Top 3 Tips to Grow your Instagram Followers

You think Instagram is the way to go for your business. You’ve identified your target audience and you’re starting to work on your platform strategy. Growing your followers is going to be one of your primary goals, so read on for three easy steps to get started.

1)      Thoughtful Content – Instagram is not just about reposting other photos you’re already using on Facebook. Brands are truly upping their game on this photo platform. To be successful, you need to have thoughtful and artistic content. Who is your audience? Research other brands that are trying to reach the same group, and look at their content on Instagram. Learn from their top posts. My guess is you’ll find a few key themes. Successful brands on Instagram are going the extra mile. Their content is unique and quirky, and they don’t develop it overnight. Great content takes thought, so make sure you are ready to invest the time.

Lovin’ this one from McDonalds. Hashtag game is on point, too.

2)      Hashtags, use ‘em – This one is a bit controversial. You’ll find other articles on this topic that tell you to be careful about how many you hashtags you are using. I don’t agree. Instagram is a very social platform. Users find brands and other users they’re interested in by actively searching hashtag trends. Choose a number of hashtags that relate to your photo to help you build your following. Don’t be shy – tag it up!

3)      Contests – Remember back in the day when you could “like” gate your contest on Facebook. In order to enter, users had to “like” your page (wistful sigh). Well, welcome back to the Wild West. As of today, July 27, Instagram’s contest rules are vague and short. The main rule at this point is that you can’t encourage users to tag other users as part of the contest. But asking them to “like” your Instagram account to enter? FAIR GAME, MY FRIENDS. FAIR GAME.

So, offer a fun prize, create a special image with your contest rules, use applicable hashtags, and you are off to the races. Don’t get me wrong – you still need to think it through. Make sure your picture is creative and that the prize and content will appeal to your target. After all, you want to attract the right followers, not just anyone!

Now, go forth and conquer. Any extra tips? Would love to hear them. Please share in the comments below!