These are 3 simple tactics that anyone can use to grow their following on instagram.
WARNING!
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There is no MAGIC formula to grow your following on social media. There are things that work but you need to work at.
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BUT I can give you 3 key strategies you should use to cultivate an engaged following. Which will result in growing your following. Being consistent, strategic and engaged will pay out dividends and attract the right following!⠀
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What do I mean by the right following?⠀
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It’s more important to have 100 followers who are genuinely interested in your brand than it is to have 10 000 spammy followers. ⠀
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“When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.”
– Meredith Hill
If you’re only concerned with growing your following you are missing the point. It is important to grow the proper following on social media! Not to mention, with all the noise out there you want your audience to care about the messages you are putting out.
At the same time that unengaged followers can decrease your engagement rate they hurt you in the long run. We all know that the Instagram algorithm rewards engagement. What does this mean? You should prioritize more engagement, not more followers.
How can you do that?
By creating value and engaging with your community you can create meaningful conversations around topics and messages that matter! ⠀
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These 3 strategies are pretty simple!
1. Post Consistency
Create a schedule that works for you and stick to it. It could be once a day, three times a week, twice a week… just pick it and stick it! Plan out your content in advance and use a scheduler like Later to save time and create a cohesive attractive feed.
2. Post at Your Best Time
Use your analytics to check out the best time to post on each day. Test this as time goes on and you’ll better understand your audience and peak posting times! You can see this in Instagram Insights – Read more here from Buffer on “How to find your best time to post on Instagram”.
3. Spend Time Engaging
This is really important! Obviously no one has time to spend hours watching, liking, commenting, saving and sharing content but you do need to be social. It’s called social media for a reason! In general, be sure to answer all your DMs, DM people you find interesting, leave valuable comments on others posts! For newer accounts or accounts that have gone stagnant I suggest using the Dollar Eighty method – (here’s my affiliate link DOLLAR EIGHTY), I found this a really fun and easy way to set a daily goal and achieve great results in the beginning. You can read more about how I used Dollar Eighty Here.
Be Strategic
Lastly, the best tactic you can employ to grow your instagram is show up and create valuable and relevant content. Going viral is obviously the goal but this happens so seldomly that you can’t rely on that as a growth tactic. You should be strategic and be utilizing all of instagram’s features like stories, feed posts, reels, lives, guides etc
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Great reminders and advice.
Excellent advice. Instagram can be confusing and overwhelming. Thank you for breaking it down and making it a little bit easier.
It can be totally overwhelming, hopefully you found these 3 quick tips helpful. Thanks for reading! 🙂
I need to spend more time engaging! Do you have any tips on how to engage more effectively if you live a busy life and do not have that much time? Like spend 50% of the time commenting in return, 30% reaching out to new users, etc?
Yes, you should read my other article on 3 affordable Tools for IG Marketing ALL 3 Tools have free versions! Spending 10-15 minutes engaging is so helpful, using software like DollarEighty makes it quick, fun and easy too! I find breaking down into percentages can be overwhelming. A good rule of thumb is to reply to ALL comments + DMs and reach out to a minimum of 10 accounts a day. Follow, like, message, react to their stories.. this is where DollarEighty comes in 😉
I love that quote and I use it all the time because niching down is so important. I love these three quick tips and consistency is my biggest enemy with Instagram. Well, the only platform I am really consistent on is Pinterest so I definitely need to up my game.
Thanks for reading Heather! 🙂 My best advice for you is to use a scheduler like Later, Planoly or even Creative Suites. Take 1 hour once a week and plan content out for 2 weeks. You could even use Tailwind!