We’ve been talking lately about how to boost your business marketing with Instagram. Unlike what many people still believe, Instagram isn’t just a fun app where you can 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 cultivate 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 are able to 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 account for 28.9 % of bots on Instagram.

The easiest way to build your Instagram followers is when you are authentic to your brand and your audience.

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

Tell a tale with Hashtags

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

To be able to use your Instagram posts to get followers, use other hashtags that tell the story of the image you’re sharing. You would like to start a conversation when you’re sharing posts for things such as:

Events

Promotions

Contests

Product launches

A good example of a brand who does this well is @Tostitos. They utilize the hashtag #GetTogetherAlready to encourage visitors to get together and share their chips, and also to use the hashtag if they share photos of these meetups.

Through the use of engaging, relevant hashtags, you may be discovered in Instagram searches and hopefully build-up followers on Instagram.

Get Creative

Instagram is centered on photos, so many people think about the caption being 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 start of the post in order that people see it first.

Get personal with your post. Tell a story about yourself, or how your product helped or inspired another person.

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

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

They create breathtaking Instagram Stories with informative captions to educate the user on the plight of animals all over the world.

Remember when it comes to using Instagram posts to obtain followers, it’s all about being authentic. Don’t use questions atlanta divorce attorneys single post or tell an individual story that isn’t genuine.

Go Local

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

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

Type in the positioning to start 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 followed by “entrepreneurs.” Local entrepreneurs may be searching for more work and life balance or help with life goals or career challenges.

Similarly, assuming you have a physical location that folks have checked into on Instagram, touch upon those posters’ pictures to make sure they’re aware of your Instagram presence, and follow them.

These are the best methods to build Instagram followers the right way: no bots, no shortcuts, just tried and true ways to build relationships your audience and turn them into followers!

Susan Friesen, founder of the award-winning web development and digital marketing firm eVision Media, is a Web Specialist, Business & Marketing Consultant, and Social Media Advisor. insta like She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with getting the insufficient knowledge, skill and support had a need to create their web business presence.