How To Grow Your Instagram Account

Instagram has hundreds of millions of users, and the engagement levels of these users are through the roof, and has a variety of uses when it comes to online marketing. Today I wanted to look at a number of different ways to on How To Grow Your Instagram Account.

It's worth nothing that, 80% of accounts on the social media platform are following a business. Thus, marketers should be ready and willing to start using Instagram and gaining a following. 

Or, maybe you are here for a personal account- that's OK too. Our advice applies to both business and personal Instagram pages.

So, keep reading to discover some awesome tactics that will have you marvelling at your follower count. 

Post Often

Once a day posts are a great way to boost your following. The more often you post, the more followers and likes you earn!

Profiles that post seven and up times per week are more apt to gain followers and likes much more rapidly than those accounts that post on a less frequent basis. 

This is all according to information from Tailwind, a visual marketing service that examined 100,000 Instagram profiles during 2017. 

As a matter of fact, you can double the followers you get by posting 1-6 times each week instead of just once. Once per day is best!

Utilise User-Generated Content

UGC is the name of the game, and it can really boost your following, in some cases, by over 100%.

The best part? It’s all content that is graciously created for you by your users. What do you need to do? 

Take the best user content from around the internet and use it on your own social media page while making sure to credit whomever originally posted the photo or content. 

It can be customers sharing stories about your product or service, posting a photo of themselves wearing or using what it is you sell, and more.

Seeing user-generated content is not only good for your following, but it also increases the likelihood that your follower will become a customer. 

Understand How to Use Hashtags

Hashtags are a way of life nowadays. They may seem like they’re most important on Twitter, but in reality, it’s Instagram. The correct hashtags/location tags are important because it helps expose your postings to a huge audience. 

Plus, Instagram users aren’t as prone to hashtag fatigue as you might see on another network. 

You can even follow a certain hashtag on Instagram now, too!

Make sure to include a location tag and a hashtag as these have the highest engagement numbers. These are your best bet for making sure you get a large following on Instagram and fast!

You can use 30 hashtags per post. You can also use free tools like Focalmark and Auto Hash that will help generate great hashtags for posts. All you have to do with tools like these is enter words about your image, and you will get some excellent hashtag choices.

Leverage Analytics

One of the top ways to grow your Instagram following is to put up high-quality content that your followers enjoy and engage with.

How do you know what your followers are into? Use Instagram Insights, an analytics tool, to see what posts your followers enjoy the most. 

Here’s how you do it: 

• Tap on your profile pic on Instagram
• Tap on the bar chart icon - this is Instagram Analytics
• Scroll down to where it says Posts and click “See More”
• Here you will see the top posts, and they will be sorted by impression. You can modify the filters according to what you’d like to see. 

Now take note of what you see- does a particular image get more engagement? Try posting more images like it and see if your followers are engaging with or liking them.

Contest Time

Giveaways and contests are fun and really boost user engagement. You can give away gift certificates, merch, or even do shout outs to your fans.

These posts are fantastic for increasing your account's reach on Instagram and garnering new followers in the process. You can ask users to tag a friend as a means of entering the contest or simply have them post an answer to a question you ask.

With the algorithm and your followers' help, you will be reaching people you never knew before- and those that never knew you! If they decide your posts are useful, they could very well end up following you.

Our advice? Go look up how to get started on Instagram contests and get ready to be blown away with engagement levels!

Drive That Traffic

One huge challenge presented by Instagram marketing is that links cannot be added for viewers to click upon. 

If you want your followers to click on a specific link, one common tactic is to alter the link in your profile and put the phrase “Link in Bio” to a relevant video or photo. 

There are also tools available, like Campsite, that will help you make a mobile-optimised page where many links can be listed. Then the links can be associated with the corresponding Instagram post (and then you can link to these via your bio).

If you get to the coveted 10k followers, you get the chance to add links or call to actions within your story, a tactic that is used by large Instagram accounts to drive traffic for their customers (for example Shopify store owners).

Post When the Time Is Right

There is no set perfect time to make a post on Instagram. 

You and your brand have the best times to post- it’s different for everybody. 

The time of a post is a huge factor in the Instagram algorithm. You want to post when your followers are active. Curious about how to find that info? 

Simply do this: Tap on your profile pic. 

Now tap the Instagram Insights icon (it looks like a bar chart)

Now go down to where it says “Followers” and click “see more”

Now you will be able to see, at the bottom of the page, the day of the week and the hours your followers are primarily active. 

For some of you, the most active day could be Mondays between 10 AM and 3 PM. Others could be Saturday mornings from 6 AM to 1 PM! It all depends on the brand.

Buffer provide a real useful insight into how analytics can be used.  

Take Help from Other Analytics Tools

There are lots of useful analytics tools available. You can use these great analytics tools to make smart posts- especially if you don't have access to Instagram Insights. 

We liked Iconosquare for this but look around and see what's out there. There are lots of other options are available. With a bit of research, you will be able to find out, which will be perfect for your Instagram. 

Promote with Cross-Posting

You are on Instagram, but you are also on Facebook, Twitter, and... TikTok? Hey, whatever social media platforms you have, it's time to use them wisely and get extra exposure through cross-posting.

You can post your images to Facebook from Instagram to generate more engagement. You can also put photos from your Instagram into your blog. 

No matter how you choose to do it, make sure the word is getting out by posting everywhere you can. 

Post Videos

We would encourage you to post different types of video contents as a means of growing your following. Video engagement is growing faster than image engagement, making the case for video posts. 

Plus, going live on Instagram makes you appear right at the forefront of the Instagram stories feeds. 

There You Have 10 Ideas On How To Grow Your Instagram Account

It looks so easy to create the perfect Instagram post, but that's certainly not the case! It will take lots of trial and error as you create posts that are put up at the right time, garner the most engagement, and reach lots of people.

However, keep going with it, and you will soon find your footing. Thankfully, many great analytics tools are out there for you- use them to your advantage and watch your follower count grow as time goes on.