Instagram has taken off since its creation in 2010. It boasts over 200 million active users every month. That is a ridiculous amount of people. There was a study that showed that brands are more likely to get more engagement on Instagram than Facebook. A whopping 58 times higher!
But you don’t want to settle for that. You want more. You want to be engaging with 100 times more than any other social platform. Or even higher than that. In order to do that, you need to increase your followers. No matter if it is your company’s brand or your own personal brand you are looking to promote, Instagram is a great social media platform for you to achieve greatness.
Here we provide you with a list of tips and tricks to help you achieve greatness on Instagram. But one important thing to note is this: interaction is the key to true success. While you can apply all of these tips and tricks to your account, if you do not actively interact with your followers, they won’t reach their full potential. And neither will your profile.
20 Tips and tricks to Instagram success
If you combine these tips and tricks with active interaction you will see your followers sky rocket. A good idea is to set yourself goals, I.E a number of followers, and once you have reached it, set a new, higher one.
Promote your hashtag
So, let’s say you have created a hashtag for your company’s brand, or for yourself, which is great. But people need to know how or when to use it. Make sure you include the hashtag in your profile but go further. If it is for a business, plaster it on everything, signs, receipts, advertisements, etc. For a personal brand, get merchandise, share with all your friends and family, do your best to get it out there via any means.
Creativity wins points
Make sure you keep your hashtags creative. Don’t settle for one-word (this doesn’t mean don’t use them at all!) get creative and use hashtags to tell the story. But funny or ridiculous, just never be boring.
Know at what time to post
Research has shown that the most successful times to post new content is either at 2am or 5pm. This does not mean that you should limit yourself to just those times. Which leads into the next trick.
Schedule posts
You can schedule posts to be posted at different times and dates. On Wednesdays for example, which have also shown to be the most popular day. If you take an awesome picture, but you don’t feel like it is the right time to post it, then schedule it for a more suitable time!
Join in with the conversation
When a hashtag becomes popular you need to be involved with it. There are common popular hashtags, such as #photooftheday, but other topical ones appear frequently. Pick the ones that relate most to you or you are most interested in and join in.
Don’t forget about your bio
Use your bio to link to other websites you are part of or your company’s site. That is a great use of your bio without a doubt. But don’t just leave it that. Mix it up every other week with new content, new links to your latest videos/photos. You can even use it to inform your followers you’re on vacation and what to expect.
Short descriptions are boring
Your descriptions are part of telling your story. We have all heard how many words a picture paints, but the key to success is having both complementing each other.
Make the most of influencer marketing
An influencer is a person who has influenced you and who you want to overtake. So, visit their profile and turn on the post notification button. That way you get notified every time they post, and you can interact with them. Soon you can become a favourite brand or person and they can promote you.
Take the trash out
Removed all your unwanted tagged photos from your profile. We have all been tagged in pointless or useless photos, it is not uncommon. But you don’t want to show them, so remove them. Also do this with your early posts, if you didn’t take it seriously from the start. Like pointless food photos or low-quality snaps.
Show your face
A studies shows that a photo showing your face is likely to get over 30% more likes. This is people like knowing who is posting and who they are following. A face is almost like a personal introduction, you can now be recognised.
Make sure photos get your approval
Change your settings to you must approve every photo you get tagged in. That way, you aren’t stopping people from tagging you, they are just not showing on your profile. Always approve a certain number of followers who tag you, as you want to interact with your followers and appreciate their support.
Be yourself
While it is easy to copy someone else’s style or do what it takes to fit in, being unique makes the difference on Instagram. Develop a unique style that best represents you and your brand. Don’t be afraid to be a little weird.
Geotag
Tagging your local area can greatly help your business or personal brand, as you will appear in searches for that area. If you are visiting an event or doing something in your community, make sure you share that location too and what you’re up to. Other people who attended the same event can then find and follow you with ease.
Behind the scenes access
Give your followers behind the scenes action to show that real people are behind your company. Show that you also make mistakes. For example, maybe you are promoting a trick shot video, show some misses too. People like to know you are human too.
The winner takes it all
Post a competition on your Instagram page. Make the rules in such a way that followers must like and share in order to take part. The chance of winning something encourages more people to enter and the shares and likes will increase your number of followers.
Calling all followers
It is important to have a call to action. Get your followers to share a certain post or to reach a certain number of likes. Encourage this by offering something new if a number of likes is reached. Be creative and funny, this will increase your chances of people actually doing what you would like them too.
Question
Include questions in your descriptions for your followers to answer. Offer something in return for a correct answer or the closest answer. This is a way to get people interacting and commenting on your post. It can create debate, hilarious threads and other ways you can interact with your followers.
Make connections
If you work hard you can make friends with other influential Instagram celebrities. Or simply ask them for a guest post. This will send your number of followers to new levels. Plus, you get to interact with someone you also admire.
Share to care
Sharing your followers posts, specially ones where you are mentioned, shows you care about their support. It also motivates your followers to share your posts, getting you more recognition.
Proper planning prevents poor performance
Make sure you have a plan. How are you going to use Instagram? What are you going to promote? How are you going to promote it? Set goals, tasks and timelines and stick to them. Don’t be too strict though, as with all online platforms, they aren’t always predictable. Although, having a plan already mapped out will help you deal with any unforeseen issues with a lot more success than acting randomly.
What you have learned
After reading these 20 top tips on how to get Instagram followers you should have learned a few things you need to focus on that will drastically improve your profile. Gain followers, customers or become an Instagram celebrity. It doesn’t matter which route you are going down with your social media account, always remember these tips.
Interaction with your followers is a great element of becoming successful on Instagram. Without any interaction, this list alone will not help you reach as many followers as you can. Be creative, be funny, be strange and ridiculous, always be yourself, but most importantly DON’T BE BORING. Being boring has never got anyone anywhere, and the same applies to Instagram.
Amongst your interaction with your followers there should be calls to action, contests and ways of you showing your appreciation for their support. Don’t be ungrateful towards your followers, always show some love.
Let your followers know the real you and that you are also human. Use behind the scene shots, face shots and other interesting photos to let your followers get to know you. Build a connection with both followers and other influencers by letting them into your world. Don’t try and get into someone else’s world. Create your own and invite people in. The best way to be successful is to stay true to yourself.
