Are you struggling to get more Instagram followers? We hear you! This definitive guide will show you how to grow your Instagram following faster.

Instagram has become everyone’s favourite as more and more people are drifting from other social media platforms and pitching their tent in it. And who can blame them? With the ever-evolving and attractive features of the platform, it’s hard to ignore.

Aside from personal use, lots of small businesses have decided to use Instagram as their online shop. These days, you’ll find people selling cosmetics, body creams, and various fashion items, and they get most of their customers through the platform.

As Instagram users keep growing by the minute, the platform’s developers have decided to add more features. If you do not keep up with trends, you may not know about these new updates and would consequently miss out on using these tools to improve your brand or business on Instagram.

Let’s check out some recent hacks that help to increase engagement rates for your brand and even get you more Instagram followers:

Don’t ignore any Instagram feature

Most Instagram updates come with new features which the developers expect people to use because they believe it will help make the content enjoyable and also increase transparency. Here are some of the highlights to consider using:

Instagram for business

You might not need to use this feature if you don’t plan on using Instagram for business or your account is in private mode. However, if you have a brand, you intend to build on Instagram; then you should jump on this feature.

Using Instagram for business gives your account a professional look. It also allows you to use Instagram ads and provides analytics to track your performance. If you have a website for your products, you can quickly drive traffic from your Instagram to your website by adding links to your stories.

 Different formats for posting

When it comes to creating contents, you will need to wear your creativity hat to appeal to your audience. If you keep using the same content format every day, such as a carousel, your followers would soon get tired and probably skip your content when scrolling through feeds.

To get more Instagram followers, you have to keep your brand relevant, and ensure ensure you are trying out different formats for posting contents such as using videos, carousels, stories, and all other format Instagram permits. Don’t get stuck doing one thing.

Keep track of the analytics

Most brands and businesses get lost in the likes and comment that they forget to use Instagram analytics to check the facts on how well they are performing. If you have a business account, then you should take advantage of it and gather information about your users to inform your marketing strategy.

You can use the analytics to know the location and gender of your followers. You can also see what post had the highest engagements to see how you can condition other posts to look like them.

Using Instagram stories are important

With this feature, you have no right to complain that your posts are not at the top of your followers feed. When you post stories, they are always at the top of feeds where everyone can see them and so your brand would continuously be in the mind of your followers even if they don’t view it.

Stories are great avenues to add a personal touch to your brand and allow your followers to have a feel of your personality. You will also find that some followers will prefer checking stories rather than scrolling through endless feeds. So, if you post yours, it will be part of those they check.

Schedule your posts

If you’ve been using your analytics and being observant of everything in your account, you’ll realise that some posts perform better than others due to the timing.

Now, the good thing is that with the various tools available, you won’t need to wait until a particular time before pressing the share button. You can now devote your time to doing other stuff while tools like buffer or hub spot help share your contents at the appropriate time. All you have to do is schedule the post with them.

Understand your followers

If your followers’ comment on your images or videos, then you have done an excellent job, but it doesn’t end there. You have to understand them to know what kind of content to push out. There are some posts you’ll notice fewer engagements and dull comments. And, other posts, you could feel the excitement in their feedback even though you are in different continents.

Keep tailoring your content to suit what you’ve discovered your followers prefer and remember always to add some creativity, so they don’t get bored. Check around for other accounts similar to your brand and see what they are doing differently or what is trending.

You can also spice up things by introducing contests with rewards attached to see if your users are active. Most users love engaging in competitions with the hope of winning something. This way, you can see what interests your users.

Use videos

Videos are crucial in driving engagement with your Instagram community. You can decide to use the videos in your regular posts or stories. Videos in your posts need to look professional and well-executed while you can be a bit relaxed with videos in your story since it will disappear after 24 hours.

You could show your followers the making of your latest products or what you are working on currently. It is perfect for event footage, movie thrillers, announcements, tutorials, or sharing an opinion on an issue. After creating these videos, you can also hashtag them as you do with images or carousels.

Get more followers

To increase your engagement, you need more followers to see your profile and fall in love with your brand. To get more Instagram followers, you’ll need to invest in hashtags. When you use hashtags, people searching for related topics will eventually stumble on your post.

Seeing it’s not advisable to leave your luck to hashtags, you will also want to ensure your bio gets in the explorer’s page. If your bio can get sorted to the page, you are sure of a large stream of followers. What you want to do is optimise your bio by adding your niche to your brand name. For example, if your brand is all about healthy living, you might want to add the word “healthy” to your Instagram name.

To get more Instagram followers, there are a lot of other Instagram hacks out there to help build your brand and business. Try to follow trends and use every feature Instagram provides to get the best out of it.