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  Think about what Instagram content your audience has been engaging with most, and use this information to influence your Guides content. For example, at Later, our audience is full of small business owners and social media managers who are on the lookout for social media tips. Knowing that, we created a Guide highlighting five of our favorite social media podcasts. If in doubt, ask your audience. Share an Instagram Stories question or poll sticker and ask your followers what type of Guides they'd be most interested in. Tip #2: Share Instagram Guides in Stories Since Instagram Guides aren’t shared on a user’s main profile feed, you may want to give them an extra boost on Instagram Stories. Luckily, you can easily share Instagram Guides to Instagram Stories. How to share an Instagram guide to your Instagram story Here’s how to share Instagram Guides in Stories:

  Open your Instagram Guide Tap the paper airplane icon in the bottom left-hand corner Select “Add guide to your story” It's that simple! Tip #3: Highlight Your Community If you’re a brand, this is a great way to show your products in the wild and provide valuable context. Think about creating a guide that showcases your customers wearing or using your products like @tjswim: TJ Swim uses an Instagram guide to showcase images from their customers You can find user-generated content (UGC) by manually scrolling through your tagged photos and branded hashtag page.Or you can make the UGC search process a breeze by using Later’s Collect features:

  Later’s Search by Hashtag Collect media from mentions Easily find and collect media from tagged photos Ready to use Later to easily find and curate UGC for your feed? Check out Later’s Collect tools now! Find (and share) user-generated content – right from Later! Find user-generated content from hashtags, tags, and mentions, then add it to your media library in just a few clicks! LEARN MORE! Tip #4: Use Guides to Build Strategic Relationships Guides are a great way to shine a spotlight on brands, creators, or peers in your network — which can be huge for profile building.

  If you’re a creator or brand in a specific niche, you could create a Guide that highlights 10 accounts that create content dedicated to your subject matter (including yourself). It’s a great way to get their attention, open up the conversation, and who knows — they might feature you in a Guide in the future! This is exactly what makes Instagram Guides a great relationship-building tool. Instagram Guides create a whole new way to curate and consume content on Instagram — opening up huge opportunities for storytelling and e-commerce on the app. Starting fresh on social or just trying to build your online brand? You’re probably wondering how to get more followers on Instagram. And no, we don’t mean buying followers or using bots. Those tricks might boost your follower count for a short time, but they won’t do you any favors long-term. That’s because the only truly valuable Instagram followers are real people who care about and engage with your brand. Check out our in-depth guide to learn how to grow Instagram followers organically.

  5 simple steps to get more followers on Instagram Step 1. Lay the groundwork Step 2. Create great content Step 3. Make yourself findable Step 4. Engage with your community Step 5. Keep learning Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear. How to get more Instagram followers for free No time to read the whole guide? Check out the video below for our five best tips. Otherwise, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

 Have a thoughtful Instagram marketing strategy If you want to be effective on social, you need a clear plan. Getting more Instagram followers is a great starter goal. But followers alone won’t create a successful Instagram account. Your goal needs to be part of a larger plan that connects to your business strategy and social marketing objectives. Think about the reasons why you want more Instagram followers. What do you really hope to accomplish? Maybe you want to: increase brand awareness boost product sales drive traffic to your website. Staying focused on these business-oriented goals will help keep your Instagram account consistent. It will help you tell a compelling brand story that appeals to new profile visitors and helps build (and keep) a loyal following. Define your target audience Ask yourself some questions about who you’re trying to reach:

 They will also help you consistently deliver content that will keep your audience engaged for the long run. Create a consistent brand story and aesthetic Maybe you want to show off how your product is made. Or humanize your brand by sharing an employee’s perspective. An aspirational brand might showcase the lifestyle or achievements of your customers. No matter what you’re going for, it’s important to maintain a consistent brand voice, personality and look. Your posts should be easily recognizable at a glance. Think of your Instagram grid as one cohesive unit. You can always use Instagram Stories to share content that doesn’t quite fit with the look and feel of your main feed. Use keywords to appear in searches Before people can follow you on Instagram, they have to find you. But not all text on Instagram is searchable. Only two fields on Instagram contribute to search results: name and username. Your username is your Instagram handle. It should be consistent with the handle you use on other social networks since this also makes it easier for people to find you. Use your brand name or a variation of your name that people are likely to use when searching for your brand.

 Your name can be anything you like, up to 30 characters. You don’t want to keyword-stuff, but including your most relevant keyword in the name field can make you easier to find. Optimize your Instagram bio and profile Two-thirds of Instagram business profile visits are from non-followers. If your bio and profile convince them to click the follow button, those visitors may become followers. Your profile includes your name and username fields (mentioned above), your website and your bio. Your bio can be up to 150 characters, so make the most of it. Convey your brand identity and show new visitors why they should follow you. What kind of content can they expect? If you have a professional account (business or Creator), you can include extra info in your profile, like your contact information, type of business, and location.

 Step 2. Create great content Design a gorgeous Instagram grid Sure, this might seem obvious, but it’s critical when thinking about getting followers on Instagram. Every post on your Instagram grid must be high-quality and visually engaging. When new users visit your profile, the content should make them want to see more (and click Follow). Give commercial photographer @nelsonmouellic a round of applause for this visual feat. Write compelling, long captions

 Instagram is a visual social media platform, but great Instagram captions help you get more reach and engagement. Here are some key strategies to keep in mind: Put the most important words up front. If the caption is more than 125 characters long, users must tap “more” to see the whole thing. Make the most of those first words to inspire that extra tap. Ask a question. This makes it easy for your audience to leave a comment. That increased engagement will help make your account visible to more people. Use emoji. Emoji add a bit of variety and can make your caption more enticing. Just make sure you use those emoji correctly! Try different caption lengths. Our data shows that long captions are more likely to improve engagement, but ultra-short captions can also be very effective when the visuals speak for themselves. Will Tang of Going Awesome Places posts great photos with detailed captions that tell the story behind the shot. His Insta bio calls him a “creator of ridiculously detailed itineraries and guides.” That means this caption approach is very on-brand.

 Post content that’s meant to be re-shared Your audience wants to engage with content that’s useful and inspiring. So when planning your posts, think about types of content that other people might like to share. People love sharing infographics. Feed that desire by supplying your followers with your expert insights. If someone embeds your Instagram posts in their blog, you’re exposed to a whole new audience of potential followers. People can also re-share your posts in their Instagram Stories. These posts are clickable, so anyone who wants to know more can click through to your original post. It’s another easy way to expand your reach to new audiences and potential new followers. For example, here’s how a Hootsuite post about LinkedIn demographics looks when shared to my Instagram Story. Hootsuite LinkedIn demographics story re-share Embrace Instagram Stories If you want more Instagram followers, you need to use Instagram Stories. Half a billion Instagram accounts use Stories every day, and 45% of the most-viewed Stories are from businesses.

 People who use Stories are highly engaged. Plus, you can use the hashtag and location features in your stories to expose them to people who do not already follow you. Watch the video below for a few more Instagram Story pro tips. Make the most of Stories highlights Put a lot of effort into an Instagram Story and not quite ready to say goodbye after 24 hours? Pinned Stories highlights are a great way to introduce your brand to people who visit your profile. So pack those highlights with great info and content to show new visitors why they should follow you. Don’t forget to customize the cover photos on your highlights, too. Supplement company Vega keeps things on-brand and plant-friendly with their custom green highlights. Post consistently

 Your existing followers want to see content from you. That’s why they followed you in the first place. So give them what they want! When users interact with your posts, those engagements tell Instagram’s algorithm that your content is valuable. Those interactions will then boost your reach. So giving your existing followers something great to interact with can help bring in new Instagram followers. How often should you post? According to our analysis, between 3-7 times per week. Post at the right time Instagram uses an algorithm, not a chronological feed. But timing is still important to the algorithm. Hootsuite’s social team found that the best time to post on Instagram is between 8 AM -12 PM PST or 4-5 PM PST on weekdays. But your audience might have different habits than ours. A tool like Hootsuite Analytics can show you the best time to post for your audience based on past engagement, impressions or traffic.

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  Hootsuite analytics dashboard showing Instagram followers online by hour Source: Hootsuite Analytics Try Hootsuite for free. You can cancel anytime. Start testing various times and measuring results. For example, if you’re a retail brand, you might want to test posting during lunch Schedule your posts and stories What if the best time to post to your account is 3 AM? (Hey, it happens.) Use a social media management tool like Hootsuite to schedule and publish directly to Instagram. Scheduling your Instagram posts in advance allows you to plan a cohesive grid that tells an overarching story. It also allows you to dedicate time to creating excellent captions rather than trying to come up with something witty on the fly.

 You can also use Hootsuite to schedule Instagram Stories. Hootsuite Planner showing scheduled Instagram Stories Step 3. Make yourself findable Use relevant hashtags to reach new users Sadly, the text of your Instagram posts isn’t searchable. But your hashtags are. Using hashtags thoughtfully can be a good way to get followers on Instagram for free. You can even create your own branded hashtags. Relevant hashtags can help people find your content. Instagram users can even follow hashtags. That means your hashtagged content may appear in the feeds of people who do not yet follow your account.

  You can include up to 30 hashtags in an Instagram post, but don’t go overboard. Instead, do some experimenting to learn how many hashtags work best for your particular account. Avoid hashtag gimmicks such as #likeforlike, #tagsforlikes, or #followme. These may give you a temporary boost in followers. But those people aren’t interested in what makes you and your content special. They’re not going to help you build a meaningful, engaged audience on Instagram. Instead, focus on using highly targeted hashtags specific to your photo, product, or business, like stylist Dee Campling does in this #wfh shot. Tag your location If the location of your post or Story is clear, it’s worth adding a location tag. It’s another easy way for people to find your content on Instagram.

  If your business has a physical location, tag it and encourage customers to do the same. Users can then click on that location and see all photos and Stories posted from your store, restaurant, or office. For example, here’s what you get when you search for the location of Van Wonderen Stroopwafels in Amsterdam: Amsterdam location tag page on Instagram with top posts Source: Instagram If you’re posting from a conference or event, adding your location can help you connect with other attendees. This will expose your account to a highly relevant group of new potential Instagram followers.

 Tag relevant users It’s easy to tag Instagram users featured in your photos. Just use an @-mention in your caption or Instagram’s tagging functionality within the post. Hootsuite Instagram post tagging a partner in the caption (as an example of how to get more Instagram followers) Users are notified when they’re tagged, so tags encourage them to engage with and share the post. Your post will also appear on the Tagged tab of their Instagram profile. You can also tag users in your Instagram Stories. Then, they can post shared content to their own Story with just a couple of taps. If they do so, their viewers can click through to your account. Hootsuite Instagram Story that tags a user (as an example of how to get more Instagram followers)

  Be careful, though. Tagging someone just to get their attention isn’t a great idea. Instead, only tag users featured in your photo or relevant to your post’s content. Some potentially relevant users to tag might include: Customers Suppliers Other relevant businesses Colleagues or employees Someone who taught you a skill or told you about something you share in the post Anyone who appears in the photo Encourage others to tag you Another way to introduce your Instagram account to a new audience is to ask other Instagram users to tag you. When they tag you in a post, their audience sees your handle and can click on it if they want to learn more.

  Your bio is a great place to ask people to tag you on Instagram. For example, Visit the USA asks Instagrammers to tag them for a chance to be featured on their account. Visit the USA's instagram bio Source: @visittheusa on Instagram Cross-promote your Instagram account on other networks If you want to get followers on Instagram for free, you need to make it easy for people to find you.