Retaining your current followers goes hand in hand with building followers on Instagram. Your goal should be to engage your existing followers as much as you can so that they become advocates for the brand and help you grow your following. That is not enough. You need to go further and harness the power of hashtags to get in front of new people.
By using relevant social media hashtags, your target audience finds your content easy to discover, increasing the chances that they will follow you. However, you have to do it without exaggeration or else it will look like spam. Now, the question is, what kind of hashtags should you use when creating an Instagram following?
Your goal is to use hashtags that help you reach new people. Period. Hashtags can give you a lot of exposure when done right. The idea is to find hashtags that are highly relevant to your brand and then use them in your posts. Which obviously requires the right kind of research. The hashtags you choose should describe what your brand is about while also resonate to see someone’s activity on Instagram.
A cruder way to find related hashtags that are popular is to directly search for the right keywords on Instagram. Make sure you have done your keyword research beforehand. To ensure consistent results, you may want to use the following types of hashtags. Brand hashtags – When you use your brand or company name, you will be able to generate more engagement and exposure in your small business. It is not uncommon for businesses to use branded hashtags on Instagram. In fact, more than 70% of Instagram hashtags are branded.
Trending Hashtags:
The Instagram browse page is a goldmine when it comes to finding trending hashtags that are also relevant to your niche. You may want to add trending hashtags to your content from time to time. Not only does it help you reach more people, but it also shows your audience that you are up to date. Popular hashtags – Most of the time, popular hashtags do not make a big difference in terms of how your content is ranked on Instagram. Just as it is difficult to rank for broad keywords in search engines, popular hashtags are difficult to take advantage of because there is so much competition. Still, you can use them occasionally if they are relevant to your post.
Location hashtags – If your small business is targeting local customers, why not use local hashtags? Also known as geotags, they get nearly 80 percent more engagement than non-geotags. Putting hashtags on your Instagram posts is common. So how about you use it in your Stories too. If you do, you will have a higher chance of being seen by Instagrammers who follow certain hashtags. However, how can you use hashtags for your IG Stories? You can do this by using the hashtag tags found in the IG tags menu when you are creating a story or by placing the tags in your captions.
An innovative way to build followers on Instagram is to focus on your competition and try to engage with your audience. Getting their attention makes sense because they have already followed your competitor who is selling a similar product/service. Stealing the followers of your competition is not unethical, as long as you do it right. Now by a competitor we mean your closest competing brand that is already engaging with your followers. When it comes to building Instagram followers, here is how you can leverage your competitors’ audience.
Identify your closest competitors the best place to start is local competition because it is so obvious. Add them along with other close competitors to your “hit list”. Just make sure you are not in a rush to pick your competitors here. Analyze your followers Instagram is a popular application and many people are addicted to it. However, that does not mean they do not leave. Instagram users stop using it on a regular basis. That is why it is important that you only search for users who are likely to stick around. The more active someone is, the more often they use it. You can also see their obvious habits that indicate a higher likelihood that they will follow you after you engage with them.
