If you are a startup and trying to boost your Instagram followers, but not having luck, don’t worry. Here is a small guide that will help you boosts followers on Instagram.
To increase Instagram followers for startups, there are a few secrets. The irony about these secrets is that almost everyone knows about these, but still most of the startups choose to ignore these.
So, here we are going to reemphasize those secrets that you should definitely follow, especially if you are a startup trying to increase followers on Instagram.
Why is Instagram so Popular?
Instagram was first introduced as a photo app for kids and people. Slowly, it has become social media craze for almost all the brands. Instagram offers visual marketing tools to the brands and startups who are looking for real audience building tools. The active engagement of the users is highest in Instagram than any other social media website.
There are many reasons for Instagram being popular. First and foremost is that it offers visual content sharing. In the age of high-end smartphones, almost everyone has a camera and everyone takes pictures of things they do, eat, and sleep. Instagram offers tools to share your pictures in their full glory in one click. Sharing your story via pictures is far more captivating than sharing stories with the post on Facebook. Apart from that, here are the things that have made Instagram so popular:
- Instagram is Free:The important leading factor for Instagram is that it’s free. Users need social media networking with free tools and apps. The advertisement clutter is much lesser as compared to that on Facebook, and all the features of Instagram are free.
- Instagram is Intuitive: The Instagram app is straightforward to understand and use. It does not have any fancy and useless functions. Just click the photo, add to the library, comment, caption, and you are good to share.
- Instagram is for Visual Addicts: In the fast-paced world, no one has time for reading long posts, and Instagram is just an easy tool to share your life stories online instantly and easily. You just need a picture to share on Instagram; adding text is optional. Instagram truly personifies the saying: A pictures speaks a thousand words.
- Instagram Offers to Microblog: Microblogging is so much in trend these days. Microblogging, along with pictures, make it a deadly combination for targeting potential clients online.
- Loaded with Cool Filters: Everyone loves the Instagram filters. They make the pictures beautiful and attractive instantly. People like following the posts that are creative and attractive and Instagram offers these filters for free. The photo filters help to make posts more engaging.
- Instagram Account Insights: Every Instagram business profile is offered free insights tool through which business users can identify the reach of their posts, the engagement in the post, the types of audiences visiting in a time frame, and many more. This way you can easily keep track of profile visits and make an informed decision.
Why Is It Important to Boost Followers on Instagram for Startups?
Instagram is one of the best social marketing sites. If you are not on Instagram, you are missing a massive platform. Almost all kinds of business are there on Instagram and making followers. It promotes your brand, gives you social presence, and keeps your brand name in conversation.
Let’s discuss why it is important to boost your followers on Instagram:
- Visual Media Marketing for your Brand: Whatever may be your product, if you don’t showcase it, you cannot sell it. Instagram offers you a platform where you can showcase your products and gain a real audience for your startup business. Every start up faces an immense struggle to start their business and that to gain real buyers for their product. With media sharing tools, Instagram offers a perfect platform for a startup to showcase their product.
- Real Audience Building Tool: Instagram is one of the most critical media marketing sites on the planet. With more than 200 million active users in a month, you get the most comprehensive base of the audience for your product. With a vast number of active users, you get to present your product online. With Instagram, you can share your products with a significant number of users on a daily basis. Of course, for this, you need to have a good number of followers, and hence it is important to boost followers on Instagram. This is especially true for Startups as they really need more people to know about their product / services.
- Instagram Keeps You Online: Online presence is very important for business these days. By keeping conversation and event planning for products, you gain trust for your brand. With Instagram tools, you can promote your product, offer and plan new events to promote your launch, and gain trustworthy follow-ups for your business. Instagram offers long term solution for your startup ideas.
- Instagram is all About Stories: If you want to be heard, you go for storytelling. Instagram is all about stories. Stories are a fun way to communicate your business online. Stories make them relatable and interesting. It creates an emotional connection with your audience, to which they can relate to and very important from a business perspective.
- Instagram Community is Huge: Share your business on Instagram with huge community pages and hashtags. You can attain most visitors and followers on Instagram than other social media platforms. Form your own dedicated Instagram community, where people share your posts and talk about your business. This gives a boost to your online presence and serves as a good booster for your startup. For this, make use of dedicated hashtags and inspire people to join your community.
6 Instagram Secrets To Boost Instagram Followers
Instagram is a platform for business owners to reach to the masses. It presents tremendous business opportunities and outreach to the targeted audience efficiently. With Instagram posts, you can show your business’s creativity, tell people that you are useful and relatable to the market, and mark your presence in social media to gain their attention.
Here are 6 Instagram secrets to Boost Instagram followers of Startups:
Use Hashtags
This is something that everyone knows, but still a very little attention is paid to this. The goal for you is to engage your visitors and hashtags are essential tools to viral your products. Use the right hashtag for your content so that people relate your stories. Posting new interesting content daily is not enough; you need to add proper hashtags so that your content reaches people who are interested in products / services like you have. Hashtags help your story go viral, and it reaches more and more Instagram users. Make use of one / two word and average length hashtag that depicts your story perfectly.
There are basically three types of hashtags that you should add to your posts:
- Hashtags that can be Associated to Your Brands: These are the hashtags that you create yourself and these get associated with your brand in the long run. They can be your brand name, your brand tagline, or some other unique word / phrase that you want to associate with your brand. A big advantage of such hashtags is that you can also cross-promote your Hashtags so that people who want to share the pictures involving your business can use your hashtags. Add them in your bio and business cards. Let people know the best way to find photos of your business through your brand hashtags.
- Hashtags that Talk About the Product / Service That You are Trying to Sell: Let’s say you are trying to sell mattress. Then your hashtags should definitely include words like “mattress”, “sleep”, “sleeptips”, etc. So, basically, if someone is looking for a product or service like yours, then they should be able to find you by your hashtags. If you have already done keyword research for SEO, then they would play a great role in determining hashtags that people might potentially use to discover your product.
- Hashtags That are Popular: Apart from just reaching out to people who are looking for a product /service like yours, you also want to interject yourself in popular conversations. For example, if there is a recent (positive) event and there is a popular hashtag associated with that, you would want to use that so that people who are following that hashtag might also discover you. These are the people who might not have been actively looking for a product / service like yours, but can be good potential customers. Of course, need to be careful while using such hashtags. Try to stay away from things related to Politics / Religion / Negative stories; try to market yourself by using those can backfire big time.
It is also advisable to use little long hashtags instead using only one-word hashtags. Hashtags tell part of the story you want to convey via your post. The obvious hashtags offer more engagement and sharing capabilities
Use Right Captions
Captions are a short story about your pictures. If you are in business and promoting your product, you need to use the correct captions for your business. The caption describes your product, your company, and also the picture. Sometimes it is helpful to represent your business using a caption. So, your captions should be short and exciting. People like short captions which are apparent and relatable. A little storytelling along with pictures helps to captivate more users and results in more shares. The more the shares, more will be the user engagement on your business page.
Captioning your Instagram pics is one of the important Instagram secrets, as it helps you to get descriptive about your product. For new visitors, it helps as a guide. So make captions useful and also to the point. It adds nice story flow in the posts for which real users are looking for. Get user engagement on your posts and inspire them to share the posts to other people.
Complete Instagram Profile
Your business profile on Instagram is one of the Instagram secrets that engage and boost followers. When someone lands on your business profile on Instagram, it takes only seconds to decide whether to follow your brand or not. The profile bio feeds and post highlights are key elements to determine your brand’s value.
It is advisable to properly brand your Instagram profile page. The profile should be developed as a whole. Even the style of posting and time of posting feeds is essential. The instance you get a follower, you must be assured that you have gained a real honest follower for your brand. And the followers multiply by using the correct profile page strategy. The main elements of the Instagram profile are:
- On the Point Bio: Instagram bio should be short yet descriptive.
- Impressive Profile Photo: The profile is your identity, make it lucrative and distinguishable.
- Relatable and Attractive Stories: Profile stories should be related to your business and use style that makes them attractive.
- Cover Photo: Cover photos for your Instagram highlights make them noticeable.
Make Use of Paid Promotions on Instagram
Instagram is a highly competitive platform for brands and startups. If you need to grow your Instagram followers and make your brand known, using paid promotions is a good idea. Even if you are a budding small business, Instagram has all kinds of packages for you. You run customized ads for your business on Instagram.
Here are some types of ads you can opt for according to your business needs and type of audiences you are targeting.
- Feed Like Ads/Post boost: This type of ads look just like a simple feed which comprises photos and videos. The ads are placed strategically in the feeds of the users to whom your company is targeting.
- Instagram Stories Ads: This type of ads appear on the Instagram Stories when users tap on the stories tab.
- Profile Visit Ads: This adds will help to direct you target your audience to your profile page.
- Shopping Ad: This type of ads include a detailed information about your brand and the product you are selling.
- Video Ads: This type of ads encompases the advertisement of the product in the form of video.
The ads help you to reach your target users. Reach them and make them aware of your business. Do note that creating beautiful and meaningful ads is your responsibility, and not of Instagram. Make sure your ads look awesome, otherwise your money will go waste.
Get Into the Conversation
This is very important and lesser known Instagram secret for any business. Just posting and styling your photos is not enough to gain more followers. You need a 2-way conversation for making your posts engaging. Get into meaningful discussion with the Instagram conversation groups. Share your thoughts and views, and make your mark on the other users. Comment in the posts that relates your niche, and leave your branded hashtags so that people follow you to your page.
Instagram conversations are made through posts, comments, and direct message. Make sure you use all the forms of Instagram conversation points to engage your users. Reply to the visitors’ comments and queries, also make sure you reply on their posts and get into the productive conversation. Even reply on the posts that are using your company hashtags, to assert that you are present online for the related hashtags.
Make Beautiful Instagram Posts
This is actually the most important secret to boost followers on Instagram. Ultimately, Instagram is visual. You can have a tons of hashtags, good caption, and a good story, but if your photo(s) don’t look good, people on Instagram are not gonna like them, and you can forget about getting more followers.
So, the first and foremost, make sure your Instagram posts are absolutely beautiful. They really need to outshine your competitors. Even if you do not have budget to get many photos done, get a few done, but whatever you post, it should be awesome.
In case you don’t have money to invest in a designer or a digital marketing agency, no worries, there are tools out there that can help you out. Check out Canva, it has a special section for Instagram posts which come with pre-built layouts that look good. Of course, these might not be as good as what a professional designer can accomplish, but these would be a lot better than what you might be trying to do yourself
Concluding the topic, the most critical factor that contributes to the Instagram Secrets To Boost Instagram Followers is attention to the detail. The social presence depends upon the trust which is developed with more information. Whether it is your profile picture, or company bio, or feeds, you need to make them presentable as well as real.
Users who are visiting your profile page need to know that they are following real business and not bogus accounts. Build connections with the people who are like minded and ready to target your business opportunities. Develop your own style of feeds that makes them stand out in the crowd. Use the geotagging feature of Instagram to attract users from your target region. This gives you more meaningful followers for your budding business. It is also advisable to keep your profile free from embarrassing posts and feeds that do not relate to your business. Do not engage in any political or religious slugfest.
It is worth using the call to action buttons so that your visitors have a way to contact you. Also, converse with your followers by commenting and liking their posts. Make use of paid shoutouts and use influencers that make your business product more marketable and trustworthy.
If used correctly, Instagram is a large platform for digital marketing. Get into contact with the Instagram influencers and shoutout community who will make your profile page more trustworthy. For more queries and inquiries, you can also contact to instagram help centre. This will help you know the right way to do all these things.
Whatever you do, stay regular, be truthful, and look awesome. This is what will help your startup boost followers on Instagram.