Recently, I got hired as an intern here at ISU's Continuing Education Workforce Training and immediately got put in the marketing department over social media. I started promoting our services on every major social media platform available.

Instagram, being one of the newer and foremost social platforms, had most of the target demographic we were after. This led to doing research on how to utilize this marketing channel. We found ourselves six weeks later having 1,000 followers and counting (without cheating) and this is how we did it.

Decide BEFORE you start posting what type of content you want to publish. If it’s a personal account this is a little bit easier than a business account because you just publish whatever YOU like. But if it’s a business account you need to post what your clients or customers like. 

Once you decide the theme, it’s crucial to not stray away from it unless you are starting over at some point. Post at least 1 introductory picture before you start following people. This picture (and your bio) should describe a little about you or your company.

Don’t post too much about your specific product…you want to give some valuable info or pictures to your followers before you ask them to buy your product, check out your blog, etc.

Don’t post too often. I personally post less often than more-about 5 times a week tops and never more than once a day.

This is a big one: follow people who you think will follow you back! AKA find pages that are similar to yours and follow their followers. This not only increases the odds of them following back but it also increases the likeliness that they will be engaged followers.

Last and CERTAINLY not least: BE SOCIAL! This is SOCIAL media, after all. Actively engage with your followers by liking and commenting on their posts; and hopefully they will do the same. Take the time to form a relationship with your followers.

Good Luck!