The current scenario of the digital world has ideally made social media platforms the autopilot classifieds in business strategies. Of these platforms, Instagram is a major one in terms of improving visibility and engagement for brands.
One of the biggest buzzes for most time is the relationship of business growth to follower count, many discussions and research has been done in the past that have observed specific light regarding how dynamics influence an organization’s future.
They include discussions how your follower count directly affect the growth of your business on Instagram, and what digital strategy and marketing effectiveness & brand reputation you gain from there.
How to think about followers and following?
By giving your followers count, you are giving them a numerical estimation of how big your audience is on Instagram. It reveals the reach and potential influence as it shows how many users subscribe to a brands content. Many brands see having a lot of followers as popularity/legitimacy. This matters, because it shapes the level of trust and engagement your audience will invest in you.
Increasing the number of followers is what companies have historically pursued as a primary goal to develop social media strategies. And as brands began to take online presence more seriously, they knew that the more followers or subscribers they had, their visibility in making things evident with chances of interaction will certainly go up. This still holds today, the followers attributed to a brand is one of there key measure for success.
The connection between their success as a brand and total number of followers
This same research keeps interesting in telling us about the polarity between follower count and brand success. Brands which have more followers normally get better marketing results because they can reach a much larger audience base. Now they can leverage this reach to better share their messaging and connect with a wider audience.
As a bonus, social proof in the form of follower count. Large followings generate the perception that a brand is an industry leader or influencer within their niche. In turn, this perception supplements their authority and draws viewers in to incentivize visibility and engagement.
Therefore build audience trust and engagement.
The trust of the general audience is another important factor to a brand success on Instagram. According to a survey, consumers are more likely to put their trust in brands with huge followings as they are considered more trustworthy and dependable. This trust is crucial for driving engagement metrics as users are more likely to engage with content from a brand they feel is reputable.
When people like, comment on, or share your video, it is a way of showing their interest in your content and helps you measure the interaction of your audience. Brands can look to have an improved engagement rate because they reach more people with valuable content. Communication — when fans are constantly in touch with you, they feel like they belong to a community.
Marketing Efficiency & Digital Strategy
A brand’s marketing strategy is arguably stronger, the more followers a brand has. The more followers a brand has the more opportunities that they have to execute to perfectly targeted marketing campaigns, in turn reaching an audience and increasing conversion probability levels. More and more brands are now realizing this, and are taking steps to use their audience size as a way of benefitting from marketing efforts.
A digital strategy includes social media management like creating content, targeting audience, engagement techniques etc. Digital strategy by brands that concentrate on follow viewers is a brand way to increase followers and, in terms of their Business, lead them towards positive end of business benefit. Brands can use that information to tweak their follower strategies and see more success as a result.
Content Reach & Visual Storytelling
Follower count is a major factor that impacts your content reach. The more followers a profile has, the bigger its content audience and therefore the greater opportunity of interaction with users. Businesses that create compelling visual experiences and engaging stories that successfully capture their viewers’ attention will likely experience an increase in customer retention.
Today, brands are infusing their Instagram presence with more storytelling through imagery. Brands, by employing a set of narrative techniques that is relevant to their audience, can bring about an emotional bonding and strive for more interactions on the content published. This engagement subsequently increases visibility and can get more followers stick with you.
Community Growth and Loyal followers
On Instagram, growing your community is critical to success as a brand. Destination brands that build a thriving community will see increased loyalty, advocacy or anything in between. Having a large number of followers helps in prompting community, a chance to reach and connect with people from all walks of the field.
With the constant interaction with your followers and being able to engage with them, this gives a feeling of loyalty. By responding to comments, recognising user-generated content and actively engaging in conversation brands foster a feeling amongst followers of being part of something. This loyalty is the key to continual growth in business, people that are loyal to a brand will likely preach what its benefits and advertise its products or service.
Influencer Partnerships + Social Validation
Influencer alliances have quickly become a go-to strategy of boosting both brand visibility and trust. The higher number of followers the more appealing they can be to influencers hoping to work with that brand. This serves both brands and influencers as the former gets to access the audience of latter and vice versa.
Having influencers can give an exact impression to the people that follow them. In many cases, the endorsement an influencer gives to a brand shares with its audience quality and credibility. This validation can indeed influence consumers in perceptions resulting in enhancing trust and engagement levels.
Online Reputation and User Engagement
The number of followers a brand has directly plays into its online reputation. Higher follower count brands are more trustable and hence, have a better place in the market. A consistent user interaction and its availability with followers create this reputation.
User engagement for good online reputation When brands are actively engaging with their audience — like responding to comments, addressing concerns and appreciating feedback — they are building more transparency and authenticity. The strategy not only strengthens communication with followers but also increases the brand’s overall image.
Content Strategy and Marketing Insights
Developing a strong content strategy is crucial for weighing follower count correctly in terms of how it generates impact on the growth of your business. Brands need to formulate strategies according to the interest and preference of their audience. Brands are able to see which forms of content engage the most by using marketing insights from engagement metrics.
This could mean certain visual styles, themes or subjects are proven to engage your audience. With these insights, brands can inform and enhance their content strategy to maximize efficacy and increase their follower count. This data-driven method enables brands to keep flexible and also promptly react to the audience.
The Power of Audience Engagement
There is one thing that acts as a base brick for building the empire on Instagram which is audience engagement. Brands that stress engagement — interactive content, polls and direct messages — are going to have stronger followers. These higher engagement rates creates a virtuous cycle where more interaction translates into higher visibility, and as such, new followers.
This will also give you the opportunity to get important feedbacks of their choices and behavior. The survey as well as direct message gives brands a platform to receive the feedback that can be used for their products. Ultimately, this responsiveness translates to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, which in turn drives business growth.
The Effect of An Increase in Followers on Brand Visibility
The more followers you have, the more visible your brand can be on Instagram The only real knock against a traditional follower count is that as brands gain followers, they improve their potential reach and influence within their industry. In addition to boosting the sheer reach of a bran’s content, this growing base even improves where they end up in the platform’s algorithmic hierarchy.
Brands can take steps faster to capitalize on the new trends happening and audience preferences shifting as they see their number of followers grow. By being proactive in growing followers, brands keep themselves relevant and competitive in a quickly evolving digital world.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a big way to grow your business in Instagram, the correlation between follower count and growth is large, complex. In April 2017, Mastercard launched a new/first validity for high follower counts: Visibility – Trust – Engagement(metrics). Brands that understand the value of followers will have a head start and could very well come out on top.
In an ever-changing digital environment, understanding how followers behave will only get more important for marketing strategies. NGAGE prioritizes engagement, utilizing influencer partnerships and smart content strategies to amplify what brands would get from every single one of their followers by ensuring your follow count works as efficiently as possible on driving business growth.
Moving forward, the organizations who do will likely thrive long term on Instagram — meaning those that prioritize a balance between building their followers and maintaining engagement with their followers so they can focus on developing an audience (or community). It will still be an important factor that brands need to think about, in regards to their follower count and how it ties into the success of their own brand on this hyper-competitive landscape of social media marketing.