How To Get More Instagram Followers

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INTRODUCTION

Alright boys and girls, listen up

Want to learn how to get more Instagram followers?

Then you’re in the right place.

Imagine if you could make one simple tweak to your account, and see an instant boost in your Followers

Look:

What if there are 20 of these tweaks

and complying with each of them could lead to more Followers?

You’d be probably pumped to read about them

Luckily for you, that’s exactly what I am gonna share with you in this post

20 insanely actionable Instagram tips on

How to get more Instagram Followers Organically TODAY

So stick around to read this post, because we have some good stuff stored for you.

Goal Of This Young Generation = Insta Famous

Just Kidding!!

Want to know the best Part?

All of these proven strategies are working GREAT in 2018.

Let’s do this!

How to get more Instagram followers :

1. Be More Specific

This is fundamental

When you try to amass a sizable audience, Naturally your instinct becomes appealing to as many people as possible

But the truth is that it rarely works out that way

Many people have different tastes and preferences

So if you try to appease everybody

Eventually, your content becomes blander

And it may turn out to be appealing to no one at all

But if you have a niche and post related to your niche only

It makes your readers feel like you are conveying your post directly to them

This will lead to more passionate, dedicated and engagement with your followers and to certain brands for marketing Purpose

So now we know that niche audiences work better

What is your Instagram account about?

A) Are you passionate about promoting a healthy lifestyle?

B) Are you always posting your #OOTD on the Instagram?

C) Do you spend hours binge-watching beauty tutorials on YouTube?

D) Do you love exploring new places?

E) Are you passionate about teaching people?

Or Animals, Nature, Food etc

Maybe it can be your Personal Blog

Whatever you are going in, Be more specific

Why?

The more specific, the better

In that way, you can retain a targetted audience which are interested in that particular topic you delivered

Meaning the engagement and follow rate are more likely to increase

Ensure Your Audience Is Targeted (But Not TOO super Targeted)

2. POST CONSISTENTLY

How often should you post to Instagram?

Consistency is regarded as a virtue on Instagram

There are many factors that make an Instagram account successful

Among them, Consistency plays a major role

Demonstrate a consistency

Accounts that post too infrequently are most likely to be rarely seen

So Consistency is the key to success in any field

It’s important to know how often you should post on Instagram

Consistency will not only add more new users but will also help you build an image

Make sure each post flow into the next and maintain a recurring theme across your content

Here are 8 reasons why you are losing your Instagram followers

Quantity vs Quality

Successful or Big accounts generally post frequently and are more likely to post more than once per day

Posting once a day is the most common method

However that more the better some even post up to 20 times a day

Sure you can post multiple times a day

But don’t overdo it

There is a risk of over-bombarding

The latest Instagram algorithm update has seen a ton of new changes

And it seems like it is making it even harder than ever for your posts to be seen

So If you are gonna post Three Post at once, What ends up happening is that one post will often take the limelight, and the others are often neglected.

To solve this problem Spread out your Post Schedule as-

• 1 Post in the Morning
• 1 in the afternoon and
• 1 in the evening

Or you could post Twice a Day Following the below Time Frame

This is a good strategy to get the maximum engagement in each of your posts

You can post more on Special Events or Promotions where you can bump up your posting frequency

But Post more frequently If you make sure you have enough time to dedicate to your efforts.

Never post for the sake of posting

So select a frequency that you can keep possession of and follow at that rate

3. SHARE QUALITY CONTENT

Keep your content in high quality

Like Bill Gates said “Content is King”

Your goal is to inform, engage, and entertain your audience with your content

Make sure that whatever you post are High-quality content and are interesting to the people

Text-based content works too and it can go viral

But Instagram is a very visual platform so Posting a picture combined with your text may be the better alternative

Good photos really stand out so make sure that your Photos are top notch

Compare this Two Photos 

Which one do you think will get more engagement 

Obviously A right?

Don’t make the mistake of uploading everything on your camera or Phone regardless of quality.

Be very selective about what you post.

Ensure that you have an eye-catching image

Most People aren’t going to flock around blurry and dimly lit snapshots

Polish your images with editing tools to make it more eye-catching

Trust me The little additional effort you put will make the most difference

CAPTION

Enhance your post with an engaging Caption

Your captions play a big role in increasing the engagement rate

Creating a beautiful caption for your feed is crucial

As mentioned above the new Instagram algorithm tends to favor posts that get a lot of engagement

Meaning if a post receives a ton of likes, comments, and shares, this signals to Instagram that it’s a high-quality content

So the algorithm will want other users to see it too and it will bump up your post on peoples’ feeds.

Caption plays a major factor to increase the engagement

Here is an Example of a Caption that is simple and Relatable

Be it a Quote, Joke or Comment Just make sure to add value to your Captions

In this Post above the Caption is delivering some educational value

Good Instagram Captions varies from short and sweet to longer, in-depth stories

But what matters here is that if your audience finds it engaging, you’re doing great

Write something amusing or Funny to make your viewer laugh

Most of the viral content on the internet are humorous and Sarcastic

TIPS

• Know your brand and your audience
• Emojis in Your Instagram Caption
• Use relevant hashtags
• Use questions and calls-to-action
• Put the most important words at the beginning of the caption

• Keep it short and sweet

EMOJIS

Never Under Estimate the Power Emojis

They are little silly cartoons, but they definitely serve a purpose

Some Words and emotion cant be easily expressed in a text

That is where the Emojis come in

Half of Instagram users utilize emojis

According to a research conducted by Quintly Posts containing emojis get 47.7% more interaction than those without them.

Emojis are beneficial to improve the number of interactions.

TIPS

• Use emojis to describe yourself
• Use emojis to effectively convey an emotion
• Use emojis to show affection to followers
• Emojis to punctuate a call to action

Sometimes with just one content or post, it may be the breakthrough for your account

While posting more may help grow the reach of your content being seen

But if the quality of your content declines, so does your engagement and followers

4. INSTAGRAM STORIES

Instagram launched their Stories in August 2016 and the feature spread like wildfire

Instagram Stories allows you to tell more of your story than any album of individual photos

It provides a new way for users to share their pictures or post that a user might not want to retain on their profile indefinitely

Meaning they are temporary and vanish after 24 hours

They are very important and need to be a part of your Strategy

You should take Advantage of it

You know there is a fine line between being proactive and being spammy on social media

However, Instagram Stories do not clog up your audience’s feeds meaning they don’t appear in peoples’ timeline

So there is no risk of you to be considered as spammy

Instagram Stories also allows you to tell your story to potential customers using a combination of pictures and videos.

It is all a part of Digital Story Telling, Just Provide real value, uncut content in the eyes of audiences

Whether you’re a just a casual Instagrammer or maybe even a leading a marketing/social media team looking for more ways to engage with your audience

Instagram Stories will and can benefit you and your company

5. CREATIVE WITH HASHTAGGING

Hashtags originally were created by Twitter as a way of organizing content

The hashtags help organize and categorize photos and video content aiding the process of content discovery and optimization

Today they are now a major part of most social media platform especially on Instagram, Twitter (a bit less so for Facebook) and to discover new post and pictures

Use hashtags to get maximum exposure

This is an Example of a  Post targetting fashion niche Hashtags

Instagram allows you to add thirty hashtags

And it has been observed that the maximum interactions and engagement have taken place on posts with 11 or more hashtags

Mix up your content with hashtags to tell part of your story.

Some popular hashtags are-

1. #summer – 43,000,000 photos

2. #fashion – 35,820,000 photos

3. #followme – 33,865,060 photos

4. #food – 27,409,460 photos, etc

You can use Keyhole to check the Rankings of a Hashtags

If you aren’t using any hashtags, it will be harder for people to find your account in case they don’t know your username

Whenever any Hashtags are Trending, Jump on that trend and use that as an opportunity to outsource your account and your content

This way your posts are more likely to be discovered by people who are searching for content related to your niche or brand.

Or you can even Come up with your own hashtag that will motivate your audience to share photos and content related to your brand or niche

TIPS

Avoid Using too many hashtags as it can distract your audience from the main content and dilute your message.

Use some which are relevant for your Post

Sometimes It can also appear as desperate, or worse, spammy, etc

6. CROSS-PROMOTIONAL

If you are a brand or even if you are an individual you can partner up with someone of your niche or industry to cross-promote each other’s social media posts to respective followers.

There are a variety of hashtags on Instagram where people trade favors with other users

Participate in #followforfollow, #s4s and #likeforlike

Even though the #like4like or #followforfollow is a successful tactic in bringing your engagement up,

This will not be the answer to target your audience that you want to entertain and capture with the quality of your content.

Because the mindset here with this hashtags is that they are not particularly here looking to follow you or your content

They just want to get more followers and likes

But It works if your content is worth following

The narrower the scope of the hashtag, the more engaged the users are

Another way for Cross-promote is to direct people to use your hashtag.

Integrate your hashtag to online and offline campaigns

Don’t just hope people will find it.

7. DON’T USE BANNED HASHTAGS

We have learned the uses of Hashtags and its importance

That doesn’t mean you can use any hashtags on your post

Instagram is actively censoring and blocking a huge list of hashtags

Some of the Banned Hashtags are

• #bombshell
• #bootay
• #bootybounce
• #bra
• #brain
• #breast
• #buns
• #butt

Here is a list of Banned Hashtags

Even the most innocent-looking hashtags such as  #singlelife or #petite can be banned.

Because they are used in quite a few pornographic or otherwise unacceptable images

For Example, let’s say You post a picture of your dog using a completely banned Hashtag

But the thing is that after you publish the image and you tap that hashtag

What Will Happen?

It will lead you to an empty page.

Just like this one below

8. MENTION YOUR INSTAGRAM ON OTHER SITES

This one is pretty simple

You must have seen something like this, on every website you visit

 

Just Make sure that you Link out your social media accounts or your Instagram account on your website, in your email signature, and online newsletters, etc

9. GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION WITH YOUR PROFILE

 

We all know that first impressions are a crucial even in real life

Same here too.

A bad first impression can be disappointing and disastrous

Some may say “First Impressions Are Not Last Impressions”

Well But for some, it is

According to researchers, it takes less than two-tenths of a second for an online visitor to form an impression of your account.

And takes just another 2.6 seconds for that viewer’s eyes to concentrate in a way that reinforces that first impression.

So you wanna make sure that your account is Clean and have a great look at its first glance

Now you ask What make a good impression?

The answer is your profile.

Crafting a great bio and profile is a crucial Part

Your profile is the backbone of your presence on Instagram

Tip #1: Your Name

Make sure that you use your name or the name which your followers and customers are searching for to get into your account

Keep your name Short and Simple

This will appear under your profile picture and under your username in a search

Also, Keep your username recognizable and easily searchable

Username and Name are two different things

For example, Sneakernews uses the username @sneakernews

I hope you get that

Tip #2:  Public Profile

By default, your Instagram profile will be public

Obviously, You want anyone to be able to view your posts and follow you

But if you keep your profile private, anyone who visits your profile won’t be able to view your photos

It could deter them from seeing your account and following you

So make sure to keep your Profile Public

Tip #3: Mention Your Skills

Instagram allows you to have a max of 150 characters in your Bio

Meaning you have just 150 words to convey your brand identity to let people know what you’re about

Or if you are an individual, Introduce yourself in such a way that will give them the reason why they should follow you

Provide a Delightful, Actionable, Informative Bio

Mention your skill, profession, hobby, or interest, in your Instagram bio as well!

Instagram bio will serve as an introduction to new visitors to your account and also get them to know you in a nutshell

One Example of a Good Bio is Califiafarms

Califia Farms The new shape of dairy free. Now available in: 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇬🇧 🇦🇺 Share your 📸 with #CalifiaFarms

Tip #4: Website Link/ Email

Instagram is very strict about placing clickable links

Currently, Instagram allows users to place only one clickable link on their profile, which is the link in your bio

Placing your Website Link or Email id will give your Account a more Professional look which will increase your account legitimacy

And at the same time increases the Chances of having a good impression of the visitor visiting your account

10. CHOOSE AN INSTAGRAM AESTHETIC 

Instagram is a very visual site so Looks are very important on Instagram

As we have discussed before you have to maintain a Good first impression look

And among the many factors on how to have a good Impression, Instagram Theme or Aesthetics is very much essential

You need to adopt a general brand aesthetic for your account and stick to it

But there are so many Instagram themes to choose from

Its just overwhelming and can be difficult knowing where (and how) to start

Once you have your own style and themes, make sure you go consistent with it

Some Examples of Instagram Themes are-

1. Minimal & Neutral Instagram Theme 

2. Bright, Sunny, & Happy Theme

3. Vintage & Warm Theme

4. Bright, Beachy, & Relaxed Theme 

5. Bold & Vibrant Theme

For more on Awesome Instagram Themes (and How to Get Them) Go to Later.com

11. POST AT THE RIGHT TIME

When is the best time to post on social media?

Is it really Necessary?

Yes it is

Posting at the Right time is very much essential to catch more eyes

In order to get the more insights of your Audience

Consider asking

What does their typical day look like?  and At what time of the day are they most active on Instagram?

Test in off-work hours like 7 p.m.during the week and at various times throughout the weekend.

Or You could follow the Timings shown in the Chart

Just Mix it up a little bit and Start testing at various times and measured the results

A study by Latergramme suggests that posts made at 2 a.m. and 5 p.m. EST tend to get the most attention.

Run your own experiments and interpret results to refine your strategy

12. TRY LIVE VIDEOS

This is definitely one way to garner more Instagram followers

Live video requires user commitment and their undivided attention and more engagement

Where you and your followers can bond and get to know more

Live videos appear in your story and When the live video ends, you can either let it disappear or choose to make it available for replay on your story for 24 hours

Instagram also sends a push notification to your entire audience to let them know when someone they follow is broadcasting live. So a live video really grabs a user attention

They will obviously be excited when you go live Right?

If not why did they follow you in the first place

They are interested in your content so they follow you

Meaning they will obviously want more content from you and are more likely to tune in 

Oh, and when you go live make sure you add some value to the experience or make it worth it for those who tune in

Like for example if they follow you for your sense of humor, make them laugh and keep them, wanting for more of your content

13. AUTOMATE/ SCHEDULE YOUR INSTAGRAM ACTIVITY

This led to Another Sub-Topic from the Previous one which is Posting at the right time

Managing an Instagram account could be very taxing and it takes a lot of time and effort

Luckily for you, there are many tools out there that can automate your Instagram

These tools will effectively simulate your brand presence and it will also work fa or Personal account too

You can automate and schedule to publish your photos or post directly to Instagram.

Benefits of Instagram Automation

1. It Saves your Time

2. You Can Be On 24/7

3. Engage With More People

4. Boost Your Follower Count

Tools to automate your Instagram activity

1. SocialDrift

2. ViralUpgrade

3. Socially Rich

4. RoboLike

5. Popmatic

You can use any of the tools above according to whichever suits your needs to automate your Activity

14. JOIN INSTAGRAM ENGAGEMENT GROUPS

Engagement groups are also known as Instagram pods

Basically what this means is they are group conversations within Instagram and also on other platforms (Example: Telegram app) to increase your Post engagement

Engagement groups can help you boost your engagement such as Instagram Like, comment, follower etc..and you may also get featured on the Instagram Explore Page, go viral(Maybe)

Which will eventually lead to more exposure and hopefully gain some hundreds to thousands of new followers as a result.

But it does not happen overnight, it takes time, patience, and a whole lot of dedication

So The main purpose of participating in engagement groups is for you to get your post into the Top Posts section and gain good organic growth from there

You see with the Instagram algorithm changing drastically over the last few years.

Instagram decides how many people to show your post to, based on the engagement you get on your post.

By this, it means that the posts with higher engagement are more likely to be seen by more people.

The summary is that The more engagement you get on a post and the faster you get it, the higher Instagram ranks it in their algorithm.

So The goal of engagement groups is to support each other by engaging with each other’s posts

Different engagement groups have different rules

15.  GEOTAG YOUR PHOTOS

You may have encountered that When browsing your Instagram feed, you’ll notice that many people’s images, videos, and stories are tagged with specific locations

Especially their business name or location, etc

Instagram location tag post is a great way to get more local exposure for you or your brand on Instagram

People may be out and looking for a place for dinner.

Simply They open their Instagram search and type in “Burger [city name]” to find a list of places that serve Burger.

Or they may look for a hashtag like “#[citynamerestaurant].”

Instagram’s search algorithm will populate content that corresponds to a location-based business if that business has its address set up through Facebook or Instagram.

If you want your Insta Story to be seen by anyone who’s searching for your location make sure that you add location tags to your Stories.

All you have to do is just hit “Add Location” before sharing your post

After that, Your post should now appear on the Instagram page for that location

16. PROMOTE YOUR INSTAGRAM ON OTHER SOCIAL NETWORK

 

Promote your Instagram account across different social platforms

Let’s say you’ve already built a following on another social network

Just let your fans know about your Instagram account and mention to follow you

Direct your Facebook or Twitter audience to your Instagram account

Incentivize your existing social followers to check your account out

Or you could Share your Instagram profile link on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc

17.  RUN CONTESTS AND GIVEAWAYS 

You know what word did people like to hear the most

FREE, Yes its Free

People just normally love free stuff

And winning free things, especially when it costs them little to nothing

Instagram has proven to be a great resource for carrying out contests which are super easy to do

Instagram contests can help you boost your follower count in a short period of time, and with little effort.

You can use giveaways and other similar promotions on Instagram to build up your fanbase or reach new potential customers, to create buzz about new product lines.

How To Do An Instagram Giveaway

Step 1: Write the description for your contest

Step 2: Choose the Prize for Your Instagram Giveaway

Step 3: Decide the Entry Criteria for Your Instagram Giveaway

Step 4: Decide How Long Your Instagram Giveaway Will Last

Step 5: Create the Perfect Instagram Giveaway Post

Step 6: Create ‘Reminder’ Posts to Share Throughout Your Instagram Giveaway

Step 7: Tally the Results of Your Instagram Giveaway

Step 8: Spread the News About the Winner of Your Instagram Giveaway

Some Ideas for An Instagram Giveaway

• Like to Win
• Tag a Friend
• Selfie Contest + + Branded Contest Hashtag
• Repost + Branded Contest Hashtag, Etc

Make sure your Contest don’t stray from the guidelines and stay on the right side of the promotion guidelines provided by Instagram

To Know More about on How to do the perfect Instagram contest. Here is a Reference by Neil Patel

18.  PROMOTE YOUR INSTAGRAM OFFLINE

There are an endless opportunity and list on this topic

Some examples of them are Ask your Friend to follow you, Your co-workers, etc

Or if you are running a business put your account on your printed marketing materials such as fliers, posters, stickers, cards, etc

To Catch the viewers eyes instantly just put the bright Instagram logo next to your username 

19. PAID ADS/ SPONSORED

To be Honest there is no Ads Objective as “Gain Followers’ on Instagram Ad

The available Ads Objective you can choose are- 

• Brand awareness
• Reach
• Traffic (for clicks to your website or to the app store for your app)
• App installs
• Engagement (for post engagement only)
• Video views
• Conversions (for conversions on your website or in your app)
• Lead generation

Since we are here dealing on how to get more Instagram followers

You should Probably go with Engagement, Reach Or Video Views in case you have a video

• Make Your Ads More Visually Appealing
• Choose a single image to tell your story visually
• Provide a call to action “Follow me at @username

20. ADJUST YOUR STRATEGY 

Engagement is the key to success and engagement matters more on Instagram than most other platforms out there

Use some tools to get detail insight of your account and fix the ones needed 

Yes, there is an Instagram’s built-in analytics which is also helpful, But the tools listed below go far beyond those metrics 

Some tools to measure your analytics are-

•  OwlMetrics
•  Simply Measure
• Iconosquare
• Sprout Social
• Keyhole
• SquareLovin
• Minter.io
• Picture.io
• SocialRank

CONCLUSION

Yayy!! If you made it to the end, you are the freaking man

Figuring out how to get the first few 100 to 1000 followers on Instagram is the hardest

Once you hit like around 1K- 4K you just gradually increase faster over time if you continue following the above tips

Now It’s Your Turn…

I hope you enjoy the strategies to grow your Insta Followers

But Now I want to hear from you

Which method from this post are you most excited to try (Although I Recommend Everything)

Or Maybe you have any tips of your own on how to grow your Instagram followers?

Either way, let me know by leaving a comment below RIGHT NOW

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