Instagram is one of the most popular social networking platforms today, not just because of its popularity, but also because it’s such a great way to connect with your audience. And as long as you have an Instagram account, you can generate a following and grow your business!
That said, growing an account on Instagram takes time there’s no way around it. But if you’re willing to put in some work and follow these tips, then I promise that you’ll see results soon enough!
| Takeaways |
|---|
| 1. Focus on creating high-quality and engaging content that resonates with your target audience. |
| 2. Utilize relevant and trending hashtags to increase the discoverability of your posts. |
| 3. Collaborate with influencers or accounts within your niche to tap into their followers. |
| 4. Engage authentically with your audience through comments, likes, and responses. |
| 5. Participate in Instagram challenges and trends to gain exposure and followers. |
| 6. Leverage user-generated content to showcase your followers’ experiences with your brand. |
| 7. Optimize your Instagram profile with a clear bio, profile picture, and contact information. |
| 8. Post consistently and maintain a cohesive visual theme to attract and retain followers. |
| 9. Experiment with Instagram Stories and Reels to diversify your content and engage users. |
| 10. Analyze your insights and adapt your strategy based on what’s resonating with your audience. |
1. Update Your Account Details
If you want to get more followers on Instagram, you first need to make sure that your account is set up properly.
To start, update your Instagram bio so that it reads: “Instagram: @username | Email: username@email.com.”
Then, add a link to your website in the description box (right below ‘Profile’ and above ‘About’) in the same way that we added a link above. You can also add links to any other social media profiles by adding them in this same section of your profile page as well.
This will allow people who are interested in following you on these sites to do so easily without having to search for them manually.*
Next, add information about yourself and/or your business under the “About” fields such as where they work or their interests (if they’re personal accounts). This helps create an overall picture of who they are/what they do besides just posting photos on Instagram.*
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2. Find Your Niche
It’s important to find your niche or the reason you have an Instagram account. You need a purpose, and if you don’t know what that is yet, it will be hard to get traction on the platform.
Once you’ve found your niche, it’s time to find hashtags related to that niche that is relevant to your target audience. This can be done through tools like Hashtagify, which gives insights into hashtag usage and trends and more importantly helps with using specific hashtags in posts.
Once you’ve found the right hashtags (and made sure they’re not too competitive), it’s time for the next step: finding followers!
The best way is through targeted accounts who are already engaging with content similar to yours and interacting with people who share similar interests as yourself these types of users are usually more likely than others just post generic comments like “great job!”
3. Set Your Instagram Goals
Once you have a solid understanding of your goals, set out to achieve them.
Your follower growth should be your number one focus. As a general rule of thumb, aim to add approximately 10 new followers each day.
But if that feels too overwhelming or isn’t realistic for you right now (it certainly was for me), work up to it gradually by aiming for 2-4 new followers each day and growing from there.
You’re also going to want to make sure that the people who follow you are engaging with your content commenting on it, liking it, sharing it with their friends, etc.
And that they’re being exposed to all of the other posts in their feed so they see what else is going on in their community.
To do this successfully, post regularly (ideally every day) and try not to go more than 2 days without posting something fresh and new! When posting multiple times per week rather than daily though…
Make sure there’s still enough time between posts for people who’ve already seen one photo/video from earlier today but haven’t seen another yet…which brings us nicely onto our next point: Reach!
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4. Create A Feed That Keeps People Coming Back For More
When it comes to creating a feed that keeps people coming back for more, there are some simple things you can do.
Use a theme or color scheme to tie your posts together. For example, if you have a food blog, use a certain color palette on all of your images to give them continuity and make them recognizable as associated with each other (but remember not to be too obvious about this).
Use a consistent style in how you frame and crop each image whether that’s horizontal or vertical orientation and whether it’s cropped close up or pulled back from the subject matter for context.
Make sure all of your photos are taken in roughly the same lighting conditions: either indoors or out, but never both at once! This will help give them consistency across all of your posts without appearing too unauthentic.
If possible, try using natural light instead of artificial sources like lamps or flashbulbs when taking pictures outdoors; this will ensure that what appears on the screen looks exactly like how it would look in real life when viewed through someone else’s eyeballs.
Choose one filter (or none at all) when posting photos in other words: don’t mix-and-match filters throughout an entire series even though Instagram allows this option!
It makes viewers feel like they’re looking at different accounts altogether instead of seeing one cohesive feed come into focus before their eyes.
5. Commit To Hashtags And Use Them The Right Way!
If you want to grow your Instagram account, you’re going to have to commit. You can’t just do one or two things and expect things to change overnight. If you want a big following, then it’s going to take time and consistent effort.
One way that people tend to get more likes and followers is by using hashtags on their photos.
A hashtag is simply a word or phrase preceded by the pound symbol (#). When someone posts content with a hashtag included in the caption, other users who search that particular hashtag will be able to see it in their feed.
This means that if someone searches #cats or #dogsofinstagram (two very popular ones), they will be able to use these tags as well as others related specifically to their post type (i.e., dog picture).
However, not all hashtags are meant for everyone; some are specific only for certain types of accounts because they may not be relevant without those requirements being met first (such as needing certain elements like location settings enabled).
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6. Ask For Help From Influencers You Admire
If you’re looking for a way to get your account some serious attention, influencers might be the answer.
These are people who have large followings on social media and are considered experts in their field. Most of them have thousands of followers on Instagram, and some even have millions!
To get the most out of this strategy:
Find influencers who are similar to you. If you’re an artist, find other artists that inspire or motivate you.
If your brand is about health and wellness, then look for influencers with similar content on their page as well. The more alike they are, the better chance they’ll help promote your account if asked nicely enough!
Find influencers who are influential in your niche (and not already friends with you). This ensures that they aren’t just agreeing because they want something from you later on down the road they want to help smaller accounts like yours succeed!
It’s also important that these people aren’t already connected through mutual acquaintances; otherwise, there will be less incentive for them to share anything new coming out of Twitter’s algorithm soon after creation…
So consider this when thinking about how best use all available resources wisely before taking further steps forward.”
7. Find Instagram Influencers Who Speak To Your Audience And Work With Them To Share Your Account With Their Followers
To find influencers who are interested in working with you, look for people who have already worked with brands like yours. They may be more likely to consider your offer than someone who hasn’t been approached by a lot of companies in the past.
Once you’ve found an influencer that seems right for your brand, reach out to them and ask if they would be interested in working together. Remember: influencers are busy people, so be brief and professional when asking them this question.
If the answer is yes, have a written agreement ready before moving forward with the collaboration process.
This way both parties know what they are agreeing to at every step along the way and neither party can claim that they weren’t informed of all aspects of the partnership (like payment).
8. Create Instagram Stories Regularly That’s Where The Engagement Is Happening!
If you’re looking to grow your account on Instagram, one of the best ways to do it is by using Stories. But first, let’s break down what a Story is: An Instagram Story is a collection of 15 photos or videos that disappear after 24 hours.
To access this feature, tap the plus sign in the top right-hand corner and then select “Stories.” Once inside, tap the arrow next to your profile picture at the top right-hand corner and choose Create Story.
You can also create a story from within individual posts in your feed by tapping “Add.” You must use this tool regularly ideally every day because that’s where most of your engagement happens these days.
For each story you post on social media channels like Facebook or Twitter (as well as Instagram), several things should remain consistent from one post to another:
The hashtags used; 2) The filters applied; 3) The format used; 4) The location is shown (if applicable); 5) the Hashtag used
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9. Share UGC On Your Feed And In Stories, Too!
- UGC stands for user-generated content.
- You can use UGC in your feed and Stories.
- It’s a great way to get your followers involved with your brand and feel like they’re part of it.
UGC is content that has been created by someone other than you it’s usually photos, videos, or text from fans but can also be things like quotes or advertising images that don’t feature you directly as the creator of the post (but still show off how much you love their product).
You’ll see a lot of brands on Instagram using this strategy these days because it helps them look more relatable and approachable without having to put in all of the hard work themselves!
10. Analyze What’s Working And What Isn’t, Then Adjust Accordingly!
It’s important to analyze your data and see what’s working, and what isn’t. If you notice that one post of yours has a much higher engagement rate than all other posts in the last month, then you should try to replicate that success by creating similar content moving forward.
If you’re struggling with getting any engagement at all on your Instagram account, then consider switching up your strategy from time to time.
Maybe you’ve been posting too often or maybe posting every day just isn’t working for your audience. Either way, analyzing the data will help you adjust accordingly so that growth can continue!
11. Follow Similar Accounts To Get New Followers And Grow Your Engagement Rate!
Follow accounts that are similar to yours. If you’re posting about travel and adventure, follow other accounts with a similar focus.
Follow accounts that have followers that you want to target. If there are certain types of people who are following an account, it’s because they’re interested in what they post!
Use those people as a way to find more people like them and use their content as inspiration for what you’ll be posting yourself!
Follow accounts that have similar content to yours. Find the posts on their profile that are drawing in the most engagement compared with other types of posts, then try doing something similar yourself (but better).
For example: if someone frequently gets tons of likes on photos where they’re smiling while holding up their dog while sailing through San Francisco Bay on an inflatable raft made out of pizza boxes (true story), then maybe this is something worth trying for yourself?
And maybe even getting creative enough so that no one realizes it was inspired by another person’s idea…but not so much so that everyone thinks it was copied verbatim from somewhere else entirely….you know?
12. Create A Lookalike Audience Of Existing Customers So You Can Target New Customers Who Are Likely To Be Interested In What You Have To Offer!
A lookalike audience is a group of people who are similar to your current customer base. It’s an easy way to reach potential buyers without having any followers yourself, as they will see your ads based on the characteristics of your best customers.
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13. Set Up An Instagram Shopping Account To Help Drive Sales By Turning Your Feed Into A Storefront!
If you’re ready to take your Instagram game to the next level and are looking for a way to sell more products, then it’s time to set up an Instagram Shopping account.
Instagram Shopping is a feature that lets you sell products directly from your feed by linking them with your online store.
This makes it possible for anyone who sees a product in one of your images to click on the link and make a purchase within seconds, without having to leave the app or sign up for an account. It’s basically like having an online store built right into the feed!
When done correctly, this method can be extremely effective at driving traffic back to your website while also generating sales through direct purchases.
Growing Your Instagram Following Takes Time, But It Doesn’t Have To Be Hard If You Follow These Tips
Growing your Instagram following takes time, but it doesn’t have to be hard if you follow these tips.
- Follow people who post about the same things as you do.
- Use hashtags that are relevant to the subject of your posts.
- Comment on other peoples’ photos and engage in conversations where appropriate.
The more time and effort you put into growing your Instagram presence, the better chance you have of growing it!
Conclusion
And that’s it! We hope these tips will help you on your journey to growing your Instagram account. It might seem like a lot, but once you get into the groove of things, it will become second nature.
And keep in mind that this process takes time don’t expect to have thousands of followers overnight, even if you follow all these steps religiously! But with time and patience (and maybe some luck), we’re sure you’ll get there. Good luck on your journey!
Further Reading
Here are some additional resources to help you explore the topic further:
How to Grow Your Instagram Following: Discover effective strategies and tactics for increasing your Instagram followers and engagement on this comprehensive guide.
How to Get Followers on Instagram Without Following: Learn unique approaches and techniques to gain Instagram followers without resorting to reciprocal follows.
How to Get Followers on Instagram: This insightful article provides insights into organic methods to expand your Instagram followers, including content strategies and engagement techniques.
FAQs
How can I grow my Instagram following effectively?
Growing your Instagram following requires a combination of consistent quality content, engagement with your audience, and strategic use of relevant hashtags. Additionally, collaborating with influencers and engaging in community interactions can contribute to your follower growth.
Is it possible to gain followers on Instagram without following others back?
Yes, it’s possible. By creating compelling and shareable content, utilizing popular hashtags, engaging with your target audience, and participating in Instagram challenges or trends, you can attract followers without necessarily following them back.
What are some content strategies to attract more Instagram followers?
Posting a mix of visually appealing photos, behind-the-scenes glimpses, user-generated content, and informative captions can engage your audience and encourage them to follow your account. Consistency in posting and maintaining a cohesive visual theme can also help attract followers.
How important are hashtags for follower growth on Instagram?
Hashtags play a significant role in increasing your post’s visibility to a wider audience. Research and use relevant hashtags that resonate with your content and target audience. Engaging with posts using these hashtags can also help in building a follower base.
Can engaging with other users help in gaining Instagram followers?
Yes, engaging with other users’ posts by liking, commenting, and interacting with their content can draw attention to your profile. Authentic interactions can lead to reciprocated engagement and new followers who share similar interests.
Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.