Let me just declare that I am no Instagram super-star and am just about in the micro-influencer category but over the last few years I feel I have learnt a lot. Since starting blogging I have been actively trying to boost my Instagram following over anything else because sadly followers = money and attention from brands in the blogging world. Therefore also leading to a possible creative and flexible job which for me works very well alongside my acting and modelling career.
BE SOCIAL
It is called social media for a reason. What goes around, comes around. If you are not social you are very unlikely to be seen by anyone. You need to like, comment and follow people to let them know you are there, otherways you are just living in a box that no one can see. Same goes with having a private account. If you hide your account no one can see what you are up to and those hashtags will mean nothing.
GUEST BLOGGING
Guest blogging can open you up to a huge new audience if you choose the right people to blog for. I guest blogged for my friends blog for a full month and I am sure I gained some new followers, maybe not loads because we have very similar audiences but it definitely helped and gave me an opportunity to be seen on another corner of the internet. Another great way to gain exposure and earn an extra income in the process is writing for popular publications. I have written for The Daily Mail Online and The Huffington Post which always directly link back to either my blog or my social accounts. On days that my posts go out on these site the click throughs and followers gain is astronomical.
INSTAGRAM TAKEOVER
This is another way to be seen by a bigger audience. I would suggest guest blogging for an account with more followers than your own but if you only have a few followers you are unlikely to have this privilege. Instagram takeovers for brands or agencies can be incredibly beneficial to your own account or to something that you are selling. You are being given the opportunity to show off your talents and whole vibe as a person to a brand new audience. In this process you are likely to gain a lot of new followers. If you are lucky enough to have a good social following of your own you can command a nice fee for a brand Instagram Takeover but whilst you are making your way up the ranks of social stardom I would say this task would be amazing for you even if you aren’t being paid.
TAG COMPANIES
If you post pictures of fashion, beauty, food, art, furniture, in fact anything that you bought from a shop then tag them. Pretty much every company has an Instagram account these days and they are always looking for pictures to repost (with the exception of a few that have a theme I could only ever dream of). The photos that are more likely to be reposted are those which you are heavily featuring a brands product in and not showing any other brands. It also helps if the image is well lit, well styled and has the same vibe as the brands current Instagram grid.
CONSISTENCY
Consistency is key and helps build a good engagement with true followers. If you are serious about the Insta game then I suggest you turn your account into a business account ASAP. Once you have a business account you can analyse the data and find out more about your audience. You can see who your key audience is, where your audience live (Country, not road name…not too stalkery) and at what times your audience is most active on Instagram. With this knowledge you can work out what times to post your pictures. I try my hardest to post at least one photo a day and at a similar time each day and my audience have come to expect this from me. Consistency with a theme, however small also helps a lot. I post mainly fashion and lifestyle, along with beauty. I absolutely love flatlays, I love the process of photographing them and I love looking at them yet my audience do not tend to engage with these images. Therefore, I know my engagement on these particular images will be about a third less than a fashion shot.
I hope you have enjoyed my Top 5 ways to get more Instagram followers. Have you got any tips for me that I may have missed? Share your tips in my comments section to help other readers.
