you can utilise your social media profile to highlight your brand’s mission and goals, show and sell your products. Social media apps like Instagram provide you with the ability to reach a million people at once. While gathering attention, the people who already follow your brand will be regularly updated about your services. But it can be quite challenging to get followers in the beginning, especially if many people haven’t heard about you. If you are concerned about your Instagram presence, you must refine your strategies for getting real, organic followers. The broader your customer bubble is, the more chances you get to engage with users.

Most brands choose to take the back door in the trial to get more Instagram followers but fail to understand it’s demerits. Social media marketing panels are everywhere for you to buy likes, comments and followers. But these back-handed techniques are not worth anything. Instagram’s algorithm is regularly updated to weed out paid, low-quality accounts and interactions. These days, users are also too sharp not to notice the fake and robotic exchanges. Not to mention, the volume of your Instagram following at the end of the day provides no value. Instead, indulging in garnering followers organically and independently will be slower but much more benefiting. These organic followers represent an engaged customer interested in and advocate for your brand with their friends and followers. Eventually, this will work in your favour and increase sales and build traffic to your website.

Gather followers on your Instagram the right way with these 8 effective pointers:

Optimise your Instagram account.

One of the most important and front most steps to take is to optimise your account fully. Your brand’s Instagram bio is the window to your profile identity. Without the presence of a bio, a proper username or profile image, and decent image captions people won’t be aware the account belongs to your brand. Your bio and profile image institutes your brand identity. The website link in your bio is a good spot to drive Instagram traffic to your site. Therefore, the optimisation of your Instagram account is essential. Additionally, your username should be as search-friendly for customers to find you, so stay relevant to your actual brand name. Also, it would help if you kept it in-line with other social media handles you may have.

Schedule your contents, so you post regularly.

Posting content randomly and abruptly does not help bring attention to your brand, especially while you remain unknown. You also wouldn’t want the users following you to forget they are following you due to your unexpected timings. Avoid this situation by keeping a regular posting schedule. Typically, brands shouldn’t frequently post in a day to avoid spam, but keeping the flow consistent is vital. Nearly 200 million Instagram users log on daily. So to cast your net wider, try publishing multiple times throughout the day. Sticking to a proper schedule will help build a consistent experience for your followers and keep them in the brand’s know-how.

The Instagram algorithm has changed to show the users content related to what they like. Still, posting at the right time can deliver more visibility by increasing your posts’ overall engagement. The entire team can see campaigns and schedules efficiently by scheduling contents in advance. It is always smart to build out content in advance to reach the audience and maintain a consistent content flow simultaneously.

Get partners and brand advocates to share your content.

Your audience is the most valuable sustenance for your brand. With each organically incrementing follower count, you obtain more interested buyers and customers. Being present and visible in potential customers eyes is the main factor in capturing attention. It is critical for you to engage in your posts as well as on others’ too. Sponsoring user-generated content can get your brand in the feed of potential customers. You could hold campaigns like Instagram contests that promote user engagement. These campaigns reinforce your social proof by exhibiting that your followers are invested enough to repost your content or create their own user-generated content. Another way to get your handle in front of a much larger audience is to work with noteworthy Instagram accounts in your niche, for instance, notable influencers in your domain, to circulate your content to their audience. It would be best if you also ventured in marketing collaborations and co-marketing plans with other companies to branch out your own Instagram audience.

Resist fake followers on Instagram.

There’s a massive distinction between an Instagram account having fake followers and an account having legitimate followers. It might be tempting to purchase Instagram followers. But the backlash outweighs the perks of genuine follower growth. Fake Instagram followers tend to:

• Deceive new followers: When users come to an inactive Instagram feed with a million followers, it will lower the account’s credibility. Don’t trick people into following you instead build trust and long-lasting relationships for better understanding.
• Have no ROI: It might be easier to buy followers, but your acquired bot of new followers won’t be purchasing anything. People follow brands on Instagram because they like what you’re posting or your company in general. They are actual spenders and bring monetary value to your business.
• Create little-to-no buzz: There’s no point in having 10,000 fake followers. Instagram will more than likely clean up these bot or fake accounts, leaving your profile barren with no engagement.

Real people can share, like, comment and engage with your Instagram posts. Additionally, these users enjoy when someone is responding on the other side.

Showcase your Instagram everywhere.

Promote your Instagram account by listing it on your website and other social media networks. Creating visibility and awareness is crucial to getting known by your crowd. People should know where to locate you to follow you. Add your social media links on your website and blog to promote social shares and easy navigation across all your networks.

Another way of promoting is to leverage your other social media networks to direct users to your Instagram account. Though don’t be blunt in asking for a like or follow, that will only lure them away. Instead, give a reason for users to follow you by promoting the unique contents that you offer on your Instagram.

Post content followers want.

While this is easier said than done, it is better to learn what content your followers want to see. You’ll soon find on Instagram that some contents perform better than the rest. For this reason, testing is important. The smallest details, such as filters, captions, content types or post times, can make all the difference. Keep up with new Instagram trends, to post interesting, attracting content.

Your brand should also invest in Instagram analytics tools. Investing in this will make it easier to track, benchmark and analyse Instagram content across accounts. Be confident in your content strategy by analysing different filters, captions and more to see what works best with your audience. If you’re unsure where to start, try analysing your competitors. You shouldn’t directly copy your competitors, but it is better to take notes of what they’re doing or posting that drives more engagement. Competitive research can be very resourceful for your brand.

Get the conversation started.

The conversation is the best way to make users aware of your Instagram. Consumers prefer to engage with visual-first content like photos and videos, followed by a few who want to engage with text-posts. Instagram is the perfect fit for these audience profiles, coupling eye-catching visuals with captions that can be just as engaging. People are constantly using social media as their contact reference for brands, be it for off-the-cuff questions and chats, serious customer care queries, or praise for their favourite brands and products. You have to be supportive and communicative on Instagram for your business. Respond diligently to DMs or comments you receive. It establishes an opinion of who you are. It affects a lot in getting a new customer or follower and enhancing your relationship with your audience. The more positive conversation you acquire around your feed, the more likely will you gain followers. Always appreciate your followers and always respond with regard.

Find hashtags that convert.

Hashtags are the most tried-and-true way to get followers on Instagram. Hashtags serve as an essential tool for discovery and allow to extend social reach. As a marketer, you would like to build your community by gaining followers – hashtags provide just that. For starters, find hashtags preferably those which are not too populated. Trying to highlight your post between an abundance of pictures and videos is a tedious task. You have to find suitable hashtags the people in your target audience are more likely to check. If a relevant engagement is made, these users are more likely to follow your account. Unique and branded hashtags are one way to group posts around hyper-relevant content to your brand and campaigns. Realising how your hashtags perform on Instagram is as critical as to using them.

Instagram continues to gain popularity with increased audiences. Grabbing attention can be challenging in today’s competitive environment. But once you get past the initial anonymity, it gets a whole lot better. The takeaway from all of this is the follower count is only a no., what is essential is to build a good relationship with your genuine customers.