Instagram, once a mere tool to scroll through and see pretty photographs of your favourite celebrities, is now one of the most successful social media platforms to promote your business. Brands and individuals use Instagram for audience building, networking and content marketing. There are more than 1 billion monthly active Instagram users as it gives scope to brands of all shapes and sizes to gain exposure. The more the number of followers you have, the higher is the chance to gain success in your business.

Though you will find several apps and chatbots to increase the number of followers, there is no point, unless you have real, engaged and loyal followers. But this won’t come easy. You need to work hard and adopt the below-mentioned strategies.

First things first, decide and fix what your business is all about and what is it that you want to promote. Stick to this concept and create your posts accordingly. There is no point creating posts from over the place. Your Instagram profile should define your goal. You need to develop a unique Instagram style to get recognized instantly. If needed, you might have to delete non-relatable posts from your profile. Create a profile with a decent bio, describing who you are and what the purpose of your Instagram profile is. Use the URL space to provide the link to your website or any other page you want to drive traffic. You can keep on changing it with links to your newest or most popular content. Instagram has also developed an option to promote your post to your target audience, but you need to switch to business profile to avail that option. This allows you to select the demographics of your target market.

Once you start uploading your posts, you need to keep certain things in mind and follow them. First, get your hashtag game right. You can use a mix of topically relevant hashtags that are trending along with a few popular hashtags of your niche. You can start your own hashtag, but you will have to promote your hashtag as well since nobody can find a new hashtag automatically. Spread your hashtag in every other social media platform you have. You can take it offline as well and get it printed on your receipts, print ads and all relevant events. Use radio and TV to make people aware of your hashtag. Also, don’t make your hashtag boring. Get creative, funny, ironic, and outrageous. Second, use the space for caption to convey your message and narrate the story behind the photograph. Storytelling is an art that has the capability to attract many. You can use one word or one line as a caption to your post on Instagram, but that won’t be engaging enough. Thirdly, be consistent with your posts and find the right time to post for your region. Avoid posting on hours when your potential followers might be busy. Tag relevant users and your location.

Attaching geo-locations and hashtags in your daily Insta-stories will not only help them appear in the explore page, but your story can also appear in the stories for different locations and hashtags. Use the new story highlights feature to highlight your best content so that people who will check out your profile, can easily get a glance of what they can expect if they start following you. This should be tempting enough for them to click the follow button.

Interact with influencers of your niche regularly to get noticed. Comment on their posts and like them and if given a chance, engage in potential business with them. Some influencers arrange for shout-out contests, where they highlight their favourite profiles. Participate in such contests as well. You can repost posts of your favourite influencers, by giving them credit, which will help increase your profile visibility. Joining engagement groups will help you find profiles from your niche and also maximise visibility, eventually increasing followers. If you have your own personal or business blog, you can embed your Instagram pictures into your blog posts, so that those who visit your blog can easily get redirected to your Instagram account.

Once you have quite a nice follower base, you can ask your followers to help you with promotion, such as tagging their friends or sharing your post in their stories. In return, you can arrange for a giveaway contest. You can also use the Instagram story to promote your business ads. By the end of the ad, remember to add your calls to action. If you have more than ten thousand followers, use the ‘swipe up’ option.