How to Grow a Local Audience on Instagram and TikTok

To grow a local audience on Instagram and TikTok, tell both apps where you are and who you are for. Tag a real location on your posts, put your town or area in your bio and captions, post when people in that time zone are awake, and make content that only makes sense locally. Then work with other local accounts so their followers find you. Do this every week and the right people start to see you. The same steps work for a creator and for a local business on TikTok or Instagram.

Why local reach works differently

Both apps mostly recommend content based on what people watch and engage with, not where they live. TikTok says device and account settings, such as language preference and country setting, carry less weight than what viewers actually do. It also lists whether the viewer and creator are in the same country as only a weak signal. So you cannot rely on location alone. Your content has to give local people a reason to stop, watch and follow.

The good news is that both apps now have features built around place. Those are where a local account has an edge.

Step 1: Set up your profile for local search

Instagram has explained that the text someone types in search is matched against usernames, bios, captions, hashtags and places. It also says that if your account is location-specific, like a small business, putting your location in your bio makes it easier for people in your area to find you.

1. 1Put the place in your name field. Something like "Maya | Leeds Hair Stylist" or "Brisbane Coffee Guide". Keep it readable, not a list of keywords.
2. 2Name your area in the bio. Say the city, neighbourhood or region you serve, and what you do there. Our Instagram bio ideas guide has examples.
3. 3Turn on audience data. On Instagram, a free Creator or Business account shows the top locations of your followers in Insights once you have at least 100 followers. On TikTok, the analytics in TikTok Studio show top locations.
4. 4Check where your audience is now. Look at top locations before you change anything. If most of your followers are in another country, that is useful to know.

Step 2: Tag locations and use local keywords

Add a specific location to every post where it makes sense: your shop, a park, a venue or the neighbourhood. A specific place is more useful than a whole country. On Instagram, a location tag also puts the post on Instagram Map where the feature is live. On TikTok, in countries where the Nearby feed is live, public posts may reach people in the city or region where you posted or tagged a location.

Then say the place in words. Instagram says keywords and hashtags should go in the caption, not the comments, for a post to be found in search. Write captions the way locals search: "best brunch in Shoreditch", "dog-friendly walks near Manchester", "Toronto apartment tour". On TikTok, say the place out loud and put it in on-screen text too. A few honest local hashtags are fine. Our guide on whether hashtags still work explains how much weight to give them.

Step 3: Post in your audience's time zone

Post for where your audience lives, not where you live. This matters most if you live abroad or serve a different region, for example a UK brand selling to Australia. Check most active times in Instagram Insights or TikTok Studio, then post shortly before the peak in that time zone.

Remember that large countries span several time zones. The USA runs from Eastern to Pacific time, and Australia and Canada also have several zones. If you serve one city, use its clock. Our guides to the best time to post on Instagram and the best time to post on TikTok show where to find the charts.

Step 4: Make content only locals would make

Generic content competes with the whole world. Local content competes with a few accounts. Make videos that would feel odd anywhere else:

• Places: new openings, hidden spots, "I tried every chippy on this street".
• Events: markets, festivals, matches, school holidays and local news people are already talking about.
• Local problems: parking, transport, prices, weather. Useful tips get saved and shared.
• Regional trends: join trends that are popular in your country, with a local twist. A trend big in the US may not have landed in the UK yet, and the other way round.
• Faces: your staff, regular customers (with permission) and neighbours make an account feel rooted.

Step 5: Speak your audience's language

TikTok lists language preference as one of its account signals, though a lower-weight one. In practice, write captions and on-screen text in the language your audience uses. If you target Germany or France, post in German or French rather than English. Within English, small things help too: local spelling, local words and local prices in the right currency. Subtitles help people who watch with the sound off, and anyone who finds a strong local accent hard to follow.

Step 6: Collaborate with other local accounts

One of the quickest ways into a local audience is through accounts that already have one. Think local cafes, gyms, event pages, community groups and creators in your area.

• Use Instagram Collab posts so a post shows on both profiles and can be shown to both sets of followers.
• On TikTok, duet or stitch local creators, or film a video together and post it on both accounts.
• Swap shout-outs with businesses that serve the same people but do not compete with you.
• Reply to comments and DMs from locals quickly. A small, active community is worth more than a big, silent one.

How to use TikTok for a local business

A local business on TikTok does not need polished ads. People nearby want to see what you sell, what it costs and what it is like to visit. Keep it simple:

• Show the place: the shop front, the street and the inside, so people recognise you when they walk past.
• Show real prices and real products: a quick "what £10 gets you here" video is more useful than a slogan.
• Answer common questions on camera: opening hours, parking, booking, whether dogs are allowed.
• Make it easy to find you: your town in the bio, a location tag on the post and the place said out loud.
• Post often enough to learn: short, regular videos teach you what locals respond to faster than one big video a month.

Local videos still have to earn their reach like any other post. Our guide on how to get on the TikTok For You page explains what helps. If you want customers to tap through to book or order, see how many followers you need for a link in your TikTok bio. Not sure which app to focus on? Compare them in Instagram vs TikTok for growth.

Are geo-targeted followers worth buying?

They can help a new account look less empty to local visitors, but they do not replace the steps above. Be aware that platform rules prohibit buying engagement: Meta's spam rules, which cover Instagram, ban buying, selling or exchanging engagement such as likes, follows and views, and TikTok's rules ban services that artificially boost engagement and say it removes fake followers it detects. Our guide on whether it is safe to buy Instagram followers explains the risks.

If you still want a small starting push, Folzora's regional services, such as UK Instagram followers, USA Instagram followers and UK TikTok views, are delivered from accounts based in those countries, so your numbers reflect the region you are targeting. If you try one, start small, for example with 1,000 UK Instagram followers. Do not expect bought followers to become customers. Those still come from good local content. For organic tactics, see how to get more Instagram followers.