Instagram is a powerful tool for small businesses looking to reach new customers, build brand awareness and increase engagement with existing followers. With more than 2 billion active users worldwide, Instagram offers an efficient way to get the right people with relevant content on a global scale. Small business owners can access free tools, including analytics, advertising, post-scheduling, and shopping capabilities. With Instagram’s easy-to-use interface and intuitive mobile app, even the most novice marketer can quickly create an effective campaign.

10 Tips to Grow Your Instagram Audience in 2023

With some strategic planning and smart tactics, you can effectively increase your reach and engagement on the platform. Here are some tips to get started:

Post Regularly 

Posting regularly is essential to growing your Instagram audience in 2023. With more than a billion monthly active users, it’s essential to stand out from the crowd and create content that resonates with your followers. To achieve this, consistently producing high-quality content and posting at optimal times is essential. 

When it comes to frequency, aim for at least one post per day; however, studies have found that three posts per day can help increase visibility and engagement rates on your page. Aim to post content at peak activity hours when your followers are most likely to be online.

Run Engaging Contests

Contests are an effective way to build relationships with your audience, as they give people a chance to interact with your brand in a meaningful manner. You can create contests around topics related to your products or services and offer incentives like discounts or freebies for participation. This encourages more people to follow you and engage with your content. Additionally, you can ask participants to share the contest details on their profiles or stories and tag your brand, thus helping you reach a wider audience.

Leverage Influencers

Influencer marketing is a powerful tool for growing your Instagram audience. In 2023, working with the right influencers can help you build brand awareness and reach your target audience more efficiently than ever. Influencers have an established presence in their industry or niche and come with built-in trustworthiness. Their endorsement of your product or service gives it instant credibility, which leads to increased conversions and sales. 

Interact With Your Followers

Respond to comments and messages and thank people for following you. This will show your followers that you appreciate them and help build relationships with them over time. You also share snippets of content or behind-the-scenes footage in stories to give your followers a peek at what goes into creating content for your brand. This will help you form more meaningful connections with them and keep them engaged and interested in what comes next from your page.

Use Story Highlights 

With Story Highlights, you can create collections of Stories that remain on your profile even after they have expired. This allows you to showcase your best content and keep it fresh while giving potential followers an easy way to view what you’ve posted recently. 

When creating Story Highlights, focus on presenting a cohesive theme or narrative that appeals to your target audience. For example, if you own a beauty brand, then consider highlighting stories showcasing how-to tutorials using your products or customer reviews. Or perhaps create product highlights featuring images of all your products grouped.

Track Your Analytics

By tracking your analytics and understanding how people are engaging with your content, you can develop targeted strategies to increase reach and engagement. Analyzing data like impressions, followers, comments, likes, saves, and website clicks will give you an idea of who is engaging with your posts. This information can help inform decisions about what type of content works best for your niche and target demographic. 

Promote User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is a potent tool to grow your Instagram audience in 2023. When people see others engaging with and enjoying your content, it builds trust and encourages them to join the conversation. UGC helps make your brand more relatable, humanizes your messaging, and reinforces your story with real-life examples. 

One of the best ways to attract followers through UGC is by launching a hashtag campaign. Ask users to share their experiences or stories related to your brand — photos, videos, etc. — and use a branded hashtag so you can track all the posts back to a specific source.

Share Behind the Scenes Content

To stand out from the competition and grow your audience on Instagram, share behind-the-scenes content that shows what goes into creating your products or services. Showcase employees’ hard work, the process of product development, and customer service interactions. Doing so will allow you to create a strong connection between your Business and followers while giving them valuable insight into who you are as a company. 

Behind-the-scenes content can be anything from brief videos to in-depth interviews with key members of your team. This type of content provides viewers with an intimate look inside your Business and allows them to feel closer to it.

 Choose Right Hashtag

Hashtags are still a powerful tool to grow your Instagram following in 2023. To maximize the impact of your hashtags, it’s essential to understand which ones will generate the most engagement and followers. Before selecting any hashtags, make sure that they align with your target audience. Take time to research the types of hashtags your target audience uses and find out which ones have successfully connected people with similar interests. You can also use hashtag tracking tools to analyze which hashtags are performing well and have successfully driven engagement on Instagram. 

Use Instagram Ads 

By leveraging the power of advertising, you can target exactly who you want your message to reach and build relationships with them through compelling content and storytelling. With Instagram Ads, you can create ad campaigns that are tailored specifically to your brand, engage potential customers, and increase followers. 

The first step to launching a successful Instagram Ad campaign is understanding how it works. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the platform, start researching different types of ads available on Instagram (e.g., carousel ads, video ads) and targeting options—this includes location-based and interest-based targeting.

Conclusion

By utilizing the tips and advice provided in this article, you can grow your Instagram audience in 2023. The key to success is creating engaging content that speaks to your target audience and actively engaging with them through comments and messages. Additionally, leveraging influencers and using targeted hashtags are two tactics that can help drive additional traffic to your profile. By ensuring you stay up to date with the latest trends and consistently review your analytics data, you will be able to maximize the impact of your Instagram strategy in the future. Through careful planning and creative execution, your business can achieve greater success on Instagram in 2023!