How to Get Targeted Followers on Instagram: Quality VS. Quantity
Social Media
It is widely known that Instagram is a powerful tool that can help you get publicity and give a considerable boost to your business, no matter if it is product-based or content-based. Whether your goal is to promote a newly released product or drive traffic to your website, Instagram should be your primary focus when it comes to increasing your audience engagement and getting yourself in front of more people who might eventually become your actual customers. Why? Because Instagram is visited by over 800 million active users monthly.
If this fact alone doesn’t suffice to convince you, consider this: over 120 million Instagram users interacted with a business by visiting a website, getting directions, phone calling, emailing or direct messaging. Your goal is to be one of those businesses. And to increase your chances of success, you need more Instagram followers.
Having a large number of followers on Instagram is undeniably a great achievement to strive for. However, it is important to realize that a huge following isn’t always equal to a “useful” following. After all, the ultimate purpose of your social media marketing is to convert your followers into clients. So unless your followers are targeted, you can’t really expect them to be of any use to you.
Thus, an obvious question arises: how to get more targeted followers on Instagram? Before we give you some tips, let’s figure out why even bother about the quality of your Instagram following in the first place.
Large following VS. quality following on Instagram
Anyone who has at least a couple of hundred subscribers on Instagram knows that no two Instagram followers are alike. In reality, a delightful figure indicating your number of subscribers on the platform can be quite misleading. Behind it, you may find all sorts of hollow profiles including bots, fake accounts, people who are absolutely irrelevant to your business, etc. For business Instagram accounts, non-targeted subscribers and bots are nothing but dead weight, hundreds of wasted posts, low profile activity, and most importantly, the lack of development.
So if your goal is not just to feed your ego with overblown figures but to ensure your Instagram account brings customers, your top concern should be building your following of real people with a real interest in what you do. And if you are ready to go the extra mile, you will be able to attract followers from the right locations, working in the right industries, and being potentially ready to buy your product, start following your blog, subscribe to your newsletter, etc. The more targeted your approach is, the more productive your Instagram campaign will be.
In one of our previous articles, we have discussed how to grow your following on Instagram in general. But this time, we will focus on the tips allowing you to get more targeted followers.
Tips for attracting targeted Instagram followers
A target follower is a generalized image of a typical consumer based on geographical, social, and psychographic criteria. When identifying your target followers on Instagram, it is important to analyze the groups of users with the needs that can be effectively satisfied by the product you offer. In order to reach out to your target audience on Instagram and engage them properly, consider the tips offered below.
- Check out your competitors’ following
What’s the easiest way to identify your targeted Instagram followers? Obviously, having a look at your competitors’ audience! There’s nothing wrong about taking a peek at their followers and even attempting to steal them at some point. It’s a fair rivalry after all!
All you have to do is open your competitor’s Instagram profile and check the “Followers” section. There you go! You’ll immediately get your hands on the entire list of targeted followers available all in one place. So there’s no need for you to waste time searching for your ideal followers on your own.
The most difficult part though is to filter them out and engage those who represent the greatest value to you. You will have to check out their profiles and look through their posts. Then, proceed to the engagement phase:
- Like their posts;
- Follow them;
- Comment on their posts;
- Answer their questions in the comments.
If you do smartly and manage to be helpful to those people, you will have higher chances to steal some audience from your competitors.
- Reach out to possible partners
Unlike your competitors, there are brands and individuals out there that might share their Instagram audience with you at their own will given that your interests do not overlap with theirs.
Find people with active Instagram accounts who offer products or services that complement yours but are not similar. For example, if you provide online language courses, consider getting in touch with owners of popular websites for expats. Once you and your partner come to an agreement as for exchanging shout outs, making collaborative posts, regramming or other cross-promotional activities, both of you will eventually benefit from sharing audiences with one another.
However, this strategy works well only when you already have a substantial audience base to share with a partner. Otherwise, be prepared to pay for the exposure.
- Follow industry-specific hashtags
Although this might sound obvious to seasoned Instagram users, this point is so important that it simply cannot be left without due attention when discussing the topic like ours.
Knowing hashtags that are relevant to your business is critical for your Instagram campaign. Not only because applying the right hashtags to your posts helps you get in front of people who might be interested in what you do, but also because YOU can track the right Instagram accounts by following proper hashtags.
Don’t limit your search with only those hashtags that you usually use for your regular posts. Go beyond your brand and explore industries adjacent to yours. Be constantly on the lookout and engage people you come across.
- Follow event hashtags
There are always some events going on in your industry and featured on Instagram: trade shows, conferences, seminars, workshops, celebrations, etc. They can either take place in real life or be held online. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is keeping track of them and following the related hashtags.
As long as you make yourself noticed on the posts featuring particular event hashtags (by liking photos, commenting, and engaging other interested users), the number of your targeted followers on Instagram will grow.
- Encourage mentions
Mentioning other accounts on Instagram posts automatically makes them visible to people owning those accounts. This is a great way to attract new targeted followers with the help of your existing audience.
The tricky part is to motivate your followers to mention their friends in the comments to your posts. People won’t just do it because you ask for it. This is why you need to give them a good incentive. Your best bet is offering useful and engaging content. If you provide your audience with relevant insights or tips that might be helpful to their friends too, your posts will inevitably reach the wider public.
Contests and giveaways may just as well do the trick.
- Run contests and giveaways
It’s no secret that people love competition with prizes, special deals, discounts, promotion campaigns, and other entertaining activities that might as well bring them pleasant gifts. Use this to grow your targeted following on Instagram!
Encourage people to follow you by engaging them with contests and promise something of worth in exchange. The most common way to attract new followers to your Instagram account is encouraging your existing followers to mention several of their friends in the comments on your post. Thus, you will get more exposure, some of the participants will be rewarded, while their friends who get interested in you will also join your following and maybe even invite their friends too.
- Employ other media to promote your Instagram account
The more people know about your Instagram account, the higher are your chances to get more targeted followers. This is why you must give it as much publicity as possible.
Finding the audience directly on Instagram is great. But it is also vital to use other media at your disposal. Physical goods and merchandise are both great for this purpose. You can also put your Instagram handle or link on your business cards, brochures, ebooks, printed and digital materials. Make sure you also have it readily available in your contact details on your business website.
And don’t forget other social media. Promote the content you post on Instagram on platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and other networks to attract new visitors to your account.
- Keep creating consistent content
Content is the key to both getting new Instagram followers and retaining the existing ones. If the content you’re offering resonates well with the audience, keep it in the same vein. Spontaneous changes of the direction may occasionally have a positive impact on your social media marketing, but more often they will produce the opposite effect.
People following you expect from you the type of content they used to get. And your job is to deliver it as long as you want your followers to stay. Consistency is also important for your potential subscribers. If you decide to post something that doesn’t contribute to your topic or industry, you are risking to go unnoticed by people who might actually be interested in what you really have to offer but who found this particular post irrelevant.
Time to pump up some quality Instagram following!
If you haven’t been using Instagram in your social media marketing yet, it’s time to jump right in. Otherwise, you’ll be missing on a large number of valuable opportunities to boost your business and increase the clientele.
And when you start building your presence on one of the biggest social networks in the world, don’t forget the difference between a large following and quality following. The more targeted your subscribers are, the better results you will achieve. Hopefully, the tips offered in this article will help you drive the targeted audience more effectively.
