Whether you're using Instagram for personal use, business, or to promote an offering, you’re going to be most effective on instagram if you have a large and engaged following. Sure, you could buy fake followers, but if you really want to make an impact or bring in revenue, your followers need to be truly interested in your content. Here are 4 insanely easy ways to get real, active Instagram followers.
1. Follow for Follow
One of the easiest ways to get a follow is to follow someone else. This is usually the quickest step to making a relationship on Instagram. If someone gets a notification that you followed them, they will likely look at your profile and consider following you back if they like what you’ve posted recently. If they don't follow you after a few days, you can always unfollow them. This will happen a lot, so try not to sweat it.
But you don't want to follow everybody... You should only follow the people who are in the demographic that you want to reach. Again you want followers that are going to be active and if they aren’t genuinely interested in your content then they aren’t going to engage.
But where can find these potential followers? By looking at Influencers in your industry and accounts that are similar to yours. Take a look at who their followers are and who is engaging with their content. These users will likely be interested in following you too if you have similar content, so you should target and follow them. Learn more tips about how to hack Instagram followers from your competitors.
2. #Knowyourhashtags
You can also find the right people to target by finding those who like posts similar to yours. And how do you find posts similar to yours? Le Hashtag.
Unless you don't know how to use hashtags, this should be straightforward. Once you know the best hashtags in your niche, you can regularly engage with the people already looking for this type of content. Simply search for the hashtags, and follow the users who like the posts that turn up in the search results. You can also target the people who are using the hashtags on their posts. These people are using the hashtags to grow their following so they’ll be likely to engage with others in their industry as well.
Related: Instagram Hashtag Generator
3. Start the Conversation
Even though it is a visual platform, at the end of the day Instagram is about being social. If you start the conversation, you'll position yourself to start receiving engagement from other users.
Like and comment on the posts of the users you’ve begun targeting. Especially if the posts are from users who aren’t following you yet. When you tell people that you like them and their content, they're more likely to reciprocate. By taking a proactive approach, and engaging on content from others, you'll build an audience more quickly than waiting for people to find you.
If you don’t like the idea of following and unfollowing a ton of accounts, this approach may work best for you. It allows you to get your content in front of tons of eyes without ever having to follow anyone. Just be sure to make genuine comments that relate to the content. Don’t ever use anything generic like “Nice Pic” or “Great Stuff” because it comes across as spammy and fake.
4. Shoutouts & Features
Shoutouts or features from well established users are one of the most effective ways to get a quick jump in your following. If you can get someone with a large following to mention you within a popular post or feature one of your own photos, you'll get a large influx of views and (hopefully) followers.
Unfortunately this is no easy task. Many users on Instagram want shout outs from popular accounts, so power users of Instagram are used to ignoring shoutout requests. For instance, our Instagram accounts receive a request for a shout out almost everyday. If we responded to each one, or even did half of the requests we got, we'd be a free advertising platform!
One of the easiest ways to get a shoutout is to find people and companies within your network that have a good following. Look within your network of people in your niche and industry. Do you know anyone with a personal brand or company that would be open to telling their followers about you? You should always try to offer something in exchange whether it’s directly paying them or even offering a shoutout on your own account to let your followers know about their content. This will help you standout from the other users requesting a shoutout.
Getting featured on Instagram is a bit easier than getting a shoutout. There are tons of accounts that specifically only feature other posts. Try to find some of these in your industry and read their bio to find instructions on how to be featured. Typically they require you to follow them and use their hashtag. But they aren’t going to post anything sub-par so make sure your photos look professionally edited and your captions are on point.
Related: Best Ways to Get Instagram Fitness Shoutouts
At the end of the day, it's always going to take work to get a large following on Instagram. But by posting great content, engaging with people in your target audience, and ensuring others in your industry know who you are, you'll build up a following of genuine followers in no time!
Do you have any other recommendations? Tell us about them in the comments! And if you're ready to let the pros grow your following quickly, click the button below for a free 7-day trial to get up to several hundred followers per day!
