The visual-based social media platform is one of the finest channels for growing your followers and hit the revenue bars. Although the task may look complicated, with a well-researched strategy, dedicated efforts, and time, it’s an easy job.
So, if you’re someone who is looking for a sure-shot ladder to make the most out of this social media platform, then this is the read for you-
Matellio has crafted a comprehensive guide covering 18 best tips for gaining Instagram followers for your businesses to grow.
Keep Scrolling!
Grow your business with Top 18 Tips for Instagram Management
1. Create your Company’s Insta Account
Setting up an Instagram account is not a very difficult task, but the important thing here is to understand that it’s not your personal account. Maintain the professional standards, i.e., No selfies, No private pictures!!
Optimize your Insta Profile with the following pointers-
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Recognizable Name
Have a recognizable name for your account. It could be related to your company’s name across the other social channels like Twitter, Linkedin, etc.
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Consistent Picture
Keep a consistent profile image for your brand; it can be your brand logo or something relatable to your company. Remember, all your interactions are going to be accompanied through that little thumbnail- make sure it’s recognizable.
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Interesting Bio
Instagram is a unique culture from your regular online shop, so your bio must follow the platform’s trends. Before visitors hit follow on your profile, they check your bio. So, craft a light yet catchy bio in your account, and make sure it’s not too salesy. After all, you don’t want to shoo off your users! Do you? You can also hashtag in your bio; we’re going to dive into this later.
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Relevant Link
On Instagram, there is only one chance to lead the follower to your website via a link directly. Make sure you make the most out of this opportunity. Add a clickable link to your targeted landing page, right under your profile bio.
2. Define your Goals
Whatever your method of marketing is, it’s essential to set some goals that you wish to accomplish within the decided timeline.
So, the first step as a brand looking to launch an Instagram campaign is to decide the goal. Here is the list of common goals that can be chosen for marking your Instagram presence:
- Build your Community
- Showcase your services or products
- Flaunt your company culture
- Advertising to potential clients.
- Share about what’s going on in Industry
- Increasing Engagement on your Posts
- And much more…
Define your goals suiting your company’s culture and requirements. Then craft an appropriate social media strategy abiding by your objectives.
3. Hashtagging is an intricate element of Instagram
Brainstorm famous and trending hashtags for your account. You can consider apps like Iconsquare for researching phrases and keywords related to your brand. After that, scan through accounts or people who use these hashtags to identify whether your post/image fits that community.
While hashtagging, avail following tips & tricks to better the results-
- Popular + Specific = Your Mixed Hashtag Bag is Ready!
The big hit tags may not always be the best choice; for instance, tags like #software will be just lost in the sea of content. It is necessary to add specifics like #ondemandfooddelivery and popular hashtags like #softwaredevelopment to strike a balance.
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Craft your own Hashtag
We find this an essential step in the long run. Craft a unique hashtag that suits your brand’s culture. This hashtag may work as your brand tagline.
The famous example in this series is Kitkat using hashtag – #haveabreak!
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Maximum 5 Hashtags per post
Include maximum 5 hashtags for complementing your post. You can also include additional hashtags in the comments section. This way, you will avoid decluttering your post with the tags.
4. Go for Regramming
Regramming is the process of sharing other people’s posts or content. When you’re a startup and don’t have much following on your social media channel, then building a potential audience should be your primary goal.
Regramming is an easy and effective way of achieving the same. Start checking out the profiles that receive decent engagement, consider sharing their content. Instagram doesn’t allow this directly. However, there are some third-party apps like Sprout Social, which can help you in this phase.
5. Win your Competitor’s Followers
The two simple reasons of why a user is following your on Instagram are-
- They like the content you post
- They are interested in your industry or niche.
Under this rule, the second point is already taken care of. This makes it easier to win these engaging followers and make them click the “Follow” button, present on top of your profile.
There are two primary ways to engage with these followers:
- Follow their account
- Like and Comment on their posts.
For getting these engaging followers, you got to follow a series of steps:
- Create a list of your Top Competitors.
- Start following theirs around 80-100 followers.
- Engage with these followers via the points as mentioned earlier ( Like & Comment Strategy).
Remember, the more you engage, the more you receive!
6. Professional yet Creative Pictures go a long way!
Some people say, “Instagram is all about photos.”
As per surveys, posts with visuals receive 94% higher engagement and page visits than the ones that are only full of text. Photos with descriptions are plain salesy, and that’s not what Instagram is for! Add photos that are unique, attention-grabbing, and personifies your brand.
Leverage the following pointers, and show off your brand’s beauty while flaunting your products:
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Get the Image size right!
Avoid blurred or cropped images at any cost. These kinds of images don’t work in the professional world. The Instagram size format is to keep the image within 612 x 612 pixels square frame. The safer way to preserve the quality of your image is by doubling the size of resolution, i.e., 1024 x 1024 pixels. You can adjust the image parameters with the help of Photoshop. This way, when reduced to Instagram parameters, the quality of an image would remain uncompromised.
You can also use apps like InstaSize and Squaready for sustaining the pictures in rectangular dimensions and still post them on the platform.
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Stand out with Editing Tools
More users mean more scrolling and more posting. In this platform full of posts, there are fair chances of your picture getting lost.
By leveraging different filters, you can gain better engagement on your brand’s picture.
Studies show that the Mayfair filter attracts the highest number of interactions.
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Play with Patterns and Colors
Studies show that brighter images generate 24% better engagement than their darker counter. Also, pictures with blue as the dominant color witness 24% more likes than the red shade. Users tend to accept images better with a single dominant color (choose blue!!)
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Lifestyle Photos Complimenting your Brand
Lifestyle Photos are product pictures with life-inspired scenes and backgrounds. These pictures assist your users in imagining how those hiking boots would look in mud, or how great those earrings would look on your friend’s wedding. A lifestyle picture helps in marketing your brand with a real-touch.
7. Consider Watermarking your Images
Watermarking your image with your brand logo or name is an intelligent step. Because what if, someday, your image goes viral, then you would be able to take credits for your copyrighted image. Also, you may end up attracting new business clients while you stop people from stealing your work.
8. Draft Compelling & Interesting Captions
If images are the heart of Instagram, then an inviting caption is the brain of this platform!
Without an effective caption, your post can’t get the full attention of your audience.
The primary intent of a caption is, “Don’t repeat what is in the picture, instead accentuate it.”
Brands use captions that ask questions from their target audience. This is one of the best ways to engage your users. Don’t create lengthy captions, and create posts that allow the audience to participate.
9. Generate engaging Video Content
Photos generate engagement, but video content is on the rise.
If you’re a startup company and dealing with a business idea that is not very popular in the market, then before other people catch up, fill your Instagram account with engaging videos specifying the details of your product, brand, and other relative arenas.
Creating an Instagram video doesn’t demand much but a decent smartphone and some creativity. So what are you waiting for?
Take out your phone and start shooting!
10. Share Quotations on your platform
Sharing quotations is a popular method for driving a lot of engagement. They can help in reinforcing your brand values, vision, and what your company stands for. For crafting beautiful quotes, you can take the help of tools like Canva, Pablo by Buffer, Over.
11. Schedule your Posts
Scheduling your posts with consistency is very crucial. Consider publishing one post every weekday on the proper timings (research the ideal timings based on your targeted geographical location).
Also, it’s essential to understand that posting during busy hours will perform a lot less than posted in the not-so-busy hours, say 3:00 a.m.
You can also leverage scheduling tools like Sked Social for queuing up the posts and then pushing them in the decided hours.
12. Monitor the Comments
You crafted an aesthetically pleasing picture, scheduled the post, wrote an interesting caption with relevant hashtags, and clicked publish.
If this is what you think is the end of the game, then I must say it’s not!
It’s a long chapter, and you’re somewhere in the middle.
The next destination is comment monitoring! Most of the engagement comes with commenting, and hence it is vital to reply to your users’ queries or comments with an engaging and polite reply.
You never know which comment may turn out to be your next potential lead.
13. Make the most out of Instagram Stories
Instagram stories allow you to post pictures and videos for a span of 24 hours. You can have real-time marketing and connect with your followers at the right time, such as a concert or live event. You don’t have to hunt for typical professional pictures for Instagram stories; instead, we suggest you leverage informal visuals; this will give a human touch to your brand.
The Instagram stories help enhance your overall content, improve engagement rate, and get more visibility of your services/ products.
14. Have you tried Influencer Marketing yet?
If the answer is no, then I must say you’re missing out on a significant chunk of the pie!
Instagram is filled with many people who have large followings. You can connect with people to endorse your product and brand via their account.
There are majorly two ways to get mentioned in their accounts-
- Make payment for the sponsored post.
- Establish a partnership or relationship with them.
Although the second one is the ideal method, the first option can also be chosen when you don’t have any partners in the first place.
Draft a list of best influencers of your industry on Instagram. Most of the influencers who take sponsored posts usually provide their contact details in their profile, so it’s easy to get in touch with them.
15. Try UGC (User Generated Content)
Any content, whether in the form of pictures or videos that community members usually contribute, lies in the category of UGC. Marketers shouldn’t be only focusing on drafting content themselves; instead, they should always look for the opportunity where members can contribute to content creation.
Encourage your community to share experiences they have with your brand across the channel and seek permission for reposting some of their best posts on your brand channel.
16. Shop on Insta via Varied Tools
Revenue from your Instagram channel!
Sounds Exciting, No?
Although we’ve mentioned only one clickable link on Instagram, and, i.e., your bio, there are 3rd party apps that simplify your problem. Apps like Like2Buy make Instagram a shopping place, using which the followers can easily click through the product pages, and be directed to the product purchase page.
17. Maintain Fonts Consistency
If text is one of your content’s core elements, then you must pay special attention to this one. What kind of fonts you use in video subtitles, photos, and other marketing materials says a lot about your brand! Keep your fonts and layout consistent for making your posts recognizable amongst the audience.
See how Instagrammer Seam McCabe does the job-
18. Don’t forget to Analyze your Posts
- Account Optimized
- Content Creation
- Post Scheduled
- Post Stories, Videos, Photos, etc
- Engage with Audience
- Now what???
Now is the time for some Analytics. Keep an eye on what’s working and what’s not by digging deeper into your Instagram Analytics for knowing things like-
- Your most liked content
- Which post received higher comments?
- Is the post frequency working for you?
- What kind of content gets the most engagement?
Instagram does offer insights within its business tools, but if you wish to go in-depth- leverage Sprout Social. The popular social media management solution helps in exploring every corner of this arena.
Not an Instagram yet?
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Instagram marketing may look a tricky thing, but the positive side of this situation is that the platform followers are quite active and engaging. Hence, once you’re out there in the open, you will realize there is no seeing back.
Instagram Marketing offers tons of benefits, few of which you would only come on when you’re in the game. Leverage the top 18 tips for Instagram, and give your business exposure in this visual social media world.
So, what are you waiting for? Get the ball rolling!
Got some suggestions? Feel free to reach our experts.
Till then, Happy Instagramming!
