5 Ways to get Real Instagram Followers

Instagram has well over 25 million business profiles. For the modern business market, this means that having a social presence is not enough to guarantee real Instagram followers. You need to appeal to the right and real Instagram user to get the essential social proof necessary for your brand to stick out.

However crazy it may sound, this means that you could have the most prominent product in the market, but with a small number of Instagram followers, success is only marginal.

Similarly, your competitors could have a far more mediocre product but enjoy more product sales than you. Their success is influenced by the higher social validation they enjoy from their Instagram followers.

Don't Worry; We Get You

Attracting more real Instagram followers to your account can feel overwhelming. Nonetheless, whatever industry you are in or what product you sell,

Instagram ranks as among the most effective means of growing your audience.

Essentially, considering that approximately 60% of users globally find items and merchandise through Instagram, you cannot overlook the importance of Instagram as a practical social media marketing approach.

It would be best to attract the ideal Instagram users who will turn out into more comments, likes, clicks, and more crucially, fans of your company/brand. But how do you do this?

Luckily, we are here to guide you through and demonstrate how this works and how you can achieve this. Read through this detailed guide and discover how to acquire a real massive following and start exploiting the power of this ever-flourishing and impressive social platform. In this post, we have outlined five tips on how you can successfully do this.

What Are The 5 Tips You Can Use To Help You Build Your Instagram Portfolio?

With Instagram and the audience continuing to evolve, it is upon brands to evolve. Ideally, you need to alter your plans and adapt your tactics to identify what ticks, and you can manage to go up the ladder. Instagram has significantly grown into a prominent selling, marketing, audience building, and networking tool for both brands and individuals. It is among the most popular and wide-reaching social networking platforms globally, with more than 200 million active monthly users sharing over 1.6 billion likes and 60 million images daily.

This is simply incredible! Surprisingly, engagement rates in general for brands on nearly all social networks are below 0.1%, but with Instagram, the figures are astronomical. According to a Forrester study in 2014 on Instagram, brand engagement stood at a remarkable 58 times higher than Facebook.

Sure, while it is hard to argue with statistics like this, the incredible thing is that this is just average! How? While Instagram boasts 58 times higher engagement compared to Facebook, which is astoundingly great, the fact is that you can do much better on Instagram. Typically, whether you are a major brand or simply wondering how to get Insta-famous,' you want to strive higher and blow out your competition. You will achieve this by using these five Instagram hacks into your social media and PPC strategy.

Have a look at these attention-grabbing ideas for your Instagram hashtags, captions, profile, and much more, and learn how to optimize your posts and content to gain more real followers, engagement, and visibility.

Create Quality Instagram Content

Currently boasting more than 1 billion users, Instagram is undeniably the most prominent visual social platform. All the posts you share on your Instagram must be both of high quality and, subsequently, complement your general brand image. As such, ensure you never sacrifice the quality for quantity (save those Instagram stories).

Unlike before, there is much more to getting the best out of Instagram than just posting some 'Insta-worthy' images. Considering that new potential Instagram followers will get your brand's first impression from your Instagram's aesthetic, your posts' individual quality has to reflect across your whole grid consistently effectively.

To acquire real Instagram followers, ensure you keep the following two crucial concepts in mind:

• ‍Signature Style

As a first, your brand must be the attention of your page. As such, whether you are an influencer or a business, you'll want to ensure that all the images you post essentially reflect the purpose of your page. Ideally, even a random photo can ruin an entire grid.

On pinpointing your focus, get your page to the next level by concentrating around a theme with at least one consistent component which links all your images together.

With filters, apply the same filter to each of your images for an easy and quick way to generate cohesion and flow. Similarly, identify a unique color scheme you can work with and sprinkle it across your grid.

• ‍Choose Instagram Content That's Right for You

With this part, some effort and thought are necessary. To acquire a substantial number of real Instagram followers, you need to generate high-quality content that is made precisely for Instagram. What's more, you also need to produce content that properly fits your Instagram audience. Identifying the right style and approach is essential since it will form the basis from which your followers recognize you.

• Content Variety is Key

When it comes to Instagram, you must establish a sense of lifestyle and community around your brand to ensure your new Instagram followers can identify. Similarly, also ensure what you create is content that your users can easily picture themselves using. Looking at a product catalog is never appealing to anyone, so ensure that you blend it up with product and lifestyle images!

Additionally, content variety is CRUCIAL! You must create different types of images like lifestyle photos, flat lies, and detail shots to keep every post feeling exciting and new. Any chance you get to showcase your product in action or a model, take it!

Create Content Your Audience Will Love And Interact With

After you identify the type of content that is ideal for your brand, your next objective should be to focus on generating high-quality and engaging posts that you are confident entirely will connect with your followers. While this may seem obvious, content creation is surprisingly among the most neglected aspects.

Figure out what your clients enjoy while on Instagram or the themes that appeal to them, and fill your Instagram account with appropriate photos.

However, it would help if you connected with your audience precisely. As the familiar adage goes, beauty lies in the beholder's eye. This is why it is so vital that you establish a cordial relationship with your audience. This way, you can learn about the type of content they prefer.

If you are working in a sector where your product is already visually enticing, images of exactly what you do is an excellent place to start. Nonetheless, ensure you post these types of images sparingly; too many posts about yourself on your account is like being the individual at a family BBQ whose only stories are about himself/herself.

• ‍Crafting Amazing Instagram Captions

Instagram captions are the goldmine for any brand looking to get real Instagram users. Ideally, your Instagram captions must enrich your post by offering more value, insight, and context into what is going on beyond the photo. Let your target audience understand your brand on a higher level.

• ‍People like Seeing Other People

Your Instagram photos should include faces. Typically, images with faces are a proven tool for boosting engagement since our brains want to interact with other people naturally. Moreover, images that are not inclusive of faces but are alternatively a point of view can help individuals feel like part of the photo.

• Call to Action (CTA)

All your posts must have a powerful CTA encouraging your audience to interact with your brand/you. The engagement can be in the form of likes on the photo, adding thoughts, commenting, or even sharing your photos in their Instagram stories. Including a CTA boosts your chances of your audience following through on your CTA by approximately 25%.

Your CTA must be appropriate to your photo and not be similar to that on your Instagram bio. It's an indulgent task. Ensure you ask questions in your Instagram captions. This will help you encourage your audience to respond. Essentially, this is a straightforward tactic to ensure that your followers are engaging with your Instagram account.

A few examples of CTAs include: 'double tap if like this' or 'tag your friends...'. The idea is always to offer your audience something to keep them busy, and this way, your reach and influence will spread remarkably.

• Develop a catchy Story

If you want to capture your followers' attention, you need to offer them a narrative instead of settling for a generic text line. Get your followers invested and demonstrate how much value you can offer at a go.

Creating a story also relates to the emotional wellbeing of your fans. Always ensure you strive to elicit emotions with your posts. Whether your goal is to make your audience laugh, inspire them, or stun them, ensure that your posts spark emotion with your fans.

Always remember that quality still topples quantity, especially with Instagram posts. Don't just post for the sake. Always ensure that your content is offering value to your audience!

Hashtags, Hashtags, Hashtags

All Instagram posts that feature at least one hashtag have a decent 12.6% more chance of engagement than those that don't have them. Typically, the most effective way of expanding your reach and acquiring more followers is undeniable, Hashtags! While we are fully aware that hashtag research may seem somewhat daunting, however, stick to the following simple steps, and you will have an ideal set of hashtags in merely no time!

Is there a particular community you are attempting to tap into?

The use of hashtags such as #newyorklife or #brooklynlife is a fantastic niche-specific hashtag that will directly link you to the right target audience.

• Use event-related hashtags

When it comes to event-related hashtags, they involve events within your niche like seminars, workshops, and annual conventions. Event-related hashtags could be popular events within your locality, nation, or the world, which are on the audience's minds at a given time. Such are usually best suited for your more upbeat, casual posts.

• Use industry-specific hashtags

Typically, you want Instagram followers who are genuinely interested in your offerings. Essentially using terms not precise to your niche would lead to acquiring significantly few followers. This said, you need to use hashtags in your Instagram posts that your target audience could be specifically browsing.

The more precise you are, the more interest you will spark in your target audience, and the better the chances they will grow into real followers.

• Create a branded hashtag

A branded hashtags or dedicated custom permits you to have a better collection of your own content virtually. When a follower tries to search you via another targeted tag, they will more often follow after checking your posts.

You may also have a consideration of creating a tag that is branded for each of your own Instagram marketing campaigns. In some cases, this is good because it often sounds not too promotional than using something that is quite more specific to your own line of business, such as your company name. In turn, campaign hashtags are often used by many followers, which captures their connection's attention. In case they have the same interests, they can still start having the interest of following you.

The proper use of hashtags is essential in developing your Instagram account. Surprisingly, Instagram affords you a maximum of 30 hashtags per post, which is more than sufficient. You can follow a simple but effective strategy where use ten hashtags are for your target audience, another ten hashtags for a location relevant to your brand or post, and ten hashtags appropriate to your post's topic.

Making each hashtag count and ensuring you never repeat the same 30 hashtags will help you get your Instagram to push your account to a whole new level and expose it to real potential followers.

Choose The Ideal Time To Post On Instagram

If you want to ensure you add real Instagram followers to your account, you must religiously and consistently post high-quality photos on your account. Nevertheless, while consistent posting is a sure way to real Instagram followers, you also need to ensure you post at the ideal time. If you want to outperform your competition, then you need to optimize your daily posting times. Ensure you pick ideal times when most of your followers are online browsing through their accounts.

Unlike before, the complexity of the various Instagram algorithms is increasing. This, therefore, means that it has never been any harder to identify the appropriate posting time on Instagram. Even so, this tip still ranks as among the most effective ways of expanding and developing your Instagram account and adding to your followers.

Finding the ideal time to post is a rather taxing endeavor. Later, for instance, examined more than 12 million posts on Instagram and concluded that the right posting time would be somewhere between 9 and 11 am. To find the most appropriate time, you can do your research on the internet or download many tools designed to offer you real-time feedback and insight into your Instagram account.

Initiate Instagram Giveaways And Contests

Statistically, Instagram accounts that hold engaging content can benefit from 70% faster growth in followers in comparison to those that overlook the tactic.

Hosting Instagram contests is an effective means of rewarding your loyal followers and gaining exposure and acquiring real Instagram followers. To run a successful Instagram giveaway campaign, you need to invest resources and meticulous planning. You will want to consider factors such as budget, choosing the proper incentive, and perhaps most crucial is the objective of your Instagram contest. As such, if you aim to expand your reach and gain more followers using Instagram giveaways, here are some proven resourceful entry methods you can use

• Follow-to-Win

With this form of an Instagram contest, you should consider collaboration with another complimentary brand or brand within your industry. Participants of these contests can enter into the draw by following all the brand accounts that are part of the giveaway contest.

• Comment-to-Win

The following contests usually involve your Instagram followers commenting on your contest image. Afterward, the winners are picked from the pool of participating commenters.

• Post-to-Win

Another terrific entry method is the 'Post to win' Instagram giveaway contest. With this one, participants need to re-post an image that you offer or subsequently share their original content that showcases your brand to their Instagram feed. Through sharing these photos, your followers are consequently catching the attention of their followers, offering you a 'mini-shout out'!

This allows your followers to exercise creativity and also offers you an abundant flow of free user-generated material. One great example of this was the Post to Win' campaign promoted by Sunny Clothing. The company co-hosted a unique contest where the participants had to re-post a now infamous 'red bikini image' to win a free swimsuit! Eventually, everyone's feed was packed with this image, which drastically boosted brand awareness.

• Hashtag-to-Win

Just like with the 'Post to Win' contest, this entry involves participants posting their images or an image you give out on their Instagram feed, in addition to including a particular branded hashtag.

While at it, you must ensure that you generate a unique hashtag precise to your contest, uniquely focused around your contest's theme.

Want to get genuine and real Instagram followers? These few simple steps are just what you need!