How to Create a Strong Instagram Following For Your Business

Keeping an eye on analytics is crucial.

After the release of the Instagram business profiles a few years ago, navigating the world of social media marketing, again, became a little more difficult. However, gaining a strong following on this platform can be invaluable to your business, especially those that rely heavily on online trade. Here are some tips on how to grow a strong Instagram following, in a worthwhile way.

Pay Attention to Statistics

One of the greatest additions to the Instagram business profile is the ability to search through the statistics of your account. It can be easy to feel swamped by analytics, but Instagram have made it incredibly easy to sift through to the bits of information that are important. The key information has been picked out for you, such as the age group, location and gender of your followers. A really important piece of information is the time at which your following are most often on Instagram. If your following tends to be on between 8am and 10am, then posting at 5pm is unlikely to see the best response. Time your posts to make sure you’re in sync with your audience and you’ll see much more engagement.

If your followers are most active during the early morning then be sure to wish them a pleasant morning commute in a timely post.

See How The Big Names Do It

Celebrities of course have the largest following on Instagram; people can’t get enough of hearing about their lives. Take a leaf out of their book and be more personal to create a strong following on Instagram. Le Bron James is the only non-soccer player to make it into the top 10 most followed celebrities on Instagram. The secret to his Instagram success is simple; he’s authentic – and it probably helps that his team, The Los Angeles Lakers, are in with a good chance of winning the NBA Championship too… People like to see a face behind the business, so letting customers see some of your day-to-day is a great way to build a rapport.

Get Involved With Relevant Initiatives

If you struggle to think of ways to include a little personality into your posts, then consider getting involved with an initiative that suits your business. If you’re a maker, or creative then the Just a Card or #meetthemaker initiatives are a great place to start. The accounts set a prompt for every day of the week and you can respond to that prompt with the appropriate hashtag. This is a clever way of getting your profile seen and thusly connecting with people who have a broad interest in your field of business.

Schedule Your Posts

Regularity is key to creating a strong following on Instagram. So whether you decide to post three times a week, or three times a day, try to keep it fairly standard most of the time. There are plenty of scheduling apps and websites which will allow you to plan ahead. Spending a whole day queueing up Instagram posts means that you can spend time writing gripping captions and including appropriate hashtags. Once you’ve spent that day you won’t have to do anything for a month or so and all of your content will be perfect. This allows you to spend a bit more time on spontaneous posts, such as stories.

Use the Stories Feature

Stories haven’t actually been a part of Instagram all that long, but it seems that consumers might be starting to respond to them more readily than standard posts. Viewing short snippets of content one after another means that your posts ought to be eye catching. Consider including discounts, special offers and competitions in your stories to encourage your followers to watch them carefully. Stories can also be an excellent place to employ some of the techniques you learned from your celebrity watching. You can afford to be a little more casual, as these wont stick around forever (just 24 hours) so making a quick video about an interesting seminar that you attended or a gallery that you visited is an authentic way to connect with your audience.

The main points to remember are, first and foremost, to be authentic, next to be timely, and finally to use relevant hashtags. Try to avoid bot services, and vet any growth or scheduling services you use by reading reviews from trusted sites like this Jarvee review. If you follow just these most simple rules, although your following won’t explode overnight, you will receive more interest from the relevant people which is, after all, the most important thing.