Starting an Instagram handle from scratch is no easy feat. We have entered the year 2021 and Instagram growth right now is just as unpredictable as growing your business. But mind you, we said unpredictable, not tough. In our last blog, we made e-mail marketing easy breezy for you and today, we are getting onto your Instagram. With the right goal in your mind and some easy tweaks here and there, you can grow your Instagram followers for free in just the right amount of time.
Follow our easy peazy 5-step guidelines to grow your instagram followers for free:
1. Name your Instagram account wisely
What’s in a name, said Shakespeare when there was no Internet. On Instagram, your Insta handle name matters more than you can imagine. Name it in accordance with what people would find on Instagram. Is your handle meant for Shopping? Add ‘shop’ as a prefix or a suffix. Is it about photography or writing or perhaps, fashion? Don’t hesitate to include the genre in your name. You’re bound to be found more.
For example, although our brand is called myHQ, on Instagram it’s ‘myHQ_workspaces’. You know now why.
2. Fill your Insta Bio like you’d do your resume
Who cares about that little monster box right above your beautiful feed? Well, it’s time YOU do. Your Insta bio is more powerful than you’ve known up until now. Instagram is a smart search engine. You bio details categorize you in the right place determining your Instagram followers, which again determines your business sales.
A perfect bio answers three questions:
WHO ARE YOU? (Your industry)
WHAT DO YOU DO? (A snippet of alll you do)
WHERE TO FIND YOU? (Link to your business or to your best work)
3. Create your content, YOUR way
CREATE. Most of the people believe that quick growth is all about quantity, but honestly, it’s all about quality. Reposting and resharing is okay once in a while, but your backbone to Insta growth (pun intended) is the original content. Experiment, play around and create something which stands for you or your brand. Yes, it’s work you got to put out there, but hey, it’s yourinstagram. Who else will?
Radhika Bose, a.k.a Yogasini, is a Delhi-based Indian social media influencer with a kickass following of more than 499k. When we asked her what gave her the Instagram influence, she had this to say:
To be on Instagram, you have to produce quality work and always try to be original. Get inspired from other people’s work but always try to find your own style!
If you look through her Insta-feed, you’ll know exactly what we are talking about here. She has created her own style, which has primarily got her what she has.
4. Hashtag, Like, Follow, Comment
To get the audience engaged, you have to engage first. Explore Instagram, like pictures (an awful lot initially- for every 100 you would gain 21.7 likes roughly) and comment like a real person (not a brand or spam!). Engagements strike up a conversation to reflect your authenticity and draw people’s attention to your feed. (Do you see why we say, “Content is the king”?)
You may want to desperately follow everyone and anyone but it’s always better to keep the genre in mind when you do that. Your followers should potentially increase your business engagements — otherwise, they are plain good for nothing. The right hashtags are again the ultimate magnet for your audience.
5. Consistency is the ultimate key
Instagram is that annoying monster who needs to be fed every day – and more than once a day. You have to get your audience addicted to your Instagram. They should be expecting you on their feeds. If you break away from the chain, don’t expect them to wait around. There are, unfortunately, plenty of fishes in the sea.
Gurgaon based fashion blogger SheenaFab, has a sweet following of 36k and she has only one secret to her Insta growth — Consistency.
The best way to increase your instagram followers for free is consistency. Be consistent with the theme of your Instagram profile and also post consistently, you can’t take long pauses and expect everyone to be still on board with you. Also, you have to create a community of Instagram… you have to continue interacting with other accounts that have a similar audience as yours. Believe it or not, that helps a lot.
The truth is, Instagram has become such a gigantic platform of marketing, that a single post cannot cover all bits and pieces. However, it is equally an important source of brand influence today.
Stay tune to get more ground covered in our next one! Our Insta updates will make sure you know all about it. #followforfollow, Ha!
Fired up for more? Read:12 Podcasts That Every Indian Entrepreneur Should Listen To
Read: 10 Must-Read Books For Every Indian Entrepreneur
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