When it comes to marketing your brand, Instagram comes with unlimited potential. With their growing audience of 500 million active monthly users, your business has a giant opportunity to reach the demographic you’re seeking right at your fingertips. If you’re still floundering, we’ve compiled a few tips to give your Instagram following a boost.

Hashtag, hashtag, hashtag

Come up with a visually appealing photo, caption it with a compelling quote, and then…. do you hear crickets? You certainly won’t if you use hashtags. The hashtag is an Instagram brand’s best friend: it’s the easiest way for users to find content within a specific theme. Make sure everything you post has at least three appropriate hashtags to increase your exposure and your following.

Post, post, and post some more

There is no magic number for how often to post, but we see that accounts posting three to four times each day get the most engagement and following. At minimum, you want to keep your content consistent, with a goal of at least once a day. Social media moves fast, and a potential follower who sees that you haven’t posted in a week may consider your account abandoned. The more content you post, the more opportunity you have to utilize hashtags that will make you visible to an untapped audience.

Get their attention

The best way to attract targeted followers is to search for your ideal accounts and get them to notice you by engaging with them consistently. If you don’t have the time to do this every day, InstaGrowth does it for you. Simply connect your Instagram account and select your target market. Then InstaGrowth engages with your prospects by liking their photos, based on hashtags that they use – hundreds each day!

Share the love

Make it a point to promote something other than you. Instagram makes it easy to tag other brands and promote other companies by sharing their products or services in your posts. Yes, there are benefits to not keeping it “all about you.” By tagging and sharing other businesses, you’ll get greater recognition for yourself and the company you’re promoting. You’ll develop alliances with other brands who may sing your praises on their feed, which will increase traffic and possibly sales.

Follow, comment, respond

Take time every day to connect with other accounts within your niche. Follow and comment on their content consistently. This will make you recognizable and reliable in the eyes of other brands, and they will often reciprocate by liking, commenting and following your account. And don’t forget your followers: respond to comments, thank them for compliments, and make the occasional post thanking them for their support.

Know the stats

DID YOU KNOW? Images with a high amount of background space get 29% more likes than close-ups of objects. Photos that are brighter generate 24% more likes than dark images. Lower saturation sees 18% more likes than vibrant colors. Pictures with human faces are 38% more likely to get likes than those with no faces.

When you know what gets Instagram’s audience engaged, you’ll be more likely to post the kind of content that will bring increased likes and followers your way.