How to increase Instagram followers: As a business, starting on Instagram might be tricky. The first and most important thing is getting a large number of followers. But how?
The days of bypass shortcuts such as using bots or buying followers are over. And these tricks don’t help your business in the long term. Therefore, you’ll need only real and targeted followers that may do some favors to your business growth.
I’ve compiled a list of 34 proven strategies to get more targeted followers on Instagram. Keep reading to learn the complete list of strategies or click on any strategy to learn more about the specific strategy.
34 Best Strategies to Increase Targeted Followers on Instagram
- Have a complete Instagram marketing plan
- Define your exact target audience
- Make a consistent brand story with a compelling aesthetic
- Leverage keywords to appear in Instagram searches
- Leverage related hashtags to reach new viewers
- Create professional bio and profile
- Design an eye-catchy Instagram grid
- Write long compelling captions
- Pin your most popular comments
- Promote your IG account on other social networks
- Embed IG posts on your blog
- Post re-sharable contents
- Share your IG account in your other communications
- Leverage the IG nametag
- Try to get featured
- Try for the IG explore page
- Tag your location
- Tag other relevant users
- Ask others to tag you
- Follow related accounts
- Engage with your community
- Collaborate with influencers
- Collaborate with other businesses in your niche
- Experiment IG stories
- Leverage interactivity features
- Make stories highlights
- Embrace IG live
- Experiment IGTV
- Make an AR filter
- Maintain posts consistency
- Post at the best time
- Try contests
- Experiment IG ads
- Track IG insights
Let’s dive into deep on each strategy on …
Related reading: 20 Best Instagram Marketing Tips
How to Get More Real Followers on Your Instagram Fast
Have a complete Instagram marketing plan
To use Instagram effectively for business, you must need a clear plan. Try to understand the objectives of your marketing, why do you want more followers? What do you want to achieve?
It might be –
- Increase sales of your products or services
- Enhance brand awareness
- Attract traffic to your blog or website
Sticking to your targeted objectives will help you create relevant contents that will appeal to your audience to follow you.
Define your exact target audience
It’s very important to know who is the exact target audience. Try to find out every answer related to their lifestyle such as –
- Where they live.
- How old they are.
- What type of works they do.
- When they use Instagram.
- Why they use Instagram.
- What pains and challenges they have.
Figuring out these answers will help you to create the right type of content to reach your audience who are most likely to follow you.
Make a consistent brand story with a compelling aesthetic
No matter what your actual business goal is, it’s essential to maintain a unique and consistent brand look and personality so that visitors can recognize your content at a glance.
Your stories, reel, and the grid should be likely the same as each other. You’ll need to create a consistent style and look to create the same feeling for your audience all the time.
Leverage keywords to appear in Instagram searches
Before IG users follow you, you’ll need to appear in front of them on Instagram. On Instagram, only 2 fields typically contribute to the search results – name and username.
Your Instagram handle is your username. It will be great if you use the same handle as your other social networks so that people can easily find you.
Instagram allows 30 characters in the name section. It’s a great idea to use your most focused keyword in your name field to increase your visibility on the search results. But don’t stuff with keywords as it may create negative effects.
Related reading: Keyword research techniques
Leverage related hashtags to reach new viewers
The texts of Instagram posts aren’t searchable. But hashtags do appear on searches. Therefore, including hashtags efficiently can be effective to get new followers on Instagram for free.
You can use a maximum of 30 hashtags in a single Instagram post. But hashtags are more powerful on quality rather than quantity. It’s recommended to include 4 – 6 hashtags on each post on Instagram.
Try to find out highly targeted hashtags related to your posts so that your post can appear in the maximum search results. But don’t forget your business objectives while using hashtags.
Create professional bio and profile
2/3 of Instagram viewers of your profile are new and non-followers. These new viewers are all prospective followers of your Instagram account. If you’ll have a professional, clear, and appealing bio and profile, you can convince most of them to follow you.
Apart from your name and username, you should obviously have a professional bio with a clickable website link. Your 150 characters bio should definitely convey your brand value and show new viewers why they should care about your business and follow you.
You can also include your business information in your profile such as your type of business, contact information, and location. Try to give all the necessary information your new viewers may need to make a decision to follow you. Check Instagram business
Design an eye-catchy Instagram grid
Each post of your IG grid should be high quality and visually compelling. When a new viewer finds your profile, the content of your grid should him or her want to see more. This wanting more feeling will influence your viewer to click the follow button.
Write long compelling captions
Though Instagram is reputed as a visual social platform, writing good captions plays a vital role in getting more engagement and reach. And reach and engagement are the most important factors for getting free Instagram followers.
Here’s a list of the most important points to consider while writing captions –
- Your most important words should remain on the upfront.
- Try to engage your viewers in any way such as by asking questions.
- Include emojis where appropriate.
- Test different caption lengths and watch what works best.
Pin your most popular comments
It’s one of the very little-known features on the Instagram platform. You can able to pin up to 3 comments for every post.
You can pin your favorite comments from other IG accounts in your niche, especially when you see they are getting a lot of engagements. This way, you can open more opportunities for connections and engagements.
Promote your IG account on other social networks
If you have an authority or fan base on other social media platforms, let those connections know about your IG account. Share a clickable link to your Instagram account into your existing other social networks and give your connections and friends a reason such as a contest, coupon, and event to check it out.
You can also share and highlight several important IG posts on other networks. You may consider boosting these posts to show up in front of a maximum number of users.
Embed IG posts on your blog
Embedding Instagram posts on your blog content is a very effective way to showcase your IG content and attract to your Instagram account. But your embedded posts should be clickable and allow your blog readers to directly head up to your Instagram post.
Every time you’re including visual content such as infographics, photos, and charts on your blog, there’s an opportunity for embedding an IG post with that content instead.
Related reading: How to start a blog?
Post re-sharable contents
When you’re creating content, think about content that other users might love to share. People like to share great infographics; hence, infographics could be a good option. While someone embeds your post in his or her blog, you’ll be exposed to a new group of audience with potential followers.
Consider creating posts that people will love to reshare in their stories and of course it should be clickable. This way, anyone who wants to learn more may click through to your original content. This is another effective way to expand your IG connections and new followers.
Related reading: How to create shareable content
Share your IG account in your other communications
Think beyond social media networks when promoting your Instagram account. Share a link to your IG account in your email signature, online newsletters, and on your website. Make sure the link is a small Instagram icon.
In the case of a new Instagram account, a quick email packed with gorgeous highlighted posts is a great way to attract some new Instagram followers fast.
Also consider your offline business materials such as business cards, posters, flyers, and packaging materials. These are all significant places to promote your Instagram account and an easy way to attract more followers to your Instagram account.
Leverage the IG nametag
Nametag is a scannable code that allows viewers to follow your Instagram account instantly. Instagram nametag is a great way to promote an Instagram account through offline materials such as signage, packaging, and packing slips.
Nametag is also a very effective way to drive new followers in real-time at conferences and events. People who want to connect with you can scan your code and easily follow you without typing out your Instagram handle.
Try to get featured
Featured Instagram accounts are simply accounts that collect and reshare others’ content based on tagging or a hashtag. Some feature accounts have a huge number of followers and having one of them share your post can send you a whole stream of Instagram followers.
There’s a feature account for every interest and niche on Instagram. You can discover them when doing hashtag research. Most of them are very specific.
Try for the IG explore page
Explore page is a place where random photos and videos appear that you may like from the accounts you haven’t followed yet. The explore page features Instagram stories, posts, and IGTV. Viewers see a grid of different types of content collected by the Instagram algorithm. Then they can choose to know more about specific content using the topic channels.
According to data, almost half of Instagram users visit explore page every month. It’s a great opportunity for businesses looking to grow their market.
Tag your location
Tagging location in your Instagram posts or stories is another easy and effective way to grow your audience. If your company has a physical location, you should tag your location so that your customers can easily find out your posts. This can expose your business as well as your Instagram account to more new people.
Tag other relevant users
You can tag other Instagram users featuring in your photo posts with an @ mention in the caption or by tagging functionality of the Instagram. When you’ll tag others, they will receive a notification.
Tagging encourages people to engage with the content and to reshare the content with their connections. Your content will appear on their profile’s “tagged in” tab.
But you must be careful to tag only relevant users. Tagging people randomly doesn’t make sense for your business. You should tag only people who are featured in your posts and relevant to you as well as your business.
Here’re some potentially relevant users you might consider to tag –
- Friends
- Customers
- Other related businesses
- Suppliers
- Employees
- Colleagues
- Some who asked for reviews
- Users who appear in the content
Ask others to tag you
A vital way to introduce your IG account to a whole new group of audience is to ask others to tag you. If they tag you on content or post, their audience will see your handle and may follow your account if they get interested in your business.
Follow related accounts
You should only tag accounts in a post when the post is directly relevant to them. But you can follow any account you want. And when you follow an account that is somehow related to your business, there’s a good probability they will also check out your Instagram feed.
Engage with your community
Like most social media platforms, Instagram is typically all about the communities built within it. Get engaged with the community by commenting, liking, and sharing posts from other credible accounts in your community. Try to create a personal relationship in your engagement instead of only generic.
Collaborate with influencers
Here’s vital data for Instagram users who want to get more followers fast: 60 % of customers agreed they’d follow a business after seeing it advised by an influencer they trust.
Related reading: Influencer marketing guide
Collaborate with other businesses in your niche
Collaboration beats the competition. And it’s also true on Instagram. Don’t be worried to reach out to other businesses to figure out if there’s a way to work together. The right type of collaboration can help create a win-win situation for both.
Related reading: Niche marketing strategies
Experiment IG stories
As per reliable stat, half a billion Instagram users use stories every day and almost 50 % of the most-viewed stories originated from brands. If you want to increase your Instagram followers, you need to leverage Instagram stories.
Leverage interactivity features
IG stories have a lot of interactive features to get users involved like questions, polls, and stickers. When someone comes across your Instagram story for a location or hashtag page, you should give him or her an immediate opportunity to engage with you.
Make stories highlights
Stories highlights give you a chance to introduce your business to users who visit your profile. Your highlights should be packed with great content and info to show new viewers exactly why they must follow you.
Embrace IG live
Live videos are trending on social media networks nowadays. You should obviously take the advantage of Instagram live. Through live programs, you can engage with users in real-time via comments and questions to create precious relationships that can help increase your reach.
Experiment IGTV
IGTV videos allow you to discuss topics in-depth and it can be longer up to an hour. You can post your live programs when the conversation ends. You can also make a series that can encourage viewers to follow you rather than simply watching your videos.
Related reading: Video marketing tips
Make an AR filter
AR or augmented reality filters are photo effects on Instagram stories. You can use this feature to modify the photos that are taken by your phones. When someone uses your AR filter your account is showing up in the top left corner. And it is clickable which may drive more new viewers to your profile.
Related reading: AR/VR in Travel & Tourism
Maintain posts consistency
An important reason your existing followers followed you is they want to get valuable content from you. More content means more engagements. So consistently posting valuable content in your Instagram account will enhance engagements with your existing followers and help attract new followers too.
Post at the best time
Timing is one of the most important factors the Instagram algorithm considers. It’s a great practice to find out the best time for your audience as per your business and brand type.
Test a couple of times and track results. If you’re a fashion business, for instance, you may need to test posting during afternoon tea break times.
Try contests
The Instagram contest may help you attract more followers if your entry criteria involve asking viewers to follow you. You can also ask your viewers to comment on your photo by tagging a friend. The tagged friends will also find your contest and might choose to follow your Instagram account too.
Experiment IG ads
Like other social media networks, running Instagram ads is a powerful option to reach a new audience and increase followers. But it’s not a free option. You’ll need to invest your money to attract new followers fast. This is really very powerful way and you can grow your followers faster with a small investment.
Track IG insights
Track your data on Instagram using Instagram analytics tool. You can also use other 3rs party social media tools to measure your Instagram performance. You might want to know about impressions of each post along with engagements, reach, and more.
Analyzing your Instagram data will help you figure out areas where you make changes to improve the strategy that can help you get more Instagram followers.
Final words
These are some most common strategies that are used by several brands and proven to increase Instagram followers. But they’re not written on the stone. You can definitely experiment with your own strategy to grow your followers on Instagram.
If you want to learn social media marketing skills in detail that will help you grow your business fast, you may consider joining our digital marketing course to learn digital skills in a hands-on practical manner. For more information connect us at [email protected].
thanks for useful instagram information
From this post, I have learned a lot about handling Instagram pages and mainly the correct use of Hashtags for which I was looking for a long time. Thank you for this great article. It is like a complete package for me to learn about Instagram marketing.
I have handled some Insta pages in the past and I have always followed the formula of Attention + Consistency and it has been one of the most effective ways to attract interested/target followers . Also this blog is very well explained ,I have learned a lot from this blog and will make sure to implement these tips while handling pages in the future.