How to grow brand on instagram

17 Ways to Get More Followers on Instagram (2023)

Instagram can be a highly targetable, visual marketing channel for your brand and an opportunity to build a loyal audience that grows with your business.

In fact, more than 500 million Instagram users browse the app every day, making it home to some of the most engaged audiences around.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to grow your Instagram follower profile and increase engagement, while growing a massive following over time—one that’s full of real fans, not bots or fake followers.

How to boost my Instagram followers?

Here are some tactics to help you get more followers on Instagram, from incorporating new features like Reels to cross-promoting content, curating your profile, and working with brand ambassadors.

Whether you're just starting out or looking to expand your reach, these 17 tips will help you grow your Instagram followers and increase engagement on the platform.

Incorporate Reels into your content mix
Cross-promote content
Curate your profile grid
Work with brand ambassadors
Get follows from your loyalty program
Market through your personal Instagram account
Get on feature accounts
Use the right hashtags
Post at the right times
Steal your competitors' followers
Pay for sponsored posts and product reviews
Use geotags to boost local discovery
Organize your Stories in highlights
Ask for more followers
Run a giveaway
Share user-generated content
Use Instagram Live

Let’s dive deeper into how to implement each tactic to get more Instagram followers.

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1. Incorporate Reels into your content mix

Reels are fun videos you can share with followers on your Instagram account. They have audio, effects, and creative tools. You can share them on your feed and publicly in Instagram Explore to reach new audiences.

Reels are new territory for brands. Kristie Dash, Instagram’s beauty partnerships manager, stated in a Glossy forum that there isn’t one formula for success with Reels. However, she does suggest the following tips to gain traction:

Keep content unique and trend-driven. Identify trends on Instagram and TikTok and put your own spin on them. This increases the chance your Reels will go viral and get in front of new people.
Make content relatable and simple. Not every Reel needs to be a production. Lower quality videos can perform as well as, if not better than, highly produced Reels.
Educate your audience. Find the balance between education and entertainment in your Reels.

Reels should be a huge priority for you right now. It’s prime real estate for your brand to be discovered by new followers.
—Kristen Dash, Beauty Partnerships Manager, Instagram

Trilce Jirón Garro, owner of social media marketing agency TBS Marketing, agrees. “Don’t sell your products through Reels content,” she says. “Share facts. Provide tips about the industry you’re in. Entertain viewers.”

Trilce suggests that both new and existing brands incorporate entertaining Reels into their Instagram strategy. “Reels give anyone the opportunity to reach new target audiences,” she says. “There’s no learning curve because Reels content is lo-fi. And creators can produce community-driven content that builds trust, gains followers, and makes sales over time. ”

Trilce also loves the Instagram Insights Tool introduced for Reels. “Reels have become an integrated part of any Instagram marketing strategy,” she says. “Analytics tools for Reels have made it easy to track metrics and analyze data to see if your Reels are working. Now, you can understand exactly what your audience likes and dislikes, when to post Reels, and what calls to action resonate with viewers.”

Using Reels Insights, you can see patterns and understand different spikes in engagement that affect your visibility on the platform. That way, you can create higher-quality content that gets even more engagement and followers.

Need help creating a Reels strategy? Read How to Use Instagram Reels to Market Your Shopify Store to learn more.

2. Cross-promote content

Cross-promoting involves posting similar content across various social media channels. It’s a tactic used to save time and resources. It’s also effective at increasing brand awareness and growing an audience on Instagram.

Mobile users are spending an increasing amount of time with video and entertainment apps, with video content on social media platforms accounting for the biggest increase. Whether it’s a short-form video or lengthy tutorial, you want to improve the reach of your Instagram content.

Justin Bieber’s holiday dance challenge is a great example of successful cross-posting. During the 2020 holiday season, the Canadian singer posted the same dance challenge on both TikTok and Instagram. On TikTok, his video short received 9.8 million likes. The same content on Instagram received 4.8 million likes. While some users may overlap, others likely use just one of these services. Thus, Bieber was able to reach more people just by posting the same video on two different platforms.

Nadya Okamoto, founder of lifestyle period brand August, has found that TikTok naturally cross-pollinates to Instagram and YouTube. In an interview with Modern Retail she said, “As we’ve grown on TikTok from August, we’ve also grown to 175,000 followers on Instagram. ” Actively posting on multiple platforms has “affected our overall cost of acquisitions to be super effective,” allowing the brand to steer away from paid media as a main acquisition channel.

TikTok isn’t the only channel you can cross-post on. The Instagram Reels format translates well to YouTube Shorts and Pinterest Stories. It’s important to note that Instagram’s algorithm won’t promote Reels that have a TikTok watermark. So if you’re going to cross-post content from Instagram to other channels, ensure the content is high quality and doesn’t promote a competing platform through watermarks.

3. Curate your profile grid

Most of your Instagram followers won’t follow you for what you posted in the past but for the promise of what you’ll post in the future. Your audience wants to know what they’re going to get if they hit that Follow button.

Having a feed with a consistent posting schedule and theme can have just as much of an impact in growing a following as many of the other growth strategies we’ve covered above. Even a simple pattern can entice new followers, as long as it’s communicated at first glance to anyone who lands on your profile.

Consider your Instagram bio and your last nine posts as your first impression on Instagram. Do they effectively communicate some degree of consistency through personality, filters, colors, or layout? Does the clickable link send people to the same homepage every week or are you linking out to fun and exciting content too?

The layout of your grid is an often underestimated way to get creative with the aesthetic of your feed while adding a rhythm to your publishing strategy and consistency that’s worth following.

In fact, many accounts that adopt this approach often are able to spend less effort on creating content by focusing on converting visitors into followers, producing text graphics or other content with a faster turnaround, and streamlining the overall production of their Instagram content.

You can use a tool like Later to easily plan out and schedule Instagram posts to create the look and layout of your feed. Letterfolk is just one example of how far some brands go with the aesthetic of their Instagram layout.

Your feed serves as the billboard for your brand. It’s a customer’s first touchpoint with you and captures the essence of your brand.
—Trilce Jiron, TBS Marketing

4. Work with brand ambassadors

Don’t want to pay the celebrity influencer big bucks to market your brand? Work with brand ambassadors who have anywhere from a couple hundred to a few thousand followers. Ambassadors are people who genuinely support and believe in your brand and will tell their friends about it.

Luxury shoe retailer Sarah Flint reports seeing success with its brand ambassador program, which has more than 500 women as members. Each ambassador has their own unique discount code, which gives them a free pair of Sarah Flint shoes after five new customers use it.

Looking for a way to find brand ambassadors with an established and engaged audience? Use Shopify Collabs to connect with customers and manage your influencer marketing campaigns all in one place.

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Ambassadors like Holly Hollon attest to the quality and comfort of the brand’s shoes. Her Instagram posts are authentic and relatable to regular Sarah Flint shoppers. This helps the brand grow its Instagram following and earn sales.

5. Get follows from your loyalty program

Retailers are increasingly launching loyalty programs, repeatedly encouraging consumers to shop with their brand over another. It’s worked for brands like Sephora and Blume. One way brands are capitalizing on loyalty programs is by rewarding those who follow them on Instagram.

When luxury retailer Rebecca Minkoff launched its rewards program, RM Rewards, it gave shoppers the option to earn points by following the brand’s Instagram account. Brands like Blume are also finding the value in rewarding Instagram followers. Program members can earn Blume Bucks for becoming a friend on Instagram versus Facebook or Twitter.

6. Market through your personal Instagram account

Another popular way to increase your Instagram following is growing your personal account—basically, make yourself the influencer. Harnessing both the company account and your personal account can increase brand recognition, follower counts, and sales. Pro tip: You can also run this playbook on TikTok to improve your numbers.

It’s a tactic that works well for fashion label ANINE BING. In addition to the brand’s Instagram profile, the company’s founder also drives engagement and awareness through her personal Instagram page, which has more than one million followers.

Anine invites followers into her design studio, takes them through the design process, and even gets feedback from followers throughout the creative process. Anine also shares a bit about her personal life and milestones, giving followers a peak behind the curtains of their favorite designer’s life.

7. Get on feature accounts

Instagram feature accounts are pages that curate the best content in a specific niche. They are like the “best of” photo journals for an industry. Some feature accounts have a massive following. If you get placement on the account, it can send new Instagram followers to your profile.

There are feature accounts for every niche: travel, fashion, photography, and more. For example, @discoverearth curates adventurous travel content from around the world for more than 6.6 million followers.

8. Use the right hashtags

Your goal on Instagram is to engage your current audience on a regular basis while also growing your number of real followers. Posting new, interesting, and engaging photos will satisfy the first requirement, but to begin growing you’ll find hashtagging your photos extremely important. Hashtagging makes it easy for people searching for specific terms to find your photos.

So which hashtags should you use? Just like with Twitter and other social sites, users on Instagram choose certain hashtags over others. If you use popular Instagram hashtags within your photos, you’re much more likely to reach new users and be discovered.

At the time of this writing, these were the top 20 hashtags on Instagram:

#love
#instagood
#fashion
#photooftheday
#beautiful
#art
#photography
#happy
#picoftheday
#cute
#follow
#tbt
#followme
#nature
#like4like
#travel
#instagram
#style
#repost
#summer

If you looked at this list and said, “But none of those apply to my products or brand,” you’re likely correct.

Using hashtags is one thing; using the right tags is something else.

Popular tags like the ones listed above will likely net you additional engagement and likes. However, they won’t lead to increased long-term engagement from relevant users, new followers, or, most importantly, sales.

If you want to tag your photos properly, you’ll need to find and use the most relevant hashtags. This means doing the appropriate research to make sure you’re using hashtags that not only describe your brand but that are also being searched for on Instagram.

You can use a free online tool like IconoSquare or Webstagram to find relevant, related, and popular hashtags by searching for key hashtags closely related to your brand.

For instance, if you have a men’s accessory business, you can use the hashtag #MensFashion in Webstagram to pull the following list of additional keyword hashtags, along with the number of times they have been used (i.e., their popularity).

You can also find more related hashtags and their popularity if you search for any of your target keywords directly in the Instagram app.

You’ll want to go through this exercise trying different keywords that describe your brand and products, building out your hashtag keyword list as you go.

Keep in mind that Instagram allows for a maximum of 30 hashtags per post. Additionally, the popular words will change over time: make sure you revisit your hashtag keywords every few months so you’re using the best possible terms.

You can also steal hashtag ideas from competitors or similar accounts that have the kind of following you aspire to, but, ultimately, you want to create your own groups of hashtags that relate to your specific account.

Pro tip #1: For every product and product category in your store, research the most popular related Instagram hashtags. Use this research to compile a list of 15 to 20 popular hashtags for each category of products, as well as a base of five to 10 popular tags that describe your brand and product offering. Finally, create a list of location-specific hashtags that relate to your brand.

For example:

Brand keyword hashtags

#mybrandname #mensfashion #mensaccessories #mensgoods #fashion #mensstyle #instafashion #menswear

Product category keyword hashtags

#bugatchisocks #happysocks #corgisocks #socks #sockswag #socksoftheday #sockgame #sockswagg #socksofinstagram #happysockday #sockwars #funsocks #happysockday

Location-specific keyword hashtags

#Toronto #TorontoFashion #TorontoFashionBloggers

Store these groups of keyword hashtags in a convenient location like Evernote or Google Drive. This makes it easy to post a new Instagram image optimized for the most relevant keywords when you’re on the go. Some Instagram scheduling tools also let you save caption templates for storing your hashtag groups.

Doing the work of researching, organizing, and saving the most applicable and popular hashtags upfront will save you a ton of time down the road, increase your engagement, and help garner new followers.

Pro tip #2: If you’ve been posting to Instagram for a while and feel you’ve missed out on all these opportunities to build your audience using keyword hashtags, fret not. You can still go back and post a comment with your new hashtag keyword lists and watch the likes and followers roll in.

Using hashtags in Instagram stories

Hashtagging on Instagram posts is a given, but you should also be using hashtags in your Stories for the chance to be seen by users who follow that specific hashtag.

You can use hashtag stickers (which can be found in the Instagram Stickers menu when creating a Story) or just hashtag directly in your post captions for a chance to be featured in a hashtag story.

Now that users can follow hashtags, your Stories on Instagram have a chance to be seen by both people who are following that hashtag and anyone who’s just checking it out.

9. Post at the right times

Beyond adding the appropriate hashtags and using the best filters to get more Instagram followers, you should also consider the timing of your posts.

A targeted approach involves analyzing what has and has not worked for you in the past. By visiting IconoSquare’s optimization section, you can get a detailed analysis of your posting history versus engagement. This report will also highlight the best times of the day and days of the week to post.

The dark circles indicate when you usually post media. The light gray circles show when your community has been interacting. The biggest light gray circles represent the best times for you to post.

You can also get a lot of great insight for free from Instagram analytics for business accounts, found under the Followers section.

You may want to consider using a social media scheduling tool to automatically publish your posts when your audience is the most engaged.

10. Steal your competitors’ followers

One of the best ways to find and attract a new following is by seeking out your closest competitors’ Instagram accounts and engaging with their audiences. These people have already shown some level of interest in the products you carry simply by following your competitors.

So how do you effectively steal your competitors’ followers? By engaging with them. There are several ways to engage with Instagram users, and the more work you put in, the more followers and repeat engagement you’ll get out of it.

The three types of engagement on Instagram are:

Follow a user
Like a photo
Comment on a photo

Don’t be afraid to use an emoji or two to add some personality to your text.

11. Pay for sponsored posts and product reviews

All this optimized posting to your account is great, but if you really want to increase Instagram followers, you need to take advantage of influencer marketing and expose your brand to a wider audience.

So, how do you do that? First, unlike the tactics to grow Instagram followers mentioned above, this one usually isn’t free. However, if done correctly, it’s of good value.

To get started, you’ll need to make a list of large accounts in your niche. For example, if you sell beauty products, you’ll want to find large accounts from beauty bloggers.

You may already be following these accounts, but if not, you’ll need to find them. One of the best ways is by using Webstagram to search for some of the best hashtag keywords you’ve uncovered. When you do a search for your keywords, you’ll see any related keywords, along with the top Instagram accounts that feature those keywords.

There are a couple of things to look for in the profiles results:

A large following (usually 20,000 to 200,000)
An email address in the profile

If there is an email address in the profile, it usually means the account is open to sponsored posts or a shoutout in a sponsored Story.

You’ll want to email and ask their sponsored post pricing. While this differs from influencer to influencer, you’ll likely find the average rate to be anywhere from $20 to $50 per post, depending on the size of the following.

If you’re selling a unique and original product, you may also want to consider sending your product for the influencer to review and post. Usually, the more natural and less advertisement-like the image, the greater the engagement and response.

You don’t necessarily need influencers with a massive following to get more followers on Instagram, but rather ones with a high engagement rate (likes and comments relative to follower count), which many influencer marketplaces can provide.

12. Use geotags to boost local discovery

Besides hashtags, you can also make your Instagram posts and Stories discoverable by tagging your location—either the city you’re in or the venue where the photo or video was taken.

Locations not only have their own Instagram feed but also their own Story, and hashtags you can contribute to when you use the location sticker in your own Stories.

Local businesses can get the most value out of location tags by posting regularly to these feeds and also engaging with posts from prospective customers who are physically in the vicinity.

13. Organize your Stories into Highlights

Whenever a potential follower lands on your business profile, you have a short span of time to convince them to follow you.

One way to do this is by using the Highlights feature on your profile to organize your Instagram Stories in a way that communicates what your account is about.

Since Stories have a 24-hour lifespan, Highlights can be used to give them a second life and entice others to follow you so they don’t miss out on more Stories in the future.

Use Story Highlights to grow Instagram followers by:

Creating trailers that tease what your account is about
Organizing your Stories into themes (like countries you’ve visited, for travel accounts)
Explaining your products through pictures and videos

14. Ask for more followers

It sounds obvious, but it deserves to be said: Don’t be afraid to occasionally ask your target audience to follow you.

The same way YouTubers ask their viewers to follow them at the end of their videos, you can also ask viewers to follow you for more content.

Sometimes people might really enjoy what you put out on Instagram but need a nudge before they actually follow you.

You can also do this in your Instagram captions: work it into your content by pitching what your audience will get if they follow you or by hinting at content that’s coming up that they won’t want to miss.

15. Run a giveaway

One of the best kinds of comments you can get on any social media post, not just Instagram, is when one user tags a friend. Not only do these comments contribute to your post’s engagement, which in turn makes it favorable to the Instagram algorithm, but each tag brings you a new audience member who arrived through a recommendation and who you could potentially win over as a follower.

One way to encourage this behavior is by posting relatable content that begs for one-to-one sharing (e.g., a gym meme that asks you to tag a friend who skips leg day). But a more reliable way is by running a giveaway that encourages your audience to tag a friend and follow your account.

Follow Instagram’s promotion guidelines and any legal requirements for running an Instagram contest that applies in your country of operation.

For inspiration, here’s an example of a successful product giveaway from Philip Kingsley that incentivizes people to follow its account and tag a friend for the chance to win a collection.

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16. Share user-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) is any type of content—such as videos, photos, reviews, audio, and more—that you curate from fans or followers. It’s an essential tool in your marketing arsenal for gaining followers on Instagram. UGC helps humanize your brand by featuring real people, with real stories that show your product in real life, and builds a more trusting relationship with potential customers.

Not only does your audience love their 15 minutes of fame on your Instagram feed, featuring them also helps drive more sales in your online store. According to research from Olapic, consumers today are 56% more likely to buy something after seeing a photo of the product shared by customers.

Take Fashion Nova, for example. The online retailer’s Instagram account relies heavily on user-generated content.

Fashion Nova’s user-generated content gives it access to thousands of pictures from people all over the world to share with its target audience—pictures that both showcase the brand’s values and inspire followers to engage with the brand’s posts and buy the clothes real people are wearing.

When it comes to creating user-generated content for your online store, start by asking customers to share their favorite experiences and images with your products by:

Creating a branded hashtag feed where customers can post images
Adding a call to action in your Instagram bio
Running a contest
Reaching out to influencers
Adding an “ask” for user-generated content in your packaging

Remember, the goal of UGC is to show an authentic view of your products. If some customers send you lower-quality photos that still highlight your products’ best features, don’t be afraid to use them.

17. Use Instagram Live

Live video is the key to running a successful marketing strategy on any social media platform. With Instagram, you can use Instagram Live to stream videos to your followers and engage with them in real time.

When your brand starts a live video stream, a ring encases your profile picture in Instagram Stories to tell followers they can check it out. Followers also receive a notification when you start a live video. Once you finish your livestream, you can upload it to your Story for 24 hours.

Remember that Instagram Live is interactive. Your followers will probably comment while you’re live, so try to acknowledge their comments and find ways to get them to participate.

Some ways to gain more followers when using Instagram Live include:

Influencer takeovers
Hosting an AMA (ask me anything) or Q&A
Teasing a product launch or update
Hosting a talk show
Going behind the scenes on your operations
Sharing a current event
Running product tutorials

Building an Instagram growth strategy to drive followers

Growing your Instagram following isn’t always a numbers game. As with any social network, the most successful content strategy is being authentic and social.

If you focus on engagement, not just number of followers, Instagram can be a great home for your products and brand and can lead to a healthy stream of revenue for your ecommerce business. For more tips on turning this social media platform into a profitable channel, check out our guide on how to make money on Instagram.

Illustration by Eugenia Mello

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How to get more followers on Instagram FAQ

How do you get more followers on Instagram for free?

Find and use popular hashtags related to your photo, product, or brand.
Create your own branded hashtag.
Use hashtags in Stories.
Create Instagram Reels.

How can I increase my followers on Instagram?

Use the right Instagram hashtags.
Steal your competitors’ followers.
Use geotags on Instagram posts.
Organize Stories into Highlights.
Post user-generated content.
Collaborate with other brands.
Post at the best times.
Use Instagram analytics tools.
Publish Instagram Reels.
Livestream on Instagram Stories.

Organic Instagram Growth Strategies to Build Your Brand

In the near decade that Instagram has been around, it continues to adjust its algorithm and introduce new features, meaning businesses need to keep up to maintain a steady account growth.

So how do you adapt? By trying out and incorporating new growth strategies. Services that tout growth through purchased likes and followers are against Instagram’s service policies. These fake engagements and growth rates will only harm your account in the long run and might even get your account banned.

That’s why brands need a strategy for authentic, organic Instagram growth.

What defines Instagram growth? It starts with the number of followers you have and gain. But to get these new followers, you’ll also need to improve engagement with your account, brand exposure and create compelling content. Otherwise, why else would anyone follow you?

If your growth is stagnant or you want to put a little more oomph into your strategies, we recommend testing out these tips.

Discover who your followers are with Sprout analytics

As you work to boost your follower count, Sprout Social’s reports can give you insights about your existing audience on Instagram.

Learn more about your fan breakdown by age, gender and location to ensure your content is resonating as intended.

Uncover your own IG demographics today with a free trial from Sprout.

1. Consistency is key

Let’s make sure you have the basics down first. To grow an Instagram account, you can’t put all your eggs in the proverbial basket and rely on one post to go viral. Most posts won’t go viral, which you means you need to find a better way to get your posts in front of your intended audience.

Take a look at your posting schedule, posting frequency and content quality. What are you doing well and what are your areas of improvement?

In our yearly research about the best times to post on Instagram, we found that around mid-morning (central time) was a peak time across all industries. If you’ve never researched your most successful times to post, these time ranges would be a good place to start.

To get more detailed, check out our best times to post article for a breakdown by multiple industries, or hone in even further on your niche with a data-driven approach. Sprout Social’s ViralPost publishing feature takes the legwork out of your research and suggests algorithmically selected peak times when you’ll have the highest engagement based on previous analytics. This can be a huge time saver when looking to post frequently and consistently to organically grow your Instagram.

Posting on a consistent basis sets up an expectation for your followers to look forward to the next post. Larger brands will post multiple times a day while small businesses may only post a few times a week. Whichever you commit to, just make sure it’s a consistent schedule to set expectations with your audience.

And finally, consistency in content quality is very important. There’s a lot more noise on Instagram feeds these days and you need to stand out. Subpar or stock photos won’t help grow Instagram followers as much as those who are creating their own interesting content.

2. Invest in content production & content diversity

Engagement is no longer limited to in-feed posts. Instagram now includes metrics for new content types such as Story replies, views of IGTV episodes and Story mentions. With an ever-increasing variety of content types like Instagram Reels, there are more opportunities to increase your engagement rates and, consequently, your organic Instagram growth.

If you’ve only done in-feed posts or tried out Stories sporadically, we recommend committing to a few Stories a week to establish consistency and plan content for it. With a variety of ways to use Stories as a method to grow Instagram followers, it’s an opportunity to see what resonates with your audience.

A good example of content diversity is Magnolia Bakery’s new AR filter that will add cupcakes to the camera or replaces eyes with cupcakes for a selfie. The cupcakes are a classic representation of the brand and people tag Magnolia Bakery when they use it. In return, Magnolia can repost these user-tagged Stories into their own Stories.

It can’t be stressed enough that content quality and posting consistently it is important for account growth. Spend time learning how to take better photos and videos or hire a content agency or freelance photographers/videographers to help with this huge but important task.

3. Run promotions & contests

Audiences love giveaways, discounts and freebies, and that’s not likely to change no matter what new developments arise on social media. But what marketers post is not always what consumers want. This mismatch means that there are missed opportunities for marketers in creating social content.

In the Sprout Social Index, Edition XIV: Realign & Redefine, it was discovered that 72% of consumers want discounts or sales to be posted on brands’ social media. Conversely, only 18% of marketers think that discounts are what are needed on social media. This disconnect in expectations means that there’s room to grow for giving customers what they want.

To grow your following and increase your brand presence on Instagram, run contests and promotions. Make one of the requirements for the giveaway a follow for your band and any other brands you’re partnering with, as well as tagging friends for more exposure. If you’re consistent in your giveaways, such as monthly or quarterly, your followers will be more likely to stick around and look forward to the next one.

4. Promote cross-platform

Don’t silo yourself on Instagram alone.

How often do you talk about your Instagram account on your other social media platforms?

Many people have multiple social accounts, and different platforms all have unique strengths, so you can reach different audiences by highlighting your Instagram presence in different places.

Direct followers on other social channels to your Instagram profile for exclusive offers or content. You can also use another visual-heavy platform like Pinterest to extend the reach of Instagram content that might otherwise have a short lifespan on the platform’s highly active feed.

Beyond social media, there are other spaces for your brand to grow Instagram followers organically. Adding prominent social media buttons in your email newsletter, website’s footer and large digital ads are all good examples of cross-platform promotion.

Offline, you can add your Instagram account to in-store signage and promotions. Short promotions like “Instagram followers receive 5% off!” and a custom QR code could also prompt current customers to follow you on the spot.

5. Share the wealth with influencers

While the influencer market has certainly grown over the last few years, there are still ways for social budgets of all sizes to incorporate an influencer strategy.

Micro-influencers are those that have smaller followers but often a more engaged audience. These influencers have highly specialized niches and are often willing to work with brands who line up with their values.

Working with influencers, especially micro- and nano-influencers, establishes trust in your company. As they talk and post about your brand to their followers, your Instagram account will organically grow with them.

6. Increase engagement time

One of the most proven method of growing your Instagram organically is to actively engage on your account.

That means taking the time to leave comments on followers’ posts, answering questions and reposting user-generated content.

Creating conversations and small chat groups to connect followers with each other is a part of building up your Instagram community. If you’re able to provide your followers with a deeper connection beyond contests and company announcements, then you’re more likely to gain a loyal following that extends beyond social media.

Why should you prioritize engagement and good content? A recent Sprout study found that when customers feel connected to the brand, they’re 68% more likely to recommend it to a friend and 76% more likely to buy it over a competitor.

To put this into action, there are several approaches you can test out, including liking or responding to all types of customer comments and showcasing your brand’s personality and voice through your content strategy.

Increasing your engagements and repeatedly interacting with customers is a long-term strategy that will help grow your account over time. But the relationships built from this are more memorable and stronger than one-off interactions.

Wrap it all up with Instagram growth analytics

There are many methods of growing your Instagram following organically and steadily.

Using these Instagram growth strategies–like creating a wide array of content, and building customer relationships–can produce reliable results that can help you withstand algorithm changes much better than accounts relying on spammy tactics.

As you utilize these strategies, check in on your Instagram analytics to see how your account is growing. If there are large peaks on certain days, see what type of content was posted and how people are engaging with it. This will let you reflect on what tactics worked the best and refine your strategy even further for the future.

If you’re ready to dig deeper into your analytics and figure out what Instagram growth strategies work for you, sign up for a free trial of Sprout Social.

How to promote a brand on Instagram in 2021

Now, in order to promote a brand on Instagram, it is not enough to have only a Facebook page to promote your brainchild and increase sales. Modern problems require modern solutions, so Instagram with its huge variety of tools enters the fight for the target audience.

Mass following, contests, hashtags, flashy descriptions, and a pleasing visual are true companions that help attract the attention of potential customers and shift the scales in favor of buying a product. In today's article, we will tell you how to promote your brand on Instagram as efficiently as possible, as well as tell you about the most common mistakes that beginners make.

What can be classified as a brand

Brand is a rather multi-layered and ambiguous term. It is a set of ideas about a product or service, as well as a set of emotions and associations that the object evokes in consumers.

In simple words: brand is an individual set of characteristics that distinguish the product from competitors. In modern realities, it is important not only to appease customers with the quality of goods and low prices, but also to do everything possible to attract the attention of the audience.

Historically, the consumer, who always has a choice, is very spoiled by the advertising information broadcast from each "iron". This is where the brand comes in handy. Yes, you may not have the most delicious chocolate chip cookie, but if it is well known, then sales automatically go up.

In this case, you should ask yourself a completely logical question: why does your brand need Instagram? Each business has different goals: someone wants to tell the audience about promotions and discounts, while someone plans to promote the product.

The first step in building a brand on Instagram is developing a competent strategy . You need to clearly define the promotion scheme and the desired results.

Instagram in terms of its potential is an “unplowed field” of opportunities. And here are just a few of them:

increase brand awareness;
strengthening loyalty;
reputation management and feedback;
receiving targeted inquiries to the company.

What makes your brand successful on Instagram

Even if your brand is incredibly popular, this does not mean that you will quickly earn the trust of the audience on Instagram. For real success, it’s not enough just to periodically publish photos, set up targeting and monitor statistics. Followers will need to be fought for, and in this war, all means are good.

Here are some secrets that directly affect the popularity of the brand on Instagram:

A carefully thought-out strategy. If you plan to post a few photos, and then just sit in one place and wait for the cherished moment when subscribers fall on you from heaven, you can immediately put an end to your account. In order for followers to see your posts, you need to work hard on the quality of the content. In the era of the algorithmic feed, only those brands that are serious about building a competent strategy are reaping the laurels of success.
Branded hashtags. A brand needs some visual form of marketability , which should not turn into banal advertisements. You do not want users to unsubscribe from you because of excessive obsession? In order to maintain influence on the audience, but not bother her, use branded hashtags . They should be unique, memorable and thematic.
Call to action. Some brands forget about the text, relying on visual content. This is a big mistake that can nullify all efforts! Each of your posts must contain a call to action .
Communication with the audience. The success of a brand directly depends on audience feedback, because it is not the number of subscribers that matters, but how they interact with your content.

So, we have figured out the main components of success, it remains only to talk about the steps that need to be taken to effectively promote the brand.

Reasons to create an Instagram account

Still don't have an Instagram account? Then we recommend urgently correcting this omission. And here's why:

A popular social network has many stars who can advertise your product.
Instagram is used by socially and economically active people who are able to show effective demand for a variety of services and goods.
An Instagram account allows you to significantly expand the parameters of the target audience and attract the maximum number of customers.
While the audience of VKontakte and Facebook is “aging”, Instagram is at the peak of popularity, which means that advertising campaigns organized within this social network are most effective.
Since 2019, the male audience of Instagram has been gradually catching up with the female audience in terms of numbers, and this is a very favorable trend for various business segments.
You can create a full-fledged online store on Instagram if you use additional tools that allow you to carry out the entire sales cycle - from consultation to transactions.
Instagram is a social network where people come for visual enjoyment, inspiration and informal communication. This means that you can present promotional materials in an interactive format: entertaining posts, stories, short videos and funny memes. In a word, your imagination will be where to roam.

Brand promotion in 6 steps

Do you still think that promotion without fabulous investments is a myth? No matter how! We will prove you otherwise.

This section will be useful for those who are planning to take their business to the next level, but do not know where to start. Below is a list of required steps that will help you create a beautiful and interesting profile that will help you attract potential buyers.

Strategy development

A competent strategy is an important component of a comprehensive account promotion. First, analyze the pages of competitors : what they post, how they communicate with customers, whether prices are written under the photo. Using the experience of other brands is not only a portion of inspiration, but also an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others without stepping into your own rake.

Yes, thoughtlessly stealing ideas is unlikely to lead you to success, but using the insights that your closest competitors have noticed as the foundation of a communication strategy is possible, and even necessary.

Ask yourself the following questions:

What is the mission of my business account? (expand the target audience, increase sales, regularly remind customers about promotions and discounts).
What useful information can I present to subscribers?
What is my main difference from the competition? How do they promote their products on Instagram? How often do you post new posts? How does the target audience react to new entries?

What to publish?

So we got to the most interesting and, perhaps, the most difficult point. First, decide on a profile avatar. Remember : no small details, colorful colors and confusion. A laconic logo that reflects the essence of your business as much as possible is an ideal option for all occasions.

Second, select @. For your account name, use your own brand and phrases that clearly describe your products or services.

People love bright, juicy and stylish photos. A gloomy picture, low-quality images and the lack of a well-thought-out visual - all this will ruin your business in its infancy. Practice shows that photos taken in bright colors collect 24% more likes than dark images.

Don't forget the text accompaniment . Think about what you can tell customers about the product/service. Skip bland descriptions, make paragraphs, add emoji, and think about the concept and style of the story.

Be sure to develop a content plan , specifying the frequency with which entries will be published. Regularity is necessary, thanks to it, subscribers will always expect something new and interesting on the page of your company.

Don't forget about hashtags

Well-chosen hashtags are +100 to recognition and promotion efficiency. Breaking into Instagram without relevant hashtags is very difficult, so come up with your own unique and original # that reflects the essence of the business.

Quick Fact: RadiumOne did a study and found that 55% of hashtag posts get more likes. Impressive, isn't it?

Try to supply each new entry with “hot words”. This is necessary in order to quickly bring the publication to the top. By tagging posts with popular hashtags, you automatically attract the attention of potential buyers. In the early stages of promotion, you can borrow reach # from commercial pages or influencers.

Periodically hold contests

To increase the loyalty of your subscribers, please them at least sometimes with contests and useful gifts. Any activity on Instagram is a great chance to stimulate the audience for feedback and creativity.

The contestant's task is to share their own branded content. Such simple manipulations can significantly increase the recognition of the company and ensure the influx of new customers.

In order for the contest to “shoot”, we recommend attracting an influencer who is popular with your target audience. Do you sell rubber bands for sports? Then enlist the support of a fitness blogger.

Use user content

Periodically repost follower posts tagged with your brand page, and you will be happy in the form of a trusting relationship with your audience. This approach has helped a large number of accounts without any investment to grow into large communities with an impressive number of subscribers.

How does it work? For example, a client tags your product in stories, and you duplicate this post in your account. Naturally, a person is pleased with such attention from the company, which means that next time he will also not miss the opportunity to “light up” on the page of his favorite brand and make the coveted mark, which, most likely, will lead new customers to your profile.

Where to look for your audience?

Everyone who decides to create a page on Instagram has a completely logical question: where to find the target audience? We warn you right away: cheating is not suitable, as you risk getting into a “shadow ban” and falling out of favor with the social network for a long time.

The first option is to bring the target audience from the brand's website or from other official communities in social networks. The second way is to like, tag followers on publications, comment on their posts and order advertising from influencers.

Examples of successful brands on Instagram

A brand's page on Instagram is not about the same type of photos and boring longreads, it's about beautiful visuals and soulful texts.

Get inspired:

H&M organizes creative and juicy advertising campaigns. Yeah, we got that yummy … Justin Bieber merch! Cop yours now. #HM

A post shared by H&M (@hm) on Jul 31, 2020 at 6:55am PDT

The Fedex delivery service account looks very warm and cozy. There is a sea of positiveness and there is a place for dogs and even koalas. Why not?

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We’re sure everyone agrees that these are the best kinds of special deliveries ? ? ? ? : @whimsycookiecompany

A post shared by FedEx (@fedex) on Oct 14, 2020 at 7:00am PDT

The page for one of New York's most popular bakeries is so amazing you can't take your eyes off it. The profile of the Magnolia Bakery is mesmerizing.

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???Put your kitchen skills to the test with our NEW DIY Banana Pudding Kits, available in classic OR gluten-free. We'll supply ingredients, the recipe and serving utensils and you'll supply the elbow grease. Mix it all up and you've got your very own cup of our famous Banana Pudding. Head to magnoliabakery.com and click nationwide shipping to order and don't forget to tag a friend who needs to make you some. ??#magnoliabakery *Ripe bananas and heavy cream are not included in the shipment*

A post shared by Magnolia Bakery (@magnoliabakery) on Sep 27, 2020 at 9:51am PDT

When you think of Vogue , you inevitably think of fashion and celebrities. ..and the brand's amazing Instagram page.

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@VogueItalia asked photographer and filmmaker @TylersPhotos and playwright @JeremyOHarris to craft a response to 2020’s global cry that Black Lives Matter. They returned with the idea of #BlackNonsense. “I wanted to write a piece in response to this moment. The utter nonsense of it. Black boxes and Black models hiding red blood and Black labor spilt and stolen for years without apology or recognition. Why dignify that with sense? Nonsense,” says Harris. See more via the link in bio.

A post shared by Vogue Global Network (@vogue) on Oct 9, 2020 at 6:05am PDT

Frooti is a mango juice maker and a proud account holder.

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A big shout out to all the teachers, gurus and mentors out there. Frooti wishes you all a very happy teacher's day. May we continue to learn and get inspired by you. #livethefrootilife #teachersday #september5th

A post shared by Frooti (@thefrootilife) on Sep 4, 2020 at 10:45pm PDT

Starbucks makes amazing coffee and delicious social media content. Fall star line up. ? #PumpkinCreamColdBrew ? #PumpkinSpiceLatte ? #SaltedCaramelMochaFrappuccino ? #SaltedCaramelCreamColdBrew ? #SaltedCaramelMocha

A post shared by Starbucks Coffee ☕ (@starbucks) on Oct 14, 2020 at 7:58am PDT

Tips & Tricks

A checklist of useful tips that will help you quickly attract the attention of your target audience and win your place in the sun:

Use Russian hashtags. If you plan to popularize your product among the citizens of the CIS, you should remove hashtags written in Latin or English words from everyday life.
Don't forget about themed hashtags. Push vague language into the background. For example, if you're creating something in the fashion vein, add hashtags like "street style" or "looksday".
Work with the audience. Respond to comments, respond to brand mentions and don't make customers wait, otherwise there will be more efficient competitors who will give feedback much faster.
Show behind the scenes. Beautiful product photos taken with a professional camera are, of course, good, but variety is needed. Therefore, we recommend periodically demonstrating backstage to the audience. Remove stories from production, show yourself at work or share funny cases with clients.
Share inside information. The client should become your best friend, with whom you will share first-hand information: show new products before they go on sale, announce hot discounts and give the target audience the opportunity to test the product. Do not be afraid of negative feedback, because they are the engine of progress and a direct path to improvement.
Do not distance your Instagram account from other social networks. After posting a photo, after a while share it, for example, on Facebook, adding text accompaniment and emoji. In this case, users will know that you are present in many social networks and will choose the most convenient communication option.
More beautiful photos. People love with their eyes, which means that you should work closely on the visual component of the profile. If you generate low-quality content, then don't expect a lot of likes and flattering comments. The client is now sophisticated, so it is difficult to impress him with a picture taken “on the knee”. Think globally: photograph not just a product modestly lying on a plain surface, but what can be done with it.
Don't forget to tag geolocations. Geotargeting allows you to customize ads for an audience that lives in a particular region. By specifying the location, you will automatically attract the attention of potential buyers.

Now let's talk about the most common mistakes :

Creating an account exclusively for advertising publications. Stop stuffing customers with insipid pictures and boring texts containing obsessive calls to buy something. Post interesting entries, hold contests and live broadcasts, share behind the scenes in stories.
Refusal of material investments. In order to promote the brand, you have to fork out a little. Targeting, advertising with bloggers, photo editing apps, help from specialists - all this costs money, so be prepared to invest in your brainchild.
Choosing the wrong direction for positioning the brand to be promoted. Focus your brand on the needs and taste preferences of your target audience. In order to avoid this mistake, it is necessary to analyze the market before promotion.
Bot abuse. Do you remember that the main thing is not the quantity, but the quality of the audience? Spammy comments and faceless profiles in subscribers spoil the overall impression of the brand, so we strongly do not recommend using services to cheat bots, otherwise you risk falling straight into a “shadowban”. Want to check your account? Register on the platform trendHERO .
References in the text. This fakap often happens to beginners who naively believe that if they paste the link directly into the text, it will somehow magically open. Unfortunately no. Just imagine how motivated the client must be to, being in his right mind, manually copy the link and transfer it to the browser. Do not force users to take unnecessary actions, insert active links in the profile header.
Website not adapted for mobile. Instagram is a network where 99% are mobile users. Do you understand what we are getting at? If the site from which the sale of products is carried out is not adapted for smartphones and tablets, this is a failure. You are simply dumping traffic without getting proper feedback.
Provide the blogger with the finished text. The desire to control everything is, of course, understandable, but let the influencer independently adapt the text to the needs of the target audience.
No strategy. Yes, without the right strategy, you run the risk of staying in one place, and this mistake can cost you a lot of money. The specialist must clearly understand the purpose of the campaign, for whom, what are the features of the goods or services, and so on.

Conclusion

It's time to take stock:

in order to quickly and effectively promote the page, in the first stages it is necessary to publish posts with a frequency of 2-3 times a day;
beautiful visuals and interesting texts are a win-win way to success;
comment on the posts of followers, like their photos and continuously work on establishing two-way communication;
come up with original hashtags;
do not chase the number of subscribers, bet on quality;
do not neglect competitions;
the most important thing is not to make your customers bored.

Take advice and don't be afraid to experiment, constantly changing your strategy!

Check Instagram for bots for free

30 tips to promote your personal brand on Instagram - Social networks on vc.ru

Hello, future blogger, as I understand it, you decided to come to grips with your Instagram account, because the jungle of the Internet brought you here. Well, we all know what Instagram is and its standard tools, so we won’t call “waterdrop” and get straight to the point. Catch 30 tips for promoting a personal brand on Instagram.

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Post personal photos. Subscribers should know their hero by sight.
Specify the direction in which the page will develop. Write about what you know, show your expertise. If you are a dentist, pay attention to your profession, if you are a builder, then tell us about the construction from the inside, even if you professionally turn penguins, you can tell a lot of interesting things, for example, keep an online diary of the life of your wards, come up with names for penguins and write funny stories about them , shoot short sketches. As you understand, you can write about everything. Get started and you will definitely find your audience.
Create your own Lift Story. Let's play the situation, you met a friend in an elevator and in 30 seconds you have to tell him what your blog is about.
Define the target audience. Create a portrait of the ideal subscriber. Main criteria: gender, age, occupation, material condition, etc. Why material wealth? Well, you plan to monetize your blog in the future.
Learn to develop. Study your competitors, analyze foreign bloggers, most trends originate in the west.
Own chips. Stand out from the crowd of bloggers, come up with your own word or slogan. The easiest way is to greet the audience in an unusual way, for example, “Hi tu ol, Let's go”, “Hayu Hai”, etc.
Uniform style. Edit photos in the same style to make your Instagram feed look harmonious. Pay attention to popular bloggers, their posts are colorful, juicy, the same colors prevail.
Fill in information about yourself. Write who you are, what you do, leave contacts for cooperation.
Photo quality. Natural light is your best friend. On sunny days, photos even on a smartphone camera are clear and contrasting. Remember! High quality photos look much more attractive.
Time management of publications. Post content at regular intervals, like 2 posts per week, that's great pace.
Broadcast interesting moments in stories. Stories are not stored for more than 24 hours, so make it a habit to interact with your audience daily.
Interact with subscribers. Ask questions, answer comments.
Arrange a prize draw. This will increase the activity of the audience. For example, start the game sea battle or SFS. A contest is a good way to attract an initial subscriber base.
Engage subscribers in discussions. Create provocative content, make subscribers enter into an argument and express their opinion.
Create your own hashtag. Tag posts with your own hashtag to make it easier for your followers to navigate the topic.
Communicate with competitors. Create joint projects, collaborations with other bloggers.
Buy ads from bloggers. Do not chase numbers, sometimes even an account with 10,000 followers can bring much more people to your page than an account with an audience of 100,000 or more.
Do not overdo it with photo processing. Use a minimum of processing, since natural photos look much nicer, and what should we hide, you are now a blogger.
Pay attention to Direct. If the message was sent by someone you don't follow, it will appear as a request in your inbox. Check "requests" often there are written by real people.
Actively comment. Communicate on Instagram, post detailed comments, enter into dialogues, this will give you the first subscribers.
Reply to comments on time. Do not leave subscribers' questions unattended.
Don't spam! Auto-sending comments annoys subscribers.
Don't buy bots. The cheating of subscribers, in the future, can play a cruel joke with the account, for example, audience coverage or engagement will fall.
Fight your fears. At the beginning of the blogging journey, people face the problem of “talking on camera”. It's OK! Start voicing Stories from 1st person, shoot the environment on your phone, perhaps your voice will tremble on the first videos. After 10-20 published stories, you will notice progress and after 1-2 weeks, you will be able to confidently shoot your face.
Fear of looking stupid. A very important psychological moment, any action on camera, do it confidently. Let me remind you that a bunch of bloggers put contraceptives on their heads, run naked around the city, etc. In my opinion, these are not the smartest actions, I highly do not recommend filming such things. Due to the confidence of the heroes of such stories, such videos are gaining millions of views. People love thrash content.
Mark places. Put geolocation tags on each photo, the publication will become tied to a specific place, this will help to collect a small number of subscribers. Mark on the photo, fashionable places of your city.
Become a Brand Ambassador. Comment on the posts of a certain company, sooner or later they will pay attention to you. Brands are interested in working with micro-influencers, that is, with the same aspiring bloggers like you.
Video content. Videos are the future of modern social networks. People perceive information much easier visually than in writing. Shoot master classes, video tips, interesting stories, social videos (if it suits the topic). Remember, you only have 60 seconds!
Follow the trends. Subscribe to popular bloggers, they often give useful tips on maintaining Instagram and life hacks for promotion.
The main and last item. Take pleasure in what you do. If you want to create a popular Instagram profile for money, forget about it, there are much easier ways to make money. Maintaining Instagram should be fun, do it and get high, otherwise you will waste your energy.

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