articleslider

We’ve been talking lately about how exactly to boost your organization marketing with Instagram. Contrary to what many people still believe, Instagram is not only a fun app where you could post food, holiday and family pics.

Instagram has turned into a powerful brand-building, audience-building and content-marketing tool for businesses. It has over 200 million active monthly members sharing 60 million images and 1.6 billion likes per day.

A note of caution: there are several people out there who promise to cultivate your Instagram followers by the thousands, but beware. Most of them use fake accounts created by bots to inflate your numbers.

These kinds of followers have zero value. In fact, they are able to even be dangerous, wanting to steal your password or photos or infect you with a virus.

Based on the data security company Imperva, these bad bots take into account 28.9 per cent of bots on Instagram.

The easiest way to build your Instagram followers is by being authentic to your brand as well as your audience.

Here are 3 tips to help you to get real Instagram followers:

Tell a tale with Hashtags

It’s great to use your business name as a hashtag, but you need to think beyond that.

To be able to use your Instagram posts to get followers, use other hashtags that tell the story of the image you’re sharing. You want to start a conversation if you are sharing posts for things like:

Events

Promotions

Contests

Product launches

A good example of a brandname who does this well is @Tostitos. They use the hashtag #GetTogetherAlready to encourage visitors to gather and share their chips, and to use the hashtag when they share photos of their meetups.

By using engaging, relevant hashtags, you can be discovered in Instagram searches and hopefully build-up followers on Instagram.

Get Creative

Instagram is centered on photos, so many people think about the caption being an afterthought.

Don’t neglect the image caption! You can generate engagement and promote sharing through the use of descriptive words which will engage, inspire and entertain your followers.

Here are some ideas to help you build-up followers on Instagram together with your posts:

Use questions in your caption. Write your question at the beginning of the post in order that people see it first.

Get personal with your post. Tell a story about yourself, or how your product helped or inspired someone else.

Ask visitors to tag others. Asking visitors to tag three of their best friends or tagging someone they’re grateful for brings other potential followers in to the equation.

A great example of a brandname that does personal posts well may be the @NatGeo Instagram account.

They create breathtaking Instagram Stories with informative captions to teach the user on the plight of animals around the world.

Remember in terms of using Instagram posts to obtain followers, it’s about being authentic. Avoid questions atlanta divorce attorneys single post or tell a personal story that isn’t genuine.

Go Local

One of the best methods to build your Instagram followers is to get to know your neighbours!

Whether you’re creating Instagram ads or want to promote your event in a specific area, you can see what’s going on near you by visiting the search page and clicking on the Places tab.

Type in the positioning to start to see the geotagged posts for that area. Then visit relevant and recent tagged posts – not those of competing businesses, obviously – and leave a comment or even an emoji and follow the person if you like everything you see. Hopefully, this is the start of a natural interaction.

For example, if you offer life coaching services, you could type in your location followed by “entrepreneurs.” Local entrepreneurs could be looking for more work and life balance or help with life goals or career challenges.

Similarly, should you have a physical location that folks have checked into on Instagram, comment on those posters’ pictures to ensure they’re alert to your Instagram presence, and follow them.

buy IG likes are some of the best methods to build Instagram followers the proper way: no bots, no shortcuts, just old ways to engage with your audience and turn them into followers!

Susan Friesen, founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING Advisor. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with having the insufficient knowledge, skill and support needed to create their online business presence.