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Forget the fakeout—3 tips to attract real Instagram followers

by | Apr 1, 2019 | Analysis, Public Relations

A common strategy for growing your Instagram account is by misrepresenting your reach and influence—the purchasing of followers and likes from black market sites is rife.

While building a following is certainly about the numbers, fake followers are typically bots that detract from the type of user engagement you actually want on your Instagram channel. If you are looking to appeal to brands for affiliate marketing purposes, you are going to want to develop an organic following rather than utilize spambots who can’t really “like” your brand, give you feedback, impact your business, or spend real money.

Developing organic engagement from users used to be much easier, but with the increasing number of individuals using social media and the growing number of businesses wrestling for consumer attention, successful firms will have a well-developed plan for attracting the attention of genuinely engaged followers.

Determine your overall goal

You need to determine what the overall purpose of your account is. Holding yourself accountable to a specific outcome means you can measure your results, track your progress and measure your return on investment.

Goals should be specific and, where possible, measurable. Examples include increasing product sales, or boosting website traffic. Maybe you plan to convert more people to your email list, or improve audience engagement. Whatever your plan is, make sure to include numbers so as to allow for the tracking of your progress in meeting that goal.

Create a content strategy befitting your goal

As Brian Gefter recently noted, “Content is anything expressed through text, graphics, and other mediums allowed by Instagram. Creating shareable content and utilizing branded content is important; a blog, link, or content curated from other sources are all key to boosting your reach and helping you reach your goal.”

By contrast, if you create random content, you will only attract random followers who do not really care to get to know your brand. Followers aren’t invested in you simply won’t take action in your favor; they will do nothing to promote the growth of your business. This is why strategic content is designed to attract target followers: followers who genuinely care about your blog posts, videos and other content because they care about the brand you are building.

Your ideal follower will engage with your calls to action, adding value to your site and your business. This is why an effective content strategy is crucial: mapping your content strategy within your company goals ensures your content will be impactful, and attract the right kind of high-value follower.

Create your profile to maximize engagement

Design an Instagram profile and bio that people will be interested in. Your picture, name, profile and bio are your digital billboard.

There are a few easy ways to maximize your engagement: you can promote your new account via email, or include a link to the account in the email signature of your personal or business email addresses. Alternatively, announce the creation of your new Instagram account to your followers on other platforms.

Ronn Torossian
Ronn Torossian is the Founder and Chairman of 5W Public Relations: 5WPR is one of the 20 largest PR Firms in the United States.

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