If you are starting an Instagram account for your company, check out some tips we have for you to gain followers on the social network.
For some time now, Instagram stopped being just a fun program to post photos and became a powerful Marketing tool Digital, to gain engaged followers and convert them into potential customers.
As new functions were incorporated, such as Stories and Ads, Instagram began to have increasingly dizzying growth: in April 2017 it already had 700 million users throughout the world, aimed at belonging to the select group ofsocial networks with more than one billion users real instagram followers, in which is Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp.
Statistical data shows that having an Instagram strategy can be a good way to gain visibility, attraction and recognition of your company’s brand.
If you are starting – or want to start – with an account for your company on Instagram, we bring you some tips to gain your first followers on this social network.
It is important to remember that in this post we do not offer you advice on buying followers or other illegitimate ways to gain likes, since we believe that the best thing to do to achieve this is to produce interesting content and thus gain organic followers on the social network.
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1. Switch to a business profile and optimize your information
If this tip sounds like a beginner’s tip to you, you can skip to the next item!
However, we have to start with the basics. It is important to complete and optimize some information on your profile before looking for followers.
First of all, if you have a business, you must convert your personal profile to a business profile. It’s fast, simple, and allows your account to have access to various information that is not available for personal profiles. You just need to have a Facebook page.
To do this, go to the Instagram settings page and click on Switch to business profile. You must accept the request to link your page to the application and complete the information regarding the telephone, email and address. That will help your clients contact you.
Also, choose a short, easy-to-remember username – in case you already have one that isn’t very good, you can change it. We chose @RDStationEspanol.
On the settings page, don’t forget to complete the field Name, which will appear in bold just below your profile photo . Choose the type of company that best suits your market and complete the biography with an informative and impactful phrase.
It is important that your profile is visually attractive and that, at first glance, visitors instantly know what it is about.< /span> If you are present on other social networks, you must unify criteria. Use the same profile photo and, if possible, the same username.
The biography text box is valuable, since it is the only one that allows you to insert links. Take advantage of it to spread your website and occasionally other interesting links, such as that rich material or fascinating blog. Shorten the addresses with tools likeBitly to improve the presentation or use Linktree to group all the links you want in a single url.
If you are starting to look for likes now, before publishing your profile, it is important to have some photos published. When producing these images, remember that on Instagram, the quality of the images matters a lot. This way, when people come to your profile, they can see that you produce good content.
Also don’t forget to promote your Instagram account on other social networks where you are present. If someone already follows your company on Facebook or Twitter, they probably won’t mind following you on another social network as well.
2. Interact with your followers and other users of the social network
Here on the RD blog, we insist a lot on the idea thatbuying email lists is crazy, and the same applies to Instagram followers.
An organic way to gain followers on the social network is by following accounts of associated companies and well-known people in your market who are interesting for your business. Once you follow them, interact with them, share posts and make comments.
In this way, you also attract attention to your profile, exchange ideas and get inspired by the content of those who have been on the social network for the longest time.
The idea is, therefore, to participate in the conversations of others and make interesting comments. It is no use sending comments with the typical “follow me”, because in practice it means spam!
Likewise, as you gain followers, interact with them. Show them interest by responding to comments, follow the profiles you think you should follow and participate in the content they publish.
3. Tell a story in the caption
Just because Instagram is a social network whose focus is images doesn’t mean you need to leave your captions aside.
Take advantage of that space for text to tell an interesting story about your photos that complements them. It is a great opportunity to share the details that the image does not show and thus gain complicity with your user.
Writing may seem difficult at first, but soon you will develop atone of voice for your company that will differentiate it from others.
4. Look for hashtags with high volume of posts
On Instagram, hashtags play a very important role, as they group posts from users who are not connected on a single page.
Thus, if you use relevant hashtags, your posts will be exposed to an audience larger than that represented by your followers and larger than that represented by people who already know your brand.
Among the topics that are related to your company, look for those that are most popular.
To do this, you just have to type a word preceded by # in your Instagram search to see the number of publications. By doing this, the social network also suggests some similar hashtags for you.
Another tip is to follow hashtags popular among users in general, such as #tbt (Throw Back Thursday), to post old photos on Thursdays. However, don’t push the bar with popular hashtags that are unrelated to your content, just to appear in a very popular search.
5. Create hashtags for your company or event
When you gain followers and want to spread the word about a specific event, product, or other action, it’s worth starting a hashtag from scratch. It is a good way to involve your audience and gain presence on the social network.
During the Digital Marketing events promoted by RD Station—theRD Summit and theRD on the Road — for example, we encourage participants to use the hashtags we create. The idea is to closely follow photos and opinions about the meetings, in addition to creating a feeling of participation and integration.
6. Use Instagram Stories
The Stories tool, launched by Instagram in 2016, was well received among users, and companies began to use it as well.
Here at RD, we have used Stories to disseminate our posts and rich materials, as well as for other more ephemeral events that do not merit a post on the social network.
Although it is important to take good photos and use filters on those that will be published on the conventional timeline, Stories is the space to place less retouched images. That’s why you can use it to show a more relaxed approach to the real day-to-day life of your company, like behind the scenes.
Similarly, over time, Instagram launched other new features, gathering, for example, all the Stories on one page, according to the place of publication or according to the hashtags used. If you have a local business, it is a particularly useful option, as it allows you to promote the company in your region.
However, the benefits are not restricted to local businesses, because with the hashtags, for example, you can make publications marking the subject of your business or others< a i=2>keywords.In addition, it is also possible to use them to take advantage of people’s collaboration, in case you were to hold an event, for example.
There is also the option to make live broadcasts on Instagram through Stories, which remain available for 24 hours.
Would you be interested in making Stories for your company? Be sure to read our materialImage sizes for Facebook and Instagram, with all measurements (even Stories), an infographic and Photoshop templates to download.
The last update of the platform was IGTV or Instagram TV. It is a vertical video application created primarily for smartphones.
Unlike Instagram, it allows users to upload videos of up to 10 minutes or up to 60 minutes, if you are a verified account. This service was launched in June 2018 and we are sure that it will give a lot to talk about in the future.
8. Hold a giveaway or contest to gain followers
Another way to expand your fan base is to do a giveaway asking interested parties to like your page and comment on the post, as prerequisites to participate. After all, who doesn’t like winning a gift?
The award can also be carried out in a contest format, this being an opportunity to obtain generated content by users. Ask people to post photos of themselves using a specific hashtag, in addition to following your profile.
However, before getting your hands dirty and doing the draw or contest, it is important to be aware of the rules. In Brazil, for example, the regulatory body for these actions is the Caixa Econômica Federal. Therefore, it is important to read the rules of the institution, as well as theorientations of Instagram itself.
Bonus tip: invest in a social media management tool. In addition to ensuring your frequency by scheduling posts, a social media tool will help you track your performance, interact with followers, and integrate the management of other networks in the same place.
We invite you to also take the opportunity to like theRD profile on Instagramand follow our news closely.
This post was originally written by Mônica Custódio in Portuguese and contains adaptations made by the author for the Latin American and Spanish markets.