Now, Instagram has more than 1 billion users, and it is definitely a well-loved social media outlet. Having a large following on Instagram can mean more sales for your business, more views on your blog, and a stronger community for your brand.
While trying to grow your own personal account or any brand(business) account, read on to find 8 best ways to grow Instagram followers.
#1 Post Regularly (at least once a day)
The more often you post, the more followers and like you get. Consistency will help in getting your posts seen and appearing at the top of the timeline. If you share posts on a regular basis and get good engagement, then your posts may be placed at the top of your followers’ feed. Instagram Algorithms give more preference to the accounts which share posts on a regular basis.
According to a study, profiles that post seven or more times a week (or at least once a day) get more likes and gain more followers faster than those that post less frequently. You can grow Instagram followers at a better pace by sharing 1-6 posts per week or one or more per day.
Key Suggestion: Share posts regularly to get more views and hence more followers. There’s no limit for sharing posts per day, but don't share too much to avoid getting blocked by Instagram as it will consider your account as a bot.
#2 Use Quality Hashtags
Your goal on Instagram is to engage and retain your current audience and to grow more followers, Right? The first requirement can be fulfilled by posting new and engaging content, but to grow more Instagram followers, you need to use the right hashtags within your posts. The right hashtags can expose your image to a large and targeted audience.
Now, Instagram users can follow hashtags too. You can also use hashtags on your stories. Your stories have a chance to be seen by people following that specific hashtag.
You can use free online tools like IconoSquare or Websta to find right and quality hashtags. You can also use Display Purpose, which I had used earlier. To use it, just type in a few words about your image, and it will recommend you the best and top hashtags:
Key Suggestion: Study and use the right hashtags. In other words, hashtags could be your best way to grow Instagram followers.
#3 Post at your best times
Every account has its own best times to post. The best time to post is the time when your posts get the maximum engagement from other users. So a best time probably for you is when your followers are most online.
There are two ways to get know about your best time to post:
1. Instagram’s own Insight: If you have a Business account, then you can use Instagram's Insights to check your best time to post.
- In the Instagram app, swipe left to open the side menu.
- Tap on the Instagram Insights (bar chart) icon
- Click on the “Audience” section.
At the bottom, you’ll see the hours and days on which your followers are most active. You can also check the location of your followers and can share posts according to the time you think they’ll be most active. This will help you to get the maximum engagement.
2. If you don’t have a business account on Instagram, then you can use Instagram Analytics tools like Iconosquare or Union Metrics. A view of how Iconosquare’s report look like:
#4 Organize your stories into highlights
When a potential follower views your profile, then they might be looking for why they should follow you. Then if you have stories in your highlights, they will communicate what your account is about.
Use story highlights to:
- Create trailers that explain what your account is about.
- Organize stories into themes(like the places you’ve visited).
- Promote your products or services using swipe-up links (you must have at least 10K followers and an Instagram Business account to do this with your Stories).
#5 Use Geotags for local discoverability
Apart from hashtags, you can also use geotags to make your posts discoverable. You can tag the location or the place where the photo or video was taken.
Locations have their own Instagram feed and their own story just like hashtags and you can contribute to it by using the location sticker in your story.
Local Businesses can get the most benefits by using the geotags. By posting regularly to these feeds, they can attract the potential followers or customers towards their account. This is a simple way to grow Instagram followers.
#6 Encourage Followers to take action.
People are more likely to do something if you ask them to do it. Sharing a meme? Ask them to “like” your photo if they agree with it! Sharing something relatable or funny? Ask your followers to tag a friend! Ask some questions! Put the idea out there, it will encourage your followers to act accordingly. This is a good way to increase Instagram followers as usually when someone tags his/her friend, they follow that respective account.
#7 Post according to trends for more followers
To improve discoverability and engagement, align your content with trending topics or hashtags. You must have to focus on trending topics such as holidays and you can participate in the holidays hashtags like #NationalCoffeeDay.
You can mark relevant upcoming events in your calendar so that you can make relevant content in advance.Be sure to join the conversation and focus on your niche. This will help you to grow Instagram followers.
#8 Try videos, live videos, and Stories
With features like videos, live videos, and Stories, you can now create many different types of content to engage your fans and grow your following.
Some reasons why you should try these features:
- Whenever you go live on Instagram, you will appear at the front of the Stories feed.
- 57% percent of brands believe that Instagram stories have been “Very effective” or “Somewhat effective” as a part of their social media strategy.
- The average engagement for videos is more than the average engagement for images.
Important:
While you are trying to grow Instagram followers organically, some websites may tell you- ‘Grow Instagram Followers Free’ or ‘Free Instagram followers’, ‘Free Instagram likes’, ‘Buy Instagram followers.’ They ensure you that you will gain followers after some payment or by signing up with your Instagram account to proceed.
Maybe, this will help you to gain some followers, but after some time, your account may get blocked due to considering your account as spam by Instagram. If you sign up with your Instagram details, your account can get hacked or misused.
So, if you want a long-term benefit, only try to gain followers without payment or any third-party sites.
Hope this will help you to grow Instagram followers. By chance, if got blocked by Instagram, then you can check how to recover your Instagram account.
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