13 Feb How to Grow Your Instagram Brand in 2023
Instagram Isn’t A Secret Anymore
Just like Facebook, everyone can say they have an Instagram. It also means that marketers have been promoting their brands on Instagram for years. If you have just started on the platform, been there for a while, or looking to join soon, you know that it is all about the numbers. You need follower growth for a lot of reasons.
First, the more followers you have the more exposure your brand and business will have. This means that there is more potential for conversions and money making. Second, the more followers you have the more chances for direct interactions via messaging and click-throughs. This also adds to potential conversion growth. Third, and the most important, the more followers you have that like and comment on posts, the more likely your posts will be placed at the top of people’s feeds. You want to be at the top of someone’s feed, not at the bottom.
You need Instagram. That is the reality. Social media is where the audience is. If you can reach them there, your conversions will come. Instead of fighting the necessity of Instagram, you need to embrace it as an opportunity to engage with your target demographic. Regardless of where you are in your digital marketing journey with Instagram, you may need a little help kickstarting that growth in followers and likes. Here are the top tips for 2021 for your Instagram growth needs.
Top Tips for Instagram Growth In 2023
Simple Actions to Take:
- You should always fully build out a personal and business account, and keep your personal account private, but accept people at will to make it feel more exclusive.
- Stick with a pattern of post. This includes the colors, tone, pallet, filter, and text. Your followers expect a style of post. Make sure to deliver just this.
- Always post on a schedule. If you post randomly, then no one will have the excitement of anticipation that you want to grow in an audience. Try posting at least one thing every day.
- Plan out your posts for the week or month ahead of time. They should all make sense in the bigger picture of your account. No post should seem out of place.
- Post videos, live videos, and Stories. Varying the content will help with engagement. Instagram has a lot of great posting tools. Use these to your advantage, because you know that your competitors will be.
- Research the hashtags that you need to capture your target demographic. Hashtags aren’t for your followers, but rather they are for the non-followers browsing categories of posts. Make sure you use hashtags correctly so that you can grow your audience, not just waste space.
Moderately Hard Actions to Take:
- Post user generated content. This means if you sell cloths, get your followers to post wearing your gear so you can post it to your main business account. People love to see themselves showcased like that.
- Use Instagram or third-party analytics to give you an indication on what is working and what isn’t working. They will generate info about each post or about your user base demographics.
- Engage with your fans. If you get posts that are commented on, comment back. If you have people reach out in a DM, reply back.
- Write longer captions that tell a story and elicit an emotion and not just an emoji. The most text that you include the more likely they will engage. You want to keep their attention on your posts and no one elses.
Work Intensive Actions to Take:
- Host contests or giveaways. Contests or giveaways often include commenting on the post and including a name of a friend in the post. By tagging them, you have a higher chance of gaining a larger audience. For the simple cost of a single product. It is worth the investment to grow your fanbase.
- Cross-Post to other similar sites. Don’t cross post to a competitor. You wouldn’t be able to do this. Rather, you should post to accounts that are “fans” of your niche. So, if your business is selling succulents, then you can post images of your plants and cross-post them to other succulent accounts. Those followers will see your cross-post and want to find out more about your site.
- Work with Micro-Influencers on Instagram. Micro-influencers are a great resource for new followers. They are not mega stars. They aren’t even that well known. But they do have multiple thousands of followers and post in a certain niche. If you sell sci-fi shirts, a great promotion would be for a gamer girl on Instagram to wear it in one of her posts with your account in the text.
- Cross Promote on other Social Media Platforms and not just Instagram. Sure, this article is just about Instagram, but in reality, you will most likely have multiple social media platforms. The more you link together, the more likely that your followers will transfer from one platform to another. This works in reverse as well. Highlight a new post on your Twitter feed or Facebook status update. These are easy connections to make for outsourcing your exposure.
Conclusion: Always Plan for a Purpose
No Instagram post should exist in 2021 without a purpose. There is just too much content out there already and too little time to see it all. If you just throw random pictures on your profile, people won’t care. They want to follow your profile because they want to see that same thing every time. If it is cats in hats, then just do that. If it is pictures of mashed potatoes in different bowls and on different plates, then there better not be any peas in those photos.
Consistency is key to growing and keeping an audience. If you get your numbers high, then you need to start keeping them high. If your content starts to lag you will see people dropping your account from their feed. Don’t let this happen. Plan out your goals and your posts. Make sure that each post satisfies some need that your goals have.