5 Tips for Growing Your Business Followers on Instagram

Instagram for small businesses

Do you have questions like, “how to start a small business on Instagram? How to grow Instagram followers? How to build a long-lasting relationship with my customers?“ 

In this article, you will get answers to your questions and grow your business with the following tips.

In 2022, more than 200 million Instagram users will visit Instagram business profiles every day! So it is important to stand out in this technology generation. Understand your target audience groups and what problems they are facing with the expected solutions that could help them attract and retain them.

1. Set up your business profile the right way

Your Instagram homepage tells people what you are doing, who you are, and why your business exists.

Choose a recognizable profile picture using your logo or your brand icon. It allows people to remember who you are.

Focus on your bio; use more than 150 characters to explain what you do and who you are on your Instagram bio. This provides a brief description to your customers of what you do.

Add a link in your bio; you can include direct links to your blog, website, podcast, or even your products and services page! Or use Linktree as one link, which can contain several links you want to share.

2. Use new Instagram features

Instagram is a powerful tool for any business and brand, especially for small businesses. You can use this platform to showcase your brand. Recently, the platform has moved into e-commerce.

Instagram keeps updating and introducing new features that can build a strong online presence and has become the online home shoppable platform. It will promote accounts that use their unique features, image and video filters. You need always to be upfront with the new features and use it to create benefits for your business.

Here are 7 Instagram features to grow your business:

• Instagram Shopping
• Link in Bio

• Instagram Live
• Gift Cards
• IGTV
• Instagram stories
• Instagram Stories Highlights

3. Consistently create a new post

Consistency is key to promoting anything to their target audience. You need to constantly post on your feed and stories, to be an active account on Instagram. This helps your audience learn when to expect new content from you and gets them to interact with you. If you only post once a month, people will forget about your brand, so we suggest at least 3-4 times a week; if you can do it once a day is even better. Keeping a consistent schedule builds a relationship with your followers, reminding them about your brand.

Tips: post a story in advance to remind your followers that a new post is about to launch at a specific time; let them like, comment and share your post. This has the benefit of the Instagram algorithm and pushes your post if you are getting a lot of attention in the first 30 minutes after you posted.

4. Engage with your customers

Posting often without engaging with your audience is ineffective. It would be best if you encouraged your followers to keep engaging with you.

How to encourage your followers to engage with your business? You need to call them to action by sending you direct messages or liking, sharing and commenting on your posts. 

Instagram is more likely to push the active account to more followers on its discover page. When you create great content, followers will likely share your post or stories with their friends.

Use hashtags on your posts and stories. This tactic allows followers who follow the hashtags that can grow your following. Search up on hashtags with less than 10K posts is a great way to grow because enough people are using the tag. You must select hashtags related to your industry or the hashtag you want to explore.

Use direct mention on your post or story to directly interact with the person who relates to your content (Business partners). They will likely share your post or story on their accounts, enabling their followers to see your post, and they might become your new followers.

5. Make sure your effort pays off

At first, it will be challenging to have a low follower count and engagement rate. It will take time to build a following and require investment in time and ideas. So don't be discouraged. 

You do not need a fixed strategy; as you build your brand, you can evaluate the plan and change to the most efficient way to connect with your followers. Keep track of when your followers are active when to post, and how often you need to post. 

More suggestions and tips

Do you find this helpful? If you feel overwhelmed, you can always reach out for more help and tips. I can't wait to connect with you! Contact me!