When you use Instagram for business, it’s important to be monitoring and growing your organic Instagram followers. Your account serves as a way to connect with, nurture, and convert people from observers into customers.
The community you grow on Instagram can become one that’s strong, loyal, and ready to purchase from you at any point. But, before you can begin nurturing your followers, you must have followers in the first place.
Attracting followers can feel like a full-time job, or a puzzle you can’t quite solve. The truth is, there are many pieces that all work together to make your Instagram presence strong.
From creating quality content to collaborating with others to using the right hashtags, there are so many things you can do to revamp your Instagram presence.
There are excellent ways to increase your following, but know that there are many other tactics and tools you can implement, too.
Top Ways To Increase Your Instagram Followers Organically
As mentioned we’ll be sharing six ways to increase your organic Instagram followers. Remember – this is about growing your following with real people who are eager to see your content and potentially become customers.
This doesn’t include simply buying followers. In fact, we wouldn’t recommend that tactic.
Often when you purchase a certain number of followers from a website, you’ll get bots and fake accounts that follow you. They won’t be real people, they aren’t going to engage with your posts and they certainly will never become customers and purchase from you.
Now that we’ve made mention of what not to do, let’s get into what you can do to actually grow your following well.
Use An Instagram Growth Service
Okay, okay, we just said not to purchase followers – and that’s true. You don’t want to buy a set number of followers, because you’ll likely get ghost followers. However, an Instagram growth service is different.
When you enroll in a growth service, you’re essentially automating your engagement marketing strategy, just as you can automate posting or analytics.
A good growth service will target the people and accounts you want to have following you and like a few of their posts. This acts as a tap on the shoulder to let them know your page exists.
Then, it’s up to that person to go back to your account, take a look and decide to click the “follow” button.
If possible, avoid growth services that leave comments, send direct messages or follow and unfollow people. These are all tactics that many users find annoying or spammy, and they might cause them to block your account.
Also, avoid services that promise a certain number of followers. When you’re allowing real people to make their own decisions about whether or not they want to follow you, you can’t guarantee a certain number of followers.
That’s an indication that they might be selling bots, not helping you get real Instagram followers.
Collaborate With Other Brands In Your Space
Collaboration is key, and it might be one of the best ways to use Instagram to attract more followers. After all, Instagram is a social media platform – lean into the social aspect of it and work with another brand in your industry to reach the same people.
Obviously, you don’t want to work with a competitor but try to find complementary brands that serve the same audience that you do. If you’re a local business, obviously you’ll want to find someone else in your geographic location.
But, if you’re an online business or are able to ship your goods anywhere, you can partner with whoever you’d like.
Once you find a brand you want to work with, follow them for a while and start engaging with your content. You don’t want to just send them a message right away saying “we should work together!”
Comment on their posts, like their content, and send them a DM to get to know them a little better. Then, put together a plan for how you can work together that will benefit both you and the other brand.
At this point, you can then send a message suggesting you work together and ask if you can discuss it.
For example, a company that makes baby clothes could partner with a company that makes maternity clothes for a special campaign. Or, a tent company could collaborate with a brand that makes sleeping bags.
Create co-branded posts that showcase products from both brands. You can even each offer a discount if you’d like. Encourage your followers to go like the other brand (and vice versa).
If they’re truly a complementary brand, their followers should also be interested in your account.
Post At The Right Times
Believe it or not, when you post to Instagram matters. The algorithm will show your post to a small number of your followers first, to see how they react to it. Then, if it gets good engagement the app will show the post to more of your followers.
If that goes well, they might show it to people they’d think would be interested in it, and then maybe it would even land on the Explore page, depending on how popular it gets.
However, before it goes anywhere, it needs to generate good engagement when you first post it. If you post it when no organic Instagram followers are active, they won’t be able to see and engage with your post.
Spend some time figuring out the best time to post on Instagram for your brand.
While there are plenty of best practices and suggested popular times, you’ll likely want to look at your own analytics and do some trial and error so you know you’re posting at the best time for your specific audience.
Use Relevant Hashtags
Hashtags are actually very important. When users search for things on Instagram, posts appear based on the hashtags associated with them. You want to use hashtags that are relevant to your niche, your audience, and the specific post you’re using.
You can use up to 30 hashtags, so you might as well make the most of them.
Be careful to use hashtags that are relevant to the photo you use, too.
Instagram can tell if your photo is of a dog, so if you use the hashtag #icecream, you could be penalized. As with any of these strategies, do some research to see what hashtags your audience is using and searching for so you can make the best decisions possible.
Incorporate Instagram Reels
It’s no secret that Instagram Reels are an incredibly popular part of the app. Instagram continues to put out new features and new means of creating content, and its users continue to love it.
Reels are very popular, whether you’re using them to create fun, trending videos or to create something a little more business-focused and perhaps educational. The best strategy for Reels is probably to do a mix of both.
Users love Reels because they’re fun and lighthearted, but they also want to learn about your brand. So, by creating some videos that are fun and some that are brand-specific, you can give them the best of both worlds.
Because Reels are so popular overall, it’s easier to reach new audiences with these kinds of posts.
Cross-Promote Your Instagram Account
Chances are your Instagram account isn’t the only tool you have for your business.
You likely have a website, an email newsletter, and other social media accounts. Even if you only have one of these other tools, you should be using it to promote your Instagram account.
It’s easy to include a link to your Instagram on your website or at the bottom of your email newsletter. And creating social media posts to encourage organic Instagram followers to check out your Instagram isn’t difficult either.
The most important thing, though, is to ensure you’re creating some unique content for each of these platforms. If someone follows you on Facebook and you’re using the exact same posts on Instagram, why should they bother following you on both pages?
Get More Followers Today
So there you have it: six ways you can increase your organic Instagram followers. While it’s certainly a good idea to implement all six of these tactics to grow your following significantly, you don’t have to start there.
Begin by choosing one or two, and see how your following grows. Then, once you feel comfortable with those you can add a couple more tactics. Don’t let your Instagram account be overwhelming. Yes, it’s a valuable marketing tool, but it is still social media.
Have some fun and enjoy cultivating a relationship with your followers.