Instagram

6 Tips for Growing Your Instagram Account

SN:D Agency · November 20, 2019 ·

Instagram is one of the best platforms to get your business noticed and encourage users to directly engage with your brand. We’ve all seen the brands on Instagram who seem to so eloquently connect with their audience and activate high levels of engagement on their posts. They seem to post all the right content at all the right times, and catch the attention of all the right viewers. But just how do you go about doing this, and where do you start?

Growing your Instagram following can directly translate into higher brand recognition, a wider consumer base and significantly more sales for your business. In this guide, we answer all of your questions, including how to gain followers, activate and engage with your consumer base, and grow your Instagram account.

1. Growing Your Instagram: Posting Creative Content

Before you can start marketing your Instagram page, there has to be something there worth marketing. Every post should be something you’re be proud to show the world, and this means being creative in the development and publication of your content. Your creativity should be displayed by having great images, as well as having a strategy for displaying them.

Quality Images

The images you use depend on your brand, but no matter what, it is important that you choose high-quality, professional photos. Each image should be representative of your brand identity. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, where information is primarily offered through text, Instagram is image-centric. A viewer may never stop to read your caption, but they will always see your image. This means that the argument you are trying to make must be visually demonstrated in one small square canvas.

If at all possible, take your own professional photos. But if you don’t have access to resources for this, you can use free, high-quality stock images from sites like Unsplash or Pixabay. You can edit the photos on Instagram to adjust certain features such as tone, saturation, highlights, and contrast.

Profile Layout

That being said, while the individual posts themselves are important, equally important is a well-designed profile. What’s the first thing people see when they click on your profile? The page layout of course. Your brand’s Instagram profile should represent the brand’s personality artistically. There are several ways to do this.

One way to do this to maintain a consistent theme. Check out @Toyota, for example, who uses a theme of coordinated rows, where every row contains 3 pictures of the same vehicle in different positions or angles. It takes a second to notice it, but once you do, you are almost compelled to keep scrolling. This is a great tactic for engaging users!

Another option is to use a consistent type of picture. As another example, @Expedia uses a variety of distinct views of different worldly wonders.

There are plenty of other ideas for themes you can find on popular Instagram accounts. Whether you use a coordinated color scheme, a repeating content method, or any other kind of theme, the content on your profile should look like it belongs together. Ultimately, it should all be in adherence to the same single brand identity.

2. Growing Your Instagram: Writing Good Captions

If your images are good they will get likes, but if the captions are good they will get likes, comments and shares. In other words, captions can make or break engagement.

Furthermore, the words you put attach to your post represent your brand’s voice. One example of a brand that knows their identity and writes great, on-strategy copy is @Chipotle. They use their caption as a space to connect and relate to their audience in a way that is authentic, witty, and often downright hilarious.

Below are some examples of their content:

When I see memes like these, I can’t help but feel like the brand sort of “gets” me. This is because they are directly responding to a common pop culture theme in their posts and even using customer-created content. What better way to make your audience feel heard and to drive engagement?

Humor is great for a fast food company like Chipotle, but figure out what strategy is best for your particular market. Look at what others in your niche are doing for some ideas. And then decide how you want to portray your brand voice, whether that’s with a tone that is witty, sentimental, passionate or educational. No matter what it is, it should always be on-strategy with your overall brand messaging.

Another effective way to get engagement through your caption is to directly initiate conversations. This brings us to our next point.

3. Growing Your Instagram: Using a Call to Action

Every post should be an invitation to do something, whether it’s stated directly or indirectly. The indirect way to state something is demonstrated in the above examples. Chipotle never says “come to Chipotle,” but we know it’s what they mean.The direct way is by using a Call to Action.

There are different kinds of calls to action that encourage different types of engagement. A call to action can be as simple as asking viewers to click a link in your bio, shop your sale, or follow you on other social media channels.

As we mentioned above, one effective kind of call to action is a conversation starter. This typically means including a question at the end of your caption asking viewers to share their answer in the comments. It can be open-ended, such as “How was your weekend? Share in the comments below.” Or, it can be more directly brand-related, such as “Which of these [products] is your favorite? Share what you’d pick in the comments!”

Below is an example of a conversation starter by a gardening brand, @gardenista_sourcebook. As you can see from the comments, this was extremely effective in garnering user interaction.

Another effective strategy is telling users to tag a friend in the comments. You will see this strategy used often by clothing brands. They will post pictures of their apparel with the caption “tag a friend who would look amazing in this.” This is a great way to get your followers to indirectly recommend your brand to more potential consumers. Each person who comments brings one more potential follower to the post, who might then tag another potential follower, who will tag another, and so on.

4. Growing Your Instagram: Interacting with Followers

This is arguably the most effective way to gain followers. It is also the most labor intensive.

It is important, especially if you are a small business just getting your name out there, to engage directly with your active followers. Businesses with a strong social media presence are the ones who make an effort to respond to as many comments as they can. This is the most authentic representation of your brand. When you reply to your viewers, they feel heard. This leaves a positive impression of your business with your audience. It demonstrates that you are dedicated to customer service and care about your consumers.

One account that does a great job of this is @Headspace. They reply to each comment, even if it’s as simple as a few words or an emoji. As you can see below, it is effective in promoting their brand image as a self-care advocate, and they have 6 times more followers than their main competitor, Insight Timer. It pays off!

And if that’s not incentive enough, know that every comment you add makes Instagram register your post as more active. And the more active you are on Instagram, the more the app rewards you with a higher placement on your followers’ feeds.

Speaking of staying at the top of the feed, let’s talk about hashtags.

5. Growing Your Instagram: Using Hashtags Strategically

Hashtags are a wonderful tool for growing your Instagram account. They are arguably the best way to gain new followers. They help categorize posts, draw in users to a specific niche, and reach a specific target audience

Begin by researching other Instagram pages in your niche. Find out which hashtags are being used by your competition, by both influencers and by personal profiles. There are several apps for Instagram that can help you find the most popular tags, but once you’ve figured out the ones that draw in the most engagement, keep a list of these on file so you can use them in future posts.

Once you’ve figured out what the most effective hashtags are, there are a few ways you can incorporate them. One way is to use them directly in your caption. You can do this by picking some key words and tagging them. Here is an example of a post by @Nintendo using this method:

However, be careful with this, as you want your text to remain easy to read and uncrowded. You don’t want a clump of hashtags to be too visible because it can appear tacky. To avoid this, many accounts use the strategy of tacking them on at the end of the caption, often after several paragraph breaks, or placing them all in the first comment. This way, they won’t be visible until the viewer clicks the “see all” button. Here’s an example by @beautifulsmoothies:

It sounds tedious, but keeping your post clean and simple helps with the overall image that your brand portrays.

6. Growing Your Instagram: Interacting with Other Brands

Interacting with others in your market is a great way to demonstrate credibility. You are becoming a major player in your market, so show it. Don’t expect that consumers will automatically come to you. Find other brands in your industry, both big and small, and interact with them publicly on the platform. Like and comment on their posts. Encourage them to check out your page. This will begin to get your name out there in the community.

If you are featuring a certain vendor or another brand in your post, make sure to mention them in your caption. Sometimes, the business will share your post with their own followers. This is a great way to start gaining a wider online audience.

Overall, building an Instagram following, like anything else, takes hard work and persistence. It is much more than just having good images and setting ads. It takes a certain level of dedication to creating the highest quality content, as well as a consistent engagement with your community and your audience on a regular basis. It also requires you to be flexible, to evolve with your audience as they evolve, and to understand the ever-changing and transforming platform that is Instagram.

Did you know that Instagram marketing is a big part of our work here at SocialNicole? To learn more about our social media marketing services and the ways we leverage Instagram to grow your business, contact us today!

In the meantime, sign up now to receive free blog updates in your inbox. We have posts on all aspects of digital marketing coming out every month.

How and Why: Using Instagram Stories For Marketing Your Business

Abby Sorensen · September 5, 2018 ·

If you manage a business account on Instagram (or you have your own personal account), you’ve almost certainly seen or heard of the Instagram stories feature.

Instagram stories are a lesser-known feature on Instagram, and it is one that people may not be familiar with. However, despite their unfamiliarity, stories can be a beneficial and productive aspect of Instagram to use for social media marketing for businesses of all sizes. Instagram stories are eye-catching, fun, and also provide businesses an opportunity to include live links in their stories, which users cannot do in the captions of regular Instagram posts. In this post, we will lay out the why and how of Instagram stories, so that they will be less daunting for you and your business.

If you are questioning whether or not your business should be using instagram, click here to read all about the benefits of Instagram for businesses.

Why Should My Business Use Instagram Stories?

Instagram stories are creative and fun, but you may not be convinced that they are important, especially for your business. So why should your business use Instagram stories?

One reason stories are useful is that they keep your business’s profile in the forefront of followers’ minds by keeping your content at the top of their newsfeeds. If a business can be adding to its story throughout the day, their profile picture will continue to appear at the top of their followers’ feeds, ringed in purple to signify that they have posted something new. Being able to stay present in the minds of followers throughout the day is a great way to market.
Instagram stories only stay for 24 hours, so they are a great way to promote or share content or fun images of what your team is doing throughout the day, without having to take extra money or resources out of your marketing budget. In this way, it is a lower-pressure type of content marketing your business can be doing. It is still important to be post quality content on your business’s Instagram story. Even though it only lasts for 24 hours, a story still represents your brand and will have an impact on your audience.
Business can also use Instagram stories to showcase events going on, do profiles on team members, promote certain products or deals, do popular “A Day in the Life” features, and more! Stories are fun, creative, and can be very interactive, especially if you use the poll feature or invite users to interact by replying to your story to answer questions, etc. Another popular use is to do an “Instagram Story Takeover” in which businesses will have a team member, collaborator, or influencer takeover their story for the day, posting throughout the day photos and videos of what they are doing for the company, or talking about a certain event or product. This is a fun way to collaborate and potentially gain views and followers that watch your business’s Instagram story because an influencer they like is doing a takeover.
Many businesses will also post updates on their stories when they’ve added a new Instagram post. Because of Instagram’s algorithm and the fact that posts are displayed in a single-file column through which users have to scroll, it can be easy to miss posts. Stories, as we’ve said, are displayed in a line at the top of newsfeeds, making them easier to see and access. If you’ve posted a photo on Instagram that you particularly want users to see, it’s common to post a screenshot of your business’s profile page with arrows or stickers (here’s an opportunity to be creative!) indicating a new post. This can help drive people to your business’s Instagram profile to see and interact with posts that they may have otherwise unintentionally missed.
Another good reason to use Instagram Stories for your business is that you can include links in your story. Because it is still impossible to include clickable links within the captions of regular Instagram posts, the only way businesses can include live links on their Instagram is in the bio or their profile or on their story or through placing paid ads! Business can include links in their story to drive traffic to their website, blog, or whatever external site they are linking. Stories are a great way to include calls-to-action because they can include a live link and you don’t have to use the sometimes-clunky “click the link in bio” that you have to use in regular Instagram posts.
Business accounts on Instagram will also have access to their Story analytics, which tell the business not only who viewed the story, but also the actions taken, the unique accounts that the story reached, the number of impressions, and also the number of shortcuts – how many users tapped through the whole story, how many users swiped away from the story, and more. These analytics can provide valuable insight on which stories perform better than others, helping your business to get an idea of what kind of content their audience wants to see and interact with.

Don’t miss any of our Instagram for Business blog series posts (new posts each week this month). Sign up today to receive email updates for the SocialNicole blog.

How to Use Instagram Stories

Now that you have some great reasons as to why your business should use Instagram stories, we are going to give you an overview of how Instagram stories work. Once people sort out all the details, Instagram stories are pretty easy to use and navigate. When you are new to this game, stories can seem like some alien presence. It’s ok, we have you covered with this helpful guide that will walk you through all the details on how to use Instagram stories!

First off…What The Heck Are Instagram Stories?

Instagram stories are 24-hour only posts that appear in the avatar icon on an Instagram profile. A 24-hour post means that the post appears for 24 hours and then disappears. When looking at your Business Instagram feed, you’ve probably noticed a collection of other users’ profile pictures in circles at the top of your feed, each ringed in the familiar Instagram-purple (see screenshot above). These are Instagram stories.

How Do You View Instagram Stories?

To view an Instagram story, you simply click on one of the ringed icons. Users can upload many different slides (each slide is an update or story post) to their story, and when watching a story users can click through the sides by tapping the screen, or simply allow the slides to play one by one on their own. Once a viewer has seen all the slides in one user’s stories, the next user’s story will automatically play. Viewers can opt out of watching a story in the stream of stories by swiping to the left. You can also drag the story downwards on the screen to leave the stream of stories and return to your Instagram feed.

Your business can upload to its story by clicking the camera icon in the upper left-hand corner of its Instagram feed. Stories can be photos, videos, the popular “Boomerang”, and more. Once posted, a story will stay up for 24 hours, during which time you can see who has viewed the story. Businesses can interact with other users’ stories by replying or sharing.

Highlights Feature: A way to save stories and view

The new “Highlights” feature allows businesses to save your stories permanent stories, after the 24 hours are up, which appear on the user’s profile beneath the bio but above the feed of photos, not at the top of followers’ feeds like regular stories do.

Instagram stories are another aspect of Instagram that businesses can and should be using for brand personality and added relevance on the app!

How to Create Instagram Stories: The Basics

Creating Instagram stories is quite simple. By clicking the camera icon in the upper right-hand corner of your feed, you can take a photo or film a video, or upload photos and videos from your camera roll.

Photo or Video for Instagram Stories

Once you’ve clicked the camera icon in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, you can take a photo by tapping the circle at the bottom, or take a video by holding down the circle. These videos can last up to 15 seconds.

You can also use videos and photos you already have in your camera roll. To access these, you
simply swipe the screen up from the bottom instead of clicking the circle icon. Your own camera roll will then be displayed, and you can select photos or videos up to 15 seconds to upload to your Instagram story.

Fun Additional Features for Instagram Stories

In addition to standard videos and photos, Instagram offers many fun and different features to make your stories more interesting and creative.

Live Videos for Instagram Stories

Live videos are a popular use of Instagram stories. In order to go live on Instagram, select “live” at the bottom of the screen, just to the left of “Normal.” You will see the option to “Start Live Video” and, once selected, you will be live! This means you will be posting a real-time video, with which your followers can interact by commenting. This is a fun way to connect with your followers in the moment, answer questions, give shout outs, and more! Your live video will show up at the top of your followers’ Instagram feeds before the regular stories do, so live videos are a great way to stay present on your followers’ screens.

Boomerang For Instagram Stories

The “Boomerang” feature, found just to the right of the “Normal” option at the bottom of the story camera screen, is a very popular and fun option for your Instagram story. A Boomerang is a short video that plays forward and then backwards, with no sound. Many users use this feature to create silly or clever eye-catching stories! To create a Boomerang, you simply select “Boomerang” at the bottom, and click the circle, which will now have an infinity symbol inside it.

Focus For Instagram Stories

Another fun feature of Instagram stories is the “Focus” feature. Usually used for photos of people, the focus feature will focus on the face being photographed and blur the background, creating a portrait-style effect. Select the “Focus” feature, and take a photo by clicking the circle with the little person icon.

Superzoom For Instagram Stories

The “Superzoom” feature, found to the right of the “Focus” feature, has a few options for short videos which zoom in automatically onto the subject. There are different options for sounds and color to accompany the video. You can select different options by clicking the encircled music-note icon.

Rewind For Instagram Stories

Rewind videos are self-explanatory – they are simply videos that play in reverse. Just as with the rest of the Instagram story features, the “Rewind” feature is fun and can be used creatively to entertain and spark interaction from your followers. You can record a video like normal, but it will play back in reverse.

Hands-Free For Instagram Stories

To the right of the “Rewind” option, there is an option for “Hands-Free” videos. This features makes taking videos a bit simpler – rather than holding down the circle icon for the duration of the video, you can simply tap the circle to begin and then tap it again to finish the video.

Music For Instagram Stories

Users can share the music they are listening to on Spotify by selecting the “Music” option to the left of the “Live” option.

You can search and select on a song from Spotify, and then select a section of the song to be played in the background of your photo or video. The story will then credit the song by displaying the artist and

song title.

Type For Instagram Stories

Right by the “Music” option, you’ll find the “Type” option. This is the option to type a message against a solid background. Within the “Type” option, you can select different backgrounds and fonts.

Links For Instagram Stories

Businesses can also include links in their Instagram stories, to their website, blog, or another external link. This is a great way to drive traffic from Instagram to your business’s site. This is an important part of using Instagram Stories for business and aids in promotions, especially given the fact that user’s cannot include live links in the caption of their regular Instagram posts. When a business has included a link in their Instagram story, users viewing the story go directly to the site linked by swiping upwards on their screen. The story will have an arrow pointing upwards at the bottom, accompanied by the words “Learn More.”

Additional Features For Instagram Stories

Once a photo or video is chosen, businesses can draw, write, tag, hashtag, use stickers and GIFs, display the temperature or time of day, and create a poll. These options can be found by swiping up from the bottom of the screen on the photo or video.

Once the display screen comes up, you can select an option such as the temperature or hashtag to add them to your story.

You can also scroll through stickers to add them to your story for added color and creativity.

Once you’ve created the story to your liking, you simply select the plus sign icon at the bottom of the screen to add to your story.

Stories can seem daunting and complicated, but the best way for your business to figure out how to get the most out of Instagram stories is to dive in! As we’ve said, it’s a fairly low-pressure aspect of social media, which makes it less intimidating. So, take a stab at it! Try posting a photo or video, asking a question or taking a poll, and see how your followers respond! Remember, Instagram is growing in popularity and it will be beneficial for your business to start utilizing it to its full potential – which includes using Instagram stories! Instagram stories are fun and creative, and can be a great way to show brand personality and collaborate with others. Stories will help to keep your business in people’s minds and on their screens.

Don’t be intimidated! Start posting on your business’s Instagram story today! If you need extra Instagram help, sign up for our free updates and feel free to contact us with questions so we can help you maximize your business presence on Instagram.

The Pros and Cons of Using Instagram Ads

Abby Sorensen · August 29, 2018 ·

Don’t miss any of our Instagram for Business blog series posts (new posts each week this month). Sign up today to receive email updates for the SocialNicole blog.

If you’ve been using Instagram for a while, you’ve probably noticed advertisements from businesses popping up on your feed – and you may be thinking that using Instagram ads is the next step for your business. Instagram can be a great advertising platform, allowing you to not only grow your brand through visual organic content, but also allowing you to run ads that can increase the number of eyes that see your posts. Instagram ads help to drive traffic to your website and increase brand awareness.

However, there are cons to advertising on Instagram as well, especially when compared to advertising on its big sister platform, Facebook. Instagram ads are less sophisticated than Facebook’s, and linking on Instagram has been shown to be less effective than on Facebook. Instagram’s user base is more limited, which can make it a less productive platform for advertising than Facebook.

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Weighing the pros and cons of advertising on Instagram is important before your business makes the leap into Instagram advertising. Read on to see how we unpack the different sides of Instagram advertising to help you make an informed decision for your business.

Pros of Instagram Advertising

1. Instagram Ads Drive Traffic to Your Website

Unlike regular, organic Instagram posts, Instagram ads allow your business to include clickable links as part of a promoted posts. This is a key reason to consider advertising on Instagram. The ability to include a call-to-action with a link in an advertised post is immensely helpful in driving traffic to a your business’s website. Posts that are not boosted as advertisements do not have this ability.

2. Instagram Ads Increase Visibility

The biggest struggle any business has with social media marketing is breaking through the noise of millions of posts to be seen. Pay to play is the quickest and most effective way to do this. It’s imperative that you create compelling Instagram posts that will make people want to follow you and engage. Just because you are paying to get into your target audience’s feed with your post does not mean you will be followed or that people will engage with you. It takes a lot of creativity and commitment to curating an amazing Instagram feed to build an audiences and get the engagement you desire. Instagram ads will help you get there by ensuring people see your posts.

3. Instagram Ads Increase Brand Awareness

When you boost an Instagram post as an advertisement, the post will appear in the newsfeed of your target audience without seeming too out of place or disruptive. If you’re advertising using an Instagram story, the advertisement will automatically be placed in between stories when a user is watching the stories of users they follow. These unobtrusive ads can greatly increase brand awareness for your business.

Just like advertising on Facebook, your business can set its own budget, audience, and duration for an Instagram ad. When you build your audience you can set the demographics such as age range, gender, location, and interests. This allows you to show your ads to a targeted audience and reach the individuals who have the highest chance of being interested in what you are advertising.

4. Instagram Offers Options in Advertising

Another pro of advertising on Instagram is that businesses can use their Facebook Ads Manager account to set up ads on Instagram. Facebook Ads is the most sophisticated social media ad platform available, and Instagram ads are strengthened by piggybacking off of Facebook Ads. Instagram offers the ability to advertise based on goals such as driving link clicks, visits to your business’s Instagram profile, and increasing visibility.

Instagram ads also offer different options for advertisements. Businesses are able to promote videos, individual photos, or multi-photo carousel ads. Advertising within Instagram stories is also an option! Instagram is continually rolling out new features, so the options for advertising on the app will continue to increase over time.

Cons of Instagram Advertising

1. Instagram Links Are Less Effective Than Facebook Links

Instagram is not a click-friendly platform as it does not allow users to place a clickable link in their post. This means that the billion people who use Instagram don’t ever expect to click, but just double tap to show they like the posts they see.

By boosting a post, a business can add a link into the post. This is a huge perk for businesses who want to drive traffic to their websites. But our studies show that currently link clicks are less popular on Instagram than on Facebook. Instagram users tend to scroll through their feed, double-tap to like a post, and move on. The visual nature of Instagram, while helpful in many ways, becomes a double-edged sword when you consider how easy it is to see and like an Instagram photo without reading the caption. Even though advertising on Instagram allows you to place clickable links, those links are less likely to be used than ones placed in an advertisement on Facebook. If your goal is to drive traffic to your website you should test Instagram ads with Facebook ads to see where you have the most success.

2. Instagram Has a Limited Audience

Instagram is a widely-used platform, with over one billion active monthly users – which can be looked at as a reason to advertise on Instagram. Why not, when so many people are on the platform engaging, right? Perhaps, but it is important to look a bit further into the data. Even though Instagram has a huge user-base, the vast majority of these users are between the ages of 18 – 29. This is great if you are a brand looking to engage with young people.

But brands targeting an older audience might be hesitant to invest in Instagram advertisements, as the reality is that many of their potential customers are not using the app, at least not actively. These businesses may find it more worth their while to invest more time and resources in advertising on other platforms, like Facebook. Our advice is to test Instagram ads and see if you get the best results reaching your target audience by comparing to similar ads placed on Facebook or other platforms.

3. Instagram Ad Features Are Less Advanced

Advertising on Instagram is pretty straight-forward, which makes it easy – this is a pro, right? Not always, as the flip-side of this is that the more simple Instagram ads don’t have all the capabilities of Facebook ads. With Facebook, you can set up a Like ad campaign that will build your page followers directly – there is no such option on Instagram. Facebook ads also allow for more detailed targeting than Instagram ads do.

Although your business can use Facebook Ads Manager for Instagram advertising, the options of what can be done on Instagram are more limited than Facebook at this time. Instagram ads can still be helpful and effective – just maybe not as much as an advertisement on Facebook. So, once again, you’re left considering if maybe your business is better off focusing its energy on other ad platforms.

Deciding on whether or not you want to use Instagram ads can seem like a daunting task given the pros and cons. Our advice is to review the Instagram ads platform and if you feel it may suit your goals, give it a try. Testing is the best way to know if a social media ads platform works for your business goals. Regardless of any list of pros or cons the only real way to know if a platform is for you is try it out. Have fun!

In the meantime, if you need any Instagram assistance, contact us and make sure to sign up now to receive our new blog posts, full of great social media tips and advice in your inbox!

How to Build An Instagram Following For Brands and Businesses

Abby Sorensen · August 15, 2018 ·

Don’t miss any of our Instagram for Business blog series (new posts each week this month). Sign up today to receive email updates for the SocialNicole blog.

You’ve taken the plunge – spent the time and energy to set up an Instagram account for your business. But maybe your business’s Instagram page is staying more quiet than you’d like. Every Instagram account has been there at some point – and there’s no need to lose hope! If you’re frustrated with a low follower count, or just looking for ways to grow your Instagram following, we’ve got some tips for you! There are many simple and practical steps you can take to grow your Instagram following organically, starting with creating the most quality Instagram content possible for your business. By using hashtags and locations tags, engaging with your existing followers and soon-to-be followers in your niche, and collaborating with other Instagram accounts, you’ll help to put your brand name on more screens, resulting in a growing audience. You can also use your business’s accounts on other social media platforms to promote your Instagram account. Growing your business’s Instagram following doesn’t have to be a chore, and can in fact be fun! We’ve listed ways to overcome the obstacle of increasing your following on Instagram below… keep reading and watch that follower count go up!

Ways to Grow Your Brand’s Following On Instagram

1. Setup A Quality Instagram Account Page To Entice People to Follow

When a potential follower finds your account on Instagram, the first thing they will notice is the way your page looks. This includes everything from the photos you’ve shared to your bio and the clarity and simplicity of your Instagram handle. Everything on your instagram page should tell potential followers about you in a straightforward and concise way. For example your account handle should be simple and searchable. Your Instagram account page should have the name and location of your business clearly listed, along with a bio that states what your business is about. People will be much more likely to follow an account that states what they are about.

In addition, posting quality content on your business’s Instagram account is crucial to growing your following. This may seem like a no-brainer, but we cannot stress this one enough. People want to follow accounts that post nice, clear images that are not blurry, and are eye-catching and visually appealing. It is helpful to have a theme, even if it’s only a color scheme that makes your feed look cohesive. Your instagram should be an extension of your brand, so you want to keep this in mind when you are posting to your account.

Posting quality content goes beyond just the images and videos you choose to share. It extends to your captions as well. Make sure the captions on your posts are spelled correctly and use proper grammar and punctuation. The captions also need to make sense and be relevant to the photo being shared. We also recommend you vary the length of your captions from post to post and include calls-to-action with your captions. Call to actions will give your followers a reason to engage with you beyond just liking your post. Your call to action can direct people to the link in your bio (generally to your website, or a page on your website).

2. Interact and Engage on Instagram To Increase Following

We talk a lot about engagement on social media platforms, and that is because it is so important that we stress it almost every time we talk about social media marketing. Your followers make up your brand’s community. By inviting them to like your account and asking them to engage with you, you are entering into a relationship with each of them as individuals. These relationships are important to you as a business and need to be taken seriously. A good way to prove to potential followers that your brand has a flourishing community is to stay on top of interacting with the followers you already do have and replying to their comments, answering their questions, and showing them you care.

When trying to grow your Instagram audience, it is essential that you go a step beyond engaging within your Instagram community (people following and engaging with you) and take steps to engage with other accounts, too. One helpful tip is to engage with accounts and posts that are within your niche. The individuals who follow accounts that are like yours are most likely going to be interested in the kind of content you’re sharing, too. If they see you commenting on a post, it may entice them to click on your Instagram account handle, which will lead them to your page and then your star-quality Instagram page may just convince them to follow you!

Grow your community by interacting with potential community members – don’t always wait for them to come to you. Show people that you are interested in them, and that you think your business has something they may be interested in. Social media is a two way street, and you don’t have anything to lose by putting yourself out there and engaging with people that don’t yet follow your account or know your brand. You can find users who will be interested in the kind of content your business shares by searching hashtags within your niche. You can simply search relevant hashtags, and then like and comment on the posts you find. This will help get your name on the screens of people who will likely be interested in your business. You can also follow people that use these hashtags, and they may be likely to follow you back! Liking, commenting, and following – engaging with people within your niche – can help build your community.

3. Collaborate with other Instagram Accounts

Talking about interacting on Instagram leads us to our next point – collaboration, which is another type of interaction, after all. Collaborating with other businesses and/or influencers (people who are niched and have large followings) on Instagram can be huge in helping to grow your audience and following, especially if you can get a collaboration with a bigger account than your own. However, collaboration with any account can be helpful in getting your brand name on the screen of more people who may have never had the chance to find you if you hadn’t collaborated with a brand they follow.

Collaborations can be fun, and there are multiple ways you can do so. Hosting an Instagram contest with another brand is one way to do it. For example, both your business and your collaborator will post the contest, and one of the ways to enter can be to follow the other account. You can also give a shout-out to another business’s account in a post or on your Instagram story, and have them do the same for you. If both businesses are in the same area, you can even meet up face-to-face and then create a fun post together. Get creative in your collaborations, and you can make friends not only with the brand you’re collaborating with, but with their community as well!

4. Hashtags and Tagging To Help Grow Your Following On Instagram

Hashtags are wildly popular on Instagram, and when used effectively they can be one of the best ways to grow your instagram following. Unlike Twitter, the Instagram hashtag etiquette rule of thumb is the more the merrier! There is nothing wrong with bulking up your posts with a big block of hashtags (up to the 30 hashtag limit) at the bottom (after all the text and the call-to-action), and let them work their magic. You can also post your hashtags in a separate comment after the caption, if you don’t want to lengthen your captions with multiple hashtags. It is important to note that you want to make sure your hashtags are relevant to the post, so users searching hashtags will find the kind of content they were looking for when they come across your post. This will make them more likely to be interested in following your account. We also recommend creating your own hashtags for your business. This can be a fun and effective way to spread the word about your brand. Invite your audience to use the hashtag in their own posts, which will make it easy for anyone to find all the posts on Instagram mentioning your businesses.

Hashtags are not the only important tags on instagram. You can tag the location of your posts and add your location to Instagram stories. When you tag a location on your post, your post will show up when users search that location. When you tag a location in your story, that story then shows up on the tagged location’s story, and you can get extra views that way as well. You should also tag other accounts in your posts and stories – whether it is to identify a person or product in the post, or simply to give a shout-out.

5. Link to your Instagram on other platforms

Our last tip for building your Instagram audience is to use the audience you already have on other platforms. If you have a few thousand followers on Facebook but only 200 on Instagram, you should promote your Instagram on your Facebook page to direct those followers to follow you on Instagram as well! They are already a part of your brand’s community – why not have them be a part of your community on every channel? You can create Facebook posts that say something like “Are you on Instagram? So are we!” and add a call to action with a link and a photo from your Instagram account to lead your Facebook followers to your Instagram account.

We hope these tips are helpful to your business as you grow your Instagram audience. Having a clear, quality Instagram profile and feed, engaging with your audience, collaborating with accounts in your niche, using hashtags and location tags, and promoting your own Instagram page on your other social media channels are all ways to jump-start your journey in growing your Instagram following. It can be a long process, but it is exciting to watch your number of followers go up and to watch your brand’s Instagram community grow and thrive.

If you need any Instagram help or have any other social media questions, sign up for our free updates and feel free to contact us with questions so we can help you!

Instagram For Business: Why and How

Abby Sorensen · August 9, 2018 ·

Don’t miss any of our Instagram for Business blog series posts (new posts each week this month). Sign up today to receive email updates for the SocialNicole blog.

So, you’re working for a business that is trying to up its social media game. Believe us, we know the extreme importance of using social media marketing for business (social media marketing is our entire business). Maybe you’ve toyed with the idea of beginning an Instagram account for your business, but are overwhelmed by the process or unsure of the benefits. Although Instagram is newer to the business world and can seem daunting, it certainly has convincing selling points, from it’s image-centered focus to its interaction opportunities which are only going up. Instagram has made scrolling through posts and tagging users and locations easy, and is becoming increasingly optimal for community-growth. Instagram is arguably one of the most fun social media platforms, but it’s definitely more than a fun trend. Your business can use the app to promote events or contests, share customer-submitted contests, and create a personalized sense of community for your brand. Instagram is here to stay, and that includes using Instagram for business marketing. Below, we have laid out the why and how of using Instagram to help you make a decision on whether or not your business should leverage Instagram and how to get started.

Reasons You Should Consider Using Instagram For Your Business

1. Image Is Everything And Instagram Is all About Images

As we said above and we will say again, Instagram is all about images. This makes it a visual marketing gold mine. On any social media platform, adding an image is at the top of the list of ways you can make your posts more engaging. It’s a known digital marketing fact that people like pretty things. Images that are colorful and eye-catching really do work to help drive interaction and interaction is a key part of social media marketing. Interaction helps a passive viewer to make concrete associations with a brand and this leads to more brand awareness.

Instagram offers a unique opportunity for companies to show their personalities and branding through the images they share. This makes a brand’s identity more visually appealing than trying to encompass brand identity in a plain text post. *If you are a business that has a lot of visual aspects and also has some creative staff willing to take a lot of fun and interesting photos, Instagram may be a perfect fit for your social media marketing mix. And if your business is not that visual, it may be time to start thinking about how you can make what you do more visual. Social media marketing is the future for all business success and on social media the optics matter.

*Note: Before setting up a business Instagram account, please consider whether your company or brand is visual or can become visual. You will need a lot of photos and/or graphics, videos created on an ongoing basis to provide content for your Instagram account.

2. It’s More Than Just A Trend

While you might think that Instagram is just a trendy platform, that is far from the truth. Instagram is now being used by many major brands, and, with the rise of Instagram Influencers, it has become a leading marketing and advertising platform. Instagram now has approximately 1 billion monthly users. This is huge, considering that Instagram is much newer platform than Facebook and Twitter. Given the fact that Facebook purchased Instagram in 2012 and has invested in both it’s ad capabilities (integrating it with the Facebook ads platform) and adding more features for businesses to grow their presence (such as stories and filters) it is clear Instagram is here to stay. Again, businesses need to assess if this is a good platform to invest their time and resources into growing an audience, but as Facebook continues to make it more business friendly it will be a difficult platform to avoid.

3. Interaction Opportunities Are Only Going Up

Instagram used to be less than the best when it came to interaction – it allowed for no more than double-tapping to “like” a post and the option to leave a comment. NOW, Instagram has implemented many more features interaction and engagement such as sharing a post or a story in a DM or archiving your posts or someone else’s to save for later. Instagram has also added the capability to include links in profile bios, live video stories, and the nifty “swipe up” feature on stories. Add to that Instagram TV – the most recent addition to the Instagram toolbox and this platform continues to grow as a powerhouse social media channel. Brand awareness is an important part of any business looking to build their market share and a carefully planned Instagram strategy can build brand awareness.

4. Scrolling and Tagging Made Easy

Instagram is streamlined. Unlike Facebook or Twitter which display posts in a one-by-one stream, when a user goes to a business’ Instagram profile, the posts are laid out in a grid, making it easier for users to find older posts and promotions quickly. A potential customer can visit your business’s Instagram page and get a quick glimpse of your brand image and personality just by looking at the most recent images on your profile, unlike Facebook or Twitter where users have to scroll through multiple image posts mixed with text to get a sense of your business brand and personality. Furthermore, Instagram allows for sharing multiple photos in a single post, and also has the capability of linking to products so users can shop from a post or a story (this is a new feature not available to all accounts yet). It is also easy for followers to share stories or posts with their friends through tagging.

Finally, hashtags are also used widely on Instagram, even more-so than on Twitter. While on Twitter using too many hashtags is seen as “spammy” behavior, on Instagram there is no such thing as using too many hashtags. Instagrammers love hashtags and it is widely accepted to include as many relevant hashtags as you would like! You can place hashtags in the comments of other people’s posts to help get their posts show up in searches as well.

The ease of which you can tag and hashtag on Instagram along with the streamlined layout makes this platform very popular and positioned to continue to grow. As a business or brand it is becoming imperative to figure out if and how you could leverage this platform to grow your online community and customer base.

5. It’s Fun!

Instagram might be the most fun social media platform out there. With all its opportunity for color, creativity, personality, and aesthetically-pleasing feeds, it’s no wonder that it has become the platform where many people are directing much of their energy. Instagram can provide a creative and enthusiastic space for sharing your content and your brand personality. The challenge is finding the fun in your business and showcasing it in a visual way. For some this will be easier than others.

How To Use Instagram For Your Business

1. Create a Sense of Community

We said a lot in the section above about driving engagement and building a following for your business’s Instagram account, with the point that engagement will grow your customer base. While this is true, reaching a higher number of followers or likes per post does more than that, it allows you to interact and build your customer base. Interaction can help create a sense of community within your brand. One way to build community is to engage with your community, this means liking and replying to comments, asking questions or thanking your followers for their feedback. Engagement also means liking and commenting on other people’s posts. The act of engaging with others posts is one of the biggest ways to gain trust and get people to interact with your own page and posts.

Whatever you do while engaging, make sure you sound like a human, not a robot. Engagement begets engagement, which drives your posts to the top of the discover page. In time this will give you more community members to engage with!! It’s a perfect cycle – for your business and for your audience.

You can also create a sense of community with your business’s Instagram account by making it clear what your business is about. If an individual comes to your page and is confused about what your business focus is, they may not give your account a second glance. In order to showcase your business and provide a clear vision about what your business is all about you should take advantage of the bio portion on your business’ Instagram page. Your bio allows you to clearly identify who you are, what your business does and most importantly how people can contact you. You can also use relevant hashtags to showcase your business niche.

2. Share Customer-Submitted Photos

Another great way to use Instagram for your business is to share photos that your customers have shared with you! Photos of people wearing your brand merchandise or using your products are a great option for promoting your brand while also putting on display that awesome community that we talked about in the point above. Make sure you always get permission to share photos and tag people who submit photos when you have their account information. Tagging the person that originally shared the photo gives them some credit and makes them feel appreciated and recognized. You can use apps like Regram to re-post photos, which will keep the original caption while leaving room for you to add to it, as well as display the handle of the account you’re re-gramming from. When followers see that your business shares customer photos it just might convince more followers to share their photos with you and give you even more content to share!

3. Advertise Events

While Instagram advertising is a vast topic that merits its own blog post (coming soon!), creating organic content to promote or advertise your business’ events or contests on Instagram is another great use for your Instagram business account! If your business has an event coming up, sharing daily countdown posts on your feed or on your story can help get people pumped up for the event and spread the word to others.

4. Hold Contests To Build Brand Recognition and Community

You can also host a contest directly on Instagram. For example you can have people enter by liking or commenting on one of your posts. You can also have people enter by tagging friends in the comments, counting each tag as an entry, enticing people to tag multiple friends, therefore putting your post directly in front of that many more people (although tagging friends is allowed for contest entry be cautious as it could irritate people) . Another popular type of Instagram contest is a photo challenge contest where you have your followers complete a certain challenge and share photos or videos of them doing so with a unique hashtag to set the contest entries apart, or have them simply re-post one of your business’ Instagram photos with a certain hashtag. Either of these is a fun way to get your audience involved while also getting your name and posts in front of more potential followers. A list of Instagram contest guidelines can be found here; it is imperative you follow the guidelines set up by Instagram as they can shut down your page if you break the rules.

Instagram can certainly be daunting, but the benefits are clear and abundant. Instagram is a fun platform for your business to grow its online community, with its ease of interaction and tagging, and the focus on the visual. More than just a trend, Instagram can be used for business growth by providing an opportunity for your business to host contents and promote events. Additionally, you can engage with your community and share customer-submitted photos for increased community growth.

So if you haven’t made the decision to use Instagram for your business yet, now is a great time to consider it. It may be a great platform to add to your social media marketing arsenal. If you need some help with making a decision on whether or not to use Instagram for your business or want help leveraging Instagram to grow your business feel free to contact us today!

In the meantime, sign up now to receive free blog updates in your inbox. We have plenty of Instagram advice posts coming out soon!