Many of us use Instagram for personal needs. You can, however, use Instagram to boost your e-commerce business as well. You need to build a following on Instagram to get the exposure required. Followers play a crucial role in increasing your business exposure hence valued on social media.

Although you might have thousands of followers already, only a few of these can be converted into potential or loyal customers. These followers have to fit within your buyer persona or target demographic.  Think of it as targeting or marketing your product to the right audience. Selling a denture cream to teenagers, for instance, won’t bring any impressions or sales, will it? However hard you try promoting your stuff, all the effort will go unnoticed since you are promoting to the wrong audience.

Having tons of Instagram followers doesn’t always guarantee better results. In this article, we will focus more on finding the relevant audience and how to woo them to follow you. If you are new to Instagram, you can learn more about this visual social network and how to market on the same. Outlined below are five tips on how to grow followers on Instagram.

1. Use Relevant, But Trendy, Hashtags

Hashtags are popularly used on social media to attract a particular audience while increasing brand exposure. With millions of people posting hashtags by the minute, it’s easy for yours to get choked up in the masses. You can avoid this by creating a unique yet trendy, hashtag to attract your target audience.

You can’t always come up with trendy hashtags on your own. Experts recommend looking at trending hashtags to see which fits in your business. You also need to be careful not to use hashtags not related to your business or niche. According to HelpWYZ followers service, doing so will only attract a different kind of audience, or even worse, cost you, valuable followers.

2. Run Several Hashtag Contests

Getting a hashtag to trend requires more than simply creating one.  One of the best ways to get a hashtag gain traction is by running a hashtag contest. Very few people will, however, follow or use your hashtag unless they have something to gain from it. That said, you need to identify and come up with contests and hashtags that the target audience can relate to or use willingly. By the way, did you know that the StoriesIG online tool helps you to watch and download Instagram stories anonymously without registration?

One way to have target audiences participate in your content is by asking them to post a video or pic on their account, then tag your business. If possible, offer a price to the person who gets the most audiences or something of the sort. Running an online contest won’t take you much of your time or money either.

3. Follow Other Instagramers Within Your Niche

The social media works in an interesting way. You have to give on social media for people to reciprocate. For this reason, you need to start rubbing shoulders with other market players on social media. Following companies in the same niche as your business, as well as users that use common products,  should help improve your company’s visibility.

It would also be advisable to follow celebrities, athletes, bloggers, and fashionistas in your niche. Following them isn’t however enough – you need to engage with them and respond to their posts and hashtags that seem relevant to you.

4. Be Generous

While the social media plays by its own rules, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share someone’s content just because they haven’t followed you back. Following other users and sharing their content will help attract other users to follow you as well. The content you wish to share or repost needs to have some relevance with your business too.  There are times when you’ll need to ask for permission (from the user) to repost their content. Be sure to give them credit when sharing their content, or use Repost to do it.

5. Engage With Both Followers And Non-Followers

Be generous when sharing content on Instagram. Sharing other user’s (non-followers) content gives them a reason to want to follow you back. Consider hitting the ‘like’ button when sharing their content too. Placing an encouraging and relevant content on their content will get you noticed as well. Most people on Instagram don’t take user comments for granted. The fact that you commented means you took your time to read the post, one of the reasons they will want to see what you have to offer. Don’t hide behind your brand; engage with everyone by liking and commenting on their posts.