The Instagram mobile application is now
more popular than ever, behind Pinterest it is the fasting growing social
network; now topping 80 million worldwide users. Not bad considering it’s designed to be a
mobile only service.
In order to build large numbers of
followers through Instagram, there are some tested and tried techniques that
you can use. Unfortunately, as with all things in life – the best route is also
the longest route.
Upload
better photographs (Simple!)
At first, your only consideration should be
the creation of attractive photos. The reason for this is that people have the
tendency of following accounts that only present the most relevant and
beautiful snaps. This makes sense and is
often lost on marketers who are looking to crack a new social field. Customers don’t care if you are Nike or
Adidas or even Facebook or their favourite football team – they are on
Instagram to see photos that they enjoy looking at.
For this reason, you need to come up with a
good plan every time you are taking a
photo.
Refrain from taking meaningless or trite
photos, which many people see every day. According to Nick Bilton who works for
the New York Times, (his Instagram account has more than fifty thousand
followers)
“people
are more likely to follow you for quality over quantity – yes you could take a
fancy picture of your starbucks cup but if I don’t know who you are and your
photo is generic, I won’t be following you.
The first rule of instagram is – think quality”
Publishing excellent and average photos at
the same time is not good because the mediocre photos can act as a turn off to
your visitors – a user on Instagram is 40% more likely to unfollow you than on
twitter as there is less social engagement.
Additionally if you have a large number of
attractive photos, it’s advisable to post them in moderation. This is to keep
the interest of people following your Instagram account high and they will
continue checking your photos regularly.
Think of it like you are telling a great story to your children – you
don’t give the story away in the synopsis – you develop the story over time and
keep their intrigue.
If you want users of the Instagram app to
follow you, you should also follow them. This rule applies just like that of
using Twitter. When you follow someone, you will attract him/her to look into
your account. If the person likes it, he/she is very likely to become one of
your followers. However, you should not follow users just for the sake of
following them because – again just like on twitter – you will end up with
followers who are not engaged with
you. One engaged follower is worth a
thousand none.
Like
and post comments on outstanding Shots
The currency of Instagram is the “like” but
there remains no better way to gain a following than lavishing positive
feedback via commenting on a photograph that you like.
Logically, you will be able to grab the
attention of other people who are looking at the account, who will eventually
check your photos and post comments about them.
Utilize
popular Hashtags
Hashtags simply allow the users of
Instagram to categorize various photos. When you tag your photos, you give them
a better chance of being found. For example, if you have a sunset picture, you
can tag it with a popular #sunset tag so that it will be available with other
photos that have the same tag (twitter anyone?). The theory is that people will search in
areas that interest them #cat #icecream #olympics.
Instagram is a mix of a photography app,
facebook and twitter, so getting and staying popular requires a mix of the same
skills that you would use to boost your other online profile.
Steve writes for Buy Instagram Followers – a
website designed to help boost your Instagram profile artificially.
