How to get more followers on Instagram

Instagram is one of the most popular networks alongside Twitter, Facebook and Youtube with some 1.221 million active users around the world. Ensuring your presence on it will take your brand to the next level.

This definitive 20-step guide will help you reach thousands of users.

1- Determine the purpose of your account

In recent years Instagram has positioned itself as one of the search engines most used by users to cover different needs. Be it sales, personal promotion, or information portal.

It is therefore important that your account has a clear objective and that you determine what kind of profile you want to have.

There are basically 3 types of accounts on Instagram:

a. Personal accounts

Which, unless you are a public figure who is followed out of affinity or fanaticism, will have to have a fixed and attractive objective to gain more followers. This will lead you to choose one of the following options.

b. Content accounts

Focus on images and videos

Many nutrition or food accounts use this option. The central focus is on the before and after photo of a person who has lost weight, for example, or on the recipe photo. The primary focus is on the image and the secondary focus is on the text. Accounts about motherhood or politics can also be included in this category.

Text-focused

They are the least popular because of the work involved in generating good quality content that does not go unnoticed among the images. To be successful, they will have to use at least one visual resource to capture attention: engaging stories, funny reels, etc. Many journalists or news blogs use this option to share relevant and topical news.

c. Commercial accounts

The main objective is sales. All images or stories that are uploaded will be aimed at raising awareness of the products and the benefits of purchasing them.

Those who use their profile for commercial purposes should keep in mind a fundamental principle: everything goes through the eyes. Make an effort to upload quality photos, with good backgrounds and descriptions. It is not necessary to have a professional camera, you can achieve perfect finishes using free editors such as Lightroom or VSCO.

Ideally, you can have your own shop within Instagram so that your followers can easily see the cost of your product and make the purchase from the platform without having to be redirected to another website.

These are some of the requirements you must meet:

Have a company profile on Instagram and have a fan page on Facebook.
You have uploaded at least 9 posts on your profile.
Have an official website where you sell your products
Upload the products we want to have in the Instagram shop to a catalogue on the Facebook fan page.

2- Choose a style for your profile

Your feed will be the first thing people see on your profile. If you have cluttered and low quality photos, it will look unreliable.

If you are not very creative, you can take inspiration from accounts that are powerful or have similar content to yours.

Define a range of colours to create harmony in your publications. On websites such as coolors.co you can create your own colour palette.

While split images are attractive on the grid, the truth is that it is annoying for users to have so many "cut" posts and they will end up muting you. It will be more efficient to make separate posts, which together create harmony.

Change this

For this reason

3- Focus on your profile description

Instagram has 3 main search engines: by username, by hashtag and by location. This is how your potential followers will find you.

As for the username, it is important that you choose something that characterises you. The best option will always be to put somewhere the field you work in, so you will appear faster in search engines.

If you have a content generation account, don't be afraid to use your name or alias. It will generate empathy with users.

If you don't want to be specific, you should have a hashtag that mentions the keyword of your account: jewellery, food, news, etc. This hashtag should be located in the profile description.

Every time you upload something to your account add the location. Many users look for pages to follow because of situations they want to satisfy at the moment. Especially those that sell some kind of product.

You can also use this option in stories, showing your followers places you have visited. This will help to humanise your account and show that you are "just like them".

If your business has a location, you should add the address and opening hours in the bio. Encourage your customers to tag the location and address in their posts or stories too, so when other users click through, they can see everything you have to offer.

If you already have other social networks, unify your username across all of them so that you can be easily found.

If you don't have a company logo, canva.com has thousands of free options that you can easily modify. Invest time in it as it will make a big visual impact.

For those who use Instagram as a way to attract customers and redirect them to other pages, this is the place where you will put the link. It is the most visible place and one of the only sectors within the platform where you can put it.

On the instagram of: @eyesofthemoon, for example, 2 key words are included in the name, which encompass the purpose of the account: motherhood and family. In the description of the biography, you can also find additional information that will allow you to appear in searches by area, such as the city and a contact email.

4 - Buy followers

Despite what many say, buying followers is an option you should consider if you want to grow your brand.

Many underestimate the visual impact when it comes to gaining followers, and as well as having an attractive grid, seeing an account with thousands of followers will be a good way to attract new users.

Think about how you would act. If you see an account with few followers, it will make you look untrustworthy. "If it has few users, it's because it doesn't have anything good to offer.

Now, if you go to a page and it has thousands of followers, your mind will automatically associate it with trust and transparency.

It will not only be beneficial in terms of visual impact. If you buy followers on a serious page, they will be accounts from different locations. This will broaden your market and your reach to other sectors.

Always make sure you buy them from a safe place. While there are many sites that offer this service, there are very few that will guarantee a reliable purchase and will not be detected by Instagram's algorithms.

5- Make friends with hashtags

Hashtags are the way to insert keywords by which potential users will find you. Although Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags, the ideal is not to exceed 9 per post.

How do you choose which one is best suited to your content? A quick way is to look at which ones your competitors use.

Think about the image you are going to upload and what you want to convey. Then, when writing the hashtag, pay attention to the recommendations provided by the platform.

If you are just starting out, use less "popular" hashtags as you will have less competition.

Also create a custom hashtag for your account, one that you include in all posts. This should also appear somewhere in your bio and in your stories.

The iqhastags tool will help you to see if the hashtag you have chosen is not banned or "banned" by Instagram's usage policies. It will also provide you with a complete and free statistic of all your hashtags used so far.

All-hashtag will also be a good option when you run out of ideas of which tag to use.

Shy away from popular hashtags like #instafood if your niche has nothing to do with that. It's better to spend more time choosing the right hashtags than using just any hashtag.

Don't treat Instagram users like "fools" because you'll show that your only goal is to gain followers.

6- Publish quality content

No matter how many beautiful images you have, if your content is not of high quality, it will be useless.

When we talk about content, we are mainly referring to everything that will appear in your feed in the foreground, i.e. publications or reels.

If you publish content in a random way, without a previous strategy, it will be reflected in the type of users that consume that content. They will be random and irrelevant.

To increase the number of followers, you must be consistent with your publications. If you are selling a product, ideally you should post at intervals. Unless you have thousands of options, you can't post every day.

Make sure your post contains 90% of the data - why 90% and not 100%? because it is that missing margin that will generate interaction with your audience.

Don't load the image with information. It will be unattractive and people tend to pass by images with a lot of letters.

Generate interaction with your followers through casual information and a question that generates dialogue.

If your account is dedicated to sales, a good strategy will be to limit yourself to uploading an image of the product where you can see all its features. Then, the description will contain additional information: price, payment method, etc.

If your account is of the informational type, you can use 2 strategies:

An eye-catching image with a long and detailed description of the topic to be addressed.
A chain of images where each one describes what you want to convey.

Both options are equally effective. The only thing you should bear in mind is that option 2 can only be used for short publications.

Remember that images with a lot of text are boring. You can opt for graphics or allusive images that generate a visual impact.

When writing informational descriptions, remember the rule of the 4 basic questions your content should answer:

Finish with an idea or question that generates interaction with your followers in the comments. This will help position your content among other users.

7- Make a publication schedule

Success always comes with order and planning, and the strategy you employ with your content will be a fundamental part of getting followers.

There are 2 points you should always keep in mind:

Random content will create transient users who will not make a difference to your account.
Planning will generate expectation.

All your followers are different, so you will have to capture the attention of the vast majority of them. How? By leaving monotony aside.

Successful Instagram accounts use all the channels the network has to offer without saturating them all at once. This is why you should include in your weekly calendar, covering all the options. A template schedule could be:

Stories should be included every day, varying in quantity. The days where there is no other content will be the days "enabled" to publish more.

On days where posts will be uploaded either in the feed, in reels or Live, you should focus on 2 types of stories:

The casual ones (that you publish every day)
Targeted, which focus on "promoting" new content.

It is important that you focus on generating buzz for everything you post, especially Live videos, as it will generate more impact to see that many users have logged in at the same time.

Keep an eye on important dates such as Christmas or Valentine's Day. Use those days to publish content accordingly. It will also be a good strategy because many users will be looking for related content.

8- Pay attention to Instagram stats

When putting together a post template that suits your account, you should pay attention to the metrics provided by the platform.

You can have the best content in the world, but if you don't publish it on days or at times when your followers connect, it won't do any good.

You must have a business account for Instagram to display the data.

General statistics of your account activity:

You must access your profile and click on the 3 dashes on the top right hand side of the screen. Select the option: statistics and you will be able to see the analytics of your account for the last 7 or 30 days.

Statistics on your publications

Select the post you want to see the data for and tap the "view stats" button. This will show you how you did individually with a single post.

If you want global data about your publications, click on the 3 dashes on the top right margin, go to statistics and in the "contents" section select: "see all".

Statistics on stories

To see the data of active stories, from your profile tap on the photo and it will display the photos posted in the last 24 hours. There you can see the number of viewers (so far) and how many people have moved on from your stories without seeing the next one.

Pay attention to this last option. If you repeatedly see a large percentage of users skipping your stories, it's a red flag: either you're saturating your users with content or you're not generating engaging stories.

When to publish

It is key that you know your followers, and part of that is knowing what times and days they are most active. These are the times when you should be posting.

From the same place where you see the general statistics, click on the "audience" section. This will bring up data such as:

Cities and countries where you are followed
Age range
Sex
Busiest days and times

9- Schedule your publications

Don't leave your account inactive. If you have to be absent for a few days, or if there are days during the week when you can't focus exclusively on your account, schedule your publications.

To do this, it is essential that you have a calendar. This way you will know what type of content you should post. Although Instagram does not offer you an option to do it from the platform, there are applications that can do it for you, such as:

10- Make attention-grabbing stories

There is one clear rule within Instagram. You can't succeed without humanising yourself and your brand. In fact, photos with people get 38% more likes than those with only attractive images.

If users know you and see you on a day-to-day basis, this provides trust and transparency. It evokes an emotional aspect and a closeness that builds customer loyalty.

In recent years, Instagram has added a host of tools that you can use in your stories. You can:

Conducting surveys
Questionnaires
Questions with short answers,
Countdowns, etc.

Many companies choose to use these options, to see what users prefer, what products they would like them to incorporate, etc.

You can decide if your stories are deleted after 24 hours or if they remain fixed on your profile. How? by using the featured tools. This option is ideal for those who generate visual content such as journalists or bloggers. Every time they talk about a specific topic you can save it under a tag. @creciendoconmontessori is a good example.

Not only does it leave featured stories with appropriate tags, but the main image is in harmony with the blog's colour and profile style. If design isn't your thing, Canva or Envato will provide you with templates that you can customise to your liking.

11- Make live videos

The good thing about this option that Instagram has incorporated is that it generates an approach to the customer that other things will never be able to do.

Ideally, you should schedule it in advance. Let your users know when you are going to do it and what topic you will be talking about.

Using the tools provided by the stories, you can even give your followers the option to choose the time and day.

If they are involved in this moment of choice, they are much more likely to be aware of your Direct and to participate actively.

While this option is more suitable for personal or content-generating accounts, you can also do it if your goal is to sell.

You can conduct interviews with nutritionists, if you sell food, show what your workshop is like, if you sell clothes, etc. The important thing is that you do not stop using this resource.

When doing so, remember that you are not alone. Involve your followers through questions, quizzes and even raffles among the people who are participating in the live event.

Save your live shows for those who couldn't connect to this one. But don't do it all the time, otherwise they'll get used to it and won't connect because they know they can watch it at another time.

12- Fix the comments

A while ago, Instagram added an option that very few people know about, that of pinning comments.

Although it may seem unimportant, it will help you in 2 main aspects:

Extend the description space (limited to 2,200 characters) and continue in comments
Highlight messages from users that contribute to a good image of the account. Especially those that have generated a lot of interaction.

13- Link your accounts

This tip is especially important for those who have informative or descriptive accounts.

Many use Instagram as a blog when this is not its primary function.

Instagram is a social network for sharing images and quick information. Information that can be read or appreciated in a few seconds.

Therefore, an excellent option is to merge your Instagram account with a blog or a YouTube channel.

But avoid repeating content as much as possible. Never post the same thing on Instagram or Facebook, unless you post it in a different format.

For your followers to be able to access your other platforms you must place the links in your profile description.

14- Collaborate with other accounts

Many people shy away from this option thinking that they will lose followers because they will leave with your partner. Nothing could be further from the truth.

People love to see faces, friendships and even more so if they are from popular accounts. Don't be afraid to interact with other accounts by making collaborative posts.

Live is perfect for this. The good thing is that it doesn't just stay there but you have the option to save it and fix it on your reel.

In addition to generating new and interesting content, collaborating with other accounts will allow new users to get to know you and start following you.

15- Shows interest in current affairs

A large percentage of Instagram users are in the 15-30 age group. These are young people whose only source of information they generally consume comes from social networks.

Therefore, a good strategy is to get involved in current affairs. Especially those related to social causes.

To do this, you will want to use stories. Since it is temporary content, you don't need to publish it permanently on your profile. You can make comments, ask your followers what they think, etc.

16- Encourage others to tag their friends in the content.

Generating "shareable" content is one of the keys on Instagram. Word of mouth will increase the number of followers, and for that, the best strategy is to create content that encourages others to mention their friends in the comments. Special days will be your allies.

Make special posts on Friends' Day, Valentine's Day, etc. and end the post with phrases such as: "tag the person you love the most", "tag your friends who are always there for you".

17- Tag other users

If you are active on stories, tagging your customers will generate more traffic. When they come to your store, offer to take a photo to upload to your account. It is important that you always make it clear that you will post it. Never upload anything without consent.

Tagging your customers in your images will generate a chain of actions. Not only will they start following your account to see your photo, but they will also repost it on their profiles.

By reposted, they will inevitably be indirectly advertising you and many will click on the link and discover your account.

Never use the technique of tagging celebrities in your images. It will look unnatural and make you look desperate.

If you want them to upload your products to their profile there are 3 main options:

Offer them a discount coupon for their users. Make a personalised discount for each influencer you decide to work with (no more than 3 in principle) where, every time a user buys a product, they can access a percentage discount on the final invoice.

Why no more than 3? Because you will lose a lot of money. It is better to launch your networks in several places than to base your entire investment on affiliate marketing.

Send them a gift. This option may seem risky but it will yield good results. It is important that you do not include orders in the gift.

Avoid phrases like: Can you post on your Instagram the gift I gave you? Rest assured that the recipient of the gift will know that the purpose is to post it on the networks.

Invite them to participate in a sweepstakes with you. Offer them the possibility of giving them 2 or 3 products to give away to their users on the condition that they follow you on social networks.

18- Hold raffles

Who doesn't like to receive a gift? I assure you that your account will get a LOT of attention if you use this option.

But to make sure it reaches the desired objective, you must set certain requirements for participation that will give visibility to your publication (otherwise it will be useless):

Like the image
Tagging friends (The best is not to set a limit, the more the merrier).
Share the publication in the stories. This is one of the most important points in the sweepstakes.

While tags help give visibility, many use spammy strategies such as tagging fake accounts. With the option to share the sweepstakes post in stories, you'll ensure that "real people" see your content.

Another important thing to bear in mind is to allow enough time for the draw to take place.

Too few days will be counterproductive and too many days will be counterproductive. You must keep your users expectant and attentive to the results. A period of 7 days will suffice.

Upload stories talking about the draw and using the countdown box.

Make sure you put the terms and conditions of the sweepstakes to avoid inconveniences (place of delivery, shipping, etc.) and upload a video to your stories showing the transparency of the choice of the winner. There are many free websites and apps available to do this.

Last but not least, upload an attractive image that will attract so much attention that your followers will be eager to finally win the prize.

19- Interact with your followers

Just like images, interacting with your followers will create a bond of trust. It will be the way to show that behind everything there is a human being.

Answer their questions, thank them for their comments, etc. Turn on the notification sound to be alerted to any private messages.

Quick responses generate quick loyalty.

If you make live videos within your content, you can engage your followers by reading their comments or encouraging them to send greetings to their friends.