Guide to Growing Your Instagram Following 3x Faster

• Date: 15 May 2018
• reading time: 3 Minutes Minutes
• Blogger: Gurby Bulo
• E-mail: [email protected]

Getting the Most Out of Your Profile

Add a link to your profile. Place clickable URL that makes the most sense to your name, or brand. Write a bio with only 150 characters. You can also use hashtags in your bio. Hashtags help others who use them find them. They also help define your audience on Instagram or what they are all about.

Best Practices for Gaining Followers:

Define the People You Want to Engage With

Before posting anything on Instagram, think of the people who want to engage with. A knowledge of who you want to connect with and is very important in posting effectively on this platform. Your posts should reflect the message you want to carry out and be helpful in growing your follower base.

Research on Hashtags and Use Hashtags in Every Post

Using the right hashtags for your posts is very important for effective Instagram marketing. They help finding new people to follow or new things to like.

Create Engaging Photos

You have to create images that stand out because Instagram is all about images. Well crafted images help in attracting an audience to engage with your brand and to gain more followers. Tools that can help you create amazing images include Canva, Snappa.io, PicMonkey. Apps available on your mobile devices include Photo Editor by Aviary, Insta Size, Font Candy Typography Photo Editor, PicLab - Photo Editor and Collage Maker, Phonto, and Snapseed. The good thing about these tools is that they provide options that are not possible on Instagram.

Use Videos

Create videos that will have a positive impact on your brand. Use editing software on your computer to make them shine. Be sure to ask the question if the video will help or hurt your brand.

Post Often but Not Too Often

Posting an image a day is okay. But if you have great images you can post 5 times in a day. If you want to grow your followers, you need to post often. Posting more often will help you see what posts work, and which ones does not. It will also help in determining the best time to post on Instagram.

Interact, Repost and Follow

Like posts of people, you do not follow

Like posts from your followers. Also, like posts of people you are following in your feed and also outside of your network. Use hashtags to find images that stand out.

Comment and Interact With People

Commenting, mentions and interactions are very important on Instagram when connecting with others. Take a moment to leave comments. These send notifications to the person who posted the picture and people who commented on it.

Re-post Images

To get noticed, re-post images and increase your follower count. Look for a post that you want to re-post and see the profile that it’s posted on. When re-posting, include a @mention in the description and it will automatically notify the other person. They will see your post and its content. This is your chance to have a conversation with them on Instagram. There is also a likelihood that they will follow you and follow them back.

Run Contests and Giveaways

If plan to have contests or giveaways, be sure to give away something that your audience wants. Something that they would want to win. List how they can enter the game to win:

Have Them Like a Photo

Have them re-post the photo on their account and use a @mention to let know you or track a unique hashtag

Use Hashtags in Your Post in Attracting New Followers

Make them leave a comment on the photo stating the reason they want to win or whatever you want as part of the contest.

With them liking and re-posting the image will make the image show up on the feed of anyone who follows them which will help in spreading your reach.

Other Ways to Grow Your Instagram Following

Have a Follow Button on Your Blog

WP Instagram Widget is the most useful if you want to be followed on Instagram. You may still search Google or Wordpress plug in directory to find more options.

Have a Button or Widget in Your Email Newsletter

Incorporate a follow button for Instagram on your weekly or monthly newsletters. You can also make your own call to action buttons and link it to your account.

Post to Your Other Social Channels From Instagram

Posting images to Instagram also allows you to post to other social accounts like Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter. You can connect your accounts and select the pictures you want to post. People will see that you directly post on Instagram. When they click the picture they get taken back to your profile where they can follow you. This helps in collecting your followers from other networks into one social media platform.

Use Your Instagram Pictures in Your Blog Posts

To do this, you need to log into your Instagram account, and then click the photo you want to use in your blog. After, copy the URL of that image and paste it in your Post Editor in Wordpress. It will become a clickable feature in your post and will make it easy for others to follow you there.

Host AMA's in Your Instagram Account

AMA stands for Ask me Anything. It is perfect to host one on Instagram. Here it is easy to track questions and post replies. Announce it to followers on your blog, other social media channels and to various forums. They will be notified when it starts if they follow you there.

Dive Deeper With Instagram Analytics

Iconosquare is a great tool to analyze your Instagram data. It gives you: an overview of your account, rolling analysis, a look at your content and how much engagement your posts had, and, finally, the number of people who followed and unfollowed you.

Conclusion:

Instagram is fun and has a lot of potentials. If you want to grow your followers try some of these steps. Measure what works and what does not then try another way.

Want to post a comment? Join the conversation in our community.

• Blogger: Gurby Bulo
• E-mail: [email protected]
• Online Marketing Strategy Expert at Social Media Gids
• Internet entrepreneur Gurby Bulo is the Founder of Social Media Gids and host of @SMG Hangout. With his virtual team, they follow the latest online marketing developments because they like it ;-) and to provide you with information, strategies and support necessary to increase your online marketing knowledge, sales and growth on your way to (financial) freedom.
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