With 800 million active users on the platform, you would think that the answer to how to get more followers on Instagram would be easy. But even with so many people to interact with, many businesses find it difficult. Algorithm changes have affected the number of people shown to each post, and the introduction of Instagram business accounts has had a negative impact on those unwilling to pay for exposure VISIT: https://commentsgo.com/instagram-comments/.
Figuring out how to gain followers on Instagram is well worth an investment of your time. Research has shown that users want to engage with you in meaningful ways, such as calling you, visiting your website, or looking for directions to your location. In fact, over 120 million Instagrammers do this every month. If you don’t worry about how to get followers on IG, you are missing a golden business opportunity.
Our ultimate guide on how to get more followers on IG is designed to help you explore new ways to connect with interested parties. There is no guaranteed method on how to increase followers on Instagram, but there are ways to increase your potential to attract new fans. Here you can find the best tips on how to get more followers on IG so that your business starts making waves in your sector.
The best tips to get more followers on Instagram:
Here we give you our best tips on how to get more followers on IG so you can harness the full power of the world’s largest photo-sharing platform.
- Make it easy for users to find you
You can have the best images, the most interesting content, and work as much as you want on your account, but if users can’t find you, it’s all for nothing. If your fans don’t know you’re there, they’ll never follow you.
To increase your visibility, use the tools you already have. If you have a fan base on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social network, cross-promote your Instagram page to those people, encouraging them to follow you. Consider paying to boost these posts to ensure that more of your current followers are directed to your Instagram account.
You can also place a link on your website to help visitors find you on Instagram, and you might consider including a link in your email signatures and other public profiles. If you want to figure out how to increase followers on Instagram, maximizing the use of existing resources is a no-brainer.
- Optimize your profile
You want your profile to be a powerful marketing piece, so don’t skimp on your time investment here either. Make it professional, describe who you are and what you do, giving them a good reason to hit the “follow” button.
To start, you need to make sure your username is easy to find. The ideal is to use the name of your company, but if it is already chosen, you will have to be creative. Keep your company name in the first part of the label, so those searching for you can find you. For example, if your business is called James Retail but @jamesretail is already taken, you can use @jamesretailUSA or @jamesretailofficial.
Choose a brand-focused profile image; your logo is a good option. Fill your bio with engaging information about your brand, but add a little personality too. Add a link to your website, but consider shortening it with a provider like Bitly to make your profile as neat as possible.
Fine-tuning your profile can make all the difference when it comes to how to get IG followers, so it’s a good idea to review what yours says relatively regularly to make sure it’s up to date. Take a look at some of your competitors’ profiles to see what works for them, and then you can make improvements to yours.
- Tell a coherent story
Consistency and regularity are the keys to getting more followers on IG. Think about your brand story and purposeful content that gets your audience truly engaged. Instagram is a very visual channel that needs perfect curation to get the best results.
Maybe you’re dedicated to your products, showing off what they look like, demonstrating the problems they solve, or explaining to customers how they’re made. Or maybe you’re a service-based business and are more interested in inspiring your customers with aspirational posts and motivational ideas. Regardless of what your brand stands for, ensuring a trustworthy image in all your posts will help you attract new followers and keep them.
This doesn’t mean you have to limit your Instagram content in any way, but your posts should have a clear message and coherent ideas. Your visuals should be instantly recognizable at a glance and present a cohesive narrative across this social channel.
- Use hashtags
Hashtags are one of the best ways on how to increase followers on IG. Good use of powerful and relevant hashtags will expose your posts to people who are not followers of your page, but who are interested in the type of content you are producing. When you start using hashtags, achieve success quickly:
Checking the most popular: Take a look at the most popular hashtags in your sector. What are your competitors using? What about influencers in your niche?
Use niche tags: If you focus on your sector, you will capture the attention of a smaller audience, but much more committed to your business.
Create your own hashtag: Use your own hashtag with your posts and promote it with contests and other channels so people start using it.
Use enough hashtags: You can place up to 30 hashtags on any post, but using all 30 at a time is probably too much. Studies show that between 9 and 11 hashtags tend to be the optimal number, but this varies by sector.
Avoid spam hashtags: Don’t be tempted to use tags like #like4like or #followback, since, although you may get more followers, they will be of low quality and will not be really interested in your content.
- Choose the right time to publish
Publishing consistently is an obstacle that must be overcome; perfecting the moments in which it is published is another. In an analysis by Tailwind on how to gain followers on Instagram, it was found that brands that posted at least once a day grew their followers four times faster than those that only posted once a week.
Posting when your users are most active on Instagram is the key to success. When your followers see your post, they will be compelled to interact with it with a like or comment. This will expose your content to more people, generating more interaction and even more exposure. Figuring out what time to post on Instagram isn’t always easy, but as you get to know your clients and what their schedule is like, you’ll become more aware of good times to post.
For example, if your audience is primarily working people, chances are they’re busy checking emails and planning their days between 9 and 11 a.m., so it’s not a good time to post. However, stay-at-home moms may be browsing Instagram between 9 and 10 in the morning, after school. B2B companies will surely find a good time between 12 and 2 pm, when people are on their lunch break.
Find the optimal posting time by testing posts at different times of the day. Use a scheduling tool to plan and organize your posts, but also make sure someone is available to respond to comments when the post goes live.
- Tag other users
Adding a specific user’s tag to your posts will encourage them to share them as well, which will help expose your business to more new people. When working on how to get more followers on IG, engaging with specific influencers is crucial. However, don’t just tag them randomly, as you’re unlikely to get the desired response. Relate to them through their own posts, and then use this relationship to help grow your own followers.
You can also have users tag other users in your posts. Captions like “tag someone who feels this way on a Monday” or “tag the person you’d like to be with on this beach” will make people tag their friends like crazy. Suddenly, you will be exposed to many other Instagram users and you will have started to increase your followers even more.
- Host a contest
Contests and competitions are one of the best ways to learn how to get followers on IG. There are many ways you can run your contest, from having people use a specific hashtag to asking them to comment, like, or follow your account. You don’t have to be a multimillion-dollar business to run a successful contest, but you do have to be brave enough to encourage interaction.
Some ideas for a contest could be:
Win a fashion voucher for sharing images of the perfect work outfit.
Win a camera for sharing images of inspiring places.
A giveaway for an iPad in which you participate by liking or following your account.
A goodie bag for tagging a friend you would take to your restaurant.
Contests can be a lot of fun, so get creative and think of exciting offers and participation opportunities for your brand.
- Learn how to use live video
Live broadcasts are trendy on all social platforms, and Instagram is no exception. It’s the ideal way to share coverage of a conference, trade show, training opportunity, or Q&A session. You could show off your factory, tour your offices, cover the opening of your new store, anything.
Live streams on Instagram appear at the top of your followers’ feeds, making it an ideal way to deeply engage with those who already follow you. Encourage viewers to tag their friends, perhaps hosting a giveaway as part of the video. Users who are online when you start streaming will receive an instant notification of your live stream, making it a great way to grab people’s attention.
You can choose to have your stream disappear as soon as it’s over or make it available in your brand’s stories area for 24 hours. Your story will also appear at the top of your followers’ feeds, giving you a great opportunity to interact with those who missed the live stream.
- Use Instagram ads
If you are serious about getting more followers on IG, making use of Instagram ads is going to be important for you. These allow you to reach new followers quickly, introducing your carefully crafted content to people who may have never heard of you before.
Using Instagram’s built-in advertising tools, you can also make your ads very specific. Choose who you want to see your ads based on their interests and behaviors, demographics, geographic locations, and a host of other parameters to help you reach the right people. You can advertise on both Instagram feeds and stories, so explore all your options and try different strategies to see what works best for your business.
- Use Instagram insights
Instagram has been the last social network that has stepped up to the plate when it comes to offering data, but thank goodness they now do it and we should all use them to discover how to gain followers on Instagram. The analytics and insights that Instagram provides are pure marketing gold, so take the time to learn what you can discover to continue growing your followers.
You can view information for your entire account using the graph button at the top right of your profile page, or for an individual post by going to that post and clicking “view info” at the bottom left. When you visit your account information, you will see:
Impressions: How many times your ad or content has appeared in feeds.
Reach: How many unique users have seen your posts.
Clicks: A count of the times people have clicked on any link you added to your business profile.
Views: How many times your profile page has been viewed.
Followers: How many followers you have acquired or lost in the last week.
The “followers” section will also tell you what times of day your followers are most active, which is very informative when planning your posting schedules. If you choose to view information for a particular post, you will be able to see:
Likes: How many likes your post has generated.
Comments: How many comments have they left you?
Saved: How many users saved or bookmarked your post.
Actions: How many actions were taken, such as visiting your profile, following you, or clicking a link to your website.
Discoverability: This metric shows where your post was viewed the most, including how many accounts weren’t following you when they first saw your post.
As you can imagine, when you start digging into these metrics and keeping track of data over a period of time, it’s easy to see how patterns start to emerge. These patterns will be crucial to adapting your strategy as you go, and to making sure you know how to continually gain Instagram followers.
So now you know some of the right ways on how to get more followers on IG. However, there is a way on how to get followers on IG that we haven’t mentioned, and that is by buying them. We cannot recommend this tactic on how to get followers on Instagram at all, as it is not good practice and will not help you in the long term.
Fake followers are unlikely to engage with your posts, unlike real followers, so you lose all the benefits that come with healthy-looking numbers. If you have 100,000 followers and you only get 200 likes on your posts, it’s clear that your followers aren’t real. Not only that, but buying followers is against Instagram’s terms of use, and if you get caught, your account could be suspended.
Growing your followers organically is a much better strategy, and while it takes time and commitment, it’s not the hardest thing to do. Get to work, do things right, and you’ll grow your Instagram follower base in no time.