There isn’t a brand, an influencer, or practically an individual who doesn’t want to get more Instagram followers. Technically, building an audience of followers on Instagram is everyone’s priority and a thing that everyone strives for. The more people and potential customers there are, the better it is for your community or brand.
In a sea full of Instagram goals and objectives, the number of Instagram followers reflects the success of your efforts. Therefore, having more and more followers means you are doing things right and that your message is being well-received and resonating with the audience.
In 2021, getting more Instagram followers is not as important as getting more real Instagram followers. This means that having organic impressions are more relevant to brands than just having many followers.
Ever since Instagram outgrew its impression as a fun photo-sharing app and transformed into a vehicle for driving sales and a serious content marketing, selling, and audience building tool, how you can get more followers have also changed.
With a 58 times greater engagement than Facebook, there is so much to do on Instagram. Whether you are a big brand or are just wondering how to become famous on Instagram, you should reach for the stars – but only through real followers.
Below, we are listing some of the best ideas for attracting real followers in 2021.
Building A Base Of REAL Instagram Followers: What Does It Take?
If you want to get more Instagram followers in 2021, you have everyone’s dream. The thing you need to do most pays attention to what your Instagram profile looks like as a whole.
Some of the best practices in this manner include:
Getting more Instagram followers with a branded and complete profile – If you want more followers this year, you need to make sure that your Instagram profile looks complete as a whole. The truth is, your visitors can easily decide whether to follow you or not – by quickly scrolling through your feed, reading your bio, or clicking on your stories highlights. So make their time worth it.
Introducing Your Brand Through Stories Highlights – The highlights on your Instagram profile can be your best opportunity to court new followers with your best content and give them a sense of what your business is all about.
Use Hashtags And Location Tags In Your Instagram Stories – GIFs, music, shopping stickers, questions, polls… There are many creative tools you can use to get more creative with your Instagram Stories, reach new audiences, and boost your followers. Instagram Stories appear on the Instagram Explore page, which means that people who don’t even follow you can still find you – and watch your stories.
Create Ads That Help You Get More Followers – With Instagram Ads, there is a real opportunity to build your followers, especially when you present the right type of ads to new audiences. Running your own ad campaign is not that difficult but can be intimidating to many people. So think about the best way to reach your target audience, whether it’s through a Story or a post.
How To Get More Instagram Followers: 9 Marketing Tactics That Work
One thing is certain – if you want more Instagram followers, you need better content.
So, how to actually increase your Instagram follower count, get more followers and engage them?
We are listing our 10 greatest Instagram marketing tactics you can start using today.
Hashtags
Known as one of the greatest ways to increase your exposure, engage your audience, and get more Instagram followers, hashtags are important nowadays. However, the line between using hashtags – and actually overusing them – is quite tiny. The best way to never enter this tempting territory is to know the basic facts about hashtags, including:
- Being specific when using them;
- Catering them to the social network, you are using;
- Coming up with relevant and unbranded hashtags;
- Being short and punchy;
- Going with fewer hashtags than words;
- Not hashtagging everything.
Using a branded hashtag is another way to create a community among you and your followers. Your brand can benefit by increasing your exposure to new customers, and the customers will love the content they see from your brand.
So, hashtags are generally good for motivating the Instagram community to engage with your brand and show user-generated content on your Instagram page.
Host takeovers
Many businesses would agree that they fall into a certain category with a certain space and market in the community. As such, it needs to connect with other members of the community. The best way to do this is by hosting an Instagram takeover. Wait, what is an Instagram takeover?
Well, technically, it is all about inviting an influencer, employee, ambassador, or active member in your community to take over your Instagram feed for the day. They would have all the freedom to write posts, engage with the audience and most importantly – help you achieve some of your most priority social media goals.
Whether you want to boost your audience’s engagement, get more Instagram followers, or build a unique Instagram brand voice, it is definitely a tactic you should consider.
And if you want to learn how to connect with takeover candidates and start your takeover, follow these tips:
- start commenting on or liking the potential candidate’s photos to get a feel for their brand voice
- take photos with other company’s products and tag them to earn attention
- make connections and approach everyone, no matter how many Instagram followers they have
- review your voice and brand language
- consider the candidate’s community and how targeted it is to your audience
At the end of the day, if you can’t find a strong Instagram candidate, you can always browse through the online space and hire someone who advertises himself in that field of services.
Hold a contest
Contests are another great way to get more followers on Instagram. We all love free things – and although you might hate giving something away at no price – the best price can be the engagement itself. Moreover, the upfront cost of the prize can be more worth it if you consider the advertising or the marketing costs initially. If it creates a buzz and gets you hundreds (or thousands) of new followers, then your strategy is absolutely worth it.
Running a contest is also a great way to reward your loyal and current followers. There are three general types of contests nowadays present on Instagram:
- ‘Like to win’ contests – where participants enter by liking your photos
- commenting contests – where participants comment to enter
- ‘choose your own adventure’ contests – where participants follow through a series of your photos to find the winning one
The best contest is one that uses user-generated content to engage the community and grow your following. So, it is ideal if you ask your audience to post a relevant photo to Instagram and have them use your custom contest hashtag.
This way, you will not only hold a contest but also build a community engaged with the hashtag!
Work with brand ambassadors in your industry/niche.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXTCCquATxQ/?taken-by=calvinklein
A great way to gain Instagram followers is by working with brand ambassadors. As you probably know, these people are essentially followed by many people in your industry and somehow fit for endorsing your products and services and embodying your corporate identity in appearance, values, voice, and demeanor.
In other words, brand ambassadors are here to help you peak into your audience and introduce you to the thousands of potential customers that your brand can benefit from. And if you are still wondering why having these brand ambassadors is good, the reasons are here:
- They will humanize your brand;
- They will help you increase your social reach;
- They will help you protect your online reputation;
- They will provide positive word-of-mouth for your products or services;
- They will help you increase traffic to your website;
- They will help you increase awareness of your brand in regions where you aren’t present.
So, in a nutshell, brand ambassadors are a vital part of your social media team – but not one that is directly attached to it. They have the community and share your values and can bring nothing but support for your brand.
Find your community
There are more than 700 million profiles on Instagram right now. No matter your brand’s niche or industry, there is a huge chance to build your community and find your people. So, how to join and connect with your audience?
Building a community starts with:
- Seeking top influencers within the community and seeing their follower base
- Using hashtags that are commonly used within the community
- Posting content that is similar to the top accounts in the community
- Seeing how the audience responds to certain posts (contests, giveaways, special offers, etc.)
- Seeing who the top influencers in the field mention and tag in their posts, and in what context
As soon as you do this, your efforts shall start. The best way to nurture new people is to:
- Tell your story – even from your bio, present your brand in the clearest way possible.
- Make your content shareable – only post quality content that your community would share
- Host offline, in-person events with purpose – to see what you expect from your social efforts and what the community expects as well
- Ask yourself why you are building a community in the first place
At the end of the day, having a community is very important and the core to your brand’s success.
Use video
According to a lot of research, video is the key to success in social media marketing this year. So, if you are ready to bring more attention to your Instagram profile and get more followers, likes, and comments on Instagram – using video is your safe bet.
The beauty of motion and dynamics has helped a lot of brands to increase their following.
To be precise, Instagram videos see twice the engagement rate of photos. This is making them great for everyone and, most importantly, great for your community. Everyone likes clear, fun, and engaging videos.
To ensure that your followers will re-share the video or tag one of their friends in the comment box, make sure to:
- Design your videos to be easily shareable;
- Use the power of storytelling;
- Make the customer a hero and engage them;
- Tap into the emotions of your audience (which is key to sharing).
Ver essa foto no Instagram
You can do whatever your creativity spark ignites to gain more followers via video:
- shoot a product demo
- describe your new services
- create a visual portfolio of your work
- shoot behind-the-scenes moments
- highlight special offers and events
- humanize your brand and
Be strategic with your posts.
Your Instagram marketing efforts should be strategic in the first place. It is maybe tough to try and gain more Instagram followers if they aren’t on Instagram when you are posting your best content, but that is why you should be strategic in all means.
At first, you need to think about something obvious that many marketers forget to pay attention to – your audience’s time zone.
If you are marketing your brand to a local community, the best way to engage with them is to post early in the morning during their commutes or in the evening before they are going to bed.
In a nutshell, testing how your photos perform at different times of the day will give you a solid answer on when and how to post.
Like and comment on photos and videos.
We all know that liking and commenting is a great way to grow a profile. This is a no-brainer but also a technique that should be used adequately. In other words, liking anything and everything will not be good if you want to build a community or make connections.
A better strategy is to like the content within your industry and show everyone your appreciation (as a brand in that field).
It takes a millisecond to like an Instagram photo, but it is always great for bringing your brand to the forefront of a user’s mind.
Not only are you able to get more followers on Instagram with this technique – you will appear more often in the ‘Following’ feed of your existing followers and therefore be more present on the social network.
And if you don’t know the best place to start, just hit the magnifying glass icon named ‘Explore’ and start discovering new photos and videos!
P.S. As of recently, Instagram also allows you to like and reply to the comments on your photos, which makes it great to respond to everyone following you and show them that you care.
Ask questions
Asking questions is a great way to gain more Instagram followers, no matter whether it’s a part of a contest you are running or a means of engaging with your audience.
For example, if your business has a new line of products, you can ask your followers about their thoughts on them. This way, you will passively create interest in their heads and boost the excitement.
Another great way to peek into the nature of your followers is to ask questions that are relevant to their needs or style. For example, if you are a fashion brand advertising a new line of products, you can always ask your followers how they would wear them, what makes the products unique, etc.
Generally, the main idea is to ask the right questions and never be generic with this. Only that way, your audience will respond with valuable insight that you can use to get to know them better.
A Final Word About Getting More Followers
The bottom line is that once you build a solid relationship with your existing followers, you will find it easier to get more Instagram followers and peak into an audience similar to your own. At the same time, people will see you as more credible in the industry and follow you.
The more natural and less spammy your approach is – the more original profile you will have – followed by more and more users!
