How to Grow Your Instagram Community

Instagram is a very powerful social network and a great starting place if you are new to social media. This is due to the fact that Instagram is extremely simple. Used primarily to share photos, though video has been gaining popularity lately, getting the hang of Instagram is much easier than say, Google+. Another wonderful thing about Instagram is how easy it is to push content to other social networks directly from Instagram. Images are effective on most major social networks, so pushing your images to other networks is an effective strategy. Follow the tips below to increase your success on Instagram:

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Fill out your profile completely: Profile Picture, Description, and Link to Your Website. Notice how Kim Garst's profile clearly states who she is, what she does and how to access her website.

Begin posting: Try to share both videos and images to keep your profile interesting. Avoid posting the same type of content, quote for example, too often. For local businesses try including your location.

Include informative captions: Studies have shown that the caption is extremely important when it comes to Instagram. Draw followers attention with high quality images or videos, but do not forget to spend some time crafting a solid caption to further explain the point of your post.

Use Hashtags: In order to grow your Instagram community, you must be seen and followed by people that are not currently following you. Hashtags make this possible. Unlike most social networks, hashtags are used in abundance on Instagram. We recommend including a few in your caption and then adding several more as a comment after the post has been published. This gives you the opportunity to delete them later and it keeps your captions cleaner.

Research the best hashtags and begin integrating them into your posts: Hashtags are extremely important on Instagram, so spend some time researching the best hashtags for your industry/niche. Tools such as RiteTag make it easy to find the best hashtags to use.

Like a lot of other people's pictures

Promote your account on your other social networks and to your email list

Connect your Facebook and Instagram accounts together

Comment on other users’ images: Instagram posts typically receive at least 6x more likes than comments. With this in mind, comments are a great way to draw attention to your page, while inviting a two-way conversation.

What tips or tricks have you used to grow your Instagram community? Let us know in the comment section below!

Related Post: The Science of Instagram: How to Get More Followers and Likes