How can you retain your followers on Instagram?

Brands and marketers on Instagram always want to see steady upward growth with their followers. However, marketing on this social media platform and gaining positive outcomes is replete with challenges. Every brand witnesses follower fluctuation from time to time. Several followers will follow and unfollow your brand.

Don't get offended when people unfollow you! If you optimize your Instagram account correctly, you will have more followers walking in. Also, take time to find ways to maximize Instagram likes, as that will gain audience attention and followers. If you want, you can join hands with service providers that enable you to get likes on Instagram or more or less depending on your requirement.

If you want to use Instagram for brand awareness and building purposes, you need to retain your followers. Here's how you can go about it:

1. Use apps for monitoring followers

It would be best if you had a clear understanding of your followers. For this, you can use free apps that help you know the ones who have followed and unfollowed you. When you come across the accounts that don’t follow you or follow you for a short time, you might discover relevant patterns. You will also come across various Instagram account’s types, such as:

• The competitors
• Potential customers
• The follow for follow Instagram accounts

2. Redefine the hashtag policy

Are most of your followers are a blend of competitors and follow for following business accounts? If yes, chances are you have to get a new hashtag strategy in place. The hashtags that you use can help you connect with people other than the followers and access a new customer or follower pool. Hence, you must research before you decide on the hashtag and use it correctly.

It's necessary not to use any generic hashtag that millions use. That way, you will not get the attention and recognition on Instagram that you want. A few of the hashtags that get overused are:

• #inspiration
• #photography
• #fitness
• #business
• #nofilter

You need to get into thorough research and then decide on a few hashtag variations that align and, at times, are exclusive to your brand as well. You can also make use of Focalmark and other apps that allow you to search for new hashtags and use them for your Instagram accounts. Even though you can use as much as 30 hashtags on one post, it is necessary to use the same wisely. Make sure that your post doesn’t look cluttered with hashtags.

3. Rethink the content strategy

When you are drawing in the followers or consumers on Instagram, you need to think about how they can promote your content. You must rethink your content strategy so that your followers find all or most of your content like and share-worthy. And that itself will help to retain them in your account. If your content is not informative or does not allow them to address their queries, they might start to unfollow you. Hence, before you share content, take the time to ask yourself if it is useful to the followers and users.

Every brand gets stuck about posts to share on their Instagram feed! Do you resonate with the same? If yes, the following ideas can help to retain customers:

• Share customers posts
• Conduct a giveaway content
• Share humorous or quirky posts.

When you break the monotony of informative and “serious” posts with an exciting or humorous post, you gain attention and can retain followers successfully.

4. Check when and how you share Instagram posts

Do you lack a theme? And are your posts all over the place? If yes, then the existing followers and other online users might feel that they have got mislead by your Instagram account, and they would want to change their decision to follow you. You need to post consistently and focus on essential facts. You need to develop a social media strategy and Instagram schedule that can help you map your posts and make sure there's a common thread amongst one another.

There are moments when a user or follower subscribed for a newsletter and then felt utterly let down! In such a situation, marketers and brands need to check the content they share and its objective. Instagram gives relevance to new posts. Hence, there is a good chance that people will get to see your content, provided you maintain a constant frequency.

Business owners and marketers count on numbers. But that should not always define the success of your brand or business. Hence, it is essential not to get demotivated when you get unfollowed. As long as you are on Instagram, you will have people following and unfollowing you. You must concentrate on developing quality content so that you can transform the followers to leads and then loyal customers and retain them for as long as possible.