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When we onboard new social media clients, we send out a questionnaire so we can get to know their brand and goals for management. The most common Instagram management goal we see? Grow my following to 10k.
10,000 followers seems to be the magic number. It unlocks your 'swipe up' feature and instantly boosts credibility. But how do you get there? Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee account growth or put a time frame on reaching your goals. We like to remind our clients - Instagram users are real people (usually). While there are best practices to grow your account, there is no guarantee your target audience will respond in a certain time frame. If a service provider is guaranteeing a growth rate to you, nine times out of ten the only growth you'll see is social bots - but that's a topic for another blog post.
While time is a key player in account growth, there are things you can do to shorten the wait.
Here are three tips to accelerate Instagram growth:
Get serious about consistency.
Every post is a chance to get your business in front of new eyes. Don't miss out on exposure because of lack of planning. We recommend posting between 3-7 times per week, depending on the amount of content available to you. Scheduling content out 1-2 weeks in advance is a great way to batch work and guarantee you don't miss a post.
Pro Tip: Use a scheduler like Tailwind to plan to your grid - not only does Tailwind recommend the best posting times to increase exposure, it also helps you elevate your feed aesthetic with a grid preview. We use Tailwind to schedule content for all Mayne Marketing clients.
2. Up your hashtag game.
Hashtags are a powerful (and free) tool to push your content to thousands of people that don't follow your account. You can use up to 30 hashtags per post and we recommend taking full advantage. Spend a few hours each month to create custom hashtag lists that are relevant to your business and mix and match these with hashtags that are post-specific to increase your chance of being discovered.
3. Put yourself out there.
Engagement is the key to accelerated Instagram growth. If you want to see your follower count increase quickly, dedicate 15-30 minutes per day to engaging with the people you want to follow you. Leaving meaningful comments, following accounts and liking posts are a great way to get your business in their notifications, making it more likely for them to check out your profile.
If you're following these three tips, we guarantee you'll see your account grow. If you'd like to invest in your social media marketing but don't have the time to do it yourself, we offer customized social management package for businesses and brands of all sizes.
Contact us for more information about social media management.