Instagram has become the face of many brands, businesses, and influencers. They all use Instagram to drive traffic from their Instagram page to their landing page, getting engagement or growing conversions.
But what if your Instagram page isn’t as big as you want to, and you’re not getting the desired engagement, conversions, and traffic. Then it’s time to get more organic and engaging followers on Instagram. With the growth of your followers, your brand gets more exposure, more engagement, and more traffic.
You often see pages that just started on Instagram which want to grow. To grow, they usually buy followers and likes. The unfortunate thing about increasing your Instagram in this way is that the followers you get from buying followers are not potential customers. They don’t engage in any way on your Instagram account. The easy way out is mostly not the best option, and sometimes other strategies are much more effective. Getting a lot of followers by buying them will not grow your account faster because you also need engagement.
7 ways to increase your Instagram followers
#1 Instagram schedule
When trying to reach new followers, you must make it very easy to maintain your Instagram page. Using a content calendar makes it easy for yourself to plan and decide what the best Instagram posting times are for your photo, story, reel, or IG-TV. Every brand and niche has different times a day to post on Instagram. So, when you start, look at your followers and at what time of the day they’re most active. Next step: make the content calendar around their most active moments.
When you decide to make a content calendar, it will become easier to maintain your Instagram account. The calendar will get your post organized and will help you to get your posts ready on time. Then, when you know what to post in the next week, you have enough time to optimize your content. So, you must schedule your posts in advance so you or your team don’t ever hurry and post something that isn’t ready for your grid.
#2 Optimize your Instagram account
When starting with Instagram, everyone needs to choose a new profile picture and bio. Now it’s time to optimize everything about the eyecatchers of your Instagram page. Your profile picture, username, bio, and website link are the first things new followers see when visiting your Instagram profile. Try to let everyone understand that this is your personal ‘brand’ and let your visitors know the purpose behind your account. For example, choose a simple profile picture that shows where your account is about.
If you decide not to optimize these four factors, much new traffic will not make it to your site where you want to sell them your service or product.
#3 Engaging content
You want followers who engage and even buy your service or product when you are a business. When you start to use Instagram, you probably don’t know what content your followers like. After a while, you can see which type of content gets more engagement than the others. Make sure you focus on the kind of content that gets more attention. There is a higher chance that users will follow you if your page is very active.
When you know which content gets more engagement, you can start using this content on your Instagram. You can also choose to use Instagram trends to get even more engagement. Instagram trends are significant to understand and maintain. When you manage to keep up with some trends, you allow your brand to put out content to bigger audiences than before. For example, when you post a reel, there is a possibility that you get more engagement on that single reel than that you’ve followers.
Another important step you could take is to look at your competitors. First, make sure you know who they are so you don’t get the wrong picture about the niche. Then, when looking at your competitors, it is vital to look at their content, especially their most engaging content. Look for the most liked posts or a post with the most comments. The content from these posts will get the most engagement. When you learn to understand why these posts get the most attention, you could use this kind of content yourself.
#4 Working with brands and people
When growing your page, you will get more organic followers. These followers will also give you more possibilities to develop your account. For example, when your followers share your content in their story, repost them. More people will share your content on their page when you do this, and you’ll get brand awareness for free.
Another option to gain more followers is to hold Instagram contests, like giveaways or a challenge. New followers will see what you’re giveaway and maybe want to participate in your challenge. Make sure that your contest, giveaway, or challenge fits your target audience. Random challenges will only get you ‘lucky’ followers that will not engage with your account. This kind of challenge will grow your followers, but the engagement percentage will go down drastically. For a business, this will mean a drop in conversions.
The last option is working with brands or influencers to put your content on their page. Many influencers like the concept of helping each other out and gaining new organic followers. Make sure you’re providing value to their audience, preferably brands or influencers with like-minded niches.
#5 Engaging with your new Instagram followers
Many people see your Instagram page as the reference point for your brand or you as a person. It’s your job to keep engaging with them to show that your account is active and supportive of its followers. When posting on Instagram in the first hour, you must get the most engagement and engage back to them.
The most engagement you’ll get from your followers is mainly from the post with some visual representation of your content. This way, it is easy for them to understand your post, and they will be more activated to read it.
#6 Branding your Instagram account
Instagram is just another social media platform. But if you want it to be your primary social media, it’s possible to share your Instagram content on other platforms too. Try using Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and other social media platforms to spread your content. By sharing your content on different media, you create visibility and awareness.
If you’re using Instagram as your main social media page, you need to ensure that they start to follow you on Instagram and not just follow you on the other social media platforms. Try to add more value to your Instagram post so that they have to follow you.
#7 Avoid fake followers
Always try to avoid fake followers. These followers will look good at the beginning of your Instagram career, but make sure the new organic followers don’t trust your account in the long run. The fake followers will lower the credibility of your account. If you want organic followers, you need their trust, and fake followers who don’t engage don’t help in any way. The fake followers are just a number and don’t deliver anything else, the engagement rate is lower, and the follower to like ratio is ultimately off.
Only the real followers are there to engage with your content, and they’ll share, like, and comment on your post. And it is the other way around as well. Your followers like it when you respond to their posts.
The ten most-followed people on Instagram
#1 @Cristiano 348 million followers
#2 @kyliejenner 271 million followers
#3 @therock 271 million followers
#4 @leomessi 269 million followers
#5 @arianagrande 268 million followers
#6 @selenagomez 264 million followers
#7 @kimkardashian 256million followers
#8 @beyonce 210 million followers
#9 @justinbieber 197 million followers
#10 @kendalljenner 192 million followers
