How to Get More Instagram Followers – FAST

If you’re a regular to our blog, you know that we love talking about digital marketing and Facebook advertising in particular. Today we’re going to shift gears a bit and focus on our second favourite social media platform after Facebook, and that’s its little sister: Instagram.

When it comes to digital marketing strategies, having a strong presence on social media and building your online brand can be key to your success.

But getting thousands or even hundreds of thousands of followers is not as easy as you might think.

We’ve narrowed down some key steps to explode your presence on Instagram, so keep reading if you want more people following you as quickly as possible.

Groundwork

This article assumes that you already have a personal or business Instagram account that you are using to promote your company/brand/product/service. We also assume that you have actually posted on Instagram before and are vaguely aware of how hashtags work.

If none of this is familiar to you, there are plenty of resources on Google to get you started. Once you have the hang of it, come back to this blog so that you can take your follower acquisition steps to the next level.

If I Create It, Won’t They Come?

Erm, no. Not anymore. Once upon time, a few short years ago, it was easy to get tons of followers by posting here and there and throwing in a couple of hashtags.

But today, the platform is already bursting at the seams with the number of users vying for attention.

Instagram now has 1 billion active monthly users, which means your account and posts are like a single blade of grass on the freshly mowed Soccer World Cup field.

So how do you get noticed? We’ll show you how.

How To Get More Instagram Followers Fast

1. Hashtags

We all know that the way to get followed on The Gram is by using hashtags, and we know you’ve been dutifully hashtaging away on every post.

But you could also be making some simple mistakes that are limiting your reach and success on the platform.

Hashtag Mistakes to Avoid:

The Spacebar
You don’t leave space between hashtags, best demonstrated visually:
Wrong: #food#tomatoes#pizza#carboload
Right: #food #tomatoes #pizza #carboload

Copy Paste Laziness
You copy and paste the SAME group or set of hashtags on most of your posts. The IG algorithm will spot this a mile away! Do not be lazy; use different hashtags for your posts.

#Overload
You use too many hashtags. The limit is 30 and we recommend using 15 – 25 on average.

Drop in the Ocean
You use too few hashtags. This is obvious – if you only post one or two hashtags, you severely limit the chances of your post being discovered by potential followers.

Over-Popular Hashtags
If you’re a foodie, you might be tempted to post a picture of your latest lasagne creation with #food but this particular hashtag has 281 MILLION posts so the likelihood of your post being seen is infinitesimal, because new posts are being added by the second.

If you select #lasagne instead, your post will be in a pool of 524K posts and there’s a much higher chance that potential foodie followers will spot your picture of your amazing dish.

So choose your hashtags wisely.

Irrelevant Hashtags
Believe it or not, the sneaky Instagram algorithm compares the content of your post with the hashtags you’ve used, so be sure not to just throw in a bunch of hashtags for the sake of it.

Choose hashtags that relate to your post, niche and the audience you are trying to reach.

2. Great Content and Pictures

Instagram is a visual platform so make sure your pictures don’t suck. There are built in filters on the platform itself to brighten and enhance your pictures – use them!

There are some free picture enhancing tools available, like Snapseed, which give you tons of editing options. You can download this app or others from the Google Play Store or the App Store for IOS.

When it comes to the text section of your post, see what type of copy works best for the type of people you are trying to reach. As a business owner, you need to have some fundamentals in place to springboard your success, one of which is knowing your ideal customer.

So mix up long-style copy where you telling a story or give loads of information juxtaposed with posts that have short, punchy copy. See what your audience prefers and above all, make sure your writing is compelling.

3. Follow Back

Instagram is a community and a group effort and you are not Eminem (who famously, has 20.3 million followers on IG but does not follow ANYONE back).

Strategically follow people or brands in your niche that can enhance your standing on the platform. Your vibe attracts your tribe and but this also works in reverse: your tribe attracts your vibe.

So make sure you are following people that enhance and complement your message and brand.

4. Actively Engage

Engagement has two components and each needs to be dealt with to maximise your number of followers on Instagram:

Engagement on your own account:

Playing the social media game is all about community and conversation. Respond to comments people have posted on your posts, to show that you are engaged with the followers you already have.

When you write a caption for your post, try pose an open-ended question to encourage people to respond in the comments.

A question like: “What is your favourite thing about summer?” will generate more in-depth responses than a closed question such as: “Do you like summer as much as I do?” where people will typically just reply “Yes” or “No”.

Your instagram will thrive if people are writing expressive comments on your post.

Engagement on other people’s accounts:

The second part of engagement is on other people’s accounts. One of the quickest ways to grow your followers on Instagram is to strategically and sincerely comment on other people’s posts.

If you post a heartfelt or witty comment on someone else’s post, they might click your username, check out your bio and pictures and decide to follow you. Better still, other people who read your comment in the original feed might follow you too. This is exactly the type of growth you want!

Note: you don’t necessarily have to follow the people whose posts you’ve commented on, unless you want to, but the point we’re making is that you have to put in some work and actually type a comment.

Clicking the heart button for “like” is no longer enough.

Just don’t go overboard; there are limits to how much you can like and comment on Instagram.

We are all adults here and we don’t believe in spamming people, so use your discretion and start selectively commenting on posts. Your comment shouldn’t be all about you or your business so do NOT pitch your product/service in the comments section of other people’s IG!

If your comments add value to anyone who reads it, and come from a place of sincerity, you will naturally grow your number of followers.

5. Collaborate

This is a really great way to increase your number of followers with some calculated effort on your part. Influencers are a thing, and if you’re reading this post, chances are you aren’t one yet.

But you can leverage off other people’s popularity if you play your cards right.

A general rule of thumb is to set up a collaboration effort with a person who has roughly three times your number of followers. This allows for a natural cross-pollination of audiences who tend to enjoy seeing similar content.

You are not likely to get The Rock with his 108 million followers endorsing your account, but you might be able to get a shout out from a micro-influencer who does something similar to what you do, but is just further ahead in the game than you are.

Direct message (DM) them and let them know that you are so and so and you do xyz and you would love to collaborate on this amazing thing together. And then wait and see if they respond to your pitch.

Again, you are going to handle this graciously and tactfully, and chances are you will need to show the other person what’s in it for them.

Remember they don’t owe you anything, and you might get a lot of rejection before someone gives you the break you’ve been asking for.

But this is a risk worth taking because one mention from the right person can easily send thousands of new followers your way.

The Takeaway

Gaining followers on Instagram can be challenging when you are just starting out, or when there are thousands of players in the same arena as your business and brand.

We hope we’ve shown you that getting noticed and having people follow you takes more than just posting the occasional pretty picture and some hashtags.

You really need to be on top of your game to ensure that your posts aren’t lost in the feed and you need to make sure that your content is attractive.

If you really believe in what your business stands for, and the value it brings to people, then not posting is actually a disservice to everyone who could benefit from what you have to offer.

Keep posting on Instagram and put these tips into practice, and you will find your followers growing by the day.