Are you looking to grow your Instagram audience today? Have you seen the new Instagram favorites feed?
Undoubtedly, Instagram is a potent tool for individuals, influencers, and businesses to gain visibility and engage with their audience.
However, the competition is getting fiercer by the minute, and, today, making your page stand out can be an intimidating process.
Tips to help you grow your Instagram audience and use the new Instagram Favorites feed!
How To Grow Your Instagram Audience
If you are thinking of using this social media platform as the primary channel to attract new customers, you could opt to employ a digital marketing agency.
However, here are 12 tips on how to grow your Instagram audience that is available to anybody, independently from budget and specific goals. Of course, it takes consistency, time, patience, and trial and error to succeed.
The New Instagram Favorites Feed is Here to Help
Have you seen the new favorites feed on Instagram yet?
Here is a screenshot of how you can view it. Click on the favorites button to start adding pages to this new Instagram favorites feed.
Ask your followers to add your profile to their Instagram favorites feed today!
Not only that but The “favorites” feed is a curated section that only shows posts from up to 50 accounts identified as a favorite by the user. Those selected “favorites” accounts get priority in the home feed, too.
Imagine being in an Instagram feed with up to 49 other accounts instead of 1.1 million? That surely can cut down on the competition for your posts.
However, do note the alternative feeds also won’t show Instagram Stories, which only appear on the home screen.
(Another update being tested is going back to the chronological Instagram feed. To see if you have it, tap “following” on your feed and you can switch to “chronological” if available.)
Add Value to Your Content To Expand Your Instagram Audience
This tip might seem obvious, but anybody can look at their feed and find ways to improve it, even established influencers. Trends change rapidly, and it might seem hard to keep up with several algorithm changes and fads.
However, focusing on how to improve your content can be an excellent starting point to craft a long-term strategy to grow your Instagram audience.
While different kinds of content might have value for other audiences, it is essential to understand what inspires your particular audience. To do so, you should be aware of who your customer persona is and what the ideal follower looks like.
This strategy is excellent for finding out what excites them and what they feel an affinity with. In turn, you will be able to craft content that not only has value but can also leave such readers an impression.
Select the Right Hashtags
If you have ever scrolled through any social media feed, you know what a hashtag looks like. However, not all hashtags will work in the same way, or they are relevant to your account’s needs.
Hashtags can be a potent tool that allows your account to be discovered by an increasing number of users – with the right strategy. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post, so you should make the most out of them. These hashtags should be specific and highly relevant to your post and caption.
Opting for long-tail hashtags can be a winning strategy if the short ones relevant to your business are used by an enormous number of people.
Indeed, while there might be fewer people looking at a particular long-tail hashtag, there are fewer chances that your post will get lost among thousands of others!
Don’t worry if you are not sure how to pick the right hashtags, who to like, and how to interact with your audience. You can invest in the services of a company that can do this for you.
Leverage Geotags to Grow Your Instagram Audience
Geotags are those tags that appear just above each post – if you select one. They work similarly to hashtags, just for locations. Adding a geotag to your post or story allows other users to discover your picture when looking for that specific location.
If you are using Instagram to increase the visibility of a physical store or company, geotags can help you attract customers.
Indeed, users are likely to check out the posts relative to a specific geotag when in that location, and studies have proven that a simple geotag can increase engagement to opt to 79%. In turn, users will be able to see the choices available to them – make sure that your business is on the list!
Understand Your Instagram Audience to Know When to Post
The foundations of engagement on social media are posting, liking, commenting, and building relationships with other users and influencers. But when is the best time to do so? This varies, and you will have to allow for a little trial and error.
However, if you are using a business profile on Instagram, you can find out more demographics about your audience by checking out the “Insights” tab. Aside from gender and locations, this dataset tells you when your fans are the most active.
This detail, as well as where they are from in the world, helps you guess the best time to post.
Posting at the right time of the day is essential because the Instagram algorithm benefits posts that generate high engagement during the first hour of being online. So you should ensure that your audience is mostly awake and active on Instagram at that time.
Another technique that can help you increase your posts’ outreach is to advertise them before and after publishing them through stories or countdowns.
Sign up for this Instagram class for beginners with a money-back guarantee!
Invest in Sponsored Content
Sponsored content might not be an accessible choice for all businesses launching today. Indeed, this strategy requires you to have a portion of the budget dedicated to this kind of marketing.
However, sponsored content is perfect for reaching out to a much wider audience. It can grow your organic reach as well.
Couple sponsor content with influencer marketing to improve your brand reputation while increasing your engagement.
Don’t Ignore the Latest Instagram Trends
While you might have a precise idea of what your feed should look like, don’t underestimate the power of trends and fads. One of the latest ones is Instagram Reels, these are short 5-30 second videos you share on the Instagram network.
Another newer feature is the GoLive feature with more visibility. Profiles will get a badge with the information on the schedule live. Plus their followers will be able to opt in to get a notification the moment the Live is available.
Like other social media platforms, Instagram is influenced by fast trends. These trends tend to change quickly from one month to another. (And sometimes, they change day by day!)
Keeping up with them is not easy, and you don’t have to change your whole strategy necessarily.
However, acknowledging them and including some details of them in your plan can help your account stay up to date and appealing.
Link Stickers on Instagram Stories
One of the latest updates from Instagram is being able to link your Instagram stories. Instagram is making a change to the way that external links are shared within Stories frames.
When you post a story, add a sticker and choose the link one, then paste in your external link. That’s it! People can see and click on your links from your Instagram stories.
Instagrammers no longer need to have 10,000 or more Instagram followers! This is a fabulous new feature!
One of the latest updates is being able to link your Instagram stories. #Instagram
Click To Tweet
Consistency Is Always Key to Grow Your Instagram Audience
Due to the increasingly high competition and rising number of users, your Instagram growth is likely to be slow. However, giving up after the first few months means that you might never see the results you were expecting.
Being consistent doesn’t mean you need to post daily, just post the same days every week, even if it’s Monday and Thursdays only. Of course, adding stories daily may help to grow your Instagram audience.
Oppositely, being consistent and keeping posting, and creating engagement is crucial for organic growth. Being able to use Instagram on a desktop today can help you be more consistent on Instagram and help to grow your Instagram audience.
At the same time, this strategy allows you to build long-lasting relationships with other users and influencers in the industry. Beyond social media, these networks might be essential for the development of your company
Run Contests and Giveaways To Increase Your Instagram Audience
If you have already started to see an increase in the audience you can generally reach through posts. As well as other engagement strategies to begin communicating with them. The easiest way to involve your users and viewers with your effort is to create contests and giveaways.
These don’t necessarily have to include a cash prize; you can run a successful competition by picking the best photo among the ones tagged with a specific hashtag.
Alternatively, create an online product and promotion to sponsor your creation and brand to help expand your Instagram audience.
Make the Most Out of Instagram Highlights
Creating stories is essential to maintain a connection with your audience during the day. Saving them on the highlights at the top of your profile allows fans to keep up with your current story.
Additionally, highlights will enable you to save promotions, information, tutorials, and products you can refer to through your contemporary stories. Highlights can help to increase your Instagram audience further.
Don’t Forget to Check Out the Competition!
Your competitors, especially the successful ones, can work as the perfect benchmark for the first months. Check out their strategy and learn from it in particular if you believe they have invested in a digital marketer’s services.
If they have paid for this strategy, and it is working, it is worth keeping it into consideration to grow your Instagram audience! While your brand might differ from theirs on some levels, you can learn from their backlink strategy, hashtags, and keywords.
However, if they have a private account, there is a way here to view them.
Bottom Line to Grow Your Instagram Audience
Unfortunately, there is no exact formula for any business to succeed on Instagram. Still, some strategies can help you increase your audience and reach out to a more significant number of potential customers.
Start from the ones above and include the tactics that better resonate with your brand – then, enjoy the results!
I’d love to know in the comments below how you are growing your Instagram account today and if you are using the new Instagram favorites feed 
Sign up to grow your Instagram audience – this beginner online course comes with a money-back guarantee!
I just went through this course and picked up a ton of “Golden Nuggets” I can’t wait to implement. If you are a beginner on #Instagram this is definitely for you!! ????? https://t.co/LBE2WMKbSV
— Ilka Flood (@ilkaflood) August 26, 2020
