When you’re looking to build a following on social media, it stands to reason that your follower count is one of the most important metrics you can look to. After all, the number of followers you have is indicative of how many people are going to see the content you create; while you’re naturally going to have a few followers who are bots or automated accounts, the vast majority of your followers will hopefully be real people who want to see the things you’re creating.
With that in mind, there are a number of tips and tricks you can use to increase your Instagram follower count. Some of these tips and tricks are pretty easy and straightforward, while others will require a little dedication and focus on your part. With some application and a little luck, though, you should start building an Instagram following if you put these tips into effect. Here are 15 tips and tricks for how to increase your Instagram followers!
1. Post every day
First and foremost, you should make sure that you’re posting on Instagram each and every day if you want to increase your follower count. Posting every day should increase the visibility of your posts and boost your chances of showing up on your followers’ feeds. If you let too much time elapse without posting, then your followers might think you’re not active anymore and you could start losing followers. Make sure to set up a regular schedule!
2. Pick your times carefully
While you should, of course, be making sure that you’re posting on Instagram every day, you should also be careful to ensure that you’re posting at the right times. Posting in the middle of the night, when no users are active, won’t get you anywhere. You need to make sure that you’re posting when users are online, and that varies on a daily basis; it’s also dependent on where you are in the world, so make sure your posting schedule syncs up with your followers’ schedules.
3. Network
Building networks of content creators is a good way to build your Instagram following in tandem. If you want to increase followers, then other content creators may hold the key to doing something or implementing some kind of strategy you’re not familiar with, after all. Reach out to other Instagram creators and influencers and ask them what sort of things they’re doing to increase their follower counts. You might be surprised at some of the answers!
4. Use a follower service
You need to be very careful with the kind of follower services you use when it comes to boosting your Instagram following. While many follower services are entirely above board, there are also services that will flood your account with bots or fake accounts, and this will actually hurt your chances of increasing your following. With that said, using a real follower service to boost your followers is a good idea; higher follower counts tend to beget more followers!
Instagram may be your focus when it comes to social networks, but it shouldn’t be the only one you sign up for. You should also make sure you’re signed up to other networks like Twitter, TikTok, and even Facebook; this will ensure that you’re visible in plenty of different places, which should in turn lead users to your Instagram account. You can also connect your social media accounts together, which will hopefully increase your visibility even further.
6. Optimise your profile
Working to optimise your profile is well worth it on Instagram. Fill out your bio and make sure it adequately and accurately describes you and your content. Including a link in your bio is also a good idea, as it’ll drive people to a website or platform that you want them to visit. Your profile picture is also a very important element of your Instagram account, as you’d expect from such a visual platform, so take a good profile picture and make sure to update it regularly!
7. Partner up with brands
This is a luxury that may not be available to every budding Instagram influencer, but partnering up with brands can be a good way to increase your Instagram following. Even if the brand seems small and relatively unknown, you’d be surprised at just how much of a boost this can give you. Team up with brands that are relevant to the kind of content you create; reach out to them via DM and ask if they’d like to work with you on a campaign.
8. Watch your analytics
Instagram has a built-in tool that allows you to track your metrics, but there are plenty of third-party tools available online that let you do this as well. It’s very important to keep an eye on these metrics, because they’ll give you a better idea of what kind of content is performing well, thus in turn letting you know what sort of thing your followers want to see. You need to ensure you’re monitoring your metrics as regularly and as closely as you can if you want to achieve Instagram success.
9. Don’t be a slave to metrics
We know this tip feels a little counterintuitive compared to the last one, but it’s still important to bear in mind. While metrics are a very important measure of both your success and your future direction, they shouldn’t be the only thing you pay attention to in this regard. Make sure to try new things and take some risks when it comes to creating new kinds of content. Only by doing this can you break out of boxes and really find cross-audience appeal.
10. Talk to your followers
Starting conversations with your followers is a great way to boost your following. Make sure that when you receive comments, you reply to them (where possible, of course, and only where they’re legitimate comments), and include CTAs in your content too. Calls to action make your audience feel like they’re a part of your channel rather than just watching things passively, and this will encourage them to participate, thus boosting your positive word of mouth.
11. Don’t oversell yourself or your content
Instagram has gained a reputation for being a “fake” platform where people often airbrush themselves or don’t show who they really are. While that’s true to a certain extent, it doesn’t have to be true of the kind of content you create. When you post images or videos on Instagram, make sure they’re as “real” as they can possibly be. There’s always a certain degree of artifice when it comes to posting on social media, but you can try to overcome that artifice as much as possible.
12. Create Stories
Stories are a good way to boost your follower count. They’ll show what you’ve been up to on a particular day; you can use them to document a trip away, for example, or a particularly impressive creative project. Alternatively, you can make the story itself a creative project; why not put together a comic, for example, or do something else clever with the story format? Instagram Stories are important to your overall identity on the platform, so don’t neglect them.
13. Make Reels
Instagram Reels are effectively the way that Instagram competes with TikTok. Reels are in place to let you create off-the-cuff content that just shows off who you are and what you’re about. It’s not a good idea to use Reels to sell products, according to professional research; instead, you should be using them in a similar way to TikTok content, making them educational or entertaining. This will make users more likely to follow you because they don’t feel like they’re being “sold at”.
Some hashtags are more popular than others, and while you’ll often see Instagram posts absolutely drowning in hashtags, using the right ones in a precision way can often work better than a scattershot approach. Pick the hashtags that are performing best and that are the most relevant to your content. You should also pick a few wildcard hashtags that are a little more out there; these could actually bring in users who are looking for something a little fun and different.
15. Tag your location
This is a tip that many Instagram users and influencers overlook, but it can help to engender some local positive energy for your posts. Tag your location in your Instagram posts and you’ll help other local users discover you. Obviously, you don’t have to be too specific with your location; just your home city is fine. This will help people feel closer to you and feel like they know where you’re coming from better with your content, and you may even help other local users to discover you, thus increasing your follower count. For an added bonus, why not try creating content that’s themed around the city you live in? Other residents will love that.
