Did you know that one of Instagrammers' most significant and common mistakes is having considerably more people under their Following than in their Followers? This may be why people could be less inclined to follow certain accounts.
When a user sees that the number of people you’re following is substantially greater than your number of followers, it creates a perception that your profile might be spam. Too often, brands that are new to the Instagram space tend to mass follow random accounts with an expectation that they’ll receive a follow back. But what’s important is that you make sure that you have a balanced follower-to-following ratio to maintain your credibility.
But why should you even care about Instagram in the first place?
Instagram is one of the fastest-growing online platforms, so most marketers opt to create strategies solely focused on this channel. You might argue that Instagram is more of a celebrity platform and is not the most suitable place for business.
After all, the five most followed accounts on the app as of September 2019 are famous personalities, namely Instagram itself (313M), Cristiano Ronaldo (185M), Ariana Grande (165M), Dwayne Johnson (158M), and Selena Gomez (157M).
But this just proves how excellent Influencer Marketing is on the platform, and the truth is, you don’t have to be a celebrity to make this work! You just have to know what influencer strategies work for you.
So how many more followers do you need so your profile can drive profit for your company?
It’s easy to get lost in the idea that increasing your Follower and Like count will equal an increase in traffic to your website or an increase in sales for your products.
In reality, these are just vanity metrics—numbers that are easily manipulated and do not correlate to what matters: building a tribe of loyal followers to improve your brand’s image and sales online permanently.
A tribe needs a leader, a community, and a shared interest. Your brand is the leader, your followers are the community, and your content serves as the common interest.
When creating a tribe that will help you grow and cater to the right audience:
Consistently post and engage with your followers
Remember that Instagram is a social platform, so you need to consistently interact with users on a conversational or somewhat personal level so that it feels genuine—like person to person and not a brand to potential customers.
Don’t be a robot!
Don’t post and leave; plan, post, engage and repeat! By doing so, your followers will soon be willing to do things for you— like visiting your website, tagging their friends on your post, and many more.
Make your followers happy
Real growth and profit come from delighting your followers while connecting with new ones.
To dive in deeper, here are five ways to build loyal Instagram followers in 2019:
- Engage, Engage, and Engage
- Keep Your Followers In Your Profile
- Make Your Viewers Curious
- Stay Updated on New Features
- Use Instagram as a Multi-Channel Platform
Tip #1: Engage, Engage, and Engage
We can’t reiterate this enough! Engage with your audience. As an example, let’s take a look at Later, a social media scheduling software.
Besides planning a fantastic feed, they also take the time to respond to each comment on their photos.
The algorithm is ever-changing, so instead of trying to outsmart this, try to understand how it works and how it’s tied to user behavior.
This way, you’ll know how to properly align your content and strategy to take advantage of the ever-changing algorithm.
How is this essential? What does this mean for your business?
This is where engagement—or interactions with your users—come in. You want Instagram’s algorithm to view your profile as a friend or family member of the user. Don’t just wait for your users to comment on your post—go to their profiles and interact with them! Go the extra mile and look for meaningful opportunities to create conversations with your customers.
1. Reply to all their comments
Spend time replying to comments. Doing this shows your followers and the platform how you value their opinions and interactions. Reward their insights with a simple thank you message. Remember that Social Media is a tool mainly used for communicating inquiries.
For your frequently asked questions, it’s best to prepare set spiels. Most users will skim over other comments, so they’ll likely submit similar questions over and over.
Don’t want your spiels to sound robotic?
Take the time to personalize responses before hitting the send button—this is especially important for comments that are visible to the public.
2. Check ALL your DMs
Another excellent but understated avenue for engagement is your Direct Message inbox. Apply the same approach you take with comments: reply to them.
For messages that are conversation-enders, tap like to the user’s reply and show that you appreciate that they’ve taken the time to talk with you and that you’ve read their message.
Also, most brands forget to check their DMs' “request” section.
This is where Instagram stores messages from followers that you’re not following back—and who have the potential to become your new followers and customers.
Again, remember that DMs are just as important as the public comments on your posts. This is where your customers ask most of their questions and is the perfect venue to provide them with answers.
3. Make the first move
Some brands prefer to comment on their tagged images. This is smart but also limits your potential reach.
Sparking a conversation with your followers on their posts, whether you’ve been tagged or not, makes for a more personal approach and allows you to be someone who understands, sees, and addresses their needs.
Tip #2: Keep Your Followers on Your Profile
We want our followers to stay on our profile. Think like a TV Network—or a YouTube channel for a more digital reference. You want your viewers to keep up with the content you post. Plus, the more they view your profile, the bigger your chances of showing up on other people’s feeds and the Explore Feed.
But how do you make this happen?
Instagram customizes feeds based on how likely a user will engage in posts.
Instagram recognizes which posts resonate with people, and in turn, the platform curates this so that it comes up more often on the feed. This means that users don’t see the entirety of their feed and all the accounts they follow. Instead, Instagram shows posts from accounts that you frequently engage with.
Here’s how you top your users’ feed:
1. Curate Your Feed
You’ve heard this before, probably from every other social media expert. Instagram is a visual platform, and the competition is tight. Brands that stand out usually have visually appealing and curated images reflected on their feed.
To make yours unique, try adding value to your content. Consider what your followers need to see and what problems they want to solve. This way, you can quickly pinpoint what kind of content and how you want to represent it via a single image, carousel, video, or story.
2. Stories
Most brands don’t take the time to conceptualize their stories, mainly because they lack the resources or time. They’re missing out on an ample opportunity!
Instagram Stories are your 24-hour exclusive content whose shelf-life can be extended to forever if chosen to be featured as a Story Highlight. Imagine the potential reach it can bring to your business.
Instagram launched Stories back in August 2016. Most would compare it with Snapchat—an app widely used by millennials and Gen Z for its photo-sharing features—due to their similarities in concept. As of 2019, Instagram Stories has over 500 million active daily users.
Companies and influencers would use the story highlight to feature what their brand is and how they want to be presented to the world. Others use it to highlight their promos or their buying journeys to help customers visually understand their how-tos.
An example is an online store directly selling swimsuits via its Instagram Profile. They have their FAQs, size charts, and order form pinned as highlights.
That’s not even the best part: Instagram Stories has many more features like stickers, polls, questions, chat groups, etc. Essentially, these features help you better understand a brand’s Instagram audience.
It helps them know what kind of content their followers want to see and, most importantly, helps connect fans to their idols or brands of choice more personally.
Tip #3: Make Your Viewers Curious
One mistake brands make with their captions is providing all the information. You might ask, “But isn’t that how it’s done?”
The answer is both yes and no. While you want your followers to know more about what you offer, there’s such a thing as information overload—don’t give everything in one go.
Provide them with everything except the one you want them to ask. An example can be a feature post.
Instead of comprehensively explaining the product's benefits, try leaving it with, “but if it weren’t for my newfound love for this brand, I wouldn’t be this confident.” Wouldn’t that make them ask about the product?
Rather than showing people what you want them to see, make them curious about what they’re not seeing.
Tip #4: Stay Updated
Instagram as a platform is constantly evolving. They always add new features to help build better engagement, potentially growing your business.
Stay up-to-date since these can open up new opportunities for your profile.
To help you get started, here are some of the most important updates you need to know:
1. Instagram Stories adds Countdown and Chat Stickers
Create hype for upcoming releases or events, and create an exclusive group chat with interested fans.
You can now use two new features within your Instagram stories: the countdown and the chat stickers.
With Countdown, your followers can subscribe to your sticker and be reminded when to tune back on your profile for the announcement. Imagine the possibilities!
Here are a couple of examples of how brands have successfully utilized this feature:
With the Chat sticker, the newest addition to their pool, you can initiate a private group chat with up to 31 of your followers.
You can use this to build a small community with your fans with the same interest.
Check these examples:
Other stickers are available on the platform like the Question sticker, hashtag sticker, location sticker, emoji meter sticker, etc.
2. Posting to multiple accounts
This new feature makes it easier for social media handlers to cross-post their uploads on different accounts. Before this update, users needed to switch accounts before uploading. Now, you can be logged in to any of your accounts and still be able to publish your post to any of your profiles.
3. Building your Close Friends list
Creating a close friends list for your stories is another way to build exclusive content or offers to unique or specific followers.
Just picture the business opportunities!
Whether a new sticker for Instagram Story or a new way to shop in-app, Instagram is always looking for ways to improve interactions.
Don’t be the last to know!
Tip #5: Use Instagram as a Multi-Channel Platform
The great thing about Instagram is that it’s like having almost all other social networking sites in one app.
You can use features that are similar to different social platforms:
- Facebook’s Carousel posts (multiple photos in one Instagram post)
- Periscope’s Live (Instagram Live)
- Snapchat’s Stories (Instagram Stories and Highlights)
- Snapchat’s photo filters (Instagram Story filters)
- Twitter’s Hashtags (Instagram hashtag following)
- YouTube’s video content (IGTV)
Don’t forget: Instagram rewards those who utilize their new features, so make sure to try them out as you experiment with the platform!
Building your Instagram account can seem complicated or overwhelming, but it can also be fun!
You get to make many connections and even work with exciting influencers. And remember, it’s a social network, so don’t be afraid to engage and start conversations!
Remember that gaining one new follower is just as important as keeping one. Finding loyal and engaged followers is critical—so don’t take it for granted.
You can have thousands of likes, but these numbers won’t mean much if people aren’t interested enough in your business or aren’t asking the right questions.
So next time you see an unreplied comment or message, think twice before ignoring them.
As Dale Carnegie says, “To be interesting, be interested.”
Ready to grow your audience and build loyal Instagram followers?
Check out our social media services to learn more about how we can help you achieve your goals.
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