Instagram offers a paid advertising, which at the moment is available only for the worldwide brands with famous names. Small companies don’t have such an opportunity – at least for now. But despair not: there are plenty of organic ways you can promote your brand on Instagram and target your audience for free.
Here are 6 tips that will get you a vast follower base:
1. Relate to your followers
Understand your customers. Think what are they looking for on Instagram – updates on their friends, pretty pictures of food and nature, funny stories? Then think how you can connect their needs with what your business has to offer. Do not overdo it: if your customers want pretty food pictures and you’re selling gasoline, bending to the customers’ needs in this case might not be the best idea.
2. Keep a decent pace
Do not overpost. Seriously, don’t. If you update your account every 30 minutes with unnecessary data or similar pictures – and even if the pictures are not similar, but bright and vivid – people will very soon grow tired of your brand and might even unfollow you. Which, let me remind you, is the exact opposite of our goal in this article. So get a hold of yourself!
3. Promote your Instagram
You should promote your account everywhere: in emails, on other social platforms, on the company’s website and so on. Whenever it’s possible, add an Instagram icon to the code.
Also, since Facebook has bought Instagram a while ago, use an opportunity to link your accounts on these platforms – it will boost the reach.
Repost your Instagram photos to your company’s Twitter and personal accounts.
4. Don’t hesitate to use Instagram’s features
Instagram offers a lot of opportunities to beautify your photos, track performance, and stay on-top of changes. These three are a must:
- Explore all of the Instagram’s filters, special effects, and editing tools. Among the most popular filters are Low-Fi, Valencia, and X-Pro II. Use them to make your photos look stunning!
- Use business tools to analyze the performance of your posts. The tools include impressions, reach, engagement, ad insights. They can help you understand which of your ideas work, and which – not so much, and, most importantly, why.
5: Get ideas from others
There is a vast amount of wonderful, creative brands on the Instagram and you can use them to learn and get new ideas. Copy best strategies with your own unique touch. Also, listen to your fans’ ideas.
6: Connect with your followers
Apart from promoting your Instagram account, posting bright images and using popular hashtag there is one more important step for becoming successful - interacting with your followers and the targeted audience – people you want to become your followers. Start liking, commenting and following other accounts in your field. The more active you are, the more noticeable your account is. Find popular hashtags and start writing and commenting! Don’t forget to thank people for interesting posts and beautiful photos!
If you don’t get thousands of new followers after following these tips then you’re doing something very wrong.