Instagram is a great place for your brand to be. Why? Because you can easily develop your brand and spread your reach. It can be scary not knowing how to make your page great and attract more followers. But the truth is, using Instagram in an effective way is pretty easy. Check out these ten Instagram growth strategies to up your Instagram game.
1. OPTIMIZE YOUR PROFILE.
Optimizing your profile involves more than just having a fun profile picture. Your profile is the place people go to to get a feel for your brand, so it needs to strongly represent you! First things first, your profile picture should have your logo in it and your account name should be your brand. Next, make sure that your description includes a link to your website. If people are interested, they will want to see your website so make it easy for them. Lastly, put your slogan in your bio or write some fun sentences about your company that will draw people in. Remember, Instagram isn’t Linkedin, it’s more of a laid back, social app.
2. POST CONSISTENTLY
Let’s say people go to your profile and like what they see so they follow you, and you don’t post for the next two weeks. By the time you post again they will have lost interest. Let’s say instead you post four times in the two weeks prior to when they follow you and then don’t post for a month. Once again you will lose their interest and lose them as a follower. So, post consistently. Try to post two or three times a week. There is such a thing as overdoing it. If you post too often, people will get annoyed because they only see you in their feed and will stop liking your posts and eventually unfollow you.Find a balance and stick to it.
3. MAKE WEEKLY POST CATEGORIES
Every Wednesday at Colibri we post a Wednesday #WomanPower post on Instagram about a woman who inspires us. Posts like these keep followers looking forward to next week’s post and therefore they stick around. Here are some ideas to inspire a weekly post for you: If you are an influencer who focuses on clothing, you could do #ThriftyThursday where you post your favorite thrift store and thrift finds or upcycling tips on Thursday. Are you an interior design brand? On Fridays post your favorite #CoffeeTableRead.
4. ENGAGE WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
Engagement from your followers is super important. It helps build a following and means you have loyal customers. But how do you get engagement? Start engaging! Ask your followers to comment about something in the comments of a post, or to tag someone who inspires them on a Wednesday #WomanPower post. Shout out your followers in posts, respond to their DMs and comments or repost or comment on their posts about your brand. That way, your followers will want to engage with you because they know you will respond.
5. POST PERSONAL AND CLEAR IMAGES
If you always post stock photos, you won’t get likes. Your followers won’t trust you and will eventually unfollow you. People want to see into your brand so you need to post personal and real photos. Try to post clear and aesthetically pleasing images as well. Keeping to a certain color scheme and style that matches your brand is a good way to make your feed appealing while staying on brand.
6. MAKE FUN STORIES AND USE THEM CONSISTENTLY
Stories help keep your followers engaged and are a fun way to connect. Try making stories where you do polls or show the behind the scenes at work. Stories are not only fun to look at, but they are also fun to make. Get creative with it! Don’t be afraid to use filters and stickers. Use your stories to promote new posts or new blogs on your website.
7. DON’T BE AFRAID OF INSTAGRAM TV
Instagram TV can seem scary because it is live. Here are a few tips to make it easier:
- The first few times you use Instagram TV, record your video first. The videos don’t actually have to be live!
- Do an interview and ask your followers for questions. This way you can engage with your followers and won’t run out of questions.
- If you own a warehouse or studio, show a behind the scenes of your space. You can also engage with you followers by asking them to guess what certain machines are, see if anyone has used them, etc.
8. MAKE YOUR CAPTIONS INTERESTING
Writing captions is the hardest part of Instagram for me. After writing and deleting tons of captions, I usually go with what I first wrote, so my advice is to trust your gut and don’t be afraid to make some jokes! If people are intrigued by your photo they will read your caption. You want your caption to satisfy their interest and encourage them to comment so make sure your captions are compelling.
9. TAKEOVERS
Takeovers are when brands partner with influencers or other brands and post in each other stories for a day. This is a great way to give your followers fresh new content while also being introduced to new potential followers. In your takeovers you can show behind the scenes from your office, what a day in your life looks like, etc. Have fun and get creative with takeovers.
10. USE HASHTAGS
Although hashtags may seem old school, they do so much for your brand on Instagram, so use them! They help people find you and introduce you to new followers. Make sure you use a consistent set of hashtags to describe your brand as well as more detailed ones to match the theme of your post. This way people will find you through a variety of searches. You are allowed to use up to 30 hashtags but using between 5–11 is best. A lot of people put their hashtags a few lines below their caption so that it’s easier to understand. To do this they put a period in every line to create space and then put their hashtags.
TAKEAWAY
Instagram is an app that you can really get creative and have fun with, so don’t be afraid of it. If you follow these Instagram growth strategies and adapt them to your brand, your Instagram presence and following will improve. The most important part is that you keep up all these new practices. Make a plan that is sustainable for your brand and stick with it. Now go and have some fun growing your Instagram
