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Get More Instagram Followers for Free with Two Proven Strategies

Want to know how to get more Instagram Followers without paying a dime?

Whether you’ve plunged into Instagram (IG) marketing years ago or you’re just about to dip your toe in the IG pool, I’ve got to share with you two proven strategies to grow your IG followers today. Let’s dive in!

  1. Follow People. Does that sound too simple? 😊 It sort of is. You don’t need to overcomplicate this. Here’s the deal. If someone starts following you, you get a notification of the new follower. Often, people click over to the new follower and check out their profile. If they like what they see, they follow back. It’s simple.

But don’t think I want you to follow EVERYONE. You just need to follow customers and potential customers. Easily find them by going to your competitors on Instagram and follow their followers.

Also, look up other local businesses (if you’re a brick-and-mortar store) or big boxes that would have the same types of customers as you and follow them. Finally, you can search for local hashtags (for ex: #Denver or #DenverCO, if your business is in Denver), click on users’ profiles that are using those hashtags and, if you think they might be someone who’d shop from you, follow them!

Does this take time? Yes. But you can make it manageable by creating a time block of 15-30 minutes a week and just get it done. In my opinion, it’s one of the best ways to build quality followers.

Not sure how to search hashtags on IG? No worries! I got you covered. Watch the short how-to video, below in this post. 

  1. Get Current Followers to Tag Their Friends. What’s the best form of marketing? Word of mouth marketing. If someone has an awesome experience with a business, they tell everyone and, in return, those people are more likely to shop from that business too.

When people tag their friends on Instagram in a comment of a business’s post, it’s similar to word of mouth marketing. Users see great content they think their friends would love, so they tag them. The friends trust their friends so they click over and engage with the post– often following the business’s profile. This is a great way to build quality likes.

Outside of posting great, share-worthy content, you can also suggest that people tag their friends on your posts when you’re announcing new products, an event or a sale. For example, “Tag your friends who you’d love to come with you to our weekend sidewalk sale!” or “Tag your friends who would LOVE these new items”.

Finally, you can run a contest asking people to follow you to enter to win. Simply suggest they tag their friends in a comment of the contest post. But note: you can’t require they tag friends to enter to win because this is against Instagram Contest Terms. See below to learn more about IG Contest Terms.

Promotion Guidelines

  1. If you use Instagram to communicate or administer a promotion (for example: a contest or sweepstakes), you are responsible for the lawful operation of that promotion, including:
    • The official rules;
    • Offer terms and eligibility requirements (example: age and residency restrictions); and
    • Compliance with applicable rules and regulations governing the promotion and all prizes offered (example: registration and obtaining necessary regulatory approvals)
  2. You must not inaccurately tag content or encourage users to inaccurately tag content (example: don’t encourage people to tag themselves in photos if they aren’t in the photo).
  3. Promotions on Instagram must include the following:
    • A complete release of Instagram by each entrant or participant.
    • Acknowledgment that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram.
  4. We will not assist you in the administration of your promotion and cannot advise you on whether consent is required for use of user content or on how to obtain any necessary consent.
  5. You agree that if you use our service to administer your promotion, you do so at your own risk. Read more about Instagram Guidelines here.

Look for several strategies to build your Instagram following, covered in the Instagram for Retailers Training Course available in March 2019. To be notified when this course is available for pre-sale, click here and enter your email address and name.

While you’re following potential customers, don’t forget to follow me and my team! We’re @crystalmediaco. Looking forward to “seeing” you on IG.

Never miss a tip!  Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter in which we send a social media tip every Monday.

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Super Simple Instagram Tip to Help Save Time: The Modern Marketing Show, Episode 55

While at the Retail Success Summit, an attendee came up to the Social Edge table and asked us a question. It wasn’t related to social media or marketing strategy, but it was about the functionality of the Instagram App itself. Now, to us, this was a pretty basic question. Then it dawned on us that we suffer from the Curse of Knowledge, so something so obvious to us may not be as obvious to someone else. That’s why we want to share with you this super simple time-saving trick for Instagram.

Watch full episode:

The question was, “Is there a way to switch between my personal Instagram and my Business profile without logging in and out each time?”

And, the answer to this question is yes!

In order to do this, you’ll want to add multiple accounts to your app. To add an account, you’ll:

  • Go to your profile and tap the gear or settings icon in the top right corner
  • Scroll down and tap Add Account (it’s near the bottom of the menu)
  • Enter the username and password of the account you’d like to add

Then to switch between account you’ve added, follow these steps:

  • Go to your profile
  • Tap your profile at the bottom of the screen
  • Tap the account you’d like to switch to

Or…

  • Go to your profile
  • Tap your username at the top
  • Tap the account you’d like to switch to
  • Note: This is another place you’ll be able to add other accounts you manage

Now you won’t ever waste time logging in and out of your accounts again!

On a separate note…have you started using IGTV for your business yet? This new Instagram feature allows you to upload pre-recorded videos up to 60 minutes in length to an IGTV channel.

Watch our first IGTV episode here to see what it’s all about!

You can catch new episodes of The Modern Marketing Show every Monday at 10 a.m PST on our Facebook Page. Replays will be available on the blog each week.

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Instagram Q&A with Giftbeat

I’d love to know, do you use Instagram for your store? If so, please leave a comment below with your profile name, I’d love to follow you. If you don’t use Instagram for your store, but are wondering if you need to be, this will be a very helpful blog post. I was asked by Joyce Washnik, the Editor of Giftbeat, to answer some questions about Instagram for an interview type article they recently published. I wanted to share it with you as I think it’s becoming a very common question, which is should I be using Instagram to market?

Last year on Crystal Media TV I had an episode about Instagram, if you missed it I suggest you watch that as well as continue reading. You can click to watch it here.

I’d like to thank Giftbeat for allowing me to republish this to my audience. If you’re a gift retailer, be sure to check them out at Giftbeat.com.

Let’s dive in with this Q&A style article, about Instagram.

1) Should Instagram be on retailers’ radar? Why?

Yes! But let me first state that I’m a believer in being on the number of social media platforms you can manage depending on your resources. If you’re just starting out, just pick one or two to really own, then you can grow into other networks depending on where your audience is. If your audience is using Instagram, you’ll want to be there.

You can also just use the platform to spice up photos by adding filters and boarders to pictures taken with your smartphone and share those photos on Facebook, Pinterest, in an email, on your website or on print materials. It helps make pictures prettier, like you’re your own photographer!

Another reason it should be on retailer’s radar is their customers might be posting content already from things they bought from their stores, or even posting while in-store shopping. This is one of many great things about social media is user-generated content. If a retailer uses Instagram for her store, she has a better chance to leverage this content and ask customers to post, which means additional store exposure for no additional cost.

2) How is Instagram different than the other social media sites? What makes it special/unique?

One thing that’s great for independent retailers who don’t have a lot of time is there isn’t several functions to an Instagram profile. You can use it to add effects to a picture or video, and you can use it to network with other users. There’s no event pages, email collection forms, cover photos, posting algorithms, etc., it’s pretty straight forward which I think makes it easier to understand and use.

Also, majority of Instagram users are 18-28 with a large number of teenagers using the platform. You’ll find this different from the demographics of Facebook or Pinterest; which  is larger and has more users in the age range of 34-55. If the younger audience is your demographic, I would strongly suggest exploring this as a marketing platform. Also keep in mind that these teens are our future, we can capture and connect with them now, and continue to build the relationship over time.

3) How do you see Instagram’s importance growing in the future?

We’re seeing retailers post an item on Instagram and instantly receive comments like, “How much?” “What sizes do you have?” “Does this come in any other colors?” Just last night I saw an independent retailer that I follow on Instagram post a video of new cowboy boots they just got in and people were ready to buy!

Fox and Fawn, a Brooklyn based boutique has proved Instagram Sales to be very successful. After they post an item, if one of their 3,200+ followers comments, “ring me up” their card on file will be charged and the item will be shipped directly to their home. After a year of launching Instagram sales, an average of 25% of Fox and Fawn’s daily sales are made from the platform, and on bad-weather days, it could be as high as 40%! You can see their sale rules here.

4) What would you say to a retailer who hasn’t explored Instagram yet?

I’d encourage them to have it on their radar and I’d stress the importance of having an outlet or two that they can really own. It’s better to be strategically and consistently marketing on one social media platform than doing a little on a lot of platforms. I’d also tell her to create a marketing plan before jumping onto any social media platform. I feel with the ads platform that’s being tested on Instagram, and the fact Facebook owns Instagram, it’s absolutely worth exploring and I think it will be a larger part of retailer’s marketing in the coming year.

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Should I Be Using Instagram?

Are you on Instagram? Do you use it for your store?
If you’re curious what it is or how a business can use it to market, be sure to watch this episode.

If you are using Instagram to market your store, please share your profile with me by leaving your username or a link in the comments section below so I can follow you 🙂

If you’re a Social Edge member, be sure to log in and check out the ‘Instagram Cheat Sheet for Beginners’ guide and the ‘How to Connect Instagram to a Facebook Business Page’ post.

This was a viewer submitted questions, so if YOU have a question you’d like to see answered on Crystal Media TV, please send it to [email protected] with the subject line “Q for Crystal Media TV”.

To the future,
Crystal