Want to get more Instagram followers? 

Instagram is the hottest social network out there, and eCommerce specialists are taking notice. It should also pop up on your radar, especially if you’re running a dropshipping business selling lifestyle products, apparel, shoes, athleisure, toys, cosmetics or anything really that would fit nicely into someone’s vision for a new and improved version of themselves.

The success of your Instagram account is strongly related to the quality of the content you’re posting, and that will influence the level of trust people will grant your store and how much they’ll be willing to interact with it (engagement) and ultimately that will reflect into your sales.

So in this article we’re going to talk about how to get more Instagram followers, leading in to great ways to sell more of your products too 🙂

What makes great Instagram accounts so great?

As you’ve probably heard so many other people saying this before – attention is the most important currency of our time. When there are so many distractions around, managing to focus people’s attention on your brand, your store, your website for more than a few seconds is a highly regarded achievement. Half a billion people open Instagram every day. You should want to be there where they’re looking for inspiration.

So, here are the 5 things you can do to improve your shots at becoming one of the most followed Instagram accounts:

#1 Improve your content

This one is quite obvious. You need great content, and the best thing you might discover in this article is that it doesn’t always have to be your own content. Even the accounts with talented teams behind are re-posting other people’s content, especially that of illustrators and photographers.

Take @refinery29 for example, they have 1.8 million followers. They have a talented team working on their website and creating content for their social media accounts, and they still use something they call #R29Regram, which is basically re-posting amazing photos and illustration they see on less popular IG accounts. They ask the creators if they’re OK with this and they credit them and everybody’s happy. They get new amazing content to share and less popular accounts get a shot at ‘stealing’ some of their 1.8 million followers. It’s win-win.

Another important thing to consider if you want to get more Instagram followers is that your content needs to be fit for your brand. All accounts need high quality, high-resolution photos, but the photos also need to tell the story you want the consumer to know. Is your brand progressive or conservative? Do you use bold colours or pastels like the millennial pink? Do you show urban or rural settings? Do you have any predominant colours? Will you add your logo to your photos? These are all things you need to figure out. People who see your content in their Instagram feeds should know it was posted by your shop even before looking at the account name, it should be clear from the content.

Take for example @studiomucci and @tasselfairyshop. People just know where that new photo in their stream is coming from because all of Amina’s photos and videos have a red thread connecting them all.

You also can’t ignore the fact that you need to post often. People (and Instagram’s algorithm for showing posts) love consistency. So share 1-3 posts per day – 1 if you’re not having that much great content, 3 if you have enough amazing photos and videos to keep up the volume long-term.

Because I’ve mentioned photos and videos, I also have to emphasise just how important it is to use all the content formats Instagram is offering you. Post photos, post videos, post photos as a carousel, post Instagram stories. For example, Instagram stories are perfect for behind the scenes content and flash sales. The carousel is amazing for showing off products, acting just like the image slider on your product pages. If you afford it, hire a videographer to help you take things to the next level, if not, stick to what you can do yourself.

On every step of the way, remember it’s not just all about how to GET more instagram followers, but also – keeping them, so show your followers some love by mentioning them in your posts, liking their photos, addressing their curiosities and needs.

#2 Give people a reason to follow your account

Amazing content can only take you so far in a short span of time, you need to bring a little extra to the table to make that followers’ number pass the thousands sooner than later. There are three main ways to give people a reason to follow and stick around:

– Deliver value.

It can take the form of discounts, giveaways, cool deals, contests, but also how-to videos and tutorials. Show people that there’s something in it for them if they follow your account and they’ll do it.

– Engage with your followers.

There’s nothing more depressing than seeing an Instagram account showered with love in the comments section that doesn’t reply or say ‘thanks’. If people made the effort to leave you a nice comment, take a few minutes out of your day and answer them. Win over fans that will talk about how awesome your brand is with anyone willing to listen.

– Support your niche.

Find other people and companies posting content using the same hashtags as you do and show them that you’ve noticed them and that you appreciate them. Like their posts, add a comment from time to time, ask for their permission to re-share their content and credit them. Not only that you’ll make your niche stronger, you’d also expose your brand to new audiences.

#3 Be relevant

There’s this saying in advertising ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ and what it means is that riding cultural trends is more effective than trying to create your own trends as a brand. You need to pay attention to what’s hot in pop culture and use that to get your content seen. You can look out for new pop culture trends and memes on Buzzfeed or even Vox.

You should also take advantage of video. Create video ads which are high-quality and compelling and people will check out your account and your website.

Last, but not least, use hashtags. You can add up to 30 hashtags in your Instagram posts, but 10-20 are usually enough to drive a boost in reach. Don’t guess what hashtags you should use, instead do your research or use tools like Hashtagify.me to find out what keywords to use. If you don’t want to use any tools, that’s fine too, just make sure you do your research manually by visiting your competitors’ accounts, those of any key publications in your niche and even those of the people who follow your account and compile lists of hashtags to test out.

#4 Show that you’re socially acceptable

Even if you’re on Instagram you still need to build a reputation. People will only follow reputable, socially acceptable brands. This can mean that you have to deal with every customer support issue people take to your Instagram account, make sure you have content showing real people using your product, link to blog posts or news article about your products, your brand, your store.

#5 Figure out what your competitors are doing better than you

You always need to do your own thing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do a bit of reverse engineering. You can look at what your competitors are doing to generate more likes and comments and traffic and figure out how you could do it yourself. You can also let yourself be inspired by what works right now on Instagram, in general. Check out the accounts that are killing it this year and figure out what is the secret to their success.

What to do now that you know what makes a great Instagram account?

If you don’t have an account already, you should start with thinking about your brand and what it should look like on Instagram.

Then you should find your competitors on Instagram and figure out what is it that they do and if their actions are effective. If there are things you could use yourself, add them to your list but make sure to give them your own creative twist.

Make a plan for posting. How often will you be able to post?
– What hashtags will you use for each post?
– Will you post directly from your phone or use a scheduling software solution?
(BTW, if you have an Instagram Business account you can now schedule your posts through Hootsuite)

Start posting and take notice of the best times for engagement and how much traffic you’re generating. If your traffic improving when you use re-posted content? Is your traffic actually better when you post your own stuff?

This is only the beginning, there are so many more things we need to talk about but having this type of an overall view of what makes an account popular and how to get more followers on Instagram, but hopefully this has helped you start looking in the right direction for new solutions.

Please offer me a minute of your time to let me know down below, in the comments, if you’ve already set up your Instagram account for your eCommerce website and what’s the name of your shop/account. Maybe we can get you a few more followers from the people who also read this post. It would be nice to help each other out and offer our feedback to one another.