As per HubSpot — The Instagram community has grown from 90 million monthly active users in January 2013 to 1 billion monthly active users as of June 2018.

According to https://www.omnicoreagency.com/instagram-statistics/ blog post. Report

Instagram Demographics

A search in Google on how to gain Instagram followers will give you a lot of answers, some of them offer services that assure you that you can gain thousands in just a few minutes. While this can help you build initial sets of “followers” (if your account is fairly new), this can only provide very futile results in the long run. What you really need to do is get loyal followers, not some bots or ghost accounts.

Top 5 Ways to Gain Loyal Followers in Instagram

Getting loyal followers in this photo-sharing website can be really, really hard especially if you are a start-up and have no previous business connections or existing followers. But, you need not worry. There are actually a few effective ways to get loyal followers without buying services or using apps to gain them.

1. Invite Your Friends Over – Your friends are basically the first network that you should tap. Tell them that you just started an internet-based company (for example) and asked for their help to promote it. Asking them to follow you on Instagram and telling them to ask their friends who are interested in the products or services you offer can really be a good start.

2. Tap Bloggers and Social Media Influencers – Fact is, a lot of PR firms make use of these social media enthusiasts to help their clients build loyal followers. But, you can actually do this on your own without the use of any public relations services. You can start by researching famous Instagram users in your locality, contact them, offer an exchange deal, and let them promote your brand to their followers. Just be sure you are contacting those ones whose interests are closely related to your niche. For example, if you are promoting your newly opened pizza store, you should contact bloggers and social media influencers who have high authority in food and pastry.

3. Use Hashtags and Photo Tags – Two of the best features in Instagram that allow more visibility and exposure are the hashtag (#) and photo tag. The hashtag feature allows other Instagram users to find your photo by just clicking on a keyword (i.e. #pizza, #pizzastore, #pizzanewyork). If someone in New York wants to check out some photos related to pizza stores located in the city, he can just search them using the third keyword in the example. Using hashtags to promote your pizza store would definitely help you get more exposure. On the other hand, photo tags can help if you are tagging highly influential users on your photo or other users who are highly interested in your products. It will give them a sense of belongingness that would, in the long run, can turn into loyalty.

4. Promote Your Instagram Account in Your Social Media Profiles – Don’t forget to use your other social media profiles to gain more followers on Instagram. Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, & LinkedIn are good places to start. If you are a tech company, start promoting your IG account in Google+ and Facebook, if you are selling home improvement products, try tapping Pinterest. Make sure you choose the social networking site wherein you can find most of your target audience or prospects.

5. Hold Promos or Contest Every Now and Then – One of the best ways to entice new followers and to make the existing ones more loyal to your brand is to conduct promos or contest on a regular basis. This is already a proven and tested strategy in marketing and works most of the time. You can start with a promo asking your followers to upload the wackiest photo of them eating a pizza and tell them to tag you and use a specific hashtag. You’ll award the owner of the photo with the highest total number of likes. Isn’t that fun? While gaining more followers, you are also encouraging your existing ones to become more loyal and stay for good.

There is actually no absolute guarantee that all these tips can immediately help you gain the number of followers you want, but for sure they can help you start building a more engaging set of followers. Lastly, make sure to use CTAs (call to actions) as captions in your photos. The power of suggestion can be very effective. Ask your followers to regram (retweet version of Instagram), like, or comment on your photos. There’s no harm in trying. The more comments you get the more engaged your followers, the more regrams the more exposure for your brand.

By: Qamar Zaman / @QamarZamanOfficial 

Qamar Zaman specializes in SEO and social growth. If you want to learn how to grow your Instagram account with organic followers call for more information: 972-437-8942

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How to Gain Loyal Followers in Instagram and Keep Them
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How to Gain Loyal Followers in Instagram and Keep Them
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Use Hashtags and Photo Tags – Two of the best features in Instagram that allow more visibility and exposure are the hashtag (#) and photo tag.
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Zaman Media
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