Instagram Growth Hacks: Easy Ways to Boost Engagement
There are many ways to gain new followers and customers on Instagram. Some people pour creative energy into making high-quality content and wait patiently for growth. Others might pay money to buy followers or invest in growth services. However, why not simplify things? With just a few simple Instagram growth hacks, you can grow quickly and sustainably.
This article uncovers the secrets behind these hacks and how they work, along with other methods. Instagram isn’t working against you – quite the opposite! Make the algorithm your friend with these easy tips and tricks.
Are Growth Hacks Ethical?
The word ‘hack’ often conjures thoughts of cheating the system, but in this case, it’s a common technique. Despite the term for these Instagram practices, growth hacks are sustainable and comply with community guidelines.
Each hack helps users get more visibility and, thus, more followers on Instagram. You are essentially ‘hacking’ the algorithm by being clued in and predicting how it will react. See, no unsavory activity here!
However, this is not to say that there isn’t dodgy business going on regarding Instagram growth. Some services use fake accounts and bots to artificially boost an account, but this has consequences.
If you use growth hacks like buying fake followers, Instagram may shadowban your account or suspend it temporarily. It’s good to be aware of what can go wrong if you’re not researching with articles such as this one.
Which Instagram Growth Strategy Works Best: Organic Hacks or Paid Ads?
Should you rely on organic hacks for growth or utilize Instagram’s paid advertisements? Before you take the leap into one or the other, there are some considerations to make.
Instagram Hacks for Organic Growth
Instagram hacks that encourage organic growth are a cost-effective way to get your authentic self out there. Without having to consistently pay for results, it’s a sustainable way to keep growing.
Additionally, using organic growth methods, you can avoid putting potential audiences off with ad fatigue. You remain relevant without being pushy by popping up at the right place at the time.
Organic growth hacks reward your page with authentic engagement. Your content isn’t getting likes, comments, and shares because it’s being targeted by paid content. Instead, it’s because people organically found your relevant content somewhere in the algorithm and actively chose to engage.
Instagram Paid Advertisements
Instagram ads are paid promotional content that allow brands to push their content to a specific target audience. It’s super important to target content on Instagram, especially with billions of active users to reach.
While paid advertisements offer quick, accurate results as well as an analytics report, they aren’t perfect. Sure, you may gain some initial interest, but ads are often too invasive, and users could tire of your content.
6 Social Media Marketing Hacks to Grow Your Instagram Followers
Now, let’s get into the nitty gritty of growth hacks! Slip these tips and tricks into your arsenal and implement them whenever you need an extra boost.
Here’s how to get more followers on Instagram in six easy, sustainable hacks:
1. Use Relevant Hashtags in Instagram Posts
One of the easiest ways to grow on Instagram is by including relevant hashtags in captions.
Users can search a wide variety of content from different users and brands just via the hashtag. Optimizing your captions with relevant hashtags gets your content out there, boosting visibility and attracting the right people.
Some people also choose to follow hashtags related to their favorite topics. Backpackers, for example, might follow #solotravel or #wanderlust. The Instagram algorithm pushes engaging content that uses these tags to those who follow them.
The key is to choose tags properly; don’t use whatever is trending. Instead, target your ideal audience and let Instagram work its magic! It’s also important to get the wording and spelling accurate, so do plenty of research beforehand.
2. Follow and Interact with Big Instagram Accounts in Your Niche
If you follow and engage with big, popular accounts within your niche, you can attract followers in no time. There are many reasons why this encourages growth:
- Expand your network: Popular influencers and brands you follow may check out your page and like what they see. If they follow you back, this is a huge bonus and expands your online social circle.
- Competitor research: Keeping up to date with what successful pages post and how their audience reacts. Consider incorporating what you learn into your own Instagram growth strategy.
- Collaborate opportunities: Getting friendly with other accounts opens the door for collaborations. Whether by going on Instagram Live together or hosting events, collaborations are powerful ways to combine audiences.
Remember, you likely have a similar target audience with other brands within your niche. When you expose your brand to these accounts’ followers, you are targeting your ideal audience, too.
3. Encourage Followers to Post User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) promotes a brand via its customers instead of through paid influencers or brands themselves. It feels genuine and is ideal for resonating with the right crowd.
Word-of-mouth marketing is very effective and quickly spreads across online communities. If an increasing amount of people mention their love for your product, it’s trustworthy. There’s no money involved, just the drive for a normal person to share a great brand with normal people.
Encourage followers and your current customer base to produce UGC featuring your brand. Their followers will see it, look at your profile, and love what you do. This is brilliant for increasing engagement and sales.
There are many ways to entice current followers to post UGC about your brand. Regularly feature people who post and tag your brand in your Instagram Stories to recognize them. You can also incentivize users who post UGC with rewards like discounts, access to exclusive sales, and freebies.
4. Create Content with Fun Challenges and Trends
Social media users love internet challenges and trends! Instagram is home to a lot of them, whether it be a dance, a sound, or a task. They are typically very simple but quickly go viral and get content ranking in a matter of hours.
According to the University of Pittsburgh’s SOVA Lab, internet challenges create a sense of belonging in people. Fostering this kind of environment in an online space puts you on the radar of those unfamiliar with you. Better yet, why not create content to start your own challenge or trend?
Due to challenges and trends going viral, it’s a good idea to integrate your brand into it. You don’t need to go above and beyond; just add your own twist and see what happens. It could be a photo challenge featuring your products or a Reel of your team using a trending sound.
So, have some fun and embrace the internet and all of its quirks; who knows, maybe you’ll go viral!
5. Utilize Instagram Live to Engage With Your Target Audience
Instagram Live is low-key and typically focuses on casual conversations, ‘get ready with me’, or streaming events. You can take it a step further and use the platform to host scheduled Lives that cater to your target audience.
Consider what kinds of digital events might be relevant to your niche. These can include:
- Educational workshops
- Product demos
- Fitness or mindfulness classes
- Expert interviews
If people hear about your event, join the Live, and love it, followers will soon come after. The key to making these virtual events successful is promoting them like crazy.
Post teasers and countdowns in the days leading up to the event. If you have similar target audiences, you can even work with influencers who can promote it to their fans. The more you promote it, the more people will attend!
6. Share Project Insights on Instagram Reels
Do you have an exciting new product you’re developing or video you’re shooting? Bring people along for the ride and engage them using content creation. Post Reels sharing your progress and big milestones with your followers to show them the evolution of your work.
An example of the successful use of this growth hack is Jenna Phipps. In February 2023, she posted a Reel documenting how she bought an abandoned house and planned to renovate it. In just over two weeks, this Reel garnered over 28 million views.
Since then, she’s been posting updates about fixing up every room in the house. Jenna has over one million followers waiting for her updates on the abandoned house and the finished product.
Sharing your projects with people on Instagram can make people invested in you accomplishing tasks. It can also motivate people who want to do similar projects but don’t know where to start. They’ll follow your page if they come across one of your project’s Reels and want to see you finish it.
When you finally post the finished product, you and the community you’ve built will have a shared sense of satisfaction.
5 Instagram Growth Hacks Using Stories
Many people overlook Instagram Stories, but they hold a lot of power if you know how to use them.
Stories are temporary and disappear after a set amount of time, never to be seen again. However, this doesn’t mean they go unnoticed; in fact, their briefness motivates people to click quickly.
Instagram Stories are an excellent tool for organic growth. These candid 24-hour posts drive impressive reach, high engagement rates, and more followers when well-executed.
Do you want to create impactful Stories? Here are five cool Instagram Story hacks to boost visibility and engagement among your target audience:
1. Use Relevant Hashtags and Stickers on Instagram Stories
Typically, only people who follow your account will see your Instagram Stories. Those who don’t follow you must visit your page and click your profile photo to see them.
One hack to try if you want Stories to reach people who don’t follow you is using hashtags and geotags.
Users can watch Stories tagged to specific hashtags and location tag stickers. When you use these tags in your Stories, people might discover them even without following your page.
Using hashtags is effective for Stories that target specific interests and hobbies. Meanwhile, location tag stickers work well when you want your content to reach a local community.
2. Keep Your Audience Engaged With Interactive Elements
If you want to boost engagement rates for your Stories, add interactive stickers. Instead of just watching your Story posts, these stickers allow your followers to interact with them.
Here are some cool stickers you might want to add to your Stories:
- Poll stickers: Pose a question and let your followers vote for their answer among several options.
- Quiz sticker: Ask a trivia question with a definite answer and let your followers guess the right one. This sticker shows each voter if their answer was right or wrong.
- Emoji slider: Allow your followers to express their thoughts and opinions on something through an emoji scale.
- Music sticker: Share your favorite songs with fans.
The more people engage with your content, the higher the algorithm pushes it up on the feed. These stickers boost engagement rates and make future content visible.
3. Increase Brand Awareness With Positive Reviews
Drive brand awareness and gain interest by showing off positive reviews from happy customers in your Story Highlights.
These reviews serve as social proof that your products are high-quality and legitimate. Consider it a form of word-of-mouth marketing. As people rave about your products, your brand will look more trustworthy and credible.
Whenever a customer DMs you and gives a good review of your products, take a quick screenshot. Then, with their permission, post the review on your Instagram Stories and add it to a Highlight on your page. Don’t forget to make a cute Story Highlight cover to make it enticing for people to click on and watch!
4. Drive Instagram Growth with Q&A Sessions
Stories can be an avenue for hosting Q&A sessions that allow followers to get to know you better. Using the question sticker, ask fans to send in their most pressing questions about your life. Then, answer your favorite ones in a series of Stories throughout the day. Tell them about yourself, your work as a brand owner or influencer, and your plans for the future.
This type of Story series strengthens the bond with your followers and can boost engagement rates. It also humanizes you as a public figure, making you look more authentic and trustworthy.
5. Add Swipe-up Features to Your Instagram Account
Our last Story hack is to maximize the swipe-up feature to get people to visit your websites. This is awesome for brands with e-commerce websites and influencers with personal blogs.
Utilize Instagram’s swipe-up feature; you won’t regret it! It sends users directly to your website or other links. This encourages them to complete a conversion, whether by subscribing to a newsletter or buying a product.
The swipe-up feature takes people to a product page, event, or blog post you want to promote. It eliminates the hassle of asking them to go to your page and click on the link in your bio. All they have to do is swipe up on your Story, and they’ll instantly be on the page. Easy!
Driving traffic to your brand website has never been easier, plus it entices people to interact with your Stories. Remember, good engagement equals higher feed visibility.
However, if you don’t see the feature, you’ll have to work on other hacks first to grow. This is because only creators with over 10,000 can unlock the swipe-up feature on Instagram Stories.
Instagram Hacks University: Is It Legit For Authentic Growth?
There are lots of courses and services out there that promise brilliant things for your social media platform. These typically involve an instant influx of followers without an Instagram growth strategy to sustain them.
Growth service Instagram Hacks University is a popular choice, but should you follow the pack or find a better alternative?
This service, in particular, has captured the attention of many Instagram influencers and business owners due to its training approach. It offers valuable insights into Instagram Reels, Stories, and posts to clarify what works and what doesn’t.
Courses like this easily draw you in with the hope of becoming a social media marketing pro. However, this isn’t the case for most people. It teaches you quick little hacks, but authentic growth requires more than shortcuts.
While its main goal is to boost engagement, long-term success is unlikely if you rely too much on courses. Focusing on fast growth isn’t sustainable without implementing an effective Instagram growth strategy with solid content creation.
Having said this, Instagram Hacks University may be worth a shot for those wanting followers fast. Of course, this is valid! It’s your Instagram account, and you have full control, but consider the potential drawbacks.
Guarantee Longlasting Instagram Growth with Path Social
Now, check out Path Social for an alternative that genuinely works and has your best interest at heart. This growth service stands out from the competition due to its organic growth methods with specialists behind the wheel.
Path Social has lots of unique features and benefits that make growth hacks effective, ethical, and long-term:
- Advanced AI technology: Their proprietary AI algorithm finds and targets genuinely interested users in your content. This pairs you with the right audience who engage and stick around.
- 100% real followers: Bots and fake accounts aren’t in Path Social’s repertoire. Attracting genuine, active followers protects your reputation and boosts growth.
- Safe and secure: Path Social doesn’t request your Instagram password.
- Network of influencers: Path Social partners with influencers across various industries to promote your content.
These are just some of the brilliant things Path Social can do for your social media platform. You also get advice on the optimal posting schedule, the types of posts to create, and other pro tips.
Growth hacks are very valuable, but remember that partnering with a marketing agency that can apply them properly is best. However, with just a few tips and tricks under your belt from this article, you’re already on the right track!
Use Growth Hacks in Your Content Strategy to Boost Success Today
The growth hacks above are amazing for boosting reach and engagement on Instagram. That leads to more followers, which means more eyes on your content and more potential customers.
The Instagram growth hacks in this guide help drive organic growth, which every influencer or brand should do. However, if you have money to spend on Instagram strategy, take a professional marketing agency on board.
One of the best Instagram growth hacks out there is Path Social; no one does it like them! They use an advanced AI-powered algorithm to accurately target your audience. It pushes optimized content to the right areas of Instagram to attract new 100% real followers instantly. Grow your page fast and easy with Path Social today!
Growth Hacks for Instagram: FAQs
Let’s delve into some of the most frequently asked questions about growth hacks; after all, it’s natural to be cautious.
How do people grow their Instagram so fast?
A combination of hard work, experience, and, in some cases, a social media management agency. Knowing your target audience to begin with is a strong foundation on which to build. Those who have cracked this code know what posts will do well and what time is best to post them.
Users who have quickly grown their Instagram likely also have a niche market. This is when you tap into a particular community with a demand for your content. Having a loyal follower base encourages engagement and gives you a better chance of being seen by others.
Why is Instagram hard to grow?
Contrary to what you may believe, Instagram wants you to grow; you just have to work with it. Instagram can feel hard to grow if your hashtags and captions aren’t optimized or you’re not engaging with your audience.
Make the Instagram algorithm your friend by establishing a content strategy that checks all the boxes. This includes posting at the right times, keeping up with trends, and interacting with comments and likes.
What is a realistic Instagram growth rate?
It’s easy to compare to other big accounts boasting millions of followers, but they all started where you did. Focus on building a steady follower count between 2.5% to 5%. Anything more than this, and Instagram will get suspicious.
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