The landscape of Instagram is constantly changing. With updates rolling out on a near-monthly basis, the best ways to use the platform and grow Instagram followers are changing with it.
Instagram has turned into one of the most popular social media platforms with over 1 billion monthly users. The more popular it gets, the more users try to grow Instagram followers. Because the number of followers obviously represents a big opportunity for marketers, brands, individuals, and entrepreneurs to become popular and earn revenue from the platform.
In this article, we’re sharing new ways to let you see how to grow fast on Instagram 2022 and reach your target audiences. Stay tuned!
Note: Most Instagram users find the process of growing Instagram followers tedious and time-consuming. That’s why they prefer to find a way to see how to grow Instagram followers fast without needing them to spend tons of time and energy. Here’s the good news! Our Instagram management and growth tool, AiGrow, is here to help you achieve your goals. Let’s sign up on AiGrow to guarantee your Instagram growth!
67 Ways To Grow Instagram Followers
Fortunately for you, it’s our business to stay up-to-date and know the exact best practices to navigate your way through the evolving world of Instagram. Below are 67 proven and research-backed ways to grow followers on Instagram and figure out how to grow Instagram followers organically in detail.
How To Grow Instagram Followers? 1# Hashtags, Captions, & Geotags
Hashtags and geotags are of prime importance on the Instagram platform because they help make content discoverable and categorized. So, you can effectively reach more people.
Although Instagram is a visually-oriented platform, your voice does matter. They help you add context to your videos and photos to give details that users may not know.
Here are some tips on how to grow your Instagram followers using these three:
1. Add The Right Number Of Hashtags On Your Posts & Stories
Instagram allows you to add 30 hashtags on a regular post and 10 hashtags on a story. Unfortunately, there is no certain rule when it comes to deciding how many hashtags you should use.
Bear in mind that depending on a particular business or personal account, the right number of hashtags to use varies. All you need to do is to do some tests to find out how many hashtags work best for your account.
2. Include Hashtags That Are Relevant To Your Channel & Content
The best way to grow Instagram followers organically is to make use of niche-related hashtags to attract your target audience. These target audiences bring more engagement to your account and engagement is the key to your account’s growth.
3. Put Hashtags in your comments
Packing your caption full of hashtags just doesn’t look good. Place them as a comment instead. Plus, although it won’t carry as much weight as a comment from another Instagram user, placing your hashtags as a comment is an easy way to increase the number of comments on your post. The more comments you get on your posts, the higher your post engagement rate will be. The higher your post engagement rate gets, the more likely you’ll rank as a Top Post for your hashtags, and so on.
4. Include As Many Popular Hashtags (Greater Than 100,000 Posts) As Possible
Hashtags are your main form of distribution to potential new Instagram followers – the larger and more populated the hashtag, the more people can theoretically see your content.
Note: You can use tools like AiGrow to find popular hashtags in your niche. The hashtags generator tool of AiGrow gives you the possibility to search, add, and monitor trendy relevant hashtags with ease.
5. Include Smaller, More Specialized Hashtags
Despite the fact that general hashtags are useful to increase your reach, smaller, more niche hashtags contain less competition, which makes it easier for your own content to rank higher in the search results. This increases your chances of appearing in the “Top 9” grid results of a particular hashtag.
6. (Use with caution) Use hashtags Known To Help Increase Followers
It may not produce the most engaged following, but using hashtags like #L4L and #instafollow may prove a short-term solution to increasing Instagram followers.
Note: Be careful of banned hashtags. You’d better search and make sure the hashtag you’re adding to your content is not banned otherwise you’ll have your account banned.
7. Geotag Your Posts
When you geotag your posts, other people who post photos in your region will see your posts on the location’s page which increases content visibility.
8. Create A Branded Hashtag
Do you wonder how to grow Instagram followers for business? One of the greatest ways is creating and using branded hashtags.
Branded hashtags are an easy way for other people to share your brand, build brand recognition, and get your name on as many different feeds as possible.
9. Write Longer Captions
Instagram used to be all about visuals. But now, users are looking to learn more about you, your mission, your business, etc. Using captions. Actually, sharing lengthy captions on your posts gives your audience greater insight into your world, brand, and even current event. It helps you build a stronger and larger community.
10. Ask Engaging Questions In Your Captions
Questions are an easy way to increase audience interaction. For a vacation post, for example, you could ask something as simple as “have a friend who needs a vacation? Tag them in the comments!”
11. Include A Clear CTA:
Research has shown that including the words “Like” or “Comment” somewhere in your caption results in more likes (89% more) and comments. With more likes and comments comes a higher place in the hashtag search results. This means more visibility for your content, which means more potential Instagram followers.
Aside from Likes and comments, you can also use the captions of your posts to direct attention to places like your bio. Whether you’ve linked to your website, your store, or another Instagram account, a simple “Check out the link in my bio!” is an easy way to drive more visitors to the link.
12. Place Important Words/Information At The Beginning Of Your Captions
When people scroll through their feeds, post captions get cut off after a few lines. You want to make sure that critical information is seen no matter how your posts are seen.
13. Include Emojis In Your Captions
Emojis make your captions stand out or emphasize particular parts of your caption. They have also been proven to lead to higher post engagement.
How to grow Instagram followers? 2# Engagement, engage and engage again
Engagement is defined as anytime a user likes or comments on one of your posts. The higher your engagement rate is on Instagram, the more likely you are to grow followers on Instagram. Let’s see how to grow Instagram followers organically by increasing your engagement below:
14. Use An Authentic Third-Party App
There are so many third-party apps out there which you can make use of to help you manage your Instagram account. The question is do you think all these apps actually work? If not, what is the best app to grow Instagram followers?
AiGrow is one of the top-quality Instagram third-party apps that offers you so many effective features you need from managing your account to growing it. Read on to see how the VIP growth service of AiGrow works to grow your Instagram followers organically. Sign up to AiGrow now.
How To Grow Instagram Followers Organically Reddit? # Use AiGrow
The best app to grow Instagram followers based on organic Instagram Reddit guides is definitely AiGrow. Most of the Reddit users have suggested AiGrow as the answer to the question, how to
grow Instagram followers organically Reddit. AiGrow has also received excellent reviews on trusted review sites such as Trusppilot.
AiGrow’s growth service guarantees you to grow your Instagram followers organically and safely. This app doesn’t use any bot so it won’t cause any problem to your account. There are dedicated account managers to perform every action (like, follow, unfollow) on your behalf.
Here’s how the growth service of AiGrow works. Follow the step-by-step guide below:
- Sign up on AiGrow for free using your email address.
- From the dashboard, click on Add Instagram Account in order to be able to connect as many IG accounts as you want to the dashboard and manage them all together.
- From the left-side bar, choose the Instagram Growth option.
- Now, you can see a list of added accounts, pick the account you’d like to manage, and then from the drop-down menu, choose Growth Engine.
- In the opened window, you can set details such as giving our dedicated account managers hashtags, locations, and competitor accounts. Moreover, you can also toggle on/off the actions that you’d like our managers to perform on your behalf for growing your account including Likes, Follows, and Unfollows.
Note: In the end, you have the possibility to select a category for your business.
Once you are happy, click on Start Growth. Sit back and watch how you grow on Instagram without needing to lift a finger thanks to the best app to grow Instagram followers.
Pro tip: AiGrow allows you to connect with your growth team by scheduling a live meeting with your assigned manager. This way, you have the opportunity to review and analyze your target
list (the number of followers you are looking for, the number of actions you’d like them to perform, etc.).Sign Up Now.
15. Interact With Random People’s Accounts Within Your Channel’s Niche
Make yourself known and familiar throughout your community by interacting with other accounts in your niche through like, comment, follow, etc. Neil Patel found that for every 100 likes, he received roughly 6 followers. If you’re strapped for time, you can use tools like AiGrow to organically automate the process.
16. Interact With Existing Followers
There’s no point in gaining followers if you lose them within a week. Keep your followers around by building relationships with them. As explained more in-depth below, keeping your followers around can begin with something as simple as a welcoming DM after they’ve just started following you. You can send these DMs manually, or use a tool like AiGrow to automatically send customized DMs to every new person who starts following you.
17. Avoid Drama
It’s very easy for your content to be taken out of context on Instagram. Smart, thoughtful responses to drama or controversy limit the potential for people to use your words or content in damaging ways in the future.
18. Or… Get Involved With Drama
If the Floyd Mayweathears or Connor McGregors of the world are any indications, there are few better ways to garner attention and potential Instagram followers than through drama and controversy. Though be warned – the kind of attention you get may not always be positive.
19. Develop A Foundation of Content (5-10 posts) Before Engaging With The Community
One of the most effective organic Instagram growth Reddit guides is posting enough. You don’t want to convince someone to make the effort to check out your channel only to find out you don’t have any content to show. An empty profile isn’t attractive to a potential new follower.
20. Interact With or Follow People Who Are Engaging With Your Competitor’s posts
Do you wonder how to grow your Instagram followers organically with a lot of fan followers? It makes sense that if people are already interested in a niche, as indicated by their interaction with a competitor, and your channel provides similar content, these people are likely to also be interested in what you do. If you can get these people’s attention, these people are much more likely to follow you than someone not already affiliated with your competitors.
21. Respond To All Comments Left On Your Posts
Another useful way to grow Instagram organically, as explained in this article, is responding to every comment to double the amount of engagement you get on every post. While your responses won’t carry as much influence as the original comments, responding to every comment can turn 100 comments into 200 comments, which can significantly contribute to your social proof and make your page look more trustworthy.
While it’s easy to respond to all comments when you’re smaller, as you get bigger, responding to all comments can become a hassle, especially if the majority of them warrant the same kind of response. This is where using an auto-response tool like AiGrow can come in handy. Sign up now.
22. Leave Smart Comments
Writing something more than a spammy “Nice pic!” that conveys genuine interest in somebody’s post is more likely to make the owner of that post check out your channel. People in the community may also see this genuine comment and explore your channel, as well.
23. Hold Contests Where People Have To Like, Follow, Comment, Or Tag Someone To Enter
One of the best and fastest ways to see how to grow on Instagram is definitely hosting giveaway contests. If you are a company or any sort of brand, holding contests are a very effective way to
quickly gain engaged followers. A simple contest may be to offer a giveaway (free product, shoutout, etc.) to a random new follower gained in the last month.
24. Promote Your Instagram On Other Platforms
If you have established audiences on other platforms (email lists, other social media platforms, website forums, etc.), these people are essentially already following you. Alert them to the presence of your Instagram and bring them over and simply grow your Instagram followers organically.
25. Use Influencers To Mention Or Tag Your Product/Channel
If you can afford it, offer product discounts, free samples, and/or paid contracts to larger channels in exchange for tags and mentions. In some cases, similarly-sized Instagram pages will shout you out to their audience in exchange for you shouting them out to your audience.
26. Tag People When Relevant
Tagging people in your posts increase brand visibility by making your content show up in the feeds of the people you tag.
27. Tag Accounts You Want To Get The Attention Of
Tagging can actually help you grow on Instagram. If overdone, this tactic can come off spammy. But when in moderation, you can get the attention of larger Instagram brands that might not have otherwise known you exist. For example, if you are a photographer and you know that your camera brand posts photos taken by its customers on Instagram, in addition to just tagging your posts with your camera brand’s branded hashtags, it would make sense to also tag that camera brand in photos that you take with their cameras.
28. Reshare Your Followers’ Images, Particularly Ones Where They’ve Mentioned Your Channel/Your Product
Sharing user-generated content can be a key answer to the question of how to grow fast on Instagram 2021 since it encourages people to share photos of your content in hopes of you exposing their own channel to your audience, especially if their channel is smaller. It also conveys to visitors to your channel that you are established within your community, which makes it easier for them to trust that your channel is worth following.
29. Follow All Of Your Friends On Instagram:
It might seem a little hacky, but those who know you personally are more likely to be supportive and at least give you a follow.
30. Use paid Instagram/Facebook Advertising:
Taking advantage of Instagram paid ads is another hack to assist you to grow your Instagram organically. It costs you, but you are much more likely to draw the exact type of followers you want to your channel.
Target by key demographic information: gender, age, and location. As people begin to roll in, you can understand who your audience really is, where they’re coming from, and what they like content-wise. You can then adjust accordingly.
Pro tip: Instagram lets you monetize your IGTV to make money by paying short ads along with your IGTV content.
31. Make Your Profile Public (At Least At The Beginning)
If you’re a smaller channel, potential new Instagram followers are less likely to make the effort to follow you just to see your content. At least wait until you have established yourself as an influential figure in the community before making your channel private.
How to grow Instagram followers? 3# Content
No matter what great strategies you are following to grow your Instagram account; if you don’t provide good content, you are not gonna make it. Now read the tips below to make the best of it.
32. Be active & Consistent
The more frequently and consistently you post on Instagram, the more likely you are to increase your engagement. Post 1-2 times a day. Posting daily grows followers four times faster than posting less than once a week according to Tailwind.
Pro tip: There are times when you may not be able to keep a consistent presence on the platform. In this case, you can use IG content scheduler tools like AiGrow’s scheduler to schedule your posts, IGTVs, and stories in advance.
33. Space Out Posts If You Post More Than Once A Day
Too many posts uploaded close to one another can appear spammy on other people’s feeds. Posting too often also doesn’t give your content enough time to be seen and engaged by your followers
34. Post Portrait Over Landscape
Posts that are within 1080 px wide and 1350 px high will appear on people’s feeds without any borders or cropping. Posts within these dimensions appear bigger in feeds, drawing more attention and potentially leading to more engagement.
35. Don’t Post Low-Resolution Photos
Do you want to know how to grow followers on Instagram? One of the simplest ways is to share high-quality content. There are way too many incredible photos on Instagram for you to be posting grainy, low-resolution photos. Even if your photo does show up on someone’s feed, if it’s surrounded by higher quality content, then your content is simply going to be ignored.
36. Create An Editorial Calendar
Know what and how often you’re going to be posting before you begin posting. Having a plan does help you to grow on Instagram. To get started, look at the top 10 profiles in your niche and do some competitive analysis. Pull the main themes and consistent qualities from their content (What are they posting? How often? Are there any consistent patterns having to do with color or shape?) and apply them to the creation of your own content. AiGrow’s free Instagram scheduler can help with this process.
Tip: A simple posting guide from Anthony Carbone: 1-1,000 followers = 1-2 posts/day, 1,000-10,000 followers = 2-3 posts/day, 10,000-50,000 = 3-4 posts/day, 100,000-500,000 = 5-6 posts/day, 500,000-1 million = 8-10 posts/day.
37. Advertise Your Top Posts
The more likes, comments, and general engagement a post gets, and the quicker you get that engagement, the higher up that post will appear when people search for related hashtags. Ideally, you want to reach the trending Top 9 grid.
38. Take Note Of What Does Well & Create Similar Content
Look at general engagement – likes, comments, reshares, etc. and more in-depth Instagram analytics (tools like Ink 361 and Iconosquare can help with this) to see which of your content is performing the best and incorporate this data into the creation of future content.
39. Look At Things Differently
Take pictures and videos of common pictures (landmarks, tourist attractions, etc.) from a different perspective than has already been seen a million times before. One way to make this process easier is by using only one fixed camera lens. The restriction of not being able to zoom and/or switch out to another lens encourages you to be more creative in the way you frame your content.
40. Use Partnerships &/Or Collaborations
One of the most effective ways to see how to grow fast on Instagram 2021 is by creating content with another person/channel. It not only forces you to go outside of your own creative perspective, but partnerships also provide the opportunity to introduce your channel to another channel’s audience.
When people see that a channel they are already following collaborated with someone else (you), these people can trust that this other channel must also be worth following.
This is particularly useful is you’re a small startup business without much funding. Partnering with other brands can help you skyrocket your followers without spending thousands of dollars a month on paid advertising.
41. Use Instagram Analytics
Instagram’s native analytics tool can provide you with such key information as the days on which your posts perform best, the time your posts perform best, and where in the world your audience is most concentrated. Depending on where your audience is, you might even have to take into consideration different time zones when posting.
42. Ditch The Phone
Make your content stand out by not limiting yourself to your camera phone. If possible, use a DSLR to take photos/videos, edit them on your computer if need be, send the files to your phone (or schedule them on your computer with tools like AiGrow), and then upload to IG.
43. Share Videos, Photos, Lives, Reels, & IGTVs
Sticking to only one type of content doesn’t work. You’d better share different kinds of content, especially videos from time to time. Even if they’re just GIFs, 52% of marketing professionals rank video as the type of content with the best ROI. To you, that means more Instagram followers.
44. Post At Best Time
If you have not yet uncovered the best times to post according to your specific audience, posting at 2 AM or 5 PM is a safe bet. You can use different ways to realize what times are best to post on Instagram in order to end up boosting your engagement.
45. Use The Most Used Instagram Filters
Everybody does edit their photos on Instagram. You can simply edit your Instagram photos by putting a filter on top of another filter, and then spice it up with yet another filter. This way, you can create professional photos.
46. Post On Sundays
Similar to the time suggested above, if you have not yet uncovered the best day to post according to your specific audience, posting on Sundays is a safe bet. The least amount of content is posted on Sundays, which provides more visibility for your own posts.
47. Combine Multiple Images Into A Collage
Instead of uploading multiple photos into a single post, require the viewer to open up the post and scroll through them all individually, when possible combine all your images into one using tools like Photoshop or Canva. This way, potential followers can view all images with ease while scrolling your feed.
48. Consider The Color Of Your Content
Research shows that posts with lighter colors, particularly blue, receive more likes than darker colors by a factor of 24%.
49. Include Faces In Your Photos
Dan Zoella found images with faces in them received 35% more likes than those without faces. So, if you’d like to grow your Instagram followers organically, one effective way would be taking advantage of photos including faces.
50. Post Behind-The-Scenes photos
Particularly for businesses, behind-the-scenes content conveys the human quality behind your brand and shows that you’re not just a robotic business. It helps you build a strong sense of rapport.
51. Incorporate Edges & Structures Into Your Photos
Research shows that photos with clearly defined edges and structures receive 125% more likes than those without.
52. Make Sure Your Images Have A Minimum dimension of 1080×1080:
A minimum dimension of 1080×1080 helps to avoid pixelation and unwanted cropping/scaling.
53. Use “Social Listening”
Always try to use authentic third-party tools to monitor not only where you’re being mentioned, but what is being said about your channel within your community. Use what people are saying as feedback to create better content.
54. Post According To When Your Target Audience Is Online
If you’re targeting people with full-time jobs, post in the early morning, at lunchtime, or after 5 PM. If you’re targeting night workers, post later in the night and/or in the very early AMs. Understand who you are trying to attract to your channel and post according to when you think they would be online. Instagram Analytics can help you find this information.
56. Use Instagram Stories
Instagram story and its features allow you to get to know and understand your audience and their needs, etc. way more. Besides, it can help you increase your engagement and interaction with your audience. Engagement is a key factor to grow on Instagram.
Nearly one in five stories results in a direct message. If you are a business, you should really be using Instagram stories, as a third of the most viewed stories are from businesses.
57. Create Instagram Challenge/Game
If you are looking for a way to see how to grow your Instagram followers organically, it would be a great idea to either join or, even better, create Instagram games. It’s definitely a win-win situation since it translates into more engagement, brand awareness, and growing your followings.
Read more: Effective ways to use Instagram games to grow your account
How to grow Instagram followers? 4# Theme and goal
One of the key reasons an Instagram theme and goal is important is because it can help improve engagement and connection with your audience and it leads to growing Instagram followers. Below, we are going to share some tips on how you can use Instagram theme and Google to your benefit.
58. Start with a goal or theme:
If you are serious about growing your Instagram followers, you need to understand what your goal is and what kind of audience you want to attract. What is the purpose of your channel? Do you want to attract b2b or b2c clients? Attract branding deals? Simply get your name and/or work known? Having a goal and knowing your desired audience will help maintain consistency when posting content to your channel and attracting engaged followers. On the same note, understand that the more specific your channel theme, the fewer types of photos will flow with your channel, restricting the amount of content you can post.
59. Optimize Profile
If you are a channel that specializes in selling vintage sneakers, a profile picture of your dog doesn’t convey that to potential Instagram followers. Craft a profile picture that speaks to your channel’s goal or theme.
In addition to your profile picture, you need to pay attention to other important elements for optimizing your profile such as choosing a simple, recognizable, and easy-to-find username, adding story highlights, etc.
60. Optimize Your Bio
Instagram allows you to use only 150 characters and a clickable link in your bio. So, you need to use them wisely because they are all you have to introduce yourself and your service with to grow followers on Instagram.
Here are some tips on how to optimize your bio:
- write an informative and intriguing bio.
- include a compelling call-to-action and optimize its link
- include your branded hashtag in your bio
- add a clickable bio link and design a bio link landing page.
61. Design A Professional Instagram Grid & Ensure There Is A “Flow” To Your Channel:
Some people follow you on an individual post basis, but some people follow your channel based on how your profile looks as a whole (the”grid” of your profile). So, designing your Instagram grid does matter because it can make the very first impression and help you gain followers organically.
When you look at the grid of your profile, how do your photos look together as a collected work – both aesthetically and content-wise? If someone new to your channel was to look at your channel, would they understand what you’re trying to convey?
62. Use Split Images
You may have noticed recently that some channels, particularly businesses and artists, use “split” images to create a unified picture on their grid. This is especially useful if you want to direct the attention of potential followers to one piece of content in particular, such as a new album, product line, or piece of art.
63. Use Preset Color Palettes
An easy way to ensure a consistent color palette across all of your content and contribute to the “flow” of your channel mentioned above is to use preset color palettes from either Instagram or other tools like Photoshop or Lightroom. If you don’t want to make your own and are willing to spend a little money, a lot of bloggers sell their own presets.
64. Repost Instagram Content From Brands Within Your Niche
If you don’t have time, idea, or whatever is needed to create your own Instagram content, the good news is that you can repost Instagram content from other IG accounts with a similar niche as yours, or from any account that is relevant to your audience and your Instagram strategy.
Bear in mind that there’s nothing wrong with reposting content from other Instagram accounts as long as you ask permission and give proper credit.
Note: You can use AiGrow’s Listening & Repost feature to simply repost stories and posts from other accounts.
65. Use Multiple Accounts:
Using multiple Instagram accounts is helpful in a number of scenarios for growing Instagram followers.
Scenario 1) One is if you are just starting out Instagram and want to test the traction you get in multiple niches. For example, if you are interested in both BMX biking and soccer, you could create two separate Instagram accounts – one account for biking, and the other for soccer. Over time, you could see which account is performing better and slowly begin to put more effort into that account.
Scenario 2) if you are a business with multiple products, services, and/or demographics. For example, if you are a sports attire business, you could create a different Instagram account for each sport that you offer products for. This way, you can more accurately target people who would be interested in each product.
66. Feel Free To Post Outside Of Your Theme, But Transition Slowly
If you would like to post outside of your channel’s theme, transition into different kinds of photos slowly so as not to disrupt the overall flow of your content. If a potential follower looks at your channel one day and loves your content, you don’t want them to return the next day to find completely different and unrelated content. You can lose potential followers this way.
67. Pay Attention To Contrast & Balance
As we mentioned earlier, the quality of the content you share on the Instagram platform really matters. For your image to stand out in an Instagram feed, you need to pay attention to contrasting elements. The contrast can refer to colors, shapes, fonts, light and exposure, scale, white spaces, and many more.
It’s totally up to you to find the contrast that makes your image stand out – and it’s a crucial step in encouraging your followers to engage with your material.
Conclusion
You may have noticed that the “Content” section was by far the most explored section. This is because creating attractive, engaging content is by far the most influential factor in gaining more Instagram followers, plain and simple. Consistently creating incredible content, however, takes a lot of time and energy. Taking away from this time are supporting factors such as engaging in the community, responding to DMs, and tracking down potential new followers.
This is why we created AiGrow – to allow you to hand off the hard work of Instagram networking so that you can devote more time to the production of engaging content. Many of the most effective methods mentioned above, namely creating an editorial calendar, scheduling your posts, and genuinely engaging with your community, can be completely handed off to AiGrow.
