What started as a convenient place to share pictures with friends and family has turned into one of the most popular platforms for businesses and influencers to grow their brands. With over 1 billion people using the service every month, it comes as no surprise that over 25 million businesses have already hopped onto the Instagram bandwagon.

Technology has made huge advancements over the last several years that have made a world of difference in marketing strategies. By using Instagram to market your brand, you can form a more personal bond with your consumers and reach more people in a shorter time frame.

The most important part of growing any brand is attracting a loyal base of followers. This can seem intimidating at first, but with these 5 tips, we’re confident that you’ll see a huge difference in your following.

1. Use a Follower Boosting Service

Mega companies and influencers all over the world have cracked the code in gaining Instagram followers quickly and have started using services to purchase followers when they need a little boost. If you decide to buy Instagram followers, it is important to do your research before you make a purchase, as not all companies offering this service have been created equal.

As with every service, there are some companies that are absolutely amazing, and true to their word, and there are some that just leave a bad taste in your mouth. This is why it is so important to be diligent about what company to buy from. By using a trusted company to purchase your followers, you’ll have a higher retention rate and most reputable companies will allow you to target the types of followers you want to purchase.

Don’t purchase followers from a company that does not use real profiles to fulfill orders. Companies that use bot accounts to fulfill orders cannot guarantee follower retention and they actually violate Instagram’s terms of use, which can put your account at risk.

Buying followers can help you to provide social proof to your followers and potential collaborators, which is crucial to the success of your brand. It is also discreet, which means that no one will ever know that you purchased followers unless you tell them.

2. Target The Right Audience

The amount of followers you have is important but equally important is having the right kind of followers. Having 100,000 followers is great in theory, but if only 5,000 of them are actually interested in your brand, your business will not grow the way you want it to.

In order to attract the right kind of audience, you must first determine what your target audience is. Ask yourself what your product is, and who is geared to. Once you have figured out who your audience is, do a little research to see what will attract them.

Check out the other brands your target audience follow to gain some insight into what kind of content creates the most engagement. Take a peek at some profiles of your competition’s followers to get a sense of what interests them and what kind of posts they tend to engage more with.

3. Use Insta-Stories

Stories are a relatively new addition to Instagram that became instantaneously popular when they made their debut in 2016. Insta-stories allow you to share moments of your day that you don’t necessarily need to keep on your profile. The photos and videos appear in as a slideshow that is visible to followers for 24 hours.

For businesses on Instagram, stories are a great way to let your followers see some of the more mundane, but still photo-worthy, aspects of your business. They can also be a great way to tease new content or products that are coming soon.

From a consumer standpoint, stories play a big role in deciding which brands to look into. So much so that 62% of Instagram users said they became more interested in a brand after seeing it appear in their stories. In fact, one-third of the most viewed Instagram stories are from businesses.

Stories are a great way to make spontaneous posts about daily happenings in your business. They can be used to show your followers some of the behind-the-scenes magic that goes into perfecting your brand, to announce giveaways or draws, and to show your followers a bit of love.

4. Be Consistent

The brands that have been most successful in Instagram marketing are the brands that are consistent. Consistency throughout your profile will make your posts more visually appealing and help to boost follower engagement on your profile.

Profile consistency can be reached by posting around the same time every time you post, says ViralRace. If you find yourself unable to be on Instagram at the same time every day, consider using a third-party scheduling tool to pre-plan your posts.

Consistency can also be achieved by limiting yourself to only one or two filters for all of your photos. This will give you a signature photo style that your followers will be better able to recognize at first glance.

5. Use Relevant Hashtags

We all know how easy it is to get caught up using more hashtags than we can count, but this is often unnecessary. According to Instagram statistics, it is not the number of hashtags you use, but which ones you use. Posts with the highest engagement are actually posts that use fewer hashtags, with the average number of hashtags being 5 or 6 per post.

By using hashtags relevant to your brand, your posts will be pushed to Instagrammers who are more likely to be interested in your brand and your content. In turn, when your posts are pushed through to people interested in similar brands, those users will be more likely to follow you.

Using popular hashtags is another great way to ensure that your posts are seen by more people. You can get a sense of what hashtags are being used by checking out which ones your competition uses, and by searching the #trending page.

Gaining followers is no longer the struggle it once was. With these 5 tips to multiply your followers, we are confident that you will see growth in no time.