Social media cross-promotion is a must for every brand that wants to increase its followers. It’s a simple and cost-effective method to do this and doesn’t need much expertise.

In this article, we’re going to focus on Instagram and explain how you can increase your followers on it using social media cross-promotion.

Why are social media followers important in marketing?

Businesses are constantly broadcasting their content on social media to gain followers. But the question is that why?

It’s actually well-established that a high social engagement will boost brand awareness and increase sales. With more than a whopping 3 billion active users around the world, social media is the best channel for marketing.

So, the more followers you can reach out to on social media, the more traffic you can drive to your website and the more leads you can generate. Of course, the relevancy of followers to your target market is important as well as the number of them.

In other words, if you want to build a brand identity using social media, a community of relevant followers is the first thing you need. So, one of the most important goals of all marketers on social media is to gain more niche followers.

Why Instagram?

Instagram which is owned by Facebook, another social giant, is one of the most sought after social platforms for marketing. It offers an insanely user-friend panel with a variety of features to more than 1 billion monthly active users.

Regular feed posts, Stories, IGTV, and Live of Instagram are some unrivaled features across all social networks. This is why many marketers are active on this platform and create around 1/3rd of its most viewed content.

Gaining organic niche followers on Instagram isn’t as easy as posting on it. For this reason, beginners use social escrow services to acquire and customize existing accounts.

However, there is a more cost-effective way to increase your followers on Instagram just like social media cross-promotion. With cross-promotion, you will spend less time and money on content creation and grow all your social accounts simultaneously.

Instagram–Facebook cross-promotion

Facebook has more than 2.45 billion monthly active users and is by far the largest social network in the world. Also, it has owned Instagram which makes it more unattainable.

So, it’s necessary to first think about linking these two platforms in your cross-promotion strategy. Here are 4 main techniques you can use to do this:

1. Republishing evergreen content on both platforms

Content creation is the most time-consuming stage of social media marketing strategy. With cross-promotion, you can save your time in this stage.

You first need to create evergreen content and try to repost them based on a regular schedule to repeat your brand story. Your content doesn’t need to be exactly in the same format.

Try to repurpose your content for each platform and re-share them from time to time. You can post your Instagram posts on Facebook. But since Instagram is a multimedia-based platform, you can’t post Facebook text on it.

To get the most out of your Instagram-Facebook cross-promotion, you need to create an Instagram tab on your Facebook page to show the source of your visual content.

2. Linking from Facebook to Instagram

One of the most effective ways to encourage your Facebook followers to go to your Instagram account is by linking your post from Facebook to Instagram.

Of course, you need to give them a purpose to click on your link. Social users see numerous links each day and they don’t have the time to see all of them. So, try to offer them some incentives for clicking such that they feel they’ll see something different by clicking on your Instagram link.

3. Cross-promoting using the cover photo

Updating cover photos on Facebook and asking followers to comment on them and tell their opinion is a perfect way for engagement.

This is also a very good chance for cross-promotion since you can use your high-quality Instagram posts as a cover photo. Try to do this every often and measure the results.

4. Inserting your Instagram link in the “About Us” section on Facebook

Many social users have made Facebook page sooner than Instagram account. So, inserting your Instagram link on your Facebook page will redirect your old followers to your Instagram account. The place for this is the “About Us” tab.  

Instagram-Twitter cross-promotion

Twitter is also a powerful platform that can be used to increase followers on Instagram. The simplest way of making Twitter users follow you on Instagram is by tweeting your Instagram posts.

You can add your Twitter account to “Linked Accounts” on Instagram to share your posts on Twitter. To do so, open the application and go to the “menu” and tap the “setting” button. Then select “Account” and then go to “Linked Account”.

You can also add your Instagram link in your bio on Twitter:

• Go to your Twitter account.
• Click on “Profile.
• Then, click on “Edit your profile.”
• Now, tap on the “Web” box and type in your Instagram account link.
• Click on save to complete the task.

Instagram-YouTube cross-promotion

YouTube is a video sharing platform and can be of great use in promoting your Instagram content and increase your followers.

You need to add an Instagram link on your video description:

1. Click on your username on YouTube.
2. Select the “Channel” option.
3. Go to the “Profile” section.
4. Click on the “Edit” link.
5. Paste your Instagram link into the “About Me” section of the “Profile” section.
6. Click on “Save Changes” to complete the task.

This can help you to redirect your YouTube subscribers to become your Instagram followers. Also, try to mention your Instagram account either at the beginning or at the end of any video.

Using influencers on other networks to promote your Instagram account

Influencer marketing is now the best means of brand awareness and generating leads. More than 70% of marketers want to increase their influencer marketing budget for the current year.

Instagram is the best platform for influencers such that a black market has emerged by Mega/Macro/Micro/Nano-influencers. Based on Social Tradia, many influencers on Instagram aren’t highly-engaged and just want to sell their Instagram account.

So, it’s a good decision to use niche relevant influencers on all social media platforms to promote your Instagram account and increase your followers.

It’s recommended to use valid sources such as Awario and BuzzSumo to find relevant influencers to your brand. They have sorted millions of social media influencers in terms of platform, age, gender, niche, followers, location, etc.

Try to find and reach out to influencers on other top social media services and encourage them to promote your Instagram account on their posts. This can make their followers visit your Instagram page and follow you.

Final word

We tried to describe a cost-effective method to increase Instagram followers using other platforms. Keep in mind that a unique style and a consistent plan in this process is paramount. Try to define schedule based on your location and industry and cross-promote your Instagram account accordingly. Finally, you can also think about niche relevant blogs to redirect internet users to your Instagram page and encourage them to follow you.