How To Get Instagram Followers For Your Company’s Account

Of all the types of content on social media, images are shared the most often. Instagram has long been the most popular image editing and sharing social media app. Instagram became even more popular, and even more useful, when Facebook bought the app last year. Thanks do the patronage of the social media giant, Instagram has been able to increase its user base to over 130 million and improve its photo editing software.

As more and more people are accessing social media sites on their mobile phones, it’s vital that companies have an active account on Instagram, which is one of the most popular social media apps for phones and tablets. However, user’s will only see the photos on a companies account if they follow it, so gaining followers is of the upmost importance to companies who want to successfully promote themselves on Instagram.

Photos

Instagram is first and foremost an image sharing app. You need to make sure that you upload the best quality photos. Take a few photos of one subject, testing filters and angles, then post the best one. All your photos need to be mobile friendly as well: although Instagram can be accessed on desktop devices, most people will use their phone.

Schedule your photos to appear on Instagram at intervals, so that your follower’s streams aren’t inundated with your photos. Work out when your followers are active on Instagram and schedule your pictures so that they appear when your followers are looking through their stream. Depending on how many people they follow, your followers’ streams will be constantly updating. You need to post your photos at the right time so that they stand out.

Also, you need to be aware that your photos will appear on your profile as well. The photos on your profile will often influence people on whether they want to follow you or not.

Post photos that are relevant to your industry and interesting to your followers. If you’re stuck for ideas on what to post look at what’s popular online and what people are posting and interacting with. Make sure you don’t just imitate other people, however, you need to be original and true to your brand identity on the site.

You can’t just be a brand, though. Instagram gives you a great opportunity to humanise your company, both through the images you post and the engagement you do. The more human your company seems on the service, the more Instagram followers you will get.

Tags

Make sure you tag your photos with relevant, popular hashtags. Using these hashtags, potential Instagram followers will be able to find your photos and click through to your account. If you’ve had an Instagram account for a while then go through your old photos and add hashtags and comments, this could get your photos more engagement even if they are old.

Geotag all your photos so that people can see where you are and where you have been. Geotagged photos of your business may draw customers. People who geotag photos in the same location will be able to see your photos, which they may click on to see your profile.

Use hashtags to research other potential images that you could post. The most popular hashtags will have some great images tagged with them.

Put calls to action on your actual images, encouraging users to click the like button or click trough to your website.

Connect

Connect your Instagram account to your Facebook account so that all your great photos get shared on the larger social media platform. You could even post your photos across other social media sites like Twitter and Pinterest.

Connect with other users as well. Follow people who interest you or are relevant to your industry and they might follow you back. Follow users that Instagram suggests to you. You could even like and comment on great photos that are relevant to your business. Don’t get too spammy though, if you comment on everyone’s photos people will ignore you – plus it’s a waste of time.

Search for popular Instagram users and have a look at what they post: it may give you a great idea.

Post the odd video as well. Use the 15-second video length to your advantage: create a video that says a lot in a short space of time; one that is eye-catching and sharable. You could host a competition using the service, where people have to post photos with a specific hashtag to enter. This will get you great user-generated content.

Make sure that you constantly monitor your Twitter stats and how successful your photos and comments are at getting you followers.

How do you get people to follow your Instagram account?

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Will Sigsworth

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