Chances are you’ve heard the hype about Instagram, understand the benefits of Instagram, and may have even started an Instagram account for your business. And if you’re doing well, you’re regularly posting. But you may be struggling to find your audience. Just like any new account on any social media site, it can take a while to get more followers on Instagram and grow your Instagram followers into a large audience. Here are some tips on how to get more followers on Instagram quickly.
1. Promote Your Instagram Account
If no one knows you’re there, how are they going to follow you? Make sure that you’re promoting your Instagram account through a variety of means.
- Tell your customers you’re on Instagram.
- Tell your other social media site fans that you’re on Instagram and give them the link to your profile.
- Include your Instagram URL in your email signature
- Include your Instagram handle on flyers and business cards
- Link to your Instagram account in your e-newsletters
Of all of the how to grow your Instagram followers tips, this is one that you need to do outside of Instagram itself.
2. Provide Exclusive Instagram-Only Content
Exclusive content is so important to growing your Instagram followers. If your fans and customers are already following you on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, why should they follow you on Instagram too? You have to give them a reason!
I always recommend sharing exclusive photos of events or products on Instagram only. You can tease these images by sharing one photo to your other social media accounts and telling those fans that they can view the rest of the photos on Instagram (make sure you give them the link!). This gives your fans a reason to come over to Instagram to see the rest of the photos. Don’t automatically link your Facebook or Twitter accounts to share every Instagram post.
You can also share exclusive discounts or promotions strictly to Instagram followers. Once people know that you offer these promotions, you can be sure your followers will increase.
[It also can’t hurt to learn how to edit Instagram photos like a pro to help you publish more liked Instagram photos. Check out these best Instagram Stories examples as well.]
3. Use Hashtags
Hashtags are an Instagrammer’s best friend. You can significantly improve the reach of your posts by including relevant hashtags. I recommend using 3-7 hashtags per post for the best results. Hashtags should be related to the post content and/or your industry or niche.
If you want to know which hashtags are the most popular, you can search Google (or any other search engine) for the most popular hashtags on Instagram. They vary slightly but usually stay fairly consistent. I caution you, however, not to use hashtags simply because they’re popular. For example, if your post is of a new piece of jewelry you have in your store, don’t use #sunset or #justinbeiber. Keep the tags relevant – in the jewelry example, you could use #pretty or #fashion. Both of these are popular tags but are also relevant to the post.
4. Actively Engage with Others on Instagram
One of the best ways to grow your audience is to actually connect with people. This means being active on others’ profiles by liking and commenting on their posts. Responding to comments on your posts also generates conversation and followers.
Find new people to follow in your industry and start engaging with them. When they begin to recognize you and your profile, they will often follow you back and return the favor with likes and comments.
When people comment on your posts, make sure you @mention them in your response so that they receive a notification and see what you wrote. Answer questions, thank them for their thoughts, or ask them how they’re doing. Keep the conversations going and more people will chime in.
5. Follow More People on Instagram
Unless you’re a big brand, no one wants to follow you if you only follow 25 people. You’re here to be active and engaging, so follow more people and get active! While there’s no ideal specific ratio for followers to followings, you should be following as many people as possible.
If you’re looking for great people to follow, try following people that your followers follow (I know, that’s a mouthful!). When you go to your notifications page on Instagram, switch over to the “Following” tab. This will show you all the posts that those you follow are engaging with. Chances are you will have similar interests and like many of the posts and people that those you’re following like. You can click on the posts and go to these other users’ profiles. Scroll through and follow anyone of interest. Instagram is fairly reciprocal and if you like and engage with other Instagram users, they will often like you back. Just a heads up though, don’t follow someone just to get them to follow you and then unfollow them – it’s rude and not good etiquette. Follow people you have a genuine interest in.
6. Post More on Instagram to Grow Your Instagram Followers!
We all know that a stagnant or neglected account will sit idle. Instagram is no different. Try to post at least a few times a week, ideally at least once a day. The more often you post, the larger variety of hashtags you use, the more you’re engaging with other Instagrammers, the faster your audience will grow. So get to posting!
You’ll notice that nowhere in these tips did I recommend you buy followers. That’s because this is a big no-no! Trust me when I tell you that buying Instagram followers will not help you in the long run. In fact, these fake or bad Instagram followers can hinder your opportunity for growth and hurt your chances of reaching the popular page.
As with any social media site, you want more followers. But it’s important to focus on cultivating a great community around the followers you do have. The more you focus and connect with on your existing followers, the more your audience will grow naturally.
Any other advice you would offer on how to get more followers on Instagram?
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Latest posts by Jenn Herman (see all)
- How B2B Businesses Can Use Instagram - June 24, 2014
- How To Use Instagram to Improve Your Marketing - April 28, 2014
- 6 Tips on How to Get More Followers on Instagram Quickly - March 26, 2014
- What NOT To Do On Instagram - January 30, 2014
- Instagram Best Practices - December 23, 2013
This post is so on-point. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Jen! This article is very clear and on point. It made alot of things clear and I really enjoyed reading it. Here is my Intagram account let me know what I need to work on! shy_sweetness (link edited by admin)
And what do you think about apps? I heard about zen-promo that it uses some algorithm to find real followers in chosen location. Pretty useful tool for businesses for example
It’s very important to use instagram analytics and track your performance all time.
This article is very much helpful. Could you please provide some information on how to make a instagram profile interseting? I mean what type of content should i post if i handle instagram profile of a online publication media. Which types of topics i should write to attract more readers?
A very informative piece of article Jen.
I sometimes use Automation for my account to follow users,but apart from them i like to do work manually which increases the engagement
Theme is really interesting. Every help is needed for the starters, and for the people that wants to make something on the Instagram, which community needs!
Very interesting an clear tips to promote growing our instagram profile, i will try these tips. Thanks Jen.
Very useful, helped a lot.
These are definitely great ways to grow audience but what I have no idea how we can promote them outside instagram.
Link your facebook account can help.
Great piece jen tks.
Cheers, Jenn!
Great..well said..this is the natural way to get pure audience for your stuff & to get engaged with interested people.
Thanks alot for such informative tips.
Awesome.. I need to start doing your tips for my instagram account.. :)
I would just like to add that it is always good to pinpoint your audience in order to increase your Instagram brand/product. Don’t focus on the big and broad audience, yet focus on smaller, more niche accounts for your promotions.
Hi, Jenn!
Thank you for the article!
I consider Instagram as one of the most popular social networks. In the article there is a great list of necassary things which can help anyone to drive more traffic to your Instagram profile. I would like to add one more interesting approach.
In case of having your own website or blog you are able to display Instagram images on it with the help of an Instagram widget. So you can increase your followers by promoting the profile direclty on webpage.There are a lot of variants of such product. Some of them are premium and others – free.
I decided to choose the premium widget called InstaShow from the trusted developer. It looks amazing and has lots of customizable parameters. [promotional link deleted by admin].
Hope this helps.
Very engaging and very tactful .I like that.? Your suggestions are stellar ! And your warnings appropriate and duly noted . this was an extremely useful and helpful article, thank you ,blessings to you .???
Thanks, I just got more ideas.
Excellent tips Jenn!
The most important thing is to post great quality photos as well, that alone speaks volumes and don’t be afraid to ask people questions!
Getting them involved and let them know that you want to connect with them is important too.
I used a bit too many hashtags in the past, now I just go with 3 or 4.
I will follow your advice on posting a bit more ;)
Wow that’s actually one of the greatest articles on the subject i’ve read. And i like how you emphasize the importance of real followers, not just useless blanks driving up the numbers. As for me, the only automation service i use is https://fast-unfollow.com, it’s great to unfollow those who don’t follow you, up to 5000 users a day. Hashtags and geolocation is enough to attract almost infinite number of users, using bots is for the weak=) I advise you to try it out, you get 1000 free unsubscriptions once you’ve signed up, i’m still using it=)
Thanks for the good Read Jenn. Do you have any experience with automating your instagram account? I would like to be able to automatically like photos as soon as they get posted to certain hashtags. I know people ar currently doing this…
My friend referred me to GrowingIG.com saying they get him over 100+ followers a day. Followers that actually convert to cutomers..
Do you have any advice on this subject? thanks!
Great read Jenn! Thank you for all of the great information!
This is fantastic Jenn, I’ve been extremely worried about too many hashtags on instagram and a little confused how it’s different from twitter. Really enjoyed this blog and thanks for taking the time to write it.