How to rebuild your instagram
How to Revive a Dead Instagram Account
When you’re dead on Instagram you lose a plethora of opportunities to boost your sales. But what does it actually mean — dead Instagram account?
The name speaks for itself: your Instagram profile is not active and thus, has low engagement, low reach, and few impressions with a satisfactory number of followers.
You may encounter this situation when you stop posting for a while and disappear from your audience’s feeds or when the content you’re posting is no longer attractive.
The main drawback of the low ER is that people don’t know about you or your brand. This leads to smaller brand awareness, diminished traffic on your website, fewer sales, and less money.
But the good news is that it’s possible to revive your Instagram account from the dead. Before we go straight to this, let’s talk about signs pointing that your page needs help.
How do I know my account is dead?
If you track your Instagram statistics, you know how your account and overall strategy performs. Instagram itself shows us the basic metrics — profile visits, reach, impressions and content performance.
But what Instagram doesn’t provide us with is the insights about our engagement rate. ER is one of the most valuable metrics in terms of Instagram marketing and is measured in percentages. So, if you see that your ER is low, it means your Instagram page is dead.
What is low ER, you wonder. The ideal percentage of ER depends on the number of followers and a type of account. For instance, brands and businesses (commercial accounts) tend to have a lower ER than profiles of individuals — bloggers, influencers, creators, and so on.
But generally speaking, if your ER is lower than 2%, it’s time to change your Instagram strategy. Though it’s very individual since large companies like Starbucks (0.62%) or McDonald’s (0.53%) have a low ER, according to Social Blade, but this little misfortune doesn’t prevent them from making billions of dollars.
Small or aspiring businesses with lower revenues and Instagram as the primary eCommerce platform should pay more attention to the ER than the number of likes or followers.
To find out the percentage of your ER, you can use tools like Social Blade. But it will reveal your engagement rate only if you have a Business or Creator Instagram account.
Another way to measure your ER is to detect your engagement in terms of likes. To do so, you need to use this straightforward formula.
Calculate the average number of likes in posts 4 through 10, divide it by this number of posts, and then divide the result by the number of your followers.
So, you take the likes in post 4 and add the likes from posts 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Then divide the sum by 7 (number of posts). Once you get the result, divide it by a total amount of your followers. Thus, you’ll get your ER.
By doing this simple maths, you indicate an average number of followers that care about your content and respond to it.
An important note here: we take this exact number of posts because they detect your current engagement, not that once been on your account.
We discussed this topic in detail on one of our webinars.
How to re-engage the dead account: do’s and don’ts
As we said, it’s possible to revive your Instagram account, but that will take some time and effort. And like in any activity, there are mistakes that you should avoid.
So, let’s start with steps you should take today to bring the profile back to life.
Do’s- Post regularly.
Well, duh. As we’ve said, one of the reasons for low activity score on your Instagram is that you post too rarely. Your followers have time to forget about you while you’re absent.
If that’s your case and the engagement dropped after a long absence on Instagram, your first step is to post in one rhythm. It’s up to you whether you want to post several times a day or a week — you need to test this. The trick is in regularity.
Don’t forget about stories and their stickers, IGTVs, video posts, and live streams. Use any content Instagram suggests.
And tools like Combin Scheduler will assist you in building this regularity. By planning the content, you’ll make sure you don’t forget to post it on each of your accounts.
- Be socially active.
Once you start posting regularly, your account unavoidably attracts more people. Thus, the reach, profile visits and engagement grow. People start responding to your content — leave comments under your posts, reply in DM, react to stories, and so on.
All you need to do is respond; talk to your audience and engage it in discussions.
- Work on audience-oriented content.
When the profile visits grow, some of the audience leave your page and don’t follow you. And that’s totally normal. It means that Instagram suggests your content to irrelevant people, but among them, there’s definitely your audience. How to make them stay? With content.
For a better understanding of what your audience is looking for, do some research and check what your competitors or accounts with similar concept do to attract their followers.
This will inspire you and give a clearer image of what to do with your content strategy.
- Grow your network.
Interact with other accounts from your niche — collaborate, host contests together, and tag relevant accounts on posts they’d likely to respond (but don’t do it massively, since Instagram detects it as spam).
The key here is to partner with accounts that are potentially interesting for your audience.
- Repost UGC.
User-generated content is your social proof. By reposting this, you showcase to your audience that you’re interesting for people like they are. Share the content of other users mentioning you in any way — comments, video reviews, posts with tags.
But make sure this content fit to the concept of your page.
Instagram of this cosmetics brand is full of UGC- Make contests and challenges.
This point requires specific attention. Last time we talked about which contests you should and should not conduct to make your tribe engage.
Just in a nutshell here: make contests with the motivation that is valuable for your followers, not for a sizeable generic audience.
Challenges, in turn, are very engaging and require no motivation once done correctly. Remember those viral ten years challenge, FaceApp age challenge, or Gradient one with celebs looking like you? If your challenge is fun and engaging, people will support it without a prize and make it go viral.
- Remove ghost followers.
Followers that do not engage with your account are dead weight, so not to make it even worse, you can manually remove them from your followers’ list. They will not be notified, by the way.
Bots, accounts of other businesses like stores and mass followers with more than 500 followings should be removed. You can do it effortlessly within the Instagram native app heading over Followers -> three dots next to a username -> Remove Follower.
Why remove accounts with many followings? Because of this vast amount, they will not see your content in their feed.
- Provoke.
Post provocative posts and captions but be ready for a negative reaction. Typically, such posts divide your audience into two parts discussing one controversial issue you’re offering.
It’s important to remember that while making provocative posts you have to stick to Instagram community guidelines which means no insults or bullying is allowed.
- Ask for help or advice.
Make your audience feel it’s needed. But naive publications with captions like which is better — 1, 2, or 3? are not the best option since your followers will quickly get tired of that and understand that you do it for engagement, not their opinion.
- Attract a look-a-like audience.
Parse users similar to your followers who are active on your competitors’ pages or in accounts with content like yours. You can search for them in the Combin Growth tool by commenters, likers, or followers of your competitor or a single post.
- Buy bots.
Bots, fake likes, comments, and followers are not just faux pas, but a direct path to deleting your account and creating a new one.
- Conduct giveaways with expensive and generic prizes.
Laptops, cars, and iPhones will attract people who love free goods, not those who’ll get in love with your content.
- Collaborate with fake influencers.
Before partnering with any Instagram influencer, check their ER, quality and relevance of the audience, and the way they speak to their followers.
Sometimes, even if an influencer is not fake, their audience is not relevant for you. That’s why it’s vital to check if these followers are even interested in you as a creator or a brand.
- Spam.
Another Instagram faux pas. Same hashtags, comments, overlapping mentions in a post, too often posting are spam-like activity.
Don’t annoy Instagram and your audience with repetitive actions, otherwise not the audience only gets bored, but Instagram will ban you.
- Post the same content.
Last but not least. Thanks to Instagram function to check the performance of each post, it’s very tempting to emulate the previous success with the same kind of content.
But here’s what you should remember. Same posts will not bring you the same engagement as they did once posted for the first time. People tend to get bored with the same content.
If you want to boost the engagement with each of your posts, be ready to think bigger and generate new ideas over and over. Simply put, if once a post with a soup recipe boosted your activity (and your account is not a cooking one), no need to post such recipes over and over. Lack of ideas is a common struggle for creators, but these recommendations will help you overcome the creative roadblock.
For your inspiration
Take a look at the compilation of accounts that kill it on Instagram with their high engagement and amazing content.
Hot Pockets with 5.51% ER is full of engaging games and jokes with wordplay out of their brand name.
The Gifted on Fox has 7.61% of ER with 206k followers. Though it’s not a personal page, it’s full of faces who people love — actors and stars of the show. Accounts with “faces” always get a higher ER.
The Crown on Netflix has 15.13% (wait, what?) and that’s a huge ER considering how large their followers' number is.
Chipotle with 3.27% is another food company that wrapped their content in memes and jokes.
Matt Adlard — a “self-taught baker” — has a huge ER of 12.14% with 620k followers. He publishes video recipes, shows the “inners” of the professional cooking process, and shares the moments from his life.
To read all our updates and get new Instagram marketing tips, follow us on Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Youtube.
17 Ways to Get More Followers on Instagram (2022)
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, over 500 million Instagram users browse the app every day, making it home to some of the most engaged audiences around.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to grow your Instagram follower profile and increase engagement, while growing a massive following over time—one that’s full of real fans, not bots or fake followers.
17 ways to get more Instagram followers
- Incorporate Reels into your content mix
- Cross promote content
- Curate your profile grid
- Work with brand ambassadors
- Get follows from your loyalty program
- Market through your personal Instagram account
- Get on feature accounts
- Use the right hashtags
- Post at the right times
- Steal your competitors' followers
- Pay for sponsored posts and product reviews
- Use geotags to boost local discovery
- Organize your Stories in highlights
- Ask for more followers
- Run a giveaway
- Share user-generated content
- Use Instagram live
Let’s dive deeper into how to implement each tactic to get more Instagram followers.
Free Webinar:
How to Grow Your Instagram Account
A free workshop with field-tested Instagram marketing tips. Learn how to grow your Instagram audience and monetize it with an online store.
Register now
1. Incorporate Reels into your content mix
Reels are fun videos you can share with followers on your Instagram account. They have audio, effects, and creative tools. You can share them on your feed and publicly in Explore to reach new audiences.
Reels are new territory for brands. Instagram’s beauty partnerships manager, Kristie Dash, stated in a Glossy forum that Reels are still a relatively new way to publish content, and there isn’t one formula for success. But, she does suggest the following tips to gain traction:
- Keep content unique and trend drive. Identify trends on Instagram and TikTok and put your own spin on it. This increases the chance your Reels will go viral and get in front of new people.
- Make content relatable and simple. Not every Reel needs to be a production. Lower quality videos can perform the same, if not better, than highly produced Reels.
- Educate your audience. Find the balance between education and entertainment in your Reels.
Reels should be a huge priority for you right now. It’s prime real estate for your brand to be discovered by new followers.
Kristen Dash, Beauty Partnerships Manager, Instagram
Social media marketing agency owner Trilce Jirón Garro, of TBS Marketing, agrees. “Don’t sell your products through Reels content. Share facts. Provide tips about the industry you’re in. Entertain viewers,” she says.
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. There’s no learning curve because Reels content is lo-fi.
And creators can produce community-driven content that builds trust, gains followers, and makes sales over time.”
Trilce also loves the Instagram Insights Tool introduced for Reels. “Reels have become an integrated part of any Instagram marketing strategy. Analytics tools for Reels has 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 Why and How to Use Instagram Reels to Market Your Shopify Store to learn more.
2. Cross promote content
Cross-promoting involves posting similar content across various social media channels.
It’s a tactic used to save time and resources. It’s also effective at increasing brand awareness and growing an audience on Instagram.
Mobile users are spending an increasing amount of time with video and entertainment apps, with video content on social media platforms accounting for the biggest increase. Whether it’s a short-form video or lengthy tutorial, you want to improve the reach of your Instagram content.
Justin Bieber’s holiday dance challenge is a great example of successful cross-posting. During the 2020 holiday season, the Canadian singer posted the same dance challenge on both TikTok and Instagram. On TikTok, his video short received 9.8 million likes. The same content on Instagram received 4.8 million likes. He was able to get in front of 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. She says in an interview with Modern Retail, “As we’ve grown on TikTok from August, we’ve also grown to 175,000 followers on Instagram.
” Actively posting on multiple platforms has “affected our overall cost of acquisitions to be super effective,” allowing the brand to steer away from paid media as a main acquisition channel.
TikTok isn’t the only channel you can cross-post on. The Instagram Reels format translates well to YouTube Shorts and Pinterest Stories. It’s important to note that Instagram’s algorithm won’t promote Reels that have a TikTok watermark. So if you’re going to cross-post content from Instagram to other channels, ensure the content is high quality and doesn’t promote a competing platform through watermarks.
3. Curate your profile grid
Most of your 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 theme and a consistent posting schedule 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 are often 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 the look and layout of your feed.
Letterfolk is just one example of how far some brands go with the aesthetic of their Instagram layout.
Your feed serves as the billboard for your brand. It’s a customer’s first touchpoint with you and captures the essence of your brand.
Trilce Jiron, TBS Marketing
4. Work with brand ambassadors
Don’t want to pay the celebrity influencer big bucks to market your brand? Works 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 over 500 women. 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 posts are authentic and relatable to regular Sarah Flint shoppers.
This helps the brand grow its Instagram following and earn sales.
5. Get follows from your loyalty program
Retailers are increasingly launching loyalty programs, repeatedly encouraging consumers to shop with their brand over another. It’s worked for brands like Sephora and Blume. One way brands are capitalizing on loyalty programs is by rewarding those who follow them on Instagram.
When luxury retailer Rebecca Minkoff launched its rewards program, RM Rewards, it gave shoppers the option to earn points by following the brand’s Instagram account. Brands like Blume are also finding the value in rewarding Instagram followers. Program members can earn Blume Bucks for becoming a friend on Instagram versus Facebook or Twitter.
6. Market through your personal Instagram account
Another popular way to increase your Instagram following is growing your personal account—basically, make yourself the influencer. Harnessing both the company account and your personal account can increase brand recognition, follower counts, and sales.
Pro tip: You can also run this playbook on TikTok to improve your numbers.
It’s a tactic that works well for fashion label ANINE BING. In addition to the brand’s Instagram profile, the company’s founder also drives engagement and awareness through her personal Instagram page, which has over one million followers.
Anine invites followers into her design studio, takes them through the design process, and even gets feedback from followers throughout the creative process. Anine also shares a bit about her personal life and milestones, giving followers a peak behind the curtains of their favorite designer’s life.
7. Get on feature accounts
Instagram feature accounts are pages that curate the best content in a specific niche. They are like the “best of” photo journals for an industry. Some feature accounts have a massive following. If you get placement on the account, it can send new Instagram followers to your profile.
There are feature accounts for every niche: travel, fashion, photography, and more.
For example, @discoverearth curates adventurous travel content from around the world for over 6.1 million followers.
8. Use the right hashtags
Your goal on Instagram is to engage your current audience on a regular basis while also growing your number of real followers. Posting new, interesting, and engaging photos will satisfy the first requirement, but to begin growing you’ll find hashtagging your photos extremely important. Hashtagging makes it easy for people searching for specific terms to find your photos.
So which hashtags should you use? Just like with Twitter and other social sites, users on Instagram choose certain hashtags over others. If you use popular Instagram hashtags within your photos, you’re much more likely to reach new users and be discovered.
At the time of this writing, these were the top 20 hashtags on Instagram:
- #love
- #instagood
- #photooftheday
- #fashion
- #beautiful
- #happy
- #cute
- #like4like
- #tbt
- #followme
- #picoftheday
- #follow
- #me
- #art
- #selfie
- #summer
- #instadaily
- #repost
- #friends
- #nature
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 completely different.
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, new interested 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.
To find relevant hashtags, you’ll want to use a free online tool like IconoSquare or Webstagram to start.
Below, I used Webstagram to find relevant, related, and popular hashtags for my men’s accessory business by searching for key hashtags closely related to my brand.
As an example, searching the hashtag #MensFashion, I was able 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, so 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: Here’s a trick I use for my ecommerce businesses. For every product and product category in my stores, I’ve researched the most popular related Instagram hashtags. I came up with 15 to 20 popular hashtags for each category of products I sell, as well as a base of five to 10 popular tags that describe my brand and product offering.
Finally, I also created a list of popular local specific hashtags that relate to my 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
All of these groups of keyword hashtags are stored in a page on Evernote. This makes it easy and efficient when I’m on the go to post a new Instagram image optimized for the most relevant keywords.
You can easily open my Evernote and copy my standard brand-, product-, and location-specific hashtags to post with each photo. Some Instagram scheduling tools also let you save caption templates for storing your hashtag groups.
Doing the work of researching, organizing, and saving the most applicable and popular hashtags upfront will save you a ton of time down the road, increase your engagement, and help garner new followers.
Pro tip #2: If you’ve been posting to Instagram for a while and feel you’ve missed out on all these opportunities to build your audience using keyword hashtags, fret not. You can still go back and post a comment with your new hashtag keyword lists and watch the likes and followers roll in.
Using hashtags in Instagram stories
Hashtagging on Instagram posts is a given, but you should also be using hashtags in your Stories for the chance to be seen by users who follow that specific hashtag.
You can use hashtag stickers (which can be found in the Instagram Stickers menu when creating a Story) or just hashtag directly in your captions for a chance to be featured in a hashtag story.
Now that users can follow hashtags, your Stories on Instagram have a chance to be seen by both people who are following that hashtag and anyone who’s just checking it out.
9. Post at the right times
Beyond adding the appropriate hashtags and using the best filters to get more Instagram followers, you should also consider the timing of your posts.
A targeted approach involves analyzing what has and has not worked for you in the past. By visiting IconoSquare’s optimization section, you can get a detailed analysis of your posting history versus engagement. This report will also highlight the best times of the day and days of the week to post.
The dark circles indicate when you usually post media. The light gray circles show when your community has been interacting. The biggest light gray circles represent the best times for you to post.
You can also get a lot of great insight for free from Instagram analytics for business accounts, found under the Followers section.
You may want to consider using a social media scheduling tool to automatically publish your posts when your audience is the most engaged.
10. Steal your competitors’ followers
One of the best ways to find and attract a new following is by seeking out your closest competitors’ Instagram accounts and engaging with their audiences.
These people have already shown some level of interest in the products you carry simply by following your competitors.
So how do you effectively steal your competitors’ followers? By engaging with them. There are several ways to engage with Instagram users, and the more work you put in, the more followers and repeat engagement you’ll get out of it.
The three types of engagement on Instagram are:
- Follow a user
- Like a photo
- Comment on a photo
Don’t be afraid to use an emoji or two to add some personality to your text.
11. Pay for sponsored posts and product reviews
All this optimized posting to your account is great, but if you really want to increase Instagram followers, you need to take advantage of influencer marketing and expose your brand to a wider audience.
So, how do you do that? First, unlike the tactics to grow Instagram followers mentioned above, this one usually isn’t free. However, if done correctly, it’s of good value.
To get started, you’ll need to make a list of large accounts in your niche. For example, if you sell beauty products, you’ll want to find large accounts from beauty bloggers.
You may already be following these accounts, but if not, you’ll need to find them. One of the best ways is to use Webstagram (mentioned earlier) and search for some of the closest hashtag keywords you uncovered in the beginning of this post. When you do a search for your keywords, not only will it show you the related keywords, it will also show you the top Instagram accounts that feature those keywords.
There are a couple of things to look for in the profiles results:
- A large following—usually 20,000 to 200,000
- An email address in the profile
If there is an email address in the profile, it usually means the account is open to sponsored posts or a shoutout in a sponsored Story.
You’ll want to email and ask their sponsored post pricing. In general, I have found the average rate to be around $20 to $50 per post, depending on the size of the following.
However, if you’re selling a unique and original product, you may also want to consider sending your product for the influencer to review and post. Usually, the more natural and less advertisement-like the image, the greater the engagement and response.
You don’t necessarily need influencers with a massive following to get more followers on Instagram, but rather ones with a high engagement rate (likes and comments relative to follower count), which many influencer marketplaces can provide.
12. Use geotags to boost local discovery
Besides hashtags, you can also make your Instagram posts and Stories discoverable by tagging your location—either the city you’re in or the venue where the photo or video was taken.
Locations not only have their own Instagram feed but also their own Story, and hashtags that you can contribute to when you use the location sticker in your own Stories.
Local businesses can get the most value out of location tags by posting regularly to these feeds and also engaging with posts from prospective customers who are physically in the vicinity.
13. Organize your Stories into Highlights
Whenever a potential follower lands on your business profile, you have a short span of time to convince them to follow you.
One way to do this is by using the Highlights feature on your profile to organize your Instagram Stories in a way that communicates what your account is about.
Since Stories have a 24-hour lifespan, Highlights can be used to give them a second life and entice others to follow you so they don’t miss out on more Stories in the future.
Use Story Highlights to grow Instagram followers by:
- Creating trailers that tease what your account is about
- Organizing your Stories into themes (like countries you’ve visited, for travel accounts)
- Explaining your products through pictures and videos
14. Ask for more followers
It sounds obvious, but it deserves to be said: Don’t be afraid to occasionally ask your audience to follow you.
The same way YouTubers ask their viewers to follow them at the end of their videos, you can also ask viewers to follow you for more content.
Sometimes people might really enjoy what you put out on Instagram but need a nudge before they actually follow you.
You can also do this in your Instagram captions, work it into your content by pitching what your audience will get if they follow you or by hinting at content that’s coming up that they won’t want to miss.
15. Run a giveaway
One of the best kinds of comments you can get on any social media post, not just Instagram, is when one user tags a friend. Not only do these comments contribute to your post’s engagement, which in turn makes it favorable to the Instagram algorithm, but each tag brings you a new audience member who arrived through a recommendation and who you could potentially win over as a follower.
One way to encourage this behavior is by posting relatable content that begs for 1:1 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.
Free Reading List: Social Media Marketing Tactics
Want to learn more about how social media can help drive sales? Download our free, curated list of high-impact articles.
Get our Social Media Marketing Tactics reading list delivered right to your inbox.
Almost there: please enter your email below to gain instant access.
We'll also send you updates on new educational guides and success stories from the Shopify newsletter. We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe.
Thanks for subscribing. You’ll start receiving free tips and resources soon. In the meantime, start building your store with a free 14-day trial of Shopify.
16. Share user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC) is any type of content—such as videos, photos, reviews, audio, and more—that you curate from fans or followers. It’s an essential tool in your marketing arsenal for gaining followers on Instagram. UGC helps humanize your brand by featuring real people, with real stories, that show your product in real life and builds a more trusting relationship with potential customers.
Not only does your audience love their 15 minutes of fame on your Instagram feed, featuring them also helps drive more sales in your online store. According to research from Olapic, consumers today are 56% more likely to buy something after seeing a photo of the product shared by customers.
Take Fashion Nova, for example. The online retailer’s Instagram account relies heavily on user-generated content.
Fashion Nova’s user-generated content gives it access to thousands of pictures from people all over the world to share with its audience—pictures that both showcase the brand’s values and inspire followers to engage with its posts and buy the clothes real people are wearing.
When it comes to creating user-generated content for your online store, start by asking customers to share their favorite experiences and images with your products by:
- Creating a branded hashtag feed where customers can post images
- Adding a call to action in your Instagram bio
- Running a contest
- Reaching out to influencers
- Adding an “ask” for user-generated content in your packaging
Remember, the goal of UGC is to show an authentic view of your products. If some customers send you lower-quality photos that still highlight your products’ best features, don’t be afraid to use them.
17. Use Instagram Live
Live video is the key to running a successful marketing strategy on any social media platform. With Instagram, you can use Instagram Live to stream videos to your followers and engage with them in real-time.
When your brand starts a live video stream, a ring encases your profile picture in Instagram Stories to tell followers they can check it out.
Followers also receive a notification when you start a live video. Once you finish your livestream, you can upload it to your Story for 24 hours.
Remember that Instagram Live is interactive. Your followers will probably comment while you’re live, so try to acknowledge their comments and find ways to get them to participate.
Some ways to gain more followers when using Instagram Live include:
- Influencer takeovers
- Hosting an AMA (ask me anything) or Q&A
- Teasing a product launch or update
- Hosting a talk show
- Going behind the scenes on your operations
- Sharing a current event
- Running product tutorials
Building an Instagram growth strategy to drive followers
In this post we talked about the most effective ways to use Instagram to grow your instagram following, but it's not always a numbers game. As with any social network, the most successful content strategy is to be 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 post on how to make money on Instagram.
Illustration by Eugenia Mello
Ready to create your first business? Start your free 14-day trial of Shopify—no credit card required.
How to get more followers on Instagram FAQ
How do you get more followers on Instagram for free?
- Find and post in popular hashtags related to your photo, product, or brand.
- Create your own branded hashtag.
- Use hashtags in Stories.
- Create Instagram Reels.
How can I increase my followers on Instagram?
- Use the right Instagram hashtags.
- Steal your competitors' followers.
- Use geotags on Instagram posts.
- Organize Stories into Highlights.
- Post user-generated content.
- Collaborate with other brands.
- Post at the best times.
- Use Instagram analytics tools.
- Publish Instagram Reels.
- Livestream on Instagram Stories.
How to restore instagram: simple instructions
If you deleted your instagram or your account was hacked, you can return it. The editors of MC.today tell you how to restore Instagram and when you have to do it.
5 most common reasons why a page is restored
Here are five cases when you have to restore your Instagram profile.
Temporary blocking
If a user has violated the rules for using Instagram, then his page can be temporarily blocked. Access to the page is restricted when a person publishes prohibited content, spam (makes a mass mailing of promotional messages. - Note ed.) , violates copyright and so on.
Another page is blocked when a person exhausts the limit of actions - the number of likes, subscriptions and comments.
One action can be blocked, for example, the ability to like or comment. And they can prohibit the use of the entire page. This will be announced in the notification.
Source
To find out what the restrictions are for, go to the Instagram settings on your phone. Select "Help" and then "Support Requests".
Source
Select the Violations section. There you can see publications that violate the guidelines of the social network.
Temporary blocking lasts from a few hours to three weeks.
Course
UI/UX design
Start your web design journey from scratch to employment in 6 months. Earn at the start from $700
REGISTER!
If you get banned
Ban is also imposed for violations of the rules for using the social network, but it is not always possible to recover from it.
If the user constantly violates the rules, then the page is blocked forever. It can also be affected by complaints from other users.
Source
If the profile owner proves that the hacker did the prohibited actions, then the page can be restored.
When they forgot their password or email
78% of users forget their passwords after 90 days. In this case, Instagram has a button "Forgot password" or "Help with logging in". Along with passwords, users forget what email they used during registration.
If you still have access to Instagram, then go to settings, select the "Security" section and change your password. An email will be sent to you to change your password. This way you will find the correct address.
Access can be restored through a Facebook profile if it is linked to an Instagram page. Next, we will tell you in more detail how to do this.
If you have lost access or forgotten your email password, please contact the technical support of the mail service.
When the Instagram and Facebook profiles are not connected, and there is no access to mail or a phone number, then the page cannot be restored.
Other problems with instagram login can be found here.
If you were hacked
Instagram page can be hacked by ill-wishers or scammers. Accounts are stolen in order to: carry out financial fraud, steal personal data, view correspondence, send mailings and spam.
If the owner noticed that his page was hacked, then he needs to immediately change the password or contact the technical support of the site. If the moderators of the social network notice this, then they will change all the data. More such pages can be blocked.
If the page was deleted
An Instagram page can be deleted temporarily or permanently. In the first case, the profile becomes inaccessible to all users. But you can return it at any time. And an account that has been permanently deleted cannot be restored.
Technical support and other methods will not help. You will have to create a new page.
How to restore the page through the phone and computer
Phone
Through the login page
1. Log in to the application from your phone and enter your username and password.
2. If you don't remember your password, click the Forgot Password or Login Help button. If you have the data, then go directly to step 6.
Source
3. Enter your username, email, or phone number. Click next.
4. A link to reset your password will be sent to the specified address or contact. Follow it.
5. Update the password.
6. You will be prompted to restore your account. Press the confirmation button.
Via Facebook
If you don't remember your password, you can recover your account through Facebook.
1. Log in to the application from your phone and click on the "log in with Facebook" button.
Source
2. If Facebook asks, enter your login information.
3. You will receive a link to reset your password by email. Follow it.
4. Reset your password and create a new one.
Important! You can use this method if your Instagram and Facebook profiles are linked.
Computer
1. Log in to the Instagram website using a computer browser and enter your username and password. If you have the data, then immediately go to step 6.
2. If you do not remember the password, then click the "Forgot password" button.
3. Enter your username, email, or phone.
4. You will receive a password reset link by email or phone. Follow it.
5. Reset your password and create a new one.
6. You will be prompted to restore your account. Press the confirmation button.
How to recover an account that has been hacked and the login information has been changed
If your page has been hacked, try to restore access using the "Forgot Password" or "Help Login" button.
Follow the same path when you recover your password. If you gain access to the page, then immediately change the password.
If you have not received access, you can go the other way:
1. Go to Instagram on your phone and click the "Forgot your password" or "Help signing in" button.
2. Enter your username, email or phone number and click on the Need More Help button. On the next page, click next.
4. Follow the instructions on the screen. Enter your personal information and other email.
5. An email will be sent to the post office asking you to verify your identity. They may ask:
- to be photographed with a passport;
- take a picture with the security code;
- give information about the phone model from which you previously logged into your account;
- indicate the email of the hacked account;
- send photos that were posted in the account.
Important! If there were your personal photos in the account, where your face is clearly visible, then the page recovery will be without problems.
Restoring a hacked page can be difficult: technical support does not always respond quickly, sometimes the answer comes after a few weeks.
How to recover your account if it has been banned
If your account has been banned, you will be notified by email. The letter writes the reason for the blocking and the number of the error. For a reason, it will become clear how you can restore Instagram.
For example, if the account was banned for copyright infringement, then the email will include the contact details of the content author. You can contact him. If you manage to agree with the author, then ask him to report this in support of Instagram. He needs to send a letter with the error number and his consent.
Source
Sometimes, in a letter, Instagram support immediately makes it clear that it will not work to restore the account.
Source
If at the end of the letter there is a link "let us know", then the page can be restored. Follow this link. There you will find detailed information about the bathhouse and instructions for unlocking it.
Some users find a way out even in this situation: they pretend that the page has been hacked, and all prohibited actions were done by hackers. So you can go through the path of recovering a hacked page, which we described above, and return your account.
9 tips to protect your Instagram page from being hacked
Here are nine rules to prevent your account from being hacked and data stolen:
- Synchronize Instagram with Facebook . Link your email and phone number to your profile. Use an empty SIM card and mail that is not linked anywhere else. They are not hacked, as they are practically inactive.
- Create a strong password for each account separately. This will reduce the chances that scammers will gain access to your profile if the page is hacked on another site.
Write down the password so you don't forget. - Save photos and videos you share on Instagram to your phone, computer or cloud. This way you can prove that the page is yours.
- Post at least twice a year personal photos that clearly show your face. So the owner's identity is confirmed faster.
- Post only your own content. If you decide to use someone else's, then agree on this with the author. Screenshot the message with consent, mark it on the publication.
- Do not install suspicious applications on your phone. Such applications may request access to a social network. Fraudsters often use this to gain access to data. Read the service description and reviews.
- Do not access your profile from third-party gadgets. They may contain dangerous virus files and applications.
- Update the software version in time and check your smartphone for viruses.
- Find out more instagram rules so as not to violate them.
2 ways + guide to action
Working on an Instagram profile is a lot of work, a lot of time and money spent. An account can be a channel for promoting a business or connecting with customers, a way to sell, earn money from advertising, etc. And how sad it is when all the efforts made fly off in an instant - at the behest of the administration, or by their own decision. In the article I will talk about ways to restore an account on Instagram in all cases.
If you deleted it yourself
There are two ways to get rid of your Instagram profile on your own: temporarily disable or delete the page permanently.
Important. You can restore your account only in the browser version from a mobile or computer, you will not do this in the application.
If you slashed and deleted your profile permanently, you have 30 days to change your mind.
Otherwise, everything that you have on Instagram will disappear forever without the possibility of recovery. In our other article, we have already talked in detail about ways to delete an account on Instagram and all the details related to this. To return the page within a month, simply log in with your profile name and password. You will see a window, select "Save account".
In the event of a temporary shutdown, there are no restrictions on the days for recovery. Just log in with your Instagram username and password.
If blocked by the administration
When you violate the rules of the social network (sometimes without knowing it), the profile can be blocked or deleted altogether.
In the first case, the administration will simply restrict some actions for you, for example, you will not be able to like posts or run targeted ads on Instagram - this will be displayed in notifications (“heart” tab).
How to avoid this? Read the rules in the "Help Center" and do not break them :).
But, since you are here, it means they have already been violated and the profile is blocked.
1. Through Instagram support
So, you go to Instagram and see a notification that your profile has been blocked. For starters, don't panic. Often profiles are blocked by mistake. So do nothing for a day and wait. After a day, try logging in with your username and password.
Important. Don't fall for offers to help you unlock your account. This can only be done in transparent ways through official sources.
If it doesn't come out, then the account is really blocked. You will see such a window, and by clicking in more detail - approximately what you were "punished" for.
Interesting. Do you want to sell on Instagram to 5 new customers daily? Then we recommend that you use mass subscriptions and likes, which are considered the most profitable way to attract subscribers and buyers. The main assistant for mass actions is Instaplus.
pro. Click and test the service -> Instaplus.pro ("IN-SCALE" 15% discount).
Step 1. Completing the form
Reasons can be described in specific or water-general terms. But the essence does not change, you are blocked, so click "report this" - this is the first form that you can send to unblock.
Depending on the question, check the boxes and fill in your details. Choose the email that is listed in your Instagram account - it will receive a plan of what you need to do to unlock further.
Below you will be asked to upload an identity document - be sure to do so. Also, take your passport, unfold it so the data is clearly visible, put it next to your face and take a photo. Download it too, just in case.
And everything seems to be great, easy and simple. But, I'll upset you now. It may be that they will answer you not from the first time, but, for example, from the fifth. If after submitting the form nothing happens in the mail, send it again, change the mail when filling out.
Yes, you’ll have to freak out, he’s such a confused Instagram, but don’t give up.
Step 2. Photo with data
When the coveted letter arrives in the mail, you will be asked to take a picture with your data on a piece of paper, namely, with the sent code, first and last name and the name of the profile on Instagram.
Also, when submitting the form, if possible, attach an accompanying letter with text in Russian and English with the deepest request to consider your application. Even if you are furious, write politely, treat with respect. For example, YouTuber Maxim Bondarenko in his video recommends using the following text:
Submit all forms, fill out forms until you receive some response from the administration. Be patient, unlocking may take more than 30 days, but you must admit that in order to return a full-fledged profile, you can wait.
2. Via Facebook support chat
I'll leave you a link to the page with it, but it's not a fact that the button "Start a chat with technical support" will appear, and it's completely unclear why.
Somewhere there is information that the button appears only if you are generous with advertising, or you simply launch it through Facebook. It looks like this:
So, if you do not have this button, you need to find the person who has it. Yes, you will have to freeze. But this method of recovery is much faster and the probability of a result is many times higher.
As an advertisement
After clicking on the button you will be taken to the menu (screen below). In accordance with the problem, you need to select a section - in this case, account protection and security policy.
Further, the social network will again offer you help sections, but the same button will appear at the bottom. After filling out a standard form, you will be taken to a chat with a support representative. Just do not expect that they will really answer you in 3 minutes, as it is written.
And to make it easier to unlock.
.. I told you how to restore an Instagram account after deletion, and now I will tell you about the moments with which there will be no problems with unlocking.
- Real photos
Put a photo on the avatar so that when checking it is clear that the owner is a real user. Look through the feed of your instagram account, note that your face should also flicker there.
- Linking mail and phone number
Be sure to link your real email and number to your Instagram account. It is desirable that the same mail be linked to your Facebook account. To bind the address and number, go to Settings-> Account-> Personal information. You will then receive a confirmation email to your inbox/phone.
- First and last name
In the name of the instagram account and profile name. I think everything is clear here, it will just be easier for the administration to understand by such a name that the account belongs to you.
If your account was hacked
If you have a problem with logging in, first check if your account is found in the search at all in order to exclude the possibility of blocking it by the administration. If the profile is disabled - you are higher.
Important. Carefully check the address from which the letter comes, for example, about some problems with the account. It can only be similar to the Instagram helpdesk. Fraudsters use such letters with links, you click, find yourself on a fake page of the social network and, one might say, voluntarily leak your data to hackers.
1. If there are no problems with logging in
You are sitting in your profile and noticed some changes in your account - publications that you did not upload, deleted correspondence, etc., this means that someone is in your profile hosts. In this case, immediately change the password and reset the data to enter the linked mail and Facebook.
2. If the data has already been changed by crackers
Reset your password, changed two-factor authentication, changed the profile name, etc. When logging in, enter your new username and old password from the page.
Next, if you are asked for a two-factor authentication code (which you do not have), go down below and select the “Try another method” -> “Get help” button. After that, as in other methods, you need to fill out a form.
Specify the email address that was linked to the hacked account, check "Personal account with photos that have me". Below you need to insert your letter to the support service, preferably in English. Describe the situation in it, BUT, do not write that you were hacked. Just let them know that you can’t access your profile, indicate when you last logged in, where from, the attached phone number and mail.
After sending the request, you need to wait for an email, where you will be asked to take a photo with a code and information (I already talked about this in the blocking section).
If everything is done correctly and the stars converge at this moment, you will be sent instructions to restore your account.
Life hack. To prevent your account from being blocked, we recommend cleaning it from unwanted activity and bots. To do this, you can use a special service -> Instahero.pro
BRIEFLY ABOUT THE MAIN
The key to account recovery is patience. Understand that you are not the only one who writes to the support service with such requests.
Whether an Instagram account will be restored depends on many factors. Show in your letters, when chatting, that your Instagram account plays a really important role in your life, but don't be unfounded, back it up with facts, for example, advertising costs.
You should also contact the support service if your data has already been changed by hackers and it is not possible to recover your password via mail. But the specific hacking form was removed from the appeals, apparently, there were too many similar questionnaires.
