Instagram has become a cornerstone of many brands’ social presence, driving profitable traffic to landing pages, growing conversions, and building an engaged audience. If your Instagram presence isn’t quite as robust as you’re hoping, it might be time to learn how to sharpen up your strategies for getting real, organic followers on Instagram. The larger your audience grows, the more opportunities you have to engage with users and create unique experiences for them.
The organic distinction is important: sometimes brands take the easy way out when trying to get more Instagram followers. Pay for likes and follower sites are everywhere, but these shortcuts are never worth it, as the Instagram algorithm regularly gets updated to weed out paid, low quality accounts and interactions. Not to mention, the number on your Instagram following ultimately means nothing if it doesn’t represent an engaged fan following that makes purchases, visits your landing pages, and advocates for your brands with friends and followers.
First thing’s first: Customize your Instagram profile to make it look good. Tell your potential followers who you are, and give them a reason to follow you. How? Start by making sure your username is recognizable and easily searchable – like your business name. You should also consider when your content will be most relevant. For example, a step-by-step recipe video might perform better outside of work hours because people are more likely to be cooking. A coffee shop post, on the other hand, might do well around 2 p.m. when people go through an afternoon slump. Experiment with different posting times and track engagement.
With Instagram’s algorithmic timeline, consistency is a key element to getting your posts seen. If your posts are shared on a regular basis and picking up good engagement, Instagram’s algorithm will likely show your posts near the top of your followers’ feeds.
Of course, quality is always more important than quantity as NetInfluencer.com reports. Posting more often doesn’t necessarily translate to higher engagement rates. Focus on creating content that will resonate with your target audience—more on that in section 9: Engage with your audience.
Instagram scheduling tools allow you to post consistently without having to worry about posting directly from the app every day. Take a look at How to Schedule Instagram Posts to Save Time and Boost Engagement to disc Instagram is so much more than photos. Over the years, the app has introduced many ways to share content on the platform. Mixing it up with different content types is one of the best ways to gain more followers on Instagram because it gives you the chance to reach and connect with a wider range of people.
Remember: The algorithm looks at interest and strives to show people the content types that they interact with most often. So, if one person likes and comments on Instagram Reels more often than other post types, they’re likely to see more Reels in their Instagram feed. However, if another person interacts more frequently with carousel posts, they’ll see more of that content type in their timeline.
Each type of content has advantages. For instance according to NetInfluencer.com, Instagram Reels have an edge because they’re the newest content type and Instagram always pushes new features. Since launching Instagram Reels in 2020, the app has moved the Reels button to the center position in the menu bar and made Reels appear larger than photo posts on the Explore page. Considering 200 million people check the Explore page every day, that additional visual real estate can make a big difference in how many people you reach.
