The key to gaining followers is creating a complete profile with consistent posts.
Instagram began as a photo-sharing social media platform, and quickly became one of the most important ways for businesses to sell products and connect with their customer base. Is your company effectively incorporating Instagram into your marketing plans?
One of the most important aspects of any social media marketing plan involving Instagram is gaining more followers. To do that, you have to first know what is most successful for your account.
How to optimize your Instagram account
Before attempting to gain new followers, you have to make sure your Instagram profile is complete. Does your account have the following?
An up-to-date profile image
A complete bio with contact information
Recent posts that are branded
To determine if your posts are branded correctly, complete a mini account audit.
This account is complete. It has a profile image, bio, and posts.
Conduct a mini social media audit to ensure consistent, prominent branding
Are you accurately and consistently reflecting your brand in the images and videos you share? To answer this question, conduct a quick audit of your Instagram account.
Look at your post/image gallery and answer the following questions:
Are posts reflective of your company and products?
Is there a visual theme?
Do the captions have a similar tone?
Are the right people or companies being tagged in the posts?
Is my account tagged in relevant posts from other accounts?
This account’s image gallery has a clear theme. The images all use a similar filter, and many are similar in appearance.
On your account page, click the far right icon to see what posts your account has been tagged in. If any of the posts aren't relevant to your brand, click through and remove the tag.
Evaluate all posts your account has been tagged in to ensure they're relevant. If not, remove your tag from the photo
Make sure your gallery fully reflects your business and its products (and remove any images or tags that don't fit with your brand).
How to use Instagram analytics
Instagram provides in-app analytics regarding post engagement. To access your account analytics, follow these steps:
Navigate to your profile/account page.
Tap “Insights” for a quick analytics overview, or tap “Professional Dashboard” to access all insights.
Tap “Professional Dashboard” to access all insights, or tap “Insights” to see a quick overview of your analytics
If you select Insights, an overview of the past seven days will appear. You can see accounts you reached and engaged with, as well as total new followers. You can change the time period at the top of the Insights page, and scroll down to view information on your recently posted content.
The “Insights” analytics overview
If you select "Professional Dashboard,” a screen with account information and analytics will show up. You can scroll down through the information, or tap “See all” to the right of “Account insights.”
On the Professional Dashboard screen, tap “See all”
From here, you can adjust/establish the time frame for your analytics report. Click on the "Last 7 days" drop-down menu on the top left, and then select your desired date range from the available options.
Select the time frame for which you’d like to receive analytics data
You can also view the following:
Accounts reached
Account engaged
Total followers
Accounts reached
This section provides the following information about accounts your posts reached:
Number of accounts reached
Top cities/countries
Age ranges
Gender
Followers vs. non-followers that saw your content
Percentage of posts vs. stories seen
Top posts and stories
Impressions (how many interacted with your content)
Profile visits
Website, email, and call button taps
The accounts reached screen
Accounts engaged
This section provides the following information regarding accounts your posts reached:
Total accounts engaged
Follower vs. non-follower percentages for the accounts that engaged with your content
Interactions (likes and comments) for posts, stories, reels, vidoes, and live videos
Top posts, stories, reels, videos, and live videos
The accounts engaged screen
Total followers
This section provides the following information regarding your followers:
Growth (follows/unfollows)
Top locations of followers
Follower age range and gender
Most active hours and days
The total followers screen
How to engage with your audience to gain followers
Now that you have a better idea of your audience demographics and which of your posts perform best, it's time to apply this knowledge to your posts in order to gain more followers.
Here are five tips to grow your follower count:
Post content regularly. Develop a schedule of days and times to post, and stick to it.
Post a variety of content. Don’t only post images on your account; add in Instagram Stories, host an Instagram Live event, and make creative Reels.
Make sure the posts you publish are complete. Write a caption, add hashtags and a location, and tag relevant accounts.
Respond to all comments. If a follower (or potential follower) engages with your content, be sure to respond.
Interact with other accounts. If you engage with other accounts, they are more likely to do the same in return. Like, comment, and reply to comments to get the conversation started and be known as an active brand.
As you start taking these actions, regularly check your analytics to see how your changes impact your follower count. Tailor your posts to replicate your most popular content.
Continue learning with Instagram
One of the best ways to engage other accounts is to tag them in your posts. Check out our step-by-step guide on (How to Tag Someone on Instagram).