Instagram is a large platform with many benefits for businesses. You can connect with local businesses and customers through the search facility. This can show you other Instagram pages near your location. Hashtags allow potential customers to find you and you can use the explore page to find out what is trending in your niche.
- Be clear about your offering
Instagram is a visual platform and by scrolling through a few of your posts, people should be able to understand what your page is about. If your page fails to be clear, then you will struggle to build a following. Having a defined niche and content that caters for that, will allow your page to build a community of people interested in your offering.
- Follow pages within your niche
This will allow you to research what works within your niche. Pages with engagement (comments and likes) will indicate what people want to see and you can form your content with this in mind. Take the time to comment on other pages as this allows you to network with others and if you are contributing to other pages then people who see your responses may decide to check your page out.
- Be intentional about your posts
Each of your posts should tell a story. You want the image or video to stop your audience and it should get them to spend time watching or reading your post. Achieving this will result in a higher level of engagement on your posts and you are likely to get an increased following.
- Storytelling with Instagram stories
Instagram stories is a great place for providing content without having to obsess about quality. As long as you can keep your audience engaged and informed, stories can be useful for staying in the minds of your followers. Remember that some people consume stories with the sound off, so utilise text to help tell the story.
- Reply to comments
When people take the time to leave comments on your posts, you should reply and engage with these comments. The more engagement there is with your page, the more visible it becomes to others. When Instagram deems your page as active and valuable, it starts to recommend your page to other people.
- Optimise the bio
You are given a few characters to choose your name, username and to enter your website and bio. Make this count by having a name which is memorable and easy to find. If you don’t have a website then put your youtube page or put a link to one of your other social media pages.
- Stay active
Your posts should be current and your latest post should not be over a month ago. This gives the impression that the page is not being regularly updated and people are less likely to follow the page.
Remember that Instagram is a visual platform so do your best to keep the page interesting by having images and videos that catch people’s attention.