How to Increase Instagram Followers for Your Business in 2024

India has the highest number of Instagram users in the world (Hootsuite). And, the platform offers many opportunities such as influencer collaboration, real-time marketing, and more for all business owners. But you must gain followers first for credibility and engagement. Learn how to increase Instagram followers for 2024.

As a business owner or social media professional, you must already have a social media strategy to expand your brand reach. Following that, you must have created business profiles on relevant social networks, especially Instagram. Now, you would want to gain as many followers here, as 90% of Instagram users follow at least one business. This blog post will show you how to increase Instagram followers. 

1. Why you should choose Instagram for your business in 2024
2. Importance of gaining more and more Instagram followers
3. How to increase Instagram followers and grow your business in 2024

Why You Should Choose Instagram For Your Business in 2024

First things first, you must know how Instagram helps in business growth. When you are new to social media marketing as a whole, know what separates this social media platform from the rest. 

These are some important features of Instagram that marketers need to know. 

Filters – Instagram has a number of filters that help your brand have visual consistency through all your posts. 

Stories – Taking inspiration from Snapchat stories, Instagram Stories quickly surpassed them in terms of users ever since 2016. A TechCrunch article showed that Instagram Stories had 300 million active users, which is double that of Snapchat Stories. 

Each story post on Instagram lasts for 24 hours. And this creates a FOMO (fear of missing out) effect among users. Brands can use stories with giveaways or offers. And it is more likely that the audience does not want to miss out.  

What this means for brands is that Instagram stories provide more engagement. 

IGTV – This feature is primarily for video marketing on Instagram. This standalone feature remains in the top right corner of the profile. The social media platform also provides analytics for this feature based on likes, clicks, etc. 

IGTV may not be as big as YouTube, but it is great to keep your audience engaged. And keep in mind that this is one single social media platform. You have many other options to post images, Reels, and Stories apart from videos. 

Instagram Live – It is a live-streaming tool that works within the Stories feature. Brands can show different types of content ranging from behind-the-scenes, Q&A, new product announcements, etc. They also disappear when you stop recording the video. This aspect too creates the FOMO effect.

Instagram Reels – Reels allow marketers to create 15-second clips with multiple videos. Even AR effects can be used here to gain engagement. And, there is a separate Reel tab that your followers can click on. 

Geotags & Hashtags – Geotags are found in photos and stories on Instagram. They provide 79% more audience engagement than posts that do not have any (Socialhead). 

Similarly, there are hashtags that can be used for a specific niche. These help you categorise your content on the platform. Hashtags also make it easier for you to grow your reach when new users click on them. 

Importance of Gaining More and More Instagram Followers

So, what are Instagram followers? 

Anyone who is following your account on Instagram and can like, share, or comment on your posts is an Instagram follower. 

Instagram followers play a significant role in a brand’s success. Businesses of all sizes need a good number of following. 

If you are thinking, ‘What is a good number of followers for my business profile on Instagram?’, the answer would vary. Overall, successful businesses have at least 10,000 and above followers. 

One recent Hootsuite study showed that those with 10,000 followers have higher engagement than businesses with 100,000 followers. But, this fact only shows that engagement is entirely dependent on the brand’s quality of posts or videos.  

Now, let’s move on to some important stats about Instagrammers and businesses. 

1. According to Instagram, 2 out of 3 people say that Instagram helps in creating meaningful relationships with a brand
2. Another stat from Instagram states that 44% of users use Instagram to shop, per week
3. CNBC states that Instagram has 2 billion active monthly users
4. Pew Research states that 59% of users log in every day
5. A Facebook report showed that 78% of surveyed people perceive a brand to be popular when it is on Instagram
6. 50% of Instagrammers visit a website to buy a product or service after they see it in Instagram Stories (Instagram).

Here are some more points below that explain why you should have more followers on your Instagram business profile. 

Makes Your Brand Credible

Speaking of the importance of gaining followers on Instagram – your followers are your prospective customers. Users only follow a brand on the platform, if they find a post, Story, video, or Reel interesting. 

Now, they may not instantly purchase, but good posts will always grab their attention.

And when they do purchase from you, you can further provide social proof to other customers. You can provide customer testimonials as Instagram posts on the same platform or on your website.  

You can further develop a good relationship with your followers by responding to their messages. Not only that, but you can also encourage them to create user-generated content without spending a dime. 

And this always works wonders as far as brand credibility is concerned. 

Gets You More New Followers From Existing Base

Another reason to have more Instagram followers is that a good number encourages other users to follow a business. Followers can share posts they liked with their circle on Instagram. And that niche audience may also start following the business. This is an organic way to increase followers on Instagram. 

How to Increase Instagram Followers and Grow Your Business in 2024

By now, you must have a clear picture of important Instagram features and the importance of gaining followers. Check how to increase followers on Instagram for business. 

Make Your Instagram Bio Impactful

Instagram only allows 150 characters to be used in a bio. So your business description must be super concise. After all, it is the first impression of your brand presence. 

Here are the elements that you must add. 

• Short, one-liner description of your business that is easy to read
• Call-to-action button (contact information, message, etc)
• Bio link (shortened URL to your website’s homepage)
• Branded hashtag (optional)
• Location

Your bio has to be impactful. You should ideally define what your business is and its purpose. Depending on the type of business you run, you can use emojis, symbols, etc, too. 

Also, give importance to the profile photo of your business account. Ideally, it should be your brand’s logo, instead of your personal picture. 

Post High-Quality Photos Always

HubSpot’s experts say that you should start with 15 posts to start getting engagement. Mainly because your visitors will have a full screen of pics on their devices. 

Instagram is primarily a visual platform. You will not drive any engagement if your photos are pixelated. In fact, you may lose some of your followers. 

One way to ensure you have good quality content is to edit your photos before posting. You can add Instagram filters or use other design-related digital marketing tools such as Canva, Adobe Photoshop, etc. 

There are some other photo editing apps that you can also consider. You have Snapseed, VSCO, etc. 

Or you can check out some short graphic design courses if you are a complete beginner. 

Another tip that goes without saying is the quality of the camera you have. It should be good.  Then you have to consider the technical aspects of your images. 

Instagram mentions that you need to post photos with widths between 320 and 1080 pixels. Otherwise, it will be enlarged or cropped.  And the aspect ratio should be between 1.91:1 and 4:5.

Write Actionable Captions For Instagram Feed Posts

For your Instagram feed posts, do give importance to captions. Make them actionable yet interesting with a clear call to action. Captions provide context to your images. 

Instagram provides a character limit of 2,200 for captions. Compared to your bio, it is a lot of space where you can describe your brand personality. 

But of course, the entire 2,200-character-caption will be truncated to the first line. You can focus on writing a catchy first line that grabs their attention immediately. 

Leverage Different Types of Instagram Content

To drive quick engagement, you may want to look into carousel posts. Carousels are a series of photos that can be viewed by swiping left. 

Search Engine Journal mentions that carousels with 10 slides with a combination of images and videos have the highest engagement rate. This is when you compare to those with less than 10 slides. 

Do give importance to short videos when you are creating content on Instagram. Video marketing is still the most effective form of digital marketing this year. It is used in almost every content strategy today. 

One HubSpot study stated that 85% of marketers think that short videos are the ideal content format. 

Live videos on Instagram are also a great way to drive engagement among your target audience. Right after you complete the live stream, you can also view the Insights that show you the comments and likes. 

Pro-tip – Have a lookout for the most trending content formats. 

Create a Dedicated Posting Schedule 

It is essential to have a social media calendar to post consistently and on schedule. Hootsuite mentions that you should post three to seven times a week when you are using Instagram. This is because recency is a dedicated signal for ranking under Instagram algorithms. 

The best time to post on Instagram fluctuates a little through the days of the week. In general, Tuesdays to Thursdays and 10 am are considered great. But some experts say the Monday noons, Sunday evenings, and Friday afternoons are effective as well. 

Choose Specific Hashtags

Your posts will have a wider reach when you use hashtags correctly. Your posts will appear on the Instagram feed of the user who follows one or more hashtags you use.   

Types of Instagram Hashtags

Instagram says there are nine types of hashtags. 

• Product/service Hashtags – #courses, #books, etc that define your product or service
• Niche Hashtags – #digitalmarketingcourse, #digitalmarketingstrategy, etc that describe your domain or industry
• Instagram Community Hashtags – #digitalmarketerofinstagram, #bloggersofinstagram, etc that helps others join a community
• Special Events or Seasonal Hashtags – #nationalpetday and others that describe a specific celebratory day or season
• Location Hashtags – #digitalmarketingdelhi and others describing the geography of the business or post
• Daily Hashtags – #mondaymotivation, #fridayvibes, etc that describe posts on a specific day of the week
• Phrase-relevant Hashtags – #startyourownbusiness, #goexplore, etc that are colloquial for a specific community 
• Acronym Hashtags – #ftw (for the win), #fbf (follow back friday), etc are some examples that are used in day to day conversations
• Emoji Hashtags – There are about 6.44 million emojis that are hashtagged on Instagram, according to Entrepreneur

Instagram Hashtag Limit

There is also a limit to using hashtags for different types of content on Instagram. A study by Social Media Examiner showed that 

• You can use 30 hashtags for the regular Instagram feed posts in order to show up on the search. These hashtags are present in the caption or comment section.
• You can also use 30 hashtags for IGTV in the video description.
• You can use 3 hashtags for Stories.

It is ideal to use hashtags that pertain to your business. You have to know how your audience thinks when they are searching. 

Experts say that you can use excessively popular hashtags when you initially start your business account. This helps you grow your Instagram followers in the beginning. But you have to be wary of this practice, as your content may stop appearing on top of hashtag searches. 

Do keep checking the View Insights section below the pic of the post. It tells you how many users have found your post from the hashtags you used. 

For Instagram Stories, the use of hashtags is different. You can use the clickable hashtag sticker, which allows one hashtag. Or go with the text box that provides you the option for placing three hashtags. 

Which Hashtag Performs Best?

Research from TrackMaven shows that Instagram posts with 9 hashtags perform the best. The average engagement is 28,548 interactions per post. 

This research also points out that hashtags with 21 characters perform the best. The average engagement per post is 30,394 interactions. For hashtags with 24 characters, the average engagement per post is 18, 491 interactions. 

It is ideal that you do not overuse hashtags. Mostly because your audience can easily spot that you are trying too hard to sell your post. Instead, you can be creative and personal with the use of hashtags. 

Use Your Instagram Profile Link to Attract More Followers

Adding a profile link is another way how to increase followers on Instagram. You can put your profile’s link on your website under your contact information. This is not a direct way to gain followers, but still works organically. 

There are other times, too, when using links works in other situations. For instance, you may have started with email marketing before jumping into social media. You can put out that link on the footers of your emails. 

You can also cross-promote with an email campaign. It is quite simple. You can encourage your email subscribers to follow or visit your business profile on Instagram as part of the email’s CTA. 

Additionally, you can also put the Instagram profile’s link on your other social media channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. 

Collaborate with Influencers in 2024

Influencer marketing is an important subdomain of social media marketing. Also, the global influencer marketing industry is growing steadily since 2016. 

Back then, the industry was $1.7 billion. In 2022, it was expected to be at $16.4 billion, according to Influencer Marketing Hub. And brands are going to increase their budget for it even more in the coming years.

So what does this mean for your business and the strategy to grow your followers on Instagram?

Collaborating with influencers provides social proof. It not only helps you in gaining followers, the influencers you are collaborating with, also do. 

Try Giveaways & Contests

Both help in providing you with a highly engaged audience.

By running a contest or a giveaway, you can ask your visitors to follow you. You can further ask them to tag their friends. 

The major benefit of these methods is that your followers get to understand your brand’s personality better. And metrics such as comments and likes are sure to follow. 

Do Not Forget to Apply for a Verification Badge

A verified badge is identified by a blue tick on the profile. You will usually see that on many celebrities and major business profiles. According to Instagram, verified badges help users find authentic brands and people. As you may know that there are many fake profiles on the platform. 

A verified badge is one way for your visitors to trust your business. There are some eligibility factors such as Authentic, Complete, Unique and Notable, among others. 

Parting Thoughts

So these are the 10 best ways that showed you how to increase Instagram followers this year. Hope you are able to get followers in no time. 

Also, you may want to check out some short courses such as Instagram Marketing: Instagram Essentials and Content Creation on FutureLearn or Grow Your First 1000 Followers on Instagram on Skillshare. Further, you can explore a lot more social media marketing courses. 

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