Followers, schmollowers.
Some days I swear if I heard the word “followers” one more time, I’m going to freaking lose it.
Seriously, aren’t there more important things in life than the number of followers you have?
Personally I’m more interested in having the most people show up at my funeral, than having the most Instagram followers.
And this is coming from the guy with 15,000 of them…
Followers are the ultimate vanity metric…for a human being.
But for a business, it’s a whole different story.
Over the past year I’ve grown my follower base fifteen-fold, all in the name of promoting my business Jumper Media.
And though all this effort hasn’t resulted in any meaningful friendships, my personal follower growth has been instrumental to the growth of my business.
I get DMs every day from brands and businesses looking to up their Instagram marketing game, and you can bet your bottom dollar that many of these folks become our customers.
Over the past year we’ve gone from zero to 500 customers, and most of them have come from Instagram. So while bragging about your followers is just about the douchiest thing you can do in 2017, for a business looking to sell on social media, amassing a large follower base is a #majorkey to success.
The internet is chock-full of plenty of “quick-fixes” to getting more followers, and as a marketer you should be wary of most of them. Most of these accounts have bought thousands of fake followers, to which we say: What’s the point?
Fake followers won’t result in sales, and might even devalue your brand.
We put together this guide to grow your followers fast, in the right way, with the right type of people. There are no quick-fixes to follower growth, but if you hustle it’s 100% possible to get thousands of new followers every month – even for the most boring B2B companies.
In this article, you’re going to learn how to get 1000+ real, targeted Instagram followers every month. I’ll show you the exact tactics you can use today to get started.
Instagram for Business
Instagram is evolving into a platform made for businesses.
“Over 1.5 million businesses worldwide tell their stories at the center of visual discovery. What will you tell?” – Instagram.
If you’re new to Instagram, here are the features that Instagram offers to businesses:
Business Accounts
Instagram allows users to switch their personal account to a business account. Simply go to settings and switch on your business account.
An Instagram Business Account:
1. Includes Access To Analytics: Instagram for Business has an analytical tool that allows users to get a quick look at how their account is doing in terms of engagement, impressions, reach and follower info.
However, to get a more all-encompassing view of your account I still suggest using a third party analytical tool provider.
2. Helps Users Find Businesses : Before Instagram for Business, Instagram users could only get in touch with businesses outside of the app. Now businesses can include their phone number, address, and any other relevant info right on their Instagram page.
Sponsored Posts
Instagram for Business makes creating ads easy.
All users have to do is access Ads Manager via Facebook and choose the goal of their advertisement.
Instagram Stories
Instagram pulled a copycat move and recreated Snapchat stories on their own platform.
The features allows users to:
- Use filters to spice up their story
- Add coloured text to their story
- Add filters to their story
- Link and tag brands, people and websites to their story
The benefits of using Instagram stories for your business:
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- Humanize your brand: Show your audience what you brand is all about
- Behind-the-scenes: Show your audience the process of your product, record profiles on your employees and more!
- See how many people are engaged with your story: By swiping up on your story you can see how many people have viewed your story
Free Training Courses
Instagram offers free training course to help businesses better understand how they can leverage Instagram to better build their brand.
“These easy, step-by-step lessons will take you from the basics through more in depth best practices, giving you the knowledge you need to run a successful Instagram campaign” – Instagram
Instagram offers 7 courses on topics such as:
- Introduction to Instagram
- Instagram for Business
- Facebook and Instagram
- Instagram Ad Types
- Instagram Buying Objectives
- How to Buy Instagram Ads
- Building Your Mobile Presence with Instagram Business Tools
Business Blog
Instagram has a business blog entirely dedicated to helping businesses succeed on Instagram.
The blog categories include:
- Announcements
- Success stories
- Tips
- Inspiration
Topics range from “Creating Crave on Instagram” to “Global Spotlight: Instagram in Brazil”
Instagram accepts inspirational stories from businesses to be featured on their blog.
Brand Resources
Instagram offers businesses all the necessary brand resources to use on websites, store windows, and other marketing channels
The Brand Resources Include:
- Instagram’s logo
- Screenshots
- Templates
- Other brand assets
So how can you leverage Instagram’s features to gain organic Instagram followers?
Read on to find out!
What Are Organic Instagram followers?
You’re probably asking yourself “Do I have to go vegan to get more organic Instagram followers?”
Organic Followers are Instagram users that follow your business’ account because they genuinely like what they see. Organic followers are engaged, entertained, and interested in your account.
In order to gain more organic followers you have to design your Instagram account for the user.
Here are 7 tips for using Instagram to gain more organic followers.
7 Tips For Increasing Organic Instagram Followers
1. Design Your Profile for Maximum Appeal
Design an Instagram profile that guides the viewer through your business’ story.
Include the following features on your profile:
- Username: Use your business’ name to avoid confusion
- Logo: Use your business’ logo
- URL: Include a short link to your business’ website in your bio
- Bio: Give a short description about your brand. Try to make it as engaging, warm, and friendly as possible and don’t be afraid to use emojis!
MailChimp uses their name, username, and logo for their Instagram account.
They include a few cute emojis and their shortened website URL in their bio.
2. Post Attention-Grabbing Photos
Instagram is (unsurprisingly) all about the visual content.
The more attention your photos grab, the more followers you are going to attract.
Post photos that are:
- Original: Why would someone follow an account filled with copied content? Post photos that are creative and original to give users something unique to look at. If you do re-post content, be sure to credit the original account.
- Relevant: Post photos that are relevant to your business. The idea is to use photos to tell the story of your brand.
Include the following features in your photos:
- Location: Users who search a location can see all posts tagged with that same location
- Tags: Tag people in your photos. Their followers will be able to see your photo and you’ll expand your reach.
Interior designer Noz Nozawa’s use of color on her Instagram is definitely attention-grabbing. Rightfully so since it’s her job to take boring spaces and turn them into splashes of bright color!
3. Post Long Image Captions
Instagram has a 2,200 character limit for photo captions.
That is 2,200 opportunities for you to add value to your content!
Write Image Captions that are:
- Attention-grabbing: Remember that the first three lines are what viewers see as they scroll through their newsfeed. Get them to follow your account by grabbing their attention in those first few lines.
- Relevant: Include relevant keywords and hashtags in your image captions to increase your views.
National Geographic has mastered the art of long captions on their Instagram. They tell a story with each photo that keeps the reader engaged all the way through.
ProTip: Instagram doesn’t allow line breaks for image captions. Write your image captions in “notes” and then copy and paste them to Instagram to have line breaks.
4. Use Hashtags
The purpose of using hashtags is to connect with your followers and gain visibility…but gaining visibility from the right kind of people is where it gets tricky.
How can you use hashtags to get the right kind of followers?
- Use hashtags in your comments: Hashtags are not for people to read in your image captions. They’re just so people can find you!
- Search hashtags: Instagram recommends popular hashtags based on keywords you type into their search engine. Add as many of these relevant hashtags as possible. Keep note of the hashtags that get the most engagement so that you can re-use them on other posts.
- Use as many hashtags as possible: Instagrams limits users to 30 hashtags per comment. So use 30!
ProTip: Learn How to Hide Hashtags on Instagram in 7 simple steps!
5. Use Scheduling Tools
Scheduling tools not only make your life more organized, but they make it easier!
You should be posting:
- 3-7 photos or videos per week: Posting photos and videos increase your visibility, increase your engagement, and of course, increase your followers. Remember that overdoing it with your posts can turn users away.
- 5-30 instagram stories per day: Instagram uses an algorithm that puts the most popular videos at the top of their newsfeed. The more stories you post the more users will be clicking on your profile, increasing your visibility and your chance to gain new followers.
- 1 live video at the exact same time every day: Live video is an entertaining and engaging way to let followers into the life of your brand. However, if you don’t post when your target followers are watching, there won’t be anyone there to see the live broadcast! Post your live video at the same time every day and even add a post to your story announcing the broadcast time.
Although all this posting seems fun and exciting – it can be time-consuming!
Use Instagram scheduling tools such as Buffer so that you can remain active on Instagram and save time!
The above 5 steps are all basic tactics that every Instagrammer can use to get 20+ followers per day. However, if you want to gain a significant number of followers steps 6-8 are for you!
6. Follow Users Generously and Strategically
Instagram is all about community – you have to put in some work to find which community your brand fits into.
Locate Your Competitors
Competitors are the perfect place to start finding where your community is hiding.
To find your competitors all you have to do is search relevant industry tags and click on the most popular tag. Accounts that are considered the most popular based on number of followers, likes, etc. that use that tag will show up. If you do a bit of digging you’ll eventually find your competitors with a large number of relevant followers.
Follow all the same followers as your competitor.
The rationale is that these users like following your competitors and will quite possible like following you too!
ProTip: Follow at least 50 users every hour! Just scroll, tap and scroll down again until Instagram won’t let you follow anymore accounts (P.S Instagram will not ban your account for following too many people – They just freeze the follow button for about an hour).
As you follow more and more users you are increasing your visibility, engagement, and value and will quickly start seeing your followers increase.
7. Be An Active Instagram User
As mentioned above, Instagram is a community. It’s a community filled with inspiring, creative, people who want to share what value they have to offer.
Be an active member of your community by sharing valuable content
Add value by:
- Following anyone who follows you
- Replying to comments with a personal touch. Directly mention the user in the comment
- Tagging people in your photos and videos
- Searching relevant hashtags and liking, commenting and sharing the photos associated with them
- Sending direct messages to valuable members of your community to start building relationships
Wrap It Up
So there you have it folks! Your 7-step guide to organically gaining more Instagram followers!
Here are the 7-steps again so that you can start gaining followers right away!
- Design Your Profile for Maximum Engagement
- Post Attention-Grabbing Photos
- Post Long Image Captions
- Use Hashtags
- Use Scheduling Tools
- Follow User’s Generously and Strategically
- Be An Active Instagram User
