How many times have you logged into Instagram only to see a follower number that’s smaller than you wanted, or worse, smaller than the last time you checked? We’ve all been there.
Getting new organic, engaged followers can be a difficult task. Your follower count certainly isn’t the end-all, be-all of Instagram. In fact, your engagement rate is definitely more important. Even so, having a consistent growth strategy will help you ensure that your brand and messaging are consistently reaching new accounts, building your network and creating more opportunities to form connections with your followers.
But it can be tricky to get Instagram followers who are genuinely interested in your brand and product. So we’ve compiled our five best acquisition strategies to help you get Instagram followers.
1. Get Instagram followers using an organic Instagram growth service
No, we’re not talking about a spammy platform that’s just going to inflate your numbers with a bunch of unengaged bots. We’d never recommend something like that to you.
We’re talking about Kicksta, the Instagram growth service that will get you real organic followers who want to follow you and engage with your content. When you work with Kicksta, you provide a list of accounts whose followers are similar to your ideal followers. From there, Kicksta gets to work, liking their posts on your behalf to spark their curiosity. If they’re interested, they’ll visit your profile and decide whether or not they want to follow you. Because your potential followers choose to follow you, you know they’re excited to be here.
Kicksta is based on engagement marketing, meaning that people are more likely to be interested in brands that take the time to be interested in them. Many social media experts recommend this as a way to increase followers – leaving comments and likes on potential followers’ profiles helps catch their attention. But doing this manually can take a long time – and it’s so easy to get distracted on Instagram! Kicksta helps you reap the rewards without putting the time into too many double-taps.
2. Stick with a consistent theme to spark potential followers’ interests to your profile.
In order to follow you, your potential followers have to land on your profile. People are protective of their social media accounts – they don’t want to follow just anyone. So, the way your profile looks can have a major impact on whether or not they choose to follow you. Above all, you want to be authentic on Instagram – your followers will be able to tell if you’re being your true self.
If possible, create a theme for your profile. Maybe you have a pattern of things you post. (Ex. every other post is a quote) Or maybe you have a particular preset filter that you use on any photo to create a cohesive feel.
Think about your brand values and what interests your audience. This can take some trial and error, as you experiment. Maybe you’ll find out that your audience doesn’t like quote graphics at all. As with anything on social media, your strategy will end up being different from anyone else’s because your audience is different from anyone else’s.
If you’re still stumped, we’ve gathered some of our favorite theme ideas.
Color Blocking: Make each post as full of color as possible. Each post can have a different color.
Black and White: You can do full black and white or add a pop of color here and there, depending on your brand.
Color Coordinate Each Post: Choose one (or two or three if you really must) colors to be your brand’s color. Then, make sure each of your posts highlights that color.
Use Borders: Whether you want to use white borders, black borders, vertical borders, horizontal borders or some combination of these, you can create a cohesive theme on your page.
Puzzle Theme: This can be as complex or subtle as you like. As you can see here, there’s a subtle puzzle, with elements of the background of each post matching up with one another. What’s important to remember with a puzzle theme is to make sure that each image individually makes sense and provides value to your viewers.
There are so many different ideas for themes, but these are a few to get you started. If you want some more ideas, visit some of your favorite brands for inspiration and see what they do.
3. Use Hashtags (the Right Way)
Hashtags are one of the best tools you have to get Instagram followers, and many people don’t use them correctly – or at least not to their fullest potential. Hashtags allow you to fairly easily get your posts in front of people who don’t follow you. To do that though, you have to be using hashtags that they’re actually searching.
The first step in creating a rock-solid Instagram hashtag strategy is to think about your followers and what hashtags they’re actually typing into the search bar. Using hashtags that make sense to you, but that your potential followers aren’t using isn’t going to help you reach them.
First of all, don’t use generic hashtags. Adding #winter or #lunch isn’t going to attract your followers. Sure, they might be checking out those hashtags, but so are millions of other people who aren’t going to resonate with your posts and want to follow you.
Avoid using hashtags with over 1 million posts. These hashtags are too large, and unless your brand is already crushing the Instagram game, your posts will probably get lost in the noise.
At the same point in time, you might not want to use hyper-specific branded hashtags unless your brand is very well-known or unless you’re running a campaign using the hashtag. This can be a great way to keep campaign posts together, especially if you’re getting user-generated content through the campaign.
Make sure you use hashtags that fit your brand, but also those that fit the post itself. Instagram knows if your hashtags make sense with your image and caption, and if something seems off they could penalize you. If you post a photo of a dog, using the hashtag #waterslide probably isn’t a great choice.
Use hashtags in your stories and in your bio. People can find you in both places, and you want to get as much visibility as possible.
On a typical feed post, you can use up to 30 hashtags, so use a mix of hashtags so you can include your brand, your image, your caption and anything else you want to cover. Just make sure you’re using hashtags that other people are searching.
4. Collaborate with Other Brands or Influencers
Working with others can be a great way to get your brand and account in front of another audience that could be interested in following you. Before you get started working with another brand, make sure your goals align and that you have the same type of Instagram followers. If you partner with someone completely out of your niche , why would their followers be interested in your brand?
You can run a contest with them, swap content, or do Instagram story takeovers. Contests work very well, as more people are likely to actually engage and follow you if there’s something in it for them. Work with your partner to ensure that you’re providing good value for their followers too.
While these collaborations are running, cross-promote them on other platforms. Send your Facebook followers, customers, and email list over to enter the giveaway happening on Instagram. Not only can this help you capture more of your existing fans if they aren’t already following you on Instagram, but they might also want to share it with their friends.
5. Content is Key
At the end of the day, the content you’re creating is what will make or break your account, followers, and engagement. If you use the tips above, you’ll have a beautifully themed feed and aesthetically-pleasing profile in no time. This will certainly grab your potential Instagram followers’ attention. Then it’s your content itself that will help them make the choice to actually follow you.
Experiment with different types of content to see what resonates with your audience. Video content in both IGTV and Instagram live is on the rise. People are spending more time watching video on Instagram – in fact, that time is up 80% year over year. And users are producing four times as many videos every day. If you haven’t already jumped into the video game, this is your chance.
Before you end any post, you want to ensure you add a call-to-action to help guide your audience to the next right step. CTAs fit in any type of content, whether it’s a caption of a feed post, a story, an IGTV video, or a collaboration with another brand. Ask your audience to engage with your stories using a feature sticker. Engagement makes them more likely to return. You can always ask them for the follow too, if you’d rather just be outright about it – maybe it will work well for your audience!
Wrapping things up
These five strategies work well individually to help you get Instagram followers. But have you thought about how well they could work if you implemented all of them together? You don’t have to implement them all at once. However, if you can ramp up to eventually using all five, your organic follower growth will be on fire.
For example, when you’re using an Instagram growth service to attract real potential followers to your account, they’re going to check out your profile before they make their following decision. This is your chance to catch their attention with stellar content and a cohesive-looking profile. The same goes for the Instagram followers you attract through hashtags or brand partnerships.
Using these five acquisition strategies isn’t hard. They’re fairly simple strategies, but the results can be profound. Choose your favorite and get started to start seeing more Instagram followers.
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