We’ve been talking lately about how exactly to boost your business marketing with Instagram. Unlike what many people still believe, Instagram isn’t only a fun app where you could post food, holiday and family pics.

Instagram has become a powerful brand-building, audience-building and content-marketing tool for businesses. It has over 200 million active monthly members sharing 60 million images and 1.6 billion likes each day.

A note of caution: there are numerous people on the market who promise to grow your Instagram followers by the thousands, but beware. Most of them use fake accounts created by bots to inflate your numbers.

These kinds of followers have zero value. In fact, they can even be dangerous, attempting to steal your password or photos or infect you with a virus.

According to the data security company Imperva, these bad bots take into account 28.9 % of bots on Instagram.

The simplest way to build your Instagram followers is by being authentic to your brand as well as your audience.

Here are 3 ideas to help you to get real Instagram followers:

Tell a tale with Hashtags

It’s great to use your business name as a hashtag, nevertheless, you have to think beyond that.

If you need to use your Instagram posts to get followers, use other hashtags that tell the story of the image you’re sharing. You wish to start a conversation when you’re sharing posts for things like:

Events

Promotions

Contests

Product launches

A good example of a brand would you this well is @Tostitos. They use the hashtag #GetTogetherAlready to encourage people to get together and share their chips, and to use the hashtag when they share photos of these meetups.

By using engaging, relevant hashtags, you could be discovered in Instagram searches and hopefully build-up followers on Instagram.

Get Creative

Instagram is about photos, so many people think about the caption as an afterthought.

Don’t neglect the image caption! You will generate engagement and promote sharing through the use of descriptive words that may engage, inspire and entertain your followers.

Here are some ideas to help you build-up followers on Instagram together with your posts:

Use questions in your caption. Write your question at the beginning of the post so that people see it first.

Get personal with your post. Tell a tale about yourself, or how your product helped or inspired someone else.

Ask people to tag others. Asking visitors to tag three of their best friends or tagging someone they are grateful for brings other potential followers into the equation.

A great example of a brandname that does personal posts well may be the @NatGeo Instagram account.

They create breathtaking Instagram Stories with informative captions to teach an individual on the plight of animals all over the world.

Remember with regards to using Instagram posts to obtain followers, it’s about being authentic. Don’t use questions in every single post or tell a personal story that isn’t genuine.

Go Local

One of the best methods to build your Instagram followers would be to get to know your neighbours!

Whether you’re creating Instagram ads or want to promote your event in a particular area, you can see what’s going on near you by visiting the search page and simply clicking the Places tab.

Type in the positioning to see the geotagged posts for that area. Then visit relevant and recent tagged posts – not those of competing businesses, obviously – and leave a comment as well as an emoji and follow the individual if you like everything you see. Hopefully, this is the start of a natural interaction.

For example, in the event that you offer life coaching services, you could type in your location accompanied by “entrepreneurs.” Local entrepreneurs could be looking for more work and life balance or help with life goals or career challenges.

Similarly, if you have a physical location that folks have checked into on Instagram, comment on those posters’ pictures to ensure they’re alert to your Instagram presence, and then follow them.

These are some of the best ways to build Instagram followers the correct way: no bots, no shortcuts, just tried and true ways to engage with your audience and turn them into followers!

Susan Friesen, founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is really a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and Social Media Advisor. free instagram followers works together with entrepreneurs who struggle with having the lack of knowledge, skill and support had a need to create their online business presence.