With its ability to generate traffic, boost sales, and foster customer engagement, Instagram serves as a cornerstone for many brands’ social media presence. This is precisely why 59% of marketers intend to increase their spending on the platform in the current year.
You are not the only one if your Instagram growth and engagement are not satisfying.
As an increasing number of brands join the platform, the competition intensifies. Nevertheless, investing in audience expansion is undeniably beneficial as it leads to greater customer satisfaction, owing to the increased opportunities.
This post provides a step-by-step guide for enhancing your Instagram presence in order to gain genuine and natural followers.
Ways to get more followers on Instagram
This post is focused on developing a genuine following. It’s important to differentiate between this method and using shortcuts to gain Instagram followers.
Even though the Instagram algorithm filters out fake engagement from paid bots, these services are not a wise investment for brands in the long run. Nonetheless, building a genuine audience requires some effort.
When beginning to use Instagram for your business, it is crucial to first establish the basic foundation of your presence on the platform. Here are the fundamental elements that you should focus on before progressing to more advanced techniques:
1. Avoid buying fake followers
It may be tempting to increase your follower count quickly by purchasing 1,000 Instagram followers for only $12.99 on some websites (yes, that’s actually possible). However, buying fake followers can have negative consequences rather than positive ones.
- Instagram actively discourages and purges accounts that engage in fraudulent activities
- Fake followers are bots and not real people — they don’t engage with your account authentically or convert into customers
- You destroy your credibility and lose trust among your audience — which will make them unfollow you
The disadvantages are significantly more than the advantages. The reason being that fabricated Instagram followers…
- Confuse your potential organic followers.
An inactive, low-engagement account with a big following is suspicious. This can be a turn-off for fans that’d otherwise follow you and engage. - Provide no monetary value to your business.
Think about it. Your bot followers can’t buy your stuff, can they? - Generate no buzz:
If you have 10,000 fake followers, how many are going to engage with your posts? Does it really even matter if your posts are brimming with spam comments?
Investing in engagement through buying views and comments or joining engagement groups is ineffective in fostering growth for your Instagram. The aim is not only to amass a large following, but also to establish a significant and genuine community.
2. Embed keywords into your username and name
When searching on Instagram, the algorithm gives priority to results that include keywords in their name or username.
- Your username is your Instagram handle (your profile’s @name): Keep this the same as your company’s name and/or consistent with your profile’s username on other social channels to be instantly identifiable.
- Your name is your company’s name (or anything you like): Add relevant keywords here to improve your visibility.
By way of illustration, Ursa Major incorporates the term “skincare” into its Instagram handle so that it can be easily located by individuals who are searching for solutions or brands related to skincare. The inclusion of relevant keywords serves as a chance to provide prospective clients with a quick understanding of your products and brand when they first visit your profile. It’s crucial to remember to limit yourself to one or two pertinent keywords in your name as incorporating too many can seem like spam.
3. Optimize your Instagram bio
To attain the ideal Instagram bio, you must excel in four essential components.
- A straightforward description of what you do and/or what you sell
- A stroke of brand personality
- A clear call to action
- A link
Your brand identity on Instagram is defined by these specifics, which significantly affect the discoverability of your account. Creating an account that is appealing to followers entails:
- Having a search-friendly username. Stick to either your brand name or whatever’s closest to your existing social handles. If your name is too long, shorten it to a variation your audience would recognize (ex: Cold Stone Creamery’s account is @coldstone).
- Making your profile picture professional. An appropriately-sized logo is ideal. Any text in your profile picture should be legible on a smartphone screen.
- Minding where you point your bio link. This is crucial for turning Instagram followers into meaningful traffic or customers. It’s your only way to funnel social traffic to your site and promotions.
While linking to your homepage is acceptable, it may not be the most effective approach. A social landing page that leads users to various links can stimulate more substantial engagement.
Your first impression on potential followers and customers is determined by your Instagram bio, which has a maximum of 150 characters. The key to a successful Instagram bio is to ensure it is concise, creative, and informative. Readers should be able to immediately comprehend your brand’s purpose, how it can benefit them, and how they can receive additional information. Odd Giraffe, a company that offers personalized stationery, has mastered this approach with their Instagram bio.
Their opening phrase, “Hello, paper person,” not only adds character to their bio that is distinctive to them, but it also helps to identify their target audience – individuals who have an interest in stationery. The subsequent sentence serves as a clear call to action that showcases their products and sets them apart from their competitors, boasting over 100 designs. A helpful tip is to monitor which call to action generates the most engagement on Instagram.
Designing the ideal Instagram bio for your business requires testing multiple versions to see which appeals most to potential followers. The link in your bio presents an opportunity to guide your followers to an external page. You can promote your company’s website or continually update it based on your latest content. Alternatively, you can use link in bio tools like Buffer’s Start Page to merge all your URLs into one. Check out how photographer Ryan Johnson implements this strategy with Buffer:
In addition, it is possible to customize the Start Page to align with your brand and monitor the performance of each link.
4. Cross-promote your Instagram handle on other channels
An easy approach to enhance your Instagram following is to redirect prospective clients from various platforms to your profile. One way to do this is by including your Instagram link in your website’s footer, which is something Buffer does.
Your Instagram handle should be easily accessible for those who already follow you on other platforms, without the need for them to manually search for you on Instagram. Make sure to include a link to your Instagram account.
- Your product packaging
- Your blogs (when relevant)
- Marketing and transactional emails
- Your website’s footer and/or sidebar
- Social media posts from team members
- Your and your employees’ email signature
- Bios on other social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube
- Networking events and webinars (Use your profile’s Instagram QR code for in-person events)
To enhance your ‘gram, there is no universal strategy. Here are a few suggestions:
- Add social media icons to your website and marketing emails. Social media icons make it easier for people to find your business and help you connect with customers.
- Feature an Instagram feed on your homepage or product pages. Many ecommerce brands have dedicated UGC feeds on-site (see below).
- Reshare Instagram-specific content or announcements on other social channels. For example, you could talk about an upcoming IG Live via TikTok or Facebook.
Most places only require a small Instagram icon or QR code instead of a large and flashy Instagram link.
5. Find your best times to post on Instagram
Determining the optimal time to post on Instagram depends on when your audience is active, as there is no universally agreed upon best time. Thus, it is important to figure out the perfect time to post for your specific followers. By utilizing Instagram’s insights, you can easily find out when your audience is most frequently active, in just three simple steps.
The initial step is to select “Insights” from your Instagram profile.
Proceed to “Your Audience” by scrolling as per Step 2.
Step three involves clicking on the option “View all”.
At the bottom of the page, you will discover when your audience is most active.
