Start With Your Profile and Content
Nobody wants to follow a user who posts bland content. Make sure your photo and video posts include the best, most high-quality content you can put out there. Other users will visit your profile and glance over it quickly before deciding to either click the follow button or leave. To increase your chances of getting new followers, consider giving your profile a serious makeover. You can pump up the look of your profile and the quality of your content by:
Choosing a great profile photo that accurately reflects you or your brand.Writing a compelling bio that sums up what you or your brand do for your audience.Potentially switching to a business profile if you run a business.Posting eye-catching, visually appealing photos and videos while sticking as closely to a theme as possible.Tagging your posts with relevant hashtags and locations.Keeping a posting schedule, posting regularly, and staying consistent.
Find and Interact With Targeted Users You Want to Attract
You can have a great-looking Instagram profile with lots of awesome content. Still, if you don’t do anything to get your content in front of the eyes of your targeted followers, you’ll have a hard time increasing your follower count. This interactive effort can be time-consuming but worth it in the end. To find targeted users to interact with, you can:
Look at the users who follow profiles similar to yours.Look at the users who post content under specific hashtags.Look at the users who post content in specific locations.
You can interact with these targeted users by:
Liking one or more of their posts.Leaving a positive and personalized comment on one or more of their posts.Following them (as long as you have no problem increasing your following count).
Your interaction is meant to get targeted users’ attention. They visit your profile out of curiosity. If they like what they see (because you post great content and target them properly), you have a good chance of attracting them as followers.
Encourage Your Followers to Engage With Your Content
By getting your existing followers to like and comment on your posts, you increase your chances of showing up in the Explore tab. It shows a grid of both photo and video posts based on who they follow and the type of content they like. This is a good thing because it means you’re rewarded with a bit of viral spread for posting great content. So, if someone views one of your posts that shows up in their Explore tab and then decides to check out your profile, you might gain a follow from them. This is how some of the biggest and most successful Instagram users ramp up their follower counts fast and efficiently. Beginner engagement strategies include:
Asking your followers in the post caption to like or leave a comment.Asking your followers in the post caption to tag a friend.Liking comments your followers leave on your posts.Replying to comments followers leave on your posts.Visiting users who liked or left comments on your posts and returning the favor.
Advanced engagement strategies include:
Launching a contest and asking followers to repost one of your posts. Launching a contest and asking followers to post something original that relates to your brand or campaign. Partnering up with similar users in a shoutout campaign. Asking followers to tag their posts with your brand-specific hashtag. Asking followers to visit a link in your profile and perform an action.
Use Instagram Stories and Instagram Live
Instagram Stories and Instagram Live are two other features that can help you interact with existing followers and bring you new followers in the process. If you take a look at the top of the Explore tab on Instagram, you can see both stories and users that are currently live in a horizontal feed at the top, which is where you want to show up when you post a story or go live. For any Instagram story you post, consider adding a hashtag and a location. That way, your story shows up on the dedicated page for the hashtag and location you tagged it with. Users who search Instagram for that specific hashtag or location might see your story and decide to watch it, which could earn you new followers. For any Instagram live video you decide to launch, consider going live during a day and time when your followers are most active. Your followers are notified about your live video when it launches. If a large number of followers decide to tune in, it could end up in the Top Live video tab shown at the top of the Explore tab. This means people who browse through the top live videos could decide to watch yours and eventually navigate to your profile and follow you.
Promote Your Instagram Profile Everywhere Else
If a significant number of people pay attention to you elsewhere online, like on Facebook or a personal blog, you could attract more Instagram followers by letting those people know about your presence there. You can promote your Instagram profile by:
Using the automatic posting feature Instagram has on the Caption tab to post directly to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.Adding links or Instagram badges to your blog or website.Telling friends and followers on other social networks to follow you on Instagram by adding your handle to your bio.Including your Instagram handle at the end of every post caption you make on other social networks.Adding your Instagram handle and link to your profile in your email signature.
Forget About Buying Followers
Although buying Instagram followers is an option, it’s not recommended if you’re looking for real, authentic users who genuinely like your posts. Buying followers on any social media site is usually only suggested if you only want to get your numbers up. There’s no guarantee that followers you buy are currently active and many people who pay money for them end up with ghost accounts that disappear over time. If you come across an account or a site that promises to give you hundreds or thousands of followers for different rates, don’t fall for it. It’s not worth it in the end.
