How to Grow Your Instagram Community Using 5 Simple Tactics

By Sarah Giometti | Business

Jun 21
How to Grow Your Instagram Community Using 5 Simple Tactics

While many social media platforms have made it more difficult to organically reach followers, Instagram remains a platform where such interactions are simple. In fact, brands maintain regular engagement with around 4% of their followers on Instagram (which may not seem like much but is massive compared to the less than .1% of the followers typically reached on platforms like Facebook and Twitter). With over 300 million active daily Instagram users, the number of customers you can potentially reach when you grow your Instagram community is massive.

Unfortunately, knowing how to grow your Instagram community effectively remains a challenge for many small businesses. After all, with such a fun, informal platform, it can become a challenge to know how to effectively interact. Luckily, there are five simple tactics you can use to grow your Instagram community quickly and effectively.

  1. Post photos or videos every day that support a curated theme. If you want to reach people through Instagram, you’ve got to maintain an active presence. That means posting every single day– and ideally more than once. Of course, it’s not enough to just post at random. You’ve got to curate a theme. Consider what five words you want people to associate with your brand, and then curate Instagram posts that drive those associations. Later, when people are looking for posts that support the feelings associated with your company, they will come straight to you.
  2. Use plenty of quality hashtags and emojis. The easiest way to get your Instagram on people’s radar is to connect it with popular, targeted hashtags that appeal to your ideal customer. Just make sure to do your research and choose your hashtags carefully. While people may not get hashtag fatigue easily on Instagram, they won’t appreciate you trying to make a hashtag work simply because it’s popular if it doesn’t really fit the post. Also, don’t forget emojis! People are much more likely to engage with a post with an emoji or two. It draws the eye and makes your brand more relatable.
  3.  Cross-promote posts. If you have an Instagram, you probably also have other social media accounts on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Promoting your Instagram posts across these other platforms increases your exposure, especially among loyal fans who are most likely to engage with you and share your posts on Instagram.
  4.  Host a photo contest or share user-generated content. People love it when you share their content. Connect with your followers by encouraging them to participate in your content creation through a photo contest (where you’ll get plenty of traffic from people promoting their own entries) or by sharing some of the best relevant content of your followers. Just make sure to give the credit where it is due and to direct traffic back their way, as well.
  5.  Start a genuine conversation in comments. Engaging with people is the entire purpose of social media. On Instagram, the best way to do this is to respond to comments on your content and strategically comment on the posts of others in your niche. Just remember that the goal is to start a conversation. “Love your pic!” probably won’t drive people back to your page, but a thoughtful engagement with an issue or a question posed by another user will.

All five of these tactics are simple for you to start doing today, yet they can have a huge impact on your business. If you aren’t already doing each of these things to grow your Instagram community, you are wasting a valuable opportunity. Engage on Instagram, and the returns will follow. If you are having a difficult time figuring out the best way to position your business on Instagram, get help from a social media expert. At Provaro Marketing, our team is always available for a consultation. We want to help your business grow!

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