How To Get More Followers On Instagram

Updated: 10/12/2020
Instagram has over 1 billion active monthly users. These stats are highly impressive and encouraging. This makes this social platform very important for brands, businesses, and even individuals. Although Facebook has slightly more users, the engagement rate in Instagram is far much higher. This is the most promising social network for developing a fan base. Let’s have a look at the 2020 statistics:

• 1 billion people use Instagram every month. More than 500 million people use it every day.
• 71% of Instagram users are under the age of 35. This is an active population.
• Instagram has an average of 4.2 billion likes per day.
• Active users spend on average 32 minutes on Instagram per day.
• 500 million people use Instagram stories every day.

With such amazing statistics, one would think it is very easy to increase followers on Instagram. Truth is, it can be quite a hassle. It is a very competitive social space and users need a clear cut strategy if they want to grow followers. Here are 15 tips on how to get more Instagram followers.

Our 19 Tips On How To Get More Followers On Instagram

1. Know Your Goals

As with any long-term venture, success on Instagram, one of the most popular apps out there, starts with proper planning. You want to get more Instagram followers, but you have to first ask yourself as to why you want to get more followers. What is my goal? What do I hope to achieve by getting more followers?

Your goals to get more Instagram followers have to align with and complement your overall business strategy down the line. You may want to grow awareness about your business, increase sales, or drive more traffic to your website. By establishing these goals, you will quickly determine the theme and identity for your Instagram account. It will also help determine your page’s feel and aesthetic features to convey your brand story.

Going forward, your Instagram profile has to be a coherent work of art with a consistent theme. Let’s say you run an Instagram business account for selling workout gear. You may want to showcase behind the scene images of employees manufacturing the products with smiling faces showing the products are made with love and care. Or imagine for an instance that you’re working in the lifestyle’s niche and in this case, it makes sense to post photos and videos of people working out in your gear, thus reflecting your brand’s sporty nature! Of course, you could also display the product itself to highlight its unique design.

While your content does not have to be monotonous, it’s important to ensure consistency.  Use a theme that will shine through every post making your eventual Instagram grid look like one interrelated unit – one that accurately represents your brand image.

2. Create An Awesome Bio To Capture Attention

Your bio is very valuable to your account. This is what welcomes visitors to your profile. The first impression you create should be able to instantly capture the visitor’s attention. It should also be able to convey key information relating to your brand. The 150 characters in the bio should:

• Highlight important information about you or your business
• Provide your visitors with a way to contact you
• Showcase your brand
• Have a valuable call to action such as making a purchase, viewing content, following you or registering for an event

When users stumble on your profile for the first time, you need to quickly have them interested before they leave. If your bio is not enticing enough to your target audience, you will never gain followers. You can get attention with funny emojis or directional characters that point to a specific part of your bio. It could be a clickable link to your Youtube channels or other social media platforms.

A clickable link is not the only way visitors can learn more about you in your bio. You can also use a branded hashtag to draw clicks and direct users to a specific Instagram feed. The branded hashtag content should be fun and engaging to your new visitors. This will make them follow you so that you keep them in the loop with such topics.

Instagram Stories are also an essential part of your bio. The story highlights feature allows you to select and save specific stories into highlights. You can name and organize these highlights for your visitors to see. The highlights will appear right below your bio and when clicked they will show the saved stories. These highlights are going to remain in your profile indefinitely until you decide to change them. You can use this to showcase content that fully represents your brand. This is the best opportunity to take control of your narrative and convince visitors you are a worthy person to follow.

3. Follow Other Users If You Want Them To Follow You Back

Unless you are a well-known celebrity, you need to follow other users if you want to increase your followers. It is a tit-for-tat kind of game, it will never work one way. You have to put yourself out there for people to come to you. Uploading nice photos is not enough to bring people in.

Start growing your Instagram followers by first following the people you know. This platform has made it easier to connect with individuals you already know by having the ‘Find people to follow‘ feature. This feature imports friends from your Facebook account and contacts for you to follow. The ‘Explore‘ feature will also help a great deal with this. It gives you suggestions for users to follow. About 1/3 of the suggested people you follow will follow you back. This will help you get the initial follower base quite easily without even posting any content.

There is also no harm following random people and waiting for them to follow you back. Following the people you don’t know stimulates curiosity within the user and they would most definitely check you out. This is when your bio comes into play. If they like what they see they would certainly follow you back.

Following stars, influencers, and celebrities can also help you grow your followers in Instagram free of charge. Engage with them often and ask for shoutouts. Some of their followers may follow you if you get mentioned in their feed.

Tags can also help you to look for people to follow who will in return follow you back. Just like you, there are many other users that are looking for Instagram followers. Look for tags such as #ifollowback, #follow, #followtrain, and other related ones. These tags have people that are interested in having more followers and wouldn’t mind following back.

Your following is going to increase during this journey to get more Instagram followers. But this is the only way if you want to get a significant number of real followers. If you feel like you have your desired number of followers and you need to reduce your following, you can always filter people who didn’t follow you back by using apps like Instafollow that tracks users who unfollowed you.

4. Know Your Audience And Look For Them

From the moment you open your Instagram account, you need to have a good idea of the people you intend to attract as your followers. You should ask yourself these 4 questions:

1. What is my brand or product?
2. To whom is my product or brand designed for?
3. What is my desired audience looking for?
4. How am I going to attract these people?

Answering these questions will enable you to know what your Instagram followers like to see in their feed, the specific time they are online, and the tone of voice you can use to best relate with them with. The tone of voice will help you right killer captions.

Once you have an idea of who your ideal audience is, then look for other popular Instagram accounts which best serves them. For example, if you are a designer of men’s clothing, then accounts for men’s events, men’s fashion, and other clothing designer accounts will have your target Instagram followers. Find the accounts that are active and engage with their content. Comment on their photos and videos, follow their followers and interact with other users in their comments. You need to get their attention before they decide to follow you.

Hashtags can also help you find your desired target audience. They have the same interests as you. Search for the keywords relating to your brand in the search bar. It’s important that the keyword should have a hashtag as a prefix. For example, if your account is all about promoting your jewelry business, you can search for tags like #bracelet, #diamond, #goldring and other words that well relate to your brand. This will take you to conversations that match your interests and you can use this to engage and increase your Instagram followers.

5. Make Your Account More Accessible and Cathy

Using the power of social media to grow your business is no longer a unique idea. There are several business accounts on Instagram – over 25 million, to be exact. Your page could very easily get lost in the “crowd.” Therefore, you must make your page as reachable as possible. Thankfully, there are several ways to do this.

a. Keywords  

For starters, you could incorporate searchable keywords into your account to get more Instagram followers. There are only two places on your Instagram account to implement keyword optimization: your name and handle. Adding a relevant keyword or phrase to your name or handle will make your account more accessible. It will help your potential followers to stumble upon your account. For example, The XYZ Café’s handle could be @thexyzcoffeeshop, allowing them to get found when someone searches for a ‘coffee shop.’ Also, note that your profile names and handles should be consistent across all social media platforms so that followers on those sites can find and follow you on Instagram.

b. AR Filters

Another exciting way to drive traffic to your page is by using AR filters. Those bunny ears or puppy eye filters that people add to their selfies and Instagram stories? Yes! But how can they increase traffic to your page? It’s quite simple. All you have to do is create a filter that looks interesting enough to use. If it is non-promotional, this can be accessed by anyone in the Instagram Story effects gallery. Whenever anyone uses your filter, your account name will become visible at the top left of the screen as a clickable icon, thus leading to visits to your profile and hence you get more Instagram followers.

c. Instagram Nametags

Nametags are essentially Instagram specific QR codes that can be scanned by users to follow you instantly. Using nametags is a highly effective way to increase your follower count. Instagram nametags can be displayed on posters and other marketing collateral, networking events, conferences, etc. By using nametags, you’re helping people to quickly scan and follow your page on the spot. Similarly, they could also be printed onto product packaging or receipts so that customers who have bought from you can follow your account and buy from you again without having to go through the hassle of searching for your Instagram profile.

6. Use Engagements

Communication is key if you want to grow your Instagram followers. But before I explain how to increase followers on Instagram through engagements, you should know that your followers only see 30% of the content from the people they follow. If you have more engagements in your Instagram post, the higher it will appear in your follower’s feeds.

How To Get Followers On Instagram Through Engagements

a. Interact with similar brands.

Engaging with other brands in your industry niche increases your chances of being seen and will help you expand your Instagram following free of charge. The more you interact with other users the more you become visible to their followers. But, it’s important that the quality of the interaction is just as important as the frequency. The time you choose to interact with the audience is a crucial factor if you want to be seen. You need to choose a time frame that many people are online on Instagram. This will make your comments and posts visible to many users attracting a lot of Instagram followers in a shorter time.

b. Engage with other content directly BEFORE you post. Engage with your content directly AFTER you post.

Instagram’s algorithm has a way of recognizing posts that are most likely interesting to many people. Such posts usually appear high up in the feed. The algorithm tells if a post can be of interest or not by looking at the amount of interaction within the first hour. To make your Instagram post have a lot of interaction, you need to engage with other users posts’ directly before posting yours. This increases the chances of people visiting your profile within the first hour of your post. This will increase your likes and engagements on your most recent posts as you and your new visitors keep on interacting. This will earn you new followers on Instagram and a top place in their feed. It is a good idea to engage with other people’s Instagram stories for the network’s algorithms to notice your engagement.

c. Make interesting captions.

Instagram posts with interesting captions encourage followers to spend more time looking at a post. Interesting captions generate more engagement which attracts more people to your profile picking up several followers.

d. Reply to all your comments.

Keeping up the conversation is going to help push your post to the top of your follower’s feed. Through other peoples’ comments, your post may even appear on the timeline of their followers too. Always reply immediately after the comment to make sure you keep the conversation going.

You can also use this opportunity to tag other relevant users. They will get a notification and join in the conversation. This is a good way to share your ideas and attract more followers on Instagram. Also, be sure to reply to the responses you receive against your Instagram stories.

e. Pin Your Favorite Comments

Instagram allows you to pin up to 3 comments on each post. Pinning followers’ comments serves two purposes. First, it encourages other Instagram users to comment on your posts in the hopes of getting theirs pinned, thus increasing engagement. Second, it is an excellent method to bring flattering, positive reviews about your brand to the forefront— free, organic promotion for your products or services.

7. Post Interesting Content In Your Timeline

Instagram is a visual social site. To get noticed, your timeline needs to be full of interesting Instagram content. Users do not just follow you based on one good post, they go through your profile and some of them can even go back to up to a week. So whatever you post, including your Instagram stories, should be able to interest someone somewhere. Here are a few ways to ensure your content is interesting enough to get you more followers on Instagram:

a. Use ready templates.

There are plenty of tools out there that can help you craft attracting visuals for your Instagram posts. Online design tools like Venngage have a wide variety of templates for different kinds of posts. Whatever message you want to send across to your followers, you can use a ready template. With a ready-made template, you do not have to worry about coming up with new content to capture your followers’ attention. The online design tools auto-generate your Instagram stories and posts into amazing content all you have to do is add a few details of your brand to the post template to make it relate to you. A simple photo done with a template can work wonders for your followers.

b. Repost from popular brands within your niche.

You really dont have to post your own content when you run out of ideas. Reposting other Instagram content from similar brands is a good way to get more Instagram followers and keep your profile interesting.

However, when reposting other users’ content, you should do it legally. You can reach out for permission to repost, repost it as a screenshot, or give credit to the owner when you put up the post.

c. Edit your content.

All your posts should have amazing aesthetics. This is what will lure in many followers on Instagram. Generating a quality look all across your Instagram stories and posts will create a first good impression to many users. Instagram editing tools such as Aviary and Afterlight can help your posts look more professional, making your profile have strong Instagram aesthetics. Professional looking accounts attract many visitors which can turn into followers when impressed.

Posting photos and videos all the time can also bore your followers, you may even lose some. You need to spice up your profile with different kinds of posts. This is a list of some posts that can work very well:

• Clients’ stories about you or your product
• Testimonials
• Educational posts
• Quotes relevant to your brand
• Behind the scene photos and videos of your brand

8. Post Frequently and Consistently

You should be consistent in your posts even if it is just several times every week. The time you choose should allow you enough time to interact with your audience. Try your best not to lose any scheduled day for posting. Your followers may lose interest and this will lead to lesser engagements. You may end up losing a lot of your followers for missed days. No matter how frequently you post every day, consistency is key to gain more Instagram followers.

The frequency of posts also has a vital role in gaining more followers on Instagram. Posting frequently earns you likes which increases engagements earning you more followers. This will grow your page and your brand will always be in the front mind of your followers. But how often is frequent?

If you want to grow your followers fast, you need to post between 3 to 5 times every day. If you start by posting 5 times a day you should stick by it. It is better to increase the frequency of posts than decreasing. Decreasing the frequency would decrease engagements and this may cost you some of your followers. In case you run out of ideas for content, consider posting user generated content. Also, posting Instagram stories once a day is sure to attract more Instagram users to your account.

9. Aim to Get Your Posts Reshared

While you may feel the urge to keep posting about your product, most Instagram followers don’t want to see promotional content all the time. It’s crucial to post content that your followers like and are more likely to reshare on their stories. Some examples of non-promotional content include inspirational quotes and infographics. Such content pieces will direct more organic flow to your profile.

Another method to get more Instagram followers is by creating unique content that Instagram would show on feature pages. Feature pages share user content based on tagging and relevant hashtags and often have enormous followings. Having your posts along with your handle showcased on a feature Instagram account related to your niche could increase your follower count quickly.

10. Initiate Conversations To Get Noticed

One of the best ways to get noticed and increase your followers on Instagram is through conversations. You should try by all means to engage with other users, even when they don’t respond. There are different ways to start a conversation on Instagram:

a. Asking a simple open-ended question in a post.

When a post is put up on Instagram, every user develops an opinion about it. They may not readily type it out, but when asked a question or two about the post they may respond. For example, if someone posts a picture and tags a certain city, here are some questions you can ask to initiate conversation.

• How is the weather like?
• How are the clubs?
• Is it safe at night?
• Where should I visit?
• And such questions

If users respond, other people may join in the conversation enabling your profile to be seen by many people.

b. Respond to every comment in your feed.

Try to respond to as many as you can. This can earn you several followers from each of your posts thereby increasing and improving the relationship with your audience. Each comment is entitled to a response. No matter how absurd it is. The more a conversation grows around your feed, the more followers you will gain.

11. Use Relevant Hashtags

Many users like to fill their posts with some of the popular hashtags such as #instagood, #cute, and #nofilter. Hashtags promote your content and put you in front of a new Instagram audience. But you need to choose the right hashtag so that you interact with your desired audience. Get involved in hashtags that drive actions you actually want. For example, if your brand is about women fashion you should get involved in hashtags such as #fashion, #dress, #beauty, #onfleek, and other related words on fashion.

Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags in every post. You have to make maximum use of them. Use as many hashtags as you can. But you need to match them with the posted photo or video. They will make your content become more discoverable.

Using hashtags that are trending is a good way to get more followers on Instagram even when they do not relate to your brand. You just need to twist your post in a way that it fits the hashtag description, Surprisingly, less popular hashtags can also help you grow followers. This is because these hashtags are less competitive. The little number of people involved will interact much more cohesively and this can gain you quick followers.

12. Post Videos Frequently and Use Instagram Stories

Instagram allows you to use videos in your main feed and Instagram Story. Posting videos in your main feed generates more interaction than regular photos and images.

If your brand is offering a product or service, you can show tutorials in your videos. Instagram lets you host a longer video in the main feed and it will stay there until you feel the need to delete it. Videos put in Instagram Stories are only allowed 10 seconds. With each video you post, whether in the main feed or story, you are going to have more engagements thereby increasing your followers. Also, consider posting user generated content to get more followers on Instagram.

13. Promote Your Instagram Profile On Other Social Media Platforms

More people will easily follow you on social media if you are easy to find. Make sure to link your Instagram account to other social networks makes you more discoverable. If you have already established a good following from your other social media accounts you may want to let those followers know about your Instagram presence. You need to have all your followers connected to you on all social media platforms. This is a great way for maintaining a good number of followers, especially if you link your account to Facebook and Twitter.

How To Get Instagram Followers Using Facebook

As per the statistics released in January 2019, Facebook is the most used social network with more than 2 billion users every month. Instagram is not far behind with slightly more than 1 billion users every month. Don’t forget to use Facebook’s numbers as a source to add more followers to your Instagram. Here is how:

a. Add an Instagram tab to your Facebook page.

Adding an Instagram tab to your Facebook page will make your Facebook friends aware of your Instagram presence. The new Instagram tab will pull in some of your posts from your Instagram to your Facebook profile. When people go to your Facebook account they will be able to see the tab that will take them to your Instagram feed. Make sure you have good Instagram aesthetics with the posts showcased on your Facebook profile.

b. Share your Instagram posts on Facebook.

The Instagram tab on your Facebook profile only draws in posts from your Instagram to your Facebook profile. The posts will not appear on your Facebook timeline for others to see unless you share them. You can share the pictures and videos right from your Facebook timeline to target more engagements and get followers.

c. Run an Instagram contest on Facebook.

This can draw attention to your Instagram account and a good way to get followers. By creating a contest that involves people going to your Instagram account you will get followers as more people will be visiting your Instagram profile. The contest can involve people pulling up certain images and tagging you on your Instagram. You can include a specific hashtag to show participation.

14. Get Featured In The Instagram Explore Tab

The Instagram Explore is the magnifying tab at the bottom of your Instagram app. This is where you will find the content you may like from users you don’t yet follow. Instagram says more than 100 million people visit the Explore tab every day. This is a huge opportunity for you to gain popularity and grow your audience. But how do you get your content featured in the Explore tab?

The only way you can appear in the Instagram Explore is if you have great content. So you need to pay close attention to your audience so that you know which content they like to engage with the most. Make sure to tailor your content to perfectly suit your followers’ needs. This is a great way to earn more engagement and your posts will appear in other people explore tabs.

15. Tag! Tag! Tag!

Tagging is a good technique for drawing attention and get more followers on Instagram. When you tag another user, your post is going to appear in their feed. This will encourage them and their followers to engage with your content increasing your exposure.

You can also tell your followers to tag some of their people in the post. This will increase the reach of your Instagram content and there will be much more engagements. You can ask your friends to tag some of their interested followers through the caption or send them a message right after the post.

Tagging does not only involve other Instagram users. You can also tag locations to your posts. Whenever you upload photos or videos make sure to tag the location. When interested users click on your location tab, they are going to see all the posts within that location. This will expose your brand and attract more followers.

16. Instagram Advertising

Instagram Advertising ads are very effective in growing new followers. They provide a unique opportunity to interact with a specific group of users. They target the audience based on their location, demographics, interests and key behavior. The ads are very effective because it also uses Facebook data which now owns Instagram. There are 4 types of ads to choose from: photo ads, video ads, slide shows, and carousel ads.

The average cost per 1000 views of Instagram ads is $6. This means that you have a potential 1000 new followers for ever $6 spent. This is well worth it especially if you are using your Instagram account for business.

17. Harness Instagram Live and IGTV to Your Benefit

Live videos are already the trend on social media networks, and Instagram is no exception. They allow a brand to engage its followers through comments and questions in real-time. Since followers get a notification when you go live, it attracts more people to your page. Instead of going live yourself at all times, you could strategically collaborate with someone else, such as an influencer. They could go live and add you to the broadcast using the “Go live with a friend option.” This would showcase your brand to the influencer’s followers, hence leading to an increase in your Instagram followers.

Instagram live videos give you quite a bit of versatility. You could allow it to get deleted after the broadcast ends or have it show up in Instagram stories for 24 hours after the live broadcast. It is also a good idea to add the video to your Instagram TV page, creating a series that gives people another reason to engage with your Instagram content.

18. Embed Instagram Posts into Blogs

According to an estimate, 77% of internet users read blog posts. Thus, it comes as no surprise that this massive user base can be harnessed to get new Instagram followers by embedding Instagram posts into blogs. The embedded content could be in the form of photos or videos that blog readers can interact with and click on to visit your Instagram account and follow you.

Embedding your Instagram posts into your blog posts is a good way to get traffic to your page. And since the visitor is already interested in content related to your niche, there is a good chance they will follow you on Instagram. You could run your own blog or get other blogs to embed your posts in their articles. Remember that if your content is valuable, entertaining, helpful, or funny, bloggers in your niche would love to add it to their blogs without you having to ask them.

19. Join Instagram Engagement Groups

This is the best tactic to get followers, especially for beginners. When you join an engagement group within your niche, your number of followers will increase significantly. In these groups, you will find people with shared interests and they would gladly like and engage with your posts. Using popular engagement groups, you can gain up to 2000 new followers in a week.

Why You Should Not Buy Instagram Followers

When you buy Instagram followers, the bots automatically like and comment on your posts. Your account will appear flourished and with a lot of interaction when in reality this is not the case. Here is why:

a. Fake followers do not engage.

Bought Instagram followers are not real people. They are merely online robots that are programmed to drop certain comments on random posts. The only engagement you get from them is short or one worded comments like ‘awesome’ ‘cute’ ‘amazing’ ‘nice pic’ or just ‘nice’.

b. The bots may drop inappropriate comments.

Fake followers can sometimes drop comments that not even related to your post on Instagram. This may raise concerns to many of your genuine followers. For example, you may post about the death of your loved one and then several bots drop comments like ‘nice’ or ‘good one’. This will raise suspicion to your followers. Sometimes the bots may even comment in a foreign language.

c. Fake followers are a gateway to spam.

Bought followers can bring with them a multitude of spam posts. Having them in your Instagram account gives them access to a lot of your information and the spam may spread to your email and other social networks. The spam can even spread to your followers when they follow these fake accounts. When your followers realize they got the spam from you they are going to unfollow you.

d. Instagram recognizes and removes fake followers.

Instagram has put quite an effort into dealing with this kind of followers. The new algorithm is now able to detect and purge them. So when you buy followers, sooner rather than later they are going to disappear.

e. Fake followers destroy your credibility.

No brand will want to work with you if you have a fake Instagram following. So if you are aspiring to be an influencer, this is not the way to go. Many other Instagram users and brands are now able to detect accounts that have them.

Conclusion

There is no easy way to grow Instagram followers. Taking shortcuts will ruin your reputation as well as put you at risk of being banned. The above methods can steadily help you get more followers on Instagram.

If you really don’t have time to invest in growing your Instagram followers you can let us, The SimplyGram Team, do it for you. We are an Instagram growth service company that provides you with dedicated account management with artificial intelligence to grow your Instagram followers. Plus, we have our free Instagram followers trial offer. SimplyGram is equipped with features that enable it to perform tasks that cannot be accomplished with just the Instagram app. It has features that can search audience based on geo-location, gender, and it can even filter based on interactions with competitors. You just need to provide your desired audience and we will get their attention and grow your Instagram following.