As the competition on social media platforms grows, it becomes even more difficult to grow your profile organically. People are relying on promotions these days, but here are the ways how you can grow your Instagram account organically:
1. Research your target audience:
If your content is not reaching the right people, then what is the use? If you get your target audience on the Instagram right, you’ll get a higher engagement rate, and this means your posts will appear higher up in your followers’ feeds. It’s a win-win.
There are a few things you can do to better understand your target audience on Instagram: Get an overview of the demographic makeup of your follower-base, including age, gender, and location, keep an eye on your competitors with a similar target audience – what kind of imagery are they posting? Captions? Also, if you want to know something, just ask! Ask your existing audience about their favourite kind of Instagram content and the accounts they’re following.
2. Plan ahead: It is important for an Instagrammer to take the content seriously. Planning ahead can make a big difference to the overall look and feel of your feed.
Plus, if you don’t plan and just post everything at once, you’ll run out of content, and that sure ain’t gonna bring you, new followers!
3. Like and comment on accounts similar to your own:
Just be sure you’re doing this manually yourself (no bots), and of course, make an effort to be genuine, interesting and NEVER spammy! You don’t need to write an essay, but referring to the actual post and giving an opinion or asking a question is a good place to start.
4. Use a variety of relevant hashtags:
The most important and known fact to all. Rather than using 30 different hashtags on every post, use fewer but better-researched hashtags that clearly reflect your content. Between 7 – 10 hashtags will definitely be enough. And remember, your content should deliver what your hashtags promise!
5. Promote your Instagram on your other channels:
Don’t miss an opportunity to promote your Instagram account organically on your other owned channels.
Think specifically about other visual channels such as Tumblr, or those with the potential to reach a large audience, such as Facebook. Another tip: Add an Instagram icon to your email signature, so that with every email send you give your readers the chance to discover your Insta profile.
6. Tagging and geolocation:
An easy way to grow your Instagram organically is to utilise the geolocation tags, especially if you’re posting from a well-known and Instagrammable place!
Also, if you’re working in collaboration with another brand or reposting content from someone else (make sure you get permission first!), be sure to tag them in your caption and on the photo itself.
Hopefully, they’ll repay the favour in the future.
7. Use collabs and influencer marketing:
Find your Insta-soulmate (a person/brand with a similar target audience) and agree to give each other shoutouts, or feature each other’s content once in a while, or, better yet, create a project together so that you both have a cause to talk about.
8. Get yourself featured on big accounts:
This is the rarely used tool but the most effective one. Make a list of big Instagram accounts in your niche that feature other people’s content
This way you will come into limelight.
Of course, it is a slow process, but once you see your numbers increasing you will feel happy.
