How to get more followers on Instagram? Ever since I reached 15k followers on my Instagram account, I get asked this question every day. Therefore, I wanted to write this blog post to give you all my tips on how I was able to grow my Instagram account and become an influencer.
Spoiler Alert: I don’t think there is any secret recipe, nor that we can get to that point easily. However, I think some of my advice can help you increase your engagement. There will always be ups and downs on your IG journey. Some days, you will get thousands of likes, and the next morning, you will only receive a handful. That is sometimes the reality of Instagram. The only way is to get through it and always continue being active on your account.
Without waiting any longer, here are my top tips on how to grow your Instagram account and get more followers!
PS: At the end of the blog post, you can download a FREE checklist that you can use before you post any picture to Instagram! Make sure you don’t forget anything!
How to get more followers on Instagram ?
To gain more Instagram followers, you should…
1- Have a short and intriguing bio
In mine, I talk about my studies, since it’s the main subject of my Instagram account. I also write my email address, where I live, and my blog. The objective is that any people who stumble on your profile will immediately know who you are and what kind of content you’re sharing on your account
2- Post new content regularly
On average, I post one picture or reels per day. Some people post up to 3 times a day and have good success. However, try to not be intrusive. If your followers are used to seeing you post once a day, it might be intrusive to suddenly post too many times every day!
3- Make reels
Currently, making reels is one of the ways that have the highest return on investment. The views on these videos are really high, and it makes sense, considering an Instagram executive recently confirmed that videos will become increasingly more important. It seems Instagram is becoming more like TikTok…
4- Add your location to your pictures
I don’t know about you, but it happens that I browse through pictures on Instagram with a filter on the location! Therefore, always use a location when you’re publishing a picture to your feed. It’s an easy way to again, make sure more people can reach your posts!
5- Tell a story, be a little personal, and be yourself
I believe that to get Instagram followers, you don’t need to always post perfect pictures. Actually, I got to 15k followers without even showing my faces on my pictures! All I was posting for a year was pictures of my laptop and my desk.
The most important thing is the message you’re sharing to the world: tell your story, and aim to inspire people through your photos and stories.
6- Always use hashtags
There is no exact science for. the number of hashtags you should use. The only rule is that you are allowed to use a maximum of 30 hashtags. Some people use 10 hashtags, some people use all the 30. I’m the kind of influencer that uses all 30 hashtags!
I have started using Flick to track how my hashtags perform on each post. It provides a nice dashboard and tracks exactly where your post ranked on each hashtag that you used.
Here are some of my tips on how to choose the best hashtags for your Instagram posts:
- Try to find 5-10 hashtags that are directly related to the topic of your post. For the remainder slots, I use hashtags that are related to the topic of my account
- Switch up your hashtags every week – you can reuse a couple of the same ones every other day, but every time I am about to use a hashtag, I look it up on Instagram to see if one of my posts is already trending. If I’m already showing up in the 9 top pictures, I will look for a different hashtag to make sure that my posts will be seen to as many people as possible
- Use hashtags that are not too small, but not too big either for your account (there is no point in using an hashtags with millions of posts already, your picture will be lost in 0.1 second)
7- Tag other accounts on your pictures when it’s relevant
When you’re sharing a picture that has some products on it, or you’re at a restaurant, feel free to tag the relevant accounts in your pictures. That way, your picture will show up on their profile under the “tagged” section and will give more visibility to your account – another easy way! Furthermore, doing that will make the company you’re tagging aware that you’re using their products and love them, so they will recognize you and who knows… maybe in the future they will ask you to collaborate with them?!
8- Engage with accounts similar to yours
I engage with other accounts that are in my niche almost every day. I like and leave thoughtful comments under pictures that I found through hashtags related to my account. I usually do this when I’m commuting, it’s a perfect way to make that time productive!
9- Reply to your comments
I always do the best I can to reply to all the comments that I receive on my pictures and reels. This sometimes can be a huge time commitment, but I believe that some people have taken some time out of their day to comment on my content, and the least I can do is to take the time to reply to them and thank them!
10- Reply to your private messages
Something else that is a huge time commitment, but that is definitely worth it in my opinion, is to reply to every single private message that I receive! Sometimes it can take me a couple of days or even a few weeks to get back to everyone in my DMs, but I eventually always do it. I feel like that way, we can develop a friendship with our followers that sometimes have been following you for years, so it’s definitely worth it!
11- Have a balanced number of following and followers
It is important a good ratio between the number of followers that you have and the number of people you’re following. It doesn’t really matter when you have small numbers, but an account that follows 2000 people and has 5 subscribers, in comparison, is a little weird!
To get more Free Instagram followers, you don’t have to…
12- Have a theme
Hear me out: you don’t need to have a perfectly curated feed that follows a certain theme. Instagram may have started out with themes being very popular, but now in 2021, I think people actually prefer spontaneity over a perfectly planned feed. The most important thing is to be true to yourself. Post what you like, what you want, otherwise you will get burnt out anyway by the pressure of always posting on Instagram!
13- Only post pictures made on Photoshop or Canva
For similar reasons, I personally don’t like accounts where all of the pictures were designed on Canva. I feel like this removes a lot of personality. I’d rather have a bit more of the “behind the scenes”.
14- Plan all your posts in advance
You don’t need to always schedule all your posts! My reasoning behind that is for similar reasons than explained abone. Too much planning removes the “spontaneity” that your subscribers might be looking for .
15- Post a picture of a flower and talk about your gym workout
This situation probably occurs when people plan their publications too far in advance, but it irritates me when someone posts a photo and their “caption” tells an entirely different story. In my opinion, it is necessary to have a connection between the image and the story that is told in the caption…
Related | 15+ Facebook Groups to Promote Your Blog!
How to promote your blog on Instagram
- Enter the link to your blog or YouTube channel in your biography in the space provided
- I make stories every 2 or 3 days to tell people to visit my blog and use a recurrent task on Todoist as a reminder
- If you have more than 10k followers, you can you swipe up links in your stories
- When I publish a new article, I also announce it in my publication of the day to remind my subscribers to visit my blog!
Conclusion
I hope this blog post was useful and that I was able to give you some good tips about how to get more Instagram followers!
Do you think shared all the right habits to have on Instagram – do you think I forgot something important? Let me know your opinion in the comments, I’m always happy to discuss!
111 comments
These are really lovely tips, however almost none of them actually work for me. I try to engage with quite a lot of people, but only a few correspond back. Can you suggest some genuine tags, in which people actually connect with each other please?
That’s a really good question. My next post on Monday June 12th is about hashtags to connect with each other around certain niches (tech, women empowerment, work, study, blogging). I will keep that in mind though for next posts, maybe I could write one with more niches! 🙂
What is your niche? What’s your Instagram username? I’d be happy to take a look and try to help you.
Thanks for your comment
Marie xxx
It’s @siyanna96 I post just lifestyle photos, as I find the ones with a theme usually boring. Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it. x
Hey Marie! Love you posts. I have a great instagram following and a pretty unique story (female woodworker, find wood in the jungle) but I am having a hard time reaching a female audience. Would love if you could look at my account and give me some advice or good hashtags that attract females. @alexandracliment
Hello! I’m glad you like my posts! I wrote a blog post about Instagram hashtags for women, so you can look it up on my blog! I’m not sure what else you could do to reach more females, what is your current % for your ratio? Maybe interact with other women on the platform? 🙂 Marie
Good advice on Instagram Marketing…
Thank you!
Marie
Great tips! I think I need to start mixing up my hashtags like you suggest!
Yes, do it! 🙂
Thank you for your comment
Marie
Nothing new. Very generic tips which everybody already knows
I’m glad for you that you already know all these tips. I just wrote everything that I do.
Thanks for your comment
Marie
Hi Marie,
Great article. I HAAAATE bots so I love that you strongly advise against using them. Thank you so much for outlining all the benefit of using organic effort to grow Instagram accounts.
Hi! I hate them too! So much… Ugh. 🙁
I hope more people realize that!!
Thanks for your comment Kerry-Ann!
Hey Marie, have you ever been collaborating with other companies? Did you reach out first? or did they reach out to you first? Also when negotiating a price or product, what’s a good price for one post? I would love some tips on these 🙂
http://www.clairebearblogs.com
Hi, Claire!
Yes, I started to collaborate a little with companies. I do not reach out first, as my priority is my blog right now. I wish I would be able to make more money with Instagram as I’ve seen some people with fewer followers making a ton of money, but you know… You have to choose your priorities! When I say make money, I mostly mean that I just want my blog expenses to be covered.
I am still figuring out how much I need to charge compared to the market. One thing I did is that I reached out to other influencers who are in my niche and are earning money already. I asked them some advice on how much I should charge, and they helped me figure it out! You should totally do the same if that’s something you want to do soon.
I’m not comfortable saying the amount here, but if you send me an email I can talk about it openly! 🙂
Thank you for your comment
Marie
Great tips! I use all of these and gain 200 followers each month! Thanks!
Awesome, congrats on the growth!
Marie
Love this tips! I’m always thinking about doing something like this. But I’m afraid that it’s too time consuming or distracting. How to do you time manage your time spent on insta. Between comments, messages, posts, stories.
That’s an excellent question, Martha! I think I’m going to write a blog post with all the questions like yours I received this week haha! So yes, it’s time-consuming. It’s hard at first. But before I had 10K followers, it was easier mentally. Because I had my eyes on the “goal” of having the K in my profile haha! So yeah… Do it in public transportations if you can, it helps not to feel like you are wasting too much of time. Oh, also, sometimes I watch TV, and I just scroll through a hashtag without looking too much at the pictures! Hehe 😀
I also reply to DMs like when I’m heating my lunch in the microwave, or waiting in line, things like that!
Thank you for your comment, and good luck!
Just what I needed. Great advice here and I will definitely be following it!
I am glad I could help!
Thanks for your comment!
Marie
That was by far the most helpfull article i have read. Simple, straight to the point! Awesome job! I do like the way you write aswell!
Have a nice day.
Thank you so much, it means a lot to me, as English isn’t my first language!
Marie xx
30k
These are great tips! I do not have a theme either and when I stopped having a theme is when my instagram grew.
That’s awesome! 🙂
I’m glad you liked the post
Marie
Thank you so much for these tips! I have tried some of these techniques but my Insta is so dismal I have almost given up but I will keep trying!
Yesss! Keep trying! You’ll get there! xx
Thank you for your commenet!
Marie
Cheers Marie! This was very insightful, and confirms my belief to stay true to yourself! We just got to be consistent and growth will come over time.
Exactly!
Marie
This is a good and very straightforward post. I do all of those things but not very consistently so I am not even close to 2000 followers right now! Probably getting more consistent will solve the problem. Thanks for sharing
I think so too! Good luck for what’s to come, and I’m sure you can do it!
Marie
Great tips thanks Marie! I think I am following the same principals but definitely need to put more time into engagement just find it hard finding the time!!! Would love you to check out my account and provide any feedback like cohesion, engagement CTA tips to get more people to comment. Thanks again looking forward your hashtag post!
@sparkle.x.conquer
Sez xxx
Hi Sez! I love the pictures you have on your Instagram! Maybe you could ask questions in your captions so people have something to say in the comments ? 🙂
Good luck
Marie
I always thought having a theme is important for instagram. I guess that’s where I got it wrong. HAha
xoxo
shi Hui
ireviewuread.com
hahaha well! I think it works for some people… but that’s not a reason for me to follow anyone! 😀
Marie
Great tips. I can’t stand when people use bots either. It’s so obvious and immediately turns me off. Why don’t more people understand that?
I really don’t know! :'(
Marie
Thank you so much! I’ve subscribed and look forward to your next post ❤️❤️
Hi Madina! I’m so glad you liked this blog post!
Thank you for subscribing, I like your blog as well and just left you a comment!
Marie xx
Love the advice! I love my pod ladies, but I joined a bunch at one point and it was way too much. I’m going to try all of these!
Yes! I do loved my pod ladies though, even though they were in completely different niches. 🙂
Have fun on Instagram!
Marie
18K followers but only 300-400 likes isn’t that good… it means that all of your followers are fake or inactive.. try working on the quality, not the quantity.
Having 18K followers & only 300-400 likes is actually really bad.. not even 1/20th of your followers are active or interested in what you are, and they are all probably fake..
try quality, not quantity..
Hi! Please go back further in my instagram feed. Don’t judge my latest pictures! Most of them have 800 likes, least have 1000-1200 likes. My latest pictures have not been the most beautiful ones. I know what my followers enjoy: coding pictures. I haven’t done coding pictures because I am in an internship and I obviously don’t show their code.
Marie
I UNsubscribed 60 accounts and that’s the limit allowed by Instagram per hour… I still gotta do this for next 10 hours…
Great tips. I love your section on the things you don’t need to do. I teach social media and all the training for Instagram is around having that theme and planning. I tell my students that the most growth I achieve is when I post randomly about what I am doing and am authentic. No planning. I think people follow others as they are intrigued with their life. I think Instagram will eventually move away from these gorgeous curated themes. I now find them quite boring. Keep up the great work promoting tech to girls.
Yay! I’m glad you teach social media and see the themes exactly as I do! 🙂 I was scared to get awful reactions to that bullet point when I posted the blog post, but everyone seems to accept it just fine lol! I also think just like you – people like to have a peak in others’ life and that’s why they click on the follow button.
Thank you for the kind words! Keep up teaching social media hehe! 😀
Marie
[…] the difference to find accounts that are similar to ours and make new connections (in other words, get more followers). A while ago, the hashtag ilooklikeanengineer was very popular, but there are many others to […]
Appreciate the tips! I’ve always been against spamming the hashtags, but I may consider it to show off my web design work on Instagram!
Your other articles are also really helpful! I’ll keep a lookout for them in the future! 🙂
What is “spamming” to you? 😛 I mean, I learned here that some people are using 30 hashtags in the caption AND 30 hashtags in the comment section. That is spamming to me! haha
Thank you so much for your kind words! 🙂
I do hope to see you back around here!!!!
Marie
I have started using these tips recently and already gained 100 followers in a few days!
However I am part of a Pod, it’s been pretty awesome because we have actually been able to collaborate on other posts and plan meet ups since we are in the same category/theme. Great post!
-Shelbi
http://Www.shelbibritton.com
That’s awesome for you; I’m pleased! I wish I could be in such a pod! At that point, I think it mostly just becomes a group of friends, right? 😛
I was pretty close of my pod ladies too but just some of them…
But still, I’d prefer if I had a pod in my niche, but I don’t think a lot of tech accounts want to be in a pod haha!
Thank you for your comment!
Marie
Great tips! I’m already doing some and seeing slow but steady growth. Can’t wait to implement the rest!
I’m @nataliezepp if you want to follow!
Yay! Good luck in growing your account! xx
Marie
Great info! Thanks!
Happy to help!
Marie
I love this! I feel like trying to grow my Instagram has become a burden because I don’t like to post just to post but I like to post when it’s authentic. I love how you said you don’t have to make everything fancy. Thanks for this!
Hi! Definitely! 🙂
Just post when you feel like it, I’d say!
Marie
I wonder why these things seem to work for some accounts while others don’t gain much followers despite having good content? I think there must be something that isn’t in numbers?
I understand where you are coming from. I really do think the niche has something to do with it- in tech, there are not a lot of women that has an Instagram account like mine. In the fashion or lifestyle niche, there is a lot more competition. But that’s not necessarily bad, because I’ve seen accounts with much less followers than me have a lot more collaborations — but it’s all because of the niche, so it comes with bad and good things.
Thanks for your comment 🙂
Marie
Really Good article Valuable tips
Hi Tomal! I’m glad you liked my tips!
Marie
Good tips. I hope i will also get some followers in sometime…
You personally don’t follow any account that showcases photoshopped pictures but you’re advising your readers to post only pictures which are photoshopped. So cool.
Hi!
Honestly, I have no idea what you are talking about. Where do I tell people to post only photoshopped pictures? Either you understood incorrectly or I didn’t express myself well enough somewhere in the blog post because I would never say that. By the way, English is not my first language, I do my best!
Marie
I do all of the above but Instagram is hard work. I find it very fickle, people leave easily and it’s hard to like their photos if they don’t come up in the feed. I’m working on it though…
Yeah, I know what you mean 🙁
I think the first 1k is the hardest. You’ll get there!
Marie xx
This post speaks real. Thank you for the tips!
Hi Geralvie, happy to help 🙂
Marie xx
I love a more in depth post on how to gain followers! I’m trying to do the same but I can’t seem to gain traction enough to gain followers!
-xo, Makaela
http://www.uniquelymickie.com
Keep going, you will get there I’m sure!
Marie xx
Great tips, thank you! I definitely don’t post regularly enough, must work on that!
No problem, glad it was helpful!
Marie xx
Great information and so true. I wish I had more time to devote to my account but you know… life. Great content. Thanks for sharing
haha… just do it when you’re waiting for the microwave!!! 😉
Thank you!
Marie
Really awesome tips! Thanks so much!
-Hanna @ South2City
Hi Hannah!
Glad you liked the post!
Marie
These are great tips!! I always forget about the “adding location” thing, but it’s such a simple thing to do.. Thanks for the reminder!
Hi Jessie!
Yes, it’s very easy and fast to do it!
Marie
Good info to read! I just merged my personal IG to now match my new blog. I hope I made the right choice, I gain followers all the time, but the interaction is seldom. I’m going to start interacting more with other profiles that compliment mine.
Awesome Stefanie, way to go!
Good luck 😀
Marie
Thank you again for the great post, Marie!
I have a few questions.
Now I never thought about this before. This, I found to be a great tip!
I have a niche I can tap into after some reflection~
I am a voracious reader (of both non/tech books), I am bilingual (English/Korean), etc…
There are so many things I never thought about!
Hi Sung!
“Post new pictures regularly”
How do you decide what to post? Are pictures posted in alignment with your goal?(meaning all posts share a common theme)?
— Yes! Mine would be working hard and pushing our own limits.
“Tell a story, be a little personal, and be yourself ”
How “personal” should one be? Where should I draw the line?
— I think only you can answer that, what are you comfortable with sharing? 🙂
Yay! Glad I made you think of other horizons 😉 !
Good luck xx
Marie
Awesome tips on Instagram. Instagram didn’t really work for us so we moved. 🙁 Maybe we weren’t consistent enough or we didn’t use the proper call to actions. You post is very detailed. I Pined. 🙂 Great content on your web page. I am impressed.
Hi! Yes, I do think consistency and call to actions are key!!
Thank you for your kind words!
Marie
Great tips ! Each and every tip is very useful .. Couldn’t wait to see your next post ! Thank you so much for sharing it .
Thank you! 🙂
Marie
Wow awesome article for increasing instagram followers
Hi Kunj, thank you so much!
Marie
Hey Marie!
I found this post on a Facebook group. I’m currently building my Instagram account to promote my blog and your tips are very helpful to me.
I think using the right hashtags are important and also being consistent with your posting. I’ve realized that the most frequently I post the more engagement and followers I gain. So, this works if you work! 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing your Instagram tips here!
Best regards! 😀
Hi Freddy! I agree with you “this works if you work”! Especially if you agree with my no-bots policy 🙂
But hard work always pays off in my opinion 🙂
So keep doing it and you’ll get there!
I’m curious to know in which Facebook group you found the blog post? 🙂
Thank you for your comment.
Marie
Thanks for the informative article- thumbs up 🙂 I’ll be more cautious when i see comments that are ambigous to the content and I have seen those 8 posts from followers before 🙁
Hi John!
Happy to help! 🙂
Marie
Thanks for the advice Marie. It’s exactly what I do too, totally organic from day one with the exception of replying to DMs or following myself too many people, I find that too much… Still very new to Instagram, just joined this year, and I’ve got a lot to learn it seems. My question to you is, how do you (if you do that is, no idea, I yet haven’t gone as far as checking your Instagram account, my time is limited lol) attract the female followers? I would like to have a mixture but so far I have no idea why the girls don’t want to follow me, I receive the odd like back from some, or via tags in the 1st 10-30 min after each post I get the girls liking it – to which I return back more every time!; they do not engage back when I leave genuine and beautiful comments to their posts either. Most can’t even be bothered to like my comment on their post (but when I check they liked all other comments they received!, I find it so rude eww) nevermind reply to mine. I gave up dreaming of a female audience but I would like to have it mixed. Too much of one type audience annoys me too much! By the way I tried all nationalities too, it just doesn’t even matter where they’re from or their age. Okay the older girls do engage more it seems, but they are hard to find on Insta… however like I said my time is limited, I wouldn’t have time for pods etc plus I doubt it would bring me anything, I already imagine myself liking and commenting on all their posts but them back to mine never or hardly LOL. So, from your experience what do you think I do wrong?! I do not want or gladly welcome only men’s comments etc. Infact I am thinking of disallowing all comments (which would be such a shame argh!) on my future posts, so far only followers are allowed to comment, got far too many comments which I couldn’t really care about, nice compliments of course but too many of them or too much isn’t ideal for me either… Using Instagram for my business which does meet both men and women, I’m a designer and my beautiful couture garments that I can create are for both men and women etc… Anyways, thanks for reading and keep up the good work!
Hi Bibi,
I also wonder how I can attract so many female followers. I have a ratio of 32% of women following me on Instagram, and I compared with some other Instagrammers from my niche and they had significantly lower pourcentage of women. I’m really happy though, because in a way, that is actually the public I’d like to convince that tech is an amazing field. 🙂
It’s weird though about your lack of interactions with other women. Are you a woman? What does your profile picture looks like? What is your bio? These information would help me to try and help you understand what is happening.
Let me know your account and I can try to help you 🙂
Marie
Very Useful blog. Very nice.
Thank You!
Happy to help 🙂
Marie
wow
Hello Polina, I guess this means you like the blog post! 🙂
Marie
Hello Noor!
I’m happy I was able to motivate you! Consistency is indeed the key for this! 🙂
What’s your instagram account?
Marie
I love the advice and will use most of it but also wanted the downloadable checklist. Of course you made me join your mailing list to get it but then when I don’t get it UGGGHHHHHH. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Hello Sharon,
I sent you an email when you left that comment! The newsletter should actually be a double opt-in, so you would get the download and get an email asking you if you want to opt-in the newsletter or not, it should completely be up to you!
Let me know if that wasn’t the case, but you never got back to me via email!
Marie
Great information and so true article. I wish I had more time to devote to my account but you know life. Great content. Thanks for sharing
Hello!
Haha yes, life often gets in the way of my Instagram as well! It’s okay!
Very happy you enjoyed the content, thanks for leaving a comment!
Marie
Came across this page after a Google search. Enjoyed reading your tips!
I’ve only been on Instagram for a few weeks and I’m having a hard time keeping followers. It seems like people only add me in hopes I’ll add them…if I do follow back a lot of them then stop following me. I thought maybe it’s because I don’t have just 1 theme… but of course you talked about not having a theme, so now I’m not sure! I also don’t have a blog…maybe I should start one? ♀️ Any and all suggestions are welcome, thanks so much!
@blondeaviator
Hello Kate,
Yes, a lot of people practice the follow/unfollow technique in hope that you’ll see they followed your page and then unfollow you… It’s a very frustrating practice, I know! When we don’t have a lot of followers, we notice it even more.
For sure, you can have a theme for your account. It can be very nice. Just make sure you’re still able to post often no matter what your theme is. 🙂
You don’t have to start a blog if you don’t want to write blog posts! It’s even more work to add to your plate! 🙂
Marie
Nice tactics to grow followers count. what about buying the followers ? Websites like socialfollowers.uk and others provide followers. Can these followers provide the engagement ?
Hello Jeff!
I don’t recommend at all buying followers. They will be fake accounts that will only get your engagement down in the long term. It’s better to have organic growth.
Marie
With this idea I have been growing my followers gradually. Thanks so much for sharing this wonderful tips
Great news Benjamin!