How to Increase Your Instagram Following

A step by step illustration

People try all kinds of stuff to grow a base on Instagram. I have a personal account that I had started years back. I used to post photographs from personal life, but later utilized it for showcasing my writing capabilities. I even changed the account name, as a first step of branding. I started posting poetry, musings in the name of _artvader_. I was naive. I was getting a good response from my friends on my works. Also, when I read some established accounts dedicated to poetry, I found that some were just lines, or even worse, two words on an image background.

‘Let go’, a poem, sorry words, that received thousands of likes and comments. I was baffled. I was writing deep stuff, and never managed to cross 50 likes. After reaching 500 followers, it was a struggle. A game of maths. Some days, I gain 30 followers, lose 20. Other days I gain 20, but lose 30. It was disheartening to see that.

Fact #1: You cannot grow an account just by content, no matter how good it is!

I learned it the hard way. Unless, by the act of some miracle, your post goes viral, there is no way you are going to grow your account.

There are exceptions: 1. Like I said before, your post goes viral 2. Extremely talented in an unexplored niche (Extremely talented in a crowded place is still a difficult egg to crack) 3. You are a celebrity 4. Endorsed by your successful friend/ celebrity

Fact #2: There is no ‘free’ way to grow your account

Instagram promotions are a necessity. They help you grow your account, and hence it is imperative that you need to spend some bucks. Ther are different ways to utilize the money to grow your account, which I will explain below in detail.

Fact #3: Finding a niche is important

I cannot stress this enough. Finding a niche is critical for the success of your page. Unfortunately, almost anything that you can think of is already present. But, not all variations. You need to spend some time pondering over it. Also, let’s say that you are a talented photographer, in which case I do not intend to give an idea that you cannot use this skill of yours just because there are thousands of Photography pages already there. You can, but how different can you use it to attract a following. What if you had a photography page where you capture only windows, or just bridges or whatever!

Fact #4: Post regularly, if possible two times a day!

Post every day, more than a couple of posts if possible. Use Instagram analytics (change your account to a business account) to identify good times to post your content.

Fact #5: Follow others

Yes, be generous, and follow others. But not just everyone. If you are a poet, search for popular hashtags and figure out the popular accounts. Follow them and follow some of their followers. Don’t get blocked. Your actions are restricted per hour. If you go above the hourly limit, you might face repercussions. (It is somewhere around 60 follows per hour)

Now That You Have Identified a Niche, Let’s See How You Can Get an Amazing Opening Response for Your Instagram Account

1. You can always spread among your friends and colleagues. If you have 500 friends and invite 400 to follow, you might end up receiving 100 followers

2. Give away:

Now this is your trump card. Once you have set up a nice little page with a few posts and bio, let’s start a giveaway. And how do you do that

2.1 You post a story of Give away and promote the story to a target audience. People respond to incentives, they always do. The story should not reveal what the gift is, because it is a surprise. The CTA for the viewers will be to follow your account, share the story that you promoted among their connections and then send you a DM when they are done. (I will be writing a separate post on creating effective promotions on a different article)

2.2 Once the promotion reaches your target audience, you will start receiving followers frequently. They will also be sending a lot of messages. Do not reply individually to these messages. Do not. Even if you do, use ‘Plural’. Do not use ‘I’. This is very important to maintain. Gives them an idea that the page is not a person, but a group that’s serious about what they do.

2.3 The promotion can run for as many days that you want it to run. The more the days, the more the money. But make sure you give information about the time of revealing the winner/winners.

2.4 Rather than giving a single give away to a person, split the budget and choose more winners (3 sounds good, maybe 5)

2.5 When the winners are selected, post as a story and ask them to DM you for more details. Also mention that you will have more giveaways lined up. (Do not give any specifics)

2.6 This single technique can get you close to 1000 followers the first day, this is from my personal experience

Leveraging The Momentum

Now that you have a good momentum, let’s make sure we use them to our advantage. Also, it is obvious that many who followed you hoping to win the prize will unfollow you. But make sure you post amazing content and follow relevant people to beat frequency the frequency of unfollows. 20 people might unfollow you, but you can gain 100 followers easily a day when you already have a thousand followers. A lot of the organic follow is triggered by the quality and the existing follower base of your account.

Postscript

I started a photography magazine on Instagram and managed to get 1000 real followers on a single day. I was a novice till then, but I tried this method out. It worked and I still leverage the promotions and analytics to grow my account. I put a plan on paper always, for example, let’s say I target to reach fifteen thousand followers in 6 months. Now, how many followers do I need each week to attain that? This clarity in detail will help you plan your strategies out.

All the best for your Instagram Business. Grow and help others grow. Cheers.