HANS: How To Build an Instagram Following

How To Build an Instagram Following

Recently I have been talking to a lot of people and businesses about Instagram. Instagram is a major player in the social media realm and continues to capture market share. It’s user base has surpassed Twitter with no end in sight. Business owners want to know how they can leverage Instagram to increase their sales. This can be a good strategy for some businesses because you have over 500 million users worldwide. Social media followings are not built in a day. Remember marketing is about daily initiatives that are compounded over time. Today I want to provide you with a few pointers on being effective on Instagram:

Try and Focus on a specific theme for your account

• You might be focused on commercial Realestate so you would post about:
  • Deals you have closed
  • Available commercial Realestate
  • Commercial Realestate architecture
  • Other specific commercial Realestate themes
• The more focused you are the better chances you have to carve out market share. You can work on becoming an influencer in that specific area. Stay focused.

Create a posting schedule and stick to it

• Peak times to post are between 2 – 3pm and later between 8 – 9pm.
• Posting videos after 9pm increases your interactions by 34%
• Post more content during non-working hours with the exception of peak times

Be Confident in your theme

• Make sure you are confident in what you post and make it meaningful. When you post a picture or video make sure you include a strong caption with no more than 15 relevant hashtags. Do not forget your theme focused approach when writing captions or hashtags.

Editing Apps Can Help You

• Take time to explore other apps that will help you create stronger and more engaging photos and videos. Practice is key so make sure you are working hard to capture the proper images or sharing something that is relevant.

Be Social on Social Media

• This is something that a lot of people forget about. They post content and expect “If you build it they will come”… This is not the Field of Dreams so that does not happen. You have to work to build an audience. Some things you must do on Instagram to be successful are:
  • Follow other people
  • Follow other companies
    • Look at their strategy and borrow their techniques
  • Comment and Like others companies and peoples photos
  • Actively engage others with genuine responses