It’s not easy to grow organically on Instagram. Sometimes it can feel a little like chasing your tail. All you want to do is to start to reach out to new audiences, but Instagram doesn’t make that easy. Some people turn to third party apps to try and grow their Instagram automatically. This sounds great; you grow your Instagram without having to do anything beyond posting. However, this comes with many caveats. If Instagram gets a sniff of you using a bot to grow your brand they will throttle your reach/engagement, or at worst ban your account. It also might not actually lead to useful growth. Sure these people will like your photos, but will they actually be bothered to engage with you in a way that’s beneficial to your business.
Below we will give you the ways to grow your brand in our opinion.
Engage With Companies Similar To Yours
Likes and comments for the sake of it are no use to you. Those people will never actually buy from you or engage with you. Sure, the vanity likes are nice but ultimately useless. However, going for businesses with a similar service or product isn’t a bad idea. These comments should be of genuine interest and actually be helpful and polite. Just ask a question related to the post or give your opinion. It doesn’t have to be something insanely detailed or expansive, just something to get your name in there.
Plan, Plan, Plan For Organic Instagram Growth
Like all things in business, it is best to plan. Not only does this save you tonnes of time when it does come time to actually post, but the quality of your content will increase massively. Know what works in the niche you’re working in. Take this and think of the content you can post. Plan out certain days to post certain kinds of content. Then at the start of every week, or month plan all of your posts out. Down to the very last hashtag. This means that not only will your content be done, but that you can ensure it all has a similar feel to it and that it is of use. This can be the big difference between posting something no one will ever read, or something that will get lots of useful engagement.
Make Stories Your Weapon Of Choice
Stories let you be you. Having a curated feed is perfect, it should act almost like a portfolio piece for you. However, stories are where you can let people see behind the scenes and the more human side to your company. They are the casual place to let people engage with your brand. Ask questions, use polls, use boomerangs. There are tonnes of features constantly being added to Instagram for you to use to drive engagement. Use these features to your advantage. This is also a great way to build trust. If you want to see how to build trust using social media, see our earlier post on it here.
Know Your Audience To Gain Organic Followers
Use Audience Insights as a way to figure out who is actually engaging with your brand. There’s no point putting up content targeting people aged 18-25 if the people who follow you are over the age of 35. If you keep pushing the wrong message to the wrong people then you will really struggle to grow organically on Instagram. The right message to the right audience is sure to lead to more engagement.
Look at competitors to see what kind of content they post that gets the most interaction and copy it. If they have unlocked what message gets the best response then why can’t you. Failing this, just ask. Put a question on your story asking people what kind of content they want to see more of.
Use Hashtags For Organic Growth
Hashtags are still an effective way to grow your brand. You don’t need to fill your post with tonnes and tonnes of them, not only is this time consuming but may also get you blacklisted. Instead we recommend using around 7 at a time that are actually of use to your brand. Look at multiple competitors accounts and see what hashtags they are using to get the best results. Just make sure the hashtags are of relevance to your offer.
Cross Promotion
Have a big following on Twitter? Share a post from your Instagram profile there to get people to visit. Easy. Add an Instagram icon to your emails, each email you send will let people access your account.
Collaborations For Organic Gains
Work with other companies. Share your audiences. Re-share a post on your stories or get them to mention you in one of their posts. People always click to see the other person’s profile. Get someone with an audience similar to your own and work with them in some way to grow organically online. Your followers will begin to work like a Venn diagram. Post about working together, meeting up or even just sharing a post the other person made every so often is a sure method to gain followers.
Know someone with a big following online with a similar demographic to yours? Give them a free product or service and get them to mention you in a post. Get your brand in front of those relevant to you.
Conclusion
These are our 7 best tips to help you grow organically on Instagram. It’s not easy to do and requires time. However, following this guide will let you build slowly but surely and increase not only your reach, but your customer base.