Reading Time: 4 minutes
5 Tips To Grow Your Instagram Followers

5 Tips To Grow Your Instagram Followers

Reading Time: 4 minutes

As of August 2022, Instagram was the second most used and most downloaded app in the world, a position its held since its introduction of extra features back in 2010.

For businesses looking for growth on social media through exposure to both existing and potential customers, an active and engaged Instagram account is a must!  When it comes to techniques and advice to grow your Instagram followers, you’ll find thousands of internet pages dedicated to loops and paid-for services, but many of these solutions could do more harm than good.

The real key to growing your following? Nail the basics.

Why Should You Look To Grow Your Instagram Followers?

Put simply, the more people that follow you, the more people are exposed to your content, and therefore your products and services.

While both Instagram followers and business growth aren’t linear, you should look to grow your Instagram followers to both assert authority and increase marketing exposure. The more engaged an account’s following is, the more likely the Instagram algorithm is to present and feature its content elsewhere to other targeted parties.

  1. Optimise Your Instagram Bio

There isn’t much room in an Instagram biography, but it needs three basic things to inform your audience from the ‘off’: who you are, who you’re for, and where to get more info (key-worded accordingly).

The latter can be covered with a link to your main website or online presence, and the rest bullet-pointed for convenience. A common error made is for businesses to link to a third-party website optimised for smaller devices: but if you have an existing web presence, instead this should be replaced with an optimised page on your own website to increase your traffic.

An Instagram bio. is short, sharp marketing, with no room for ambiguity.

  1. Increase Share Quality

The content your business shares on all social media platforms should be of a decent quality, but should also be tailored for the social media channel that it’s being shared on.

A key way to grow your Instagram followers is to ensure that your content is shareable and saveable – it must be perceived as valuable enough for others to want to highlight and pass on. If your business can position itself as an expert in its niche, those interested in that area will want to follow you for exactly that reason.

A mix of content is key here. Despite widespread criticism of the app’s direction in promoting video content, Instagram exec Adam Mosseri has insisted that Reels will continue to grow in their promotion and will be favoured by the algorithm’s programming. This means that businesses need to produce a good balance of photo, video and graphical content: to both please the behind-the-scenes programming of the app, and to present the desired audience with a variety of solutions.

  1. Use Hashtags – Wisely

Each feed post on Instagram can have up to 30 hashtags, and each story 10. It’s always worth having a hashtag that is specific to your small business or product, but then research into hashtags relevant to each post to include them.

The Instagram app allows for hashtags to be utilised whether they’re shared on the initial post or in the first comment below; but realistically the standard caption works just fine unless it’s combined with long-form comment.

Ideally, choose a variety of tags with between >100k and >500k uses. Check each tag before you use it: not all acronyms may mean what you think they do! Where possible, include hashtags as niched as possible and any that may be topical to current affairs (but still relevant to the business).

  1. Utilise Instagram Stories And Reels

Where your feed may seem branded and beautiful, Instagram Stories and Reels presents the opportunity for much more on-the-move and off-the-cuff personal social media marketing.

Use these to connect more personally with others, share customer content and to give an insight into behind-the-scenes activity that customers (both potential and existing) otherwise wouldn’t see.

Stories can be further optimised by the curation of a selected ‘Close Friends’ list. If there are particular accounts you wish to see your content, adding them to such a list makes the more likely to click through to it (the Stories will be featured in a different colour and placed higher up the exposure rankings) and allows for more tailored content to be used strategically. Don’t forget to keep your DMs open for customer contact!

  1. Connect With Other Businesses

It may seem counter-intuitive to connect with your competitors, but actually, there’s business growth benefits to be gained from doing so. Follow them to keep an eye on their activity and followers, and to ensure you’re meeting your client’s needs just as they do (or better!).

Tagging other businesses and products in your posts will increase your visibility, and following other businesses will allow you to see what they are up to, and keep an eye on trends. Competition can stay healthy without being toxic.

What Not To Do To Grow Your Instagram Followers

The internet is stuffed full of offers for brands and influencers alike to buy followers, boasting that they’re real and ‘high quality’. In truth – they’re not.

These services are simply reams of bots, ready to clog up your follower count with accounts that are blatantly obviously false, will only skew your social media insights, and will result in the Instagram algorithm penalising you as a result.

Many businesses also use social media ‘loops’ to grow their Instagram followers, but this too simply falsely inflates the numbers. Loops are follow-for-follow groups whereby everyone involved agrees to follow everyone else. Realistically this only clogs your feed with content from accounts unrelated to your business, and gives you followers who, although real, will never engage with your content because it isn’t relevant to them.

The true measure of success on Instagram is engagement, and if you’re able to attract followers who actually really care and are interested in and value what you are posting, they will engage with your content. So continue to find this real, interested audience, and post for them.

 

 

 

5 Tips to Boost Your Instagram Visibility

5 Tips to Boost Your Instagram Visibility

Reading Time: 3 minutes

When it comes to marketing any business, social media should be an important part of your strategy. It’s not only a cost effective solution, it has the potential to support you in reaching a massive audience in a small amount of time.

Get your strategy right and you should be able to achieve a strong return on investment, boost your brand visibility online and increase sales.

Instagram is used by about 60% of the top brands in the world. The platforms visual nature allows you to plug into marketing opportunities that have real value in today’s competitive world.

Building a balanced strategy to grow your business takes a lot of planning and work. Part of this means understanding the right way to construct posts and other content like Instagram Stories.

The good news is, like any other social media platform, there are several key ways to boost your Instagram visibility.

Here are our top 5 tips:

1. Optimise Your Name Field

Your Instagram name field is actually separate from your Instagram handle.

This means you can optimise the name field with relevant keywords that highlight what your business does. Instagram users search keywords on the platform, so using keywords in your name field means you have more chance of showing up in searches.

2. Optimise your Bio

You have limited words to ensure your Instagram bio hits the mark. It pays to put some thought into this and optimise the content. Again, it’s all about showing up in potential searches so use hashtags and relevant keywords.

Don’t be afraid to experiment by changing your bio every so often and measuring how this improves engagement.

3. Add Location Tags

If you want to attract the right people to your posts and Instagram stories, don’t forget location tagging.

This doesn’t just have to be where your business is based. It might be where your target audience or customers are hanging out, for example, at a special event such as a festival or exhibition.

4. Use Hashtags

Hashtags are essential to boost your Instagram visibility and the stats prove it. Putting just one hashtag in your post has the potential to increase engagement by 12.6% compared to a post without one.

You can add 30 hashtags on one Instagram post and 10 to an Instagram Story. Make use of different relevant hashtags for different posts and research your hashtags to ensure you are making use of the most effective and relevant ones.

It is also a good idea to create your own branded hashtag. You can do this by combining an important keyword and your business name.

5. Follow and Engage 

You do not exist in a vacuum on social media and it’s important to engage with and follow other brands and individuals that complement your own to boost your Instagram visibility.

Instagram can predict what type of profiles you might like and show them in the ‘suggest’ and ‘because you follow’ sections. This allows you to be more focused in how you engage on social media and improves the relationships you make when building your following.

Digital marketing is a challenge for any business but understanding what works and what can improve your reach will make a big difference.

Instagram Marketing for Success

Instagram Marketing for Success

Reading Time: 2 minutes
Social media has become one of the most (if not THE most) effective way to market your business. Most people will now check out your social media channels before contacting your company to do business. It is therefore essential that you are harnessing the power of social media to promote your business, including Instagram marketing.

One of the newest social media platforms on the rise is Instagram. With over 17.2 million users in the UK alone, you actually just must have an Instagram page which markets both you and your business.

What is Instagram?

Instagram is a visual platform that predominantly allows its users to share photos and videos with their followers. In the same way Twitter and Facebook have newsfeeds and profile pages, you’ll see your own posts and posts from the people you follow, within your feed.

You can interact with others by liking, commenting and sharing posts, and you can also tag other users to include them in your posts. Adding your location allows others to see where you are based in relation to them.

What’s The Best Way to use Instagram Marketing?

There’s a whole host of ways you can use Instagram marketing to promote and boost your business. The following are a few basic pointers to get you started:

Consistency is Key!

Consistency is integral to effective Instagram marketing. Aim to have a consistent “look”, design and style to everything you post. Build your business “face” by adopting a consistent tone of voice throughout your writing and bio. This will create an authentic, convincing personality for your brand, that others will get to identify your business by.

Use #Hashtags

Similarly to Twitter, adding hashtags to your posts will make them appear in the search engine of anyone who uses or searches the same tag. For example, writing the hashtag #newbusiness will make your posts (and your whole profile) appear in the search results of anyone searching for the hashtag, even if you aren’t following each other. This is a brilliant way to attract new clients and widen your reach, so get #hashtagging!

Add Links in Your Bio

Many of the people who view your posts are also likely to view your profile and bio too. Make sure you add a link to your website in your profile so people interested in your business can find out more about you and what you have to offer.

Repost Content

Another effective way to market yourself on Instagram is by reposting other people’s content. This allows you to reach further to the followers of the person whose content you’re reposting. This will get you involved in online conversations that can boost your businesses standing and widen your potential customer reach. Just make sure to hashtag #repost so that people don’t think you’re trying to steal their content!

Woya digital is a social media marketing agency based in Chichester. We can assist companies of all sizes, anywhere, promote themselves through the internet. Our fixed price offering is straightforward and yields results! We are fantastic at social media management, website design and SEO, all paid monthly, with no upfront investment.