Instagram has become an irreplaceable marketing tactic for over 200 million businesses thanks to the focus on quality and community-building that the platform encourages. However, that still leaves new brands with a significant hurdle to overcome when starting their own marketing campaigns.
Namely, users might be hesitant to follow accounts that don’t have many followers.But accounts can’t get a large following if nobody decides to follow them. It’s a classic catch-22.
Luckily, we’ll show you some of our best tips on how to get more followers on Instagram organically.
Create a Strong Account
The first step to getting followers is to invest in your account’s presence.
Build Up Your Profile
Have you ever noped out of a webpage because it looked like it was missing some key features? Well, think of your profile as the main page for your Instagram marketing channel. Unlike with building websites, finishing up a profile shouldn’t take long. Fill in the bio,choose a profile picture, and add some expectations on what viewers should look forward to.
If you’re using Instagram as your business’s social media account, you can also convert it to a professional account. It provides additional analytics overviews to check the best-performing posts and audience shares, allowing you to better estimate your campaign budgets and ROIs. Additionally, a professional account gets access to more contact information and a button you can use to direct users to your website or store.
Use Keywords
Make sure to fill out your name and bio and insert your keywords naturally throughout. The keywords should be relevant to your audience niche and unique mission statement. The name should list the primary keyword you’re trying to target (as simple as possible), while the bio can target a few more general ones.
If you’re thinking, “Hang on, isn’t this way too much like Google?” you’d be correct. While hashtags are one of the ways that the Instagram algorithm categorizes content and accounts, the sheer amount of traffic on the platform led to keywords being the primary SEO driver instead of hashtags. Hashtags can still promote visibility within established communities, but keywords can place you in front of new viewers.
Maintain Brand Cohesiveness
While maintaining an Instagram presence is fun, you should consider it as a business first and foremost.
This also means that you have to align everything you post on your profile with your unique mission proposition. If you haven’t thought of one yet, think of your ideal followers and what they would respond to most.
Make an Inviting Grid
While a varied Instagram grid on your profile might look interesting, it doesn’t look professional. It mainly tells people that you’re throwing out content at them and seeing what sticks.
You can play with patterns and color contrasts (or lack thereof) to create unique profile grids that make users want to click to learn more. Of course, controlled chaos can be a winning strategy for some, but it should usually be left to influencer accounts or entertainment-first channels.
All About That Content
Content is the driving force behind getting more followers on Instagram. Without strong content, all your efforts to get more Instagram followers can fail.
Invest in Equipment and Editing
For most businesses and influencers, quality trumps quantity. While a select few can get away with behind-the-scenes work and Lo-Fi styles, that’s usually something reserved for boosting an existing following when you’re already pretty popular.
With that in mind, your posts need to be pre-planned and carefully shot. Use high-quality camera and audio equipment. Additionally, take a bit of time to learn a few editing tricks or see which editing apps can deliver the quality you need. It will allow you to create a methodology for your work that amplifies your brand cohesiveness.
Maintaining a Schedule
Even if your content is evergreen and meant to be relevant for a long time, your account won’t get traction if it doesn’t have new content available. It allows existing followers to interact with you by liking and commenting on new stuff you put out, making sure that the algorithm can promote your work to other people.
Develop a schedule of how often you plan to post (this can vary from as little as three to around 10 posts per week), but also what times of day you’re using for posts. This will depend on where your audience lives and how they interact with your content. Retail stores or entertainment-focused channels can leverage short breaks during work (somewhere around 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time). On the other hand, cooking-related channels might get more traction after work hours or early on the weekend.
You can use a social media marketing platform to create a schedule and track information on engagement rates to course correct if needed.
Put Vital Information in the Captions
Apart from being the place to put hashtags, post captions are a treasure trove of information that can lead to important marketing opportunities. You can use captions to ask questions or direct users to specific actions you want them to do. But you can also develop a unique caption style to set yourself apart from other brands.
Keep an eye on the caption length, though. If it goes over 125 characters, viewers will need to tap it to see the rest, so the beginning is half the work. Also, short and punchy captions can work extremely well on visual-heavy content.
Build a Community
As mentioned, Instagram has been built on the premise that users will create interconnected communities.
Stay in Touch
Make sure to respond to user questions and DMs whenever you can, and use a consistent brand voice to do so. It will boost your engagement rate and let Instagram algorithm help with organic traffic.
Follow Community Leaders
Prominent micro-influencers in the community typically have much higher engagement rates than what traditional marketing gets you. They’re seen as hyper-focused and reliable users that the audience can check out to learn about brands that align with their core values.
If you follow those accounts, they might just follow you back, and you can build a business relationship from that.
Leverage User-Created Content
Once you’ve got a few followers under your belt, you can use them to bounce ideas for future growth and even help spread the word about your brand. Create a unique hashtag that aligns with your mission and a trend that your followers can partake in.
Then, you can encourage users to make their own posts in your style or feature your services and reshare that content on your page to make a more relatable and authentic user experience. Make sure to ask for permission and properly credit the original creators to prevent any legal issues.
Additionally, you can pin up to three comments on each post. Find the best comments that have the potential to drive more engagement and show them to new users front and center.
Go Live
Remember when you were told to keep high-quality posts? Well, live streams (and Reels to a lesser extent) is where most bets are off.
Using the Go Live option is an excellent way to stay in touch with your audience and get real-time engagement. It can also be used to generate behind-the-scenes shots that make your brand more approachable.
Use a GrowthBoost
If you’re wondering how to get more followers on Instagram fast, then there’s only one surefire way—buying Instagram followers. It will improve how your account looks to new viewers, solving the catch-22 issue at its root.
With a larger follower count, your brand gets more credibility and is likelier to get followed by more users. This makes sure that your content gets seen by more people and creates a positive feedback loop for organic growth.
