If you’re looking for ways to grow your Instagram without following other accounts, these tips will do wonders.
I’ve been working with many businesses and individuals who keep trying to increase the number of their Instagram followers, however to no success. All of them have one thing in common – they want an instant result.
Unfortunately, getting people to follow your Instagram account will require some time and effort.
You’re lucky though because I’ll share the best strategies with you and you only need to follow these tips. That simple!
Post content regularly
Regular posts are key to your Instagram success. There are two reasons for that:
1. if visitors like what they see on your account, they want to consume your content regularly
2. simple mathematics
Let me explain both.
If you post sporadically, say you post for a couple of days, then disappear for a month, then come back for a week, it just signals to your visitors that you aren’t really serious about your Instagram journey. If I like what I see, I want regular posts to be entertained.
Imagine a TV series that one month releases 3 episodes, the next one none. Would you keep following up and continue watching it? Many people wouldn’t.
The mathematics behind your regular posts is simple. Let’s say this month you posted 10 times, which resulted in 10k views (on average 1k views per post). It means that ten thousand people saw your posts. It also means that there were ten thousand potential followers who discovered your post.
Now let’s say that you posted only once – you only reached one thousand viewers. It means there were only 1k potential followers that month. Does it make sense? The more regularly you post, the more viewers you get, which also means more chances of being followed.
Be engaging
You are at a party, sitting in the corner minding your own business. Would you make friends or acquaintances by purely hiding and disengaging? Unlikely.
Instagram is similar to a party. There are millions of people in one space and you need to make yourself noticed. Your content is the primary reason why you’d get noticed, but you should also be very interactive and engaging.
Spending time and looking for alike minded people, who maybe follow similar accounts to yours is a powerful strategy to bring yourself to new audiences. Comment under or like their posts. Start a dialogue and be sure to engage. The same goes for if someone comments under your post – always respond and try to foster a relationship with them through a dialogue.
Don’t follow for follow
It’s tempting, but don’t do it.
If I see someone with 6,380 followers but they follow 7,500 people, that usually means that their content isn’t that high-quality and they’re just trying to grow their follower count by clicking every “follow” button that they come across.
It poorly reflects on the account. It is also against Instagram rules and you may be punished for it.
Building an audience takes time and patience. Almost always, it’s better to have a lower count of followers, but a higher number of likes on your posts.
Imagine someone with 10k followers, but only less than 100 likes under their posts. Something doesn’t seem right here and if you want to monetize your Instagram, brands that you’d want to work with will not be impressed. Engagement always supersedes the number of followers.
Ensure consistent theme
Unless you are a celebrity, you should have a theme on your Instagram.
You cannot appeal to everyone. Thus if your account is about lifestyle, post things that are related to lifestyle. If you have a foodie account, occasional fashion posts will confuse your audience.
Take a look at what you’ve been posting. Can you put it into a theme? If yes, great! If no, chances are high that your audience is confused about what you’re posting about and therefore it’s harder for you to get followers.
Try sticking to max 3 themes that are related. For instance, lifestyle is a broad theme and it can include fashion, beauty, and food; or fashion, travel, and food; or cooking, parenting, and pets.
Imagine an account, where you can find posts about someone’s traveling experience, posts about cars, work, random recipe to their favorite chicken dish, a picture of their cat, a video of their children playing badminton, etc. It’s very messy and confusing.
Followers want to follow accounts that reflect their interests. The example above has just too much for one account.
Tell a story
Instagram has been becoming a platform for micro-blogging. Share your story.
A picture or a video is great, but what about the caption? Don’t forget about it. Be unique and personal in how you write your caption.
Instagram is an informal platform so you should forget to be formal. Use the language that you use with your friends, add some emojis and make it personal and unique to you. Don’t try copying how others write their captions – it won’t work. Instead, look at the way they write, how they use their words, how they structure their sentences, and what tone they use.
No matter how big your followers’ list is, don’t forget to celebrate and be proud of the milestones that you achieve. It doesn’t matter if you just reached the 100, 10000, 100000, or one million followers mark, give yourself a credit and be proud of your achievements. Those who today have several hundreds of thousands of followers were at the same place as you and managed to achieve their goals through hard work and patience.
