How to 10x Your Instagram Following Today!
Are you tired of spending so much time on Instagram with little to no results? Posting, commenting and liking on different accounts, trying to build up some momentum but it seems like there is hardly any payoff for the time you put in? I would like to give you some insight to help you understand how to properly use Instagram to grow your following with raving fans who will, not only buy from you, but will become brand evangelists.
Most people post images on Instagram without understanding how to truly harness the marketing power of this amazing media tool. Without a clear understanding of how the platform should be utilized, a majority of Instagram users are creating accounts that remain irrelevant. What works on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest will simply not work on Instagram. Why? Because each platform is very different and they each require a unique approach.
Instagram is by far the simplest social media platform out there. That’s why it has grown at such a rapid rate and why it boasts the highest engagement rates compared to every other social media platform. At its current rate of growth, many experts are projecting that Instagram will be bigger than Facebook in about 3-5 years. In fact, Instagram has amassed over 500 million active followers in only seven years. A staggering 80 million new followers join Instagram every month! That means that in the next year alone, Instagram will add almost 1 billion users. Yes, that’s a billion users!
The opportunity is massive for those who take action now and build their Instagram accounts properly. If you know how, you can ride this wave and build an account that could potentially change the course your life and business. Instagram can do for you what Google did for bloggers in the early 2000s—make many of them rich and famous.
So, why is Instagram so popular? Well, simply put, because it’s so easy to use. If you can master what type of content gets traction with your audience and consistently post such content, you will succeed on Instagram. The only reason that many people fail, is that they overcomplicate it and don’t understand how to use it properly.
Since Instagram is photo sharing app, relevant, high-quality visual content is king. With over 500 million users there’s tons of content out there. Your aim is to create content that will grab people’s attention at least 3-5 times a day!
Your purpose for being on Instagram should not be solely to promote your business, but rather to add value to your followers. Instagram’s primary purpose is not to sell but to tell. What do I mean by that? Instagram is a place to build community around a brand or movement by telling stories through images and videos that inspire and add value to your followers. Yes, more and more businesses are using Instagram to sell products, but many of these business are short-sighted and are missing harnessing the full power of Instagram.
Too many users are simply pushing products. They have made their Instagram accounts about them, which is not the primary purpose of Instagram. The question many users are forgetting to ask before posting an image or video is, “How am I adding value to my followers?” The secret to long-term success on Instagram is to make it about your followers and not about you and your business.
There are many ways you can do this. For example, for our Shifter account we’ve decided to add value to our target audience by creating a quote account that inspires creative entrepreneurs to create. The goal of our account is not to sell, but serve our audience in a way that is relevant to them. Even when we do sell, our aim is to provide products that will help our audience reach their desired goals.
I am not saying that users should not sell a product or service on Instagram. There are thousands of people monetizing Instagram to the tune of millions of dollars per year. What I am suggesting is that you should spend at least 75% of your time investing into your followers and 25% of your time withdrawing, or making an ask.
Don’t Do What the Big Brands Do
I want to make one important distinction between small or little-known brands versus big globally-recognized brands. Big brands like Nike, GQ or Coke use Instagram very differently than you and I should. Since those companies already have brand recognition, they use Instagram to keep their products front and centre in people’s minds. It’s all about impressions for the big brands. They already have an audience. Therefore, their approach tends to be more broad than niche—meaning that they can post just about any image and people will engage with their content because they recognize and already admire their brand. That’s what we call influencer marketing.
Smaller businesses like yours and mine simply don’t have the influence and brand-recognition advantage to post the same way the big brands do, so they have to be very niched in order to compete and succeed. I see too many small brands with beautiful looking accounts but no followers. Why? Because they assume that if they simply post beautiful looking images like the big brands, people will follow and engage with their accounts. It simply doesn’t work that way. Unless you are proactively growing your account by using multiple strategies, it will not grow.
The goal of your Instagram account should be to get as many followers as possible by giving those followers something they need and value, and eventually monetize the account directly on Instagram or by drawing your followers to your website where you can grow your email list and/or sell products directly to them.
I have had quite a battle with growing my Instagram accounts but have now been able to achieve some tangible results. Here are three strategies I have used to grow my Instagram accounts to over 70k followers in under 6 months:
Decide on a theme for your account
A major key to building an account that will attract followers is to have a feed that has a cohesive look. You want your account to have a consistent look without looking bland and boring.Here’s what you need to do to accomplish this:
- Choose two fonts you like ( one that is a bit edgy and cool but fits the feel and look of your brand, and another that is easy to read for your captions). On all your posts always use these two fonts, this is how you’re going to build brand recognition.
- Chose a colour scheme - these are colours that go well together and stick to these palettes for all your images. For example for one of my accounts Shifter Magazine, our colour scheme is: Black, White, accented by red, blue and some gold. Since we’re a black and white account we only use colour to accent an image.
- Make sure your theme represents you - If you're a fun, witty and slightly off centre person then allow those parts of you to be displayed through your account. Remember the ultimate goal is for your account is to be an extension of your brand.
Post Consistently
The more you post the more followers you will attract. At the start you should post at least once a day, and as you begin to grow you’ll need to post more often. Make sure you don’t spam people’s feed by over posting. Here’s a posting guideline you should follow:
0 -1,000 - 1 per day
1000-5000 - 2 per day
5,000 - 10,000 - 2-3 per day
10,000 - 25,000 - 3-4 per day
25,000 - 50,000 - 4-5 per day
Tracking
The key to tracking is to get feedback on how well your content is being received and to find patterns. Use Iconosquare and other tools like it to learn when is the optimum time to post, and what type of images your followers engage with. For example for our Shifter Account we get the highest level of engagement at 8 am and 8 pm, and with images that have influencers on them. At the outset we did not track our post’s and we had no idea why certain posts did better than others, essentially we were blindly posting hoping people would engage with our content. The key is learning what works with your audience and doing more of it. This one tip alone will boost your growth dramatically.
In conclusion, understanding how to use Instagram properly and applying these three strategies will definitely set you up for success.
If you want to learn how I grew my accounts to 70k followers in 6 months, please download my free guide Instagram Growth Formula. I created this insightful guide to help you crush Instagram starting today!
Joe Mebrahtu
Helping you discover your authentic voice on Instagram
Obsessed with Scaling Entrepreneurs and Businesses
8 年Hi Mallette so sorry for the late response. Generally I would encourage people to create a business account and a personal account, However, if your business is branded around you than I would strongly encourage you to just create a business account. Majority of solo-preneurs tend to do that. Obviously, this means you have to make sure all personal related posts have to connect with the theme of your account. Meaning you just can't post random images that have nothing to do with your business. No many do it well, but there some amazing accounts that do it incredibly well. Majority of big business do hire IG influencers to promote their brands. If you have a following of at least 10k with great engagement you can sell shoutouts ( advertising ) to business' that want to grow their accounts, and If you're a big time influencer companies will pay large sums of money to promote their brands to your followers. It's not organic but it is the quickest way to grow brand recognition and followers on Instagram. If you're looking to grow your account organically you have to participate in shout out groups, these are groups within a similar niche that work together to grow each other's account.
Graphic Design/Communications | Melanie Graphics
8 年Thanks for sharing all this info! Would you suggest having a personal instagram account and a separate business account? Have you heard of/ or worked with companies that hire bloggers (influencers) to promote one's brand? I'm not sure what to make of it as it's not exactly organic if someone is being paid to promote... I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.