You might have started an Instagram account has a hobby photography account or maybe you wanted to get your online presence going for your new business. It can seem almost impossible to grow your Instagram following amongst hundreds of millions of other profiles and the truth is as much work as it does take, it is definitely achievable. When it comes down to it all every new account has to start from zero and work hard to attract a fanbase. We decided to lay out our guide to help those looking to grow your instagram account and gain followers organically!
1. Build A Solid Profile
The first look at your profile is your first impression to potential followers, and the first key to growing a profile is inviting people in by keeping your profile public. You then want everything from your display picture and bio to your feed to be captivating, deliver the right message and overall represent your brand whether your account is for a business or personal use. Make sure your profile is full and bio has the information your followers need like what or who you are, your email and directions to your business if required. If you are a business, we always recommend having a business profile as it not only gives you key profile insight but also makes your profile look more legitimate to the public. Finally, your feed is important to so try to have some cohesiveness whether its a theme, posting pattern or just a constant filter you use on every image.
2.Create and Curate Eye-Catching Content
Now that you have the overall feel of your profile ready, it’s now time to work on your content. You want to make sure you are posting high quality and clear images on your feed that no only look good individually, but look good when you scroll through your overall feed. If you are reposting content from another Instagram account or source, make sure you provide full credit to creators with a tag in the caption. If you’re running a personal account it’s been known that having a face to a page helps boost followers and overall engagement, so don’t be scared to throw in a selfie or two now and then.
3. Post Regularly
It’s extremely important to post regularly on Instagram to keep your followers engaged and also help boost your algorithms to get your content seen. With that being said, you also don’t want to over do it and flood everyone’s feed with only your content which will likely result in an unfollow so have balance. They say posting anywhere from 1-3 times spaced out throughout the day is a great way to gain followers, looking at 2-3 time a day if you’re just starting off. Our best recommendation to do is have a daily amount that you can commit to on a consistent schedule so your overall reach doesn’t begin to drop off.
4. Engage and Be Active
Asides from posting regularly on Instagram, it’s also important to engage with your followers and other profiles. Best practice is to at least like every comment received on your posts and reply to every comment that you can, keeping in mind there are only so many smiley faces you can say thank you too. You can also gain some attention by engaging with content from accounts you think would be interested in yours. A great way to get someone to check your profile out is to engage with a few of their posts, but don’t flood their notifications! We recommend the engaging with the first 3 posts on their feed in the like, like and comment, like pattern. Make sure the comment you leave is meaningful and relevant to their post so it’s doesn’t seem spammy!
5. Use Hashtags
Many people still do this day very seldom use hashtags if at all, and if they do they aren’t using them the most efficient way. It’s important to understand how hashtags help your online presence to have them better serve you. Luckily, we wrote an entire post on using hashtags the other week, check it out here!
Quick Tip – Find an app like FocalMark to quickly curate the perfect hashtags!
6. Host A Giveaway
Everyone loves winning something, am I right? Giveaways are certainly no exception! You can build a great following based on your niche by hosting a giveaway, whether you choose to join into a loop giveaway, host your own or collaborate with brand partners. Our advice is don’t host them too often and make sure the prizes entice people to click that follow button. Finally, make sure what you plan on gift draws in people interested into your profile, so if you’re a foodie page you might want to giveaway a giftcard to a restaurant or kitchen tools for example.
7. Use Your Instagram Story/Live
Not everyone is a fan of Instagram’s Story and Live, their response to Snapchat, but reality is they are a great way to get attention and stay top of mind to your followers, even if you don’t post daily! Story has so many fun features like location tagging, GIFs and polling you have a great chance to communicate and connect with your followers. We recommending always using location tagging and sticking a couple hashtags in when possible which can help get your Story featured on a tag’s explore section.
Stay tuned to the blog for more content on guides on how to grow your Instagram following!
