10 Ways to increase Instagram followers

1. Optimize your Instagram account

Before you began deciding the way to gain followers on Instagram, one of the foremost important steps is to possess your account fully optimized. consider your brand’s Instagram bio because of the “homepage” to your account.

Without a bio, image captions, a correct username, or profile image, how will people know the account belongs to your brand? it'd seem obvious, but on Instagram, your bio and image help form the foundations of your brand identity.

The link in your bio is your one spot to drive Instagram traffic to your site, so optimizing your account is important.

If you’re uncertain where to link, try marketing or product pages that relate to specific keywords, hashtags or campaigns on your Instagram account.

Linking to your homepage is OK–but why not give users a cohesive experience when moving from your bio to a site? This has led to the recognition of IG link landing pages that host relevant links to the previous couple of pieces of content mentioned on a brand’s feed, and “link in bio” posts that help direct audiences to those links.

Additionally, keep your username as search-friendly as possible, which usually means sticking on the brink of your actual name.

If your business name is longer, shorten it to something your audience would recognize. Don’t add numbers or special characters to your username, and if possible keep it in line with other social media handles you have already got.

The best thanks to optimizing your account are to make and follow an Instagram marketing strategy. Download our free guide to urge started.

2. Keep a uniform content calendar

The worst thing you'll do when trying to urge followers on Instagram is to post content randomly, haphazard times. If you’re lucky enough to urge users to follow you within the beginning, you don’t want to form them forget they followed you in the first place.

To combat this, keep to a daily posting schedule. Typically, brands shouldn’t post quite a couple of times each day to avoid spam, but whatever your cadence, keep it consistent. Approximately 200 million Instagram users go online daily, so to cast your net even wider, try publishing a couple of times throughout the whole day.

In fact, our very own research on the simplest times to post to Instagram pinpoints the highest times to post for multiple industries, otherwise, you can follow our research of the simplest times across all topic areas below:

Sticking to a schedule will assist you to build a uniform experience for your followers and keep them within the knowledge of your brand. But if you’re wondering how you’re getting to remember to publish at these different times within the day, we’ve got you covered with Sprout’s scheduling and optimal times features–read on for more details.

3. Schedule Instagram posts beforehand

While the Instagram algorithm has changed to point out users more content they like, posting at the proper times can still give your posts more visibility by increasing the general engagement they receive.

There are tons your brand can do to boost visibility, and now with Sprout Social, scheduling Instagram content is one among them.

With our newest tools, we will help your brand schedule content through a simple process.

By scheduling content beforehand, your entire team can see campaigns and schedules more efficiently.

It’s always smart to create out content beforehand and with our Instagram scheduling tools, you'll reach your audience and maintain a uniform flow of content at an equivalent time.

You can also use Sprout’s patented ViralPost feature and allow us to do the work for you. ViralPost analyzes your own account’s engagement history and identifies the optimal times for you to post algorithmically.

4. Get partners and brand advocates to post your content

When you’re learning the way to get more Instagram followers, it’s important to understand the worth of your audience. The larger your follower count grows (organically), the more buyers and interested customers you'll have.

The best thanks to getting customers to follow you is to urge ahead of them and be present. It’s critical to be present on your own Instagram also as others. Try sponsoring user-generated content to urge your brand in customers’ feeds. you'll also hold Instagram contests to urge your brand

out to a bigger audience.

These sorts of campaigns build social proof by showing your fans are invested enough to repost your content or create their own UGC.

Another way is to urge your handle ahead of a way larger audience. attempt to work with larger Instagram accounts in your industry, like notable influencers in your space, to share your content to their audience.

Just confirm you’re providing something useful.

The last item you would like to try to seems to sales. Find marketing collaborations and co-marketing plans with other businesses to create your Instagram audience.

5. Avoid fake Instagram followers

There’s an enormous difference between an Instagram account having fake and bonafide followers. it'd seem tempting to easily purchase Instagram followers, but the backlash outweighs the perks of organic follower growth.

Fake Instagram followers tend to:

• Deceive new followers: If users come to an inactive Instagram feed with tens of thousands of followers, it'll lower the account’s credibility. Don’t trick people into following you. Build trust and long-lasting relationships for better engagement.

• Have no ROI: it'd seem easier to shop for followers, but your acquired bot or unmanned new followers won’t be purchasing anything. People follow brands on Instagram for a reason–they like what you’re posting or your company generally. These are actual spenders and convey price to your business.

• Create little-to-no buzz: If you've got 10,000 fake followers, what percentage are getting to comment, like, and share your content? quite likely, these bot or fake accounts are going to be cleaned up by Instagram, deleted, and make your posts appear to be engagement graveyards.

Real people have the power to share, like, comment, and have interaction together with your Instagram posts. Additionally, these users enjoy when there’s someone on the opposite side responding.

For example, Lush Cosmetics takes the time to answer various product questions, which ends up in users returning, following, or possibly sharing with others. These interactions will always have more value than a group of inactive followers.

6. Showcase your Instagram everywhere

How are people getting to find an account unless you promote your Instagram? confirm your Instagram account is listed together with your website and other social networks.

Creating visibility and awareness is one of the simplest ways to urge discoveries. If you truly want to urge more Instagram followers, let people know where to seek out you. you'll add social media buttons to your website and blog to assist promote social shares across all of your networks also show people where to seek out you on Instagram.

Another great idea is to cross-promote across your social media accounts. The Museum of recent Art regularly spreads awareness about its Instagram through Twitter. you'll easily leverage your other social networks to direct users to your Instagram.

However, confirm that you’re not just posing for a follow. Instead, you ought to attempt to promote unique content on your Instagram so users have a reason to follow you there. Fortunately, with Instagram adding plenty of latest content and video features like Stories, IGTV, and Reels, you've got an excellent opportunity to create followers through creative content.

7. Post content followers want

While this is often easier said than done, it’s smart to find out what content your followers want to ascertain. You’ll quickly find on Instagram that some content performs better than others. this is often why testing is so important.

Whether it’s filters, captions, content types, or post times, the littlest detail can make all the difference. Keep your ear to the bottom with new Instagram trends so you recognize you’re posting popular content.

To take your analysis a step further, your brand should invest in Instagram analytics tools. this may make it easier to trace, benchmark, and analyze Instagram content across accounts.

Be confident in your content strategy by analyzing different filters, captions, and more to ascertain what works best together with your audience. If you’re unsure where to start out, try analyzing your competitors.

You shouldn’t directly copy your competitors, but it’s smart to require notes on what they’re doing or posting that drives engagement. a touch competitive research can go an extended way. you'll use our Instagram Competitors report back to get a glance at what’s working for other brands in your industry.

8. Get the conversation started

One of the simplest ways to form users consciousness of your Instagram is thru conversation. consistent with the 2020 Sprout Social Index, consumers want to interact with visual-first content like photos (68%) and video (50%), followed by 30% who want to interact with text posts.

Instagram is that the perfect fit for this audience profile, pairing eye-catching visuals with captions which will be even as engaging once you perfect your Instagram caption copywriting skills.

People are continuing to use social media as their contact reference for brands, whether its for off-the-cuff questions and chat, serious customer care queries, or praise for his or her favorite brands and products. And for your business, you would like to be supportive and communicative on Instagram.

Try to answer as many questions or comments as possible, because it could mean the difference between getting a replacement customer, follower or improving your relationship together with your audience.

Our Index research also showed 89% of consumers will buy from a brand after following on social, so it’s important to secure the eye and loyalty needed to convert a visitor to your profile into a lover.

9. Find hashtags that convert

One of the foremost tried-and-true ways to urge followers on Instagram is thru hashtags. For years hashtags have served as an important tool for discovery and allowed us to increase our social reach. As a marketer, you would like to create your community by gaining followers, and hashtags provide just that.

For starters, find hashtags that aren't too populated. Social Media Examiner points this theory out by explaining how the hashtag #love has quite 184 million photos connected thereto.

Trying to spotlight your Instagram content during a sea of many pictures and videos isn't a simple thing to try to do.

You have to seek out hashtags that folks in your audience are more likely to see. If a relevant connection is formed, these users are going to be more likely to follow your account. Unique, branded hashtags are a method to group posts around hyper-relevant content to your brand and campaigns.

For example, M&Ms does an excellent job at focusing hashtags to an occasion where they're participating. By using hashtags like #mmspotlight, the brand targets its audience more directly where the spotlight concert event happens and creates awareness.

Understanding how your hashtags perform on Instagram is additionally even as critical to using them. And with Sprout Social’s hashtag analytics tools, you've got direct access to hashtag performance and usage data to ascertain what’s working best.

Don’t go blindly into the hashtag universe, know what you’re tagging so you'll build your following.

10. Make your Instagram followers happy

Last but not least, once you make your Instagram followers happy, you see the payoff in audience growth. We’ve given you many tips for brainstorming and scheduling content, so put them into practice in a way that feels real to your brand voice. In other words, avoid seeming needy, sales-driven, or robotic.

For many accounts, this suggests sprinkling in posts that are legitimately designed to bring a smile to followers’ faces and build customer relationships.

Don’t forget to supply content to your followers as if they were friends on your personal feed: this might include posting memes, inspirational content, or simply re-sharing interesting photos or artwork (all properly credited, of course) which will give your followers a touch mental pick-up during the day.