How I Gained 1000 Followers In 7 Days on Instagram

A look at what I did to build an above-average engaged audience

I started a brand new Instagram page as a way to promote my new podcast. I didn’t have a pre-existing audience but I was still able to grow my account quickly.

The secret sauce is figuring out what your future audience is currently enjoying and then meeting them there. Your audience already exists and they’re already gathering online, you just need to get yourself in front of them.

Finding Your Audience

My podcast is only available on Spotify because it’s a show with music. This immediately limits my reach for two reasons.

1. Spotify only represents 25% of the market share.
2. Shows with music is in beta and isn’t currently being promoted by Spotify.

To find an audience I was going to need to do a lot of the leg work. Spotify wasn’t going to help me promote this podcast.

The landing page for shows with music now redirects to theLINER with a focus on black music. I’m not super worried that they have pulled this support. This type of show is still in its infancy and Spotify is likely still experimenting with it.

My show is about pop-punk and the emo and scene subcultures. There has been a recent revived interest in these so I wanted to fulfill a lifelong dream and create a radio show that plays this sort of music.

Because of the renewed interest, I knew that the audience was already active on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

As a solopreneur who doesn’t want to put his face in things, I decided TikTok could wait until I can think of a good way to promote my show on the platform. For now, my focus would be Instagram and my first goal would be 1000 followers.

The first thing I did was create an account using the shows the name and commission some branding.

I did some hashtag research to find which hashtags were performing well and could help extend my reach. Also, while doing this I was able to identify some high-performing profiles that cater to my future audience.

Top tip: If you look at someone’s page and check out their follows you can see what hashtags they follow as well.

Getting In Front Of People

I added my first few pictures to Instagram. Just a couple of branded pieces to get the show’s name out there. I used the hashtags that I figured would be followed by my audience.

Nothing happened. The posts weren’t shown to anyone, no one interacted with them. This was to be expected, after all, I had no followers. I needed to get my content in front of people.

The way I did this was by locating users that were already engaging with the types of content I had planned. Instagram has been around for a while now, whatever you’re planning to do someones already done it.

Maybe you’re the only one in your specific niche, but I bet you could find similar accounts in your vertical. My niche was emo, scene, and pop-punk and there are plenty of accounts that cater to this.

I looked at top-performing posts in the hashtags I was targetting and located accounts with high engagement and a growing follower account. I then did the thing we all dread doing, I followed a bunch of accounts.

It feels icky but if you do it right it can lead to real results. I uploaded some content that I knew would resonate with my audience. If you look at hashtags to do with emo and scene subculture two things stand out.

• Fashion photos.
• Memes.

This immediately helped me create a content plan. I’m not an attractive scene model, so I won’t be posting any fashion photos. Memes on the other hand, that I could do.

I created a bunch of memes to do with popular bands and came up with witty captions. I uploaded a few and started following new accounts every day.

The conversion rate was a little higher than average around 15–25% of the accounts I followed would follow me back. My engagement started to increase with every post and soon organic growth would kick in.

Give The People What They Want

The reason that this tactic worked for me and my brand is that the content (memes) I created resonated with people. I think a lot of people are on Instagram for escapism and memes are funny, people like them.

I could cater to people by providing memes that can help them escape their day and once I have their attention introduce them to my podcast. My podcast is more escapism so the two work really well together.

I was gaining over 100 followers a day and by the end of the first week, I had crossed over into 4 figures. This is just one of the milestones I was able to achieve in a short space of time. Also:

• Had 1 viral post. + A handful of semi-viral posts.
• Followed by a blue tick genuine celebrity (at least in my niche).
• Drove 100 people to my podcast.
• Started engaged conversations with fans.
• Received positive podcast feedback.

All of this happened far quicker than I ever could have imagined. I didn’t share the podcast with my friends, all of these listens came from Instagram.

I believe the reasons for my success are simple: I gave them more of what they already wanted and then introduced something they didn’t know they wanted. You don’t necessarily have to create memes but you do have to create something of value beyond promoting your product.

A health and wellness brand will find success if they create easily digestible advice delivered in an attractive photo.

The key to going viral is about your engagement levels, what you want to aim for is getting people to share or save your post. Likes and comments help too, but from my experience, it’s people saving the picture that tells Instagram this is worth promoting.

Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the share data as Instagram can’t share this information with European countries. What I can see is that the posts that get saved the most are the ones that get pushed out to accounts that don’t follow me.

My account currently outperforms the average engagement activity for accounts of my size. In fact, my engagement rate is significantly higher than Gary Vee, Kim Kardashian and Justin Beiber. (Sponsors where you at?)

This is comforting and lets me know I’m on the right track. That’s why I decide to share this simple way to gain 1000 followers in less than a week. A lot of people will say that following accounts isn’t the way to go. However, if you do it the right way you can see real results.

Connect With Your Audience

You need to set yourself apart from the crowd to grow your audience. Inject your posts with your personality, ask questions, post stories, and engage with your audience.

Whatever it is you are promoting if you take the time to speak with your audience then you’ll start to build up brand loyalty. Engage with your followers’ stories, if they ask a question, give an answer. If they post a poll, select something, just get your name in their head without being pushy.

If you interact with them the way you want them to interact with you then you’ll quickly develop relationships. The ultimate goal is convincing people to leave the platform and click on the link in your bio.

Unless you have 10,000 followers this is quite a big ask for a casual audience. When you hit 10,000 followers Instagram allows you to posts links in your story. Before then you have to post something, ask them to go to your profile, and then click on your singular link.

It’s not impossible but most people are on Instagram to stay on the app, not come off it.

To recap, this is how I built up 1000 followers in less than 7 days:

• Claim your Instagram handle.
• Figure out your branding.
• Research hashtags.
• Identify growth accounts in your niche.
• Share similar content that has value beyond your product.
• Follow accounts that are engaging with a top-performing post.
• Introduce your product in a friendly, non-pushy way.
• Engage with your audience.
• Post content that people will want to save or share.
• Keep it up with a regular schedule.

Make sure to turn your Instagram into a business account. This will let you see your insights. From there you can identify what time your audience is active and what kind of things they’re responding to.

The road to 10k is next! Once I reach this milestone I’ll share all I know about how to get there.