How to gain followers on instagram without buying them
8 Ways to (Authentically!) Get Instagram Followers in 2022
Wondering how to get Instagram followers — without paying for bots or other spam tactics?
While it’s not as easy as it once was, getting more followers on Instagram is still possible…you just have to know the right tactics! Let’s dive right in.
Post Consistently
Make a Strong First Impression
Create Instagram Reels
Nail Your Caption Strategy
Partner with Like-minded Brands and Creators
Promote Your Instagram Account on Your Website or Newsletter
Actively Engage with Your Community
Learn From Your Analytics
#1: Post Consistently
There’s no denying the importance of consistency on Instagram.
By posting regularly, you’re essentially letting your followers know what to expect from you — whether it’s daily Instagram Stories, a bi-weekly Reel, or a few feed posts a week.
Posting more consistently can also help with your Instagram engagement. When your followers expect you to post, they’re more likely to interact and engage with your content.
That being said, keeping a consistent posting schedule isn’t always easy. When you’re juggling content creation, alongside other business duties, it can be time-consuming to manually post every single day.
For a quick solution, you could use a scheduling tool, like Later. With Later, you can easily schedule your photos, videos, carousel posts, and more with just a few clicks:
By planning and scheduling your Instagram posts in advance, you can get content out even when you’re super busy. It’s a massive time-saver!
TIP: Experiment with a posting frequency and see how your community responds. If you see an increase of followers and engagement from posting daily (or every other day) — do that!
Ready to plan and schedule your content in advance? Later makes it easy — get started today for free!
#2: Make A Strong First Impression
According to researchers, within the first 7 seconds of meeting you, people will have a solid impression of who you are — and it can be even shorter online.
With that in mind, your Instagram bio and feed can seriously influence whether someone taps “follow.”
The first step is to have an Instagram bio that clearly explains what your brand does and who it’s for (aka your target audience).
If you have character space, you can also include your values or a fun tidbit about yourself to differentiate you from competitors in your industry.
Once you have a bio you’re happy with, creating a cohesive feed (or Instagram aesthetic) can help make a great first impression to anyone who finds your profile.
Does it follow some sort of pattern like entrepreneur Jasmine Williams? Or is it a mix of product and lifestyle shots like agency Studio Sophomore?
Whatever you decide, it’s important to be consistent. Having a feed that reflects your brand and is appealing to your target audience can be a surefire way to get them to follow you.
For more tips on making a good first impression, bookmark this post: How to Create the Perfect Instagram Bio.
#3: Create Instagram Reels
Instagram Reels are a fun and creative way to get new followers on Instagram.
Why? They have incredible reach (you can get thousands of views) and if your account is public, they’re discoverable via the Reels tab.
There are plenty of ways to use Instagram Reels for your business — we’ve seen tips and tricks, how-to videos, behind-the-scenes content, and more.
And as Instagram recently announced that it’s no longer just “a photo-sharing app”, it’s a good idea to start incorporating more video content in your strategy.
If you’re in need of some Reels inspiration, check out this blog post: 15 Instagram Reels Ideas.
#4: Nail Your Caption StrategyAre your captions hookworthy with strong call-to-actions (CTAs)?
Having an effective caption strategy can help you increase engagement and get more Instagram followers.
Instagram educator Elise Darma recommends the following formula for creating engaging captions: headline, setup, share, bridge, and CTA.
For the headline, lead with something thought-provoking or exciting — what’s going to capture their attention right away? Instagram only shows the first 1-2 lines of your caption in the feed, so make it count.
For the setup, you’ll want to pull them in further. What’s the context they need to know?
Next, you’re going to share what you really want to say to your followers, whether it’s a story, answering FAQs, or a how-to tip. This is the “value” part of your caption, so feel free to use as much space as you need.
Then, use one or two bridge sentences to reiterate why your followers should care and what’s in it for them.
And finally, finish with a strong CTA. This can be as simple as leaving a comment on the post or clicking the link in your bio.
Want more help writing captions that convert? Check out our Ultimate Guide to Writing Good Instagram Captions.
#5: Partner with Like-minded Brands and CreatorsThe power of a collaboration or a co-marketing campaign for your business is huge — it’s quickly becoming one of the most popular ways to get Instagram followers.
Teaming up with like-minded businesses and brands will introduce your profile to a new and engaged audience.
And even better: co-marketing campaigns don’t have to be complicated or costly!
What’s more important is who you partner with. You want to make sure that you have a mutually beneficial partnership that will benefit both of your audiences.
TIP: Use Instagram's Collabs feature to co-author a feed post or Reel across two accounts!
#6: Promote Your Instagram Account on Your Website or NewsletterPromoting your account on your website is another great way to get Instagram followers — and it’s also easy to do.
From plugins to code embeds, there are dozens of options when it comes to responsively embedding your Instagram feed on your website so it looks great on any device.
Many website builders even offer templates that come with customizable options for embedding your feed.
Similarly, if you have an engaged newsletter audience, you can encourage them to follow you on Instagram too for another way to connect — similar to what we do at Later:
One of the most effective ways to grow on Instagram? Engage with your community!
According to Sarah Nicole Landry, interacting and engaging with other accounts is incredibly important:
“In an 8-hour workday, I commit 4 hours every single day to community engagement.
This includes commenting, replying to DMs, commenting on other people’s posts, replying on my own, and going and actively engaging on other pages similar to mine.”
Sarah’s commitment to engaging with her community, coupled with creating authentic content, has allowed her to grow from 70K to over 1.7M followers in under two years.
“As you engage, the relationship with your community will grow stronger. And, when you have people truly who trust you and believe in what you’re saying, that’s when you’ll begin to see a greater ROI”, Sarah explains.
If you don’t have four hours to spend engaging on Instagram, be sure to check and answer your Instagram comments and DMs every day or every few days.
What’s important is that you incorporate this tip in a way that’s sustainable for you and your business.
TIP: Use Later’s Conversations feature to keep track of all your Instagram comments. You can reply from your computer instead of your phone, and even view your conversation history with a commenter.
#8: Learn From Your Analytics
If you want to get new Instagram followers, taking a look at your analytics is a great place to start.
With analytics, you’ll be able to understand what type of content your community engages with most, where they live, and when they’re most active.
This level of insight is important for creating a content strategy that’ll increase your followers — without it, you’re essentially working in the dark.
Alongside Instagram’s native analytics, Later’s Instagram Analytics feature gives you a visual overview of how your posts and stories are performing – all in an easy-to-use dashboard.
You’ll find all of the must-have analytics from Instagram in a digestible format, as well as several extra data points — including your best time to post (available on all paid plans).
With over 1B monthly active users on Instagram, it’s no surprise that getting more Instagram followers is a big priority for most businesses and creators.
However, quality is more important than quantity.
A smaller, more engaged community who loves your products and content is better than a large community who barely interacts with your posts.
As you grow, remember to nurture the relationships with your current followers to help strengthen brand trust and loyalty. And welcome your new followers with open arms!
Ready to get more Instagram followers? Sign up for a Later account and start visually planning and scheduling your content — for free.
7 Ways to Grow Your Instagram Without Buying Followers
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Take charge of your Instagram growth and build a bigger (and legitimate) following.
By Parwinder Singh
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
It can be challenging to gain traction on Instagram; after all, it takes hours of personal time investment to connect with the right users, and I hope they follow you back. Some people decide to buy Instagram followers, but this may not always be the best choice.
There are only a few ways to buy real Instagram followers, so knowing how to build your Instagram following organically can generate long-term results, more engagement, profit, and more.
Related: David Beckham Hands Over Instagram to Life-Saving Ukrainian Doctor in Emotional Videos: 'We Cry, But None of Us Will Give Up'
This article will give you some insight into why you need more real Instagram followers and the top 7 strategies for well-rounded, authentic Instagram growth.
Why You Need More Real Instagram Followers
Instagram is a unique platform that visually connects you with your target audience. Many users of Instagram enjoy connecting with brands and businesses.
In fact, according to Instagram, 90% of Instagram users follow a business, and 50% are more interested in a brand when they see ads for it on Instagram.
For that reason, building your Instagram presence and audience can have several benefits, including:
● Brand reputation
● Social proof
● Instagram monetization
● More reach
Many people want to buy Instagram followers for quick results, but is this the best way?
While the option is attractive, you encounter some risks when you buy Instagram followers. Most of the time, you'll buy in bulk, and this means you'll be getting fake followers in large quantities. Your reputation can suffer, and you won't see any real-world results in terms of engagement, recommendations, and revenue. Don't buy Instagram followers to grow your profile— there are plenty of strategies you can utilize to get the long-term growth you need on Instagram.
Related: How To Improve Your Engagement on Instagram
Let's look at the best seven tactics you can implement right now for optimal Instagram growth.
1. Use an Instagram Growth Service
Engaging with your target audience on Instagram can be time-consuming.
If you don't want to buy Instagram followers but still want to save time, take advantage of an organic Instagram growth service. This type of Instagram growth tool will interact with target users on your behalf, growing your follower count and engagement rate organically. You don't have to spend hours of personal time looking for users and then interacting with them, these types of services will do that for you.
2. Optimize Your Instagram Profile
Your Instagram profile also needs to be on point to grow your Instagram account. This includes elements such as:
● Your username
● Your Instagram bio
● Link in bio
● Profile picture
● Instagram story album highlight cover(s)
● Overall, Instagram feed aesthetic
You want all of these elements to work together so that when a user lands on your Instagram, they immediately know what you're about and see value in your profile. When you optimize your Instagram profile, you won't have to buy Instagram followers to be successful.
3. Develop a Hashtag Strategy
Hashtags are essential on Instagram. If you want more reach for your content, you need an effective hashtag strategy. This means you should focus your energy on a few targeted, specific hashtags instead of very broad and general ones. This will get your content in the relevant hashtag feeds that your target audience is likely to check out. Hashtags work better than if you buy Instagram followers.
4. Cross-Promote
Internet users have an average of 8 social media accounts these days, so why not harness the power of your presence on other networks and direct them to Instagram? It's free, and you don't have to buy Instagram followers! Offer content exclusive to Instagram and tell your followers on other platforms about it. This drives traffic to IG and boosts your follower count.
5. Post Frequently and Consistently
There's a lot to be said for having content come out frequently and on a regular basis. Use an Instagram scheduler and auto-poster to create an optimal content calendar that helps you visualize everything before going live.
Post at least once a day and post when your target audience is likely to be online. That way, you'll get higher engagement right out of the gate.
6. Create a Cohesive Brand Aesthetic
Remember, Instagram is a visual platform, and the opinion that people form around your brand is directly connected to the aesthetic you put forth. Use tones, colors, and filters that create an appealing, attractive, and cohesive Instagram feed for your visitors. This can influence your Instagram follower growth. A graphic design tool such as Canva can be a game-changer for creating professional and uniform visuals.
7. Take Advantage of Multiple IG Content Formats
Content is king on Instagram, and it's what will influence whether or not users follow you. You can (and should) use different content formats, including:
● Instagram stories
● Instagram in-feed posts
● Instagram reels
● IGTV
● Instagram live
● Shoppable posts
Create a healthy mix of these types of content so that you give your viewers a reason to come back to your profile regularly and want to see your content in their feeds as followers.
Real Strategies Deliver Real Results
There you have it! Seven of the top strategies to grow your Instagram account. Because you won't need to buy Instagram followers, you can rest assured your profile remains safe and grows naturally. Instead of wasting time and energy searching for ways to buy Instagram followers, it's much better to invest in long-term strategies to lead to a successful profile that delivers tangible results.
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5 ways to get followers on Instagram that won't get you banned
ComputerPhoto: Rudy and Peter from pixabay
Despite the emergence of new interesting projects in the field of social networks and content platforms (Pinterest, Tik Tok and others), Facebook still remains a monopolist and dictates its own rules.
One of them reads something like this: pay. Without paying for advertising, the posts of commercial pages get into the feeds of only 17% of Facebook users who are subscribers to these pages. The picture is about the same on Instagram. Cheating subscribers with the help of special software is not something that is not welcome here, it is generally completely prohibited. So it turns out that anyone who wants to turn their account into a popular blog has to either pay or look for ways around. Let's talk about what options exist. nine0003
Targeted advertising
The only official type of promotion on Instagram is advertising through Ads Manager, which is located on the Facebook platform. It's paid and not cheap if you don't know how to target. In addition, you cannot attract subscribers with the help of advertising, you can only acquaint users of the social network with the information that you offer. Subscribe or not, they decide for themselves.
To save on advertising, use the following settings:
- Choose an audience of people far from big cities, there are fewer advertising offers, which means that the auction CPC will be cheaper.
- Use clear and understandable creatives to attract subscribers, encourage them to subscribe to you by broadcasting the values of the blog.
- If your blog is thematic, look for an audience of those who will like it, and they are more likely to subscribe to it.
In general, this is not the most budget option to get real followers on Instagram, for example, but you will not get banned for it. nine0003
Activity chats and like-times
Among shareware promotion methods, activity chats are especially popular. They are started in Instagram itself and beyond, for example, in Telegram. What are these chats? As a rule, they are created by users who want to promote their blogs. To do this, they are looking for aspiring bloggers with the same goal. The task is to help each other with promotion.
It's simple. You join such an activity chat and constantly receive tasks - who to like, who to comment on the post, who to subscribe to. In exchange, you can ask them to do the same for your blog.
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Like-times is an activity that allows you to get likes in order to go to the "Interesting" tab and get subscribers indirectly, through content promotion. The mechanics are the same: you like others, in exchange they like you. It is worth remembering that this is not a cheat on Instagram subscribers for money, so unsubscribing cannot be avoided. How to make sure that the cheat was without unsubscribes?
Partnerships with bloggers as a way to get followers on Instagram
By joining chats for support, you can find like-minded bloggers with whom you intersect audience. For example, you have an Instagram blog about life in Iceland, and the chat consists of authors of blogs about life in New Zealand, Argentina and Japan. You can team up with them and promote a whole network of “our” bloggers abroad in such a way as to exchange subscribers who are interested in the topic of living in other countries. The big plus of this method is that it's free. nine0003
Giveaways and contests on Instagram
Together with friends found through partnerships with bloggers and support chats, you can launch a giveaway - a general contest with valuable prizes, according to which everyone who wants to participate in the draw must subscribe to all the organizers of the giveaway.
As a rule, in giveaways, big prizes provided by sponsors are raffled among the participants, whose main task is to subscribe.
You can attract followers in a more interesting way: to conduct a draw on your own behalf. This is a cheaper way than a giveaway to get followers on Instagram. Then the prize may not be particularly valuable, but in the conditions - the task is to subscribe only to your profile, and no one else. nine0003
Cheat on Instagram through applications and websites
Here is another way for which you will not get banned. However, it is important to choose the right one who will really help, and for this you need to order promotion only by live users, and not by bots. All promotion actions on Instagram using this method are carried out using a link that you place as a task on a resource where performers and customers of promotion in social networks by native methods meet. In real time, Instagram users subscribed to platform tasks for promotion will go to your profile and quickly perform the required actions.
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What Instagram promotion methods do you use?
As an advertisement
what you need to know before going to the dark side - Dark site of marketing
According to statistics, most Instagram users pay attention first of all to the number of followers of a brand page before they subscribe to it themselves. This pattern is called social proof, or social proof - the presence of a large number of followers is not only proof of the popularity of the brand, but also a signal of its approval from the audience. Therefore, when creating a business page, marketers have to solve a difficult task - to look for the first subscribers. The most common solution to this problem is to buy followers on Instagram by buying bots or autofollowing. nine0003
In this article, we will analyze possible ways to get followers on Instagram, and consider the experiment of Hootsuite, which proved by its own example that buying bots to promote a page on Instagram is ineffective.
Instagram followers: the main ways to cheat
There are only 2 ways to get followers on Instagram.
Honest, he's strategic. You set a goal, share good content and the attention of the audience is in your hands. And the second is to use the dark side of marketing - to buy subscribers. That is, bots. nine0002 Everyone has long known that brands, celebrities, influencers and even politicians have been adding fake followers on social media. Why do they do it? It's all about perception. Suppose: you bought bots, thereby getting tens of thousands of subscribers. Real people will "like" your page, as the popularity of an Instagram account is judged by the number of its followers. To begin with, it is worth defining the key difference: promoting a page on Instagram using an automation service and buying bots are far from the same thing. nine0003
Instagram follower apps like and comment on posts on your behalf, thereby drawing attention to your profile. You need to specify the user profile you plan to follow based on location, hashtag usage, interests, gender, and more. It is also possible to set criteria after which the bot stops following the account of someone who has not become your subscriber.
Buying Instagram followers is even easier: find an exchange, pay for the service and voila - an explosive growth of the audience. It's cheap, costing about three dollars for every 100 subscribers. But, in most cases, these are bots and zombie accounts (inactive, hacked accounts). nine0003
There are also more expensive options that charge upwards of $1,000 for 10,000 subscribers. These services keep your bots active: they publish posts, update information, and even periodically interact with your content.
Still want to buy Instagram followers?
If you still decide to go to the dark side and buy Instagram followers, then read below the example of Hootsuite's, which decided to find out if the game is worth the candle. nine0003
They created a fake account and bought 1000 followers for $10. The audience grew before our eyes. This is a plus. But it consisted entirely of bots. This is a minus.
Despite the presence of an audience, real subscribers were not added.
Hootsuite even posted one photo, but that didn't help either.
Results - a solid minus: no comments. What does it say? There is a number of subscribers, but this did not affect the interest of real people. Even a month later, the post on the Hootsuite's account page did not garner a single comment, absolute zero. nine0003
Of course, the Hootsuite experiment is a banter that was originally intended to be like that. But this is a good example of how most marketers ineptly use the dark Power: they take quantity, but the quality leaves much to be desired.
Yes, after a while they still subscribed to this account. But who are these mysterious kamikaze? Two schoolchildren and a dozen more bots are not a very suitable audience for a technology company.
nine0002 The only thing that was constant in this experiment, according to Hootsuite's: the number of subscribers remained at the level of 1000, +/- 50 depending on the day of the week. As soon as a certain number of followers disappear - probably due to the blocking of such accounts - the system creates new ones and makes a supply of bots.
But it still remained a low-quality audience. The results obtained when using the application to get followers on Instagram were somewhat different - half of the new followers were eliminated after a week. nine0003
Why you shouldn't buy Instagram followers
You get what you pay for: just the quantity. Not quality. An audience consisting of bots will not like your posts and will not comment on them. Using these methods to get followers on Instagram, you jeopardize the reputation of the brand. And you risk losing real customers.
Suppose you hired a social media influencer to promote a product. After carefully studying his profile, we realized that most of his fans are just bots. I think next time you are unlikely to want to work with this person. nine0003
What is more valuable for business: having 10,000 fake followers or 100 real ones who comment on your posts and willingly share them?
But there are more important metrics than the number of subscribers.
Link clicks and interactions (“likes” and “comments”) are the two most important of these.
Engagement rate. Calculation formula.
One of the ways to measure audience engagement on Instagram is to calculate the engagement rate. Add up all the likes and comments from the last ten posts. Divide the amount by the number of followers of your page. Multiply the result by 100 to get the engagement score. nine0003
Number of Likes + number of comments / number of followers x 100 = engagement rate.
Using this indicator, you can check the performance of your Instagram strategy and study the interest of the audience.
How to get Instagram followers without going to the dark side
Study the interests of your audience, share interesting content, thus you will retain your existing audience and attract new followers on Instagram. When posting, use relevant hashtags that will lead you to a new audience. This is, for sure, a more effective way to attract subscribers interested in your company's products or services than to increase the number of bots.
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Use Instagram ads to increase your reach. With a budget of just a few hundred dollars a month, you can significantly increase the growth rate of your account and acquire new readers. Instagram offers a wide variety of advertising options, each tied to a specific business goal (brand awareness, website traffic, product sales, or app downloads).
If you want to empower and manage your Instagram account as efficiently as possible, then use Instagram post automation services such as Onlypult. Using this service, you can manage multiple accounts at the same time, publish and schedule content for a specific time, and track your own results. Try it today, especially since you can use it for free for a week. nine0003
In closing
What fate awaits a business that is ready to repeat the Hootsuite experiment to buy followers and likes on Instagram? Most likely, such an account will be blocked on Instagram or, even worse, the file will go to the people. We hope that with this article we have conveyed the idea that the idea of promoting a brand with the help of fake followers is far from the best option.
