How to get followers on Instagram?
How to get followers on Instagram? When you’re just starting out with an online store, it can be exciting to imagine how you can successfully sell your product through Instagram … once you’ve built up a following.
The truth is, however, that the first 10,000 Instagram followers are the hardest to get. Why? Nobody knows who you are yet.
You still need to prove yourself as a successful brand and influencer. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
If you follow this guide on how to get followers on Instagram, you can hit 10,000 Instagram followers in just six months. No jokes or tricks!
Read on to find out how to grow your Instagram followers in 2021. And if you want to build a killer Instagram strategy, be sure to check out our latest Instagram course.
How to get more followers on Instagram
1. Get Instagram followers by joining engagement groups
Have you ever wondered what people who quickly gain Instagram followers do differently?
They join engagement groups (aka Instagram pods).
While it may be tempting to join the largest Instagram engagement groups, the truth is that if you stick to your niche, you’ll gain a more targeted list of Instagram followers.
This tactic is best for entrepreneurs who are just starting to learn how to get followers on Instagram.
You’ll find engagement groups for travel, beauty, fashion, and more.
In these groups, you can gain followers and likes from people who share common interests.
However, if you’re serious about capturing their attention, you should return the favor by also following the fan pages of people who have joined the group.
Using this strategy, I gained 2,000 new followers in 2 weeks through friends.
While it may not help with immediate sales, it will help you gain credibility in time, so your Instagram page doesn’t show that you only have a handful of followers.
Remember, this is a short-term strategy for your first few weeks on Instagram, not a long-term strategy for gaining loyal Instagram followers.
2. Repost other people’s content and get free Instagram followers
When I started out with social media marketing and building Instagram for my store, my entire posting strategy revolved around reposting other people’s content.
In doing so, I made sure to credit the original poster in my descriptions every time. It’s the only way to get free followers without being flagged.
When I first started out, I took screenshots and added images to my Instagram. What really helped my page take off was the Repost app. It allowed me to start reposting video content on Instagram.
One of the biggest home runs I had was when I reposted a video that accumulated 52,862 views, received 1,264 comments and 9,147 likes. At the time, I didn’t even have 10,000 followers, so it was a pretty big deal. The best part? I wasn’t running any ads or anything. I got Instagram followers for free.
Because I knew it was easier to repost content. Plus, my visual and video content would never be as good as someone else’s. Hey, at least I’m honest about it!
How did I know what to repost? I looked at the numbers.
Hashtags are a great way to gain new followers. I was quite active on Instagram, so I went through the list of hashtags I came up with and used them every day to search for the best-performing posts that weren’t being reposted by other fan pages (i.e., not my competitors), but by individual people.
Then I watched videos and browsed images to find out which ones I had the strongest reactions to. If I felt the urge to share someone else’s post, I knew I had to repost it on my page.
So if you’re just learning how to gain followers on Instagram, this highly effective strategy is simple enough for a beginner.
Important: Instagram has now updated its policies and you must ask for permission before reposting.
3. Get Featured on Buzzfeed to Grow Your Instagram Followers
If you want to increase your Instagram followers, you need to find a way to break into a massive audience. And nobody embeds Instagram posts into their content quite like Buzzfeed.
A Buzzfeed employee wrote an article about how she built her personal brand as an Instagram influencer. She currently has nearly 10,400 followers, but the article she wrote on the platform may have helped boost that number.
So if you want to experiment with Buzzfeed, head to the Community section, where anyone can add their own content to the platform.
Of course, you’ll need to follow their guidelines to gain visibility and build credibility.
Is Buzzfeed not a good fit for your niche? That’s cool. You can also use a tool called HARO, where you’ll receive emails three times a day filled with requests from reporters looking for content and expert quotes for their stories.
Most HARO reporters allow a link to a website and social links. So you can kill two birds with one stone by including a link to your store and your Instagram account.
4. Ask Customers to Share Their Photos
When you’re just starting out, gaining Instagram followers will be much easier with customer photos in your feed. Why? It helps boost social proof.
If you’ve never had a customer before, reach out to influencers in your space with fewer than 5,000 followers. I know that number seems low, but influencers with a smaller Instagram following want to monetize their accounts and will be willing to take photos with your products at a much lower rate.
You can also offer them an affiliate deal, where they receive a commission for every sale they generate through a referral link.
If you’ve already made a few sales, reach out to customers and offer a free gift or monetary incentive for taking quality photos with the product they purchased.
Offering incentives won’t be your long-term strategy, but in the short term it will help you grow.
As more customers start seeing customer photos on your Instagram, they’ll naturally begin tagging you in posts once they receive their products.
In short, if you comment on customers’ posts, reshare their content, and follow them, you’ll likely get them to follow you back.
Some, however, will follow you after tagging you in their post on their own. Let the word of mouth spread!
5. Gain Instagram Followers by Having a Consistent Style
I know this sounds like one of those “blah, blah, blah” ways to gain followers on Instagram. But it’s not.
Here’s why: People don’t follow you for the content you’ve already posted, but for what they think your future content will look like.
Let’s say you have a corgi fan page and you flawlessly post cute photos and videos every single day.
If Instagram users keep seeing your posts, they’ll eventually realize that you always post the cutest corgi content.
So they follow you with the expectation that your account will always deliver more of the same type of content.
A consistent style or theme isn’t just a branding exercise — it’s about setting an expectation for your Instagram account that your followers or potential followers can rely on. They want to see more of the same type of content every day.
If you can maintain this consistency with every post, you’ll quickly gain followers on Instagram while also building trust in your brand.
6. Use Hashtags to Get Followers on Instagram
Many experts will tell you to only use 5 or 11 hashtags or some other arbitrary number. But when I was building my store’s Instagram account, I ignored their advice and went wild with them.
I would copy and paste a list of hashtags from my phone into the app. Then I would sometimes switch it up and try different hashtags. And eventually I figured out which ones were the right fit for my brand.
I would typically go as close to or right up to the maximum number of hashtags allowed — 30. That’s the magic number.
The truth is, you add all those hashtags in the first comment. And as your engagement on the page grows, nobody ever sees the first comment because they’re too busy tagging their friends in your post.
Sure, when you’re just starting out, people might see it. However, if the goal is to increase visibility, the easiest way to do that is to add more hashtags. As you gain followers, your posts will rank higher for those hashtag keywords, giving you even greater visibility.
If your hashtags are niche-specific, you’ll increase the likelihood of being found by a relevant audience, which will also help you grow your followers on Instagram.
For example, if you sell fashion, avoid generic hashtags like #love or #picoftheday.
7. Use Location Tags to Get Followers from Your Vicinity
Did you know that it’s possible to make your Instagram stories and posts more discoverable by tagging your location? A “location tag” reveals the city you’re in or the place where the video or image was captured. It also allows your posts to be categorized alongside all content tagged for a specific area.
So if you’re a local business, you can use these geo-tags to make it easier for people to find and follow your Instagram account. Locations also have their own distinct feed, story, and hashtags — you can contribute to them by using a location tag in your own stories.
8. Embed Your IG Feed on Your Blog to Grow Instagram Followers
If you have your own personal or business blog, you can embed your Instagram photos on your website. Be sure to follow Oberlo on Instagram while you’re at it!
Let’s say you have a blog about fashion accessories. You could write a blog post about the best accessories men should include on their fashion list. You can select Instagram posts that feature standalone images of your products or styled visuals of items that pair well together.
Then you go to the Instagram website on desktop, navigate to your page, click on a post, click the “…” icon, and click Embed. You then copy that link into the code section of your blog post.
Over time, more people will visit your blog and will likely also check out your Instagram account.
I know this is more of a long-term game. Especially if you’re not getting traffic today. But adding your Instagram posts right from the start gives you a greater chance of visibility.
Start doing this and after six months you should really start seeing huge returns.
9. Follow People Who Like Competing Instagram Pages
If you want to grow your Instagram followers, you need to find people who follow brands.
Who are your biggest competitors on Instagram? Make a note of them. Then browse through their posts and see who is commenting on them. Follow them and engage with them.
Remember that when selecting competitors on Instagram, it’s better to go after smaller brands.
Why? Because if you’re selling makeup brushes and trying to engage people who comment on Sephora, there’s a good chance they’re not the right audience, even though they’re in a similar niche. Bigger brands tend to have greater customer loyalty.
However, if you have a competitor with 100,000 followers on their account, people may not be as loyal to that brand.
When commenting on posts of those you follow, try not to sound salesy.
And never use the same comment for every person you message.
If they ask about your post, respond to them.
You can also look at the types of comments others are posting for ideas and inspiration.
By consistently following people and engaging with them, you’ll start organically building your Instagram following.
10. Work with influencers to get more followers for your profile
Another way to increase your Instagram following is to get an Instagram shoutout by having an influencer take over your account.
If the influencer has loyal fans, they can give you a shoutout that leads to new followers on your account and possibly a few sales.
Make sure to write a contract that prohibits the influencer from sending fake traffic.
We once worked with an influencer who gave us a shoutout, and the result was 2,000 inactive Instagram followers on our account. It was clear she had used a bot.
When a sudden influx of fake followers appears on Instagram, you risk getting your account banned. Nobody wants that.
If you’re looking for a way to gain real Instagram followers, ask the influencer you’re working with to take over your account in your Instagram Stories. This way, people will have to follow your page to view the story. Make sure to ask them to notify their audience a few days in advance.
11. Host giveaways to build your Instagram following
Another effective way to gain Instagram followers is through giveaways.
If you host giveaways on your website and give visitors the option to follow you on Instagram and other social networks, you’ll have a much greater reach.
If your audience is small, you can post your giveaways in certain Facebook groups. Spreading the word about your promotion could also help it reach blogs.
When I first started working in marketing, I would reach out to giveaway blogs. I’d send them some free products in exchange for a review post.
Most of them agreed for a free product, although some also required payment. They would write a product review full of images and their experience with the product.
Ultimately, their audience would enter to win the product on the condition that we ship it to the winner. The result? Hundreds of new followers across all our social accounts.
It’s a great way to gain new IG followers if you don’t have an audience. But it may not be as targeted as if you hosted giveaways on a relevant niche blog.
If you’re just starting out, giveaways can help you get more Instagram followers. However, if you do them too often, you may not attract the type of audience you’re looking for.
If your goal is to drive sales, giveaways may not necessarily help you get more of them. However, if you’re simply looking for a quick Instagram follower boost, this strategy can work quite well.
12. Organically grow your Instagram following through partnerships
If you’re just learning how to gain Instagram followers, partnering with another brand may be your best option. It can be a quick way to organically grow your follower base.
A trick I learned while working on my case study was to take my own product photos. Instead of resharing other people’s content, other brands reshared one of my photos and gave me credit. One of them had nearly 300 thousand followers, so I ended up gaining several new Instagram followers from their audience.
I didn’t have to do any direct work other than taking my own photos. I didn’t even have to reach out to gain new Instagram followers. They reached out to me. And they weren’t the only brand that did so.
13. Create Instagram Guides That Attract New Followers to Your Account
Instagram Guides are a new way to share educational and entertaining content with your followers. The content format provides users with an easier way to consume useful tips and recommendations. In an IG Guide, you can add an introduction, title, text, headings, and even videos and images (that you’ve posted in your feed).
To get started, click the plus symbol in the top right corner of your Instagram profile, select Guide, and tap the relevant option.
Instagram allows users to share guides via DMs and across Stories, so if you manage to publish a few high-quality guides, those who see them will naturally be inclined to share them with their social circle.
And since Instagram’s algorithm prioritizes posts with high engagement, if many people end up sharing your guide, it may even appear in the feeds of more people. As a result, you can potentially gain a lot of new followers by creating an Instagram Guide.
14. Use Instagram Analytics Tools to Gain More Instagram Followers
Instagram analytics can provide you with information about your following, but there are many free tools on the market that can give you even more interesting insights.
Things like engagement rate, new followers, Instagram followers, and inactive accounts can give you an overview that will influence how you gain more Instagram followers.
The best Instagram analytics tools on the market right now include:
All of these Instagram analytics tools provide valid and highly informative data to help you better understand your audience.
They can also highlight the right content you can use to grow your Instagram followers.
How to Get Followers on Instagram – Summary
Figuring out how to get followers on Instagram is the hardest part at the beginning.
Once you surpass your first 10,000 followers, you will need to continue using some or all of the strategies outlined in this article to keep your account steadily growing to 100,000 or even over one million.
Remember to regularly update your profile, especially your Instagram bio, to include new calls to action or interesting news.
At the end of the day, you will need to put yourself out there more than you ever have before.
Perhaps posting on Instagram three times a day every day of the week is hard to fit into your schedule, but eventually all of this effort will pay off. And you will have an Instagram account you can be proud of.
Find more Instagram tools here >>
Michal Záruba is a digital marketing specialist and a consultant in social media and SEO. For more than 8 years, Michal has been helping brands grow online through strategic content, search engine optimisation and effective communication on platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
On the blog, Michal shares practical tips on how to combine SEO, social media and brand building into one working strategy, focusing on how companies can use modern tools and algorithms so that their brand gains not only reach but also trust.
Alongside creating content, Michal lectures on digital marketing, trains teams and follows new trends in AI and search.