With the Instagram app growing at such a rapid pace, you may find it hard to keep your followers engaged. There are millions of posts being shared every day, and it’s up to you to keep your followers interested. But fear not. Today I’m sharing a few tips to keep engagement high and your followers growing.

1. Post Consistently & Frequently

Accounts with the highest fans tend to post 5-7 photos per week. Remember, these posts will only be beneficial if they are creating engagement. Focus on the quality of your content and your copy, keeping in mind personality and tone, to increase and maintain engagement. However much you decide to post, keep it consistent on a week-to-week basis.

2. Create a Unique Hashtag for Your Brand

Create a memorable, unique, fun hashtag for your business. Use this hashtag to create and find a gallery of photos from your audience. A great way to use and spread your hashtag is through photo contests. These contests may take some time to catch on, but be patient. Not only are you creating a way for your followers to interact, but you are simultaneously encouraging more UGC. It’s important to begin including your unique hashtag in any post or correspondence you have with your followers to help it catch on and become a part of your brand.

3. Use Quality Hashtags

The right hashtags expose your photos to a larger audience. Instagram allows for a maximum of 30 hashtags on a post so max them out. You can use a hashtag generator or look at similar accounts to see what they use. We find it helpful to keep a note on your phone so you can easily copy and paste for each post. Using a combination of location, general industry, and specific brand hashtags are a great way to reach the largest audience. To keep hashtags nice and neat, either place them under your caption with space between the two, or as your first comment. In order to format the hashtags in an aesthetically pleasing way, finish your caption, hit return, type a period, hit return again. We recommended creating a five line space between the end of your captions and your set of hashtags.

4. Encourage User Generated Content (UGC)

Using your followers’ images allows you to have a much larger gallery of content to choose from. It will also encourage a more engaged community and true connection between your business and your audience.

5. Include a Call To Action 

A call-to-action (CTA) may include a post with a comment asking your followers to tag a friend, write a comment, or share your post. Not only do these types of posts create more engagement on your page, but it also will spread awareness. In particular, asking your viewers to tag a friend will you’ll widen your audience very quickly.

6. Utilize Cross-Promotions

Use your existing platforms to let people know you’re on instagram. Two easy ways to do this are on Facebook and your website. Simply share your username or a direct link to your page as an easy to have people find you.

Which of these tips do you find the most helpful? Be sure to share any tips you’ve learned along the way!