If you’re trying to grow your Instagram followers, you should think about partnering with an Instagram marketing tool like Later.
With over 1 billion monthly users, an ultra-smart algorithm, and tons of creative businesses showing off their brand, Instagram is a competitive place.
So it’s ok to get some help when it comes to standing out and growing your account!
We’re sharing 6 Later features that can help you grow your Instagram followers this year:
Why Use an Instagram Marketing Tool like Later
Building a large and engaged audience on Instagram is a lot harder than it used to be — there’s more competition, more channels, and the ultra-smart Instagram algorithm certainly isn’t making it any easier!
But it’s especially hard to grow your Instagram followers if you’re doing all the work by yourself.
That’s why it’s a good idea to use an Instagram marketing tool like Later. It’s like having a whole team of digital helpers at your service!
You can plan and schedule your content for when your audience is most active on the app, find new hashtags that help get your posts in front of more people, track your analytics, and apply your learning to your strategy… the list goes on!
Here are 6 Later features to help you grow your Instagram followers:
Grow Your Instagram Followers #1: Post More Consistently with Later’s Calendar
It might sound simple, but hands-down one of the best ways to grow your followers on Instagram is by posting consistently.
Last year, Instagram updated its algorithm to give more weight to when something is posted. As a result, “new” content on Instagram has priority over older content on people’s feeds.
That’s why it’s so important to post frequently (and consistently): your content is more likely to be seen by new, potential followers!
This is, obviously, much easier said than done. Keeping up with a busy posting schedule can be really tough — especially if you’re a small business with a thousand other things to do!
That’s where Later’s intuitive and easy-to-use content calendar comes into play.
Once you sign up for a Later account, you can immediately start planning, scheduling, and organizing your Instagram content, and get posts out there even on days that you’re super busy!
And if you select to auto publish your Instagram posts with Later, your photos and videos will automatically publish to Instagram at the scheduled time — no push notifications required!
Need help setting up your Later account for auto publishing to Instagram? Check out our step-by-step help guide here or watch the video below.
Ready to start planning, scheduling and automatically publishing your posts to Instagram? Sign up to Later today — it’s free!
Grow Your Instagram Followers #2: Find Your Best Time to Post to Instagram
As we just mentioned, posting frequently and consistently matters a lot — but so does posting when your audience is most active on Instagram!
Think of it this way: since Instagram is now prioritizing “new” content on people’s feeds, your best shot at getting your content in front of your followers is by posting when most of them are actively scrolling the app.
That’s why it’s so important to find your own personalized best time to post on Instagram— you can hack the algorithm to increase your reach and get more likes and followers.
So how do you find your personalized best time to post?
Well, one option is to go into your Instagram Insights (you’ll need an Instagram business account to do this), review your audience metrics to find your best times, and then remind yourself to post at those times each day. But this is far from ideal when you’re busy running a business!
A much more effective option is to use Later’s Best Time to Post feature, which automatically calculates your top 7 posting times each week and then highlights these times on your Later calendar.
All you have to do is write your captions and schedule — no guesswork needed, your post will be published when your audience is most active!
If you’re on one of Later’s business plans (which start at just $19/month), your best times to post will automatically be highlighted in your weekly content calendar, making it super easy to schedule your Instagram posts for when your audience is most active!
Grow Your Instagram Followers #3: Build a Gorgeous Aesthetic with Later’s Visual Instagram Planner
Building a consistent Instagram aesthetic for your feed is super important if you want to attract more followers and engagement.
Like your website’s homepage, you need to build a visual identity on Instagram that’s unique to your brand and captures people’s attention.
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That’s why all the best brands put so much effort into their feeds — they understand that building a beautiful aesthetic plays a big role in attracting new followers!
Planning out your content in advance is really what’s going to make or break your Instagram aesthetic. You don’t just want to focus on how you’re editing your photos, but start considering what they look like next to each other, and what’s going to sit beside, below, or on top of your new posts!
It’s time to start thinking in “grid format”!
If you need some help building your own beautiful Instagram aesthetic, you may want to check out Later’s Visual Instagram Planner — it’s a game-changer when it comes to nailing your aesthetic!
All you have to do is drag and drop your photos onto the Visual Planner, re-arrange them to see how they’ll look in your feed, and save to schedule them!
This makes it easier to build a seamless and visually cohesive Instagram feed that’s bound to help you attract more followers.
Start planning your perfect Instagram feed now! If you haven’t signed up with Later yet, why not start today for free?
Grow Your Instagram Followers #4: Add Hashtags and Locations to Your Scheduled Posts
If you’re trying to grow your Instagram followers, tagging your posts with hashtags and locations might help you appear in search results!
Tagging locations on Instagram can help get your post seen by more people and makes it more discoverable in search — and that’s a growth opportunity you don’t want to miss out on!
The same is true of Instagram hashtags.
When used correctly, Instagram hashtags can help you grow your reach, get more engagement, and attract a ton of new followers!
Here’s the good news: Later makes it really easy to optimize your Instagram posts for both hashtags and locations!
Using Later’s Saved Captions feature, you can create multiple hashtag lists based on your frequently used hashtag categories and then easily insert them into your captions with just a single click!
For example, let’s say you run a spa in San Diego, and your Instagram feed is a collection of beautiful California-based travel photography, and images of your spa and treatments you offer.
Instead of trying to remember (or find) relevant hashtags for every post, you can use Saved Captions to keep them all organized, so you can quickly add them when scheduling in the future.
If you want to schedule a photo of a beach in San Diego, since you’ve already saved hashtags for different categories, you can we can insert relevant hashtags for beaches, California, travel, and San Diego with just the click of a button!
After you’ve written your caption, just click on “Saved Captions” and then click on the appropriate hashtag list to instantly add those hashtags to your caption!
You can also tag locations in your scheduled Instagram posts!
To tag a location in Later, create a new post or open a scheduled post from your calendar.
Click the Add Location button below the Linkin.bio field.
Type in your location to find a list of options, scroll to find the correct one, and then select the location and click “save.”
And that’s it! Your post will now be published with an Instagram location tag.
Instagram tagging is available on all of our paid plans, starting at just $9/month! Upgrade now to get access to this feature and save time scheduling.
Grow Your Instagram Followers #5: Plan & Schedule Your Instagram Stories with Later
Did you know that 62% of consumers have become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it on stories?
Instagram Stories help drive traffic and sales, increase brand awareness and engagement, and help you grow your Instagram followers.
But trying to post to Instagram Stories every day can be challenging — whether you’re struggling with what to post, finding the time to create content on your phone, or just forgetting to post altogether!
If that sounds like something you’ve experienced, we have a huge time-saving solution for you: scheduling your Instagram Stories with Later!
Just like you would with posts, you can upload your stories to Later’s Media Library, plan your content calendar, and schedule your Instagram Stories to go live at the times you want!
But that’s not all!
With Later, you can storyboard your content, add captions or links, collaborate with your team, and visually plan and schedule Instagram Stories right from your desktop — something you won’t find on any other marketing platform.
Scheduling your Instagram Stories doesn’t just save you time, it also helps you create better stories by planning ahead and optimizing your stories for traffic or sales using analytics, CTAs, and trackable URLs (that you no longer need to keep track of!)
Watch our step-by-step video tutorial to see just how easy it is to plan and schedule Instagram Stories with Later:
Ready to grow your following using Instagram Stories this year? Upgrade now to visually plan and schedule Instagram Stories with Later for just $9/month!
Grow Your Instagram Followers #6: Improve Your Strategy by Tracking Instagram Analytics
If you want to get more followers on Instagram, you need to know how to optimize your content so that it resonates with your target audience.
The best way to do this? By tracking your Instagram analytics.
Your native Instagram Insights are filled to the brim with useful data about your followers, account, and the performance of the stories and posts you’ve shared. But taking those insights and actually applying them your strategy can be difficult!
Your Instagram analytics can only be accessed from within the Instagram mobile app, so you either need to constantly open the app to review your Insights or manually copy them to a different location.
A much easier way to optimize your posts before they go live is to use Later’s Instagram Analytics feature, which is conveniently located on your Later dashboard.
When you track your account’s analytics with Later, you can easily review your insights and apply your learnings to your strategy when you’re scheduling Instagram posts and planning your feed.
For example, if you notice that you get more comments on Instagram posts that feature people in them, you can take that insight and immediately apply it your content strategy by scheduling more people-focused posts.
Tracking your Instagram engagement rate is one of the best ways to identify which types of content resonates the most with your audience. And once you pinpoint what works best for your audience, you can easily integrate more of that content into your strategy to attract more followers!
When it comes to growing your Instagram followers, using an all-in-one social media scheduling tool like Later is a great way to save time while optimizing your content to reach more of your target audience!
Sign up to Later today and start organizing and planning out your Instagram content in advance! It’s free!
