10 Ways Actors Can Increase Their Instagram Following

10 Ways Actors Can Increase Their Instagram Following

Trying to grow your career in a sea of competition? Social media is no longer optional. Here are 10 ways to build your Instagram following fast.

Instagram is the third largest social media site in the world. Therefore it is one of the most important networking tools in the arsenal of any working actor today.

Social media has completely flipped the script when it comes to getting your name out there. These days, having a strong social media presence is a must have for new or upcoming actors.

While building up your following may seem easier said than done, playing the social media game can be easy — if you know the right tricks.

If you’ve been trying to build up your Instagram following, but are having trouble boosting your numbers, don’t panic.

Here are ten super easy things actors can do to help attract more eyes on Instagram.

1. Make You Account Public

First things first, you need to make sure your account is public.

If your goal is to attract as many people as possible, putting up a great big fence is not the best way to go about it.

Part of becoming an entertainer is putting yourself out there for the world to see. The price of recognition is a little bit of your privacy.

If you’d like to maintain a private account for only your close friends and family to see, you absolutely can. Just make sure not to attach your name or stage name to that account.

Because your name is part of your brand, you need to keep it free for things your fans, peers, and potential coworkers can see.

2. Check Your Bio

While your Instagram bio may not seem like a big deal — it wields a surprising amount of power.

Because your bio is so important, you need to make sure you give it the attention it deserves, and take it as seriously as you would a resume.

In your bio, you should include who you are and, more importantly, what you do. You should also try to incorporate a few of your interests and causes or beliefs you support.

By doing this, you can attract people who may not be familiar with your work, but share a few commonalities with you.

In addition to upgrading your bio to let your followers know more about you, you should also take a look at your Instagram handle.

Make sure you’re using the same, or at least similar, handles across all social media platforms. Doing this makes finding your account much clearer for fans and other interested parties.

3. Profile Pic

When you’re trying to create a very public persona, you need to make sure people can recognize you.

Your Instagram profile picture needs to be a picture of you, and more than that, a clear picture of you. Make sure your face in your profile pic is not hard to see and that you’re the only person in the photo to avoid any potential confusion.

Fortunately, as an actor, you likely have a few perfect new profile pics on hand.

If you’re chasing a career in acting, then there’s a good chance you already have some headshots at your disposal.

Pick one of your most recent headshots and make it your new profile picture on Instagram as well as every other social media site you use. Try not to use anything that is over a year old.

Remember, consistency across social media will help you build a brand and can help people find you across several platforms.

4. Use Your Contacts

By syncing your phone number and email up to your Instagram, connecting with contacts you’ve already made becomes that much easier.

By connecting with these people on social media, you can open up doors for more people to find you.

More than that, by connecting with people who have a few more connections, you can create opportunities for yourself.

5. Unfriend Often

In the world of social media, the goal is to have more followers than people you are following.

While you want to create and maintain as many connections as you can in the industry, it never helps to cut back from time to time.

Think of it like gardening. By cutting a little off of a rosebush, you allow the plant to flourish and open up opportunities for new, bigger and brighter flowers to bloom.

Every few weeks or so, go through your list of people you’re following and unfollow anyone who is not benefitting your social media status.

Following other people’s accounts is an excellent way to garner a couple of new followers. But, this method only works if those people you follow, follow you back.

6. Tell Some Stories

Stories are one of the newest and most prominent trends in social media. So, you better be taking advantage of them across the board.

By using Instagram stories regularly, you can make sure that you stay on the daily radar of all your followers.

In addition to that, if your stories build up enough traction, they could be featured as recommended in Instagram’s explore page.

7. #Hashtags

Hashtags may be on their way out on a few platforms. But, they’re alive and well on Instagram and can be a pretty powerful tool in attracting new audiences — when used correctly.

When you first post something, sometimes the best course of action is to refrain from adding any hashtags. Unless you’re participating in a special hashtagged event, try to avoid going crazy with tags right off the bat.

After your post goes up and fully cycles through its first round of views, likes, and shares — it’s time to go in a make a few edits.

You can add up to 30 tags to a post. While you should take advantage of that number, you shouldn’t make your tagging too apparent.

Add at least three lines of placeholders, such as periods or hyphens, between your caption and your new tags.

Doing this will keep the integrity of the original post while generating a bunch of new traffic and attracting new followers.

8. Engage Strategically

Engaging with people on Instagram can help boost your followers, especially if you do it right.

When it comes to interacting on Instagram, it pays to be a little picky. Your likes aren’t private, so you should only ever like pictures that you think your followers or potential followers would also like.

When it comes to commenting, be genuine. Asking people outright to visit your page can come across as insincere. But, posting real feedback on the pictures of users similar to yourself will attract that person’s followers.

Lastly, engage with your followers. Spending a little time responding to comments can pay off big time in the long run. Just remember, never feed the trolls!

9. Play the Algorithm

Algorithms control everything in the online world, so you need to learn how to master them if you want to attract new followers.

The main things you need to focus on are your hashtags, whom you tag, and what time you post.

Posting frequently is vital, but more than that, you need to have a schedule in place so you can make sure you’re posting when most people will see it.

You may want to consider getting an Instagram business account. This type of account allows you to identify when your page gets the most traffic so you can alter your schedule.

It can also help you identify what kinds of posts are most successful.

10. Link to Your Site

Finally, to be successful in any entertainment field today you must have a personal website. Assuming you already have a site, you should provide a link to it in your Instagram bio.

By providing a link to your website, you make it that much easier for potential job offers and opportunities to find their way into your inbox.

How to Build Up Your Instagram Following

Now that you know how to go about building up your Instagram following, it’s time to get to work.

Looking for more ways to boost your acting career, we can help.

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