Instagram continues to experience unprecedented growth over the past few years. With more than 1 billion active users every month, it has now become one of the most popular social media platforms, boasting a higher engagement rate per post compared to any other social media platform.

It is essential for any business with an online audience to increase their Instagram following because according to businessinsider.com, 72% of users say that they have purchased a product they saw on the social app, promoted by more than 2 million active advertisers.

In this article, we’ll discuss some proven ways to grow your Instagram audience and increase engagement. Let’s dive in! 

• Research and use the right hashtag.

Finding the right hashtags for posts (or stories) is extremely important because it makes it easier for people to find specific images that they are searching for. Marketers usually look for the most popular hashtags on Instagram and use them so that their posts can be easily discovered. However, if a certain hashtag does not relate to your business or brand, you shouldn’t use them.You have to use the most appropriate and relevant hashtags for both your posts and your Instagram stories. The right hashtags can expose your photo/image to a broad and highly-targeted audience.

• Post consistently and at the right time.

Research suggests that the average Instagram user posts at least once a day, and businesses or brands that post often tend to have bigger followings. So, if you want to gain more followers, then you should post with higher frequency. Your posts should not only be published at a consistent pace, but they should also communicate consistency in its themes, filters, and layout.Businesses should also consider timing their posts appropriately. There are tools that can help you figure out when users are more likely to interact and engage with your posts (i.e., during which hours). These same tools can also be used to automatically publish your posts and stories when your audience is the most engaged.

• Kill it with clever and creative captions.

Writing informative captions can really help you attract a new audience and followers. Your captions should be well-written, meaningful, and crafted to engage an audience. The content of your captions should be relevant, informative, and educational.Captions have the ability to turn great Instagram photos into epic ones, making your content more shareable, and winning over new followers.

• Pay for sponsored posts and product reviews.

In order to advertise businesses and products successfullyon Instagram, companies pay for sponsored posts and product reviews. This marketing strategy of paying for ads (as also seen on banner advertising platforms like Click2sell.co) is not new.However, Instagram does it better as you can create sponsored posts and product reviews by selecting targeted criteria and boosting posts. Sponsored posts work best when you want to promote products and services or if you want to accumulate more user-generated content. 

• Interact and engage with followers.

It is essential to spend some time engaging with your followers, identifying all valuable comments and questions, and responding to them. You can also thank your followers for their kind comments and for tagging their friends. This shows the followers that you appreciate them and that there is a real person behind the images. This builds strong brand loyalty and positive reputation, and by that help increase the number of your followers.