Since launching in 2010, Instagram has taken the world by storm, and has over 800 million users globally. It is so popular and well developed that there really aren’t any applications quite like it. But it is more than just a platform where people can upload photos and videos; it’s a platform used by businesses worldwide, an estimated 25 million plus businesses.
These businesses use Instagram for a variety of reasons, such as promoting their products or services, expanding their reach, engaging with their audiences and more. For each successful account on Instagram, whether it be a business or an individual, a lot of time and hard work went into achieving the number of followers they have, and trying to do the same can be very challenging. It is however, entirely possible, if you follow a few rules and tips, such as these.
Use the best hashtags
Hashtags are perhaps the best thing that anyone trying to improve their follower count can use. This is because studies have shown that a post that contains at least 1 hashtag will receive an average of 12.6% more engagement than a post that does not.
Although even having said that, just using the most popular hashtags isn’t the way to go; the post may reach more people, but it won’t do much for engagement, which is one factor in the algorithm that Instagram uses for making your post more widely seen. This is why it is best to use hashtags that directly relate to your product, since this is the audience that you are trying to convert.
To help with that, there are tools like Task Ant, which is a hashtag generator for Instagram. It also allow users to create hashtag sets and provide analytics for which are the most popular, most used and which give the best engagement. It has collected glowing reviews like this one from WP Dev Shed.
Post at peak times
You might be thinking of creating a schedule for your posts, and that is a fantastic idea, but even better than that is using analytics to take advantage of peak times. Doing this will allow your posts to be seen by the majority of your audience, and it makes sense why you would want to do it.
Consider that the majority of your audience is in a completely different time zone to you, perhaps when you usually post it is 2pm, but in their country it is 11pm. This means that by the time they wake up, their feed will be full of posts from other accounts, and your post will most likely not be seen.
Another thing that could be done is posting about twice a day at different times; that way the chances your post will be seen is guaranteed. You can also consider options to buy ig followers cheaply as well.
Make your handle visible
So now you are using the best hashtags that directly relate to your product, or content, and you’re posting at the right time, but you want even more followers. Then, you should aim to make your handle as visible as possible.
Almost every business or successful account on Instagram uses multiple platforms, and they all include their Instagram handle somewhere, whether it be at the beginning of a video, in the corner of one, or in the description of their profile on a different platform.
You should definitely do the same, as this will increase your follower count even more, after all, exposure is everything, and you should be doing as much as you can to get your name out there.
Be consistent
Perhaps you have heard the term “consistency is key”; this is even more true on Instagram. Successful accounts post at least once a day, every day of the week, every week of the year. But more than consistency regarding posting, there should also be consistency with your posts and account.
Filters for example are also important, and this shows when you take into consideration that the top accounts on Instagram, specifically 60% of them, use the same filter for each post. Each post should also use the same voice, whether it be satirical, serious or funny.
This is because when people choose to follow an account, they don’t really make the choice because of what you have posted, but because of what they think you will be posting. By being consistent, you are helping them make that choice much more easily.
