One of the questions I get asked the most is how to grow on Instagram. While there is no perfect answer to this question, or a guaranteed way to grow, I have found a few effective strategies to grow a presence on the platform, which has been a huge blessing for my family. We’ve been able to work with some incredible brands, travel, and try out new experiences.
Why is growing on Instagram such a big deal? For influencers, they make most of their money on Instagram- whether that’s through affiliate links or paid partnerships so having a greater reach will bring in more income.
Here’s 7 strategies to help grow your Instagram following
It starts with your content
Want to get noticed and get followers? You need to be producing top-notch content. Find some bloggers you look up to and ask yourself why? What do you want the takeaway from your content? Find your niche and stick to it.
All photos on your feed should be consistent with one another, a certain theme, colors, filters/presets, etc. You’ll also want to go through and remove any old images on the gram that don’t fit with your brand. Those blurry/less attractive photos can be saved for IG stories.
Hashtags and more
This is the answer everyone is going to tell you. Use hashtags and you grow- it sounds so simple right? This is just one way of many in a bigger picture strategy to help get you noticed.
Use targeted hashtags in every image, switch them up from time to time so you’re reaching new audiences too. Don’t use hashtags that have a ton of posts as yours likely won’t get shown. You’ll also want to tag brands, community groups if relevant, and geo-tag your location to help increase your reach.
Engage with your followers
It’s important to get to know your audience- be their friend, a person they know that if they reach out that you are going to respond. So many influencers grow a big following and don’t respond to comments, messages, etc.
Take some time out of your day to interact with your followers. Not only does this include responding to comments, but also going to their profile and commenting on their photos. Check your DMs daily and respond to messages and show your followers love on their page as well.
Switch to a business account
Once you switch to a business account, you’ll have access to all the demographics about your follower base- where they live, age range, etc. which is very helpful in creating content. You can
You’ll also have access to analytics to help determine the best posting windows for content, based on when your followers are online. see accounts reached, filter by day, and more.
Join a giveaway
Giveaways are another way to grow your following but there’s several negatives as to why you’ll want to be careful.
First of all, there’s 2 ways to do a giveaway: The first way is you round up your own friends and all pitch in for a prize (recommended). The second way is you join a giveaway page ran by someone you don’t know who coordinates the giveaway- you pay a fee and are added to a page to “follow” you. This can be risky as it can lead to fake followers so I highly recommend the first option, please be careful if you choose to do the second.
Another thing to be aware of is numbers tend to drop off after a giveaway. Once people find out they did not win the “prize” they may unfollow. However, if you are producing high quality content + engaging (like I mentioned about) you increase your chances of keeping those followers!
Try out new features
Instagram is always release new features- with Reels coming out just a few weeks ago. Experimenting and having fun with all of the features Instagram has to offer will push your content to new followers.
Video also does extremely well on Explore pages and hashtags tend to push video content to the top. Another great reason to experiment with video.
Also play with graphic apps like Canva and PicsArt to add a unique touch to your images!
Invest in ADs
Want to reach a targeted audience outside of your current followers? Invest in promotions on some of your posts. If you have an important message you want to shout from the top of your lungs- this is the post you’ll want to promote. You’ll want to showcase your best work and create a clear call to action. It doesn’t take much money to get some new eyeballs on your photos and a little investment can go a long way!
