Today, the world of the internet offers opportunities to connect with others in a way that was never even imaginable before. All on your own, you can connect with friends and strangers alike, build an audience, and send a message far and wide.
No matter if you’re building a brand, advertising a business, or crafting a public persona – websites and social media outlets such as Instagram are the perfect places to be. However, in order to achieve these lofty goals, you’ll need people to be keyed into your account activity.
How can you gain followers if your current count is looking a little limited? It can take some work and effort to get your follower count on Instagram up, but with a little help and the proper tips, you can be well on your way. There are over one billion Instagram users, so there is certainly an audience out there.
Read on and we’ll walk you through what you need to know.
Post Engaging Content
There are many different ways to try and lift your follower count on a website like Instagram. The most important thing you can focus on, however, is the very reason the website exists in the first place.
Users are going to follow your Instagram account primarily because they are interested in the kind of content that you are posting. No matter if you’re crafting the best cooking and recipe platform, the hippest online thrift store, or are using the platform to showcase your comedy — the quality of this content matters above all. MarketBusinessTimes
If you’re unsure of how to better the content you’re crafting, it might be a good idea to look at other accounts that are crafting similar content to yours and have high follower counts.
What is different between their content and yours? What lessons might you be able to learn from looking at the videos and photos that they are posting? How have they presented their page in a way that you haven’t?
Taking the time to work through these thoughts can help you out quite a lot in the long run. If you can optimize your instagram profile and the content you post? You’ll be well on your way to virtual success.
Keep a Consistent Calendar
Accounts that do well on Instagram do so partly because they keep up with a regular content posting schedule. If you want to keep the engagement and attention of your audience, especially in today’s competitive environment, you need to always have something new to offer them.
Having long gaps where you don’t post any content at all can cause your viewership to seriously fall off. That’s not what you want! As such, it’s important to get in a regular routine with your posting.
How many days a week can you commit to having a new post? Try to pick something you feel you can stay consistent with.
It can help to take some time to try and key into what schedule your audience is on. If you can post your content when they are most active online, you can have a better chance of catching their attention and gaining their engagement.
Instagram has some built-in analytics you can use to get the answers to these kinds of questions. You could also obtain the help of some social media professionals who can really dig into the habits of your audience and advise how often to post and what times of the day you should prioritize.
You can even schedule your Instagram posts ahead of time so that you’re sure they will go up exactly at the times you’ve hoped for each day.
This can take the stress off of your shoulders of having to keep yourself on schedule at all times, especially if your account is still a side hustle.
Avoid Fake Followers
There is a temptation among people looking to grow their audiences to engage in a practice that involves purchasing fake followers. There are many places around the web that will do this kind of service.
Essentially, these services run a number of ‘dummy’ Instagram accounts that only exist to follow and inflate counts on other users across the site.
Often, these fake followers are in click-farm compounds where there are hundreds of phones or computers active at once.
You might be thinking: “what would be so bad about paying for some new followers?”
However, the inflated follower count that you’re looking to purchase might not come with all the benefits that you think that it might. In fact, it might even steer you away from ever gaining an actual real-person audience.
For one, even the average Instagram user these days is well aware of the tricks that people do to inflate their follower count and build a brand.
When a user clicks over to an account with a huge follower count and they notice little to back up why so many users are there, they’ll be able to sniff you out.
This will lower your account’s credibility and send real users running away from your content instead of towards it.
At the end of the day, you’re looking to gain followers because you’re looking to increase engagement. You want people to like, engage and become fans of you or your work. This isn’t going to happen with fake followers – they don’t engage.
Not only will have an account with many followers and engagement look funny, but it’ll also be keeping you away from your actual goals. These users won’t be able to share your content with others.
Perfect the Art of the Caption
Yes, Instagram is a visual medium, with photos and videos dominating people’s attention. However, that doesn’t mean you can overlook the text element of the popular website.
Crafting the perfect caption can take a lot of work and it’s something that you might actually need a little practice with to perfect. Ideally, your captions fall into the overall voice and idea of the brand you’re trying to create across your account as a whole.
It can be helpful to do a little crash course in copywriting when trying to better your captions. This way, you can see how the pros do it across a wide variety of industries.
Comments & Responses
Speaking of text elements, you’ll also want to think about commenting on your own posts. One way to increase engagement from your audience is to increase engagement on your own end.
If your followers see you responding and communicating with other followers, they’ll feel more inclined to comment and post themselves.
Obviously, the voice of your brand and your account should stay consistent across these comments as well.
While a slightly more casual tone can be struck, the consistency of your voice will help strike a constant in the heads of your followers. It’ll keep them coming around.
Hashtags Are Your Friend
When it comes to expanding your audience on Instagram, the most useful tool at your disposal might be the trusty hashtag.
The entire point of the hashtag is to produce an opportunity for the wider community of Instagram to connect with your content. The challenge, of course, is standing out from the crowd.
Your main goal should be whittling down to one or two hashtags that you can be the ‘star’ of. Using hashtags that thousands and thousands of other accounts are already using isn’t going to be too helpful. No one can find your account buried under posts from so many others.
However, if you can find a hashtag that represents your content that isn’t overpopulated, this can be a perfect place to stand out. It might take a little trial and error before finding the hashtag that truly will work for you, but it’s a task that will be well worth the rewards it provides.
Don’t drown your posts in hashtags either, this will make you look amateurish. A few choice hashtags under your post should be enough to get the job done.
How to Up Your Follower Count
Getting popular on a platform like Instagram can provide a whole lot of value to your brand and to your life. However, figuring out how to get your follower count up to where it should be can be quite a challenge.
The above tips, tricks, and helpful reminders can help you to accomplish this goal and expand your reach across the web.
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