Have you recently started a new Instagram account for your business in the hopes of seeing some growth and branching out to extend your reach to larger audiences? Are you seeing a plateau in you follower account and not too sure how to move forward from there?

In the past few years, brands, both big and small, have realized the benefits that social media platforms have to offer. Brands that got into the social media game early had a big advantage with the fact that there was hardly any competition and it was easy for them to gain followers, it was easy for them to gain a foothold and they are now reaping the benefits of it. Social media is the new wave of marketing and just because you see other brands that have made it big there, doesn’t mean that it came easy to them. 

Social media marketing can be confusing, especially if you have never done it before and don’t even know where to start. If you are having a hard time with your Instagram account, here are a few methods to follow to grow your brand on Instagram.

Use relevant hashtags 

Hashtags are one of the most underrated and misused tools that Instagram has to offer the end user or brand. Hashtags are vital for exposure and reach as they allow you to tag keywords in your captions which in turn allows other users to search these keywords. When users search for a hashtag they will see every post that has been posted with this specific hashtag in their caption. This is a fantastic way to target a specific audience, while also reaching far beyond just your followers allowing other users to see your posts too. Some hashtags have more relevance and are more popular than others which means that you should be looking to use the most trendy ones but also keep it within the theme of your brand and not just spam randomly. 

You can also see what other hashtags you competition is using and take inspiration from there to include them in your brand marketing. 
If you are having trouble finding the perfect hashtags Task and is the perfect app for you. TaskAnt is a hashtag tool that will help you grow your account by making use of the best and most relevant hashtags for your content. They will also guide you away from hashtags that aren’t helping or give you advice on past hashtags that have been used poorly. 

Post great content 

Instagram is very visually focused with their platform allowing users to post both stories and videos in multiple formats. With visually focused content it allows you to take advantage of your creative eye and post so many things that people will find appealing and attractive and you don’t have to count on them reading too much. 

Your content should be kept entertaining and fun, because no one want to know that they are constantly being advertised to, and you should include other aspects of your business rather than just the products that you offer in order to get a bigger Instagram following. Try include showing off your office, or some fun videos with the staff, or even just a behind the scenes of the making of your products. This is the kind of content people will typically engage most with. 

Grow followers organically

It might seem that a great way to grow your account insanely quickly overnight, would be to spam every popular hashtag you can think of or use a service that buys fake followers, but this just isn’t the case. Buying followers and spamming hashtags is detrimental to your engagement and it can even leave you with your account being banned. The best way to get the most engagement and to grow properly, it by having organic growth. Follower count isn’t the only thing that counts and isn’t so important when it comes to the algorithm. 

The best ways to grow your follower count organically is though engagement. This can be done by replying to comments, direct messages, following other people, and ever retweeting other people’s tweets.

Share to be shared 

Instagram is first and foremost a social media platform and being social pays off. You don’t only have to post your own content, but you can also support others by sharing their content. Typically this will form a relationship and encourage others to share your brand too. You could also message them and ask them to share your posts if you are a little bit desperate though. This is fantastic for growth because it allows you to reach a new audience that might not yet know about you.