How to gain more Instagram Followers
Hi there,yes I am not the first one to write about this topic, you can find dozens of articles about how to gain more Followers on Instagram, yet browsing threw Quora or other Instagram related sites, I often find people asking "How can I get more followers?".
Many people struggle to find their audience on Instagram and I am here to help. First let me tell you that buying fake Instagram followers is not worth your money, those follower will not engage with your content, meaning they won't like or comments, they are just to increase your follower count - nothing more, nothing less.
But you always are in danger of losing your Instagram account since buying followers is a violation of the Instagram terms or the followers will drop because Instagram is deleting those fake profiles.
Here are some proven ways of increasing your followers:
Use hashtags the right way
Using tags on Instagram is no secret, but I see a lot of people using the same tags for every image they post or use not relevant tags. You should check out popular profiles in your niche for example Fitness and write down what tags they use, make a list and try those tags and notice what tags delivered the most likes and comments. You should focus on tags which are not saturated by millions of photos since it will be harder for you to be discovered. You should do a mix of popular tags and more niche related tags.
Publish your photos and videos at the best time
It is a major mistake posting your photos or videos at a random time, you should focus on posting at the pike hours, for example in the early morning before people leave to work or in the evening and night when they are back from work and browsing Instagram for the freshest content. The best times for posting according to the Huffington Post are 2 a.m. and 5 p.m. EST.The best day to post is Wednesday and Thursday. Try to keep this in mind to give your content the best possibility to reach your audience.
Engage with users in your niche
Most people miss the opportunity to engage with people already interested in your niche, just visit popular accounts in your niche and check out the people following, liking and commenting on their posts and try to engage with them, by liking, commenting or following them. But don't get desperate or spam them, it is all about building a relationship with them and show them you offer valuable content and information as well. Those users are already interested in your niche, go show them you have something to offer as well.
Make a content strategy/plan
Don't sit there and think for minutes what you gonna post each time you want to publish content to your followers, already have a strategy in place what content your audience is most interested in and deliver. Note down at least 20 different content ideas like quotes, thoughts, questions, images etc. you can always use to create quickly the most relevant content for your followers. Ask yourself why someone should follow your fitness related Instagram account when there are already thousands of such accounts. You need to make it count and be different than the rest.
Pimp your bio
You can include a small text, similes, emails and links into your bio. Make use of it all, it is the first line of text users will see when they visit your profile. It is important to make a good first impression by telling them what you offer, why they should follow you and how they can contact you. If you have a website link it to convert the Instagram traffic into possible customers.
Cross link your social media
You have a website? A Twitter? A Pinterest? Chances you not only have an Instagram account are high, so try to inter link them and make a small network out of your accounts. Most social media users are active on multiple platforms at once, use the reach of other social media profiles of yours to strengthen them all together and gain more exposure.
Be consistent
Most people are excited when they start a new project but loose their motivation as soon as they realize they can not archive their Instagram success over night - most things in life work that way. It is a marathon not a sprint, post daily and do not give up. Building an account with a lot of followers will take time, but the one who works regularly on their account will have success.
Do Shoutouts
This one is very effective but can only be used once you have a good amount of followers, it is called shoutout for shoutout or in short s4s. Meaning you contact other Instagramers which a good following and simply ask them if they would mention you via @Username in the caption of their next photo in exchange for you doing the same. This of course should be niche relevant accounts so you gain relevant followers by doing shoutouts. This way you gain real followers as well - no fake useless followers nobody needs. You can check out one of the dozens so called Influencer Networks which have already a network of many accounts willing to do shoutouts for other accounts. If you have some money to spend for your Instagram account you should check out networks like Shoutsmarket to buy some Instagram shoutouts and save the time contacting other account owners for a shoutout.
Call to action
Call to action simply means you ask your audience a question or ask them to do something. In this case simply asking to like or comment your post with a already big following will increase your likes and comments. But you should focus on building a dialog as well, ask them questions in captions, tell a story. There are many ways of engaging with your audience via captions alone, try to test different methods and see what works best for you.
Instagram like any other social media site is about providing the newest content and building a community surrounding your account, at the end of the day each like or comment on Instagram is a human enjoying your content and the work you put into delivering them a great experience. You should focus on building quality over quantity since followers interested in your account or business, since having engaged followers means more likes and comments which results in more reach on Instagram and more growth. It will start slowly but as soon as you get over the hump you will see your Instagram growing daily faster and faster.
