How to find local followers on instagram
11 Ways to Find Local Customers and Clients on Instagram
You’re all clued into Instagram marketing methods in general, but how do you reach local communities? For retail store owners and franchise owners, it’s all about being able to discover local audiences and turn them into paying customers.
There are several ways to acquire clients from Instagram, but they don’t all work for a hyper-local audience. Furthermore, you often need to tailor the tactics that do work so you target only the customers who can actually use your service or visit your store.
This guide will take a deep dive into how to find local customers on Instagram. We’ll share some of our top tactics for building your presence with those audiences closest to you, so you can convert those followers into customers.
11 ways to find local customers on Instagram
To save you the hard work, we’ve put together a list of the best ways to find local customers on Instagram. Here’s how to do it:
- Optimize your Instagram bio
- Create tailored Instagram highlights
- Tag your location
- Engage with people who have tagged your location
- Work with local influencers
- Partner with other local businesses
- Run a collection-only giveaway
- Use with local hashtags
- Share content from local creators and businesses
- Sponsor or partner with a local event
- Host an Instagram takeover
1.
Your Instagram bio is one of the best places to share who you are, what you stand for, and what you sell. Consider it your virtual store window on the platform—a place that most people will look if they’re curious about you. It should explain what you sell, who you are, and position you perfectly for your local audience.
Make your Instagram business profile more attractive to a local audience by:
- Including your location within your bio description
- Adding your address to your Instagram profile—people can then click this to open up a map
- Adding your local phone number to your Instagram bio
- Mentioning where people can pick up their order
For inspiration, take a look at Tiny Paper Co’s Instagram bio. It displays the store address, phone number, and pick-up options—catering to the 30% of people who’ve used some form of buy online, pick up in-store fulfillment option over the past two years.
Optimizing your bio isn’t only useful for social media platform users; it’s also a great Instagram SEO hack.
With these location hints in your profile, it’s easier for the algorithm to figure out that you’re relevant to a local audience—and therefore, show your content to people nearby (saving you from having to invest in ads).
2. Create tailored Instagram highlights
When someone lands on your Instagram profile, there are a few things they’ll notice straight away: your bio, your feed images, and your Story Highlights—the latter of which is an often overlooked feature that takes up a prime spot in your profile.
Think of your highlights section as a lookbook for your potential local customers to browse through. They can see examples of what you offer, customer testimonials, and lifestyle imagery that relates to the place you call home.
Not sure what to create highlights about? Consider your content strategy and what your audience comes to your page to see. Then think of a handful of categories you could turn into Instagram Stories Highlights, such as:
- What’s in store this week
- Local festivals and events
- Customer testimonials and reviews
- Location guides for your local area
As you share Stories, add any that are relevant to your highlights.
You’ll soon have an always-visible collection of your best content. Chicago Explore, for example, breaks down its Instagram Story Highlights into activities its followers would enjoy grouped together by areas of the city.
3. Tag your location
Your Instagram bio isn’t the only place to share your store’s location. Instagram’s geotag feature is one of the best ways to discover and engage with a local audience. It allows you to find people based on their location, and makes it easier for people to find you, too.
“For every post you put out there on Instagram, use a geotag. This is the specific physical location of your business derived from your mobile phone,” says Ravi Davda, CEO of Rockstar Marketing. “If you want to build a local audience on Instagram, geotags are the way forward.”
Here’s how to use Instagram geotags to your advantage:
- Find posts to comment on and engage with
- Discover local content creators and influencers
- Encourage people to share user-generated content by tagging your location
- Add a geotag in your audience’s location—this is great if you want to target people in key cities before they visit for a vacation
Add these tactics to your local marketing strategy to acquire more Instagram followers in your local area.
Combine them with other methods—like increased engagement with followers and giveaways—to drive customer growth.
4. Engage with people who have tagged your location
Find new local customers through the ones you already have. Make it a priority to seek out people who have tagged your location and engage with their content. If you make them feel special, they’re more likely to recommend you to others.
Be intentional with your engagement and try to avoid coming across as spammy. Your goal is to appreciate the Instagram user’s content in a natural way so they feel appreciated and valued. Avoid anything that might come off weird, like following all their friends or commenting on everything they post. Instead:
- Like their post
- Interact with their Instagram Story, if they’ve posted one
- Comment on their post with something relevant and upbeat
- Introduce them to your brand ambassador program, if you have one
- Repost their Instagram Stories to your own profile with a thank you note
These simple steps only take a few minutes, but can help you build long-term relationships with local customers.
Dedicate some time in your week to seeking these people out and engaging with them to grow your community naturally.
Pro Tip: Want a more efficient way to engage with Instagram followers? The Story Mentions Trigger feature inside Instagram Automation by ManyChat automatically thanks people for tagging your account in their own Story.
5. Work with local influencers
The social media influencer industry is now worth a whopping $16.4 billion. It presents a growing opportunity for businesses that want to leverage influencers’ clout.
Working with local influencers is a powerful way to reinforce your presence in the community and reach a relevant audience. Noelle Downing, for example, got a free stay at The Plaza Hotel through a paid partnership with Amazon Prime Video. Noelle shared a photo to her Instagram account and geotagged the location it was taken at to bring attention to the two brands involved:
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Noelle Downing ✨ (@noelledowning)
Not sure how to engage with local influencers? Take a look at these fun ideas for collaborative Instagram content:
- Host an influencer and press event to launch a new product, experience, service, or menu
- Shoot a lifestyle campaign together to cross-promote on your Instagram pages
- Ask the influencer to co-host an event with you, such as a masterclass at your store
- Partner on a sponsored contest in which you give away products created by local brands
- Ask the influencer to style and showcase your product at key local landmarks
- Partner on a mini city guide
There’s a real art to doing influencer marketing right. Come up with a strategy that suits your business, then find and approach local influencers about a collaboration.
Work together to come up with a concept that works for you both, then engage throughout to see the best results.
6. Partner with other local businesses
Influencers aren’t the only people you should be collaborating with when attracting local customers on Instagram. Explore partnerships with other nearby businesses to create amazing opportunities for you both to grow.
Sweetride Bake Shop, for example, tagged three other local businesses in its recent Instagram post. There’s a good chance that these brands will repost the content to their own profiles, increasing brand awareness for each company in the group.
Partnering with local businesses is a winning opportunity for everyone. Each party gets exposure to a slightly different audience and the opportunity to pick up some new customers. Your audiences also get to learn about another small business to spend money with. This creates a positive ripple effect through your community.
7. Run a collection-only giveaway
Giveaways are a powerful way to grow your audience on Instagram.
They help you grow your following, increase engagement, and raise brand awareness with the right people.
Tailor this Instagram hack for a local audience by making your giveaway collection-only—like Colone Saab, which hosted a contest to give a free Mother’s Day meal to one of its nearby Instagram followers.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Colonel Saab (@colonelsaab)
Want to help your giveaway reach a more specific audience? Here’s how to produce an Instagram contest that reaches the right people:
- Specify that the prize must be collected in person
- Offer a prize that’s only available locally—like tickets to a festival, concert, or show
- Ask a local influencer with a relevant audience to promote the giveaway
- Run Instagram ads promoting your giveaway to a local geographic audience
- Ask people to head to your store to earn a bonus entry
There’s no way to stop people outside your target area from entering your giveaway, but these tips should help you reach a more relevant audience.
Once you’ve run one successful giveaway, you can repeat the process again in the future. Change the prize and wording to keep it fresh.
8. Engage with local hashtags
We all know that using Instagram hashtags is a great way to expand your reach and expose your content to others. However, they’re also a valuable source of content that you can engage with for a bonus way to raise awareness of your brand.
Try these tactics to engage with local content in relevant hashtags:
- Like someone’s post within the hashtag community
- Ask if you can re-share someone’s post in a hashtag round-up
- Leave a comment with a question to start a conversation
- Visit someone’s profile and like their latest post
The key with hashtag engagement is to find the right ones. Take a look at influencers and businesses around you, see which specific hashtags they use, and make a master list. This can be your go-to place to look for relevant content and accounts to build relationships with.
9. Support other local creators and businesses
Your Instagram account doesn’t exist on an island. You’re surrounded by multiple amazing creators and businesses that also have a presence on the platform. Embrace that community spirit and support the businesses around you by:
- Liking and commenting on their Instagram posts
- Re-sharing local followers’ content to your own Stories
- Tagging the business when responding to someone looking for a recommendation
- Working with local influencers and paying them a fair rate
If you’re generous about sharing other people’s content and recommending local businesses, people will soon start to return the favor. Not only will you get introduced to new audiences, you’ll be known for your warm attitude toward business and community.
10. Partner with or sponsor a local event
Most communities have annual events that attract a crowd and create a genuine feel-good atmosphere. A great way to build your presence in the local area is to get involved with one of these popular or trending events and promote it on Instagram, like this post from LCB Festival:
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by London Craft Beer Festival (@lcbfestival)
Try these ideas to support local events:
- Buy a sponsorship or exhibition package
- Host a VIP, demo, or networking area at the event
- Provide your products at a discount to feature in goody bags
- Recommend your favorite suppliers and vendors
- Offer to share your knowledge or expertise—e.g., email marketing or digital marketing
- Host a giveaway for event tickets
- Run a special promotional offer to celebrate the event
Not all these ideas translate directly to your Instagram content, but being active in your local events scene helps show that you care.
Research shows that 58% of brands think their customers are more loyal because of the branded community they’re a part of. While building a community presence might not result in immediate sales, people who share similar values to your brand will have your products top-of-mind next time they need something.
11. Host an Instagram takeover
We’ve talked about how partnering with businesses and influencers can help attract local customers. Take this a step further and create a real buzz of activity by hosting an Instagram takeover.
An Instagram takeover is when someone “takes over” your account for the day—either live or by providing the content in advance. They call the shots (within reason!) when it comes to content, sharing Instagram Stories and engaging with your business’s audience through comments and live video. Here’s an example from The Vinyl:
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by THE VINYL (@thevinyl)
Successful Instagram takeovers benefit everyone involved. Results can include a boost in followers, engagement, and other key metrics, depending on your goals and collaboration.
Expose your business to a local audience on Instagram
The best Instagram local marketing strategy is the one that works for your business. Explore the tactics above, experiment with a few, and use them as a guide to help you build a powerful playbook you can use on repeat.
When you’re ready to jump in with your new Instagram local marketing strategy, add ManyChat to help you get even better results. Combine your personal comments with ManyChat’s Instagram DM features to deliver engagement at scale.
You already voted!
The contents of this blog were independently prepared and are for informational purposes only. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ManyChat or any other party. Individual results may vary.
How to Get Local Followers on Instagram
Last Updated on
Instagram is a powerful place to connect with your audience, sell your products and grow your brand.
But a unique challenge that local businesses face when starting out on Instagram isn’t necessarily how to get followers, but how to get local followers on Instagram.
Because if you have a local business, building a following that is located all over the world won’t necessarily help your biz.
You might think that joining a local Instagram pod might be the key to growing a local following but it’s not, and today, I’m going to talk about free strategies that you can use to grow a local following on Instagram!
Table of Contents
Why Do You Want Local Followers on Instagram?
New business owners can sometimes be infatuated with the idea of a huge following.
After all, we tend to equate a huge following with huge success, therefore, the more followers you have, the more successful your business must be…right…?
Luckily, this just isn’t the case. And a higher follower count does not equal more success or higher profits.
As a local business, your goal on Instagram shouldn’t be to gain as many followers as possible.
Let’s say you are located in Toronto, Canada.
And your following begins to grow with followers mostly from the United Kingdom.
The majority of those followers are unlikely to turn into customers, so it’s in your best interest to target local followers from where your business is located!
1 targeted follower is always better than 100 untargeted followers who will never turn into a customer.
How to Get Local Follows on Instagram
There are several things you will want to do to find local followers for your Instagram account.
1. Use Geotags
Geotagging both your Instagram posts and stories is a great way to reach local followers!
You can geotag:
- your city
- the neighborhood your business is located in
- your business
- popular landmarks near your business
To add a geotag to a new post, click on “Add Location” and search up the location you want to tag.
You can also add geotags to existing posts.
To do so, locate a post that you’d like to add a location.
Click on the three “…” in the upper-righthand corner to open the photo editor.
A popup menu will appear with several different options. Click on “Edit” and then click on “Add Location…”
Once you’ve added your location in, you can save it so that your older posts are now attached to a location!
2. Use Local Hashtags
Using hashtags for business on Instagram is a great way to grow your account! But if you are a local business, you’ll want to make use of local hashtags.
If you live in a bigger city, there’s a good chance that you have access to hundreds of local hashtags that can help you attract local followers.
To find local hashtags, go into the search page and type in your city. When you do this, make sure you click into “Tags” along the top.
Doing this will help you begin to find popular local hashtags! You can find more hashtags by clicking on one of the hashtags in the list and viewing the related hashtags along the top.
Finding hashtags this way can be time-consuming every time you want to post.
The next way to find hashtags is to use a hashtag finder! I love this method because I know that I’m finding the most optimized hashtags for my content.
The best hashtag finder on the market currently is the one created by Tailwind.
Tailwind’s hashtag finder helps you identify which hashtags will be the easiest for your content to be found within (which is MAJORLY helpful for small businesses who can’t compete with giant Instagram accounts).
Hashtags that have over 1 million posts are much too competitive for most people. Your content will get drowned out almost immediately and your reach will be severely limited.
Tailwind’s hashtag finder sorts hashtags by their level of competitiveness (Niche, Good, Best, Competitive) so you can quickly and easily find the best hashtags that will get your content seen!
Sign up for a free account with Tailwind to see just how effective their hashtag finder is!
3.
Team Up With Local Influencers89% of marketers say that influencer marketing is just as or more effective than other marketing channels.
There are a couple of different ways to find local influencers in your area.
Look For Past Campaigns
You probably aren’t the first business to use influencer marketing in your city (which is a good thing, because it will help you cut down on the time it takes to find influencers)!
Look towards your competitors and other small businesses in your city to see if they have been tagged in any Instagram campaigns.
To quickly do this, head over to a local business account on Instagram and head into the photos they have been tagged in.
Influencers almost always tag the business they are promoting in their photos!
You can direct message or email Instagram influencers and ask for their media kit to determine if their rates will fit in with your marketing budget!
Search for Influencer Hashtags
You can also use Instagram as a search engine to find influencers in your area.
For example, if you are from Calgary, you can search for the hashtag #calgaryblogger to find a plethora of content created by local bloggers!
This way is more time-consuming than the above method, and you will have to sift through a lot of content to find potential influencers.
Use an Influencer Agency
Influencer agencies connect local influencers with businesses to help their campaigns.
I’ve compiled a list of the best influencer marketing platforms that you should check out that can help manage your campaign and connect you with local influencers.
4. Do a Local Giveaway
Local giveaways are a great way to get local followers on Instagram! When your giveaway is local, you won’t be attracting people from other cities.
Giveaways for things such as Amazon gift cards are too broad and will attract people that aren’t your ideal audience (and don’t live in your city), so try to stick with products and services that have to be redeemed within your area.
You can even partner with other local businesses and pool together your prices for the ultimate Instagram loop giveaway. You’ll all walk away with more followers and can put together a sweet package for the winner.
5. Partner With Other Local Businesses
Partnerships are powerful! Partnering with other local businesses who serve your audience (but who you aren’t in direct competition with) will benefit both parties and can help you reach a new audience.
You can combine a partnership with a giveaway and offer a bundle of local prizes with several local businesses to increase your reach exponentially!
6. Run Local Ads
Running ads on search engines and social media can be an effective way to reach your audience and grow a local following.
Facebook ads, for example, allow you to hyper-target your audience based on their location. You can target people who live in a specific location, people who were recently in a specific location, people who traveled through a location or everyone.
The location you choose for your ads can also be very specific (within a certain mile radius, if you prefer).
As you can see, Facebook and Instagram ads can be very helpful to target locals.
Search ads, on the other hand, can be used to target local search terms related to your business.
7. Add Your Location to Your Profile
Just like we geotagged our photos, you should also do the same to your Instagram profile if you’d like to attract local followers!
First, your Instagram account must be a business account and hooked up to a Facebook business page. Instagram has up-to-date instructions that can be found here on how to add an address/location to your Instagram account.
Now that you know how to get local followers on Instagram, it’s time to set a plan in motion to grow your Instagram account locally!
Pin me:
This article may include affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
How to get live followers on Instagram for free
Do you want to know how to get followers on Instagram?
How to do it right without investing a lot of money and without engaging in dubious methods?
You have come to the right place.
Of course, there are quick ways to get subscribers. For example, buying them or using bots. But Instagram has tightened its measures against fake activity. These gray areas may increase your subscribers for a while, but they won't do any good in the long run. nine0003
Your goal is to create an audience of real people who are really interested in and interacting with your company. This is the only way your Instagram strategy will give your business real results.
Click on any tip below to read the text, or keep scrolling down for the full list of ways to recruit free subscribers.
Content
1. Think over a promotion strategy on Instagram
2. Determine the target audience
3. Create a unified brand story and visual
4. Create a great profile description
5. Post interesting content
6. Promote your Instagram account on other social networks.
7. Share a link to your Instagram account in other media channels
8.
Use Instagram promos
9. Use relevant hashtags
10. Strive to be mentioned
11. Mark your location
12. Keep in mind the "Search and Interesting" tab
13. Follow other similar accounts
14. Interact with communities
15. Tag similar accounts
16. Ask 902 followers to tag your friends content regularly
18. Post at the best times
20. Write engaging captions
21. Make friends with Instagram Stories
22. Use interactive features
23. Try to conduct a joint live broadcast
24. Maximize the eternal storiz
25. Conduct competitions
26. Launch advertising on Instagram
27. Analyze the data of Instagram Insights
1. Consider the advancement strategy in Instagram
Promotion in any social network without a clear plan leads to loss of resources and low return on investment.
Since you are reading this post, you are obviously looking to get more followers on Instagram.
This is a great target to start with. But it should be part of a larger strategy that ties into your overall business strategy and marketing goals. nine0003
Think why you need more Instagram followers. Maybe you want to:
- increase brand awareness,
- increase product sales,
- drive traffic to the site.
Focusing on these business-focused goals will help maintain your Instagram account and tell a compelling company story that will attract new visitors and keep them loyal.
2. Define the target audience
Ask yourself a few questions about who you are trying to talk to:
- How old are they?
- Where do they live?
- What do they do?
- When and how do they use Instagram?
- What are their pain points and problems?
The answers to these questions will help you create the right Instagram content to get the right followers.
3.
Create a unified brand story and visual Maybe you want to satisfy the curiosity of visitors by showing how your product is made. Or you want to share the opinion of an employee to give the company a human face. If you want to position your brand as an inspiration for change, try showcasing a lifestyle or customer achievement.
Whatever your goals, maintain a consistent brand identity, visuals, and storytelling style. People should easily recognize your posts at a glance. nine0003
For example, if you like succulents (and you do, right?), you might like Tierra Sol Studio's all-succulent visual:
a profile ー is the foundation of your Instagram presence, and a well-designed profile ー is the key to audience growth.
Two-thirds of business profile visitors are not following an account. Your profile should convince these people to click on the "Follow" button. They won't do this if the profile is incomprehensible, empty, or unattractive.
nine0003
Here is the information you can fill in your profile:
- Name . Contains up to 30 characters, included in Instagram search, so you can add a keyword.
- Username . Name the same as in your other social networks, then your followers from other platforms will easily find you on Instagram.
- Website . The only place on Instagram where you can enter a clickable link (besides CTAs in ads or swipes up in Stories). nine0086
- Profile description . You have 150 characters to convey your brand personality and show new visitors why they should follow your account.
5. Post interesting content
Great content makes people like, comment and share your posts. This interaction signals the Instagram algorithm and helps you get more reach and new followers.
Everything you publish should be interesting to the audience. The goal is to inform, engage and entertain people with content.
Images should be eye-catching and text captions should be engaging. nine0003
6. Advertise your Instagram account on other social networks.
If you want to get more followers on Instagram, people should find you easily.
If you have already built a follower base on another social network, tell them about your Instagram profile. Share the link and give people a reason to visit you. (For example, post the promo code on Instagram only.)
Schaeffler Group, a manufacturer and supplier of mechanisms for the automotive industry, has over 107,000 followers on LinkedIn. When they launched the Instagram account, it was natural to promote it to their existing audience. nine0014
If you're just starting out on Instagram, be sure to make at least 12 posts before promoting your account elsewhere.
You can also publish the best insta posts on your other channels. Promote these posts with paid ads to get more people to follow you on Instagram too.
7. Share a link to your Instagram account in other media channels
All communication tools ー both online and offline ー give you the ability to direct people to your Instagram account. nine0003
Link to your Instagram account in your email signature, on your website, and in your newsletters. This way, people who do business with your company online will be able to find you on social media.
If you're promoting a new account, a short email alert with examples of great posts is a great way to quickly get free Instagram followers.
8. Use Instagram cards
An Instagram card is a scannable code that makes it easier for Instagram users to follow you. We said above that promotional materials even offline give a chance to develop your account. An Instagram business card is a simple and effective way to promote your account using offline content, such as attachments with a list of ordered products, signage, and product packaging.
nine0003
Your Instagram profile is also a great way to get new followers in real time at networking events and conferences. People you interact with in person can scan the code to follow you without entering your username.
To access your Instagram business card, click the three-line icon in the upper right corner of your Instagram profile.
9. Use relevant hashtags
Hashtags show your posts and Stories to people who are looking for content related to your brand, industry or products. nine0003
Before using hashtags to get more followers on Instagram, learn the do's and don'ts of using hashtags.
DO: Find and use popular hashtags.
Use Instagram's search feature to find popular hashtags related to your product, service, or industry.
DO: create your own hashtag.
Create your own hashtag that will motivate your audience to share photos related to your company.
nine0003
DON'T: Be zealous with the number of hashtags.
Too many hashtags can distract your audience and weaken your post. It can also frustrate people, or worse, look like spam.
DON'T: cheat with hashtags.
Using hashtags like #likelike, #taglikes or #followme can give you a temporary boost in followers. But these people are more likely to be spammers or individuals only interested in getting followed back. And it won't help you build a solid, loyal community on Instagram. Instead, focus on using hashtags that are relevant to your photo, product, or business. nine0003
DON'T: forget to use hashtags in Stories.
Use the hashtag sticker in Stories to increase your chances of getting new followers.
10. Strive to be mentioned
There are special accounts on Instagram that curate and repost the content of other users, indicating hashtags or tagging authors.
Some of these accounts have huge followings, and if they share one of your posts (tagging your profile), it will send a flood of new followers to your account. nine0003
Instagram has similar accounts in almost every niche and for every area of interest. You will see them when you start a hashtag search, as we recommended in the previous tip. Some of these accounts are highly specific.
For example, @elite_owls contains only pictures of owls. The account has over 43,000 followers.
But the mother of all curated content accounts is Instagram itself. Every week, he posts a new challenge for the Weekend Hashtag Project. Users who post photos and use relevant hashtags can be mentioned in the main Instagram account. nine0003
Follow @instagram for the Weekend Hashtag Project.
11. Tag your location
When a post or Story clearly points to a location, it's worth adding a location tag. This is another easy way to get your content out on Instagram.
If your business has a physical location, be sure to tag it and encourage customers to do the same. Users can then click on that tag and view all the photos and stories posted from your store, restaurant, or office. This will show your company (and Instagram account) to more people. nine0003
For example, this is what you get when you search for Van Wonderen Stroopwafels in Amsterdam:
If you're posting while attending a conference or event, a location tag will help you show your account to other attendees, and therefore a target group of new potential followers on Instagram.
12. Be aware of the Search and Interesting tab
The Search and Interesting tab ー is what you see when you click on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the application. According to the Instagram company itself, this is where “you can find photos and videos that you might like from accounts that you have not yet subscribed to.” nine0003
The Search & Explore tab includes Posts, Stories, and IGTV.
Users first see the content grid chosen by the algorithm. They also have the option to dive deeper into specific topics using the topic feeds at the top of the screen.
More than 200 million people visit the Search & Explore tab every day. This is a huge opportunity for companies to expand their audience.
13. Follow other similar accounts
When you follow a user on Instagram, there is a good chance they will come to you. If your feed is filled with excellent content that matches his interests, he will most likely respond with a follow.
Account Monitor is a great way to find discussions related to your company. In these dialogs, you will be able to highlight and follow influencers (also called influencers). It is also good advice to subscribe to the audience of these top users. nine0003
But keep in mind that you should not follow other accounts too often. Your following/follower ratio is important to inspire trust.
Of course, the subscription is only the first step.
To maximize your new followers, you also need this...
14. Engage with communities
Like all social networks, Instagram is made up of internal communities. You need to interact with them. nine0003
Participate, like, comment and share content from other trusted users in your community. Avoid generic comments (such as "Awesome post!") that look like they came from bots.
It helps you get attention (and new followers) in three ways:
- People see you like and comment on their posts and can visit your profile in response.
- When someone interacts with your content, they will appear in the Activity tab of their followers, showing your account to a new extended audience. nine0086
- High engagement is a great signal to the Instagram algorithm, and it increases your chances of getting into the Search & Explore tab.
Think your product or brand doesn't have a community? Consider that in 2018, piercing slime bubbles and shaving your face before applying makeup were among the most popular niche communities on Instagram.
There really is a community for any topic here.
15. Tag similar accounts
You can tag Instagram users from your photos with @ in your caption or with the Instagram tag feature. Either way, accounts will be notified when you do so.
The tag encourages the person to participate in the comments and share the post with their followers.
When you tag someone in Stories, they can share that content in their Stories with just a few taps on the screen. If he does this, everyone who views his Story will see your account name and be able to visit you. nine0003
16. Ask your followers to tag their friends
From time to time, try to encourage your followers to tag their friends in the comments. This will help show your Instagram account to a larger community of people.
Supporting another woman's success will not make you less successful.
Cooperation and joint creativity forever.
Tag the girls you are proud of.
Save this for the most powerful or uplifting content. Users should feel like they are doing their friends a favor by tagging them. nine0003
17. Post content regularly
Your followers want to see your content. That's why they signed up.
As we just mentioned, when users interact with your posts, that activity is visible to their followers. So give them something interesting!
How often should you post something? Tailwind's research found that daily posts "will increase subscribers four times faster than posting less than once a week." nine0003
18. Post at the best time
Instagram uses an algorithm and does not show posts in chronological order. However, publish time is still important, as it is one of the parameters that the algorithm takes into account.
Hootsuite collaborated with Unmetric to determine the best time to post on Instagram, depending on the industry.
To determine the best time to post, think about your audience. What does their typical day look like? When are they most active on Instagram? nine0003
Start testing at different times and measure the results. For example, if you're a retailer, you might want to check times when subscribers commute to or from work, or on weekends when people aren't working.
19. Schedule your posts
What if you can't go on Instagram at the best time to post? Use a tool like Hootsuite to schedule your posts and post them to social media.
On Instagram, this approach allows you to plan out a coherent visual grid that tells a global story. It also gives you time to create great captions so you don't have to try and come up with something witty on the fly. nine0003
On that note…
20. Write engaging captions
Although Instagram is a visual platform, captions play a big role in increasing engagement, thereby helping you get more reach.
As you've seen, reach and engagement are key to getting subscribers.
Here are some important strategies to keep in mind:
- Top your signature with the most important words . Captions in users' news feeds are cut off after a few lines of text, so provide important information from the very beginning. nine0086
- Ask a question . You will encourage the audience to comment, and the comments that appear will make your account visible to more people.
- Insert emoticons . Emoji will help grab the reader's attention. In a visual social network, they are suitable for most accounts.
- Try different sizes of signatures . Instagram allows long captions, so you can check how storytelling is coming in if you need to. Ultra-short captions can also be very effective when the visuals speak for themselves. nine0086
Photographer Matt Payne posts amazing photos. But he also backs them up with great captions that leave viewers wanting more photos.
21. Befriend Instagram Stories
We have already mentioned Stories in several tips, but it is worth talking about this feature separately. In short, if you want more followers on Instagram, you need to use Stories. Half a billion accounts use Stories every day, and companies post 45% of the most viewed stories. nine0003
People who watch Stories are highly engaged with the content. According to Instagram, almost every fifth story leads to a message in Direct.
In stories, use hashtags and location tags to show content to people who don't follow you. This is a great and still underutilized way to get subscribers for free.
22. Use interactive features
Instagram Stories offer many interactive features to engage users, such as poll or question stickers. nine0003
Poll stickers increased views of the 3-second video in 90% of beta campaigns testing this feature.
If users view your Story from a hashtag or location page ー this is an instant opportunity to engage people and a great way to encourage them to learn more about your brand and follow.
23. Try a live stream together
Instagram is the perfect place to take advantage of live video as the social media trend continues to grow. nine0003
With interactive features such as questions and comments, you can interact with your viewers in real time, creating more valuable interactions that will help increase your reach.
Live broadcasts appear in the Stories of your account. At the end of the broadcast, you can choose to let the content disappear or grant access to the recording of the broadcast in your Story for 24 hours. Users get a notification when the account they follow starts a live stream, so the live video really grabs attention. nine0003
To show live to a completely new audience, use the Live with a Friend option and co-stream with someone in your industry.
Ask another person to start a live broadcast and then invite you as a guest. Both of you will appear on a split screen and the account owner will introduce you to their followers.
This is what it looked like when Demi Lovato joined Wilmer Valderrama's live stream, and fans were blown away. nine0003
24. Make the most of your perpetual stories
Perpetual stories (highlights) provide an opportunity to introduce your company to people who visit your profile. In this section, give a lot of valuable information and content that is worth showing to new visitors so that they click "Subscribe".
Make some great cover icons too. Bee Lally, a Vancouver-based manicurist, does a great job of this on her @ClassyClaws salon account. nine0003
25. Run Contests
To get more followers through contests, ask people to follow you and comment on one of your photos by tagging a friend.
For even more outreach, host a contest with another Instagram account and ask participants to follow both accounts. The Abbotsford Tulip Festival often partners with local companies to give away gifts, increasing the visibility of both accounts.
nine0003
Encouraging user-generated content during the contest will also help attract more people. People will find out about your contest from posts created by their friends. This is an effective way to gain the trust of new followers and get more people to your page.
26. Run Instagram Ads
Instagram ads are a powerful way to get new followers quickly by showing your content to people who might not otherwise see it. Target audiences based on location, demographics, other users, and even key behaviors and interests. nine0003
For example, when the Le Creuset tableware brand entered the Israeli market, it used Instagram ads and reached 70% of its target audience within two months.
In addition to the News Feed, you can advertise in Stories.
27. Analyze Instagram Insights data
Instagram's analytics tools will give you insight into each post's impressions, as well as reach, engagement, which posts are the most popular, and more.
You can also find demographic information about subscribers, including gender, age, and location. nine0411 Tracking this data regularly will help you identify areas where you can adjust your strategy to get more followers.
One of the key things to pay attention to is ー what time of day do your followers go to Instagram.
For example, the company Matchaeologist learned from analytics that the subscribers of the account do not live at all where the company expected. Instead of the UK, many ended up from Hong Kong and Taiwan. This knowledge allowed them to change the timing of their posts to reach (and gain) more followers in those regions. nine0003
Original publication: https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-get-more-instagram-followers-the-ultimate-guide/
Translated Tatyana Pushkina especially for Convert Monster
Subscribe and stay tuned for new articles in our monstrogram
Any questions?
Didn't find the answer to your question? Or did not find the article you are interested in? Ask questions and topics of articles that interest you in the comments.
nine0003
7 ways to find bloggers to advertise on Instagram — Kristina Gromova on vc.ru
Hello readers, I decided to share the methods that I use in my practice to find advertising for bloggers. I promote blogs of experts and author blogs on Instagram, and these methods will be useful for both smm-specialists and bloggers or experts developing their Instagram account:
1. Telegram chats
60 282 views
The most popular are Otzovik and Instalogia. They publish reviews and discuss bad bloggers. How to search in chats: enter a keyword with your account subject, for example, "psychology", and see who is there from the list:
who indicated this topic as good for him
An example of an announcement with a set for advertising
b) from bloggers who received a good review indicating their account subject
Positive feedback example
2. Subscriptions
a) your subscriptions
Look among your own subscriptions, which of them advertises, who might be interesting as an advertising platform
b) subscriptions of your active subscribers
See who is subscribed to your active subscribers are those whom you noticed in the comments at least 2-3 times under the last posts.
It is important that the comments are within the meaning of the post, expanded
c) competitor's active audience subscriptions
The same - find active commentators from a competitor or a similar account of yours, see who they follow. And also choose the most interesting platforms for advertising.
3. Instagram recommendations
When you subscribe to any account, Instagram itself shows accounts similar to them. For example, you are looking for an advertisement from a blogger with the theme of motherhood, subscribed to one such blogger - and below, as on the screen, recommendations will be shown, see them too, who could be suitable as advertising platforms. nine0003
An example of Instagram recommendations when subscribing to account
4. Easyprbot
This is a project created to buy ads from bloggers and reviews.
It is in two forms, the first is a bot in Telegram.
How to go to filter in easyprbot
How to set a filter to search for bloggers in bot
The second version of the bot is the easyprbot.
com platform, where you can leave and view reviews, select bloggers by filter. For example, you can find bloggers from whom there were large incomes, from whom cheap subscribers come out, or those who have gone well with your topic. nine0003
Service functionality easyprbot.com
Reviews from this platform are duplicated in the "Instalogy" chat.
An example of a review in Instalogia from easyprbot.com
You do not need to additionally double-check reviews from easyprbot.com, they are checked by moderators when they are published.
5. Hashtags
Choose thematic hashtags and see who is in the top for these hashtags. Analyze how interesting these bloggers can be as an advertising platform. Choose hashtags with a frequency of 10,000 to 300,000, again, depending on the subject of the blog. Competitors can be shown in hashtag expert blogs, they can also be considered as an advertising platform or, for example, mutual PR (when bloggers talk about each other by agreement and similar statistics on audience and reach).
nine0003
Search hashtags through the search engine on Instagram
6. Reviews of competitors in chats
In "Otzovik" or "Instalogy" chats, find competitors or similar profiles and analyze who they or their managers left reviews for, which blogger had good revenues in terms of the number of subscribers, which they praise bloggers and thank them for their cooperation. Pay attention to the screenshots attached by them from advertisements - sometimes you can see their advertising material there, and understand what materials they used on these sites. nine0003
To find a competitor in the Telegram chat, type in the blogger's nickname in the chat search bar, without the @ symbol, for example, madam.gromova, and you will see all messages where this account is indicated.
7. Free search
When you just look at Insta, and you accidentally come across an interesting blogger. I bookmark every post for convenience. There is a folder for each blogger, it turns out such a bank of bloggers.
