Instagram has quickly become one of the top social media platforms. With over 800 million active users monthly, many brands and businesses are creating accounts to reach a wider audience.Using this platform effectively is a great way to connect with your target audience – but it can be a little overwhelming to know where to start. How can you grow your audience and better connect with the followers you already have? We’ve collected a few simple tips that you can use to gain 100 followers on Instagram.

Create engaging content

The most important thing to remember is to create quality content. Consistent, quality content will go a long way in not only attracting new followers, but also in increasing interactions with existing ones. There are a few key things to keep in mind when it comes to making quality content for Instagram posts.

• Professional quality photos – Because Instagram is an image based platform, having clear, quality pictures is an indispensable part of your success strategy. People are drawn to faces and pictures of other people, so using photos featuring people is a great way to gain attention for your posts. Another good idea is to purchase stock photos – especially if hiring a professional photographer isn’t quite in your budget. You can purchase stock photos from various websites. You can use these photos in conjunction with certain software like Canva.com to edit, add titles, or create messages like so:

It’s also good to keep in mind that many new smartphones these days have great cameras that allow you to edit them right on your phone!

• Excellent descriptions – Once you’ve got your eye-catching pictures, it’s time to give your audience something to read once they’ve paused on your post. Make sure the body or text part of your post is full of quality content. Make sure you’re sharing relevant information. Don’t bury the lead – put the most important information at the top of your post.
• Consistent production – One of the keys to keeping your audience engaged and reaching new followers is to post consistently. Make sure you’re frequently posting and interacting with other users. Consistent quality content is an important part of building your audience.

Once you’ve got your quality content, the next step is think about when you post it. Timing has a lot more to do with reaching your audience than most people think.

Timing is everything

The timing and consistency of your posts has a lot to do with how effective your posts are in reaching your audience. A scheduling app is a great way to make posting consistent content easy for you. There are a number of apps that will automatically post for your account at specified times. Consistency keeps your audience coming back for more. The time of day also has an effect on the reach of your posts.

Interact with other users

Good old-fashioned networking is a great strategy to gain more followers quickly. Follow as many other accounts as you can – just make sure they’re related to your account’s focus. The more people that you follow, the more people will follow you back. Interacting with your audience is important as well. Like posts that include hashtags or topics that are related to your company. Like and comment on posts that are related to your own content. Reply to users’ comments on your own and other posts. Comment on other posts that are similar to yours.

Hashtags

Hashtags are extremely effective on Instagram. Because there are no character limits, you can use as many hashtags as you’d like. Unlike Facebook, the more hashtags you use in a given post actually increases the likelihood of your post being seen.

If you’re using a lot of hashtags, it’s a good idea to separate your hashtags from the rest of the body of the post. You can do this by grouping all of their hashtags at the bottom of the post, separated by spaces, like this:

“Come see our new business partners at the small business day fair on Thursday!

#smallbusiness #SmallBusinessFair #awesomeproducts”

Make sure that the hashtags you use are relevant to your content. You can use a mix of specific and general hashtags, so long as they are all related to your post. Doing some research into which hashtags are popular for similar companies or topics will help give you an idea on which hashtags are popular and effective.

Call to action

Encouraging your followers to interact is a great way to increase involvement and gain new followers. A call to action is a post requesting an action from your audience – this can be anything from tagging friends in a picture they relate to or asking a question and seeking feedback in the comments. Giveaways and contests are also a great way to get your posts noticed. The more participation you can encourage will help generate excitement about your post and will increase how many people will see your account. These simple tips are a solid starting point to increase your followers on Instagram. The more that you practice them and get familiar with this social media platform, the better you will be able to find and connect with your target audience.