Ever wonder how you can retain your Instagram followers and to earn their trust?
Simple. Just spend time and effort engaging with them.
Treat your followers as you would a friend. Give them the time, attention and respect which they deserve after they have given you theirs.
Engaging with your followers further allows you to gain a better and sound understanding of your target market. This will be the best source of inspiration for your upcoming marketing campaigns.
#1 Involve Your Followers in Campaigns
Run campaigns that allows you to engage or collaborate with your followers.
For example, use their photos in your ads or repost some of their entries. Big brands such as Red Bull and Audi are experts when it comes to engaging their followers in campaigns or building a community around the brand using hashtags on Instagram.
Whenever you decide to engage your followers in a marketing campaign, always, always, always, remember to credit them. Nothing breaks a brand faster than being caught using someone else’s content without acknowledgement!
#2 Do Shoutouts
Everybody likes to be remembered in some ways, every once in a while. Even if you have gained hundreds and millions of followers, you are bound to remember a few names, especially those who have been following you from the start.
Give them a shoutout once in a while to show appreciation. Shoutouts are a great way to create win-win situations for both you and your followers.
The question, however, is: How do you keep track of your followers? Jump to point #5 for the answer!
#3 Include Call-To-Action (CTA)
We talk a lot about CTAs. Reason being that CTAs are necessary in order to close the loop with our followers and get them to take the next step.
Don’t assume that your followers know what you are thinking about. Be as clear and explicit as you can when you create an Instagram post, and include the specific actions which you hope your followers can take.
While some may perceive a CTA as being too assertive, think of CTA as a way to ask your follower for a friendly favour. It is like asking another person at the dinner table to pass you a bottle of salt. Making eye contact and hoping that the other person will get the message alone certainly won’t get you that bottle of salt!
#4 Engage in a Conversation
If you run campaigns that trigger a conversation thread on your post, do remember to participate in it. Your followers want to hear your thoughts as much as you want to hear theirs. Give your brand that personal touch.
What happens if you have received a negative feedback? Well, choose to engage in it with grace and find out what you can learn from it. Nobody’s perfect after all. However, never start an online war by being defensive.
#5 Monitor your Comments
You don’t have to monitor your comment section around the clock with a hawk eye. But, do set some time aside each day to monitor it and take necessary actions such as answering questions, providing information, and replying to comments when needed. This is akin to checking your e-mails.
Simple actions such as replying to their comments or showing appreciation can really go a long way. Yes, we are aware that it is a lot of work and time spent poring over the phone.
However, doing so helps you to deepen and strengthen your relationships with your existing followers. This approach to customer loyalty is better than just recruiting and acquiring lots of followers but leaving them cold and uncared for.
Speaking of recruitment, did you know that Instagram works great as a recruitment tool too?
What other ideas do you have to strengthen your engagement with Instagram followers? I’d love to hear from you.
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