Now that users can follow hashtags, your Stories on Instagram have a chance to be seen by both people who are following that hashtag and anyone who’s just checking it out. You’ll want to go through this exercise trying different keywords that describe your brand and products, building out your hashtag keyword list as you go. Below, I used Webstagram to find relevant, related, and popular hashtags for my men’s accessory business by searching for key hashtags closely related to my brand.

With an advertising audience of more than 1.16 billion people, Instagram offers dramatic reach for brands. And the potential reach of Instagram marketing has grown substantially this year—increasing by 76 million people in just the last quarter. One thing my instagram does differently than other accounts is I really try and give followers insight into my real life. Through collaborations, I have been able to cross-promote with many bloggers or brands that I feel fit my brand and this has really helped grow my following. Read more about buy instagram followers here. Initially, tools like Instagress were useful for engagement, but with the ability to target followers and sponsor content, they’re no longer needed.

The addictive design of Instagram Stories has us stuck viewing them for longer than we ever plan to. We don’t know what’s coming up next, and it’s easy to keep clicking through rather than exiting. You can use these features to learn more about your audience's preferences and increase conversion rates. For instance, you can use the poll feature to find out what kind of posts your clients prefer. Get free online marketing tips and resources delivered directly to your inbox. Your followers will probably comment while you’re live, so try to acknowledge their comments and find ways to get them to participate.

Also, it opens up a world of free tools, such as Instagram analytics tools, which offer stats about the impressions each of your posts get. In the meantime, start building your store with a free 14-day trial of Shopify. In this post we talked about the most effective ways to use Instagram to build a targeted following, but it's not always a numbers game. As with any social network, the most successful content strategy is to be authentic and social. So how do you effectively steal your competitors’ followers? There are several ways to engage with Instagram users, and the more work you put in, the more followers and repeat engagement you’ll get out of it.

If we’ve missed out any of your favourites, let us know in the comments and we’ll check them out. And if you want to get even more efficient with your time, have one of your team members be in charge of sourcing Instagram content! Whether that involves monitoring your branded hashtag for awesome posts, engaging with all of the UGC, or adding photos to your content library using Later’s Search & Repost feature. Once you find a post you like, you can easily add it to your Later media library to use at a later date.