For influencers and brands, it is important to continually gain more followers on Instagram. Many normal users want to grow their audience, too. So, how do you get more people to follow your account? We have assembled a few useful tips for beginners.
An attractive profile attracts more Instagram followers
Before you even start promoting your account, make sure that people who check out your profile will like what they see.
- First of all, use a nice username that doesn’t offend anyone.
- Uploading a profile picture is mandatory. Accounts with no profile picture look suspicious and no one will follow them. Choose a nice picture that best describes what your account is about.
- Write something about you in your bio. Try to be as authentic as possible without disclosing personal information (like your address). You can also share a link to your website, blog or other social profiles in your bio.
- Talking about the profile picture and bio: If yours is a business account, first define your target audience. Then, create and stick to an identity, to a certain style. Use your brand’s logo and publish content that people will immediately recognize as being yours.
- Post something! You don’t want people visiting your profile to see an empty page. Before inviting someone to follow you, you should have at least three to four posts.
Let people know you have an account
This is a no-brainer and the easiest thing to do, especially when you have a new account: let people know that you are now on Instagram.
- Tell your family and friends about it and ask them to follow you.
- You should also search for your contacts on Instagram and follow them, as they will probably follow you back.
- If you have a website, a blog or other social accounts, let your readers and fans know that you have an Instagram account, too. Post a link to your profile or your username and invite them to follow you.
- Use social media buttons on your website or blog to link to your social profiles, including Instagram. If you have a YouTube channel, you have the possibility to add social links that will be visible on your YouTube banner).
- One more tip for users who have a website or blog: when suited, embed your Instagram posts in your articles. People will then know that you have an Instagram account and what type of content you post.
- You could also create and use an Instagram nametag. People that you meet at confrences or events can scan your nametag and follow you. This is also a great option if you want to advertise in magazines, to print flyers and so on.
Gain followers by interacting with other people
Instagram is a social network, so interaction is obviously important. It will also help in getting more followers for your account. Here is what you can do in order to get people’s attention and, thus, more followers:
- Interact with other accounts. Let’s say your account is dedicated to movies or TV shows. Search for other similar accounts and comment under their posts. Communicate with other people who have the same interests.
- Follow users who follow your competitors. When you follow them, they will probably check your profile and, if they like what they see, they will follow you back.
- Join Instagram engagement groups. Members of these groups tell the others when they’ve posted something new. And all members like that post or leave comments. This way, they have better chances to go viral, get on the “Explore Page” and gain more followers.
- Interact with top influencers or other brands. You could also try to collaborate with them (start with micro-influencers, not directly with ones who have millions of followers).
- Create a unique, branded hashtag and use it to build a community.
- You should encourage other users to interact with your post, for example by asking a question. The Instagram algorithm loves engagement and your post will have better chances to be shown to more people.
How and what to post to get more followers
The most important rule that you should follow when posting on Instagram: Be authentic and stay true to yourself. Don’t start posting about a certain topic just because other people have success talking about it. You should only post about things that you yourself are passionate about.
- Create unique and authentic content.
- Post regularly. You won’t get new followers if your last post was weeks or months ago. Actually, you might lose some of the people who are already following you and who expect to see new content more often.
- If you know you won’t be able to post something for a certain period of time, you could use social media management tools to schedule posts or stories in advance. (This is one of the few measures that you’ll have to pay for, as these tools are not for free.)
- Instagram is all about images, be it photos or videos. Make sure that you publish high-quality pictures and clips. You don’t need an expensive camera for professionals, but blurred images andpoor lighting conditions are no-goes (unless you use them as an artistic effect).
- Write interesting captions. Don’t just upload a picture or a video, but also write something about it. Again, this makes your content seem more authentic.
- Use (popular) keywords and hashtags that people search for. But they must also be relevant for your post. Don’t use hashtags just for the sake of using them.
- Create and post content that has a good potential to be shared, like memes or infographics. To make sure that people will know who the creator is, use your logo or write your username in a corner of the picture.
- Tag your location and, when suited, other users. You should also encourage other people to tag you.
- Create more videos, stories and content for IGTV.
- Timing is very important. Try to find out when your followers are online and also what time is best suited for your industry.
- If you have a business account with more than 100 followers, you get acces to “Instagram Insights”. Use the lessons there to improve what and how you post.
If you are a pro or have a marketing budget: Additional tools for more Instagram followers
The tips shared above are mostly free and suited for people who just started using Instagram. If you want to take your social media game to another level and are willing to invest some money, you can also do thie following:
- Create an augmented reality filter for Instagram stories and make it shareable. You could hire someone to do that for you or try creating one yourself, using Facebook’s Spark AR Studio.
- Organize sweepstakes. You can give away your own products (if you have any) or buy other products as prizes. In order to be sure that people don’t follow you just for the prizes (and will also interact with your posts), give away something related to your topics. A singer’s fan account could give away that artist’s new album, for example.
- If you have a marketing budget and you’re using a business account on Instagram, you can also create ads and promote your posts, stories or IGTV content.
- You won’t be able to set “get more followers” as a campaign goal, but you can opt for “reach”. If your posts reach more people and these people like what they see, they might decide to follow you.
