How to increase permanent followers on instagram

Get More Real Instagram Followers with These 10 Tips

Instagram has become a cornerstone of many brands’ social presence, driving profitable traffic to landing pages, growing conversions, and building an engaged audience.

If your Instagram presence isn’t quite as robust as you’re hoping, it might be time to learn how to sharpen up your strategies for getting real, organic followers on Instagram. The larger your audience grows, the more opportunities you have to engage with users and create unique experiences for them.

The organic distinction is important: sometimes brands take the easy way out when trying to get more Instagram followers. Pay for likes and follower sites are everywhere, but these shortcuts are never worth it, as the Instagram algorithm regularly gets updated to weed out paid, low quality accounts and interactions.

Not to mention, the number on your Instagram following ultimately means nothing if it doesn’t represent an engaged fan following that makes purchases, visits your landing pages, and advocates for your brands with friends and followers. Start building your presence up the right way with these tips on getting more Instagram followers.

10 Ways to increase Instagram followers

1. Optimize your Instagram account

Before you set out figuring out how to gain followers on Instagram, one of the most important steps is to have your account fully optimized. Think of your brand’s Instagram bio as the “homepage” to your account.

Without a bio, image captions, a proper username or profile image, how will people know the account belongs to your brand? It might seem obvious, but on Instagram your bio and image help form the foundations of your brand identity. The link in your bio is your one spot to drive Instagram traffic to your site, so optimizing your account is essential.

If you’re uncertain where to link, try marketing or product pages that relate to specific keywords, hashtags or campaigns on your Instagram account. Linking to your homepage is OK–but why not give users a cohesive experience when moving from your bio to a site? This has led to the popularity of IG link landing pages that host relevant links to the last few pieces of content mentioned on a brand’s feed, and “link in bio” posts that help direct audiences to those links.

Additionally, keep your username as search-friendly as possible, which usually means sticking close to your actual brand name. If your business name is longer, shorten it to something your audience would recognize. Don’t add numbers or special characters to your username, and if possible keep it in-line with other social media handles you already have.

The best way to optimize your account is to create and follow an Instagram marketing strategy. Download our free guide to get started.

2. Keep a consistent content calendar

The worst thing you can do when trying to get followers on Instagram is to post content at random, haphazard times. If you’re lucky enough to get users following you in the beginning, you don’t want to make them forget they followed you in the first place.

To combat this, keep to a regular posting schedule. Typically, brands shouldn’t post more than a few times a day to avoid spam, but whatever your cadence, keep it consistent. Approximately 200 million Instagram users log on daily, so to cast your net even wider, try publishing a few times throughout the entire day.

In fact, our very own research on the best times to post to Instagram pinpoints the top times to post for multiple industries, or you can follow our research of the best times across all topic areas below:

Sticking to a schedule will help you build a consistent experience for your followers and keep them in the know of your brand. But if you’re wondering how you’re going to remember to publish at these different times in the day, we’ve got you covered with Sprout’s scheduling and optimal times features–read on for more details.

3. Schedule Instagram posts in advance

While the Instagram algorithm has changed to show users more content they like, posting at the right times can still give your posts more visibility by increasing the overall engagement they receive.

There’s a lot your brand can do to raise visibility, and now with Sprout Social, scheduling Instagram content is one of them. With our newest tools, we can help your brand schedule Stories, Carousels and Feed posts through an easy process.

By scheduling content in advance, your entire team can see campaigns and schedules more efficiently. It’s always smart to build out content in advance and with our Instagram scheduling tools, you can reach your audience and maintain a consistent flow of content at the same time.

You can also use Sprout’s patented ViralPost feature and let us do the work for you. ViralPost analyzes your own account’s engagement history and identifies the optimal times for you to post algorithmically.

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. Get partners and brand advocates to post your content

When you’re learning how to get more Instagram followers, it’s important to know the value of your audience. The larger your follower count grows (organically), the more buyers and interested customers you will have.

The best way to get customers to follow you is to get in front of them and be present. It’s critical to be present on your own Instagram as well as others. Try sponsoring user-generated content to get your brand in customers’ feeds. You can also hold Instagram contests to get your brand

out to a larger audience. These types of campaigns build social proof by showing your fans are invested enough to repost your content or create their own UGC.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Urban Outfitters (@urbanoutfitters)

Another way is to get your handle in front of a much larger audience. Try to work with larger Instagram accounts in your industry, like notable influencers in your space, to share your content to their audience.

Just make sure you’re providing something of value. The last thing you want to do is seem too salesy. Find marketing collaborations and co-marketing plans with other businesses to build your Instagram audience.

5. Avoid fake Instagram followers

There’s a huge difference between an Instagram account having fake and legitimate followers. It might seem tempting to simply purchase Instagram followers, but the backlash outweighs the perks of organic follower growth.

Fake Instagram followers tend to:

Deceive new followers: If users come to an inactive Instagram feed with tens of thousands of followers, it will lower the account’s credibility. Don’t trick people into following you. Build trust and long-lasting relationships for better engagement.
Have no ROI: It might seem easier to buy followers, but your acquired bot or unmanned new followers won’t be purchasing anything. People follow brands on Instagram for a reason–they like what you’re posting or your company in general. These are actual spenders and bring monetary value to your business.
Create little-to-no buzz: If you have 10,000 fake followers, how many are going to comment, like and share your content? More than likely, these bot or fake accounts will be cleaned up by Instagram, deleted and make your posts seem like engagement graveyards.

Real people have the ability to share, like, comment and engage with your Instagram posts. Additionally, these users enjoy when there’s someone on the other side responding.

For example, Lush Cosmetics takes the time to answer various product questions, which results in users coming back, following or possibly sharing with others. These interactions will always have more value than a set of inactive followers.

6. Showcase your Instagram everywhere

How are people going to find an account unless you promote your Instagram? Make sure your Instagram account is listed with your website and other social networks.

Creating visibility and awareness is one of the best ways to get discovered. If you truly want to get more Instagram followers, let people know where to find you. You could add social media buttons to your website and blog to help promote social shares across all your networks as well as show people where to find you on Instagram.

Follow #MoMAPrimeTime on Instagram today as we celebrate the last day of Summer Camp for 200 New Yorkers, ages 65+! https://t.co/RNyV7Ibr9y pic.twitter.com/64SvbUaWLL

— MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (@MuseumModernArt) June 23, 2017

Another great idea is to cross promote across your social media accounts. The Museum of Modern Art regularly spreads awareness about its Instagram through Twitter. You can easily leverage your other social networks to direct users to your Instagram.

However, make sure that you’re not just asking for a follow. Instead you should try to promote unique content on your Instagram so users have a reason to follow you there. Fortunately, with Instagram adding a ton of new content and video features like Stories, IGTV and Reels, you have a great opportunity to build followers through creative content.

7. Post content followers want

While this is easier said than done, it’s smart to learn what content your followers want to see. You’ll quickly find on Instagram that some content performs better than others. This is why testing is so important.

Whether it’s filters, captions, content types or post times, the smallest detail can make all the difference. Keep your ear to the ground with new Instagram trends so you know you’re posting popular content.

To take your analysis a step further, your brand should invest in Instagram analytics tools. This will make it easier to track, benchmark and analyze Instagram content across accounts.

Be confident in your content strategy by analyzing different filters, captions and more to see what works best with your audience. If you’re unsure where to start, try analyzing your competitors.

You shouldn’t directly copy your competitors, but it’s smart to take notes on what they’re doing or posting that drives engagement. A little competitive research can go a long way. You can use our Instagram Competitors report to get a look at what’s working for other brands in your industry.

8. Get the conversation started

One of the best ways to make users aware of your Instagram is through conversation. According to the 2020 Sprout Social Index, consumers want to engage with visual-first content like photos (68%) and video (50%), followed by 30% who want to engage with text posts. Instagram is the perfect fit for this audience profile, pairing eye-catching visuals with captions that can be just as engaging when you perfect your Instagram caption copywriting skills.

People are continuing to use social media as their contact reference for brands, whether its for off-the-cuff questions and chat, serious customer care queries, or praise for their favorite brands and products. And for your business, you need to be supportive and communicative on Instagram.

Try to respond to as many questions or comments as possible, because it could mean the difference between getting a new customer, follower or improving your relationship with your audience. Our Index research also showed 89% of consumers will buy from a brand after following on social, so it’s important to secure the attention and loyalty needed to convert a visitor to your profile into a follower.

9. Find hashtags that convert

One of the most tried-and-true ways to get followers on Instagram is through hashtags. For years hashtags have served as an essential tool for discovery and allowed us to extend our social reach. As a marketer, you want to build your community by gaining followers and hashtags provide just that.

For starters, find hashtags that are not too populated. Social Media Examiner points this theory out by explaining how the hashtag #love has more than 184 million photos connected to it. Trying to highlight your Instagram content in a sea of millions of pictures and videos is not an easy thing to do.

You have to find hashtags that people in your target audience are more likely to check. If a relevant connection is made, these users will be more likely to follow your account. Unique, branded hashtags are one way to group posts around hyper-relevant content to your brand and campaigns.

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A post shared by M&M'S (@mmschocolate)

For example, M&Ms does a great job at focusing hashtags to an event where they are participating. By using hashtags like #mmspotlight, the brand targets its audience more directly where the spotlight concert event happens and creates awareness.

Understanding how your hashtags perform on Instagram is also just as critical to using them. And with Sprout Social’s hashtag analytics tools, you have direct access to hashtag performance and usage data to see what’s working best.

Don’t go blindly into the hashtag universe, know what you’re tagging so you can build your following.

10. Make your Instagram followers happy

Last but not least, when you make your Instagram followers happy, you see the payoff in audience growth. We’ve given you plenty of tips for brainstorming and scheduling content, so put them into practice in a way that feels real to your brand voice. In other words, avoid seeming needy, sales-driven or robotic.

For many accounts, this means sprinkling in posts that are legitimately designed to bring a smile to followers’ faces and build customer relationships. Don’t forget to provide content to your followers as if they were friends on your personal feed: this might include posting memes, inspirational content, or just re-sharing interesting photos or artwork (all properly credited, of course) that can give your followers a little mental pick-up during the day.

More tips for your Instagram presence

Developing an Instagram following is a multifaceted process. Knowing the ins and outs of best practices on the network will help your strategies be more effective. Learn more with these guides to some of the most important IG essentials:

How to promote your Instagram: 13 ways that actually work
9 Instagram post ideas to spice up your account
How to regram on Instagram
How to get more Instagram Likes
How to craft an impactful Instagram bio for business

How are you growing your Instagram following?

Instagram continues to grow in popularity with audiences, so taking advantage of these tips to get followers will help you increase your reach. If you’re ready to put Sprout’s powerful tools behind your Instagram management, start a free trial today.

23 Ways to Get More Followers on Instagram [Updated for 2022]

Things that increase dopamine in the brain:

-Exercise
-Turmeric.
-Leafy greens.
-Getting more followers on Instagram.

Am I right?

But in all seriousness, growing your Instagram following can help you to raise brand awareness, build relationships, and get more customers to your business. So in this guide, I’m going to share with you 22 free ways (and one paid) to get more followers on Instagram—quality followers, that is.

Table of contents

The 23 ways to get more followers in this post are broken into the following sections:

How to get more followers with your Instagram bio
Using creativity & content to attract followers
How to use follower-friendly hashtags
Getting more followers through other users
Best practices for increasing followers
Tools to help you win more Instagram followers

How to get more followers on Instagram: the bio basics

If you want to get more traffic to your Instagram bio and more followers out of it, you need to treat it like a landing page and optimize it. Here’s how to do it.

1. Give people a reason to follow you

Instead of (or in addition to) just putting your credentials, slogan, or value proposition in your Instagram bio, give potential followers a clear picture of what they can expect if they follow you. For example:

Follow for dog training tips; prepare for cuteness overload.
Follow me if you’re into, you know, securing your financial future and binary options.
Your go-to for quick marketing tips and brilliant, original memes.
Cooking tips for the cullinarily challenged.

2. Pick the right handle

First thing’s first, make sure your Instagram handle is as close to your business name and to your other social media handles as possible. This ensures your account will be easy to remember, find, and recognize.

3. Make sure it’s a business profile

An Instagram business profile gives you access to analytics that will show you who your followers are, what content they like best, and whether you’re gaining or losing them. If you haven’t made the switch, go to the hamburger in the top right of your bio, tap Settings, then tap Switch to Professional Account. Select your category, provide your business details, and you’ll be good to go.

4. Nix the boring bio link

This is prime Instagram real estate. Do you really want it to link to your homepage? Yawn. The best Instagram bios change their bio link up at least bi-weekly and send people to new or popular content, promo codes, landing pages, and more.

Better yet, you could use an app like Linktree to share multiple links to value-add destinations like website pages, blog posts, deals, and more.

An effective link tree can show your value and win over followers.

5. Focus on quality followers

There are a billion Instagram users (literally). But do you want disengaged onlookers who breathe no life into your account? Fickle followers that unfollow just as quickly? Didn’t think so. You want followers who:

Comment on, like, and share your posts.
Appreciate your content and give you a sense of purpose.
Convert into leads and customers.
Help you to get more great followers.

If Instagram followers are candy, you’re not trying to break open a pinata and pounce. You’re looking to curate a box of fine chocolates and cultivate a community.

How to get more Instagram followers with your content

Now that your profile is optimized for fruitful and fabulous followership, it’s time to start attracting more people to it. Here’s how to use content and creativity to get more Instagram followers.

6. Make use of all the formats

One thing that distinguishes Instagram from other popular social media platforms is its different formats. These keep the user’s attention and allow you to show different aspects of your brand. So take advantage of:

Feed posts: photos and videos of best quality.
Stories: shortlived content, more raw and spontaneous (Stories hacks here).
Reels: videos with a little extra focus on the entertainment factor (creative Reels ideas here).
Lives: real-time videos, great for tutorials and AMAs (how to run a great IG Live here).

The more facets of your business a person can get familiar with, the more likely they are to develop an affinity for and follow you. Not sure what to do with all those formats? You can get more ideas on what to post on Instagram here.

7. Publish great content—consistently

This is paramount to your entire social media marketing strategy—not just Instagram. The great content part goes without saying, but the consistency part often gets overlooked. One great post might win you a follow, but now you’re in the spotlight. They’re seeing your content regularly and if you can’t continue delivering what brought them in in the first place, you’ll get the unfollow. So, what makes great content on Instagram?

Useful: relevant to your industry and your audience’s needs. Tips, facts, news, ideas.
Thoughtful: speaks to their values, lifestyles, and personalities.
Interactive: makes you fun to follow! Polls, questions, Lives, contests, shareable content.
Entertaining: captures and keeps attention. Attractive design, movement, emotion, humor, video, boldness.

In Mailchimp’s account below, we see a beautiful mix of posts that cover it all: useful how-tos, thoughtful customer spotlights and a small business support campaign, an interactive post on personal development, and an entertaining video with DJ Khaled.

8. Focus on entertainment

The entertainment factor is increasingly important. Last summer, when Instagram revealed how its algorithm works, it stated it was shifting focus to “full screen, immersive, entertaining, mobile-first video” content. Entertaining content doesn’t have to be action-packed or hilarious. It just needs to be interesting. Creative. Original. Expressive. You can get tips on how to make captivating Instagram videos here.

9. Do your Instagram SEO

SEO isn’t just about getting more Google searchers to your website. Social media platforms are search engines too, and Instagram’s search feature now supports regular keyword searches—not just account or hashtag searches. This has made Instagram SEO even more important now so be sure to:

Target keywords with your captions and bio
Add your location to Instagram
Add alt text to images

10. Cross-promote your account

One of the best ways to promote your Instagram account is to cross-promote. Put links to your social profiles in your website footer, email templates, and signatures. Print out your handle name and put it in a cute frame in your office. Tell your Facebook page visitors where they can find you on Insta. Cross-promote your branded hashtag, too—on your receipts, in print ads, and at relevant events.

Don’t just assume people will find your Instagram account or hashtag. Direct them to it.

11. Develop your own Instagram style

The beauty of design is that there are infinitely many ways to be unique. Choose a style that is distinctly yours so that your posts can be instantly recognizable in the newsfeed. Users follow accounts whose content they can experience, not just see. Oatly is a great example of this:

To develop your own style, make sure you have your overall brand developed. Your positioning, voice, brand colors, audience, and offerings will all play into your Instagram aesthetic.

12. Write good captions

The image may be the focal point of a post, but your Instagram caption can sometimes make or break its impact on your potential followers. What makes a good caption? Originality. What makes something original?

Wit
Humor
Inspiration
Meaningful stories
Self-deprecation
Relatability
Storytelling
Intrigue

For example, National Geographic is fantastic at using storytelling alongside their Instagram photos to generate engagement and sharing. Whatever you choose, try to stick with that style so your followers stick with you.

There are endless opportunities for originality. Stay away from generic wallpaper captions and paint something that pops. Here are some lists to help you out:

76 Non-Generic Valentine’s Day Instagram Captions
54 St. Patrick’s Day Instagram Captions (The Cliche-Free List)
131 Not Overused New Year’s Instagram Captions
78 Actually Unique Holiday & Christmas Instagram Captions
80+ Instagram Captions for Any Business

13. Run Instagram giveaways

These are perhaps the quintessential Instagram follower magnet. First of all, who doesn’t like free stuff or award recognition? Knowing that you run these regularly is sure to get a follow. Second, entry into the contest itself can require following you or tagging a friend. Just make sure the prize is something that is appealing specifically to your ideal customers. Remember, you want to attract a quality following.

And would ya look at that. We’ve got just the post for you >> How to Use Instagram Giveaways to Grow Your Following

14. Get local

Your Instagram marketing strategy should seek to gain followers through content that resonates not just with your ideal customers, but also with your local geographic community. People are immediately drawn to things they’re familiar with and like to see parts of their identity represented online. Here are some ways to do it:

Post pictures and videos featuring local landmarks and mainstays.
Share news and niche recommendations.
Get in on local events. Search your town or city, then tap “places” in search results to see what’s going on.

For even more local social media marketing ideas and tips, head to the LOCALiQ Social Media Marketing Lab. White coat optional.

How to get more followers on Instagram through hashtags

Hashtags on Instagram serve multiple purposes. They provide information, add humor, categorize posts, and create a web of content that can lead users anywhere. Here’s how to lead them to the follow button on your bio.

15. Use a mix of hashtag types

Hashtags on Instagram are like keywords on Google. They can be broad or long-tail, high or low-volume, location-based or universal, and can vary in intent. Allow me to show you:

Broad: #dogsofig
Long-tail: #dogtraining101
Local: #dogsofsouthie
Low intent: #smartdogs
High intent: #dogtrainerboston
Evergreen: #clickertraining
Trending: #valentinedogs
Branded: #chewydogs

The really specific hashtags are like long-tail keywords that have more intent and help you find the right people, but the broad ones can get you in front of more people in general. You need a mix of bo to grow your following on a platform as massive as Instagram.

16. But don’t take them too seriously

So the big lists of hashtags you see at the bottom of posts do serve a purpose, but should every one of your posts have that? Not if you want your followers to get sick of seeing them and think you’re desperate. Be selective with your hashtags, vary how many you use in each post, and also have fun with them. Some hashtags are purely aesthetic or added for humor or brand voice. Some have nothing to do with your brand but are just fun.

For example:

#twothingsthatdontmix
#oneoftheseisnotliketheother
#mylifeinanutshell
#youhadonejob
#neveragain

17. Have an intriguing or actionable branded hashtag

Speaking of having fun, come up with a follower-friendly branded hashtag. In other words, instead of just using your business name or a behind-the-scenes hashtag, come up with something your followers can use in their posts.

Take UPS’s Instagram account, with their brilliant #upsdogs hashtag. Anyone can contribute! More posts with your hashtag = more exposure = more followers.

How to get Instagram followers with other users

There are three types of Instagram users that can help you to get more followers: influencers, your customers and followers, and your competitors. Let’s explore.

18. Go all in on influencer marketing

We all know that getting mentioned by an influencer can win you a score of followers, but this doesn’t happen overnight. Influencer marketing is a careful strategy. You’ll want to:

Research. Curate a list of influencers who would be the most realistic to reach out to and the most relevant to your following.
Star small. Target smaller accounts and use those relationships to work your way up.
Be genuine. Choose one and thoroughly get to know them for a week or two. Turn on notifications for their posts, explore their content elsewhere on the web, and engage with their account. Take your time and build interest in them—not their followers. Then, when you reach out, your ask can be more appealing and your chances of an ongoing relationship are higher.

19. Encourage user-generated content

As good as a business may be, its own promotional content will never be as powerful as that of its customers. Enter user-generated content—posts from other users that tag your handle and/or location or mention your business name in the captions or hashtags.

Whether a user sees UGC on your account or someone else’s your credibility gets a lift and your chances of gaining their following are that much higher. Here’s how to encourage more of it:

Come up with a fun-to-use branded hashtag as mentioned above.
Make your location Instagram-friendly with a fun photo opp.
Engage with and repost user-generated content (seven different ways to repost on Instagram here).
Run contests where entrants post a picture of them using your product or service.

20. Analyze your competitors

Got a rival that you just can’t seem to catch up to? Do a little social media competitive analysis and find out what they post, how often, when, and in which formats. Follow them closely for a week so you can catch any nuanced strategies they employ. You just might get ideas on what, how, and the best time to post on Instagram to get more followers.

Tools to help you get more Instagram followers

So by now, you know that to get more followers on Instagram, you need to know your audience, engage with them, and create compelling content. The thing is, you’re probably managing more than one social media account for your business, and the more followers you get, the harder it can be to scale your strategy. Here are some free tools that can help you.

21. Social media management tools

It might feel like automation is the opposite of genuine engagement, but social media management tools are designed to help you streamline your personalized strategy. With them you can stay on top of conversations, post consistently through scheduling, monitor your competitors, and sometimes get deeper insights than what the native platform offers.

22. Design and photo editing tools

Instagram offers its own set of filters, stickers, stamps, and special effects so your visuals can look their best, but external design and editing tools can help you achieve the unique look you want. Plus, you can templatize things to ensure consistency and make more great content efficiently. My number one recommendation here is Canva, but there are other free tools out there like Afterlight and Facetune.

23. Instagram advertising

This is the only paid strategy of this post. Organic reach on Instagram has always been considered high. But don’t get too excited, we’re talking 9%. Meaning that your posts will only reach 9% of your full following.

Advertising, on the other hand, gives you the power to get in front of thousands of relevant users. And in addition to your ad’s CTA button, viewers can also view your bio right from your ad. Now, you shouldn’t advertise just to get more followers, but if the platform is right for you, it’s an added bonus.

How to get more followers on Instagram for free [recap]

The secret to getting more quality followers on Instagram that will help your business grow? Patience. It takes time, trial and error, and effort to find your niche and cultivate a community—but it is well worth it. To recap, here are the 23 best ways to get more Instagram followers:

Pick the right handle
Make sure it’s a business profile
Give people a reason to follow you
Nix the boring bio link
Focus on quality followers
Make use of all the formats
Publish great content—consistently
Focus on entertainment
Cross-promote your account
Do your Instagram SEO
Develop your own Instagram style
Write good captions
Run Instagram giveaways
Get local
Use a mix of hashtag types
But don’t take them too seriously
Have an intriguing or actionable branded hashtag
Go all-in on influencer marketing
Encourage user-generated content
Analyze your competitors
Social media management tools
Design and photo editing tools
Instagram advertising

How to increase your reach on Instagram: 30 ways

The answer to the question of how to increase your reach on Instagram is of interest to everyone who blogs or sells products through this social network. In this article, we will tell you what affects reach and why they fall. Let's take a look at 30 ways to increase your reach through publications, live streams, and dedicated apps.

What are Impressions and Reach on Instagram?
Why Track Instagram Reach?
How to find out the reach of your profile on Instagram
What should be the reach on Instagram
What influences reach on Instagram
Why Instagram reach is dropping
Tips on how to increase your reach on Instagram
Conclusion

What are impressions and reach on Instagram

Reach refers to the number of unique Instagram users who saw the post. If one person viewed the content several times, this is not reflected in the reach, but is taken into account in another metric - impressions.

Impressions is the total amount of views on your social media post.

Instagram statistics show coverage not only for individual publications, but also covered accounts - these are users who saw any of your content at least once during the specified period.

Why track Instagram reach

It is important for bloggers, various professionals and store owners who maintain pages on Instagram to constantly monitor audience reach. If they are growing, most likely you have chosen the right promotion strategy and create quality content. If coverage is falling, there is some problem that needs to be identified and addressed.

Analyzing the reach of different publications will help you determine which format and type of content algorithms are more likely to offer to your audience - and thus understand their preferences.

If you sell ads in your account or promote products with the help of bloggers, reach is one of the main metrics to focus on. Of course, it is also important to look at the activity of subscribers and check the account for cheating.

We recommend that you read: "Effective work with bloggers: how not to run into a fake and not drain the budget."

How to find out the reach of an Instagram profile

The Instagram statistics that are available to business accounts have indicators of reached and engaged accounts. Engaged - those who interacted with the content on your page in some way.

Account statistics

You can also see the reach for each photo, video, Reels video, story and live broadcast.

Recording statistics

To clarify statistics on reach and impressions, you can use special services, for example, Iconosquare, Minter.io, Pur.Ninja and others.

What should be the coverage on Instagram

There is no exact figure, but the coverage of 30-60% of all profile subscribers is considered optimal. At the same time, it is important to take into account their involvement - it should be at least 9-10% coverage.

As already mentioned, the number of engaged followers can be seen in Instagram statistics. Engagement for all publications can be calculated using the formula:

Engagement Rate formula

To calculate engagement for a single post, you need to divide the number of reactions to this post by the number of subscribers and multiply by 100%.

If the reach is high and the engagement is low, you need to work on the content, try new ideas and formats, ask your subscribers what they would like to see in their profile.

What influences reach on Instagram

Let's list the factors that affect reach.

Audience activity

The more likes, comments, saves and shares a post has, the higher the coverage will be — Instagram algorithms regard such content as interesting and offer it to other users more often. Activity in stories is also important - reactions, participation in surveys, answers and messages are taken into account.

The first hour after publication is considered to be especially important. If the post gets a lot of likes and comments during this period, then the reach will be good.

Content view time

The more time users spend on a post, the higher Instagram algorithms rate it. If subscribers open the text in full, scroll through the gallery, watch the video and do not scroll through the story, all this adds points to your publications.

Intrigue followers

Content attractiveness and variety

If people save your posts, like, comment, share with friends, these publications are more likely to be shown in the feed of your subscribers and other users who may like your content.

It is important to take into account the preferences of different users and use all the features of Instagram. When you create a variety of content in various formats - stories, posts with photos and videos, Reels videos, live broadcasts - this has a positive effect on reach.

Activity outside of your account

Reach rates are believed to be influenced by activities in other profiles. If you pay attention to other people's content, write comments, put likes, the algorithms understand that the account belongs to a living person, and are more likely to show your posts in user feeds.

Search engine optimization settings

Clear nickname and description, clear images, alternative photo captions, hashtags and geotags - all this helps Instagram successfully read information about you and your content, and then offer it to users who should be interested in it.

Use hashtags to help your audience find you

Posting time

New posts are shown first in the feed, so you should choose the right time to post when your audience is most active. Analyze your account statistics to determine the days and hours of ups and downs in activity.

According to Hootsuite research, the best time to post in general is 11am on Wednesday. Analysts say that at this time, users are more willing to like and write comments. Weekend activity is the lowest.

The best time to post on Instagram. Source

The authors of the study advise spreading Reels at 9 am or 12 noon from Monday to Thursday.

You need to understand that this is not a universal solution - if a lot of posts are published at the “ideal” time, due to their abundance, the user may simply not see yours. Rely primarily on the statistics of your account.

Why Instagram reach is falling

Let's look at a few reasons why this happens.

Poor quality and activity of the audience

If subscribers, as well as likes and comments are cheated, the account may be shadowbanned.

If you are fond of mass following, then response subscriptions can spoil the statistics. Usually these users are not interested in your content, they do not follow your account and do not leave reactions. Because of this, reach rates are not just low, but fall even more, because Instagram algorithms give less impressions to low-engagement profiles.

Monotonous, unattractive content

Try different content formats and don't get stuck on one topic. Follow trends, test innovations, create interesting and high-quality publications that take into account the preferences of the audience.

Try different formats and creative ideas

Ignoring search engine optimization

Hashtags, alt text for photos and everything else that was discussed in the section above - if you do not bother with such questions, it will negatively affect your reach.

Violations of the rules of Instagram

There are certain requirements in the social network, as well as some unspoken rules that should also be taken into account. If you bring up unwanted topics, organize giveaways, get subscribers or mass like, this can cause problems.

Giveway is a bad idea

Instagram updates

According to some observations, before updates on the social network, coverage of many profiles drops. This is a temporary phenomenon that you just need to wait out.

Tips on how to increase your reach on Instagram

In this section, we provide recommendations on how to increase your reach in various ways.

How to increase your Instagram reach with posts

A few tips for working with posts.

Test formats

Try to use all the features of the social network and create content in different formats. If you can spot a high-reach trend for a particular format, focus on it, but don't shy away from the rest.

Create Reels

Instagram launched the Reels video format due to competition from TikTok and promotes user videos from the very beginning, regardless of the number of subscribers. Reels provides an excellent opportunity to expand your reach and gain an audience for free.

How to increase reach on Instagram: create Reels

Place photos and videos in the carousel

If a user comes across a gallery post in the feed and ignores it, Instagram will show the post again, but from the second slide. This increases the likelihood that the subscriber will still pay attention to your content and react, and this will affect the reach.

Use gamification

Game mechanics help to engage users: this way they spend more time on posts, write comments more actively and share with friends. Gamification can be used both in posts and in stories: games for attentiveness, reaction, erudition, or simply with an element of luck, as well as combined with pranks.

How to increase your reach on Instagram using gamification

Ask questions and call for activity

Feel free to ask your followers to support you with a like if the content has gone. Ask for an opinion on the issues that you analyze in the post. People are especially willing to give advice: from choosing a movie for the evening to raising children.

Make helpful how-tos and lists

Create content you'll want to bookmark: useful checklists and guides, lists of movies, worthy places in the city, quality SPFs, and more. Share life hacks and invite subscribers to save the post for the future so as not to lose it.

Create useful content

Break the topic into parts

You can tell an interesting story in several posts. If you manage to hook readers, each publication will be expected, and you will get a lot of feedback.

Optional to use storytelling. You can prepare a selection of life hacks or stylish images and promise the second part if the post gets a certain number of reactions.

Use hashtags and geotags

Don't forget hashtags and geotags - this is a working way to increase your reach. But don't go overboard with the quantity and don't get carried away with high-frequency hashtags.

Show Before/After

Posts in Before/After format usually garner a lot of reactions. People actively comment and share with friends, which has a positive effect on reach, and also helps to get new customers.

How to Increase Instagram Reach: Show Before/After Comparisons

Have a Liketime

It's good to have a Liketime from time to time. Invite subscribers to like this and several previous posts and write a comment so that you leave likes in return on their profiles. Also, commentators can give each other hearts - this way everyone will be happy, and you will increase the activity in your account.

Provocative content

Provocative posts, such as substantiating an unpopular point of view, usually get a lot of reactions. True, they are far from always positive, be prepared for this.

Contests and sweepstakes

There must be some activity in the conditions of participation: likes, saves, reposts in stories, comments, marks of friends. Contests help boost your reach significantly, but to avoid attracting random fortune hunters, promise your products or something your audience likes as a reward. For example, on a yoga blog, the prize might be a class suit or a yoga tour, not a supply of Nutella or a smartphone.

How to increase your reach on Instagram: run giveaways

We advise you to read:

"How to make an Instagram contest that will increase awareness and sales."

How to increase reach with stories and live broadcasts

Interesting stories and meaningful streams help increase account reach.

More interactive

Interact with your audience more often: arrange polls and quizzes, invent games, add emoji sliders, ask for reactions to stories if the topic is interesting.

How to increase your reach on Instagram: arrange quizzes

Show the workflow

Videos showing the process of achieving a great result help to keep the audience's attention. Artists show how they draw pictures from scratch, repairmen show how they stretch ceilings, lay parquet or glue wallpaper, make-up artists show how to apply makeup, and so on.

Show footage at high speed or upload individual clips so as not to create dozens of stories that will quickly bore people.

Answer questions

Enter the section "Question-Answer" - such stories are usually watched to the end. If subscribers asked few questions, you can come up with your own.

How to increase your reach on Instagram: answer questions from followers

Share personal

Sometimes you can tell your audience about your personal experiences, but don't overdo it. In a metered amount, such content is interesting, but an excess of personal dramas makes you want to unsubscribe.

Review and unbox

This content gets good reach if it's relevant to the account.

Show the unboxing with nice music

Post a link to an interesting post

If a post gets undeservedly little attention, it's possible that subscribers simply didn't see it. To fix this, place a link to the publication in your stories.

Conduct live broadcasts

Live broadcasts are an opportunity to communicate with subscribers closer, increase their loyalty and get a lot of feedback. Joint streams with other bloggers will help expand your audience and reach. A big plus is that subscribers receive a notification about the start of the broadcast.

Show animals

Whatever the subject of the account, photos and videos with cute and funny animals are always great.

Content with pets engages the audience well

Engaging the audience and keeping their attention is an art. Check out our article with story ideas to create interesting content.

A few more tips on how to increase your reach on Instagram

Clean out the bots

Bots ruin your statistics and reduce your reach, so you need to get rid of them. This can be done manually, but the process will take a lot of time, so it's easier to use special applications, such as Followers - Unfollowers.

Make a content plan

In order for the reach not to fall, you need to post content regularly and avoid long pauses. Therefore, be sure to prepare a content plan and create materials for publications in advance so that in case of unforeseen situations you do not fall out of Instagram.

Offer lead magnets and use a chatbot

Motivate your audience to be active in your account with lead magnets provided by a chatbot. SendPulse has chatbots for various messengers, including Instagram.

Convert Followers into Loyal Customers

Automate your customer interactions and improve your Instagram Direct sales!

Set up targeted ads

Promote posts with targeted ads - if the settings are done well, this is a reliable way to increase your reach on Instagram.

Recommended: "Effective Targeted Facebook Ads - Tips".

Drive traffic from other platforms

If you have a Telegram channel, YouTube and TikTok accounts, do not miss the opportunity to advertise your Instagram profile there. Share links to interesting posts and do not duplicate all content everywhere so that subscribers have an incentive to follow you in all channels.

Buy ads from bloggers

Use influencers to increase your reach and get new followers. Don't forget to check bloggers for cheats, for example, using the Epicdetect and trendHERO services.

Test updates

If Instagram introduces a new format or makes changes to existing ones, test updates - most likely, the content will receive a lot of impressions.

Do not cheat subscribers and likes

We have repeatedly talked about this, but we will repeat it again - so that the coverage does not fall, do not engage in cheating.

Recommended: "Instagram ideas to spice up your business account."

Try activity chats

There are free and paid activity chats in Telegram and Instagram, whose members like each other, write comments and perform other actions. These are real people, so the risks of getting a shadowban are minimal, and coverage is growing. The method is not without drawbacks, but you can try.

Activity chats can be found by keyword search in Telegram and Instagram.

Try to increase your reach using activity chats

Reply to messages and comments

Do not ignore your subscribers - write answers to comments under publications and direct messages, repost stories on which you were noted.

Ask for feedback

Ask your followers directly what they want to see in your account. So you can please the audience and get more reactions.

Conclusion

We figured out how to increase the reach on Instagram using posts and stories, live broadcasts and special applications.

If you are running an online business, try SendPulse tools: chatbots for messengers, email, SMS and Viber messaging services, website and multilink builder, web push notifications, online course creation platform, CRM with task manager.

Ways to get followers on Instagram

The Instagram feed and app have changed many times over the past 10 years. Every time the platform algorithm changes, businesses need to adjust in order to maintain stable account growth.

How to keep up with constant change and adapt? Try and test new strategies. In this article, we'll look at organic follower growth strategies on Instagram.

How can you tell if an Instagram account is growing?

For bloggers and companies, the indicator of growth is the number of subscribers. But in order for people to want to subscribe, you need to increase the interaction with the account, brand awareness and publish attractive content. Otherwise, what's the point of people following a brand profile?

You most likely know how to measure Instagram account growth and what promotion techniques have or haven't worked before. If your account is not growing right now, we recommend testing the tips below.

If you're using a marketing agency to increase your following, find out what the agency does before you pay. Fake engagement and high growth rates will only hurt your Instagram profile in the long run, and this approach can lead to account suspension.

Consistency is the element of success

To promote an Instagram account, you cannot rely on just one published post. Most posts won't go viral, which means you need to find another effective way to get your content across to your target audience.

Follow the schedule and frequency of publications, pay attention to the quality of content. Analyze what brings results, and what points can be improved.

The best time to post on Instagram, according to Sprout Social, is Wednesday at 11:00 am and Friday from 10:00 am to 11:00 am. For the most stable interaction - Tuesday-Friday between 10:00 and 15:00. If you don't have your own effective posting time metrics, use the given time frame as a guideline. We recommend doing analytics and finding an effective time to post brand posts.

Regular publications subconsciously make subscribers expect new material. Large brands post several times a day, while small businesses only post a few times a week. Whatever posting frequency you choose, make sure you do it regularly.

It is very important to consistently publish quality content. There is a lot of noise and garbage in Instagram feeds, and you need to stand out. Bad or stock images won't help you get followers on Instagram. Authors who create their own unique content have an advantage.

Create varied content

Engagement is not only a viewed post in the feed. Engagement includes metrics like Stories replies, IGTV views, Stories mentions. The more different types of content you create, the more opportunities you have to increase engagement and, as a result, grow organically on Instagram.

If you're only posting one post per feed, or if you're adding Stories from time to time, we recommend that you try posting multiple Stories a week to maintain consistency and create content ahead of time. With a variety of ways to use Stories as a method to increase followers, you can find out what your audience likes best.

For example, dairy brand Ecomilk created a mask for Stories. Thus, marketers attracted the attention of people and created a stir with the help of user-generated content, so everyone set masks and added stories to their profile with a mention of the company, increasing its recognition.

The quality of content and its regular publication affect the growth of the account. Spend time learning new things, like how to create professional photos and videos, or work with a content agency or freelancer to help with ideas and create posts.

Run promotions and contests

People like to receive goods or services for free or at a discount. Nothing will change in the near future. But what marketers publish does not always meet the expectations of buyers. Marketers miss opportunities when creating social content.

The Sprout Social Index reveals that 72% of consumers want brands to post discounts or sales on their social media. But only 18% of marketers believe that discounts and bonuses are the right thing to post on social media. This gap in expectations means there is room to grow.

To increase the number of followers on Instagram, run contests and promotions. Set the requirements for the giveaway, for example, subscribe to accounts from the list of subscriptions, as well as tag your friends in the comments on the contest post.

Run contests with reliable brands that have a good reputation in the market. Examine all partners. If you run contests regularly, such as monthly or quarterly, subscribers are more likely to stay and look forward to the next contest.

Promote your account on other social networks

Use not only Instagram. Many users have accounts on other social networks. Post content on Instagram that will be different from posts on Facebook or VK, send followers from other social networks to your Instagram account to get an exclusive offer that is not available on other sites.

Use other platforms where you can create long multimedia articles, such as Hashtap or Medium, to expand your content reach. Users who are looking for useful information in Google or Yandex search will go to the article, and from the article to the Instagram account.

In addition to social networks, there are other spaces where you can add a link to your Instagram account. Adding social media buttons to your email newsletter, website footer are all good examples of cross-platform promotion. The idea behind cross-platform promotions is to bring current customers and people who like the brand to the brand. Thus, getting subscribers is easier than running ads for people who may not know the brand.

Work with influencers

The influencer market has grown over the past 5 years and will continue to grow, according to research from Marketing Hub. If your company is on a tight budget, consider partnering with micro-influencers. Micro-influencers are those bloggers who do not have as many subscribers, but the audience itself is more engaged. They create content in a specific niche and are willing to work with brands that align with their values.

Working with influencers, especially micro- and nano-influencers, increases the credibility of the company and attracts new followers to the brand profile.

Interact with the audience

A proven method of growing your Instagram account organically is to be constantly active. This means spending time commenting on subscriber posts, answering questions, and reposting user-generated content.

Create a community around your Instagram account. If you can offer subscribers more than just contests, there will be more opportunities to get loyal users.

Why prioritize engagement and quality content? A recent Sprout study found that when customers feel connected to a brand, they are 68% more likely to recommend it to a friend and 76% more likely to buy it compared to a competitor.

Increasing engagement time is a long-term strategy that will help your account grow in the future.