12 tactics for getting more followers on Instagram
15 minutes reading
The bad news is that there are no definitive “growth hacks” for increasing your follower count on Instagram. No step-by-step guide will guarantee you success. The good news? There are still things you can do to create an Instagram growth strategy.
Here are 13 ways to organically gain more followers on Instagram – ranked by what level you’re at on Instagram.
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How to get more followers on Instagram for beginners
If you’re just starting out with Instagram for your business, the first step is to tighten the nuts and bolts of your Instagram presence. Here are five basic things to set up right before moving on to more advanced tactics:
1. Embed keywords into your username and name.
Instagram’s algorithm favors search results containing keywords in the name and username.
- Your username is your Instagram username (@your profile name): To be immediately identifiable, it should be the same as your company name and/or consistent with your username on other social channels.
- Your name is your company name (or anything you like): Add relevant keywords here to improve your visibility.
For example, Ursa Major adds the word “skincare” to its Instagram name to make it easier to find when someone searches for skincare brands and solutions.
Adding a relevant keyword is also an opportunity to tell potential customers at a glance who you are and what you sell, because it’s the first thing someone will see when they land on your profile.
⚠️ Remember: Add only one or at most two relevant keywords to your name. Stuffing them in can look like spam.
2. Optimize your Instagram bio
There are four elements you need to master to create the perfect Instagram bio:
- A direct description of what you do and/or what you sell.
- Brand personality
- Clear call to action
- Link
Your Instagram bio has only 150 characters. But it’s what makes or breaks your first impression on potential followers and customers. The science behind Instagram bios is about making them clear, creative, and complete. Anyone who reads it should immediately know what your company does, how it can help them, and where they can learn more.
Odd Giraffe, a brand of personalized stationery, hit the nail on the head with their Instagram bio.
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To start, their “Hello, paper person” not only adds character to their bio that is unique to them, but also filters who they talk to: Someone who loves stationery. The next line is a crystal-clear call to action that highlights what they sell and what sets them apart (over 100 designs).
⚡Pro-tip: Monitor which call to action generates the most clicks on Instagram. Creating the perfect Instagram bio for your business involves testing different iterations to discover what “clicks” with your potential followers.
The link in your bio is your chance to redirect your audience to an external page. You can add your company website or continuously update it based on your latest posts.
Not only that: You can also customize the landing page as much as you like to align with your brand and track how individual links perform.
3. Cross-promote your Instagram account on other channels
Redirecting potential customers from other channels to your Instagram profile is an effortless strategy to become discoverable and quickly increase your followers.
For example, at Buffer we add a link to Instagram in the footer of our website.
No one should have to manually search for you on Instagram if they already follow you elsewhere. Add a link to your Instagram account:
- Your product packaging
- Your blogs (if relevant)
- Marketing and transactional emails
- footer and/or sidebar of your website
- team member posts on social media
- Your email signature and your employees’ email signatures
- Bios on other social media platforms, such as TikTok and YouTube
- Networking events and webinars (use your Instagram profile QR code for in-person events).
The Instagram link doesn’t have to be big and flashy. In most places, a small Instagram icon or your QR code is enough.
5. Find your best times to post on Instagram
When is the best time to post on Instagram? When your audience is online.
There is no one universal best time to share content on Instagram. Instead, try to determine the ideal posting time for your followers.
How do you find out when your audience is online? Instagram will tell you through its insights in three simple steps.
Step 1: Tap “Insights” on your Instagram profile.
Step 2: Go to “Your audience”.
Step 3: Tap “View all”
At the bottom you will find the times when your audience is most active.
⚠️ Note: This feature is only available in the Instagram mobile app, not on desktop.
Along with timing, also consider when your content is logically more relevant. A step-by-step recipe video will perform better after work hours when people are cooking. Conversely, a café post might perform better in the afternoon slump at 2 p.m.
Experiment with posting times to find when you have the greatest reach and engagement.
How to Get More Followers for Intermediate Instagram Creators
Once you set up your Instagram profile and follow basic audience growth procedures, you can move on to more advanced methods. Here are five ways to achieve organic growth for your small business on Instagram:
6. Building an Instagram Marketing Strategy
Having a clear idea of how Instagram fits into your overall social media marketing strategy will not only bring you positive business results, but also guide you on what to post on Instagram.
But how do you create an Instagram growth strategy?
Step 1: Solidify Your Goals
Determine whether you want to increase brand awareness, drive direct conversions, increase website traffic, or something else. Clarifying your goal determines the content you post, your calls to action, and keeps your Instagram network aligned with your brand.
Step 2: Get a 360-Degree View of Your Target Audience
Understanding basic demographics is key. But also go further and deeply understand what your audience is struggling with and how you can help them solve their problems through your Instagram content strategy.
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Natasha Pierre – host of the Shine Online podcast and video marketing coach for small businesses – says that losing sight of the ideal follower in exchange for virality is the biggest mistake creators make:
“People often focus so much on going viral and reaching as many people as possible that they lose sight of the ideal follower they’re trying to reach. You can be viral today, and if you’re primarily reaching the wrong people:
They’re unlikely to follow you, and that: 1.
2) would result in a follower who is not an engaged member of the community if you’re a creator, or would never be a warm lead if you’re a small business.
When you take the time to think about who your ideal follower is, it will help you create content specific to them, which will lead not only to better growth, but also to quality new followers.”
Step 3: Define Your Brand Voice and Aesthetics
Create a unique social media voice so Instagram users can identify your posts without seeing your username.
Brand voice is difficult to track or quantify, but it is undeniable that it should be memorable. On Instagram, along with your brand voice, you can also define your aesthetics. Use your brand colors, stick to a consistent content theme, and maintain your personality.
⚠️ Remember: Your social media marketing voice should not significantly differ from your overall brand voice. Reflect your company’s values both in and outside the app.
Step 4: Create Content Pillar Topics and Stick to Them
Decide what niche your Instagram account will have. Set a few overarching topics to write about and don’t deviate from them too much. It has many advantages:
- You don’t need to constantly come up with new content ideas.
- Your Instagram community will begin to recognize you for the type of content you create.
- You won’t get distracted by new, hot, and shiny things and won’t constantly revise your Instagram strategy.
⚡Pro-tip: Do your best ideas come while washing dishes or walking the dog? Use the Buffer Ideas app and save your thoughts whenever creative ideas pop up.
Step 5: Create a content calendar and post consistently
How often should you post on Instagram?
We recommend posting at least once a day – whether it’s a carousel, reel, or story. Instagram head Adam Mosseri recommends posting two posts to your feed per week and two stories per day.
7. Write compelling captions
It’s tempting to skimp on captions on Instagram when you’ve put effort into creating the perfect carousel or video. However, Instagram captions have more weight than you might think: they can convince someone to follow you or scroll past without looking.
For example, the wellness brand Cosmix doesn’t just write “shop our website!” on their Instagram posts. They explain what ingredients they use, how their products help with specific problems, and mention studies that support their claims.
However, don’t confuse long captions with better captions: according to the HubSpot 2023 Instagram Engagement Report, Instagram captions perform best when they’re either very long or very short (20 characters vs. 2,000 characters).
Writing the perfect Instagram caption is more about understanding your audience and the context of the post than trying to hit a specific character count. If you’re writing an educational post, a longer caption makes sense. However, if you’re sharing an aesthetic product image, shorter is sweeter.
⚡Pro-tip: Remember that the first line is important, whether you’re writing a short or long caption. When scrolling through the Instagram feed, you only see one or two lines of the caption, so a headline that leaves room for curiosity and stops the scrolling is key.
7. Use relevant hashtags
The right hashtags can expose your Instagram posts to a large and targeted audience.
How many hashtags should you use? The limit is up to 30, but Instagram recommends using only three to five hashtags.
However, it’s not about quantity – to get the most out of Instagram hashtags, you need to know how to categorize them. Why? Many people follow hashtags to see posts on a specific topic or search for something specific. Your goal is to appear at first glance on the Explore page when someone uses a hashtag from your niche.
The right strategy is to use a combination of popular and niche hashtags – that way you won’t get lost in the sea of spam or remain hidden in your small corner of Instagram.
How do you find hashtags that will reach your target audience? Use free hashtag generators to help you find relevant hashtags for your Instagram post. Add a few words about your image or video and these tools will recommend the best hashtags that fit it.
⚡Pro-tip: Use brand-specific hashtags to gather all user-generated content (UGC) about your small business in one place.
8. Understand your analytics
Regularly checking your Instagram analytics is key to understanding what works and what doesn’t. You might discover that your audience responds best to entertaining Reels, but educational posts perform best as carousels. Finding trends guides your content creation strategy so you get the maximum return on investment from Instagram.
Which metric is most important to track? It depends on your goals and Instagram strategy. For example, if you’re testing a new hashtag, knowing the number of new followers is more important than tracking likes from existing followers. But if you’re experimenting with posting times, it’s more important to track impressions.
9. Collaborate with Instagram creators or other small businesses
Collaborating with other creators through influencer marketing or partnerships with small businesses is beneficial for both sides, as it brings a new community to both parties. The key is to ensure you collaborate with a company or creator that shares your values and whose demographics and interests overlap with your target audience.
For example, the period tracking app Flo collaborated with Charity Ekezie and created a sarcastic, funny, and paid Instagram post to raise awareness about the company’s social initiative, through which premium features are available for free in several countries from Ethiopia to Haiti.
These posts are displayed on both accounts, which means that all followers of your creator partner will see the shared post (and thus your Instagram profile and small business).
If influencers with more than a hundred thousand followers are beyond your budget, launch a campaign for micro-influencers. Smaller creators often have a tightly-knit community that trusts their recommendations.
How to find these influencers? You can conduct manual Google searches or search using hashtags and keywords on Instagram. A smarter approach is to use influencer search tools like Modash, which will save time and find relevant creators.
You don’t need to limit yourself to collaborations with individual creators. You can also establish partnerships with other small businesses – for example, LinkedIn and Headspace collaborated on creating a post about recovering from job loss.
Posts within Instagram collaborations don’t necessarily have to be shared. You can also:
- Go live with the creator
- Instagram account takeover
- Repost Instagram content from an influencer’s profile
- Post videos they created natively on your brand account
How to Get More Followers on Instagram for Professionals
Maybe you’re doing everything right, and yet you’re struggling to get more followers on Instagram. Or you’ve experienced a surge in growth and now you’ve been stuck in uncertainty for several months. Here are three ways to get back on track (or boost it):
10. Experiment with different types of Instagram posts
Instagram is no longer just a photo app. The platform has introduced many formats, including Instagram Reels, pinned posts, Story Highlights, and carousel posts.
Which type of post will increase your Instagram engagement? Studies show that Instagram carousel posts have the highest engagement, but it’s more complicated than that. Your audience might prefer Instagram Reels for snappy entertaining posts and carousel posts for educational content.
If you feel like your Instagram isn’t growing, experiment with different types of posts. The best approach is to combine all types, like the skincare brand 100percentpure does.
⚡Pro-tip: Experiment with different types of content as well, such as meme content that fits your brand, jumping on trending audio, and speaking in Reels. Use Instagram’s Trend Report and their creator account to stay on top of the Instagram algorithm and new trends.
11. Talk to your audience in comments and Stories
Engage in communication with your audience on Instagram to understand their issues, answer their questions, and get content ideas.
Elise Darma – a professional Instagram instructor for business owners – says that talking to your audience is an underutilized strategy for growth on Instagram (even though it’s obvious):
“Don’t wait for everyone to come to you. By far the best hack is to proactively engage with other people on Instagram who are like those your company helps. Imagine you were at a cocktail party and wanted to make friends there. The smartest strategy wouldn’t be to wait for everyone to come to you; if you took the initiative and struck up conversations with people, introduced yourself and asked them about themselves, you’d leave that party with far more friends than if you hadn’t taken this action.”
How do you talk to your audience on Instagram? The basics are to respond to comments and messages you receive – especially if they are questions from potential customers. A good example is the yogurt brand Chobani. They respond to almost every comment they receive.
Responding to every comment and DM isn’t realistic once you start getting thousands, but try to respond to all questions.
Beyond comments and DMs, be active in Instagram Stories too. There are so many features that can inspire amazing content ideas – such as asking a question, interactive stickers, polls, countdowns, and even adding links. For example, the nutrition brand Bulletproof does a question and answer session every week on their Instagram account to answer the most frequently asked questions from their audience about their products.
Don’t have the time or mental energy to brainstorm Instagram Story ideas? There are plenty of Instagram Story templates available to help you save time and create aesthetic designs.
The best part about Stories? You can create a group of them and turn them into Instagram Highlights – they’ll stay on your profile forever, instead of disappearing after 24 hours. Use them to create a resources section with answers to all common customer questions, so you can reduce barriers to selling your products on Instagram.
12. Get Verified on Instagram
The coveted blue checkmark on your Instagram account is a badge of instant credibility. It helps you stand out in search results, prevents impersonation, and even ensures you get higher engagement rates.
If your goal is to increase your growth rate on Instagram, getting verified will undoubtedly help you achieve that. But how do you get verified on Instagram? It’s simple: You purchase a subscription through your Instagram profile – however, you must meet certain conditions, such as complying with Meta’s minimum activity requirements.
Getting More Followers on Instagram Isn’t a One-Time Affair
With these 12 tips, you’re certainly better prepared to increase your followers on Instagram. However, it’s not a one-time affair. Maintaining growth on Instagram requires regular publishing of quality content and keeping your social media strategy at the top.
Managing planning, publishing, engagement, and tracking manually is time-consuming and tedious.
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Michal Záruba je specialista na digitální marketing a konzultant v oblasti sociálních médií a SEO. Více než 8 let pomáhá značkám růst online prostřednictvím strategického obsahu, optimalizace pro vyhledávače a efektivní komunikace na platformách jako LinkedIn, Instagram a YouTube.
Na svém blogu sdílí praktické tipy o tom, jak propojit SEO, sociální sítě a brand building do jedné funkční strategie. Zaměřuje se na to, jak firmy mohou využít moderní nástroje a algoritmy k tomu, aby jejich značka nezískala jen dosah, ale i důvěru.
Když zrovna netvoří obsah, přednáší o digitálním marketingu, školí týmy a sleduje nové trendy v AI a vyhledávání.