With over 700 million active users this year, Instagram has grown into a fertile soil for online businesses and successes keep on coming.  While Instagram marketing is not rocket science, raking in some Instagram followers by using sites and growing your following can be challenging on a platform where every post seems to scream for attention. Over time, techniques, and strategies to survive, if not to thrive, in the busy and competitive Instagram environment were crafted and tested—some worked, some did not. And as new features are being introduced, new strategies are formed and more opportunities created.

But among the many suggested ways to get Instagram followers, only some have proven effective across different businesses. Do your research, as it is a good idea to read more about Instaboom and other strategies.  After all, in social media marketing, there’s no one shoe that fits all. Yet some of these general growth hacks continue to help many businesses incredibly. Here are some of the growth trends that marketers use in 2017:

  1.    Interacting Within Your Niche

Instagram has become so expansive that trying to cover all grounds is too ambitious, if not downright impossible. This is why niche-targeting for interaction has become the newest trend in growing followers. While this does not suggest that one should only focus on their market and ignore the rest, it means spending more time and ensuring that you interact within your field of interest. One way is to find pages of the same niche and interact with them regularly.

  1.    Run Contests

First used on Facebook, social media contests found its way to other social media channels including Instagram where it continues to be a big hit. Contests encourage engagement, which grows the reach of your account and eventually grow your followers. Today, contests are not only limited to photo sharing and submission but also other creative ways to encourage people to take action. When running an Instagram contest, make sure you cover all considerations including mechanics, restrictions, time frame and others. This will ensure a more effective approach and maximized outputs.

  1.    Socialize

Social media is called social for a reason, and failing to emphasize this in your strategy will mean inevitable failure. As years go by, socializing and interacting remains the best way to grow social media followers, and the same rings true for Instagram. Talk to your audience, engage with them, find more, post consistently, respond to comments and queries, and do this regularly. If you need to increase your audience, then you might want to look into things like growth services. The secret to a good presence is sustainability and consistency and this should be the very foundation of every strategy that you do.

While there are more trends that help grow Instagram followers being employed by marketers today, the above three are applicable to any business and have been proven effective over time. To maximize your efforts and get more followers, learn from your niche leaders and study their strategies, find out what works for you and what doesn’t. Do not be afraid to test over and over again as it is the only effective way to measure your progress. Finally, master the art of social listening.