How to Grow Your Real Instagram Audience – Tips and Insights from Social Media Marketing Pros

Most brands have realized the vital role of social media, particularly Instagram, in driving their brand reach and boosting customer engagement. However, building a large and loyal following can take a lot of time and effort, particularly if you are relying only on posting attractive pictures. If your brand’s presence on Instagram is not a vibrant as it should be, the first thing you need to look at is how to increase the number of real followers because the larger the number of followers, the more opportunities you have of engaging them with unique experiences and building a loyal and invested community. You need to understand that you need to acquire Instagram followers from among your target audience because even though it can be all to easy to get random people to follow you, it can be a sheer waste of time and effort trying to engage and convert them into customers. Some of the most effective ways of building your Instagram following:

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Optimize Your Instagram Account

The first step you need to take as an Instagram marketer, even before thinking of increasing your follower base, is to ensure that your account on Instagram is fully optimized. Make sure that your bio has all the information a first-time user needs to understand who you are, what do you do, and how he can benefit by associating with you. You can think it to be the home page of your Instagram account. If you consider it carefully, you will appreciate the bio section is the foundation of your Instagram account, especially since it contains the all-important link to your website. The link should ideally drive the user clicking on it to a landing page specially designed for promoting conversions instead of the website homepage. One of the main elements of bio-optimization is keeping your username search-friendly. Typically, the best method is to use your brand name or business name or its derivative that is easy to pronounce and type. Keeping it aligned to your other social media handles can be a good idea.

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Maintain Consistency of Posting Content

Since Instagram followers like predictability, posting at random times is not conducive to the acquisition of new followers. The best way of attracting attention is to ensure that you post consistently according to a pre-defined schedule. Depending on the nature of your industry, you will need to decide the frequency of your posts. For some businesses, it could mean several times per day, while for others, once every few days is adequate. The point is to remain at the top of the mind of your followers, yet not annoy them with too many posts. To ensure that your posts are seen by the maximum number of people, you need to establish the times they are most active on Instagram and post accordingly. Some amount of experimentation by posting at different times of the day will provide an insight regarding the optimum time for posting. By sticking to a fixed schedule, you can help your followers enjoy a consistent experience that builds brand loyalty and higher engagement.

Schedule Posts in Advance

After you have established the best times for posting on Instagram, you should schedule them in advance with the help of a content scheduling tool. By creating and scheduling your content in advance, you do not have to rush around at the last minute, for appropriate content. You can also ensure that your content achieves better visibility among your target audience since you will be posting at the most optimal times. Additionally, when your content is scheduled in advance, your marketing team can view the campaigns in detail so that they are better prepared to deal with customer responses. You can even consider working with digital marketing agencies like Blastup.com.

Encourage User-Generated Content

The larger the number of your followers, the more customers you are likely to have. There is no doubt that the best way of converting them is to boost the visibility of your content, especially content that is relevant and interesting. User-generated content fulfills the requirement admirably. Not only is content generated by your follower more authentic and also these campaigns provide vital social proof that is often the tipping point for conversions. According to Social Media Today, 92% of consumers trust user-generated content more than traditional advertising. Another advantage of featuring user-generated content is that the recognition encourages and motivates followers to do the same. By generating copious amounts of user-generated content, you can not only have more flexibility in the kind of content you are posting but also your workload of generating a stream of relevant and interesting content is reduced.

Leverage the Power of Influencers

Another productive way of getting your brand in front of a large target audience is by collaborating with influencers with a large user base having the same kind of audience demographics that are relevant to your brand. These Instagram users exert considerable influence that can be leveraged by you. Brands can work with them to publish sponsored posts that are not only visible but a very large audience but also benefit from their recommendations for purchase. It is important to get influencers that have the right fit with the brand for the maximum benefit. Since macro-influencers charge a huge amount per sponsored post, it may be wider to use micro or even nano influencers to increase your brand reach. The number of followers is far smaller; however, you get the benefit of a significantly higher rate of engagement.

Conclusion

It is important to appreciate the getting new Instagram followers by the bucketful can only be a result of posting content that is relevant, interesting, original, value-added, and above all, entertaining. It can be a tall order to find content that your target audience likes but you will need to do it sooner than later if you are going to make your Instagram marketing campaigns successful. Even if you get the core content right, the critical difference is often made by the way you present it. Videos, typically, generate more engagement than still photos, while formats like live streaming, infographics, carousel posts, or aesthetics like the application of filters and pity captions can work in your favor. By undertaking competitive research, you can often discover the secrets of success of building a vibrant following on Instagram.

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