How to find new accounts on instagram
How to find great Instagram accounts to follow
Skip to main content
The VergeThe Verge logo.The Verge homepage
The VergeThe Verge logo.- Tech/
- Reviews/
- How to
/
Instagram offers several ways to find new favorites
By Tim Walker
|
Share this story
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Part of /
The Verge Guide to Instagram
The thing that makes Instagram so engaging is the constant flow of photos — of your cousin’s chihuahua or the purple mountain majesties — that show up on your timeline whenever you open the app.
But how do you find all of that great content in the first place? There are several easy ways.
Getting started: find your Instagram friends
When you start your account, Instagram encourages you to connect with people you already know. For example, if you set up Instagram using your Facebook login, the app automatically suggests Facebook friends for you to follow.
At any time, however, you can upload your phone contacts to Instagram. From the main screen of the app, click on the profile button in the lower-right corner, then the three-bar button in the upper-right corner. From the menu that pops up, choose “Discover People.”
When you allow Instagram to access your contacts, the app finds anyone on your list who has an Instagram account. Simply go through the suggestions and hit “Follow” for anyone whose updates you’d like to see. If you’re not sure about someone, click on their avatar to look over their photos first.
As you follow and interact with more people, this feature will suggest other accounts that you might like (for instance, people who are friends of your friends).
Using the Instagram Explore feature
The Explore feature is a screen of images and videos that Instagram chooses based on factors such as overall popularity, your own location, and things you’ve previously liked.
If you’re looking for accounts to follow and would rather not give Instagram access to your contacts, this is a good alternative.
It’s easy to do. From the home screen of the Instagram app, click on the magnifying glass icon on the bottom row. From there, you can find plenty of new accounts to follow.
If you tap on the search bar at the top of the Explore page, you can either type in specific accounts to follow or look through the three tabs that appear under the search bar for more ideas.
The person icon suggests accounts you might like, including celebrities such as LeBron James, or things relevant to your location, like nearby news outlets or concert venues.
The hashtag (#) icon allows you to search for topics you want to see. Many Instagram users include hashtags in their posts to make them easier to find (for example, by tagging a picture of their Saturday-morning waffles and eggs with #brunch).
You can search for and follow hashtags just like accounts.
When you search, Instagram suggests related hashtags to help you find even more of what you’re looking for. For example, if a birdwatcher from Texas searches for #birdsoftexas, more than 16,000 posts appear. But the suggested hashtags have even more reach, including #best_birds_of_ig (862,000) and #birdphotography (3.9 million). Often, a couple of simple searches will lead you to the best hashtags to follow for your interests.
Finally, the map pin icon allows you to search by location, which is enabled by Instagram’s GPS tagging feature. The default is for posts close to your current location, but you can also enter search terms to find landmarks, vacation spots, or even favorite restaurants or state parks.
Keep finding great new Instagram accounts and hashtags
As you use the app, your favorite accounts will likely attract interesting comments from other users and include lots of relevant hashtags you might want to follow. Keep browsing, and you’re sure to find plenty of fresh content for your Instagram timeline.
Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy.
Most Popular
The golden age of the streaming wars has ended
Elon Musk starts banning critical journalists from Twitter
A plasma physicist explains what’s next after this week’s nuclear fusion breakthrough
Valve answers our burning Steam Deck questions — including a possible Steam Controller 2
Apple is seriously screwing up its big play for an Oscar
- Instagram 101: How to get started with Instagram
- How to turn captions on and off in Instagram
- How to protect your privacy on Instagram
- How to change your Instagram username
- How to add Instagram close friends
- How to find great Instagram accounts to follow
- How to use Instagram to share with other social networks
- Instagram’s Restrict feature now lets you shadow ban your bullies
- How to protect your privacy and stay secure on Instagram
6 Ways To Find New People To Follow On Instagram — molly ho studio
Are you looking for different ways to find new people to follow on Instagram?
The Internet is literally one of my favorite things, because you can be connected to anyone and everyone.
And it's not weird to meet people you've met on the Internet in real life anymore!
Remember when people still thought it was weird and dangerous?
Those days are long gone. (But still, be careful and smart about meeting up with people because it can be dangerous.)
1. Look at who your friends and favorite Instagrammers are following.
One of my favorite ways to find new people to follow on Instagram is to look through who my friends and favorite Instagrammers are following, because I already know we have the same taste, are into similar things, and most likely have similar beliefs and values.
Plus, now you can see how many of your friends are following someone else.
I love following people who are a bit more soulful and share bits of their personal lives, because I love getting to know other people's story and how they got to where they are in their journey, so I tend to look for people who have their own names in their username and/or have a selfie as their profile photo.
There's a lot you can know just by looking at someone's username and profile photo, but at the same time, you know what they say: never judge a book by its cover (but honestly, we all kinda do that right? I mean, you want to know what a book is about before reading it because books. are. long.)
2. Search your favorite hashtags.
Your new potential friends and favorite Instagrammers are probably using the same hashtags you are, so search your favorite hashtags.
Some of my favorites to look through are: #risingtidesociety, #abmhappylife, #darlingmovement, and #iamtheeverygirl because that's what all the creative entrepreneurs are using.
I also love the #aeriereal hashtag and movement, because we have all bodies worthy of our own love. And I want to follow more women who are body positive and unapologetically love their bodies.
And lately, I've been keeping my eye on #lasvegasphotography, because I'm search for a Las Vegas based photographer! So if you want to find someone local, use your city in your hashtags or check out the next bullet point.
3. Use the geotargeting feature.
One of the great things about Instagram is the ability to tag your location for your photos and IG stories, because it makes it a great way to find people near you.
I love using this feature, because you never know where it could lead you.
I mean - it's possible to live in the same city your whole life never meeting someone and one day meeting them online and actually meeting in person. And when you finally do meet, you two instantly just click.
Use the geotargeting feature and search for your favorite places to hang out and see who else is hanging out there. Maybe you just follow them and leave it at that, or maybe you DM that and build a beautiful friendship!
4. Go through your followers list.
Have you checked out your followers list recently?
Maybe someone followed you a while back and you never checked out their account, but they're someone you totally find yourself resonating with.
5. Ask people for recommendations - who their favorite Instagrammers are.
I think we all have at least a couple of people that we love following and seeing on our feed.
So if all else fails, ask!
People love sharing their recommendations - and well, what better way to spread the love, right?
Speaking of which, I totally recommend checking out the Wholehearted Wednesday interview series. All amazing women with amazing stories and beautiful stories.
6. Look through someone's caption likes and comments.
I love looking through someone's caption likes and comments (especially favorite brands and companies of mine), because you can see who actually engages and is putting in their best effort. It shows that they're doing more than just liking photos (by the way, there's absolutely nothing wrong with just liking photos) - but it's nice to have people comment on your photos once in a while too, right?
I know we all want to grow our own following, but why not help and support someone else?
If you like someone's Instagram, give them a follow!
It doesn't cost you anything and it might bring a smile to their face.
And who knows? They might follow you back.
There are so many different ways to find new people to follow on Instagram.
Isn't it amazing to think that you could find new friends this way?
Share your favorite way to find new people to follow on Instagram below!
How to find competitors on Instagram
For an Instagram account to bear fruit, you need to be one step ahead of your competitors. That is why it is now so important to analyze what a competitor offers and how he presents it. But before proceeding with the analysis, you need to find these very accounts of competitors.
Instagram competitor analysis ------ will save you other people's mistakes ------ and help you find the best practices for your strategy
More details account
on Instagram with clear conclusions and tips ------ to promote your account
in social networks quickly and not forget anything in LiveDune.
Free ------ express audit of your account: on Instagram
Search for competitors on Instagram
Consider several ways to find competitors on Instagram. But in order for the search to be targeted, first you need to draw up a portrait of your own business: who is your target audience, a list of services / products, pricing, format and geography. This is necessary in order to properly select competitors. nine0004
For example, you have a beauty salon in St. Petersburg and you are looking for other salons in the same city. But they may not be your direct competitors, because. you offer premium services, on luxury expensive cosmetics, and another beauty salon offers an economy version of services. That is, you have a different target audience, although the same set of services at first glance.
If your clients overlap with another beauty salon, but you are located in different parts of the city, then you may not be competitors either.
the client often looks for salons in the territorial accessibility from himself. If your business is not tied to any particular city, then focus on pricing, a similar list of goods or services. nine0003
How to find competitors in Instagram search
To search for competitor accounts, enter a keyword in the search box. If you are not a local business, then you can enter a general high-frequency phrase, for example, "Children's toys." If the business is local, add a city to the keyword, for example, "Children's toys Tomsk".
After you have entered the query, under the search bar, select the "Accounts" section. There will be shown those profiles that have the searched keywords in the title and the most popular among users. Instagram also gives results based on your user experience (what you searched for, which accounts and hashtags you follow, which posts you like and add to your saved, etc.). nine0004
In the "Tags" section, Instagram will give you the most popular hashtags.
Using them, you can find the "Top" and "Recent" publications of competitors, at the same time assessing what content is in demand. And in order not to miss new publications for the desired hashtag, add it to tracking in LiveDune.
Above the "Top" and "Recent" posts, Instagram displays tips - additional hashtags and accounts that are similar to your topic and the desired hashtag. Use them for more targeted searches. nine0004
Instagram recommendations for accounts can also be used. To do this, type a key phrase in the search bar and follow the hashtag. Open any publication from the "Top" and go to the profile of this account, click on the arrow. Instagram will give you accounts with a similar audience. Click "All" to see the full list of accounts.
How to find competitors using search engines
To find competitors through Yandex and Google, you need to decide what key queries to search for them, for this, use Yandex Wordstat.
Enter the highest search term, such as "Mobile Application Development". The service will allow you to find related key queries for which users are still looking for you and your competitors. You can also use the search by region, which is relevant if the business is local. nine0003
Once you have decided what queries to search for competitors, type them into the search and go to the sites. Find social networks (most often located in the header or footer of the site, as well as in contacts). This is a more time-consuming method, but in this case, you can kill two birds with one stone when you start the analysis: evaluate both the Instagram account and the site.
How to find competitors using maps
You can only view companies that are in close proximity to you. nine0004
Search for a keyword, such as "Restaurants" and open those that are close to you. In Yandex.Maps, many companies indicate social networks, which simplifies the search.
There are many companies in 2GIS that do not have a website and indicate only social networks. If the company of interest only has a website, then you can search for an Instagram account using the method described above.
Conclusion
Finding competitors is a responsible task that requires a systematic approach, because new accounts can appear even every day. Therefore, in order to be one step ahead and offer the best product, you need to know your competitors in person and draw inspiration from them. nine0004
Only important news in the monthly newsletter
By clicking on the button, you agree to the processing of personal data.
What's new in SMM?
Subscribe now and get an Instagram account audit guide
Popular articles nine0004
#instagram 05.11.2019
How to sign a photo on Instagram
In order for your post to be liked or commented on, not only a beautiful photo is important, but also a well-written text.
Here are some tips on how to learn how to write texts on Instagram quickly and painlessly.
#instagram 09.09.2019
How to make ad layouts for stories
A selection of apps for creating video and animated ad layouts for Instagram stories. nine0004
#instagram 07/26/2019
How to determine the winner on Instagram from comments
How to choose the winner of an Instagram contest from comments in just a few minutes using the LiveDune service.
LiveDune marketing products - 7 days free
Our products help you optimize your social media experience and improve your accounts with the help of deep analytics
Analyze your own and others' accounts by 50+ metrics in 6 social networks.
Account statistics
Message processing optimization: operators, statistics, tags, etc.
Direct Instagram
Automatic reports for 6 social networks. Upload to PDF, Excel, Google Slides.
Reports
Monitoring the progress of KPI for Instagram accounts.
Audit of Instagram accounts with clear conclusions and advice.
Express audit
We will help you to select "pure" bloggers for effective cooperation.
Checking bloggers
7 ways to find Instagram accounts for advertising
Ways to find Instagram accounts for advertising, mutual PR, mass following and collaboration.
The article was updated in November 2020. Initially, this material was for mass followers, but since 2017 I have not mass followed anything, so I don’t know how everything works there now. However, the methods are still effective.
I worked at One Million Likes (now the project is closed), so I judged the effectiveness of the donor for mass following by back subscriptions from the account. Here I collected the most working search methods that gave a “fat conversion”. nine0004 Unfortunately, the times when I set up mass following like a god are long gone
What will be in this article
A button to follow someone else
You can love Instagram for its recommendation algorithms and similar accounts.
If you already have a couple of good accounts that you like, find similar ones using the "similar accounts" button.
Go through some of the similar accounts, most likely you will be able to find new accounts through them and their similar ones. nine0004 Look what a thing, many Instagram owners turn on mass following just to turn it on, as a result they get erratic and inappropriate followers, following the audience of such an account is like licking an ashtray
Feed recommended on Instagram
It makes sense to check the feed of recommendations and rails. But only if the author of the account leads an active Instagram life. Communicates in direct and comments, likes posts of colleagues and subscribers. And not just leads the life of a commercial account. The recommendations feed adjusts to your activity and generally gives tolerable recommendations. nine0004 Search everything: posts, videos, Stories and live broadcasts
In principle, there is a similar feed for the web, but I have not worked with it, so I cannot say how much better the recommendations are than in the application.
Hashtags
Enter topical hashtags and sort through posts. This seems to be the most logical way to search for accounts. But you need to understand the topic and constantly check these hashtags, otherwise nothing will work! Once again, we do not need the hashtags themselves, but the accounts that put these hashtags in the signature. nine0004
Recommended hashtags
It's not a sin to follow those hashtags that Instagram itself throws up, in addition to your thematic ones, there may be quite a few accounts that use more interesting hashtags.
Hashtags, like shit, crawl out of every info businessman and guru with the statement: “you can advance with the help of hashtags”Livedune* — pro version accounts by various criteria. nine0004 The coolest tool for finding bloggers on Instagram
In addition, in Livedune, you can select accounts from the audience of subscribers.
* Unfortunately, Livedune has lost the most valuable features.
