- You can gain followers on Instagram and increase your community with these tips.
Gaining followers on Instagram is essential in a social network that has been and will continue to be one of the most used in the world.
According to a report from the Semrush platform, Instagram is in position 5 among the most popular social networks with more than 1.2 billion users in the world.
And it could be positioned in 3rd place if instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Messenger, which are in third and fourth place, respectively, were not included in this ranking.
This is great news if one of your company’s main communication channels is Instagram, as you have a lot of potential to continue communicating with your audience through this medium.
Now, do you want to gain followers on Instagram so that your community grows? Here we share some tips that will surely help you reach potential audiences.
1. Take advantage of the information that Instagram can give you about your audience
Knowing your audience is one of the best ways to gain followers on Instagram, as it will allow you to develop effective content strategies that are useful to your audience and that they also love.
Whether with Instagram’s own tools such as Explore or the hashtag search, or with specialized social listening tools, spend some time on this activity to learn more about your audiences: their interests, other brands they follow and who could be related to yours, publications with which they interact, public figures and influencers they follow, among other information that may be useful to you.
2. Focus on giving more of what your audience likes
Now that you’ve studied your audience a bit and are clear about what content formats they like, include more of these in your monthly content plan.
In general, the most successful formats are carousels, videos and reels. Depending on the behavior of your audience, exploit a little more those formats that have shown that they like them the most.
3. Try other formats without fear
Reels are relatively new to Instagram, and some businesses are still hesitant to use them.
Don’t be afraid to generate content in this format, not everything is dancing. If there is a topic relevant to your industry or you want to teach your audience how to use one of your products or services, a reel may be the ideal format to do so.
In addition to being attractive and easy to consume, the reels will allow your brand profile and its contents to be more viewed.
Although they are not new formats, if you have not used carousels or infographics in your profile, venture to test how your audience receives them.
And the stories, although they are not a new format, are still one of the ones that are best received by audiences. Just don’t abuse the participation tools to the degree of looking like an exam, use these resources sparingly and intelligently.
4. Creatively deliver value to your audience
Try to maintain a balance between delivering valuable information to your company and doing it in a creative, entertaining way, so you can gain more followers on Instagram.
You can also fulfill another mission such as motivating your audience, the important thing is that your content is so complete that they always prefer you among the thousands of profiles with which you compete for the attention of your audience.
5. Talk about your audience to connect
The easiest thing for brands is to talk about themselves, but this is not what your audience wants to see. Your audience comes to Instagram to learn, be entertained or distracted, not to buy products (that comes later).
So it is important that you focus most of your communication on speaking to your audience: take care that your copies are brief or at least very informative, offer information related to your product or service but that will be useful to your followers, tell stories that identify, empathize with your public and their life, make them interact, invite them to take some action that benefits them in their daily lives.
If you achieve this, your audience will be so delighted with your content that they will share it with their friends or family, and even as inspiration for the business of someone in their close circle or as inspiration to take some action.
6. Post consistently
Although according to Instagram the frequency of publication is not relevant to the reach of your publications, the truth is that by being constant in your publication rhythm you will remain in the minds of your followers.
Here, too, it’s all about balance: don’t stay inactive for too long but also don’t overwhelm your audience with too many posts per day.
These elements are essential to achieve greater reach, discovery of your content and will eventually allow you to gain followers on Instagram.
These tags allow you to group your posts into trends or topics that are relevant and that will allow you to reach the right audience.
Always include your own hashtags, relevant to your industry and to the audiences you have identified.
8. Be timely in your post
Knowing the best publication hours is one of the best tips you can follow. If you have already detected what times your users are most active, try to publish within that range.
Here, too, a balance is needed between your audience’s peak times and those of your industry. You do not want to publish or do a live at the same time that other brands in your industry, related companies and even competitors do, especially if they have larger audiences and reach, as it would be more difficult for you to have the attention of your audience.
9. Interact genuinely
Do not follow profiles just to follow them or to unfollow them as soon as they follow you. If you are going to follow profiles, make sure that they are profiles related to your brand and your audience, because having points in common may make them follow you back.
Comment on the posts of your most loyal and participatory followers, make sure that your comments are about them or their publication, not about your brand.
You can organize dynamics in which not only your followers participate, but those in which you can get followers or reach potential followers.
10. Keep an eye on the Instagram algorithm
Modifications to Instagram algorithms are one of the factors that may be affecting your reach and the level of interaction of your followers the most.
Find out about how these algorithms work, the types that exist, because it is not the same algorithm for reels, as for posts and stories.
Always keep abreast of the changes that are made and look for information from experts who can give you ideas on how to use these changes in favor of your brand.
Rocio Reyes Communicologist specialized in science journalism and digital marketing. Curiosity leads this being with a cat personality to find links where apparently there are none. Whenever I can, I like to contribute even a bit of what I’ve learned. Fan of the world of entrepreneurship and MMA.