The Ultimate Guide to Getting ‘Real’ Instagram Followers

Instagram has over a billion active users. As such, it presents a great opportunity for businesses and aspiring influencers or bloggers to grow. But getting an organic and engaged followers’ community can be a pretty hectic task and you might find yourself discouraged to put in more effort. You may even be tempted towards the idea of buying Instagram followers to appear popular and liked. But take our advice and stay far away from that. We have come up with this article just to solve your problem.

If you are a new brand or an influencer, getting your first thousand likes is the most difficult. It’s because you have to prove yourself trustworthy and creative enough. Coming up are 11 amazing techniques which you must use if you want to get real followers on Instagram. This following will be genuine and relevant to your brand’s identity.

#1. Follow your niche and interact

It’s extremely important that you understand your niche. Whether you are in the field of beauty, travel, lifestyle, food, or any other – it is essential to know what you are and what you represent through your Instagram account.

For this purpose, we suggest you join Instagram engagement groups. These groups have large number of members who are interested in the same field. Make sure you join the groups which are relevant and contain the highest number of your target audience. You can find such groups easily on Facebook. You will also have to interact with them and return the favor of sharing and following their accounts. It is a matter of give and take, and the more you sow, the more you’ll reap!

#2. Create a compelling first look

Instagram is all about appealing to the eyes as well as minds. Make your first appearance compelling for your account visitors because you know what they say – the first impression is the last impression. On Instagram, your icon and bio are the two things which play a vital role in creating your brand image. Make sure your icon photo is good enough for your followers to recognize it even in a small size.

Bio is another main thing. It’s where you tell who you are and what is the purpose of your existence. Make full use of this section and link your website or other social media handles here. Also, make sure to add more call to action buttons in your bio like contact us, message, send email etc. Furthermore, use ‘Highlights’ to show off your best picks from your 24 hours story section. This tip is very useful when it comes to creating an interesting and credible first impression to get more followers.

#3. Don’t be just about yourself

On Instagram, it is important to connect with like-minded people and compatible accounts. Whether they are similar businesses, influencer friends, or relevant bloggers, follow their profiles and share their content. Do not make your account all about yourself or your business.

Make room for others on it and repost their content and stories. It will not only attract new followers, but also give you the chance to cross-promote your account keeping the relevance of your brand intact. Download the repost app and use it to its full potential. You might end up getting 10k views on an interesting video that you reposted while you actually have 5k followers only.

#4. Share your follower’s content

 If you are a business page on Instagram, testimonials are a great way to increase your reach and number of followers. Try getting your customers to post their experience with your product or service and repost their feedback. This will make them feel special and taken care of. It will also do wonders for your credibility and trustworthiness. More people will follow you and will be likely to purchase from you.

#5. Be consistent

To keep your followers hooked, and to attract the new ones, keep your Instagram look and posting schedule consistent. Play with themes and overlay ideas but do not deviate too much from your real look, otherwise your followers will get confused. Gain insights about your target audience’s Instagram usage pattern and understand the peak hours of their online activity. Craft up a content calendar, and line up dates of the important events coming up. Post content accordingly and consistently, and you’ll observe more responsiveness from your existing followers and likes from potential ones.

#6. Make your captions more descriptive 

When you post a picture on your Instagram, make it connect with the users. Although a good quality picture attracts many eyes, to develop a deeper appreciation, add a descriptive caption to go with the post. Choose relevant words and keep the flow of sentences correct. Make the picture hundred times better by explaining it in an interesting manner.

This tip comes in very handy when you are posting something which has various perspectives hidden, and you need your audience to think the way you think. Increased likes and comments might bring your post up in the explore section. Here, many people can show interest in it and visit your account to tap the follow button!

#7. Use geo-location tags

When you are trying to reach a specific audience in a given locality, start using the geo-location on your pictures. Just like any other social media app, Instagram provides you an option to tag locations on your photos and videos. Its algorithm then makes your post visible to the people near that pinned location. This is great if you are a beauty salon or a new eatery in town, and you want to get more following on your account and also an increased footfall in your shop. When people around search for the said shops, they may see your post because of the tagged location.

#8. Hashtags are important

Don’t ever forget the importance of hashtags while posting content on your Instagram account. There is a reason why Instagram allows you to add a whopping amount of 30 hashtags per post. Do not be afraid or hesitant to put in all of them, but yes, think before you hashtag! Bear in mind that relevance is the key. Research trending topics which are related to your field or the ones which have maximum number of posts per day. Using the correct hashtags effects your engagement massively and makes you visible to new accounts as well.

#9. Use Influencer Marketing

Every time you open Instagram, you come across a great influencer or a blogger with amazing engagement rates and fan following. Influencer Marketing is a technique where you interact with and incentivize compatible influencers to promote your brand. If you can pay well, go for the big shots and get them to promote you. If you are a new startup, search for the ones with good engagement and moderate fan following. Send them free samples and request a review of your product or service. We recommend not to go overboard with influencer marketing and promotions. Otherwise your followers might start to trust you less because of the increased number of testimonials which look paid and fake.

Get to know about the influencers in your space and make them love your account before reaching out to them for a review. Creating a customized environment will ensure a genuine shout-out/review.

#10. Cross promote on other channels

We recommend linking your Instagram account to other social media handles. Your fans on Facebook might not have followed your Instagram account – make sure they know you exist on this platform too. Same goes for a website, if you have one. The people who purchase your products or avail your services from your website are your online customers. Create a popup notification on your website and link it directly to your Instagram account.

#11. Run ads on Instagram

If you want genuine and fast results, go for Instagram ads. Pay per click ads can be very rewarding in terms of new likes and followers. Since Facebook bought Instagram back in 2012, both channels are integrated with each other. Create a creative and compelling ad for your Instagram account and increase your following.

To figure out the type of ad you should use, analyze the objective of your ad. A short 8 second video ad or even a post with multiple photos can be the way to go depending on what you want to promote. We recommend that you advertise what makes you different. It can be your USP (Unique Selling Point), a bundle offer, or a festive campaign.

Conclusion

Increasing your organic following on Instagram can be a tiring process. A lot of techniques have to be applied simultaneously to reach your desired goal. Choose what works best for you and make an extra effort to show your audience that you care about them. Whether you are a business or an influencer, people will only engage with you if you give them something out of the box. Therefore, align the aforementioned tips with some great quality content on your Instagram account that speaks of you and your work in an interactive and positive way.