A large following on Instagram can be a great thing n both a personal and a business level. Personally having more followers can make you feel a greater part of the online community, and as a business you can attract much more custom if you have a large following. Building a great following isn’t always easy however, as my friend Bharat Bhise found out when he launched a restaurant and sought too market through Instagram. Over time however he has managed to consistently build more and more followers which have helped increase sales and brand awareness for his restaurant, and here is how you can do the same.
Content Focus
Far too many people think that they can just post any old content and expect it to do well, this however just isn’t the case and it is essential that no matter how many followers you have, that you are laying heavy focus on the quality of the content. Think about how much content people on Instagram see every single day, you have to do something to stand out and that starts with providing value. High quality images, pertinent information and ensuring that the content is creative, all of these things are crucial when creating content. It may be discouraging when the followers aren’t there, but high quality content will help to bring more in.
Hash and Geo Tags
Hashtags on Twitter really only work to help certain topics trend, and there needs to be a lot of them in order for this to happen. On Instagram however hashtags and geotags are the keys to increasing your followers. People can actually follow hashtags, which gives them an array of new accounts on their feed which they can then choose to follow. Geotags are great for businesses as people actually use Instagram to find businesses near them. If you use hashtagging well, you’ll start to see more people checking out your page and following.
Engaging
You absolutely must remember to engage as much as you possibly can with those who are commenting on your content. The reason for this is that social media is a community and you cannot just expect to receive, without giving something back. Remember that many people will check out your page before they follow, so you need to give them a reason to hit that follow button. The first thing that people will be looking at is the quality of the content on your page, and then they’ll see whether or not you interact, if you tick both boxes then you can count on seeing more and more followers.
Finally it is important to stay relevant and share content based on trending topics. If you have an Italian restaurant and today ins International Pizza day, you should be going crazy with content sharing, using hashtags and the power of your content to tap into these trending events and grow your followers in this way.