“How do I grow my business, brand and/or personal Instagram account?” is one question many people frequently ask. Hopping from one “follow or gain train” to another could indeed be exhausting as some of those on these trains end up either not following back or unfollowing you after a while of initially clicking the follow option. This post, based on an understanding of user psychology and reverse engineer attention that births an engaged online community, would contain practical advice workable by people, businesses or brands both on Instagram and other social networking site and is independent of whether you have millions of followers or you only just created the account. Most of the experience is based on the research of Instagrowing. Are you looking to build a more meaningful Instagram community? Then read on:

1. Understand that the key to winning on social media is to be social:

Of course, your business or brand looks to have a community of like-minded people who care about the service you render or the product you sell and are ready to engage these. To have such a community, you need not only post pictures, quotable quotes and what-nots, but also understand that you need to become a part of the conversation.

2. Find the hashtags to follow:

After understanding that you have to be social, take active steps to be so. To do this find the top 10 hashtags most relevant to your business or brand. For instance, if you are into cooking, you could search for hashtags like #cook, #cooking, #meals, #delicious, #sumptuous, #vegan, #vegetarian, #diet, #food and #foodie. If you are however stuck on hashtags to search for, Instagram comes to the rescue as once you search for a keyword, related hashtags are recommended.

3. Find the top 9 posts under each of these hashtags as beneath these are where you will drop your $1.80.

4. When you find such a post, determine who is behind it. Identify the account, read their bio and their profile, have an understanding of their likes, dislikes and overall account activity. Irrespective of their follower count, pay attention to the number of comments, likes and views garnered.

5. Proceed to drop your 02 cents:

This means leaving your thoughts and providing value where you can. Like the post and comment beneath same. Do you love the post or have an admiration for the speaker of the attached quote? Say this. If you have an opinion about the post, say this. If you have an answer to a question in the comment section, give this. If you think an acquaintance would benefit from the content of the post, tag them to it. Just don’t stop engaging and interacting.

6. Continue to interact and engage. Don’t stop dropping your 02 cents on 9 top posts for 10 relevant hashtags every single day; these cumulates to the $1.80. Consistently doing this will definitely see your business or brand account gaining followers every other day as doing this will help you build an audience that appreciates the content you have to offer.

By following through with these strategy, not only will you build your business/brand or be a contributor or part of a great community with similar likes and interests, you are going to learn. This assertion is based off the fact that consuming 90 pieces of similar yet different content every single day is not only going to have you inspired but will also make you better at strategizing on how to better put out your content. You will also be better informed on pitfalls to avoid.

Yes, consuming 90 pieces of content daily could be time-consuming, but the end result of having a great and engaging Instagram community to which you consistently provide great content would see your business or brand continuously thriving. So continue to like, comment under, tag others to, respond to, interact beneath, engage and share those posts.