Instagram growth for Chicago businessesInstagram growth in ChicagoGrowth in Chicago

Chicago counts its businesses in the tens of thousands: the city's own business department speaks of 50,000-plus⁴. They sit across 77 community areas⁴. A bakery in Pilsen and a barber in Rogers Park share a city, but they are not after the same customers. So Instagram growth for a Chicago business begins with one question: which neighbourhoods do your customers come from? The tag #chicago cannot answer it. It holds 61 million posts².

A city of neighbourhoods, and a naming problem

The neighbourhood tags are busy enough to matter and small enough to be local: #logansquare has 609K posts, #wickerpark 542K and #westloop 403K³.

Chicago adds a complication. Several of its best-known neighbourhood names are used by other places. #goldcoast has 11M posts, and not one of the related tags Instagram suggested for it had Chicago in the name³. #oldtown has 9.5M, and its suggestions named Dubrovnik, Tallinn and Scottsdale³. #pilsen has 1.3M, and the largest tag suggested with it was #pilsener at 181K³.

The fix is the longer form. #pilsenchicago has 161K posts, #lakeviewchicago 182K and #oldtownchicago 53K³. Those are the tags we ask for when a Chicago business sets up, because the tag itself says which Pilsen it means.

What your manager does with the list

Growth here is outreach from your own account. You give us a list of targets, and your manager follows and likes the most active people found on them¹⁵. They see an account from their own city or trade paying attention, look at your profile, and some decide to follow¹⁵. People who do not follow back are unfollowed later, so your following count rises and falls while the work runs¹⁵.

Nobody can switch the work to one part of the map¹⁶. The area comes from the list itself: neighbourhood tags, local pages, and the nearby businesses your customers already follow¹⁶.

For example, take a hair salon in Logan Square. Its list could name salons and barbers in Logan Square and Wicker Park, the two neighbourhoods' own pages, and the tags #logansquarechicago at 114K posts and #wickerparkchicago at 105K³. Nothing on that list reaches outside those two neighbourhoods.

To begin we ask for your login and 10 to 30 competitor accounts in your niche, each with 10K to 90K followers¹⁷. For a Chicago business we suggest choosing them by neighbourhood first and by size second. The how it works page covers each step.

Which Chicago trades fit

Hair, nails and barbers. This is the loudest trade in our Chicago numbers: #chicagohairstylist has 2.8M posts, more than any other trade tag we measured in the city, and #chicagonails has 916K⁶. A single shop has more room on #chicagosalon at 480K, or on its neighbourhood's tag⁶.

Restaurants, bars and coffee. #chicagofood has 1.7M posts and #chicagoeats 1.2M⁵. The narrower tags name what you serve: #chicagocoffee has 97K, #chicagobrunch 96K and #chicagobakery 84K⁵.

Real estate. #chicagorealestate has 964K posts and #chicagorealtor 495K⁷. Our real estate case study follows an agency that started with seven followers and added 737 since 2 July; we made its posts as well, so that number reflects content and growth together¹².

Music and nightlife. #chicagomusic has 614K posts, #chicagohousemusic 103K and #chicagodj 81K⁸. One of our case studies is a DJ whose account had 19 posts¹³. It gained 178 followers from 29 August, across three weeks in which the client posted nothing¹³.

Gyms and trainers. #chicagofitness has 437K posts and #chicagopersonaltrainer 80K⁹. Our fitness case study covers one location of a franchise: 141 new followers in thirty days with eight posts, and the plan for the month after¹⁴.

Shops. #chicagosmallbusiness has 191K posts, #shoplocalchicago 74K and #supportlocalchicago 9.6K¹⁰.

The accounts in these case studies are real and are shown on their own dashboards. We do not present them as Chicago businesses. They are here to show the method in three different trades.

If you are in the suburbs

The suburbs have tags as large as the city's neighbourhoods. #naperville has 804K posts, #oakpark 512K, #evanston 433K and #schaumburg 397K, and #chicagosuburbs itself has 520K¹¹. A suburban business builds its list from its own town's tag and pages. #chicagoland, at 1.5M posts, is the wide tag that covers all of them².

What to expect

How fast an account grows depends on its industry, its content and how often it posts, so keep posting while the work runs¹⁹. If Instagram flags the account, the work stops the same day, waits 48 to 72 hours and resumes at a lower pace, and the paused days are added back at no charge¹⁸.

The plans page shows the follower ranges past clients saw on each plan, and plans start at US$147 a month. The case studies walk through real accounts on their own dashboards.

To see the local tags first, read our Chicago hashtag list. It is drawn from 3,480 tags we measured and is grouped by neighbourhood and trade¹.