We’ve been talking lately about how to boost your business marketing with Instagram. Contrary to what many people still believe, Instagram isn’t only a fun app where you could post food, holiday and family pics.

Instagram has turned into 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 per day.

A note of caution: there are plenty of people out there who promise to grow your Instagram followers by the thousands, but beware. Many of them use fake accounts developed by bots to inflate your numbers.

These types of followers have zero value. In fact, they can even be dangerous, wanting to steal your password or photos or infect you with a virus.

According to the data security company Imperva, these bad bots take into account 28.9 % of bots on Instagram.

The ultimate way to build your Instagram followers is by being authentic to your brand as well as your audience.

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

Tell a Story with Hashtags

It’s great to use your business name as a hashtag, but you need 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 intend to start a conversation when you’re sharing posts for things like:

Events

Promotions

Contests

Product launches

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

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

Get Creative

Instagram is all about photos, so many people think about the caption being an afterthought.

Don’t neglect the image caption! You will generate engagement and promote sharing by using descriptive words that may engage, inspire and entertain your followers.

Here are some ideas to help you build up followers on Instagram with your posts:

Use questions in your caption. Write your question at the beginning of the post in order that people see it first.

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

Ask people to tag others. Asking people to tag three of their close friends or tagging someone they’re grateful for brings other potential followers into the equation.

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

They create breathtaking Instagram Stories with informative captions to teach the user on the plight of animals around the world.

Remember in terms of using Instagram posts to obtain followers, it’s about being authentic. Don’t use questions in every 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 become familiar with your neighbours!

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

Type in the location 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 what you see. Hopefully, this will be 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 looking 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 certain they’re alert to your Instagram presence, and then follow them.

These are the best ways to build Instagram followers the correct way: no bots, no shortcuts, just tried and true ways to engage with 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. She works with entrepreneurs who struggle with getting the lack of knowledge, skill and support needed to create their online business presence.