Instagram takes the lead in the list of the most popular social media platforms with over 2 billion monthly active users. This is crucial for business accounts as well as for influencers to know the best ways to grow an IG account because the more people will follow your account and engage with your content, the broader your reach will be.
But that is not all; merely creating an account is not enough to gain followers on Instagram. You require real followers and engagement so that the platform can be credible and the content shared is seen. Hence, the following are the best ways to grow an IG account in the year 2024.
Should You Use Instagram Bots?
Although the traditional ways of using Instagram bots, such as those that automatically like posts or follow and then unfollow accounts, are dangerous, new and legal services are appearing and are one of the best ways to grow an IG account. These employ artificial intelligence to assist brands in gaining more followers and increasing engagement on Instagram in a shorter time.
The top services employ paid advertisement, machine learning targeting, and real human interaction. This brings in real, quality audience that is interested in your brand or subject of interest.
They use the data of Instagram to find out who could be potential followers. Then, they immediately interact with these users to grab their attention towards your account. The effective engagement through Instagram like bot technology continually optimizes and improves targeting over time.
These services claim to drive up to 10x more Instagram growth than traditional ads. More importantly, they organically convert new followers who engage with your content. Even more valuable, they naturally turn new followers who are interested in your posts into your fans. This means more traffic to the website, leads, and sales, making it one of the best ways to grow an IG account.
The thing is to select a service that promises real, genuine growth, and adheres to Instagram’s policies. Do not use any solution that promises a fast and easy solution to your problem. Concentrate only on those growth strategies that are sustainable.
If you have time, manual Instagram growth is quite fulfilling. However, for those business owners who do not have time, there are ethical AI solutions that can improve the outcome.
If you wish to stick to the traditional methods of organic traffic generation, we have outlined the most effective ones for you.
Optimize Your Instagram Profile
The first way to get noticed on Instagram is by having an optimized, professional profile. This is one of the best ways to grow an IG account and is beneficial in creating an initial positive image for the visitors, hence transforming them into followers.
Some profile optimization tips:
- Add a profile photo: Choose a clear picture or a logo that is clear, brightly contrasted, and taken at sufficient resolution so that the viewers can easily recognize your brand.
- Write an informative bio: In one or two lines, state what you do and what followers of your account should expect from you. Include relevant keywords.
- Link to your website: Encourage people to visit your site by including it in your bio link.
- Use contact buttons: Include the email, phone, or any other contact button to ensure that people can easily reach you.
- Categorize with relevant hashtags: It is also important to add a few of the most popular hashtags in your bio so that anyone searching these tags can find you easily.
- Update your name: That way people will use your brand name or your real name so that you can be easily identified.
An optimized profile creates trust and offers the visitor a cause to follow you.
Post High-Quality, Engaging Content
One of the best ways to grow an IG account is that your content needs to be visually appealing and engaging. But quality matters more than quantity.
Posting irrelevant or sloppy content can actually lose followers and hurt your account. Instead, focus on sharing useful, entertaining posts aligned with your brand.
Ideas for great Instagram content include:
- User-generated content: Repost customer photos using your products. This builds community.
- Behind-the-scenes content: Give a sneak peek at what goes on at your company.
- Educational content: Create “how-to” style posts with tips and tricks. These tend to get high engagement.
- Industry news: Commentary on relevant news makes you an authority.
- Contests and giveaways: These drive comments and shares.
- Shoppable posts: Enable shopping tags so followers can easily purchase featured products.
Post consistently, test different content types, and analyze what resonates best with your audience. Quality original content is one of the best ways to grow an IG account.
Optimize Your Instagram Hashtags
Hashtags are useful for the Instagram audience, as they allow users to find content and interesting accounts. It is very important to use relevant hashtags to be seen by the right people or the target audience to which they are referred.
However, the most popular tags contain hundreds of millions or even billions of posts. Your content will be lost among the numerous posts that fill these tags in a very short time.
Rather, find hashtags that are popular enough to receive some engagement but not too much competition as to be impossible to appear on the top of the feed. There are some tools which can assist you with the selection of the proper tags, for instance, Display Purposes or RiteTag.
Moreover, develop unique hashtags for your brand and recommend that customers incorporate them into their posts. Being one of the best ways to grow an IG account, this will assist in compiling the posts that users are posting on various social media platforms with your brand.
Run Instagram Contests and Giveaways
Contests, giveaways and sweepstakes are hugely popular on Instagram. They help you rapidly grow an audience and get content seen.
Require users to follow you and tag friends to enter the contest. This can help you quickly gain thousands of relevant new followers.
You can also team up with influencers in your industry to co-host contests with their audience. This expands your reach to pre-qualified potential customers.
Follow Instagram’s promotional guidelines for running lawful contests and provide clear rules to avoid confusion.
Collaborate With Micro-Influencers
Indeed, influencer marketing is still one of the best ways to grow an IG account. However, many small businesses realize that big influencers are very expensive.
The promotions by micro-influencers with less than 100k followers are more affordable and can attract better engagement. They also target particular sectors as well.
Search Instagram for rising influencers in your industry and reach out for promotions:
- Sponsored posts: Advertise your product by paying for a post on social media platforms.
- Free products: Offer them free products to include in the posts naturally.
- Takeovers: Let them post to your account for a day.
- Exclusive content: Offer them material that they can showcase as VIP content.
Ensure that the contracts are clear and that the results are measurable to justify the expenditure. In this case, it is clear that micro-influencer campaigns can lead to explosive Instagram growth when executed correctly.
Advertise on Instagram
Once you build some initial momentum, Instagram advertising can help accelerate your organic growth efforts.
Instagram provides detailed targeting so you can precisely define your ideal audience. You only pay when users engage with your ads, too.
Some of the best ways to grow an IG account through campaign objectives include:
- Traffic campaigns: Drive visits to your website or product pages.
- Lead generation campaigns: Get users to sign up with contact details.
- Brand awareness campaigns: Get more visibility with relevant audiences.
- Engagement campaigns: Boost overall likes, comments, and posts shares.
Instagram advertising complements your organic efforts with a targeted paid boost. Start small, track conversions, and continually optimize performance.
Reply to Instagram Comments and DMs
This may sound obvious, but replying to @mentions, comments, and direct messages is one of the best ways to grow an IG account.
Acknowledge any comments, questions, or feedback given by the followers and like comments from followers. This increases the activity and people do not feel just a number but as a part of the community.
Instagram also ranks more engaging content higher in the feed than the regular feed. Therefore, engaging with your audience informs the Instagram algorithm that your content is engaging.
Furthermore, talking and establishing connections are the essence of social media platforms. The more effort you invest, the more results you will get in terms of followers on Instagram.
Make Your Account Easy to Find
The final step to accelerate Instagram growth is making it easy for interested users to discover your account.
This includes:
- Using the same username across platforms: Choose one unique name people can use to find you anywhere.
- Linking to your Instagram on websites/emails: Add Instagram follow buttons/badges to drive clicks to your profile.
- Verifying your account: Get a blue verification badge to stand out in search results.
- Listing your account on profiles: Add your Instagram username to social media and professional profiles.
The more exposure you have on the internet, the more chances people will come across and follow your Instagram.
Conclusion
Building a community of active followers on Instagram requires time and conscious work. However, with a proper combination of organic strategies and the best ways to grow an IG account, you can gradually accumulate credible fans.
Do not buy followers from dodgy websites or use bots that will only lead to an account ban. However, it is recommended to concentrate on targeting your audience by providing them with interesting visuals and interacting with them.
Do you want to grow your Instagram account without using tricks? Go ahead and seek more individualized development plans.
