How to grow an engaged audience on Instagram
I stg if one more person suggests buying followers.
Last week, we talked about why retaining your current followers is important and how to do it effectively. Now, let’s move on to what you’ve probably been hoping I would cover: how to gain new followers. While retention should be your primary focus (80% of the time), gaining new followers is still crucial for growing your brand and expanding your reach.
This post will guide you on attracting the right followers, i.e., the people who will engage with your content, become loyal customers, and become champions of your brand.
Before we get into the meat of this though, I want to make something extremely clear:
BUYING FOLLOWERS IS A TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD IDEA.
In fact, according to Business Insider, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is coming after influencers and brands who “buy fake followers, views, and other false indicators of social prominence in order to misrepresent their ‘influence or importance for a commercial purpose.’”
And if, for some reason, breaking the law, doesn’t convince you that buying followers is a shitty thing to do, here are three other reasons not to do it:
It ruins your engagement rate: while buying followers might artificially boost your follower count, these fake accounts won’t interact with your content (unless you buy engagement as well, which, as we have seen, is also banned by the FTC). This means your engagement rate (likes, comments, saves, and shares divided by follower count) will plummet, making it clear to anyone who looks that your follower count is artificially inflated. No bueno. Instagram's algorithm prioritizes content from accounts with high engagement rates, so you’ll end up getting less visibility, not more.
It damages your credibility: I had a client once who wanted to purchase followers because they thought it would give them clout with wine reviewers among other folks (in case it isn’t clear, wine reviewers worth their salt could give a rats fanny how many followers you have). Listen, authenticity is everything on social media, and people are becoming more discerning by the moment. When real followers or potential customers discover that you’ve bought followers (and they will), it can severely damage your brand’s reputation. People are quick to spot a fake, and once they do, it’s difficult to rebuild that trust. In the wine industry, where reputation and word-of-mouth are key, this can have long-lasting negative effects.
It doesn’t lead to sales: At the end of the day, the goal of social media is to build relationships and ultimately drive sales. Fake followers won’t buy your wine, attend your events, or spread the word about your brand. It may be slower and involve more work, but focusing on gaining real followers who are genuinely interested in your brand will always result in a better return on investment.
Okay, as we were.
How to gain followers (organically) on Instagram
Identify & Target the RIGHT audience:
If I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a hundred more times: It’s better to have a smaller, engaged audience than a large, disengaged one. Focus on attracting followers who are genuinely interested in your brand and products.
Before you start trying to attract new followers, understand who your current engaged followers are. What content resonates with them? Use Instagram’s Insights to tailor your content to attract similar people. If you need help with this, here is a podcast episode talking about how to identify your target audience, but the gist is this:
Start by analyzing your current audience demographics—look at their age, location, and even the times they’re most active. Then, dive into the types of posts that get the most engagement. Is it behind-the-scenes content? Educational posts about your winemaking process? Or maybe lifestyle shots evoke the feeling of enjoying your wine with friends and family?
Once you’ve identified the patterns, focus on creating more of that content.
Optimize Your Profile for Discovery
Username: Your @username and your profile name are the only two places on your Instagram profile that are keyword-searchable. I recommend that your username be consistent with your URL or close to it:
www.braveandmaiden.com = @braveandmaiden
www.camins2dreams.com = @camins2dreams
www.biennacidoestate.com = @biennacidoestate
Try to have your username remain unbroken if possible; don’t use underscores or dashes to break it up (example: instead of @bien_nacido_estate the username looks much better as @biennacidoestate) If for some reason you must break it up, I like using periods instead, it looks much cleaner (see @j.wilkeswines)
Name Field: Since this is the other place on your profile that is keyword searchable and your brand name is already listed in the username, I recommend including your general location or other key identifiers that your target audience will be searching for in your bio:
For Brave & Maiden: Estate Winery in Santa Ynez
For Camins 2 Dreams: Natural Wines-Sta. Rita Hills
For Bien Nacido: The Gatehouse at Bien Nacido Estate
You can experiment with these name fields to find the right fit but note that you can only change this twice every fourteen days, so I recommend writing out a handful of options and selecting the one you’re happiest with before you change it in your profile.
Profile Bio: Make sure your Instagram bio is clear, concise, and compelling. It should communicate who you are, what you offer, and include a strong call to action.
Brave & Maiden: Appointment-based wine tastings & intimate venue in Santa Barbara Wine Country. 21+ to follow 🍷Shop our wines!
Camins 2 Dreams: 💃 Women owned-operated @tgomez805 @mtaribo 🙌🏾 BIPOC 🏳️🌈LGBTQIA+ 🍇Minimal intervention wine🍷Tasting Room open Fri-Sun ⬇️
Bien Nacido Estate: Exceptional estate wines from California’s legendary Bien Nacido Vineyard.🍷Visit our estate tasting room, The Gatehouse
Address: If you have a physical tasting room, be sure your full address is added to your profile. If you don’t or can’t list your full address for whatever reason, at least include the city you’re in. This is another item that can help people find you in search.
Links: Instagram allows you to list up to five links in your profile now (eliminating the need for something like LinkTree). I recommend always having your own domain URL there as well as links to your webstore and where people can go to book a tasting with you (if applicable). Other good links to include here:
Mailing list
Upcoming Events (if applicable)
Press articles about you (even better if you have these listed out on a landing page on your own domain!)
Contact Buttons: If applicable, list your phone number and public email address here. This helps people reach you if they have questions
Highlights: Utilize Instagram Highlights to showcase your best content or key information. Think of it as a quick introduction to your brand for new visitors. I like when highlights match the menu items on your website:
Visit Us
Wines
Wine Club
Press/Media
Events
About
If you need help with this, I offer a profile audit to one paid subscriber each month!
You can also book a more in-depth 1:1 Instagram Strategy Session with me if you need more guidance on content strategy.
Create Shareable Content
Engaging Content: Create content that resonates with your current followers and encourages them to share it. Posts that evoke emotion, are highly informative, or simply beautiful are more likely to be shared. Here are what my followers said is the type of content that makes them follow a brand on Instagram:
Funny, lighthearted content with relatable themes and captions (so it’s like I’m following a friend)
Educational posts
Behind-the-scenes winemaking and vineyard posts
Connection with the details: the workers, the process, the trials and tribulations
Posts about how and why you do what you do
Authenticity
Relevant to current topics and discourse
Stories about your wine & people
Showing true sustainability efforts
User-Generated Content: Encourage your followers to create and share content featuring your products. Reposting their content not only strengthens your relationship with existing followers but also exposes your brand to new potential followers. Remember, birds of a feather stick together!
You can repost directly to your stories, or if you want to take it to the next level, do a weekly or monthly UGC roundup where you share a carousel posts with some of your favorite UGC. NOTE: don’t just screenshot a post you’ve been tagged in as that will result in shitty image quality. I recommend sending a DM to the person who tagged you and asking them to send the original image or video to you. This not only gets you a high quality piece of content, it also opens up a DM conversation which the Instagram algorithm loves.
Here’s a sample script for how to request original images from people who have tagged you: “Hi there [name]! Thanks so much for [tagging us, visiting us, enjoying our wine]. We love this photo/video and would love to share it on our Instagram page (with full credit to you, of course!). If we have your permission/consent, would you please send us the original image/video here in the DMs so we don’t degrade the quality with a screen capture? Thank you so much!Collaborations: Partner with influencers, visitors bureaus, or complementary brands. Collaboration posts allow you to share a post between two profiles and thus expose your brand to new audiences while also increasing engagement on your profile. Here are some examples of collaboration posts that have worked for my clients:
Leverage Instagram Features for Growth
Reels: Like it or not, short-form videos are what most people like to consume and are often what keep people on Instagram for a longer period of time. As a result, Instagram tends to push this type of content out to wider audiences. Try to keep your Reels under a minute to increase the likelihood of it showing up on the Reels tab, and use keywords in your caption and even in the video itself to increase the likelihood of it showing up in the search/discover page.
Carousels: I find that carousel posts are right up there with Reels these days in their discoverability-especially if you pair them with other features like music from Instagram’s royalty-free library and collaborations with other accounts (mentioned above).
Instagram Live: Host live sessions to interact with your audience in real-time. Lives often attract a larger audience, including people who might not follow you yet but are interested in the topic you’re discussing. Once again, this can be really useful to do as a collaboration with another account (Tablas Creek does a great job at this!)
Engage with Your Community
Engage Beyond Your Content: Don’t just post and ghost. Actively engage with potential followers by liking, commenting on, and sharing relevant content from other accounts. Social media is meant to be social after all.
Participate in Conversations: Join industry-related conversations by commenting on popular posts or participating in relevant hashtags. This can attract attention from users who are not yet following you.
Cross-Promote on Other Platforms: If you have a presence on other platforms (like a blog, email newsletter, or another social media site), promote your Instagram account there to drive your existing audience to follow you on Instagram.
Add your Instagram handle to your printed materials: Reminding people you have an Instagram account by including your Instagram handle at the bottom of your tasting sheet, business cards, or even underneath the WiFi sign in your tasting room are all great ways to get more followers.
Tell people!: If you’re pouring at a festival or notice people taking photos of themselves at your tasting room, take the opportunity to engage with them directly. Encourage them to tag your winery on Instagram and follow your account to stay updated on your latest releases and events. You’d be surprised how many people will follow through if you simply ask!
Remember, gaining followers is important, but it should not come at the expense of your current audience. Focus on quality, relevance, and genuine engagement.
This Week’s Action Item:
This week, take a look at your most popular posts and identify the common factors that made them successful. Then, brainstorm ways to create more of that type of content to attract new followers.
xoxo Stay Awesome!
So helpful! Love your content!