How to grow your Instagram followers

 

Everyone seems to have an Instagram account, and most DJ’s and labels link it to their Facebook page and if you’re like me, use it more than Facebook for brand building. But how do you grow your Instagram following authentically, and make it something that works for you and getting your music heard, streamed or bought?

 

There’s a million articles online on how to do it. Some you can even pay for - don’t - the rules are basically the same as every social media platform and if you do things well, consistently and with personality it will grow and be full of the right kind of people that are into what you do.

 

Let’s start with the basics:

 

Make the most of your profile

 

Your Instagram profile is prime real estate.. do you really want your bio to only link to your website homepage? Change it up at least bi-weekly and use that clickable link in your bio to drive users to your newest release, mix or whatever you want to promote.

 

Post once a day

 

Posting once a day is key, frequency increases your chances of being seen and therefor followed. Once you get up and beyond the magic 10k mark then you should be posting more than that, but for not make posting daily part of your routine.

 

Use hashtags

 

Hashtags are the way to reach new audiences not necessarily connected to you yet. Countless studies have tried to figure out the magic number of hashtags on social networks - personally I have a text doc I cut and paste from but doing the research for this suggests 11+ tags, not always the same is a better approach.

 

Respond to comments and questions

 

That’s the social bit in the social network, when someone takes the time to comment, reply (unless it’s spam) - other people see that and it encourages them. People are more likely to follow an account that looks real, and active. Turn post notifications on and be ready to act fast. It increases your chance of being seen elsewhere.

 

Comment on three things a day

 

Look through the photos of the people you follow, pick three photos, and leave comments, but stay away from generic comments like “nice pic!” and say something that stands out and shows you put some thought into it.

 

One technique here is to follow key influencers in your space, turn notifications on for there posts and be the first to comment when they post. The theory is this puts you in front of the people you want to follow you too - it might not be a tidal wave of new followers but you’ll pick up new followers in no time.

 

Make sure these accounts are genuine - you can use a tool like SocialAuditPro to check if their followers are real or bots.

 

Be descriptive with your captions

 

Yes we’re all there to look at pictures or videos, but not neglect the words. Good story telling alongside an image will help generate engagement and sharing.

 

Start checking who’s not following you

 

Start checking who’s not following you back and unfollow these accounts. There’s plenty of apps to help do this - just search it.

 

Ideally, at least 20% of the people that you started following, should follow you back. The more followers you have, the better your follower to following ratio is, the more attractive your feed looks, and the higher the follow-back percentage.

 

Keep the content interesting

 

Maybe this should have been the first point… posting everything you eat all day long ain’t going to build your following. Think about the content, what’s going to interest your target audience. Check out what other people are doing, and keep it varied. Personally I like accounts that have a bit of fun. Remember Instagram is not a sales channel, it’s a brand building platform - you want to just have a constant hum of what’s going on. Directing followers to the places you want them to go for more.