I feel like paying for followers and likes on Instagram is almost like cheating. You do not get as strong of an audience, and it almost diminishes the brand. Over the past month I have been following a very strict plan in order to get the following we want for our company. The best result I have seen is to like 200+ photos a day under the hashtags that have to with the brand as well as rope in "influencers" that have 3k+ followers on their account to talk about yours.
After getting to 1k followers we held a pricing event on our site to celebrate our followers and make sure that all the people who have been loyal to the brand were able to get into the product for a very affordable price. For all of you who say you don't see sales from instagram, you're wrong. The majority of out 100+ sales over a 3-day period came from both our instagram and our friends instagram accounts who also shared the news about the low prices. The most success we saw was from an instagram account of a wolf dog (@loki_the_wolfdog), who has 44k followers and usually gets about 3k likes per photo. Loki posted about the sale and we got an amazing response. Having people post with large and loyal followings is what has also hugely helped us out as a brand.
Keep your content good and make sure you always post something you would want to see from one of your favorite brands.
Check us out @mountainstandard, www.mountainstandard.com
Check me out @brennahro
Contact me for a consultation about a social media plan for your business. Not all businesses are alike, lets make a plan!