12 ways to grow your Instagram followers

Instagram started out as a photography app and now it is a social media app that is one of the top tools in marketers toolbox. 

With over 1 billion monthly active users, it is definitely a place to advertise products and services.

The engagement rate in Instagram is way high compared to any other social media, so advertisement works very well.

If you have a large Instagram following, you can easily sell products, get more views to your blog, and build a stronger community for your brand.

But how do you build such a big following on Instagram?

It’s easier said than done, why would some follow you?

Today, I’ve got 12 actionable tips to help you grow your Instagram followers.

Collect data about your competitor

Before you start doing anything, you need to know what works best in your niche. 

Here is a Instagram Audit tool that would give you details about 

• Hashtags that work
• Popular posts
• Top mentions 
• Engagement rates 
• Average like and comments
• Future projections
• and more

with all these details you can easily find the strategy work for the popular accounts.

Like other people work in your niche

Each day, go through the Instagram account of people in the niche similar to you.

Engage with their content by liking 5-10 photos on their account. It would also help to leave a genuine comment and follow them.

By doing this your name gets out there, allowing more users to discover you.

Now how do you find followers in your niche?

Use Hashtags and view the followers of your favorite Instagrammers using the report that you generated earlier. Try to follow them and comment on their post, be authentic and do not spam. You will start getting followers organically.

Personalize your Instagram page

Once people start noticing you with your username and they will start visiting your profile. So you need to give them something to fall in love with.

Creating your own theme is one of the ways that really work on Instagram.

Plus add a killer description on the page,

Best examples of this technique are Studio DIY, Wonder forest, and Jessica Safko!

Socialize with your followers

You need to have a healthy relationship with your followers, you need to respond to their comments on your post and try to leave a comment on other’s as well.

Don’t try to be obvious by commenting “Nice work”, be a bit more genuine and leave comments which sparkle more discussions.

By doing so you come out as a genuine man which will bring in more followers.

Create your own hashtag

This is a great way to build community and gain new content for your account.

First of all, create a unique hashtag that hasn’t been used before and tries to incorporate in your work so that you can people can see it and use it.

For example, A Beautiful Mess encourages follower’s to use #ABMLifeIsColorful on all of their colorful, happy photos.

Once people start using your hashtag alongside yourself, you can repost your followers images by using the hashtag and giving them credit.

This is a technique used by a lot of Instagram pages which helps build their community by appreciating their followers and it also provides content for your own account.

Run a contest

Giving away merchandise or any product, in general, is a great way to publicize and engage your followers.

The best way is to do so by running a contest and asking them to repost one of your images and tag you in the caption.

Or use your own hashtag on their own image and the most like image wins.

Anything which results in a giveaway and an engagement is excellent.

Compare your Instagram profile with your competitors

Put creative Instagram Stories

It’s hard to believe but Instagram Stories are rapidly growing in popularity, to over 400 million daily users. Some users even claim to like them better than scrolling their feed.

This is a clear indication, you have to be creative with your Instagram Stories.

You can your followers an insight on how you work scenes and show them the most interesting parts of your day.

Ask them questions, share your music playlist and cool videos. Play with filters and Boomerangs. This is an amazing way to start getting comfortable on video and connect with your followers in an even deeper way.

Encourage followers to take action

Asking someone to do something for you make them believe to be a part of you.

It can be as small as sharing a quote or liking your photo. Or even something like sharing something funny or relatable with you.

Asking open-ended questions! If you put the idea out there, it will encourage your followers to act accordingly.

All this will engage them and make you feel closer to them.

Geotag yourself everywhere you go with photos

Whenever you go to a cool restaurant or a place, Geotag it.

First of all, other people who used the same geotag can see your photo and potentially follow you since you now have so much in common.

Figure out what your audience likes

Be a little bit proactive in your approach.

Research through your photos to see which ones got the more likes and comments and which didn’t.

You can use this tool for this research too.

Once you figured out which clicks with your audience and why?

You can then incorporate those ideas in future posts.

Link your Instagram account to your other social platforms

If you are on Twitter or Facebook, then you might assume each of them follows you on each social platform.

But in fact they don’t, post a quick tweet or Facebook post encouraging them to follow you on Instagram.

This will bring in a lot more followers than you think and help you increase your Instagram community.

Collaborate with other people

Approach a lot of other Instagrammer from your niche (Preferred) or others to collaborate with them. 

Post videos, photos and other things on their account under your name.

This will bring in a ton of followers or you can challenge fellow Instagrammer with a small task and vice versa bring in traffic flow on your account and some of them will eventually follow you back.

Ultimately, think of fun, creative ways to collaborate with other users.

Check how good is your Instagram profile