How to Get More Followers on Instagram: Get Insta-Famous Now

“How to get more followers on Instagram?” is a question you might often ask. Rightfully so. If you want your brand or business to succeed on the platform, it’s an essential tactic. Undoubtedly, Instagram offers amazing opportunities for businesses to get exposure and engagement. Especially if you have goals to meet and exceed. Instagram is the stage, and its more than one billion active monthly users to date are the audiences. To get more followers, you must take some of the spotlight to get the right users’ attention.

With 95 million photos and videos shared on Instagram daily, the competition for space is obviously intense. There are plenty of followers to go around. However, reaching the right ones and convincing them to hit your follow button is a whole different story. So, keep reading to learn about the best practices to help you achieve genuine and lasting Instagram growth.

Define Your Goals to Amass an Instagram Following

You need defined goals to guide your Instagram growth strategy to get more followers.

Is your goal to increase sales, drive your blog or website traffic, or promote awareness about an issue? Your goals will be the “hands” that will create and shape the types of content you publish.

Keep in mind that lasting Instagram growth is only possible when you have genuine and consistent engagement. Achieve this by targeting the right kind of people with content they’ll find appealing, interesting, or valuable. To summarize, your defined goals should shape your content strategy. You will attract the right people to ensure quality and consistent engagement. Remember, the higher your engagement, the more people you’ll reach and the more followers you’ll gain.

Identify your Target Audience to Get More Instagram Followers

What’s just as important as knowing how to get more followers on Instagram? It’s learning how to identify your target audience. You should value quality over quantity. It may seem counterintuitive when you’re looking to increase your follower count. But remember that the quality of your followers has a more significant impact on your long-term growth goals than anything else. As they say, if you’re going to do something, do it right the first time.

To effectively seek and earn the follows of relevant users, you must have in-depth knowledge of your target audience. Here are some basic questions to help you track down and assemble a suitable audience for your brand.

• What types of people are interested in your product/brand? Who is your product designed for?
• What kind of content will appeal to these people?
• What are their interests? What intrigues and motivates them?
• Which social media demographics data are relevant to your brand?
• What kinds of followers do your competitors have on Instagram?

Know Your Instagram Audience

Knowing your audience and what they want determines the type of content most effectively reaches them. But where do you find them to get more followers on Instagram? Just follow these breadcrumbs:

• Check out Instagram accounts similar to yours and focus your search on those with significant follower numbers. Take time to browse their most recent posts and note users who actively like and comment on them.
• Do the same for other business accounts you’re following. Particularly those that cater to the interests of your target audience but are not specific to your niche or industry.
• Search using hashtags relevant to your brand/product. The results you’ll get include posts and conversations that use these relevant hashtags. It will direct you to users most likely interested in your brand.

Play the Following Game: Follow Instagram Users That Follow Back

Getting more followers also involves a give-and-take strategy. Simply put, to earn new followers, you must follow Instagram users that follow back. This is especially important when you’re just beginning your growth journey. You must be proactive — aggressive, even — and put yourself out there to make your presence known. Don’t be shy; introduce yourself to potential followers who will, hopefully, give you a tit for your tat.

Those people you’ve identified as your target audience from other Instagram accounts? Give them a follow. Initiating contact via a simple follow will, more often than not, make them curious enough to check you out. If they like what they see, you’ll earn a follow back. You should also use Instagram’s “Explore” feature. It gives you suggestions on which accounts to follow based on shared interests.

Don’t overlook the benefits of following celebrities, influencers, and other famous personalities. Engage with them as often as possible to increase your visibility to potential followers. If your comments get replies or a user mentions your brand, followers of these well-known Instagrammers may start following you.

Make Your Business Profile Stand Out

The competition is tough, with more than 25 million business accounts on the platform and new ones added daily. Therefore, the process to get more Instagram followers feels like an uphill climb most of the time. Even if your niche is ultra-specific, you’ll still compete against more prominent companies with a more expansive offering and marketing budget. So, another important question to answer is how to make your business stand out on Instagram. Let’s take a look at the best practices for optimal Instagram presence.

Get Creative With Your Bio

For potential new followers who discover your brand, your Instagram bio gives them a closer peek at who you are. So, make sure to use your bio as effectively as possible to make the best first impression and gain more followers. Instagram limits your bio to 150 characters, but it should be enough to:

• Provide the most relevant information about you, including contact information.
• Let others know what’s important to you. For example, promoting wellness, creating awareness about an issue, nurturing a community of like-minded individuals, etc.
• Deliver a call to action, e.g., to visit your website, make a purchase, and follow your page, among others.

Create an enticing bio so users learning about you for the first time will want to know more. They should want to click the link to your website. Then browse your IG profile to view your content, and hit the Follow button.

Optimize Your Username with a Relevant Keyword

Optimization is a big word in social media marketing; it’s a crucial step to get more followers on Instagram. Consider integrating a relevant keyword instead of just using your brand’s name as your username. Users often use a keyword related to your brand to search for related companies or content, for example. So, if your company is ZZZ Cafe, your username can be @ZZZcoffeeshop because “coffee shop” is a common search keyword. Use the same username for all your social media accounts as much as possible. This is so potential followers on other platforms can easily find you.

Create an Instagram QR Code for Your Brand

An Instagram QR code is a simple but effective way to optimize your profile and help you gain followers. You can print it on any marketing collateral, such as posters, brochures, product labeling, and receipts. You can also display your code at networking events and conferences. These brand-specific QR codes are scannable and immediately bring people to your page.

Get More Instagram Followers by Increasing Engagement Both Ways

Your account’s level of engagement is a measure of your content strategy’s success. It also determines how fast or slow you’ll get more followers on Instagram. Organic and consistent engagement is every Instagram account’s lifeblood. So, you need effective communication to encourage your followers to engage with your content through likes, comments, and shares. But remember that engagement is a two-way street. Here are some quick pointers on how to increase the engagement on Instagram that you give and receive.

Engage with Similar Brands

Remember, it’s important to put yourself out there. Follow other brands in your industry and engage with their followers. Frequent engagement will get you noticed more. But, you want to grab the attention of potential followers in a good way. The quality of your engagement is important.

Engage With Other Content Directly Before and After You Post

Instagram’s algorithms measure a post’s relevance based on how much engagement it gets within the first hour it’s published. If your post receives a lot of interactions within this golden hour, it will populate higher up in other people’s feeds. One trick to get your target audience’s attention is to engage directly with the content of other accounts. Engage immediately before and after you publish your own post. IG’s algorithms track your engagement with other users’ content, especially if it’s noticed. It can earn you visibility points, as well as gain Instagram followers.

Write Catchy Captions

Catchy captions are a tried and tested trick to get more followers on Instagram. Make sure those first few lines immediately capture people’s attention. Make them curious, smile, laugh, or inspired. So much so that they’ll react to your post, comment on it, or even share it. Give them something to think and talk about.

Ask a Simple Open-Ended Question in a Post to Initiate Conversations

You can ask questions about user’s posts to increase the likelihood of getting a response. The original poster and others may reply to your question and keep a good conversation going. Keep it simple by asking questions like, “How does that product work for you?” Or, “Do you have any recommendations?”

Reply to All Comments on Your Post

Reply as soon as possible to each comment to increase the likelihood that the original commenter will read it. And, maybe they will like or reply to it. The time when you post something shouldn’t depend solely on when you know your followers are most active. You should also consider your ability to engage with everybody who interacts with your content promptly.

Tag Users on Your Posts

You can tag people in your social circle who you know are interested in engaging with your content. Aside from increasing engagement, tagging people makes you visible to their respective followers. If their privacy settings allow it, of course. Tagging also helps you gain followers who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.

Get More Followers on Instagram by Creating Interesting Content

If you’re struggling to figure out how to get more followers on Instagram, creating great content is the usual solution. But it’s not enough to grab the attention of potential new followers with a single post. Most of the time, users visit a brand’s page and browse its previous posts. This is why it’s important to create interesting content each and every time. You want potential new followers to enjoy looking through your content. Here are tips on creating interesting content that’ll make people want to see more of you.

• Use templates. There’s a wide variety of online design tools that you can use to enhance your user-generated content. Having templates ready to use makes creating interesting and aesthetically pleasing content easier every time. Templates also deliver consistency and harmony and can help promote your unique brand identity.
• Repost from popular brands within your niche. Reposting content from popular brands can benefit you in two ways. First, your active engagement earns you visibility points. Second, it’s a great way to fill your feed with complementary and engaging posts that help get more followers. Always credit the original owner when you share; ask for permission before sharing if necessary. If you can tag the content owner, it’s even better.
• Edit your content. Strong Instagram aesthetics are another crucial element. Aviary, Afterlight, and similar editing tools can help make your Instagram stories and posts look professional and aesthetically pleasing. Impressing users with your content’s visual quality and composition can earn you a lot of followers and engagement.

Figure Out How Often You Should Post on Instagram

You have to consistently give them what they’re looking for to get more followers on Instagram. Whether you’re posting several times a day or a few times a week, you must post consistently.

Additionally, you need to post at the right times to maximize the number of people you can reach. With the help of Instagram analytics, you should be able to determine the best times to post your content. It’s based on when most of your followers are online and active. Remember that how often you should post on Instagram may differ for each day of the week. It also depends on your business, time zone, and target audience.

Create a daily/weekly posting schedule and stick to it. Once you’ve established your content schedule, your followers will come to expect it. You wouldn’t want the old saying “out of sight, out of mind” to affect your brand’s engagement rates. Consistent posting can translate to constant engagement and more followers.

Increase Your Followers by Posting Videos and Stories Frequently

In general, videos generate a higher engagement rate compared to images. So, post videos on your main feed and your stories a few times weekly to get more Instagram followers. You can create videos like tutorials, a behind-the-scenes look at your brand process, or a quick day-in-the-life glimpse. Newsfeed videos can be long but don’t make yours so long that you bore your viewers. On the other hand, videos for stories must only be 10 seconds long.

Widen Your Reach by Posting on Instagram Live and IGTV

Instagram Live feeds offer a wonderful opportunity to engage with your followers in real time, reach new people, and gain followers. You can announce your scheduled Live feed and build up interest and excitement through regular posts. Or you can have a regularly scheduled Live feed. Make sure to create enticing content to encourage your followers to set their alarms and tune in. Your followers will also receive a notification every time you go Live.

Alternatively, have an influencer do the Live feed for your brand or join you during your Live feed. This will increase your potential viewers and new followers.

You can automatically delete Live feeds when the broadcast is over. You can also opt to have it stored in your stories to reach more viewers after your live stream has ended. You can add the video to your Instagram TV (IGTV), especially if you’re creating a video series.

Aim to Get Your Content Shared to Gain New Followers

When your followers share your post often, its engagement rate rises, driving more users to your account. This translates to getting more IG followers. Promotional content is necessary to keep your followers informed about what you have to offer. However, this type of content is rarely reposted. Knowing how to get people to share your content on Instagram should always be one of your primary goals. So, create content that your followers will find worth sharing. Infographics, inspirational content, and even funny memes and GIFs often get a lot of shares.

As much as possible, stay on-brand even when posting non-promotional content. But it’s also okay to stray from a brand-centric approach. Just encourage casual user engagement–you might get more Instagram followers.

Hashtags 101: Know How to Choose the Right Ones

Reach a wider audience and gain followers when you know how to choose the right hashtags for your content.

You can create your content and find popular hashtags related to it. Just do a hashtag search on Instagram using a keyword relevant to your industry. For example, if you’re a fashion brand, you can search for “#fashion,” “#style,” or “#beauty.” Instagram will provide you with the most popular hashtags using the keyword. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post, so feel free to use different hashtags based on different keywords. Don’t forget about other iterations of each relevant keyword. Again, remember to use hashtags related to your post and relevant to your brand.

Alternatively, you can create your content based on a trending hashtag. Again, make sure the hashtag is relevant to your brand. If the hashtag concerns a broad issue, you can post to show support or share your thoughts.

Gain Followers by Sharing Your Instagram Profile on Other Social Media Platforms

Linking your IG account to other social media accounts is an effective way to get more followers on Instagram. Make sure your IG link is in the bio section of all your social media profiles. You should include your IG link in many, if not all, of your posts on these other platforms. Especially if you have more followers on your other social media accounts, it’s essential to know how to promote your Instagram and stay connected with all your followers on all social media platforms. This type of cross-promotion is a great opportunity to sustain and boost your brand growth.

How to Get More Followers Using Facebook

Facebook remains the most widely used social media platform, so take advantage of this to get more Instagram followers. Here are some ways to leverage your Facebook following to support your brand’s success on Instagram.

1. Add an Instagram tab to your Facebook page. This will integrate your Instagram account with your Facebook account. Users who visit your Facebook profile will immediately see the Instagram tab. It will directly take them to your Instagram profile once they click on it.
2. Share your Instagram posts on Facebook. You can modify your Instagram settings so that all your posts and stories will be automatically shared on Facebook. It will appear in your Facebook newsfeed and stories, respectively. When Facebook users click on your post/story, it will take them to the original Instagram post/story.
3. Run an Instagram contest on Facebook. This is a popular strategy among businesses looking to get more followers on Instagram. The Facebook contest usually requires participants to follow the brand on Instagram. Then, it encourages participants to comment on the post, share it, tag friends, or use specific hashtags.

How to Get More Followers Using TikTok

The TikTok platform has the highest engagement rates over other social media platforms. If you plan to share your IG profile with other social media outlets, don’t leave TikTok out. Like your Facebook sharing strategy, you’ll want to share your posts and run contests. However, stand out by creating your content on TikTok. Take advantage of it’s video formatting and advanced editing capabilities. Then, you can share it on your Instagram or Facebook profiles. Again, don’t forget those always-important hashtags to build your following.

How to Get More Followers Using X, Formerly Twitter

If you’re wondering which social media platforms help get more Instagram followers, pick X, formerly Twitter. At one time, X limited users to 280 characters to share their thoughts, questions and comments. However, if you’re a Twitter Blue user, you can tweet or post up to 4,000 characters. There’s plenty of space to promote your Instagram content to increase engagement.

As you plan your content posting schedule, make a note to post coordinating tweets on X. Pushing your content across all social media platforms drives even more awareness of your brand. Also, you’ll gain an influx of new followers.

How to Get More Followers on Instagram For Free

If you’re wondering how to get more followers on Instagram for free, there are various ways. Of course, you could buy your followers, but nothing compares to real followers and organic social media growth. Here’s a variety of methods to try to gain more followers.

Get Featured on Instagram’s Search & Explore Page

Instagram’s Search & Explore page allows users to dive more deeply into topics they’re interested in. If IG features you on Search & Explore, it would be an excellent opportunity to get more Instagram followers. Especially when you reach more people interested in your type of content but have yet to discover you.

How to get yourself on the Instagram Explore page requires creating content about topics that interest your target audience. Remember, you want to appear on the Search & Explore feed of users interested in aspects of your industry. So you need good knowledge of what these people’s needs are. These include the questions they usually ask about your niche/product/service.

Tag Away

Why tag someone on Instagram? Because every single connection you have branches out to countless other users on the platform. Tagging another user automatically posts the tagged content to the user’s feed, which expands your content’s reach. Their followers will be able to see your post, and you get more Instagram followers and interaction this way.

Adding a call to action that encourages your followers to share your post. They might also tag their friends. It’s another way to take advantage of how to tag someone on Instagram. They can tag people in the comments of your original post or when they share it.

In addition to tagging other users, location tagging can widen your reach. Make sure to tag a location when you post photos and videos. All your tagged posts will appear when users click on the tagged location.

Explore Instagram Advertising

Instagram advertising offers the advantage of targeted marketing. Rest assured that your sponsored content will reach the right audience and gain followers. You can specify the length of time that your ad will run. As well as the specific groups of people to target based on interests, key behaviors, location, demographics, and other factors.

You can choose from photo ads, video ads, carousel ads, and slide shows. Organic following is always a top priority. However, you shouldn’t miss out on the advantages of paid advertising—especially if you’re running a business. You don’t need advertising experience to know how to advertise on Instagram. However, you should still learn as much as possible about best social media advertising practices. When you do, you’ll get the most bang for your buck.

Embed Instagram Posts Into Blogs

Tap into the broad reach of bloggers to get more Instagram followers. An estimated 77% of internet users read blogs. Needless to say, these readers are already interested in the blog’s content. You can harness a blogger’s follower potential by embedding Instagram posts into blogs related to your niche. You can do this through photos and videos, which, when clicked, will drive traffic to your IG account.

It’s great if you have a blog of your own. If you do, you must learn how to embed an Instagram post in a blog post. Or you can collaborate with a blogger who writes about topics within your niche. To convince bloggers to feature your content in their blogs, it has to be valuable, entertaining, trendy, and relevant. Of course, don’t forget to promote the blog on your Instagram feed.

Final Thoughts on How to Get More Followers on Instagram

You must put in real work and effort to learn how to get more followers on Instagram. However, it pays off when you gain Instagram followers who are genuinely interested. Bonus points if they’re likely to deliver real, consistent, and lasting engagement that sustains your brand/business for a long time.

There are a lot of tempting shortcuts available out there. But their benefits—if there are any—are often short-lived and not worth the repercussions. When building your brand on Instagram, do it right the first time. Always put your best foot forward and the best practices in play. All your efforts will pay off when you’re guaranteed a robust and fruitful existence in the Instagram verse.

If you’re looking for a growth partner to help you on your journey, choose a reliable company like Path Social. Path Social understands the irreplaceable value of organic growth and the critical role of advanced targeting to ensure lasting growth. Take advantage of Path Social’s proprietary AI targeting technology and in-house team of social media experts. Start growing and gaining Instagram followers today.