Growing your Instagram - guest post

Today's post is written by my good friend Elsa who also has a travel Instagram - keep reading to get some amazing tips!

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With over 700 million monthly users on Instagram it is no surprise that more and more people are using the social platform to promote blogs, Youtube channels and small businesses. 

As a frequent user of Instagram, I have attempted many different ways to grow my travel Instagram of which some were successful and some not so much. Below I have compiled 5 tips on how to grow your own Instagram, hope they will be helpful! 

5 TIPS ON GROWING YOUR INSTAGRAM

1. Create a theme

I would recommend sticking to one editing style or theme as Instagram is all about the visual content - so making it look more aesthetically pleasing will of course attract more followers. 

2. Engage followers

Being consistent is extremely important when you want to keep your audience engaged! 

There are a few ways of doing this from posting regularly on your account to keeping your followers up to date as to what you’re up to when you’re not posting – so almost like behind the scenes content (this can be done through posting on Instagram stories)

3. Hashtags

Choosing relevant hashtags for your post on Instagram can be quite difficult especially when there are so many similar accounts posting at the same time that within seconds of you posting, your post could be buried amongst all the other posts! 

I would advise using 5 -10 specific hashtags relating directly to your post eg. #sheikhzayedroad and 15 - 20 more general hashtags eg. #travelphotography . 

Sometimes it’s even worth using hashtags like #natgeo or #lonelyplanet as they often select posts to feature on their accounts which is a great opportunity to promote your account if your post gets chosen. 

You have 30 hashtags to use so make use of them all!

4. Bio/ Profile

Be descriptive and clear as to what your content is. 

Top tip: Include a word or two of who you are / what you do in the ‘Name’ part of the profile 

For example, my account is a personal travel account so I have included my name and ‘traveller’ so potential followers are able to know what to expect from my account from a glance and decide whether my account would interest them. 

5. Comment/ Like/ Follow

This method is definitely time consuming but rewarding at the same time! I have noticed that if you comment, like and follow similar accounts to yours, your account is more likely to pop up in people’s suggestions when they are searching for similar accounts to follow, giving you more exposure.

Disclaimer: There are of course many other ways of engaging a larger audience on Instagram, I am not a pro but I am just sharing methods that have worked for me! 

If you have any other tips feel free to leave them in comments 😊

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Thanks so much to Elsa for writing this super informative post! 

Be sure to check out all her links below to see her wonderful photography (all photos above are taken by her!) and videography:

Instagram : @_travelwithelsa_

Youtube : LifeWithElsa