How to grow my instagram business page

How to grow in 2022 and beyond

Projected to reach 1.2 billion users by 2023, Instagram has huge potential for small business owners to boost their marketing efforts, and marketers everywhere know it. According to Social Media Examiner’s 2021 social media marketing report, “Seventy-eight percent of marketers are using Instagram.” Marketers rank it second in importance after Facebook, and sixty-four percent of marketers plan to increase their activities on Instagram over the next year.

The potential of Instagram lies more in user behavior than the large number of active users: Instagrammers like to connect with brands.

Ninety percent of Instagram users follow a brand on the platform, according to Instagram. And according to 2019 data commissioned by Facebook, 54% of people have made a purchase after seeing a product or service on Instagram.

Instagram is particularly well-suited to small business owners who don’t have the time or budget for expensive marketing campaigns. Unpaid social media marketing lets you grow your customer base without a dedicated marketing team or a big budget — just a free account and a smartphone camera are all you need to get started.

Just take a look at Southern Elegance Candle Company (SECC), a brand that has a thriving Instagram presence.

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A post shared by Southern Elegance™ Candle Co. (@secandleco)

SECC uses social media to create a loyal fan base and bring in over $100,000 a month.

Once you understand some basic Instagram best practices, Instagram can become a key channel for you to grow your small business.

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Can your small business do well on Instagram?

Any business can do well on Instagram — whether you own a local book shop, e-commerce store, landscape business, auto repair shop, or yoga studio. If your customers are on Instagram, you can be successful on Instagram.

But, if you only have time to invest in one or two social media platforms, then you need to make sure that Instagram is popular with your prospective customers. Here are a few ways to find out.

1. Ask your customers

If you want to know if your customers are active on Instagram, the easiest thing to do is just ask!

If you already have an email list, send a quick survey to your customers to ask about their social media habits. Ask what channels they use most frequently and where they like to follow brands.

Two free options to survey your audience are SurveyMonkey and Typeform. Typeform even has a social media survey template you can use for inspiration. Customize it with questions that will show you what you want to know about your customers.

2. Compare your target audience to Instagram’s audience

Different groups of people are more active on certain social media platforms than others. Compare your target audience’s demographics (things like age, gender, income, geographical location, etc.) and psychographics (psychological traits like interests, personality, and values) with the social media platforms you’re considering.

For example, the 18-29 age group is most active on Instagram, while the 50-64 age group leads the way on Pinterest.

(Left source, right source)

3. Look at your competitors

Your competitors’ customers are also potential new customers for you. So if businesses similar to yours are doing well on Instagram, it’s likely your people are on Instagram. You just need to start posting!

If your competitors aren’t on Instagram, it might not be the right platform. But if multiple customers have told you they’d follow your brand on Instagram, go ahead and create an account. Instagram could have untapped potential, and you’ll be the first brand in your niche to discover it.

Getting started with an Instagram strategy as a small business

Whether you’re completely new to Instagram and preparing to share your first post or are already established and looking to boost your presence on the platform, it’s important to start with clear goals in mind to guide the kind of content you should post on Instagram.

Instagram goals for small businesses

There’s a plethora of content you could post on Instagram. Setting goals will help define your Instagram marketing strategy and narrow your focus, making it a lot easier to choose what to post!

Here are a few common goals small businesses might choose:

Increase sales
Grow their audience
Improve brand loyalty
Increase brand awareness
Drive website traffic
Establish business partnerships (with influencers or complementary brands)

Choose one or two goals for your Instagram profile and post content related to these goals.

Establish content pillars or themes that align with your audience

Once you know your goals, it can be helpful to choose themes that guide your content. Then your brand is more consistent, and your audience knows what to expect and gets excited to interact with you. Content pillars (or themes) can be a type of content such as behind-the-scenes content:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tortuga (@tortugabackpacks)

Here, travel backpack company Tortuga shares a sneak peek of upcoming product designs. Fans of the brand flooded to the comment section to share support and feedback on the designs.

Or, content pillars can be interest-based, like productivity:

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A post shared by Sunsama 🌻 (@sunsamahq)

Task manager app Sunsama posts regular productivity tips like this one, often introducing their take on better ways to work to spread their mission.

Use your audience’s interests to inform your content pillars. It just needs to make sense with your brand. Even if Sunsama’s customers were really into travel, it wouldn’t make sense for them to post travel content as a to-do list app.

Instagram content pillar examples to help you get started:

Behind-the-scenes content
User-generated content
Polls
Giveaways
Product demos
Educational (e.g. tips or tutorials)
Culture-focused (showing the human side of your company)
Customer stories
Product launches
Travel
Productivity
Motivation
Food
Exercise
Mental health
Body positivity
Environmentalism

For example, for interest-based pillars, Girlfriend Collective tends to make posts about diversity, body positivity, beautiful nature spaces, and sustainability to move its mission forward. For content types, the brand uses UGC to keep a relatable feel and product previews to build hype around a launch.

Here, Girlfriend represents different body types in a nature space as part of a product launch:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Girlfriend Collective (@girlfriend)

Meditation app Headspace posts educational content about mental health:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Headspace (@headspace)

And here, Hairstory uses polls in Instagram Stories to start conversations around self-care:

Choose what types of content you want to publish on Instagram

Now that you know what your goals are and the themes you want to post about, it’s time to get posting!

Posts on the Instagram app come in five forms: regular posts, Instagram Stories, Instagram Live, Reels, and IGTV. The most popular ways to post on Instagram remain regular posts and Instagram Stories, but here’s a breakdown of all of them:

Regular Instagram posts are evergreen. They’ll stay there unless you delete them. These show up in your followers’ Instagram Feeds.
Instagram Stories are fifteen seconds long and vanish after 24 hours. Stories lend themselves to more casual and in-the-moment content.
Instagram Live appears in the Stories feeds of your followers, but is recorded in real-time, so you can see people as they join and read comments as they come in.
Instagram Reels is a short-form video up to 60 seconds long, similar to TikTok in that you can edit together multiple clips and add music and sound effects.
IGTV is similar to YouTube. You can upload long-form videos up to ten minutes long (or sixty minutes if you have a verified business account with more than 10,000 followers). This is perfect for things like product demos, tutorials, or guided workouts.

8 Instagram for small businesses best practices

Now that you know what kind of content you want to create, use these best practices to be successful.

1. Set up your Instagram business profile the right way

Your Instagram profile is like your homepage on the platform. It tells people who you are and why you exist.

Start with your profile picture: Your brand needs to be recognizable. Use your logo or brand icon as your profile picture.

Evernote uses its recognizable elephant icon:

Then add your bio: This should represent your business and show new followers what you do as a company. You could include your brand slogan or tagline or describe your business.

MATE the Label uses its Instagram bio to describe its products and allude to its mission of sustainability.

Last, add your link: Unlike other social networks, you can’t add links to every post. You only get one link, and that’s the one in your profile. (Though Instagram accounts with more than 10,000 followers can also share links within Instagram Stories.)

Most businesses link to their homepage to drive traffic:

But you can also update your profile with a link you reference in your latest post, whether it’s a blog post, recipe, or YouTube video — like NikkieTutorials does.

Or, you could use a link in bio tool to lead to a landing page that has multiple links your audience might be interested in (like your homepage, recent blog post, and more.)

When clicking on the link in the food blog I Love Vegan’s Instagram profile, followers can go to the blog’s homepage, find resources, or click on photos from recent Instagram posts to get taken to the recipe.

2. Be relatable, not salesy

Remember: it’s a post, not an ad. It needs to be content people want to look at. That might be your product, or it might be more general content like a dentist posting about proper tooth brushing techniques.

Here, meditation app Headspace posts about mental health:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Headspace (@headspace)

When you do post promotional content, it should be in the mix with plenty of non-salesy content to make your account worth following.

3. Engage with your followers

Doing well on Instagram is more than posting pretty photos. Engage with people who are interacting with you on Instagram.

Follow them back, like their posts, keep the conversation going by responding to comments. You’ll build relationships with your followers, and it will encourage your fans to keep engaging with you.

4. Grow your audience organically, don’t buy them

Buying Instagram followers can be tempting to boost your metrics, but it’s not going to do anything for your business growth. Bought followers aren’t going to interact with you. And if people find out you bought followers, they might trust you less and not want to give you business.

Instead, draw in new audiences with high-quality content. Encourage existing customers to follow you on Instagram by putting your Instagram handle at the bottom of emails or by your cash register.

5. Use hashtags to extend your reach

Hashtags help people find the content they’re interested in. Add them to Instagram captions to get your posts in front of more people and grow your followers.

While brainstorming hashtags to use, you can do a search on Instagram, and it can tell you how many posts have that hashtag, which is a good indication of popularity. Stick with hashtags under 1 million posts, so yours doesn’t get lost in the noise.

If you own a local business, consider hashtags specific to your region to find people in your community.

6. Use Instagram Carousels to hit the same users again

Instagram Carousels are regular posts that have multiple photos or videos in the same post. They act as a small photo album and enable you to show up in your followers’ Instagram feeds more than once.

Here, Hairstory uses carousels to show hair color for curly hair in four different looks.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hairstory Studio (@hairstorystudio)

Viewers can scroll through the photos, but if they don’t, the carousel post can show up in their feed later featuring a different photo.

7. Post regularly

Consistency and publishing frequency can help your audience learn when to expect new content from you and get them in the habit of interacting with you on Instagram. The more they interact with you, the more the Instagram algorithm rewards you — by putting your content at the top of your followers’ feeds.

Keeping a consistent schedule makes sure you maximize engagement without hitting any lulls without updates. Once a week is plenty to get started.

8. Make sure your work is paying off by measuring your Instagram success

You need to make sure your marketing efforts are paying off. It’ll take time to build a following, so your follower count and engagement rate will be low to start. Don’t be discouraged!

Keep tracking your followers and engagement to make sure you’re growing over time. And double down on what your followers want to see.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to using Instagram analytics.

Adding Instagram marketing to your plate is no small task for small business owners. As an entrepreneur, you have dozens of projects to manage as it is.

So save time by using a social media marketing tool like Buffer to schedule your posts in advance. You can set up posts weeks in advance, so you never go dark on Instagram.

The best part? Buffer is free for up to three social accounts, and you can schedule up to ten posts in advance on each one. That’s plenty for any small business to get started on Instagram.

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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.

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.

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.

Social media strategy and planning templates

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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.

How to make a business on Instagram? Tips on how to open and develop a business account on Instagram - Artjoker

More and more stores are moving to a new business platform - Instagram. The number of people – potential customers – has exceeded 800 million. Now is the time to start doing business on Instagram if you haven't already.

How to create an account?

Creating a business account on Instagram is very simple. To do this, you must first go to the Facebook menu and create a page for your business. After that, in your Instagram profile settings, click "Switch to business profile". Next, you will have an absolutely standard registration, where you will be required to come up with a name and fill in a description. That's all - the creation of the Instagram online store is over!

What is it for?

In the form of a business account, Instagram has created the most powerful analytical tool that all social media people dreamed of. The thing is, on the new page, all the statistics are available to you. Literally everything!

It won't be easy!
Boring too! Author's TG channel of Roman Katerynchyk. Get insights first hand. Subscribe to TG channel

The application collects data, groups it, compares it with previous periods and puts it on a silver platter - for this it is definitely worth opening a business account on Instagram.

Available to you:

The number of subscribers, their attendance by hours and days;
Complete statistics on responses: public reach, transitions to an external site, views of your pictures;
Separately, there is also a selection of the most popular photographs.

Another amazing feature is hotkeys - a call to action, without which no Instagram store promotion can do. You can choose from five buttons - call or write, or maybe immediately sign up. There is a choice for every client here.

Advertising and promotion

Targeted advertising migrated from the older brother of Facebook to Instagram. Now you can select the audience to which your publications will be distributed. Such targeted advertising on Instagram takes into account many factors: gender, age, interests, place of residence.

However, do not abuse advertising from the first minute. First, create content that you would like to trust. Keep a blog. Post the stories behind the product, but don't advertise it. Communicate with the public, future customers, go to the pages of people you are interested in and write comments. Before you make a business on Instagram, you need to build a reputation and credibility.

Create a unique style

In order for people to feel your philosophy, your approach to business, your publications must be in the same style. If you are not sure that there is enough creativity for every day, write a content plan. Think over the headings, their content for a month in advance.

Put the visual component first. Create posts that you yourself would like to admire. Before you open a business through Instagram, conquer the viewer with your unique style.

When there are about twenty photos in the feed, you can proceed to filling with goods.

Management tips

After creating and launching the store, you will face the most difficult task - to grow, to interest the viewer, to expand.

The following tips will be a great help in growing your business on Instagram:

Share your exclusive. Don't forget, there are a lot of online stores. Offer favorable support conditions: write about promotions, discounts and contests that take place only on Instagram.
Interact with your followers. There is nothing worse than not getting answers to questions. Chat in the comments, read messages in Direct, like the people you like, this is how you attract attention to your Instagram for business.
Intrigue. Nothing draws people in like anticipation. Create an atmosphere of mystery around your new product, give out information in parts.
Give gifts and celebrate the most active. Any like and comment adds you subscribers. Thank your customers for their support. Start a giveaway or promotion. Don't know what to think? Instagram promotion from Artjoker will come to the rescue.
Use common and unique hashtags. Thus, you can separate categories in your plan - it will be easier for people to find something on your page - or make your Instagram business profile "branded".

It won't be easy!
Boring too! Author's TG channel of Roman Katerynchyk. Get insights first hand. Subscribe to TG channel

How to promote Instagram * in 2023 - Marketing on vc.ru

Hello. Lyudmila is in touch, a marketer at Altcraft. Today you will learn how to promote Instagram * in 2023 using paid and free methods, as well as which methods should be abandoned.

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After blocking Instagram* in March 2022, the position of the social network became uncertain: the question arose whether it would “live” or not. According to a study by LiveDune, bloggers' story coverage has dipped (only 70% of January figures remained) and brands (by 20-45%). Not every user is ready to access their Instagram* profile via VPN, so the most loyal followers remain. This proves the increase in engagement: bloggers in some categories have plus 20%.

Now the situation is stable: there is an audience on Instagram* and it is quite active. Every fifth resident of Russia uses a VPN, and accessing blocked social networks is still legal, so Instagram * promotion is a hot topic.

Although targeted advertising does not work on the territory of the Russian Federation, there are other methods of promotion. There are also fewer competitors: some brands no longer maintain their accounts because they left the country.

Preparing an account for promotion

You can't start promoting on Instagram* with an empty profile. Users should immediately understand who you are, what you offer and what your advantage is.

A valid Instagram page* includes:

An avatar with a readable logo or photo if a blogger or expert account.
Profile name that is related to the business, not a simple set of characters.
The name of the author or organization in the profile header in a special field. It also indicates the direction of the business.
Account description: what does the company/expert do, your USP (Unique Selling Proposition), what do you talk about if it is a blog on Instagram* of an individual.
A link to a website or other resource that represents your business or project.
Designed highlights (pinned stories under the description) with information that answers possible questions from customers. Indicate prices, how to find you, working and delivery conditions, tell us about your experience, and so on. Highlights sometimes add profile navigation.
Geolocation for offline businesses.

An example of a well designed profile

What else is important before starting the promotion:

Switch to a business account: then statistics will become available.
Purge profile from bots and inactive followers. For social network algorithms, a high percentage of subscribers who do not respond to your posts is a sign of uninteresting content. Such an account is not given additional coverage.
Analyze what an existing audience likes and create thoughtful content.

Reels

Instagram* is no longer a social network for pictures, but also a video platform for Reels short videos. Therefore, the question of how to promote Instagram * from scratch is more often answered about using this format. The social network is actively promoting Reels. Instagram marketing* has changed due to short videos: videos are shown primarily to external audiences in recommendations, and not to account followers. It used to be nearly impossible to get additional reach without ads. Also, the leadership of the social network said that the recommended content will soon become even more.

How to promote Instagram with Reels:

Post unique content that has never been seen before on Instagram*.
Study the rules and recommendations of the social network: non-compliance can be temporarily or permanently blocked.
Start an Instagram promotion* with an open account. Otherwise, only subscribers will see Reels.
Use thematic hashtags that work under videos in the same way as in posts (see details in the following paragraphs).
Release commercials regularly. This is important not for users, but for algorithms that quickly "forget" inactive authors. But do not bother subscribers: publish no more than two videos a day and three or four a week.

Important! Do not delete Reels that have not received coverage. Sometimes videos are unrolled after a while again and bring results.

How to get followers on Instagram* with Reels

People don't follow every account they see in recommendations. The competition in Reels is high, so it's not enough just to make a beautiful video.

Rules for Successful Reels

Do not make too long videos. Videos up to 90 seconds are allowed, but the algorithm takes into account inspections, so such Reels have less chances. Optimal - 5-15 second videos.
Arouse interest in the first seconds: by an action, an engaging phrase (“The secret of the right promotion . ..”, “No one knew about this ...”, and so on). But do not fool users: if after an intriguing beginning there is nothing of value, the audience will not subscribe.

Engaging Start Roller

Add text to video because sometimes Reels are watched without sound. It also makes the content easier to read.

Use a CTA (call to action) in your video. Ask users to read the description, subscribe, leave a comment, and so on.

Make covers that show the essence of the video, preferably with a brief description. Reels has two options: choose a frame from a video or add a single photo.

Shoot videos related to the blog topic only.

Monitor the quality of the rollers. Meaning is more important, but a fuzzy picture and shooting with shaky hands are unlikely to please anyone. Sometimes Instagram itself "eats" the quality of the video.

Life hack. Turn off data saver to improve video quality: Settings —> Account —> Cellular data usage.

Where to get ideas for Reels

The first and easiest thing is to find a trend and adapt it to your account. But do not think too long, otherwise you will find yourself in the outsiders, because popular videos quickly lose their relevance. The second way is to shoot answers (possibly with humor) to questions and objections from users. Sometimes ideas are found in movies, ads or other platforms (TikTok, Youtube Shorts).

Advertising with bloggers

It is forbidden to pay for advertising by Instagram* itself in the Russian Federation, but this does not apply to bloggers. Influencers continue to maintain their pages on the social network, and the influence of microbloggers will grow next year. These include accounts from 10 to 200 thousand subscribers. The audience trusts microbloggers more than millionaires, and their advertising is cheaper.

But now it is not easy to order native advertising from opinion leaders, because since 2022 the law on advertising has changed in the Russian Federation, according to which any promotion on the Internet must be labeled and included in a single register. This means that data (including creatives and payment amount) about the campaign is available to all its participants: customers, agencies, bloggers. The information will also be received by the antimonopoly, tax services and Roskomnadzor. Even before the start of advertising, you need to upload information through advertising data operators, who assign tokens (codes from letters and numbers) to ads.

The blogger will have to specify the token in the ad or video, as well as write the word "ad" and information about the advertiser. After that, the campaigns upload a report to the ORD platform with acts, deadlines and the number of ads shown.

Not all bloggers follow these rules because we are in a transitional period. But advertisers (especially large ones) should take into account the requirements of the law.

Promotion through users

Users share content they like and thus attract new audiences with their accounts. People repost memes, inspirational posts, useful information and news. There is no unequivocal formula on how to promote an account on Instagram* through viral content. Therefore, watch successful examples, test options.

Sometimes asking users to recommend your post/account works. Loyal subscribers will do it just like that. You can offer a bonus: free material, discount. Reposts are the conditions of competitions held by companies and bloggers.

Hashtags and Geotagging

Hashtags are unlikely to bring thousands of subscribers, but a certain percentage of the audience will find your account by tags.

Important:

Add only thematic hashtags that match your account to your posts. Use services for selection or search manually in the Instagram search *.
Do not put high-frequency tags for which there are more than 100 thousand publications in the search results - this is too much competition. Choose low-frequency (up to 50 thousand) and mid-frequency (50-100 thousand).

An example of high frequency hashtags that you don't want to use

Geotagging is also an additional way to expand your audience. Especially relevant for offline businesses.

How to attract followers on Instagram* through geotagging: motivate customers to tag the location of your establishment, store, salon or other business. Specify a place in your publications (posts, stories, Reels). Then other users will find reviews about the institution and your official account by the tag.

Cross promo

Promotion through cross-promotion is a collaboration of two accounts of businesses or bloggers with related topics. The authors jointly create content, for example, hold a webinar, live broadcast, create a creative video (or several) in Reels. Instagram* has a tagged collaborator feature that makes a post appear on both accounts.

Signature for Reels created by two authors

This promotion of an Instagram account* works when each participant already has an audience: preferably about the same number of subscribers as the collaboration partner.

Traffic from other platforms

After the "cancellation" of Meta* products, users were not banned from maintaining Instagram* accounts, but icons of her social networks online and offline should be removed from descriptions on other sites. Therefore, Instagram* marketing with the transfer of traffic from other sources has become a dubious way of promotion.

On the one hand, you can mention the social network, but with a note about the status of a banned organization (in free form, because there are no strict requirements).

On the other hand, supervisory authorities may still consider such links to be dissemination of materials from an extremist organization. Therefore, whether or not to attract traffic from Youtube, Telegram, VKontakte and other platforms is a moot point.

Summary

Despite the blocking, Instagram* works and continues to generate income for brands and bloggers. To promote your account on this social network, you should try Reels - short videos that are recommended to other users (not subscribers). Advertising by bloggers is relevant, but after changes are made to the law “On Advertising”, new rules will have to be taken into account: sending data about campaigns to the general registry and tagging ads.

Cross-promo is also used for promotion — the creation of joint content or projects with related accounts. Additional account promotion methods: hashtags, geotags (especially for offline businesses), users who recommend your content or account.

Transferring traffic from other social networks is an ambiguous way of promotion. Although there is no outright ban, links to Instagram* may be assessed by reviewing organizations as advertising for a banned organization.