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So you’re wanting to grow your business’s social media following, but maybe don’t know which platform to start with or which platform to prioritize. Instagram is a great social media platform to prioritize for growth because it has more than one billion, yes billion with a ‘B’, active monthly users.
With the majority of end-users being located in the United States, Instagram does have a large global reach, which is great if your business’s audience is international. Now that you have selected Instagram as your targeted platform, check out these five tips to grow your Instagram following.
1. Promote On Other Social Networks
We know this may sound ironic as we’re talking about growing your Instagram followers, however, utilizing other platforms, such as Facebook, Tik-Tok, and Pinterest can give you the upper hand for ultimate Instagram success. Take Pinterest for example, you can post your Instagram images and captions to Pinterest and take advantage of their keyword targeting to get your content across even more eyeballs.
If you link those pins correctly, they can be embedded to the exact Instagram post, and hopefully, you’ll get a like, comment, share, save or even a follow! The key to increasing your Instagram following by promoting on other social platforms is to recycle your content. Work smarter, not harder! The same images you use for Instagram can be used for all other platforms, just be sure to adjust sizing if needed for the highest quality. When it comes to captions, overall they can be similar for different platforms, just adjust links, length, and hashtags by each social network.
2. Engage With Your Audience
The best way to grow your audience is to engage with your current audience, as well as with your top competitors’ audiences. You can engage by liking and responding to all comments on your posts, as well as like and comment on your follower’s personal posts. While your following is smaller and more manageable, getting to all comments on your posts is crucial. This shows your audience that you care about them and that you want to give back to your community.
Word of mouth about your business’s Instagram will help grow your following, so be sure to nurture your Instagram community. Once your Instagram following is larger, it will be difficult to get to everyone, however, it is still important to engage with as many followers as possible. In addition to engaging with your followers and your competitor’s followers, you can also search by curated hashtags and engage with Instagramers there. Remember, like, comment, and follow!
3. Use Hashtags
Instagram is a hashtag-driven platform, meaning that people can narrow down the content to consume by hashtags. For example, say you’re traveling to Austin, Texas (the location of our Envision Headquarters!), and you want to look up places to stay, eat, and sightsee. You can search for Instagram posts specific to those topics by looking up hashtags like #AustinTravel #AustinEats #AustinHotels or #ATXThingsToGo.
When creating content to grow your Instagram following, you need to keep this in mind. Select hashtags that pertain to the content in the post, as well as your business. A good rule of thumb is to pick between 5-15 hashtags, reserving some for custom business hashtags, geotargeting specific hashtags, broad industry hashtags, and/or more broad related hashtags with a large following. Hashtags will change from time to time, so be sure to monitor and stay up to date, so that you can grow your following in the right direction.
4. Optimize Your Instagram Bio
Did you know that your Instagram bio helps you attract your target audience and ultimately more followers? Your Instagram bio, including your profile picture, acts as your business’s first impression to a new follower. Remember, the end goal with growing your Instagram following is generating more leads, customers, clients, sales, revenue, etc. Here are the different segments that you can optimize to grow your Instagram:
- Profile Image – When selecting a profile image for your business, we suggest a high-quality logo image. You can make it fun with different logo colorways, however, this is a follower’s first item they see when you engage with them. Make it good!
- Name Field + Handle – Your Instagram name and handle can be different! In order to optimize your Instagram bio and get your profile in front of potential customers, use targeted keywords as your name and make your handle your business name. For example, for Envision Creative Group, our handle would be @EnvisionCreative and our name, Texas Marketing Agency or Marketing + Strategy Agency. The possibilities are endless to tell your business’s story!
- Location – If your business has a storefront or service location, this is a great way to target your audience. Instagramers can also click on your hyperlinked location and be taken to their preferred map app for directions. Add a location and start growing your Instagram following today!
- Text Content – The body of your Instagram bio offers 150 characters to tell your story. Optimize your bio by curating a short slogan or summary of your business. Be sure to include keywords that will help your profile be found. Have fun with it by adding emojis and hashtags! Whatever you choose to include, be sure it’s on brand and gives new followers a great first impression of your business.
- Website URL – If your business has any form of a website, it needs to be linked on Instagram! Give your followers another way to access more of your content, especially if you’re selling a product or service. If you have several items to link or campaigns you’re currently running, utilize a tool like Linktree. Linktree offers a free version, as well as a Pro version for $6 a month. The main difference between the free and pro version is the number of customizations available.
5. Post Consistently
Now that you have created a strategy to increase your Instagram followers, let’s ensure you’re posting consistently. In order to keep your current followers, and obtain more, your business should be posting at least 3 times a week (this can be way more depending on the product, service, or content you’re offering) at researched times that perform well. A great tool to help you schedule out Instagram content to ensure you’re posting consistently is Buffer.
Buffer is an online social media scheduling tool that allows you to connect to platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest so that you can stay ahead of your content. Buffer offers suggested times to post which is a great way to depict your engagement levels. You can also add locations and hashtags into Buffer to get even more targeted! Taking advantage of tools such as Buffer will help you increase your Instagram followers.
Instagram can be a scary platform to take control of but with these five tips we just covered, you should be on your way to a booming business following! Want to learn more about other social media and marketing strategies to grow your business? Check out our other blogs, e-books, and resources at, envision-creative.com/resources.
