Building an audience on Instagram starts with following people who share the same target audience. Here are some ways to find people to follow.
Brainstorm a list of people you would like to follow.
You can use the following prompts:
- People in your industry
- Industry leaders / influencers
- Associations or industry bodies.
- Industry-related publications or journalists.
- Bloggers related to your industry
- Colleagues
- Suppliers
- People you work with or would like to work with.
- People in other industries that you admire.
- Sources of inspiration.
Search for them by name using the Instagram search feature.
Find Facebook Friends
Another place to find Instagrammers with whom you already have a connection is to find your Facebook Friends who are on Instagram. To do that, click on your profile and on profile settings.
Then click on Find Facebook Friends. As you see below, you are then shown a list of your Facebook connections who are already using Instagram. You can then scroll through and follow any that you think might be interested in your business Instagram profile.
Check Out Instagram’s Suggestions
There are two places where Instagram gives you some suggestions of people you might be interested in following. The first is when you click on the Search Icon.
You may have to click on the search icon twice (if you’ve been searching for specific people) but Instagram will show you the most popular Photos and People. Make sure you’ve selected People and you’ll see a list of Instagram accounts. Many are celebrities, but there are often local suggestions as well.
When you’re following people, you’ll notice that some accounts have a drop down arrow beside the FOLLOW/FOLLOWING button. This gives you suggestions of similar accounts.
One other way to search for relevant accounts to follow is to use hashtags. Click on the search icon, and in the search bar at the top of the screen type in a relevant keyword, and select hashtags. You can then scroll through the images and look at the profiles that seem the most interesting. An example might be to search #igersbrisbane (short for Instagrammers Brisbane). If you’re a local / national business, I recommend searching location related hashtags as the more general hashtags can be full of irrelevant profiles.
So get stuck into finding interesting people to follow and pay attention to those who follow you back.
