Follower count is a concern that often comes up for businesses and brands with a presence on Instagram. The size of the audience is now a guarantee of notoriety. It makes entrepreneurs more credible in their field of activity to the people who have just met them. You have determined that your ideal audience is on this social network and now you want to gain as many followers as possible. In this article we’ll remind you of the steps you need to take to explode your follower count on Instagram.
Know your target audience well
The first thing to do before you even install the Instagram application is to draw a portrait of your persona. The persona on Instagram is significantly different from your company’s ideal customer. Indeed, the communication target is not necessarily the person who buys. For example, if you create products for babies, your persona is a baby. But your ideal follower on Instagram is more like a parent, a crib, an influencer… in short, people who might buy or recommend your products.
Some important questions to ask yourself about your persona:
- On which social networks is it present and active?
- What are his habits on this social network?
- What are his interests and tastes?
- What are the problems it faces?
You can get this information in several ways. To find out what your ideal subscriber is looking for you can use the polling function in story, or use sites like Answer the public. You will know the questions often asked by your future subscriber.
The goal is to gather all the information you can about them so you can send them the right messages. This will be the basis of your content strategy.
Establish a content strategy to gain followers
Once you know by heart the audience you want to have among your subscribers, set communication goals. These should be quantifiable and you should plan how to achieve them. The objectives can be awareness or engagement rate. How quickly can you achieve this? Remember that your objectives must be SMART, i.e. specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and temporally defined.
There are different strategies for acquiring subscribers. You can opt for inbound marketing or outbound marketing. Inbound consists in proposing interesting content for your persona, which will attract them to you. Outbound marketing is the opposite technique where you go out and get your subscribers, for example through advertising.
Take the time to establish an editorial line that will frame your communication and allow you to attract and retain subscribers. It essentially includes the content pillars on which you will express yourself, the tone you will use, the publication frequency and the editorial calendar.
Finally, don’t forget to include a hashtags strategy in your overall strategy on Instagram. Indeed they allow you to be discovered by new accounts, if they are well used. Choose hashtags used by users in your niche, without drowning in the mass either. For example, avoid hashtags with a volume of 10 million results if you are an account with a thousand followers.
Know the platform codes well in order to attract subscribers
Each social network has its own codes. In order to successfully stand out on Instagram, you’ll need to master the platform’s specific features and operation. The most important thing on Instagram, as on all social networks, is interactions. Always respond to comments and private messages sent to you and leave comments for others yourself. Use and abuse the most popular formats, on Instagram currently it is the real and stories. Observe closely how the algorithm works and how users behave in order to comply with it.
Finally, avoid bad practices on this social network at all costs. Just like the follow – unfollow which consists in following an account so that it subscribes in return and then stop following it. This would send the wrong signal to the algorithm, to the users and would prevent you from gaining qualified followers.
Bonus: consider letting people know on your other channels, media and even in your physical store that you have an Instagram account. Invite your customers and visitors to follow you there!
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