How to start and grow an instagram account
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.
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 calendarThe 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 advanceWhile 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.
4. Get partners and brand advocates to post your contentPerfect 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.
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.
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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 followersThere’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 everywhereHow 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.
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 startedOne 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 convertOne 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 happyLast 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
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.
The 9 Tricks That Actually Grow Instagram Accounts Fast
With over 1 billion monthly users Instagram is now the world’s third-largest social media platform.
As much as we use Instagram to connect with friends and post photos from our lives, it has also become a great way to grow your business. Whether you are an influencer, brand manager, or business owner Instagram is now a great option for you to grow a following.
Although it is everyone’s goal to grow their Instagram account fast, it isn’t an easy task. According to Mention, 52.35% of Instagram followers have less than 1,000 followers. The next largest segment is 1,001 -10,000 followers at 37.41% of Instagram users. In total, less than 10% of Instagram accounts have more than 10k followers.
Now, there are a lot of pages that claim to help you grow your Instagram account fast, but the advice they offer is generic. They will say things like,
- “Use geolocation on your posts.”
- “Partner with another brand”
- “Start a branded hashtag”
While some of these can work, for most people starting out this doesn’t help at all. How many new accounts can attribute a mass follower growth due to tagging Denver Colorado on their Instagram post? Or how many new accounts can work with huge brands in their space completely for free? I don’t know of any.
Like all things, there is a hierarchy of what works and what doesn’t. We are here to provide only the best tricks out there that actually grow Instagram accounts fast.
In this post, we will cover 9 actionable strategies that actually work to grow your Instagram account. These are the same strategies that all the major Instagram agencies use to grow their client’s Instagram account rapidly. Whether you are a business account, a personal account, or a theme page, all of the tricks provided here will help you build a massive Instagram following fast.
1. Have A Great Instagram Theme Aesthetic
This is step one when it comes to building out your Instagram page. Your Instagram aesthetic is going to be the first thing people see when coming onto your Instagram page. Having a consistent feed that uses the same colors and theme may oftentimes be the deciding factor on whether someone will follow you or not.
How many times have you seen a page and saw some posts are selfies, others are infographics, and others are videos of cats and you have no clue what’s going on? Now, how many of those pages did you follow? Probably not too many.
Having a great Instagram theme is one of the easiest things you can take control of today that can help the overall social proof of your Instagram page. So, how do you create a great Instagram page?
Well, this will vary depending on what type of Instagram page you have. If you have a business account your theme will probably be centered around your product. If you don’t create your own content and just repost the content of others, this is fairly simple. Your Instagram may not have all the same colors but your content will follow the same theme.
If your Instagram page posts motivational quotes, tips, or graphics, you can format your theme similarly to how we did ours.
As you can tell, our theme is simple. We only use three colors and have the same background every time. In the middle of our feed, we have quotes from successful individuals and on the side, we have general business knowledge.
If you want a list of various Instagram themes you can check out this post by Kicksta.
They provide 50 great Instagram themes that you can use and walk you through how to implement them.
2. Have A Posting Schedule
It’s no secret that Instagram wants to promote pages that post consistently. The question is, “What is consistent?” At a minimum, if you seriously want to grow your Instagram account fast, you should be posing at least once a day. It is more important the bigger you get the more you post but in the early stages, under 1,000 followers, you should never miss a day of posting.
Now this will change depending on if you are an Instagram theme page or personal page. If you are a personal account it is okay to go as low as three times a week. However, if you are an Instagram theme page, let’s say you post cute kitten videos, you should never ever miss a day.
The reason why you want to post so consistently is that it gives you that many more chances of having a post go viral. By viral, we mean it can either show up on Instagram explore page or Instagram’s Top page.
The explore page appears on the same page as the search function. The Top page for hashtags shows some of the most popular posts tagged with that hashtag. See our visual of each.
Being on either page allows you to grow your Instagram followers fast. Think about it like you were playing the lottery. You increase your chances of winning the lottery the more tickets you buy. In this scenario, consider your post to be like lottery tickets. The more you have the more likely you will win.
In the hashtag portion of this post, we will talk more about what types of hashtags to use in order to have your content go viral. But for now, you should get really serious about making sure you’re posting at least once a day. If you are a personal account, no less than three times a week.
The best way to follow a consistent posting schedule is to create a schedule and use a bot that posts for you. We personally use Later as our tool of choice. Instagram only allows the use of certain bots and will punish your account if you use bots that aren’t part of their Instagram Partner Program.
Later has been accepted in the program and allows users to preview posts, schedule posts, and do hashtag research. You can post up to 30 pieces of content a month for free through their website so it’s a very easy way to get started.
Does It Matter When I Post
It used to matter what time you posted to Instagram. That’s because Instagram used to show your posts to your followers in the order in which they were uploaded. So if you posted at 6:00 pm and someone else posted at 6:03, your followers would see the 6:03 post before yours because it is more recent.
However, Instagram has changed the way they show posts to followers. They no longer show posts to followers based on when they were posted. The order of photos in someone’s feed is based on the likelihood that they would be interested in the content. The way Instagram gauges interest is by analyzing the user’s current relationship with the Instagram account. If someone is frequently commenting on your posts, liking your posts, and visiting your profile, Instagram will show them your post regardless if it was posted 10 minutes ago or 10 hours ago.
This is why it’s really important to create engagement with your followers. We will talk about how to do this later in this post. But just remember that the key to someone seeing your post is how much they engage with your profile.
3. Use The Right Hashtags
Hashtags are one of the most misused tools that Instagram has. If you run a health and wellness Instagram page you’ll see a lot of small accounts, under a thousand followers, use the hashtags #wealth, #health, #wellness, #happy, etc. The reason why so many accounts use these hashtags is that millions of people search these hashtags daily.
The issue is, there are multiple Instagram pages that use these same hashtags. when you use the hashtag #health, you’re competing against Instagram Pages like WebMD and Women’s Health Mag. Each of these Pages having millions of followers and getting tens of thousands of likes per post.
Instagram can only show so many different posts on its top pages for hashtags. How Instagram decides to place posts on the top results for a hashtag is how many likes, comments, shares, and saves they receive.
So if you have a post that only has 30 likes and you’re going against a post that has 30,000 likes then it is very unlikely that you will show up as a top result for that hashtag.
On top of this, since so many other Instagram pages are using the same hashtags you immediately get pushed down in the search results. So not only did no one see your post because you used a too popular hashtag, but it also gets immediately shoved down to the bottom of the feed because there’s a new post with that hashtag every couple of seconds.
How To Find The Right Hashtags
If you’re serious about finding the right hashtags to use for your business you should invest in a tool Flick.Tech.The tool is only $9 a month and what it allows you to do is see which hashtags give you the most probability to show up on the top page for a hashtag.
Let’s assume we’re still within the health and wellness niche. Flick.Tech will look at how many likes you get on average and suggest hashtags that you can show up for that have a similar amount of like.
This is a great way for you to reach new audiences and make sure your content is actually being seen. For more information on hashtag research, check out this Youtube video from Sunny Lenarduzzi.
4. Always Have An Instagram Story [With Stickers]
Having the red circle around your Instagram logo is essential to establish credibility among potential followers. The red circle around your Instagram logo indicates that you have an active story.
When someone first comes to your Instagram page they cannot see the last time you posted. They would have to click into an image to see that. Having the red icon above your logo notifies the potential follower that you have been on the platform at least within the past 24 hours. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t have been able to post a story.
What To Post In Your Instagram Stories
Now that you know it’s important to have stories, you may be wondering what exactly to post? No need to overthink this. If you are a theme page and you are posting everyday one of the easiest things you can do is just reshare your post on your story.
Add some text above the story that says, “new post,” and add an arrow pointing to your post. See our video below on how you can create an engaging Instagram story in just one minute.
As you can see we used a lot of stickers in this post and did two unique things. We used three big hashtags and covered it with the sticker, “New Post.” We did this because Instagram allows you to use up to three hashtags in your story. You can add more but Instagram will only register the first 3. Having hashtags can look spammy at times so it’s best to cover these up with a sticker.
The reason we used a big hashtag is that stories disappear in 24 hours. So if you use small hashtags, yes it is more likely to be found, but there isn’t enough traffic to smaller hashtags that can be received in just 24 hours.
That’s why it’s best to use bigger ones and hope you get lucky.
We also put a big pointing gif over our text. The reason we did that is because if someone is interested in the title of the post, they will likely click into the post to read the text. Remember, Instagram shows your content to people who engage with your post. If we just posted that story, people could read it without clicking into it. But we want to maximize as many post interactions that we can, which is why we make them click into the post to read it.
Using Instagram Interactive Stickers To Grow Fast
One strategy we found works very well is using Instagram interactive stickers. If you have ever seen a poll, quiz, or a story that says “ask me questions” you’ve seen an interactive sticker. These elements were introduced by Instagram to help users engage with their followers.
You will hear in a lot of videos and blog posts that the best way to increase engagement is by commenting and liking your follower’s posts.
While this is a good strategy, it is very time-consuming. Instead of going out and engaging with your follower’s posts, give them an opportunity to engage with you.
By having a quiz or a poll on your Instagram stories you can allow your followers to engage with your post. We try to post a new Instagram quiz every single day. Take a look at some of the quizzes we post.
This not only gives our followers something to look forward to, but it also allows them to engage with us on a daily basis. Guess what happens every time we post? The people that we see engage with our stories are the first ones to like our post.
5. Work With Micro-Influencers To Reach A Larger Audience
The keyword here is “micro.” If you are trying to grow your motivational speaking brand through Instagram, do not reach out to Tony Robbins asking him to shout out your Instagram page. Not that he doesn’t want to support you, he just doesn’t have the time. He also probably doesn’t even manage his own Instagram page at that.
The trick to getting influencers to give your post a shout-out is finding those below a hundred thousand followers but over ten thousand followers. Within this range, accounts are big enough to have a decent following, but not so large that they’re going to charge large sums of money for a shout out.
One thing you’re going to want to be looking for when deciding which micro-influencers to work with is their engagement rate. The way you can calculate this is to look at how many followers they have and look at how many likes they receive on each post. You want to find people with an engagement rate of at least 10%.
If they have 10,000 followers they should be getting at least a thousand likes on their post. Anything less shows that they don’t have an engaged following.
Once you found an Instagram influencer that you want to work with, DM them and ask them how much for an advertisement. The rates will vary depending on which niche you’re in. The best way to figure out a good price is to reach out to multiple influencers and see what the average costs are.
However, if you’re going after someone under a hundred thousand followers it should never cost you more than twenty bucks for them to repost your content onto their page.
Allow Them To Give Away Something Of Yours To Get More Followers
A common question we get is, “Can I work with micro-influencers for free?” Usually, the answer is no. Listen, if someone put in the effort to build a big following it makes that they wouldn’t want to give it away for free. However, if you’re going to ask them to give you anything for free you have to come at it with this mindset: What can I give them that is 10 times more valuable than what I’m asking of them?
Most people won’t do things for you out of the goodness of their hearts. But they will do something if there is an incentive for them to do so. Do you have an ebook that you charge for that you will give away for free to their followers? Will you offer a free consultation to their followers if they let you post something on their page?
Giveaways are great but they usually only work for Instagram pages that have an established following.
By letting them use one of your products or services you can let them offer something to their audience which helps them build engagement while also helping you get more followers. This can be seen as a win-win scenario for both parties. Just make sure that you are providing more value to them than you are asking to receive.
6. Use Follow For Follow To Grow To 1k Instagram Followers Fast
This strategy has a lot of controversies. People say this strategy doesn’t work because people don’t follow you back or that they don’t engage with your account. The issue isn’t that this strategy doesn’t work, but that most people do it wrong.
The follow for follow method was introduced as a strategy to help you gain more followers. The theory behind it was the more people you follow the more likely it is some of those people will follow you back. The more people that follow you back leads to the more potential likes and comments you can get, which in turn helps you grow your Instagram account fast.
Where people go wrong with the strategy is that they just go follow any and everyone. This is the wrong way to go about it. If you’re going to use the follow for follow strategy, you need to make sure you’re following people who already engaged with content similar to yours. Let’s say you had an Instagram account in the workout niche. Find someone else within that niche with a similar to a slightly greater follower base than you.
Go into this person’s Instagram account and follow everyone who has liked their photos. This assures us of two things.
- The people you’re following already like content similar to yours
- It shows that these followers are okay with following accounts of similar size to yours.
If you are in the entrepreneurship space it wouldn’t be smart to do this strategy with Gary Vees Instagram. Gary Vee has over 10 million followers. Odds are there are people who follow him simply because he’s an influencer. Not because of the content he puts out.
You should use this follow for follow strategy to get your first thousand followers. Before you hit a thousand followers Instagram will usually let you follow anywhere from 200 to 400 people a day. Assuming that about 10% of people will follow you back, you should be able to get 1000 followers within two months.
When To Unfollow people
Instagram only lets you follow up to 7,500 people. However, you should make sure you never even get close to that number. To manage your followers you should use an app like Instaclean. Instaclean allows you to mass unfollow all of those who never followed you back. If your account is still below 1000 followers, you should never unfollow those who have followed you back.
You also should never unfollow someone right after you follow them. Only use the Instaclean app after giving yourself a 24-hour period of not following anyone. This assures that you are not unfollowing people that you just followed.
Unfollowing works very similarly to following. You can only unfollow anywhere from 200 to 400 people a day. Do not try to exceed this amount ever. Instagram will start to notify you if they feel like your account is committing suspicious behavior. Although these warnings are harmless, enough of them could result in Instagram blocking your account temporarily. That’s why if you ever get a notification from Instagram saying you’ve exceeded their following limits, stop following/ unfollowing for the next 24 hours.
When To Stop Follow For Follow
You should stop using the follow for follow strategy at around 2,000 to 5,000 followers. This is because in this range it becomes possible for one of your posts to go viral. Also, if you aren’t unfollowing those who follow you back, by the time you get 5,000 followers you will also be following around 5,000 people. This is very close to Instagrams 7,500 limit and it also just looks unprofessional.
Instagram will also cut back on the number of people you can follow and unfollow a day after you have over 1,000 followers.
After your first thousand, Instagram limits you to follow and unfollow only 100 to 200 people a day.
When this happens, you’re going to want to change your follow for follow approach. You no longer are going to just follow those who like the post of similar content. You’re going to want to follow those who like similar content, as well as like and comment on their most recent post.
The reason for this is that the more engagement you give someone when you follow them the more likely they will follow you back. In the beginning, we don’t care about this because we can follow hundreds of people a day.
Once you go above 1000 though, we need to increase the likelihood that the people that we follow will follow us back. That is why we start to engage with them more.
Once you get above 10,000 followers, that’s when you can start unfollowing those who have followed you back. At this point, you should have a large enough audience who will follow you regardless if you follow them back or not.
7. Be The First Comment On Large Accounts In Your Niche
Have you ever looked at a big account in your niche and saw a comment that had hundreds of likes on it? Not by a celebrity but by a regular person. Usually, the reason why you’ll see comments with very high likes on a post is if they are the first comment on that post.
By being one of the first comments, you’re shown to everyone who clicks into the comment section of a post. If the comment is a good and substantial one it will usually get a lot of likes. These likes usually mean nothing as it doesn’t help your Instagram account grow fast. However, it does give you a perfect opportunity to follow people who have already engaged with you.
If you start becoming the first comment on popular Instagram pages and getting a lot of likes on your comment, you can go in and follow everyone who liked your comment. This will increase the odds that they follow you back. How do you become the first comment on large accounts?
How To Set Post Notifications On Large Instagram Accounts
To become the first comment on a large account you need to set up post notifications for that account.
This is very easy to do. All you have to do is go to a large account profile, click on their following tab, click notifications, and turn on post notifications. Every time they post something to their Instagram you will get a notification on your phone telling you they posted. Make sure that you leave a comment that isn’t just an emoji, but actually has some thought behind it.
8. Use Story Ads To Grow To 10k Instagram Followers Fast
Once you hit 1,000 followers your next big milestone is going to be 10,000 followers. This milestone comes with a tangible benefit of allowing you to have a swipe up feature on your stories. The swipe up feature is the only way to get a direct link from your Instagram to your website.
So, how do you get your first 10,000 followers on Instagram fast? The keyword here is fast. If you follow all the steps you use to get 1000 followers you will still eventually hit 10,000. However, we want to do this in the least amount of time.
If you really want to do this in the quickest amount of time you have to invest some money.
This should cost no more than $5 a day. The best way to go from 1000 to 10,000 Instagram followers is by using Instagram story ads.
Instagram story ads are a perfect way to reach a new audience and show your Instagram page to potential followers. As we said before, Instagram stories already have high engagement rates. If you can create an enticing Instagram story, you can see high conversions of people following you.
The best Instagram story ads are in the format of a 15-second video. In that video, you should briefly introduce your business, introduce what type of content you post on your Instagram, and then finally a call to action telling them to follow your Instagram page. To see a video of how this is done, check out this video by Jordan Platten where he walks you through how to create a successful Instagram story ad.
9. Use Instagram Analytics To Optimize Engagement
Which of your posts get the most engagement? Do you know? If not, it’s really easy to figure out.
All you have to do is go to your home page and click on insights. From there, click on content interactions. Under content interactions, you will be able to see which posts get the most likes, comments, shares, and saves.
What you want to be looking for is what are the recurring themes? Do posts with your face in them do better than posts without? Do post with a long caption do better than a post with a short caption? Is there a certain post that does best when you use a certain hashtag? These are all the things you want to be looking at when you start looking for themes in your best performing posts.
Once you find out which posts are doing the best for you, you want to double down on those. If posts with your face do better than screenshots, stop putting screenshots on your Instagram page.
Which Instagram Metrics Matter Most To Grow Your Account Fast
There are only 4 metrics when it comes to Instagram engagement: Likes, comments, shares, and saves.
The two metrics that should matter most to you are shares and saves. Instagram values these two the most as they have realized that the people who share and save content do that much more infrequently than like and comment.
So, if people are sharing and saving a post that indicates to Instagram that that is a good piece of content. This goes into Instagram’s algorithm on deciding what to show on the explore page and hashtag Top page.
Key Takeaways
With these 9 tricks, you are more than ready to grow your Instagram account fast. Regardless of what type of Instagram page you have, if you follow these 9 steps you will see massive changes.
We made sure not to talk about generic advice that doesn’t really help you grow. Everything we provided here if used properly will help you not only increase your engagement but increase your following.
40 tips on how to promote your Instagram
1. Do not forget to put hashtags that will help increase the number of subscribers: #instafollow, #l4l (Like for like), #tagforlikes and #followback.
2. Like as much as possible. For every 100 likes you give to random photos, you will get an average of 6 new followers.
3. Run contest . The easiest way to do this is to post a themed picture and ask people to like it so they can participate.
4. Start promoting profile on your pages in other social networks. Write what your blog is about and why people should read it and invite them to join.
5. Be generous with likes and comments - this is the easiest way to attract new subscribers.
6. Use common hashtags to make your photos visible in the global search. Among the most popular are #love, #instagood, #fashion and #photooftheday.
@westwingde
7. Time matters. Research has shown that the best time to fast is between 2 pm and 5 pm.
8. Follow people who use popular hashtags (#followme, #likeforlike) because many of them will follow you back.
9. Remember, quality is important , not quantity. Monitor your profile and leave only beautiful and high-quality photos. Believe me, no one is interested in flipping through hundreds of photos of salads.
10. Love the Mayfair filter. Track Maven listed this filter on The Fortune 500 Instagram as the best choice for marketers.
11. Check that you have completed the biography section . Complete it with suitable words and hashtags, and also provide a link to your website. But remember: no spam! Otherwise, subscribers will lose interest in the profile.
12. Ask questions to subscribers. This is a great way to connect with your target audience.
13. Post on Sundays . It is on this day that people post photos a little, so your post will be seen by the maximum number of people.
@nastiapoberezhna
14. Be consistent with .
Think about who and why you are doing this. The more clearly you answer these questions, the faster you will attract the right audience.
15. Call people to action. For example, ask them to write their opinion about your photo in the comments.
16. Don't be afraid to post often. It may seem that the more often the photos flash, the more indifferent the subscribers behave. But according to the Union Metrics program, there is no relationship between posting frequency and audience activity. At least negative.
17. Follow suggested users. Go to settings and select "Find and invite friends" and then "Recommended users".
18. Set geolocation . This will be especially useful if you run an Instagram company. So you will have the opportunity to attract new subscribers-neighbors.
19. Schedule publications with the Later program. Consistency never hurt anyone.
20.
Agree with popular blogger to advertise your profile or product. So information about you will quickly scatter over the network.
21. Studies have shown that blue images get 24% more likes than orange or red ones. Post something blue and see for yourself!
22. Let fast on Wednesdays become your obligatory ritual. This is because posts get more attention and likes in the middle of the week.
23. Write the word "comment" more often in posts. This encourages your followers to share their opinions and be more willing to join the discussion.
24. Post photos showing 's face. According to research, such publications are 35% more popular than others.
25. Tag in photos of people. Your post will also be seen by friends of friends.
26. Remember the rule: the more light the better.
27. If you have a business account, create a branded hashtag .
So users can specify it when purchasing a product. And it will increase your visibility on Instagram several times over.
28. Share live photos. Show that behind the beautiful picture there are living people .
29. Business trick: share photos of your followers mentioning your brand or product. This pleasant step shows that you value each client. In return, they will definitely share your photos in their feed.
30. Brand yourself : Use your nickname for more than just your profile. A notebook, a case or a branded sticker on a car will surely attract the attention of potential subscribers.
@romantimo3
31. Invite friends from Facebook to follow you. To do this, in the profile settings, select "Find friends on Facebook."
32. People love stories. Share your experiences and thoughts, so you will gain their trust and establish contact.
Just remember that the post should be emotional and bright, not snot in sugar.
33. Tag people , even in stories, don't be lazy.
34. Do not be shy in your posts to ask for likes . As practice has shown, such publications receive 89% more likes.
35. In advance plan not only time, but also content. Prepare your materials and only then start filling out your feed. For example, write posts for a few days in advance, and then publish them gradually. The Instagram filling schedule will help you stay focused on the main topic of the blog.
36. Post a motivational or inspirational quote .
37. Synchronize phone book with your account. Go to settings and select "Contacts" in the "For Subscriptions" section.
38. Be active on profiles with similar topics. Especially if you run a business profile. Chat in the comments , ask questions and let influencers know about you.
39. Collaborate with other users. Find accounts with the same number of followers and invite their owners to arrange a joint promotion. This will help you and your partners to win an audience and attract the attention of new people.
40. Create a unique hashtag, by which you can organize a challenge for your subscribers.
According to cosmo.com.ua
Tags: Instagram, blog, how to become famous, tips, social networks can be a good source of additional income. Several of these publics are business. The main principle of making money on thematic profiles is to attract an audience interested in a particular topic and further sell advertising in the public. For example, in a travel account, you can advertise flights.
Today we will figure out how to choose a topic, create and promote a public on Instagram. What strategy to choose, what to do and how to make the first money on it.
Program for promotion on Instagram - SocialKit:
- Collecting and filtering the target audience
- Masslooking, massfollowing, massliking
- Delayed posting of photos, videos and stories
- Mailing in Direct, autoresponder
Registration >>>
Creating a public on Instagram
In the article we NOT consider creating an account with original photos and copyright content.
Any public is primarily user-generated content.
When creating a thematic public on Instagram, first of all, you need to decide on its theme and format.
Format
Closed and open. The closed public format is suitable if you have content for minors or users may not want others to see their subscription. Also, a closed public creates some intrigue - what is inside, so it can increase the number of new subscriptions. But in this case, a lot depends on the topic and you need to test how it will be better.
Open account is suitable for all other cases.
Topic
Next, select the topic you want to browse. It is not necessary to choose what you like or what you are familiar with, because ideally, you need not 1 public, but 5-7, and you won’t be able to figure everything out.
Here are the topics we recommend to pay attention to: travelling, photography, girls, cars, cooking. Also, any public can be adapted to a female or male audience. The main thing when choosing a topic is to understand who will be interested in placing ads in your public, how much it is a solvent audience and how actively it promotes itself on Instagram.
The topic of regional publics should be considered separately. The following formats are popular here: overheard, typical, news, accidents, road accidents, auditorro, flea market, free, poster. Regional and city publics are good because they have a narrower audience for a specific city, unlike general ones, where the audience can be too diverse and geographically scattered. Which is more attractive to local advertisers.
Promotion of a public on Instagram
If you want to seriously deal with the topic of publics and make money on it, then you need to create not one account, but 5-10, so that you have the opportunity to do mutual PR between them and exchange the audience.
We also recommend creating and launching a grid of accounts on Instagram , which will boost behavioral indicators in publics so that they have high engagement rates and the content becomes viral. But first things first.
Content of the public
According to the type of content, publics can also be divided into 2 types - photo and video content.
Video is trending right now, so an account with a video is easier to engage the audience and promote. Therefore, it is better to concentrate on the publication of the video.
As for the sources for publications, this is exclusively user-generated content. The advantage of the approach is that you do not need to spend time creating content, but you need to constantly look for it. If from the very beginning, you will deal with this issue yourself, then fix all your actions so that in the future they can be painted point by point and arranged in the form of a video tutorial or instruction and in the future entrust the content manager with execution.
Where to look for content? Depending on the topic chosen, these may be local bloggers, ordinary users, and so on.
But you don't need to repost through the program, it's better to save a photo from Instagram and publish from your account mentioning the author of the content. For video, a repost is also suitable.
If you have an urban public, follow the local media.
Be sure to make a note in your account that people can send you their photos in direct and you will publish them. Alternatively, you can use a hashtag.
In Stories, you can repost publications and stories where you have been tagged. Remind yourself of this in your stories every day.
Gathering the target audience
Where to get the target audience? From the accounts of competitors, as well as from the accounts of companies. Additionally, you can collect an audience from VK according to the same principle. Here is a detailed instruction for collecting the target audience on Instagram .
After collecting the audience, don't forget to filter it from bots and commercial accounts .
Mass following and mass liking
After gathering the audience, we launch a mass subscription and likes on the generated database of accounts.
This method can and should be applied throughout the project, as this is the easiest and cheapest way to attract subscribers.
To achieve the effect, it is better to buy a ready-made Instagram account, where there are already 10,000 or more subscribers. Even if there is not quite a live audience there, the number of subscribers will form the credibility of the account, which will help you gain your audience faster.
Mailing lists in direct and autocomments.
In this case, where the audience is very large, this will not give the desired effect, and you can easily get a ban or block your account. Therefore, it is better not to use these methods of attraction or use them very carefully and pointwise.
Public monetization
The only way to monetize a public is by selling ads. Ads can be sold in posts or stories. Assign an adequate cost for advertising integrations so that advertisers can cover their costs for placements - then there will be no end to customers.
