Mastering Instagram growth: Strategies for government social media accounts

Contributed blog by Angie Ramirez, Freelance Writer at Government Social Media

If you’re the dedicated soul tasked with growing your government agency’s Instagram account… you’ve come to the right place!

In the realm of social media, where attention spans are short and competition is vast, growing a government agency account can feel like an uphill battle. But as someone who’s charged up that hill not once, but twice—first in Tampa, Florida, then in Lakewood, Colorado—I’m here to tell you it’s so worth it!

Instagram can be one of the most powerful tools for government agencies to connect with their communities, share information and tell their story. In fact, a HubSpot report found that Instagram posts generate 23% more engagement than Facebook posts. For socialgovs trying to keep citizens informed or engage residents about projects in their communities—that’s huge!

However, to reap the benefits of that ROI, you have to establish an audience first. It’s not enough to simply post on Instagram if no one is seeing or engaging with your content. And if that’s where you’re at now, don’t worry–it’s ok! We are in this together to help you get out of that rut, launch that Instagram account, and take your agency’s digital presence to the next level.

But be warned, to achieve meaningful growth—not from bots but from real members of your community—it takes time, care, and a few savvy strategies to make every engagement count.

So, if you’re ready to roll up your sleeves and dive into the vast potential of Instagram for government agencies, read on for some of the top strategies that helped me grow Tampa’s Instagram account from less than a thousand followers to over 100,000 followers and start building Lakewood’s Instagram presence from scratch this year.

Why grow your following?

Before diving into strategies, let’s address the elephant in the room: Why bother growing your following as a government agency? Isn’t your follower count just a vanity metric anyway?

Not exactly.

As government agencies, our followers represent community members, taxpayers, constituents, voters, and the people we serve. While your number of followers is not the most important social media metric (by far), it is crucial to establish a robust digital presence that reaches members of your community.

Growth also doesn’t necessarily mean more followers. For a small town with a population of 6,000 people, having even just 1,000 followers is a big deal! Growth can also present itself as an increase in engagement, such as more likes, comments, saves, and shares.

Some of the benefits of growing your government agency’s Instagram presence include:

• Building trust: Growing your Instagram presence can help establish your account as an official source of government information, fostering trust and credibility within your community. Having a robust and active account provides one more touchpoint for your audience, and it reduces the threat of imposter accounts accidentally being mistaken for official government channels.
• Increasing reach: If you’re utilizing authentic and targeted growth strategies, a larger following means reaching more members of your audience with important updates, events, and initiatives. The larger your account is, the greater your reach will be to your existing followers and non-followers who may be discovering your account for the first time.
• Creating connections: Growing your Instagram account can also provide your agency with a larger platform to foster meaningful connections with members of your community. Through Instagram, you can shape and share your municipality’s identity, values, and achievements, fostering an online community that feels connected and engaged.

Here’s the bottom line. Building a successful Instagram presence isn’t just about accruing followers or likes; it’s about fostering connections, amplifying voices, and telling the story of your municipality in a way that resonates with its residents. By focusing on authentic and targeted growth strategies, you can increase your agency’s digital presence and create meaningful connections between your agency and the residents you serve.

Instagram growth strategies for government agencies

1. Set aside time every day to engage. 

Social media is inherently social, and engagement is key to building a thriving community. Instagram shouldn’t be a one-way street where you dump content and close the app until tomorrow.

Set aside time every day to read and interact with comments on your post and actively search for content within your community.

I like to do this by checking the geolocation tags and hashtags relevant to my city and sorting the content by recent posts; this allows me to interact with newly posted content while the user is still online (hopefully). I also like to sort my Instagram feed by “following” so that it displays posts recently shared by accounts I follow. Engaging with residents in your community or popular accounts in your community can help residents discover your profile, and it helps you keep your finger on the pulse regarding what conversations are happening in your niche. Taking time to look through location tags and hashtags can also help you identify good user-generated content that you can share on your profile (with permission) or identify concerns that need to be flagged internally.

Actively seeking organic engagements is especially important if you’ve recently launched your account or you’re struggling to increase reach. 

2. Use relevant location tags and hashtags.

Piggybacking on the first strategy, don’t overlook the power of location tags and hashtags on your posts. Tagging your municipality’s location in every post makes your content discoverable to local residents. This is especially important for cities, counties, and local agencies whose audience is in a specific geographic area. Likewise, researching and using relevant hashtags expands your reach within your niche. Make sure your hashtags are specific and relevant to your audience.

 3. Embrace emerging tools.

One of the things that I attribute most to the City of Tampa’s Instagram success was being an early adopter of emerging tools and features. Whether it was when Instagram launched stories, carousels, Reels, stickers, locations, music on grid posts, collaborator tags, or something else, we were always quick to try out Instagram’s newest tools and features.

I always encourage government agencies to try new features as they become available because being an early adopter can boost your content on Instagram’s algorithm, leading to increased visibility and engagement. Experimenting with different formats also allows you to find what resonates best with your audience.

4. Collaborate with your network.

If you’ve recently launched an account or you’re struggling to break through a plateau in growth, consider tapping into your network. Are there other government accounts or community partner accounts you could collaborate with to help increase the reach and visibility of your posts? For example, could your PD or parks and recreation accounts collaborate with the city’s main account? Or maybe your municipality is partnering with a local nonprofit (or, dare I say, a sports team) on an initiative, and you could collaborate on a Reel.

Instagram’s “collaborator” feature allows multiple accounts to be listed as cocreators of content, displaying the content on both profiles. This is a great way to increase your reach by collaborating with similar or adjacent accounts that could overlap with your audience. The same applies to collaborating with local influencers or businesses to increase local reach.

5. Offer value-packed content consistently.

Ok, this one is easier said than done, but content is key. As a social media user, consider what type of content you like seeing. Sure, government agencies have to provide certain types of information, but is there a more interesting or actionable way to deliver that information?

Many agencies have found success by leveraging trends and humor to make dry topics more digestible and entertaining for the general public. But even if you’re not ready to dive right into memes and GIFs, there are still ways to craft content so that it adds value to residents’ daily lives, whether that’s by informing them through a news-style post or giving them insight into government operations with a behind-the-scenes Instagram story. Getting creative and thinking outside the box can ensure your content stands out while still providing the important information that you need residents to know.

Consistency is also crucial. I recommend posting once daily to your government agency’s Instagram grid for the best results. It may not happen every day, but if that can be the goal, you’re setting yourself up for success.

6. Leverage Reels for non-follower reach.

While grid posts and stories tend to engage your current followers, Reels often have a much broader reach, increasing your account’s visibility to non-followers. Mixing in Reels with trending audio and the right targeting strategies can help supercharge your account’s growth, capturing the attention of community members who may be discovering your account for the first time.

One of my personal goals for the City of Lakewood’s new Instagram account (@lakewoodcogov) was to reach 1,000 followers by the Government Social Media Conference--P.S. are you going? Registration officially closes after April 11, so get your Virtual Ticket today.

I’m happy to report that we’ve surpassed that goal thanks to a popular Instagram Reel! When the account had a mere 700 followers, we posted an Instagram Reel with a news-peg style (the hook was “Lakewood, Colorado will be the first city in the state to get Google Fiber”), and it earned over 200,000 views in just a few days. So far, we’ve gained nearly 700 followers from that specific Reel, the post has over 1.6k shares, and we are now at 1,431 followers total. Most importantly, while some of the comments indicate that the Reel reached individuals outside of our community, the followers gained from that Reel were nearly all local residents.

While not every Reel will achieve these results, consistently posting value-driven content sets your account up for success when a post does gain some traction.

**Shameless plug: If you’d like to learn more about mastering Instagram Reels for government agencies, attend my pre-conference workshop at this year’s Government Social Media Conference! I’m so excited to talk in-depth about how to create powerful Instagram Reels that get results and engage your community.

7. Analyze and adapt. 

Lastly, don’t forget to track your progress. Instagram’s analytics tools provide valuable insights into what’s working and what isn’t. Monitor metrics like engagement rate, follower growth, and post-performance to refine your strategy over time. Experiment, learn from your successes and failures, and adapt accordingly.

By implementing these strategies, government agencies can successfully grow their Instagram presence, engage with their community, and establish themselves as trusted sources of information and storytelling.

Remember, building a thriving Instagram account takes time and effort, but with persistence and dedication, the results can be truly rewarding!

Meet the author

Angela Ramirez (Pitts)

Freelance Writer - Government Social Media LLC

Angela is an award-winning government communicator who is passionate about leveraging social media to build strong relationships between government agencies and the people they serve. Angela is an award-winning government communicator who is passionate about leveraging social media to build strong relationships between government agencies and the people they serve.

During her tenure with the City of Tampa, Angela proudly maintained a dynamic social media presence for the City, telling Tampa’s story through historic events, including the Super Bowl, the COVID-19 pandemic, major hurricanes, and more. She also helped establish a community-centric social media following for the City, growing the @cityoftampa Instagram profile from less than 1k followers to over 100k in under five years. Her passion for government social media continues as she strives to be a thought leader in the field. She takes immense pride in the connections she’s made with social media professionals across the nation. Angela earned her bachelor's degree from the University of South Florida and is currently completing her master's degree in Digital Strategy from the University of Florida. In her free time, you can find her scrolling Instagram Reels, spending time with her husband and dog, or planning her next big adventure.

Government Social Media empowers government professionals to achieve mastery in social media through conferences, online training, and professional association membership.

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