How to gain on instagram

17 Ways to Get More Followers on Instagram (2023)

Instagram can be a highly targetable, visual marketing channel for your brand and an opportunity to build a loyal audience that grows with your business.

In fact, more than 500 million Instagram users browse the app every day, making it home to some of the most engaged audiences around.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to grow your Instagram follower profile and increase engagement, while growing a massive following over time—one that’s full of real fans, not bots or fake followers.

17 ways to get more Instagram followers

Incorporate Reels into your content mix
Cross-promote content
Curate your profile grid
Work with brand ambassadors
Get follows from your loyalty program
Market through your personal Instagram account
Get on feature accounts
Use the right hashtags
Post at the right times
Steal your competitors' followers
Pay for sponsored posts and product reviews
Use geotags to boost local discovery
Organize your Stories in highlights
Ask for more followers
Run a giveaway
Share user-generated content
Use Instagram Live

Let’s dive deeper into how to implement each tactic to get more Instagram followers.

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1. Incorporate Reels into your content mix

Reels are fun videos you can share with followers on your Instagram account. They have audio, effects, and creative tools. You can share them on your feed and publicly in Instagram Explore to reach new audiences.

Reels are new territory for brands. Kristie Dash, Instagram’s beauty partnerships manager, stated in a Glossy forum that there isn’t one formula for success with Reels. However, she does suggest the following tips to gain traction:

Keep content unique and trend-driven. Identify trends on Instagram and TikTok and put your own spin on them. This increases the chance your Reels will go viral and get in front of new people.
Make content relatable and simple. Not every Reel needs to be a production. Lower quality videos can perform as well as, if not better than, highly produced Reels.
Educate your audience. Find the balance between education and entertainment in your Reels.

Reels should be a huge priority for you right now. It’s prime real estate for your brand to be discovered by new followers.
—Kristen Dash, Beauty Partnerships Manager, Instagram

Trilce Jirón Garro, owner of social media marketing agency TBS Marketing, agrees. “Don’t sell your products through Reels content,” she says. “Share facts. Provide tips about the industry you’re in. Entertain viewers.”

Trilce suggests that both new and existing brands incorporate entertaining Reels into their Instagram strategy. “Reels give anyone the opportunity to reach new target audiences,” she says. “There’s no learning curve because Reels content is lo-fi. And creators can produce community-driven content that builds trust, gains followers, and makes sales over time. ”

Trilce also loves the Instagram Insights Tool introduced for Reels. “Reels have become an integrated part of any Instagram marketing strategy,” she says. “Analytics tools for Reels have made it easy to track metrics and analyze data to see if your Reels are working. Now, you can understand exactly what your audience likes and dislikes, when to post Reels, and what calls to action resonate with viewers.”

Using Reels Insights, you can see patterns and understand different spikes in engagement that affect your visibility on the platform. That way, you can create higher-quality content that gets even more engagement and followers.

Need help creating a Reels strategy? Read How to Use Instagram Reels to Market Your Shopify Store to learn more.

2. Cross-promote content

Cross-promoting involves posting similar content across various social media channels. It’s a tactic used to save time and resources. It’s also effective at increasing brand awareness and growing an audience on Instagram.

Mobile users are spending an increasing amount of time with video and entertainment apps, with video content on social media platforms accounting for the biggest increase. Whether it’s a short-form video or lengthy tutorial, you want to improve the reach of your Instagram content.

Justin Bieber’s holiday dance challenge is a great example of successful cross-posting. During the 2020 holiday season, the Canadian singer posted the same dance challenge on both TikTok and Instagram. On TikTok, his video short received 9.8 million likes. The same content on Instagram received 4.8 million likes. While some users may overlap, others likely use just one of these services. Thus, Bieber was able to reach more people just by posting the same video on two different platforms.

Nadya Okamoto, founder of lifestyle period brand August, has found that TikTok naturally cross-pollinates to Instagram and YouTube. In an interview with Modern Retail she said, “As we’ve grown on TikTok from August, we’ve also grown to 175,000 followers on Instagram. ” Actively posting on multiple platforms has “affected our overall cost of acquisitions to be super effective,” allowing the brand to steer away from paid media as a main acquisition channel.

TikTok isn’t the only channel you can cross-post on. The Instagram Reels format translates well to YouTube Shorts and Pinterest Stories. It’s important to note that Instagram’s algorithm won’t promote Reels that have a TikTok watermark. So if you’re going to cross-post content from Instagram to other channels, ensure the content is high quality and doesn’t promote a competing platform through watermarks.

3. Curate your profile grid

Most of your Instagram followers won’t follow you for what you posted in the past but for the promise of what you’ll post in the future. Your audience wants to know what they’re going to get if they hit that Follow button.

Having a feed with a consistent posting schedule and theme can have just as much of an impact in growing a following as many of the other growth strategies we’ve covered above. Even a simple pattern can entice new followers, as long as it’s communicated at first glance to anyone who lands on your profile.

Consider your Instagram bio and your last nine posts as your first impression on Instagram. Do they effectively communicate some degree of consistency through personality, filters, colors, or layout? Does the clickable link send people to the same homepage every week or are you linking out to fun and exciting content too?

The layout of your grid is an often underestimated way to get creative with the aesthetic of your feed while adding a rhythm to your publishing strategy and consistency that’s worth following.

In fact, many accounts that adopt this approach often are able to spend less effort on creating content by focusing on converting visitors into followers, producing text graphics or other content with a faster turnaround, and streamlining the overall production of their Instagram content.

You can use a tool like Later to easily plan out and schedule Instagram posts to create the look and layout of your feed. Letterfolk is just one example of how far some brands go with the aesthetic of their Instagram layout.

Your feed serves as the billboard for your brand. It’s a customer’s first touchpoint with you and captures the essence of your brand.
—Trilce Jiron, TBS Marketing

4. Work with brand ambassadors

Don’t want to pay the celebrity influencer big bucks to market your brand? Work with brand ambassadors who have anywhere from a couple hundred to a few thousand followers. Ambassadors are people who genuinely support and believe in your brand and will tell their friends about it.

Luxury shoe retailer Sarah Flint reports seeing success with its brand ambassador program, which has more than 500 women as members. Each ambassador has their own unique discount code, which gives them a free pair of Sarah Flint shoes after five new customers use it.

Ambassadors like Holly Hollon attest to the quality and comfort of the brand’s shoes. Her Instagram posts are authentic and relatable to regular Sarah Flint shoppers. This helps the brand grow its Instagram following and earn sales.

5. Get follows from your loyalty program

Retailers are increasingly launching loyalty programs, repeatedly encouraging consumers to shop with their brand over another. It’s worked for brands like Sephora and Blume. One way brands are capitalizing on loyalty programs is by rewarding those who follow them on Instagram.

When luxury retailer Rebecca Minkoff launched its rewards program, RM Rewards, it gave shoppers the option to earn points by following the brand’s Instagram account. Brands like Blume are also finding the value in rewarding Instagram followers. Program members can earn Blume Bucks for becoming a friend on Instagram versus Facebook or Twitter.

6. Market through your personal Instagram account

Another popular way to increase your Instagram following is growing your personal account—basically, make yourself the influencer. Harnessing both the company account and your personal account can increase brand recognition, follower counts, and sales. Pro tip: You can also run this playbook on TikTok to improve your numbers.

It’s a tactic that works well for fashion label ANINE BING. In addition to the brand’s Instagram profile, the company’s founder also drives engagement and awareness through her personal Instagram page, which has more than one million followers.

Anine invites followers into her design studio, takes them through the design process, and even gets feedback from followers throughout the creative process. Anine also shares a bit about her personal life and milestones, giving followers a peak behind the curtains of their favorite designer’s life.

7. Get on feature accounts

Instagram feature accounts are pages that curate the best content in a specific niche. They are like the “best of” photo journals for an industry. Some feature accounts have a massive following. If you get placement on the account, it can send new Instagram followers to your profile.

There are feature accounts for every niche: travel, fashion, photography, and more. For example, @discoverearth curates adventurous travel content from around the world for more than 6.6 million followers.

8. Use the right hashtags

Your goal on Instagram is to engage your current audience on a regular basis while also growing your number of real followers. Posting new, interesting, and engaging photos will satisfy the first requirement, but to begin growing you’ll find hashtagging your photos extremely important. Hashtagging makes it easy for people searching for specific terms to find your photos.

So which hashtags should you use? Just like with Twitter and other social sites, users on Instagram choose certain hashtags over others. If you use popular Instagram hashtags within your photos, you’re much more likely to reach new users and be discovered.

At the time of this writing, these were the top 20 hashtags on Instagram:

#love
#instagood
#fashion
#photooftheday
#beautiful
#art
#photography
#happy
#picoftheday
#cute
#follow
#tbt
#followme
#nature
#like4like
#travel
#instagram
#style
#repost
#summer

If you looked at this list and said, “But none of those apply to my products or brand,” you’re likely correct.

Using hashtags is one thing; using the right tags is something else.

Popular tags like the ones listed above will likely net you additional engagement and likes. However, they won’t lead to increased long-term engagement from relevant users, new followers, or, most importantly, sales.

If you want to tag your photos properly, you’ll need to find and use the most relevant hashtags. This means doing the appropriate research to make sure you’re using hashtags that not only describe your brand but that are also being searched for on Instagram.

You can use a free online tool like IconoSquare or Webstagram to find relevant, related, and popular hashtags by searching for key hashtags closely related to your brand.

For instance, if you have a men’s accessory business, you can use the hashtag #MensFashion in Webstagram to pull the following list of additional keyword hashtags, along with the number of times they have been used (i.e., their popularity).

You can also find more related hashtags and their popularity if you search for any of your target keywords directly in the Instagram app.

You’ll want to go through this exercise trying different keywords that describe your brand and products, building out your hashtag keyword list as you go.

Keep in mind that Instagram allows for a maximum of 30 hashtags per post. Additionally, the popular words will change over time: make sure you revisit your hashtag keywords every few months so you’re using the best possible terms.

You can also steal hashtag ideas from competitors or similar accounts that have the kind of following you aspire to, but, ultimately, you want to create your own groups of hashtags that relate to your specific account.

Pro tip #1: For every product and product category in your store, research the most popular related Instagram hashtags. Use this research to compile a list of 15 to 20 popular hashtags for each category of products, as well as a base of five to 10 popular tags that describe your brand and product offering. Finally, create a list of location-specific hashtags that relate to your brand.

For example:

Brand keyword hashtags

#mybrandname #mensfashion #mensaccessories #mensgoods #fashion #mensstyle #instafashion #menswear

Product category keyword hashtags

#bugatchisocks #happysocks #corgisocks #socks #sockswag #socksoftheday #sockgame #sockswagg #socksofinstagram #happysockday #sockwars #funsocks #happysockday

Location-specific keyword hashtags

#Toronto #TorontoFashion #TorontoFashionBloggers

Store these groups of keyword hashtags in a convenient location like Evernote or Google Drive. This makes it easy to post a new Instagram image optimized for the most relevant keywords when you’re on the go. Some Instagram scheduling tools also let you save caption templates for storing your hashtag groups.

Doing the work of researching, organizing, and saving the most applicable and popular hashtags upfront will save you a ton of time down the road, increase your engagement, and help garner new followers.

Pro tip #2: If you’ve been posting to Instagram for a while and feel you’ve missed out on all these opportunities to build your audience using keyword hashtags, fret not. You can still go back and post a comment with your new hashtag keyword lists and watch the likes and followers roll in.

Using hashtags in Instagram stories

Hashtagging on Instagram posts is a given, but you should also be using hashtags in your Stories for the chance to be seen by users who follow that specific hashtag.

You can use hashtag stickers (which can be found in the Instagram Stickers menu when creating a Story) or just hashtag directly in your post captions for a chance to be featured in a hashtag story.

Now that users can follow hashtags, your Stories on Instagram have a chance to be seen by both people who are following that hashtag and anyone who’s just checking it out.

9. Post at the right times

Beyond adding the appropriate hashtags and using the best filters to get more Instagram followers, you should also consider the timing of your posts.

A targeted approach involves analyzing what has and has not worked for you in the past. By visiting IconoSquare’s optimization section, you can get a detailed analysis of your posting history versus engagement. This report will also highlight the best times of the day and days of the week to post.

The dark circles indicate when you usually post media. The light gray circles show when your community has been interacting. The biggest light gray circles represent the best times for you to post.

You can also get a lot of great insight for free from Instagram analytics for business accounts, found under the Followers section.

You may want to consider using a social media scheduling tool to automatically publish your posts when your audience is the most engaged.

10. Steal your competitors’ followers

One of the best ways to find and attract a new following is by seeking out your closest competitors’ Instagram accounts and engaging with their audiences. These people have already shown some level of interest in the products you carry simply by following your competitors.

So how do you effectively steal your competitors’ followers? By engaging with them. There are several ways to engage with Instagram users, and the more work you put in, the more followers and repeat engagement you’ll get out of it.

The three types of engagement on Instagram are:

Follow a user
Like a photo
Comment on a photo

Don’t be afraid to use an emoji or two to add some personality to your text.

11. Pay for sponsored posts and product reviews

All this optimized posting to your account is great, but if you really want to increase Instagram followers, you need to take advantage of influencer marketing and expose your brand to a wider audience.

So, how do you do that? First, unlike the tactics to grow Instagram followers mentioned above, this one usually isn’t free. However, if done correctly, it’s of good value.

To get started, you’ll need to make a list of large accounts in your niche. For example, if you sell beauty products, you’ll want to find large accounts from beauty bloggers.

You may already be following these accounts, but if not, you’ll need to find them. One of the best ways is by using Webstagram to search for some of the best hashtag keywords you’ve uncovered. When you do a search for your keywords, you’ll see any related keywords, along with the top Instagram accounts that feature those keywords.

There are a couple of things to look for in the profiles results:

A large following (usually 20,000 to 200,000)
An email address in the profile

If there is an email address in the profile, it usually means the account is open to sponsored posts or a shoutout in a sponsored Story.

You’ll want to email and ask their sponsored post pricing. While this differs from influencer to influencer, you’ll likely find the average rate to be anywhere from $20 to $50 per post, depending on the size of the following.

If you’re selling a unique and original product, you may also want to consider sending your product for the influencer to review and post. Usually, the more natural and less advertisement-like the image, the greater the engagement and response.

You don’t necessarily need influencers with a massive following to get more followers on Instagram, but rather ones with a high engagement rate (likes and comments relative to follower count), which many influencer marketplaces can provide.

12. Use geotags to boost local discovery

Besides hashtags, you can also make your Instagram posts and Stories discoverable by tagging your location—either the city you’re in or the venue where the photo or video was taken.

Locations not only have their own Instagram feed but also their own Story, and hashtags you can contribute to when you use the location sticker in your own Stories.

Local businesses can get the most value out of location tags by posting regularly to these feeds and also engaging with posts from prospective customers who are physically in the vicinity.

13. Organize your Stories into Highlights

Whenever a potential follower lands on your business profile, you have a short span of time to convince them to follow you.

One way to do this is by using the Highlights feature on your profile to organize your Instagram Stories in a way that communicates what your account is about.

Since Stories have a 24-hour lifespan, Highlights can be used to give them a second life and entice others to follow you so they don’t miss out on more Stories in the future.

Use Story Highlights to grow Instagram followers by:

Creating trailers that tease what your account is about
Organizing your Stories into themes (like countries you’ve visited, for travel accounts)
Explaining your products through pictures and videos

14. Ask for more followers

It sounds obvious, but it deserves to be said: Don’t be afraid to occasionally ask your target audience to follow you.

The same way YouTubers ask their viewers to follow them at the end of their videos, you can also ask viewers to follow you for more content.

Sometimes people might really enjoy what you put out on Instagram but need a nudge before they actually follow you.

You can also do this in your Instagram captions: work it into your content by pitching what your audience will get if they follow you or by hinting at content that’s coming up that they won’t want to miss.

15. Run a giveaway

One of the best kinds of comments you can get on any social media post, not just Instagram, is when one user tags a friend. Not only do these comments contribute to your post’s engagement, which in turn makes it favorable to the Instagram algorithm, but each tag brings you a new audience member who arrived through a recommendation and who you could potentially win over as a follower.

One way to encourage this behavior is by posting relatable content that begs for one-to-one sharing (e.g., a gym meme that asks you to tag a friend who skips leg day). But a more reliable way is by running a giveaway that encourages your audience to tag a friend and follow your account.

Follow Instagram’s promotion guidelines and any legal requirements for running an Instagram contest that applies in your country of operation.

For inspiration, here’s an example of a successful product giveaway from Philip Kingsley that incentivizes people to follow its account and tag a friend for the chance to win a collection.

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16. Share user-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) is any type of content—such as videos, photos, reviews, audio, and more—that you curate from fans or followers. It’s an essential tool in your marketing arsenal for gaining followers on Instagram. UGC helps humanize your brand by featuring real people, with real stories that show your product in real life, and builds a more trusting relationship with potential customers.

Not only does your audience love their 15 minutes of fame on your Instagram feed, featuring them also helps drive more sales in your online store. According to research from Olapic, consumers today are 56% more likely to buy something after seeing a photo of the product shared by customers.

Take Fashion Nova, for example. The online retailer’s Instagram account relies heavily on user-generated content.

Fashion Nova’s user-generated content gives it access to thousands of pictures from people all over the world to share with its target audience—pictures that both showcase the brand’s values and inspire followers to engage with the brand’s posts and buy the clothes real people are wearing.

When it comes to creating user-generated content for your online store, start by asking customers to share their favorite experiences and images with your products by:

Creating a branded hashtag feed where customers can post images
Adding a call to action in your Instagram bio
Running a contest
Reaching out to influencers
Adding an “ask” for user-generated content in your packaging

Remember, the goal of UGC is to show an authentic view of your products. If some customers send you lower-quality photos that still highlight your products’ best features, don’t be afraid to use them.

17. Use Instagram Live

Live video is the key to running a successful marketing strategy on any social media platform. With Instagram, you can use Instagram Live to stream videos to your followers and engage with them in real time.

When your brand starts a live video stream, a ring encases your profile picture in Instagram Stories to tell followers they can check it out. Followers also receive a notification when you start a live video. Once you finish your livestream, you can upload it to your Story for 24 hours.

Remember that Instagram Live is interactive. Your followers will probably comment while you’re live, so try to acknowledge their comments and find ways to get them to participate.

Some ways to gain more followers when using Instagram Live include:

Influencer takeovers
Hosting an AMA (ask me anything) or Q&A
Teasing a product launch or update
Hosting a talk show
Going behind the scenes on your operations
Sharing a current event
Running product tutorials

Building an Instagram growth strategy to drive followers

Growing your Instagram following isn’t always a numbers game. As with any social network, the most successful content strategy is being authentic and social.

If you focus on engagement, not just number of followers, Instagram can be a great home for your products and brand and can lead to a healthy stream of revenue for your ecommerce business. For more tips on turning this social media platform into a profitable channel, check out our guide on how to make money on Instagram.

Illustration by Eugenia Mello

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How to get more followers on Instagram FAQ

How do you get more followers on Instagram for free?

Find and use popular hashtags related to your photo, product, or brand.
Create your own branded hashtag.
Use hashtags in Stories.
Create Instagram Reels.

How can I increase my followers on Instagram?

Use the right Instagram hashtags.
Steal your competitors’ followers.
Use geotags on Instagram posts.
Organize Stories into Highlights.
Post user-generated content.
Collaborate with other brands.
Post at the best times.
Use Instagram analytics tools.
Publish Instagram Reels.
Livestream on Instagram Stories.

Get More Real Instagram Followers in 10 Steps

Instagram is the foundation of so many brands’ social presence. The platform is proven to drive traffic, support sales and engage customers.

And that’s why 59% of marketers plan to up their investment in Instagram this year.

But if you’re not thrilled with your Instagram growth and engagement, you’re not alone.

Competition on the platform is fierce as more and more brands get on board. Thing is, taking steps to grow your audience is absolutely worth it. That’s because the bigger your audience, the more opportunities to delight your customers.

Ready to tweak your presence to attract authentic and organic Instagram followers? This post breaks down how to make it happen.

10 ways to increase Instagram followers

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, this post is about building an organic following.

And yes, the distinction matters!

Some brands want to take shortcuts when it comes to trying to get more Instagram followers. We don’t pretend that pay-for-play sites exist.

That said, these services aren’t worth it for brands long-term. The Instagram algorithm weeds out low-quality accounts and phony engagement from paid bots.

But we’ll bite: there’s definitely some legwork involved in growing your audience authentically.

Doing so it worth totally worth it, though. Below are our ten best tips for getting more Instagram followers the right way.

1. Optimize your Instagram account

Before you worry about how to get followers, consider how your Instagram account is set up first.

Ask yourself: does your profile “look the part?” For starters, consider your:

Your Instagram bio (including your slogan, tagline and/or a branded hashtag)
Your profile picture
Your bio link (and where it points to)

These details define your brand identity on Instagram. More importantly, they impact your account’s discoverability. Building a follower-friendly account means:

Having a search-friendly username. Stick to either your brand name or whatever’s closest to your existing social handles. If your name is too long, shorten it to a variation your audience would recognize (ex: Cold Stone Creamery’s account is @coldstone).
Making your profile picture professional. An appropriately-sized logo is ideal. Any text in your profile picture should be legible on a smartphone screen.
Minding where you point your bio link. This is crucial for turning Instagram followers into meaningful traffic or customers. It’s your only way to funnel social traffic to your site and promotions.

Linking to your homepage is fine but not always ideal. To encourage more meaningful interactions, a social landing page that points to multiple links can help.

This gives your audience total control of how they engage your business next. That means a better experience for your followers.

The best way to optimize your account is to follow a proven Instagram marketing strategy. Download our free guide to get started.

2. Keep a consistent content calendar

Momentum matters on Instagram. In other words, you likely won’t get followers on Instagram if you post at random.

Creating content and providing value is what builds your audience. Doing so consistently is what helps you keep them. Don’t let your Instagram account gather cobwebs.

That’s why sticking to a regular posting schedule is crucial. In terms of when and how much to post, you don’t have to stick to a set-in-stone number. Most brands post daily or near daily. This tracks our own research on how often to post as well.

For reference, below is a breakdown of the best times to post to Instagram. “Optimal” engagement is during the mid-to-late morning and early afternoons during the week.

If you’re worried about your posts not getting seen enough, we get it. Consider how features like Stories can get more eyes on your content if it wasn’t seen the first time.

3. Schedule Instagram posts in advance

There’s no denying that brands are at the mercy of the Instagram algorithm for reach. Still, posting at the right times can still give your posts more visibility. Anything you can do to maximize engagement is a plus.

This speaks to the value of scheduling Instagram content. With Sprout’s newest tools, brands can schedule Stories, Carousels, Reels and Posts.

Scheduling content in advance ensures control and organization. Instagram scheduling tools ultimately help you hit that cadence we mentioned earlier. The ability to crosspost content from other networks helps here, too.

You can also use Sprout’s ViralPost feature to nail down your timing, too. Our platform analyzes your engagement history and identifies the best times to post.

Perfect your Instagram content plan with Sprout Social

In addition to scheduling a complete picture of your Instagram content calendar, Sprout offers even more features to perfect your brand’s feed.

Share IG-approved visuals with your team using our Asset Library, or test out our grid preview feature to make sure every aspect of your presence is true to your brand style.

Get a hands-on look at these features and more with a 30-day free trial of Sprout.

4. Engage with customers, brand advocates and influencers

Figuring out how to get more Instagram followers means engaging your audience.

And one of the best ways to do that is through responding to and republishing their posts.

Enter the power of user-generated content. UGC campaigns build social proof by showing followers you’re invested in them. For example, Drunk Elephant regularly regrams their followers’ posts. They gather content with their #BareWithUs and #DrunkBreak hashtags.

Partnering with influencers with an established following is another way to grow your own audience. Content creators can get your brand in front of your target audience and build ongoing awareness for your products.

5. Avoid fake Instagram followers

There’s a big difference between fake and legitimate followers on Instagram.

We get it, too. For the sake of quick growth, it might be tempting to purchase followers.

But the drawbacks outweigh the benefits 100%. Why? Because fake Instagram followers…

Confuse your potential organic followers. An inactive, low-engagement account with a big following is suspicious. This can be a turn-off for fans that’d otherwise follow you and engage.
Provide no monetary value to your business. Think about it. Your bot followers can’t buy your stuff, can they?
Generate no buzz: If you have 10,000 fake followers, how many are going to engage with your posts? Does it really even matter if your posts are brimming with spam comments?

Real people have the ability to share, like, comment and engage with your Instagram posts. Additionally, real followers actually appreciate the time you spend interacting with them.

For example, Lush Cosmetics takes the time to answer questions and engage followers all the time. This results in customers regularly returning to share shout-outs and positive comments.

6. Showcase your Instagram everywhere you can

Don’t be shy about promoting your Instagram if more followers are your goal.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to promoting your ‘gram, either. Here are a few ideas:

Add social media icons to your website and marketing emails. Social media icons make it easier for people to find your business and help you connect with customers.
Feature an Instagram feed on your homepage or product pages. Many ecommerce brands have dedicated UGC feeds on-site (see below).
Reshare Instagram-specific content or announcements on other social channels. For example, you could talk about an upcoming IG Live via TikTok or Facebook.

7. Post content that followers actually want to see

Easier said than done, we know.

Filters. Captions. Content types. Post times. That doesn’t even scratch the surface.

There are so many variables to consider, right? It doesn’t help that Instagram’s algorithm is fickle. What works for one brand might not work for the next in terms of format and timing.

For example, some brands swear by Carousels. Others are all-in on Reels. Both approaches can work. You’ll quickly find on Instagram that some content performs better than others. This is why testing is so important.

Instagram’s native analytics are surprisingly powerful. That said, investing in Instagram analytics tools will take things to the next level.

For example, Sprout makes it easy to benchmark and analyze Instagram content across accounts. Rather than second-guess what’s working and what’s not, our reporting spells it out for you.

Be confident in your content strategy by analyzing those variables we mentioned earlier.

And if you’re unsure where to start, try analyzing your competitors. A staggering 90% of brands say that social media data helps them keep up with competing social accounts.

You obviously shouldn’t copycat your competitors. That said, you can take notes on what they’re doing or posting that drives engagement. Sprout’s Instagram Competitors report can provide a breakdown of what’s working in your industry. A little competitive research can go a long way.

Oh, and keep your ear to the ground with new Instagram trends. That way you won’t miss out on platform-wide opportunities to hop on trending content formats.

For example, Reels are popping off right now. Our data shows that 66% of consumers want to see more short-form videos from brands. In terms of trends, Reels should be on your radar.

8. Make meaningful conversation with your audience

Food for thought: 60% of marketers use Instagram as a service channel.

The platform is perfect for going back and forth with followers. Likewise, many popular post ideas center around asking questions and engaging in a dialogue for a reason.

Off-the-cuff questions, shipping concerns or praise for products are all fair game from followers. Check out how Cometeer responds to all of the above on their Instagram posts:

Being supportive and responding promptly shows people that you care.

You’d be surprised at how your Instagram followers increase once you start acting more personable. Our Index research shows that 89% of consumers will buy from a brand after following them on social. Every interaction counts.

Again, try to respond to as many questions or comments as possible. Doing so could make or break someone becoming a long-term follower or a customer.

9. Find hashtags where your followers hang out

Instagram hashtags have been a staple of the platform, like, forever.

That said, they don’t hold as much weight as they used to.

Dumping hashtags into your posts isn’t going to net you any new followers. Especially when there’s so much noise on the platform.

Be proactive by focusing on industry-specific hashtags relevant to your customers. For example, Lashify regularly posts content to the #LashEducation hashtag. Tags are less general and competitive than #beauty. Becoming more visible within these types of tags is meaningful for brands in the right niche.

Understanding how your hashtags perform on Instagram is critical. With Sprout Social’s hashtag analytics tools, you have direct access to in-depth performance and usage data. Figuring out which hashtags to use is just a few taps away.

10. Take steps to delight your Instagram followers

When you make your Instagram followers happy, you’ll see the payoff in audience growth. The best Instagram accounts have fans and communities (hint: not just followers).

The tips below are the building blocks for a follower-friendly account. Put them into practice in a way that aligns with your brand voice and values. Avoid coming across as needy, solesy sales-driven or robotic at all costs.

So much of how to get Instagram followers for free is about creating an authentic community. For many accounts, this means building customer relationships. Content that highlights your personality and the humans behind your brand is a plus. This includes:

Inspirational content
Humorous content
Re-sharing UGC with unique captions
Storytelling posts
Behind-the-scenes photos and videos
Posts that raise awareness for social causes

How to get more Instagram followers (the wrong way!)

Disclaimer: Sprout Social does not endorse purchasing Instagram followers. We don’t recommend services that sell followings or “Likes.”

As the social space becomes more crowded and competitive, brands are willing to take risks for the sake of instant results.

We’ll say it again: brands shouldn’t buy Instagram followers. Nobody should!

Why you shouldn’t buy followers on Instagram

Here are some reasons why buying followers to grow your account is a serious mistake.

Your real followers know what fake followers look like

Social consumers are getting savvier. Privacy concerns and social scammers have made people hyper-aware of weird activity. In short, people today are spam-detectors.

A sudden follower spike is a red flag. Not to mention having bots stink up your account with endless spam followers. This all damages your reputation and keeps you from growing an authentic Instagram following.

Fake followers bring nothing to the table

You’re probably worried about your Instagram metrics and understandably so.

That said, your follower count doesn’t mean much if your “followers” don’t drive engagement. You might look “bigger” at a glance but who cares? Consider how your engagement rate on the platform will suffer if your follower count is inflated.

If nothing else, buying Instagram followers violates TOS

No surprises here.

Consider how Meta has taken direct action against buying engagement in the past. They’ve gone as far as to shut down companies that sell likes. That’s because this practice violates the platform’s terms of service:

Help us stay spam-free by not artificially collecting likes, followers, or shares, posting repetitive comments or content, or repeatedly contacting people for commercial purposes without their consent.

How are you growing your Instagram following?

Listen: getting more followers on Instagram isn’t going to happen by accident.

And despite what you might have heard, there’s no silver bullet solution for making it happen.

The tips above can help you build the foundation for an organic following that actually engages with you. Putting these tips into action is so much easier with a powerful publishing and analytics tool like Sprout.

Want to see our suite of tools in action? Start a free trial today and see for yourself!

16 ways to monetize in 2022

Youtube. Vladimir Kolesov, September 9, 2021

1. Selling ads

You collect a certain amount of audience and start selling ads. You can advertise other bloggers, some projects, it can be commercial advertising. They pay money to talk about something or someone.

The main difficulty is to gather an audience. Secondly, it is very important here how loyal and active your audience is. If no one clicks on ads, on the recommendations that you give, then no one will buy ads. The cost of advertising is now quite low. Therefore, the method is already less promising in terms of earnings: advertising is getting cheaper, efficiency is falling, there are too many ads, and it’s hard to keep the attention of the audience. nine0007

But this does not change the fact that there is still a huge amount of advertising being bought from bloggers, including bloggers with a small audience. It all depends on the quality of the audience - how expensive, valuable and how active it is. The better the performance, the more money you can earn.

2. Brand Ambassador

If in the first case it was about the constant placement of various advertisements, then the ambassador is a person who promotes the brand on an ongoing basis. You can be an ambassador for one or more brands. nine0007

It's great when a long-term contract is concluded with you. You become a brand ambassador and receive either goods or money.

3. Selling other people's goods

You can also sell something, open a store or offer something to your audience as a blogger. Efficiency depends on how well you know how to search for interesting products, how competently you know how to present the goods so that people really pay for it.

4. Selling your goods

The fourth way is to sell goods that you make yourself. This is beneficial, because most often hand-made goods are more expensive, they are less costly, and you earn more.

5. Sale of merch

Now it is very fashionable to create collections of T-shirts, sweatshirts, accessories, mugs, bags. And this is done not only by celebrities, but also by designers, authors, just people who know how to do interesting things.

6. Dropshipping

Dropshipping is when we do not buy anything, but resell. There is an online store, a platform that sells many, many different products. A person clicks on your link, buys - you get a commission. You do not need to deal with shipping, logistics, or any other things that classic online stores do. Your task is only traffic. nine0007

7. Advice

You can advise people on how to get a tax deduction or how to set up a service, etc. Here you are not selling some physical product, but selling your knowledge in the format of consultations.

8. Selling your product (course)

You can make your own product: record a video version or an audio version. It can be an audiobook or a regular book. You take your knowledge, make a product that suits many.

9. Selling a digital product

Courses are a set of knowledge and skills. And digital products are, for example, an image you created, stock photos, templates, Lightroom presets. From photography, design, a finished logo to a finished website template and so on.

10. Selling services

Through Instagram* you can attract clients to your services. For example, in the format of monthly payments - monthly accounting services or SMM promotion.

11. Creation of a startup

You can create some startup. And use social media to promote it. Not everyone will succeed, but you can earn millions of dollars.

12. Earnings on the public

You can create a public and earn money by posting any information or advertising. The principle is the same. Create a thematic public, attract an audience there - and earn money either by posting content or by placing ads.

13. Affiliate programs

Affiliate programs are a separate way to make money in social networks. Affiliate programs are a bit like dropshipping, selling goods. But here most often we are talking about some kind of service. These can be banking products: deposits, loans, insurance. There are also many affiliate programs in HR, when, for example, you recommend a person, he fills out a resume, he is hired - you are paid a bonus for this. nine0007

14. Personal assistant

Instagram often requires personal assistants. The tasks here are different. Sometimes it is a search for some information or answers in direct, sometimes it is a search for bloggers, negotiating cooperation. How much you will earn and what to do is individually discussed and depends on each specific case.

15. Creating masks

Masks are rarely needed, but there are still people, mask specialists who create filters and effects for money, make unusual masks for Instagram. nine0007

16. Patreon

Patreon is paid content creation. People subscribe in order to consume your information. And for sponsors, you make some special content separately.

*The activity of the organization is prohibited in the Russian Federation

How to make money on Instagram in 2022. 5 most profitable ways

To make money on Instagram, you first need to know what users are interested in.

In Germany, Instagram takes the leading place among all popular social networks. And such popularity gives users the opportunity not only to have fun and be distracted, but also to replenish their budget. We bring to your attention 5 proven ways to make money on Instagram. nine0007

Read also: How to make maximum money on Amazon with minimum investment

How to make money on Instagram in 2022. User interests

Let's find out what Instagram users are interested in in order to choose the right way to earn money.

45% of the audience is looking for information about tourism, travel.
44% are interested in music.
43% - food and drink.
42% - fashion trends.
41% - films and series. nine0098
35% - healthy lifestyle, fitness.
32% - new technologies.
30% - cosmetics, skin care.
30% - various sports activities.
28% - news.

The predominant part of the active audience is the able-bodied population from 25 to 34 years old. Therefore, you can always find your target audience on the site.

Selling your own goods and services

Instagram is a great opportunity to promote your own brand and product. It can be both large-scale production and hand-mei in small volumes. Today, goods made from natural raw materials are in great demand, for example, products made of wood, wool or beads. If you know how to model and sew items of clothing and household items, then you have a chance to become famous all over the world by posting photos and video reviews of the products offered on Instagram. Doing business like this will allow you to replenish your wallet well, provided that you offer high-quality and original products. nine0007

Instagram is a great platform to promote your services. Manicurists, cosmetologists, psychologists, nutritionists, business coaches, foreign language teachers, etc. actively find potential clients here.

To get a decent profit, you must fulfill 2 main conditions:

high qualification and professionalism in the chosen field;
profile promotion.

It should be noted that recently the accounts of all kinds of soothsayers, psychics, tarot readers, etc. have become very popular. nine0007

Resale of goods

You can earn money on Instagram by reselling goods that you previously purchased at a discount. The amount of earnings depends on the user's ability to find interesting and in-demand products, as well as the ability to correctly present them, attracting a large part of the audience.

For the sale of goods, it is more expedient to open an electronic store through a special tab in the Instagram application. In the virtual store, you can post photos and videos describing products, as well as create a "Reviews" section. There you can post testimonials from real customers. nine0007

Promoting a product and getting a decent income will ensure the implementation of simple rules.

Tags - Decide on a product tag that you will use in promotions and sales offers. Such shopping tags will allow a potential customer to receive the necessary information about the product right in the description of a photo or video.
Product page with up-to-date and reliable information: product description, price, etc.
Making a purchase on Instagram. At the moment, this function is available only with the condition of redirecting customers to the website of the online store. nine0098

To sell goods through a virtual store on Instagram, you need to create a business profile in which you need to set up a product catalog. By following all the instructions for creating a store, you can quickly and efficiently set up your own trading platform, which needs to be further administered, promoted and maintained.

Sale of photos

If you create unique and beautiful shots using a professional camera or mobile phone camera, then you have the opportunity to sell them on special trading platforms. To attract potential buyers and promote your photos, you need to post as many high-quality and unusual photos as possible on your own profile, which users of the platform can share. nine0007

The more subscribers you have on your profile, the greater your chance to sell the result of your work as a photographer. Tourist photos are especially in high demand.

In addition to Instagram, you can post your photographs on Tweny20 (https://elements.envato.com/lp/twenty20/) or 500px sites.

Sale of masks

Instagram is an application in which each user can decorate their photo with many masks. And the ability to create these masks can be a good addition to the budget. So, on the Spark AR Studio platform (https://sparkar.facebook.com/ar-studio/download/) you can create your own masks, provided you have the following knowledge and skills:

work with 2D or 3D graphics;
work with animation;
Python or JavaScript programming;
ability to edit video;
ability to create digital content.

To create masks, you need to install the Spark AR Studio application on your personal computer, which contains all the necessary tools.

If you are trying to download the software to your phone, you will be prompted to send a download link to your email for further installation on your PC. nine0007

You can use masks not only to have fun with photos, but also to create brand logos. They can be offered to companies or used to promote your own brand.

Sale of advertising

This way of earning is the most common and varied.

You can make a profit using different advertising methods:

unobtrusive promotion, which implies a mention of a product or service in your post;
description of the goods and services that you yourself use;
placement of links to websites of shops, salons, etc.
Learn more