10 STEPS TO HELP YOU GROW YOUR INSTAGRAM

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Over the last couple of months, I have been trying to up my Instagram game and it's been paying off so far so I thought I'd share my tips with you. If you have Instagram already, you might know how frustrating it can be but don't give up! Most of my brand collabs are actually on Instagram and my blog is secondary to that so it can be a really good way to score collabs if that's what you're after.

First of all, you will need to think of why you want to grow your Instagram. It could be because you want to attract more people to your website or business, or you might want to collaborate with brands.

 

Before anything else, I just want to emphasise that follower count is not the be all and end all, engagement is what's most important!

You can follow me on Instagram here.

Image by Christian Dina on Pexels.

1. Take care in the images you upload

The main reason people will want to follow you or engage with you is because of the content you put out. You will be wanting to put out content that your followers will enjoy and content that says a lot about you. For example, if you love travelling then post some of your favourite travel snaps!

Related: 5 Steps to Taking Successful Instagram Pictures

2. Engage with people

If you are wanting people to engage with your content, you should engage with theirs too. Don't be scared to comment, reply to stories and even DM people sometimes. The more you connect with an account, the more likely Instagram is to show your post to those accounts.

Remember to support your favourite creators by engaging with them and seek out accounts you think would like your content and engage with them too. You should be engaging with people before and after you post too!

3. Follow relevant people

Similarly to my point about engaging, if you are expecting new followers, you are going to have to follow some people to. If I see an account with over 2000 followers but they are only following 200, that says to me they don't really want to engage with other accounts.

If you keep following relevant people (by relevant I mean people that post similar content to you) then you are getting your name out there and hopefully you will gain some engaging followers too.

4. Utilise story features

Now, posting on your Instagram story won't gain you any new followers, but it will keep the audience you do have engaged. I would recommend using the features on your story such as polls and questions regularly. Let your audience get to know you and post stories regularly!

Related: 3 Tips for Staying Creative

5. Post reels

As reels are a relatively new thing, Instagram seem to be pushing them and they have potential to get a really high reach. Sometimes when I have been scrolling Instagram, I have seen just reels and nothing else on my homepage so it's definitely worth getting onto them if you haven't yet.

6. Hashtag research

Using the right hashtags is the best way for your images to reach new people. Generally speaking you should be using hashtags relevant to your image. For example, if it's an outfit image you will want to be using fashion hashtags. You will also want to be using different size hashtags. Smaller ones have 10k or less images in it whereas larger ones will have over 100k. A lot of hashtags such as #fashion will have millions of images so it's unlikely your image will be seen with those ones.

There are a lot of blog posts out there with hashtags you should be using for your niche so just do some searching. Also, remember to use 30 hashtags on each post!

7. Set goals

I find when I set realistic goals, it helps me to achieve them and set new ones. If I set myself a certain follower goal in a week, it helps me to work towards it. Now, Instagram can be tricky at the best of times so don't feel disheartened if it takes a while for things to change.

Check out this Instagram Branding Pack.

8. Be consistent with posting

The more consistent you are with posting on your story and on your feed, the more engagement you will get. Also, you will look active to new people discovering your account and they will be more likely to follow you than if you haven't posted in weeks.

It can be hard to find the time sometimes, which is why it's best to plan your content ahead. I use an app called Feed Preview on my iPhone to plan all my feed content. I do try to plan out story content too but a lot of the time life gets in the way - which is OK too.

I try to post on my feed every other day and a few times a day on my story.

9. Use your analytics

Set your account to a business account, then you will be able to see your analytics. You will be able to see which posts have done well in terms of hashtags and you will be able to see when your audience is most active. Mine is most active around 6pm each evening so I will try to post around then where possible.

Also, once you have been posting for a while, pay attention to the posts that have had the most engagement and see if you can post something similar.

Check out this social media template bundle for Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

10. Have fun with it 

This is the most important step! Remember, you are posting your content for YOU so make sure you are posting what you enjoy. There's no point posting things that you hate just to impress people or brands. If you're authentically you, it will pay off!

Do you have any Instagram tips?

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