Social Media Growth Hack: Buying followers and investing in bots is a bad way to try to grow your Instagram following. Follow these simple steps to grow your followers organically.
Instagram has grown exponentially to become the platform of choice for business and social interactions. The social networking and marketing platform has more than one billion users and sky-high user engagement levels.
Digital marketers understand the extent to which Instagram followers can tip the scales of competition. As your competitors focus on expensive strategies, you can snatch customers from their jaws with a free Instagram strategy- you only need to gain many credible followers.
Talented individuals looking for a big break and persons seeking to upgrade their social esteem can also benefit from free followers for Instagram. Way back in 2010 when Instagram first launched, users could easily get follows/likes with every new post.
Lucky early adopters hit the jackpot. Today, Instagram has introduced new algorithms that have changed the rules of the game.
Consider these two stats:
- Engagement on Instagram is 10x higher than engagement on Facebook.
- 60% of users say they use Instagram to learn about a business or brand or product.
These tell you two very important things: people are engaging on Instagram and they want to connect with brands on the platform.
So what are the right ways to grow your Instagram following?
1. Be Consistent With Your Posts.
Visual marketing tool Tailwind studied more than 100,000 Instagram profiles in 2017 to understand how posting frequency affects follower growth and engagement rate2.
They found that the more often you post, the more likes and followers you get.
According to the study, profiles that posted seven or more times a week (or at least once a day) get more likes and gain more followers faster than those that post less frequently.
2. Adopt A Hashtag Strategy
Hashtags are a major part of Instagram and you should use them. Hashtags are one of the easiest ways to reach new followers. You can include a maximum of 30 hashtags per post but the quantity is less important than the quality of your hashtag.
You can measure if you are using the right hashtags by checking the insights on your posts. The insights can tell you if your hashtags are helping you reach new people. You can see how many people found your posts through hashtags.
You can use this as a way to test out groups of hashtags or specific hashtags to see which ones perform the best.
3. Join Instagram Engagement Groups
An Instagram Engagement Group (also called Instagram Pods) are basically groups where you and a group of like-minded accounts will agree to participate in group engagement.
hey essentially work as an exchange with like-minded individuals looking to grow their Instagram pages. These communities can be run from your DM’s (direct messages) inside the Instagram app, on telegram groups, WhatsApp groups or even Facebook groups.
Within these groups, you send a link to your Instagram post or profile. Once you do, other members of the groups go and engage with your post. In return, you do the same for them!
For example:
If you’re in a group of 100 people with a Round scheduled at 1 PM, you’ll get 100 new likes on your most recent post on Instagram, starting at 1 PM.
You must reciprocate as well, so you must also give 100 likes back — one to each participating group member. This must all be completed (usually) within an hour so everyone gets the best results possible.
4. Try Short Videos, Live videos, and Instagram Stories
While Instagram started as a photo-sharing network, it has grown beyond just photos. With features like videos, live videos, and Stories, brands can now create many different types of content to engage their fans and grow their following.
Video on Instagram must be one minute or shorter, unlike Facebook where they can be up to two minutes long. So, grab your smartphone and make shorter videos with these simple tips.
Use the Boomerang app to make captivating mini videos that loop back and forth. Where there’s movement, there’s a Boomerang. Put your product, people or subject in motion to make the video pop.
5. Adopt Cross-platform Post Promotion
Many people have multiple social media accounts, and different platforms all have unique strengths, so consider offering different types of content on Instagram than on Facebook, and direct followers on other social channels to your Instagram profile for exclusive offers or content.
You can also use another visual-heavy platform like Pinterest to extend the reach of Instagram content that might otherwise have a short lifespan on the platform’s highly active feed.
Beyond social media, there are other digital spaces you can incorporate with your account. Adding prominent social media buttons in your email newsletter, website’s footer and large digital ads are all good examples of cross-platform promotion.
6. Engage with Instagram Accounts You Follow
Don’t spend all your time engaging with new accounts and leave those accounts you’re already following in the dust. With the new algorithm, Instagram decides who they will show your photo to.
Most people agree that the first 15 or so minutes are what Instagram uses to decide if your photo is interesting enough to keep showing or if they’ll bury it way down in your followers’ feeds. You need your own followers to engage with your photo right from the start. When you engage with those you follow on a regular basis, they’ll be more likely to double-tap and leave a comment when they see your photo pop up in their feed.
This creates greater initial engagement on your photos which, in turn, makes Instagram show it to more people. Engagement creates engagement, simple as that.
My rule of thumb is that, when I’m scrolling through my news feed, I’ll like every photo (unless it truly offends me) – why should I be stingy with my likes? And if a photo catches my eye and makes me stop for a second, I’ll leave a comment.
7. Respond To Comments On Your Posts
Engagement doesn’t just mean engaging with others on their feeds. Engage with people on your own photos by responding to comments.
If someone takes the time to leave you a meaningful comment, let them know you appreciate it by responding back. If you get questions about where something is from, take the time to answer. I know it’s not always possible to respond to every comment, especially as you grow.
This is where I absolutely love that Instagram now allows you to “like” a comment. I always try to like every comment I get on recent photos and I’ll respond to as many comments that I can, especially the ones that are more than just a couple of words. This tricks the algorithm to push your posts to the top and to your followers.
Conclusion
There are many methods of growing your Instagram following organically. Some are designed for faster growth while others—like investing in more engagement time—are slower to produce results.
A combination of the above strategies will put you in a good place to grow your Instagram account organically and steadily. If you’ve used another growing hack to grow your followers on Instagram, kindly share in the comment section below and I shall add it to the list.
Follow me on Instagram: @MacJordanGh for more on Instagram.
