If you’re using Instagram to boost your brand online, then you’re always on the lookout for more qualified followers. The more people who see your images, the better your chances for engagement. That, in turn, results in a better payoff for your promotional efforts.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of tools available to help you achieve a mass following on Instagram. You just have to find the right software that suits your brand and your marketing efforts. Also, one of the challenges is many of the tools for Instagram are in their infant stages . In addition, there have been a few barriers to entry for some of the Instagram software.
Here are some of my favorite tools for amassing thousands of followers on Instagram.
ScheduGram
At some point during your Instagram evangelization efforts, you might have come across a flurry of images that you wanted to share. So, you shared them all at once.
That’s not always the best way to use social media. Sometimes, “flooding” any social media channel with a number of updates all at the same time can annoy people. Also, it looks like spam.
One great ways to get around that is with the use of scheduling. Aficionados of Twitter are already quite familiar with Buffer. That’s a tool they use to keep all of their tweets from appearing in rapid succession (“flooding”) so that they don’t irritate their followers.
ScheduGram is like Buffer for Instagram. It allows you to schedule your images to be posted later on your Instagram account. That way, if you have several images that you’d like to share at once, you can space them out over time, avoiding the “flood” effect.
This is a great tool to help you build a following because, as with Instagress, you can appear to have a constant presence on Instagram while, in fact, the software is doing all of the work for you.
Agora Pulse
Agora Pulse is a comprehensive social media management solution that is very popular and gaining momentum daily.
Using Agora Pulse, you can monitor your Instagram mentions in “Inbox” fashion. That way, you can respond to people who are engaging with you.
You can also schedule content for publication to multiple networks. This is a great feature if you have an image that you’d like to share across channels.
One feature that is promised, but hasn’t arrived yet, is the ability to repost evergreen content. In other words, if you have an image that you think a lot of people would like to see, you can schedule it to be published once a week for the next several weeks to ensure that it receives maximum exposure.
Finally, Agora Pulse also provides you with analytics so that you can see how well your social media efforts are paying off.
PosterMyWall
PosterMyWall is a social media one-stop-shop, especially when it comes to Instagram!
Specializing in high-quality prints, downloads and templates, this online solution is a great for creating unique graphics and posts that could help boost your user engagement.
There are tons of post templates, video templates, and graphic templates organized by theme and searchable by size — perfect for creating cross-channel pieces to use across all social platforms.
This online tool can be used by graphic designers and graphic novices, as its customizations are really flexible. You could use the templates as they are, and just customize the text and image, or customize the graphic completely from scratch.
It’s no secret that killer content and graphics has a direct correlation with who’s following your Instagram account and who’s interacting with your posts.
A tool like PosterMyWall is definitely worth having in your social tech-stack for creating posts and graphics that can be tailored to your brand and audience.
Simply Measured
As a good digital marketer, you already know about the importance of analytics. If you want to be successful in your Instagram efforts, you’re going to need analytics for that as well.
Enter Simply Measured, a tool that gives you a detailed report about your Instagram account. You can see the number of new images you’ve posted, which social media accounts they appeared on, total engagement, and engagement per photo. The report will also show you your most engaging photo and your most engaging location.
This tool helps you build followers because it shows you what works. Once you notice that certain types of images are receiving the highest level of engagement, opt to use those types of images in the future to capitalize on what you’ve learned.
Crowdfire
Crowdfire started off as a tool people used to manage their Twitter accounts (at that time, it was called JustUnfollow). Now, the company brags that it has adopted a more “holistic” approach to social media management.
You can use Crowdfire for your Instagram account to unfollow people who are inactive or who’ve unfollowed you recently. The tool also enables you to stand on the shoulders of giants by following people who follow someone else that’s particularly popular on Instagram (and shares your interests, obviously).
Crowdfire is another great weapon to have in your arsenal if you want to gain followers on Instagram and separate yourself from people who’ve silently said: “No thanks.”
Repost for Instagram
Did you ever see a great image on Instagram and want to share it with your followers? Now, thanks to Repost for Instagram, you can do that.
Repost for Instagram takes away the frustration of screen captures and re-posting by enabling what is effectively the equivalent of a “retweet” button for Instagram. Once you see something you like, you employ the tool to do the reposting for you. The tool gives credit to the original poster, but you’re stuck with whatever caption he or she chose to use.
This app is a great way to leverage off of other people’s efforts to share images that might be of interest to those following you. It also helps you increase engagement with minimal effort.
Over
The simply named Over is a great app that can turn you into an Instagram artist. It enables you to add text and artwork to your images.
In some cases, the caption that Instagram provides might not be just what you want to use to convey a particular message. You’d prefer to have the caption embedded in the image itself. That’s why Over is so handy. Using the app, you can throw some additional creativity into your images and leave a lasting impression.
Over is a great way to impress your followers by adding a little more flair to your Instagram offerings. If you’ve got something that you want to say with your images, give this tool a try.
StatSiv
StatSiv is a sophisticated, comprehensive Instagram analytics tool that also helps you gain more followers.
For starters, StatSiv provides you with analytics so that you can get an idea about whether or not your Instagram efforts have been successful thus far. You can see if your posts during a specific time period received more engagements than posts during a different time period. The tool will also tell you which times during the day are your best bets for posting to Instagram.
StatSiv also offers a patent pending algorithm that will inform you about who you should follow. It’s known as the Gain Followers/Engagement tool and it does the research for you about who it is that is likely to follow you back. This is an exceptionally valuable tool if you’re looking to build a mass following on Instagram using the “I’ll follow you if you follow me” approach.
Takeoff
Takeoff is another great way to schedule your Instagram posts. However, it offers other features as well.
It may be that you’ve always wondered about the best time of the day to post to Instagram, so that your images will have maximum exposure. Fortunately, Takeoff determines that for you and allows you to automatically schedule your images for that time slot.
The tool also offers a neat feature called TagOff. That’s an algorithm that analyzes your caption to determine the best hashtags for your image. Using those hashtags, you can give your image greater exposure by showing it to people who are browsing Instagram by hashtag.
Takeoff will also suggest high quality, CC-licensed photos that you can use to keep your Instagram account active.
INK361
INK361 is another comprehensive tool that gives you a number of great offerings for building your online following. The tool allows you to locate new friends based on your interests. That’s a great way to find people who are likely to engage with your images. Also, INK361 allows you to create albums and sort the people that you follow into circles, similar to what you’ve probably seen in Google+. Also, you can set up alerts for new posts. Finally, the tool allows you to get an understanding of your impact on the social media site over time with analytics.
INK361 is a web-based tool that requires no download.
Iconosquare
Next is Iconosquare. This is a tool that you can use to promote and manage your Instagram account.
For starters, Iconosquare provides analytics for your activity over a specific time period. It also informs you about follower growth, so once again you can determine which strategies are working.
Also, the tool allows you to promote your Instagram account across a variety of social networks with feed tabs or photo widgets. This is a great way to integrate Instagram with other social media channels, giving you a more comprehensive approach to your social media marketing efforts.
Iconosquare also enables you to supercharge your engagements with photo contests. The tool allows you to set up, promote, monitor, and publish the results of your own contest.
With 8.5 million members worldwide, it’s clear that Iconosquare is a valuable tool for people who are serious about using Instagram for promotional purposes.
Hootsuite
There are very few social media loyalists who haven’t heard of Hootsuite. It’s a dashboard tool that allows you to manage multiple social media accounts, including your Instagram account.
It’s a great option if you’re not just focusing on Instagram efforts, but also using multiple other social media channels to build your brand. Since this is almost certainly going to be the case, you should definitely move Hootsuite to the top of your short list.
In addition to easy social media account management, Hootsuite offers analytics, the option to “hear” what people are saying about your brand on social media, and a collaboration feature so that multiple team members can use the software.
Hope you enjoyed this list of Instagram tools.
