Instagram boasts of 500 million active users on a daily basis. Among these individuals, about 80% follow a business profile. So it’s hardly surprising that marketers all over the world are focusing on this platform in order to grow their businesses.

In the USA the number of monthly users of Instagram is expected to rise by 3.2% in 2021. The platform is continuously growing and introducing new innovations, and marketers must keep up with the trends to maintain a dedicated follower base.

In order to earn money via your Instagram account, you need a solid follower base and keep them engaged with entertaining and informative posts. The competition is strong, and you need to come up with something unique in order to stay ahead of the curve.

That being said, here are some useful tips that can help you grow your Instagram account. While there are no effective shortcuts to building your presence on this platform, these tips can help you attain better results.

Choose a Good Profile Picture

Remember, your profile picture represents your business, so you can use a logo for this purpose. People visiting your profile readily see the logo and following this when they notice the logo on some other social media site or a billboard, they will immediately associate it with your business.

This is a great way to enhance brand awareness. However, you should make sure the quality of the profile picture is good and has a resolution of at least 110 x 110 so that users can view it easily.

Be a Part of Engagement Groups

Many people who earn a large number of followers within a short span of time are members of engagement groups. In this regard, you may feel tempted to join the groups with the highest number of followers, however, if you join a group that is related to your niche, you will get followers who are interested in your content.

When it comes to engagement groups, you should keep the following things in mind:

• This works best for small businesses trying to earn more followers.
• Through these groups, you can get Instagram likes and follows from individuals with common interests.
• You should follow back the people in the group.
• This strategy is good for getting some early credibility for your profile by increasing the number of followers.

Take Part in Popular Conversations

In order to grow your Instagram, the conversation between you and your followers should happen both ways. Followers are less likely to interact with you for too long if you don’t respond to their comments or ignore the questions they ask you.

When you use your content to interact with individuals, your followers realize that you are actively trying to communicate and engage in discussions. This shows them the human side of your business and they are more likely to engage with you in the future.

Arrange for Contests

Organizing contests and giving out freebies is a great way to grow your audience base on Instagram. When the users get free goodies, they are motivated to engage with your brand. There are several online tools that let you arrange contests.

While organizing contests, you should remember the following points:

• Add comments and hashtags to your contests in order to reach out to a wider audience.
• You may ask your followers to repost an old image of yours while tagging you in the caption.
• You can also create a general theme on which users can post images.

Work Closely With Influencers

If you can get a reliable influencer to endorse your brand, it will help you grow your profile. For this purpose, you should get in touch with those influencers who have a large follower base. This way, when they tag (News - Alert) you on one of their posts, all of their followers can get to know about you.

If you have a brand selling products, you can ask influencers to try them out. You can also ask them to feature coupon codes in the caption that will take their audience to your website or profile. If there aren’t too many followers on your account, you can widen your audience with the help of influencers.

Final Words

Using the above tips, you can grow your Instagram account by increasing your follower count. Make sure you don't come across as an aggressive salesperson, because that may be off-putting for many people. The engagement between you and your followers should be as organic as possible, so you should regularly interact with them and ask them for suggestions.