We live in a world of social media. And as a Shopify store owner, your social media presence is crucial.
The more followers you have, the larger audience you have to promote to. This means more engagement, more sales, and more growth.
But getting followers can be… well, kind of a mystery.
Instagram doesn't come with a manual. It doesn't tell you how to get followers when you sign up (hint: it takes more than posting a couple of photos and hoping they gain traction).
On my personal Instagram account, it took me over a year to get 100 followers – mind you, this was when the platform first launched, but I still look back and laughed.
After a few years, I had 400 followers on my personal account. I had no idea how anyone got thousands, let alone millions of followers.
Then I did some research. Using some of the tips I'm going to share with you, my personal account grew from 400 to over 4,000 followers in less than one month.
By using similar tactics, you can increase your brand's followers, too. Let's take a look at some incredible tactics you can use to grow your Instagram followers.
Tactic #1: Complete Your Profile
This one is easy. Don't leave your Instagram profile blank. It looks unprofessional and doesn't entice anyone to follow you.
Your Instagram profile gives you a great opportunity to introduce yourself to your audience and tell them what you're about. There are four sections you should complete on your profile:
Your profile picture
Your name
A short biography
A URL
Your profile image should represent your brand. If you sell shoes, don't make your profile picture one of your dog. Make it of your logo, or your product. Something relevant.
Some like to use wacky names on Instagram, but we recommend against this for business purposes. Your Instagram name should represent your brand – typically, it's going to be your store's name.
As for your bio, you'll have a few sentences to talk about yourself. Use this to promote new products, feature current sales, or briefly explain who you are. You can change this any time, so keep it updated accordingly.
Finally, you can include a URL in your profile. This URL is nothing less than crucial. Your followers can't click on links from your captions, so they'll have to navigate to this URL. Direct it to your home page, your email sign-up sheet, or a current sale you'd like to promote. Without this URL, you're missing out on tons of selling potential.
Tactic #2: Connect With Your Network
Is your Instagram account connected with a Facebook account? Do you have a lot of contacts in your phone?
Good, this means you already have an audience. You just have to tell them you're there.
Connect with your contacts on Instagram and follow them. They'll get the alert, and probably follow you back. This goes for phone contacts and Facebook friends, so promote your profile using both features. This is a great way to bring an initial few hundred or thousand followers to your Instagram page, kickstarting your engagement.
Tactic #3: Post Consistently (And Know How Often to Post)
The more consistent and regular you are with posting, the more followers you'll get.
People want to follow active accounts. When they see you post regularly, they'll feel more inclined to follow.
In addition, posting regularly give you more opportunity for engagement. The more posts you publish, the more chances there are for your audience to see them and engage.
That being said, you don't want to flood anyone's feed with photos. You should post at least once a day, but don't post anymore than twice. If you do post twice in one day, make sure your images are different enough from each other to be relevant, and they're not posted back-to-back. Many users will unfollow you if they feel you're cluttering their feed, so be smart about how much you're posting.
Thanks to Instagram Stories, you can post anytime without cluttering up feeds. This is another Instagram feature you should use to get followers, which we talked about in one of our other Instagram guides.
Tactic #4: Follow Suggested Users
A lot of people will follow you back if you follow them first. A lot.
The idea is to find people in your target audience, and follow them. There are a few ways to do this, but my own personal tactic has earned me more Instagram followers than any other strategy.
Here's what I do:
Find a related account (preferably one with thousands of followers).
Follow the account.
Browse the account's followers.
Follow the account's followers.
Repeat.
You can only follow a handful of people each day thanks to Instagram's most recent updates, but I've experienced very high returns using this method. No one's sure exactly how many accounts you can follow in a day before you're banned, but I suggest you keep it under 50 an hour to be safe.
This tactic really works. You're finding people who are already interested in your niche and drawing them to your brand. Think about it: if Pepsi wants more Instagram followers, why shouldn't they follow Coca-Cola's followers? These users are clearly interested in cola, so there's a good chance they'll follow Pepsi if they already follow Coca-Cola.
Seriously, use this tactic. I've experienced returns as high as 80% using this method, making it the most reliable method for social media growth I've ever used.
Tactic #5: Tag Other Accounts
This tactic works much like the one above. By tagging other relevant accounts in your Instagram posts, you suddenly become visible to their audience as well as your own.
How effective is tagging others at increasing engagement? According to Simply Measured, posts with tagged users experience 37 percent more engagment than those without.
And this is only the beginning. If you're lucky, one of the brands you've tagged might re-post your photo, presenting you to their entire audience in one fell swoop.
If you're not tagging anyone in your Instagram posts, you're missing out on crazy amounts of followers.
Tactic #6: Include Your Location
We've been able to geotag our Instagram posts for a long time now. And it's an excellent way to attract new followers.
Instagram users can conduct searches based on location. If you geotag yourself at the Empire State Building, your post will be visible to anyone searching for that location.
Geotag yourself at a relevant location with each of your posts. This will open you up to new audiences and help you attain new followers.
What are your tips for getting more followers on Instagram? Let us know in the comments below!
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