With millions of unique, active visitors and up to 70 million uploads every day, Instagram is undoubtedly one of the most popular social platforms on the internet today. It’s no surprise that both individuals and brands are working beyond themselves to maximize its features and benefits, and that many have tripled their sales and engagement expectations with it.
The real deal for any Instagram user is in getting more followers for their account. Whether you want your product or brand to get a wider audience or just want your personal photos seen by more interested people, the answer is in getting more people to follow your account. The more followers an account has, the more views and likes its photos and videos will get.
That translates to more sales over time in case of a brand account. But how can one get followers beyond their circle of friends of relatives and relatives? Most people are stuck with a handful of followers yet they need to have their photos seen by more people every day.
This article shows you a few Tips you can use to get more followers on Instagram in no time.
In summary
- Publish content regularly
- Make use of the right hashtags
- Make your photos stand out
- Share your content to other social networks
- Make use of videos too
- Repost content from other Instagram users
- Like and comment on other users’ posts, and use direct messages for engagement
- Use some cool tools like Websta
- Post your content at optimal hours
- Get people to tag their friends
1. Publish Content Regularly
To have your photos and images seen by more people on Instagram, it’s important that you post as much as two times every day. Research shows that people who post content regularly gain more followers over time.
Here’s how it works: By posting more than once every day, your content isn’t buried under other photos and videos in people’s Newsfeeds. It’s always visible to potential followers, and that increases their engagement and curiosity.
2. Make Use of The Right Hashtags
Like any other social media platform, Instagram supports the use of hashtags, which help users find and organize the content they want to see. They are a simple of having your photos and videos discovered by interested users, who are most likely to convert to followers with proper engagement.
To get more followers for your Instagram, you’ve got to identify the right hashtags that other accounts in your niche are using and put them to maximum use. Just a few hashtags may not produce results. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post, but you only need 11 to 15 hashtags per post to widen your reach.
Here’s what you should do: Discover the tags that successful accounts in your niche are using most and add them to your list of tags. Always add some of the most popular/common tags such as #selfie, #love, #tbt, #tagsforlikes, etc.
3. Make Your Photos Stand Out
Instagram is a visual medium. There is a lot of imagery on display, which requires your photos to stand out if they are to be noticed and found engaging. Take high-resolution photos from proper angles and touch them up with the right filters, appropriate effects, and strong, but emotionally appealing captions.
A study carried out by TrackMaven revealed that the filter you apply on a photo actually has a big effect on how many views it will get, with warmer filters such as Mayfair attracting the most people. Attractive photos directly increase engagement, likes, and sharing, which translates to more followers over time.
4. Share Your Content to Other Social Networks
Instagram allows you to connect with other social media accounts where you’re most likely to have more followers, including Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, FourSquare, and even Vkontakte.
That provides you with the opportunity to cross-link your account with these profiles and draw wider viewership to your content by sharing each post you make with your friends and followers on these social platforms. Even if you buy real Instagram followers, for you to keep them, you will have to have engaging content that is fresh and regularly updated to meet expectations. Don’t rest on your laurels, things move fast in this world.
Make use of the option you’re given to automate cross-sharing whenever you post a new photo or video. Additionally, market your brand on these social platforms by using links to direct people to your account.
5. Make Use of Videos Too
Videos of up to 60 seconds can be uploaded to Instagram too. Draw more followers to your account with simple, relevant videos about your brand or life, and make sure they’re engaging enough to entice people to watch until the end.
Videos have always been known to drive even more engagement, especially if they are funny or show people how to make their lives easier. Remember to add a ‘catchy’ call to action at the end of the video.
It can be wording that displays your web address, requests users to follow your social media accounts and more ultimately, a request to follow your account for more engagement.
6. Re-post Content from Other Instagram Users
There are lots of other Instagram accounts with large established follower numbers in every niche and large archives of content you can choose from. This tip involves reposting content from such accounts to your page and using the right hashtags so that people can find it.
You should also look out for posts published by both your followers and random Instagram users and repost them. This method easily drives more viewers to your photos and translates to more followers over time.
7. Like, Follow and Comment on Other Users’ Posts, and Use Direct Messages for Engagement
This is the oldest trick in the book. Reach out to more people, and they will reach out to you. For better results, look out for bigger related accounts and like their photos, and comment on them. 1 in every 4 accounts you like and comment on is more likely to follow you back. You can also make use of direct messages to reach out to the managers of those accounts.
8. Make Use of Some Cool Tools Like Websta
There is a large assortment of tools you can use to make followers run to you on Instagram. Tools such as Websta help you identify your competitors and the most popular tags while others such as Crowdfire help you copy followers from other accounts. Look out for tools such as IconoSquare which tracks the views and performance of each post and Schedugram, which allows you to schedule posts for publishing at certain times.
Recommended: The Most Comprehensive List of 101 Social Media Management Tools
9. Post Your Content at Optimal Hours
It is important to understand your niche’s audience and know what time they usually use the platform, what kind of photos they usually like and the exact time these photos or videos are usually published.
Knowing this helps you to determine the time of the day during which your potential followers are most likely to be online. Research shows that most business people check out business-related content during work hours and everyday content during off-hours.
Post your content only during those hours to prevent it from being buried under piles of other photos without being seen.
10. Get People to Tag Their Friends
Finally, you should remember to tag different people on every post you make. Besides tagging your established followers, you should request them to tag their families and friends to introduce your content to a wider audience.
Tags are a smart way to attract new people to your content and make one sure way of getting followers when used properly.
Advanced Methods of Getting More Instagram Followers
Unlike the methods mentioned in the former section, the methods listed here are not as easy to use and may cost you a penny or two.
Buying Fake Followers
It’s a proven psychological fact that people will lean toward offers or products that other people have already shown interest in. The fact rings true for Instagram too, where hundreds of likes on a single post is a major draw for others to like it too. To make this work, you can buy new fake followers to act as social proof for unsure would-be followers and attract them to join hundreds of other followers by following your account.
Getting Featured on Established Accounts
This method requires you to pay a fee to larger accounts to have your content featured in their posts. This usually works for brands using Instagram to market their products. The fee varies with the account in question, with bigger accounts charging more and having higher like-follower conversion rates. All you need to do is search for large accounts, look out for those displaying email addresses, and reach out to them.
Before You Go.
Getting more followers on Instagram shouldn’t be difficult at all. By integrating these tips and ideas in your daily posting schedule, you can guarantee more engagement for both your followers and random visitors, and rake in more likes and followers in due course.
To sum it up, take high-quality photos, edit them with the right filters, post them at the right time for your audience and make good use of relevant hashtags every time you post. Remember, the trick is in engaging other Instagram followers well enough with your content to entice them to follow you. Following the above tips above will help you triple your follower count in no time!
Now it’s your turn.
What are your tips for getting more followers on Instagram? Share your thoughts below!