14 Tips to Grow Instagram Followers and Engagement

Engagement and followers are a form of currency in the social media world. While there are a lot of social media platforms to promote your business, with over a million users Instagram remains the sweetheart of the social media world especially for B2C brands targeting youngsters(source: brandstatic.com)

In 2018, it was reported that about 35% of the world’s population is using Instagram(source:brandstatic). And 8 in 10 users follow a business account. So, businesses need to have their account on Instagram for better engagement and connection with the audience.

While creating an Instagram Business Account is easy, growing it isn’t(if you don’t know the right tricks). Wanna know how you can do that? Well, here are the tips to grow Instagram Business Account engagement and followers.

#1. Optimize your captions for search

Including keywords in your captions can help in increasing the visibility of your business account. Your captions should include relevant hashtags and a good line with keywords that describes your posts. Include a call to action line in your caption to drive a relevant action.

#2. Upload Reels

Instagram Reels is the easiest way to increase both engagement and followers.

You can create reels that describe your business or the latest products. Reels have the highest visibility on Instagram.

With reels, you can give a full description of your business to the audience, along with entertaining them.

#3. Engage with Instagram Stories and Use Story Stickers

Stories help a lot in driving engagement. Behind the scenes, an informal update and regular posts can be shared through stories to gain more eyeballs and engagement. Story stickers help further in interacting with your audience. You can start a poll or seek the audience’s opinion about any service or product. There are a ton of stickers that you can use. It creates a sense of conversation in the minds of the audience and they can connect more with your business.

#4. Hashtag strategy

Hashtags are the biggest tools for increasing followers and engagement. Adding relevant hashtags wherever possible makes your posts and content visible to a large audience.

Hashtags on Instagram are an identifier for the Instagram algorithm for placing your content in the right place. Hashtags give context to your post.

Before posting, do proper research about the trending hashtags that are relevant to your post and include them in the post, stories, reels, etc.

#5. Set up a profile for the first impression

When a user visits your profile, it should be a delight for him/her to see it. Organize all the content that’s there on the profile.

Add a proper highlights section, write a compelling keywords-rich bio that includes relevant hashtags. Set up a business profile picture for your Instagram Business Account.

#6. Create relatable and shareable memes

Memes work like magic. When users find relatable memes, they will most likely share them with someone with the same interest.

Relatable memes not only help you in engaging better with your audience, but they also get you free promotions when your audience shares them.

For creating memes, try to find the latest trends. Understand the sentiments of your target audience. A trending meme that balances your brand’s niche along with the target audience’s sentiments will help you in driving better engagements.

#7. Collaborate with influencers

Collaborating with like-minded influencers may get expensive as some influencers charge a lot but it is a win-win situation. You get a chance to place your business in front of a large audience of influencers.

Having exposure to such a large audience in one go can result in a high engagement and increased number of followers if done right. You can align with the influencer’s audience and grow your trust. Influencers give you the exposure that is otherwise hard to get.

#8. Savable graphics

Instagram users love to share quotes and informative graphics on their stories. Quotes, graphics, and repurposed tweets are perfect for driving engagement.

These aesthetically appealing graphics along with quotes help you in getting free shoutouts from your audience.

#9. Giveaways

Hosting a giveaway is one good way to engage better with your audience and drive in new audiences.

Host International giveaways enticing both your existing audience and target audience. With prizes like products, services, or experiences you’ll be getting a greater engagement and followers through these giveaways.

#10. Post on the right time

Tap the insights button on your Instagram Business account and observe the time when your audience is most active. Schedule your posts for that time.

Posting at the right time makes your content visible to your audience instantly when you’ve uploaded it. It’s fresh, relevant, and updated, all of this helps in creating better engagement.

#11. Post consistently

They say consistency is the key to success. This holds in this case as well. Post consistently from your Instagram Business Account. Schedule your posts and follow the schedule strictly.

According to tailwind, business accounts that post regularly see better growth than those that post less frequently.

#12. Learn how the Instagram algorithm works

Forget about how to beat the Instagram algorithm, instead try to use it to your advantage. The six factors that determine what shows up in a person’s timeline are relationship, timeliness, interest, frequency, following, and usage.

Following all these factors may sound like a complex task but when done right, they surely boost engagement. One simple way is to create high-quality content consistently.

#13. Use Instagram tools

There are a lot of tools that can help you in building a strategy for your Instagram Business Account. Here is the list of some good ones:

Later:- this helps you schedule your Instagram post and automatically uploads them from your device. It makes sure all your posts get uploaded on time. It helps you maintain consistency with your posts.
Iconosquare:- it gives insights about your info and analytics.
Webstagram:- helps you find the best hashtags for your posts and people for sponsored posts.

#14. Analyze your results

Once you have done all this. Now try to figure out how your audience responds to the different strategies that you have implemented, take a look at Instagram insight from your profile. Observe the posts that get the maximum no. of views and likes and generate the maximum no. of followers.

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