Instagram’s popularity has been growing tremendously over the past couple of years. With over 200 million active users per month, this platform has proved to be a reliable tool for increasing brand awareness.
However, for this to happen, you must have a good number of followers. If you are struggling to sway the masses towards you, then the tips in this article will show you how to do that the right way.
How to increase your Instagram following
1. Follow the followers of top influencers
Find the top influencers in your niche and start following their followers. Chances are, they will follow you back, and if you post regularly and provide awesome content, you will quickly build a following.
Finding top influencers is not hard. By using the search bar, type in the hashtag from your field and a list of posts from different accounts will be pulled up. Click on the account with more followers and follow their followers one by one. Keep repeating this, and your Instagram following will bulge over time.
2. Engage
Whenever a person follows you, ensure you follow them back-well, if it’s not a spam account. Similarly, If someone leaves a comment on your images, reply to them by mentioning their name with an @ at the beginning. In your comments, you can ask a question as a way to invite feedback.
3. Shoutouts
“Shoutout” means another page is recommending your page to their followers. On Instagram, there are two types of Shoutouts: S4S (Shoutout for Shoutout) and Paid Shoutouts.
- S4S – unpaid Shoutouts
Find accounts in your niche that are similar to yours – also in their number of followers. Like and comment a few of their photos for a little while (no spamming = pitching your profile) and then contact the owner directly and Ask if they would be interested in a Shoutout trade.
- Paid Shoutouts
For paid shoutouts you want accounts with much higher follower numbers than yours – and high engagement (lots of comments, likes etc) – in other words, an active, thriving account. Make sure their followers are similar to yours!
The exposure you can get from Shoutouts can be tremendous and quickly explode your Instagram following. Be sure to include a call-to-action, like “follow me” in your Shoutout post – never assume people will just do it; they are far more likely if you ask them to.
4. Contests & Giveaways
Contests and giveaways can be a fun way to build a buzz around your account once you have grown a solid following. It works like this: You find something that’s truly valuable to followers of your niche and use it as a giveaway or prize in a contest. To enter, participants have to complete three steps like:
- Follow you
- Like this post and tag two friends
- Sign up for your blog newsletter
5. Profile Widget on your website
This one is obvious; you should, of course, have an Instagram widget on your website, ideally one that shows your last few posts. Instagram Feed is a nice free option for WordPress sites. You can download it through your plugins page.
Now that you know how to increase your Instagram following, start working, and you might become the next big brand in your niche.