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.
Let’s dive deeper into how to implement each tactic to get more Instagram followers.
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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:
Not every Reel needs to be a production. Lower quality videos can perform as well as, if not better than, highly produced 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.
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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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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 storiesHashtagging 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.
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.
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:
Don’t be afraid to use an emoji or two to add some personality to your text.
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:
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.
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.
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:
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.
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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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:
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.
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:
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
Starting fresh on social or just trying to build your online brand? You’re probably wondering how to get more followers on Instagram.
And no, we don’t mean buying followers or using bots. Those tricks might boost your follower count for a short time, but they won’t do you any favors long-term.
That’s because the only truly valuable Instagram followers are real people who care about and engage with your brand.
Check out our in-depth guide to learn how to grow Instagram followers organically.
Step 1. Lay the groundwork
Step 2. Create great content
Step 3. Make yourself findable
Step 4. Engage with your community
Step 5. Keep learning
Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.
No time to read the whole guide? Check out the video below for what you need to grow on Instagram this year:
Otherwise, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.
Step 1. Lay the groundworkHave a thoughtful Instagram marketing strategyIf you want to be effective on social, you need a clear plan.
Getting more Instagram followers is a great starter goal. But followers alone won’t create a successful Instagram account. Your goal needs to be part of a larger plan that connects to your business strategy and social marketing objectives.
Think about the reasons why you want more Instagram followers.
What do you really hope to accomplish? Maybe you want to:
Staying focused on these business-oriented goals will help keep your Instagram account consistent. It will help you tell a compelling brand story that appeals to new profile visitors and helps build (and keep) a loyal following.
Define your target audienceAsk yourself some questions about who you’re trying to reach:
The answers to these questions will help you craft content to connect with the people on Instagram who are most likely to give you a follow.
They will also help you consistently deliver content that will keep your audience engaged for the long run.
Maybe you want to show off how your product is made.
Or humanize your brand by sharing an employee’s perspective. An aspirational brand might showcase the lifestyle or achievements of your customers.
No matter what you’re going for, it’s important to maintain a consistent brand voice, personality and look.
Your posts should be easily recognizable at a glance. Think of your Instagram grid as one cohesive unit. You can always use Instagram Stories to share content that doesn’t quite fit with the look and feel of your main feed.
Your products don’t have to look the same, either. You can use styling to give your grid a consistent look and feel, like @themillerswifecustomcookies does:
Source: @themillerswifecustomcookies on Instagram
Before people can follow you on Instagram, they have to find you. But not all text on Instagram is searchable. Only two fields on Instagram contribute to search results: name and username.
Your username is your Instagram handle.
It should be consistent with the handle you use on other social networks since this also makes it easier for people to find you. Use your brand name or a variation of your name that people are likely to use when searching for your brand.
Your name can be anything you like, up to 30 characters. You don’t want to keyword-stuff, but including your most relevant keyword in the name field can make you easier to find.
For example, travel writer Claudia Laroye (@itsclaudiatravels) includes the keyphrase “travel writer” in her Instagram name. Now, she’s more likely to be found by people looking for travel content or writers.
Source: @itsclaudiatravels on Instagram
Optimize your Instagram bio and profileTwo-thirds of Instagram business profile visits are from non-followers. If your bio and profile convince them to click the follow button, those visitors may become followers.
Your profile includes your name and username fields (mentioned above), your website and your bio.
Your bio can be up to 150 characters, so make the most of it. Convey your brand identity and show new visitors why they should follow you. What kind of content can they expect?
This bio from @abstractaerialart sums up the account’s purpose and promise in a quick, easy-to-digest way:
Source: @abstractaerialart on Instagram
If you have a professional account (business or Creator), you can include extra info in your profile, like your contact information, type of business, and location.
Step 2. Create great contentDesign a gorgeous Instagram gridSure, this might seem obvious, but it’s critical when thinking about getting followers on Instagram. Every post on your Instagram grid must be high-quality and visually engaging.
When new users visit your profile, the content should make them want to see more (and click Follow).
Give commercial photographer @nelsonmouellic a round of applause for this visual feat.
Instagram is a visual social media platform, but great Instagram captions help you get more reach and engagement.
Here are some key strategies to keep in mind:
Will Tang of Going Awesome Places posts great photos with detailed captions that tell the story behind the shot. His Insta bio calls him a “creator of ridiculously detailed itineraries and guides.” That means this caption approach is very on-brand.
Post content that’s meant to be re-sharedView this post on Instagram
A post shared by Will | Going Awesome Places (@goingawesomeplaces)
Your audience wants to engage with content that’s useful and inspiring. So when planning your posts, think about types of content that other people might like to share.
People love sharing infographics. Feed that desire by supplying your followers with your expert insights. If someone embeds your Instagram posts in their blog, you’re exposed to a whole new audience of potential followers.
People can also re-share your posts in their Instagram Stories. These posts are clickable, so anyone who wants to know more can click through to your original post. It’s another easy way to expand your reach to new audiences and potential new followers.
For example, here’s how a Hootsuite post about LinkedIn demographics looks when shared to my Instagram Story.
Embrace Instagram StoriesIf you want more Instagram followers, you need to use Instagram Stories. Half a billion Instagram accounts use Stories every day, and 45% of the most-viewed Stories are from businesses.
People who use Stories are highly engaged. Plus, you can use the hashtag and location features in your stories to expose them to people who do not already follow you.
Make the most of Stories highlightsPut a lot of effort into an Instagram Story and not quite ready to say goodbye after 24 hours? Pinned Stories highlights are a great way to introduce your brand to people who visit your profile.
So pack those highlights with great info and content to show new visitors why they should follow you.
Don’t forget to customize the cover photos on your highlights, too. Supplement company Vega keeps things on-brand and plant-friendly with their custom green highlights.
Source: Vega on Instagram
Post consistentlyYour existing followers want to see content from you. That’s why they followed you in the first place. So give them what they want!
When users interact with your posts, those engagements tell Instagram’s algorithm that your content is valuable. Those interactions will then boost your reach. So giving your existing followers something great to interact with can help bring in new Instagram followers.
How often should you post? According to our analysis, between 3-7 times per week.
Post at the right timeInstagram uses an algorithm, not a chronological feed. But timing is still important to the algorithm.
Hootsuite’s social team found that the best time to post on Instagram is between 8 AM -12 PM PST or 4-5 PM PST on weekdays.
But your audience might have different habits than ours. A tool like Hootsuite Analytics can show you the best time to post for your audience based on past engagement, impressions or traffic.
Source: Hootsuite Analytics
Try Hootsuite for free. You can cancel anytime.
Start testing various times and measuring results. For example, if you’re a retail brand, you might want to test posting during lunch
Schedule your posts and storiesWhat if the best time to post to your account is 3 AM? (Hey, it happens.) Use a desktop-based Instagram tool like Hootsuite to schedule and publish directly to Instagram.
Scheduling your Instagram posts in advance allows you to plan a cohesive grid that tells an overarching story. It also allows you to dedicate time to creating excellent captions rather than trying to come up with something witty on the fly.
You can also use Hootsuite to schedule Instagram Stories and Reels.
Step 3. Make yourself findableUse relevant hashtags to reach new usersSadly, the text of your Instagram posts isn’t searchable. But your hashtags are. Using hashtags thoughtfully can be a good way to get followers on Instagram for free. You can even create your own branded hashtags.
Relevant hashtags can help people find your content. Instagram users can even follow hashtags. That means your hashtagged content may appear in the feeds of people who do not yet follow your account.
You can include up to 30 hashtags in an Instagram post, but don’t go overboard. Instead, do some experimenting to learn how many hashtags work best for your particular account.
Avoid hashtag gimmicks such as #likeforlike, #tagsforlikes, or #followme. These may give you a temporary boost in followers. But those people aren’t interested in what makes you and your content special.
They’re not going to help you build a meaningful, engaged audience on Instagram.
Instead, focus on using highly targeted hashtags specific to your photo, product, or business, like stylist Dee Campling does in this #wfh shot.
Tag your locationView this post on Instagram
A post shared by Dee Campling (@deecampling)
If the location of your post or Story is clear, it’s worth adding a location tag. It’s another easy way for people to find your content on Instagram.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Instagram’s @Creators (@creators)
If your business has a physical location, tag it and encourage customers to do the same.
Users can then click on that location and see all photos and Stories posted from your store, restaurant, or office.
For example, here’s what you get when you search for the location of Van Wonderen Stroopwafels in Amsterdam:
Source: Instagram
If you’re posting from a conference or event, adding your location can help you connect with other attendees. This will expose your account to a highly relevant group of new potential Instagram followers.
Tag relevant usersIt’s easy to tag Instagram users featured in your photos. Just use an @-mention in your caption or Instagram’s tagging functionality within the post.
Users are notified when they’re tagged, so tags encourage them to engage with and share the post. Your post will also appear on the Tagged tab of their Instagram profile.
You can also tag users in your Instagram Stories. Then, they can post shared content to their own Story with just a couple of taps.
If they do so, their viewers can click through to your account.
Be careful, though. Tagging someone just to get their attention isn’t a great idea. Instead, only tag users featured in your photo or relevant to your post’s content.
Some potentially relevant users to tag might include:
Another way to introduce your Instagram account to a new audience is to ask other Instagram users to tag you. When they tag you in a post, their audience sees your handle and can click on it if they want to learn more.
Your bio is a great place to ask people to tag you on Instagram.
For example, Visit the USA asks Instagrammers to tag them for a chance to be featured on their account.
Source: @visittheusa on Instagram
Cross-promote your Instagram account on other networksIf you want to get followers on Instagram for free, you need to make it easy for people to find you.
Your Instagram profile should be easily discoverable. If you’ve already built a following on another social network, let those fans know about your Instagram account.
Share a link to your Instagram profile and give your existing social followers a reason to check it out. (Like an Instagram-exclusive coupon code, event, or contest.)
When BlogHer hosted Jameela Jamil for an Instagram Live, they made sure to promote it on their Facebook Page as well.
If you’re just starting your Instagram account, make sure to post some content before you promote the account elsewhere. Aim for a minimum of 12 posts.
You could also highlight some of your best Instagram posts on your other social channels. Consider boosting these posts with paid advertising so your other social followers can find and follow you on Instagram.
You’ve already seen some embedded Instagram posts in this blog. These clickable posts allow users to head directly to the relevant post or Instagram profile.
Embedding your own Instagram posts in your blog is an easy way to share your content and drive traffic to your profile. Every new visitor to your Instagram profile is a potential new follower.
For example, say Hootsuite wanted to announce our mascot’s makeover. Sure, we could share a few pictures of Owly’s new look.
But we could also embed an Instagram post, like this:
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Hootsuite 🦉 (@hootsuite)
Any time you’re sharing visual content like photos, charts, or infographics in your blog, there’s an opportunity to embed an Instagram post with that content instead.
Think beyond your social channels when sharing your Instagram account.
You can link to your Instagram account on your website, in your email signature, and in your online newsletters. The link doesn’t have to be big, either. You can use a small Instagram icon.
If you’re promoting a new Instagram account, a quick email blast is a great way to get free Instagram followers fast.
And don’t forget about your offline materials. You can include your Instagram handle on coasters, posters, packing slips, business cards, or packaging. It’s a simple way to drive more free Instagram followers to your account.
Use Instagram QR codesYour Instagram QR code is a scannable code that allows other Instagram users to follow you instantly. It’s another easy way to promote your account on physical materials like packing slips, signage, and product packaging.
Your QR code is also a great way to get new followers in real time at networking events and conferences.
People you connect with in person can scan your code to follow you without having to type out your handle. Try printing it out and tucking it into your namebadge holder for easy access.
Find your Instagram QR code by tapping on the three lines icon at the top right of your Instagram profile and selecting QR Code .
Try to get featuredFeature accounts are Instagram accounts that curate and re-share content based on a hashtag or tagging. Some of these accounts have a huge following. If they share one of your posts (along with your handle), they can send a new stream of Instagram followers your way.
There’s a feature account for just about every niche and interest on Instagram, so start exploring.
For example, @damngoodstitch features embroidery posts. The account has more than 180,000 followers.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by DamnGoodStitch (@damngoodstitch)
The Explore page is what you see when you click on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the Instagram app.
According to Instagram itself, this is where “you can find photos and videos that you might like from accounts you don’t yet follow.”
Half of Instagram accounts visit Explore every month. That’s a huge opportunity for brands looking to grow their audience.
Ending up on the Explore tab isn’t easy. Luckily, we’ve got an entire article dedicated to helping you get there.
You can also pay to get into the Explore feed by selecting Explore as an ad placement.
Source: Instagram
Step 4. Engage with your communityFollow relevant accountsYou should only tag people in an Instagram post when the content is directly relevant to them. But you can follow anyone you like. And when you follow a user on Instagram, there’s a good chance they will check out your feed and consider following you back.
Social listening is great for finding conversations and influential users (a.k.a. influencers) to follow.
Instagram’s “Suggestions For You” section is also a handy resource for finding relevant accounts to follow. These suggestions show up in your Instagram feed between posts, in between Stories, or on the right side of the screen on a computer.
Just remember not to follow too many other accounts too fast. Your follower ratio, or the number of people who follow you compared to how many you follow, is important for credibility.
And don’t follow people just to get their attention, only to unfollow after they follow you back. This is kind of a jerk move and will hurt your Instagram reputation.
Engage with existing communitiesLike all social media networks, Instagram is about the communities built within it. So make sure you’re participating in those spaces.
Get involved by liking, commenting on, and sharing content from other credible users in your community. Avoid generic comments (like “Awesome post!”) that look like they come from bots.
Engaging with other posts helps draw attention (and potential new followers) in two ways:
Here’s an important stat for anyone thinking about how to get more followers on Instagram: 60% of consumers say they’d follow a brand on Instagram after seeing it promoted by an influencer they trust.
If you’re not working with influencers now, then you should definitely consider it. Luckily, we’ve got a whole guide on Influencer marketing to help you out.
Collaborate with other brandsDon’t be afraid to reach out to other brands to see if there’s a way that you can work together on Instagram.
The right kind of collaboration could help everyone involved get more Instagram followers.
Think about businesses you already collaborate with in other ways. Maybe you’re connected in a local business improvement association or shopping area. How could you work together on Instagram?
One common option is to host a contest featuring products from multiple companies, like Rocky Mountain Soap Company did with Annika Mang of @borntobeadventurous.
Try an Instagram Live collaborationView this post on Instagram
A post shared by Rocky Mountain Soap Company (@rockymountainsoapco)
Live video keeps getting more popular, and Instagram is a great place to take advantage of the trend. Users are notified when an account they follow starts broadcasting live, so a live video really grabs attention.
To get your Live video in front of a new audience, use the “Go live with a friend” option to co-host a live video with someone else in your industry. Ask the other person to host a Live video, then invite you as a guest. The two of you will appear in a split screen, introducing you to all of their followers.
For example, Design Emergency hosts a weekly Instagram Live to interview key figures in the design world.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Design Emergency (@design.emergency)
Likewise, Wine Spectator‘s Straight Talk series features interviews with industry insiders.
Use interactivity features in StoriesView this post on Instagram
A post shared by Wine Spectator Magazine (@wine_spectator)
Instagram Stories offer plenty of interactive features to engage users, like poll, question, and chat stickers.
These stickers are a simple, low-stakes way for your audience to engage with your content.
Polling stickers increased three-second video views in 90% of Instagram’s beta campaigns for this feature.
Source: Instagram
If users come across your Story from a hashtag or location page, they can engage right away. It’s a great way to make them want to learn more about your brand by giving you a follow.
Pin your best commentsOne of Instagram’s little-known features is the ability to pin up to three comments for each post.
Today we’re rolling out pinned comments everywhere. 📌
That means you can a pin a few comments to the top of your feed post and better manage the conversation. pic.twitter.com/iPCMJVLxMh
— Instagram (@instagram) July 7, 2020
There are a couple of ways you can use this feature as part of your plan to get more followers on Instagram.
This feature can help you manage the conversation on your posts and create more opportunities for engagement.
Step 5. Keep learningCreate an AR filterAR filters for Instagram Stories are photo effects Instagrammers can use to modify photos taken through their mobile phone’s front and back cameras.
Those posts with puppy ears? Those are done with an AR (Augmented Reality) filter. Those “which [vegetable/pizza/emoji/etc.] are you?” posts? Yup, those use AR filters too.
Any Instagram user can now create an AR filter. The filters you create live in their own section of your Instagram profile.
Source: @paigepiskin on Instagram
If your filter is not promotional or branded, it will also appear in the Instagram Stories effects gallery, where any Instagrammer can find it.
How does creating an AR filter help you get more Instagram followers? Your account name appears in the top left corner whenever anyone uses your AR filter. It’s clickable and can drive more new visitors to your profile.
Source: @gucci on Instagram
Run contestsContests on Instagram are a great way to help you get more followers. Just make sure your entry process involves asking people to follow you and comment on one of your photos by tagging a friend.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Hotel Casa Amsterdam (@hotelcasa_amsterdam)
Tagged friends will also see your post and may choose to follow your account as well.
Encouraging user-generated content as part of your contest can also help you reach more people. People will learn about your profile from posts their friends create. This is an effective way to build trust with new followers and get more eyeballs to your page.
Consider advertising on InstagramOkay, this isn’t exactly a way to get free Instagram followers. But Instagram ads can be a powerful way to reach new followers fast by getting your content in front of people who would otherwise not see it.
And unlike buying followers, using Instagram ads is a totally legitimate and effective way to get more Instagram followers quickly with a small investment.
Target your audience by location, demographics, and even key behaviors and interests. You can also create a lookalike audience based on the people who already interact with your business.
Besides the feed, you can advertise in Instagram Stories and the Explore feed. For all the details on creating and posting an Instagram ad campaign, check out our detailed Instagram ads guide.
Instagram analytics tools will give you data on impressions for each post, along with reach, engagement, top posts, and more. You can also find demographic information about your followers, including gender, age, and location.
Regularly reviewing this data can help you identify areas where you can adjust your strategy to hel p you get more followers on Instagram.< >
Keep an eye on what time of day your followers use Instagram, so you can post when people are most likely to see and engage with your content. Data nerds who want to go deeper may want to consider a social media management tool like Hootsuite. These tools can show you the best times to post based on impressions, engagement, and traffic. They’ll also give you a bunch of other helpful performance metrics, like your follower growth rate.
Get more Instagram followers using Hootsuite. Schedule content for the most optimal times, streamline engagement, track your performance, and more—all from a single, easy-to-use dashboard.
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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
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:
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
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. nine0003
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?
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
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
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.
nine0003
What Instagram promotion methods do you use?
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