Instagram is getting more and more popular with every year that passes. Currently, there are 7.8 billion people in the world and 1 billion of those people are regularly active on Instagram. That is quite a lot of people.
Since Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms it is important that businesses (especially new ones) make a name for themselves there. It is a great way to advertise your brand for free alongside generating a loyal following for your business.
I am going to teach you how to grow your Instagram profile in 2021 and with a little bit of nurturing, the future will take care of itself.
Create fun and engaging content
When you are scrolling through Instagram what is the first thing that catches your attention? What kind of images are likely to stop you mid scroll? It is probably a fun and engaging picture, is it not?
Creating fun and engaging content is one of the main ways you can attract people to your profile. Make sure you use clear and interesting pictures that reflect your brand.
Why don’t you look at some pages that are offering similar products or services to yours? Have a look at the kind of pictures they are posting. Before checking how much engagement they have had you should note down what you personally like and dislike about them. This will give you an idea of what to do and what not to do with your own content.
Once you have done that, I would then encourage you to have a look at how many likes and comments they have to determine how popular they are. Make a note of what the most popular one’s have in common with each other and consider using some of these techniques when creating your own content.
Pay attention to your captions
Even though your photographs will be the thing that catches people’s eyes, your captions is what will make them stay and take a real interest in your profile.
Why not ask a question in your caption to encourage people to interact with your posts. If people do interact always make sure to follow it up with a reply.
Make your captions stand out by give them a personality. Perhaps try making them funny and relatable. If funny isn’t your thing then make sure they are interesting in some other way. Think about what kind of things would make you stop and read a caption and try incorporating some of those.
You can also tag other people’s profiles in your captions. This can encourage people to share your content as well as drive traffic from their pages to yours.
Hashtag, hashtag, hashtag!
Hashtagging is one of the best ways to build your Instagram profile. It is a great tool to let people know what you and your company are about.
This means it is important to keep your hashtags relevant to your brand. If you don’t do this, you will be attracting the wrong audience for your product and in the long run you will have wasted your time.
So, if your brand is fitness related make sure you use hashtags that relate to the fitness industry. Check out what other fitness profiles are hashtagging and use those as inspiration.
Whilst it can be a good idea to use popular or ‘trending’ hashtags, try to mix these up with some unique ones of your own. Trending hashtags could get you seen by lots of people, but in using them you also run the risk of getting lost in a sea of people who are all using the same hashtag as you.
Collaborate with Influencers
This is one of the best ways to get your profile seen by lots of people in a very short space of time.
Collaborating with influencers isn’t always easy though as they are often inundated with requests. Make sure you have something to offer them in return such as a generous fee or free and discounted products.
Again, it is important that you collaborate with someone who has similar interests to you, that way their followers are going to be more likely to follow you.
Don’t Buy Engagement
It’s tempting to go out and buy Instagram followers and/or buy Instagram likes. But that isn’t recommended unless you use a top-rated supplier. Usually the engagement is fake and drives down your reach.
Cross-promote
There is no need to post exactly the same content across all of your social media platforms, otherwise what would be the point in your audience following them all? But there is no harm in advertising your Instagram page on your other platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat.
It is also a great idea to advertise all of your social media platforms on your company website and in your email signature.
