So you’ve been on Instagram a while and you’re struggling to build up a decent sized community of followers?
Every person or brand has to start somewhere! However there are a few things you can do to increase your chances of becoming a hit on Instagram, and we’ve organized them into 7 simple steps for you to follow and get popular on Instagram! So don’t despair, work through the steps and you’ll certainly see a fast improvement.
Step 1: Write a solid bio
First thing’s first: you need to have a great bio on your Instagram, so that people know who you are, what you do, what your values are etc. It is said to take less than a second for a potential customer to form an opinion of your brand based on your company website. An Instagram bio gives you even less time to make an impression. A great bio consists of your name, your company’s expertise/main skill and your website link or some form of CTA. Make sure you include these essential elements in your 150 character limit!
Step 2: Post a minimum of 9 media
In order to really kick off your Instagram popularity, you’re definitely going to need one thing: posts! Try to aim for a minimum of 9 (so you can fill out a grid on a screen) really good quality media – photos or videos or both! This media will be your basis for amassing likes and comments, and gaining visibility, so be sure not to spam with low quality images – that’s just not what Instagram is about!
Step 3: Reference your media
In order to appear in search results, you need to reference your media correctly, by theme, by using hashtags. For example, let’s say you’ve posted a photo of a landscape, you should reference your photo with the key words that would send you to that photo through a search. The basic hashtags are #thenameoftheplace and #thethemeofthephoto. You can use the search bar to find out how many posts already exist on a hashtag, which will tell you how popular that particular hashtag is. Remember 5-10 hashtags is the perfect amount, below 5 and your photo will be lost in the search and beyond 10 is hashtag overkill.
Step 4: Promote your Instagram account
The problem with creating a new account on a social network is that the chances are your audience is already elsewhere. Let your existing communities know that you’re on Instagram by posting about it! A short but sweet “We are now on Instagram! Follow us – @mybrand” will do the trick on Twitter and Facebook, or you could even update your profile picture for a while to let your community know the news. You should also be promoting on your company website, your blog, and if you have one, in your newsletter! Getting the word out will do wonders for your follower growth.
Step 5: Use the follow4follow technique
The follow4follow technique involves searching for accounts that interest you and following them. Most of the time they’ll follow you back if you have great media and don’t spam (see Step 2!).
Top Tip! Engaging with other people’s media (by liking or commenting on posts that are relevant to you) will get attention and potentially result in a follow. For easier commenting on your desktop, use the Conversation Trackeron Iconosquare!
Step 6: Find out the best time to post
Keep your existing followers happy by remaining visible to them in their feed. You can find out the best time to post according to your engagement rate, number of likes or number of comments with the Best Time To Post tool on Iconosquare. You will slowly but surely be able to build up your engagement rate by paying attention to what time of day has worked for you in the past.
Step 7: Track your progress
To really tune in to your Instagram progress, you need to be tracking your analytics. This is how you will learn how to consistently please your followers and see your community grow.
You’ll be instafamous in no time!
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