70 million photos are posted to Instagram every day by 300 million monthly users, according to the photo-sharing app. That’s a lot of noise to cut through and a lot of competition to go up against. But with 2.5 billion likes daily, there is more than enough engagement to go around. You just need to find the perfect slice of the pie.
Instagram has been touted as the next big network for brands. The image-heavy, link-free feed is unique in some ways and the same in others. If your followers don’t engage with your content, they’re worth nothing to you—and that can be said about any social network, Instagram included. But there are some Instagram-specific tips for finding followers that care about your brand.
1. Create Gorgeous Visuals
While traditional social media best practices can apply to growing your followers on Instagram, there’s a whole new level of strategy that must be applied here and it all comes down to your visuals. It’s no secret that Instagram users love to reward pretty pictures with a double tap. In fact, there’s an expectation for professional level photography even if you’re shooting an image on a mobile device. While #iphoneonly might be a point of pride for professional photographers, your brand can be instantly elevated with a technology upgrade and some basic in-app editing. Cameras like the Sony A3000 allow you to take DSLR-quality photos while on the go then wirelessly upload them to your phone.
Only comedy accounts can get away with less-than-perfect images, like Real Simple’s secondary feed, which is called Women in Real Life and features real images from real woman with funny captions. Blurry, boring, or even gross images are alright as long as they get a laugh. It was smart of the lifestyle magazine to separate the #womenirl content from the impeccable Real Simple feed. While the #womenirl hashtag humanizes the brand, it would have ruined the beauty of the magazine’s feed and likely resulted in some unfollows.
For everyone else, well-lit, focused daytime photos are the minimum requirement. Don’t upload graphic images unless you’ve proven that your followers love those kind of posts, like Foundr Magazine has done. The company built its entire following on sharing inspirational graphic-looking quotes. If you’re going to incorporate graphics, for example if you’re teasing a sale or an offer, lay text over a striking image instead of a plain graphic background. Don’t forget that the hero of Instagram is the photography. Anything that’s not beautiful can be easily scrolled by.
2. Be Visually Consistent
Consistency is two fold: it involves the kind of content you post and what the content looks like. Your images should be visually cohesive. When someone stops by your profile for the first time, a certain expectation is set. For example, are your images generally moody and stark, or are they filled with bright lighting and bold colors? Do they usually feature your products or your customers? Nature shots or food shots? If your followers are used to seeing fashion-based photography, an image of a tray of donuts will be confusing. Be ruthless in deciding which photos make the cut and which don’t.
When it comes to filters, you could spend precious time deciding which filter looks best on each photo, or you could develop a consistent look that’s easily repeatable. Find an Instagram-ready filter to use each time or create a DIY filter in Instagram’s settings or with popular editing apps like VSCO Cam, Snapseed or Afterlight. For example, turn down the saturation to 15% and turn up the blue tint by 25%. Create a recipe and apply it to each and every one of your photos. According to Social Media Scientist Dan Zarrella, de-saturated photos with no filters, cool colors and bright images get more likes as well as photos with faces.
For inspiration, look to these creatively consistent accounts. Target gets artsy by featuring its products in a graphic style on bold, bright backgrounds. Mattel’s Barbie Style account features lifestyle shots of Barbie and her accessories in realistic well-lit surroundings. Kiel James Patrick stages aspirational photo shoots that represent the all-American New England lifestyle that his jewelry and accessories represent.
You don’t have to take it this far, but accounts that are consistent and creative can grow a following fast. See Girl Eat World for a fresh take on food photography, the ‘Follow Me Traveler’ Murad Osmann for a unique spin on travel shots or I Have This Thing With Floors who took advantage of the popular foot-and-floor shot.
3. Have a Strategy Behind Hashtags
Popular hashtags like #love, #follow or #likeforlike will get you more followers, but are they the right followers? Just because you can insert 30 hashtags into each caption doesn’t mean you should. Do keyword research that’s targeted specifically to your followers and their lives. Browse the accounts of your target audience and the people who follow you to see what kind of hashtags they use and what kind of content they post. You might find a lesser-known but more relevant hashtag that will help potential customers find you.
Don’t be afraid to make up your own hashtag or “challenge,” and then encourage your followers to use it with a clear call to action. Before long, your followers may be contributing content on their own feeds, which will spark interest among their followers. When creating a hashtag, tie it to a certain day of the week or a certain type of content. For example, New York Public Library’s (@nypl) #bookfacefriday has been tagged in more than 6,000 posts. Every Friday book lovers around the world search for their book cover doppelgänger, share it on Instagram and tag it with #bookfacefriday. The New York Public Library shares its favorites each week.
Kayla Itsines, an Australian-based personal trainer, has gained more than three million followers on Instagram. The visual results of her downloadable diet and exercise plan for women, the Bikini Body Guide, can be found more than 1.3 million times on Instagram with the hashtag #bbg. Itsines encourages users to take photos every four weeks during their 12-week plan and then post the side-by-side progress with the #bbg hashtag. She re-grams her favorite transformations.
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www.kaylaitsines.com/guides #bbgprogress #bbg
4. Don’t Forget About Your Bio
The profile bio on Instagram may be short, but that real estate can be updated easily and often. For example, publications may post a photo from a new story and say “link in profile.” They’ll update the website address in the bio to send users directly to the correct article. Itsines uses the link in her bio to lead directly to a landing page that promotes her popular guides—a newsletter sign-up of course. The bio copy directs people to check out her guides and leads them right into the sales funnel.
Think about which URL best supports your company and your mission right now. Remember that people are not always going to click through to your website for more information before they follow you. What can you say to them right here and right now that will encourage them to engage with your brand? It could be a few key words, a hashtag, your address, your hours of operation, your social network handles or your email address.
5. Follow the Right People
Follow someone, and they might follow you back. Follow someone and like one of their photos and there’s an even higher chance they’ll follow you back. Follow someone, like one of their photos and leave a comment, and you’ve increased your chance even more. And what if it’s someone who’s right in your target market? Even better.
There are many theories out there when it comes to interacting with potential new followers. For example:
- The 3-2-1 system: for every one photo you post, leave two comments and like three photos.
- The follow-like-comment theory, as mentioned above.
Find a strategy that works for your team and your brand. Try it on 100 accounts and track the results. In general, the more work you put into it, the more followers you’ll get out of it.
6. Partner With an Influencer
Partner with an Instagram influencer who can do a “takeover” for you. It’s a great way to attract new followers and generate high-quality content for your brand—especially if you partner with a photographer. Influencers have their own followers and when you partner with the right one, their followers can gravitate over to your brand. The “right” partner is one who’s followers are a natural extension of your own.
Here’s how it works:
- The influencer posts content on your account for a period of time.
- Simultaneously, they occasionally post an image on their own account tagging your presence and directing their followers to head over your way.
Choose Chicago does this all the time. Local photographers take over its Instagram feed for a whole week and use the #TakingOverChooseChicago hashtag with each post.
The partnership should be mutually beneficial for you, your partner and your followers. Try partnering with an expert in your industry who can provide value as well as exposure. Sephora does #SephoraTakeovers and recently teamed up with makeup expert Tamanna Roashan, who has 1.6 million highly-engaged followers of her own. She shared tips on contouring and highlighting with makeup, and she offered online beauty classes. Since Sephora has 3.5 million followers of its own who are also passionate about makeup and beauty, the partnership was a natural fit.
Expert tip: After blending your cream contour and highlight, make sure to set with different highlight and contour powders over each matching zone instead of one powder all over, so your face doesn’t look one dimensional again and all your hard work still shows through! Meaning, use a highlight powder or light-colored powder to set your cream highlight zones after blending, and use a contour powder or darker-colored powder to set your cream contour zones. 
~@DressYourFace #SephoraTakeover #ContouringMagicMuch like other social networks, finding followers that matter takes time and work. Focus your energy on creating engaging content and strategizing different ways to get it in front of the right people.
The post How to Gain Followers on Instagram That Matter appeared first on Sprout Social.
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