Instagram is one of the most popular social media apps in 2021. With over 1 billion monthly users, it’s a good platform for advertising your products and services. To reach out to as many potential clients as possible, it’s important to have a huge following. Thankfully, there are multiple ways to get free Instagram followers. Yes, there is no need to buy Instagram followers.
1. Plan an Effective Instagram Marketing Strategy
Keep in mind that it’s not enough to have followers on Instagram. You do need to have clear business objectives. Why do you want more followers on Instagram? Do you want to boost your sales on a certain product or service? Or do you need more followers for brand awareness or to drive traffic?
Think of your business objectives whenever you plan or schedule a post on Instagram. Every post has to be aligned with your business goals to be successful on Instagram.
2. Know Your Target Audience
If you want more Instagram followers, you must be clear about who you are trying to reach. Who is your audience? Are they millennials? Where are they located? How old are they?
Knowing your target market helps you craft great content for them. Remember that you’re posting for the audience, not just for yourself. You can gain more followers so long as you tailor your posts to what the audience wants.
3. Craft Compelling Captions
Instagram may be a visual platform, but content still matters. You can attract more Instagram followers if you can write catchy and compelling captions for your audience. As much as possible, engage them by asking a question. Make sure also to use relevant hashtags in your caption so other users can view the post. Most importantly, make your profile public.
4. Post Regularly
Users follow you because they like your Instagram content. Keep them engaged by regularly posting great content. As much as possible, post every day at the right time. Hootsuite found that between 8 AM – 12 PM PST and 4 – 5 PM PST are the best times to post on Instagram.
5. Use Relevant Hashtags
You can’t search for content on Instagram. However, you can search for hashtags. So long as your post is public, other users can view your post. Instagram users can also follow hashtags, so make sure you post consistently for a particular hashtag to increase Instagram followers.
Ensure you use hashtags related to your niche to attract the right kind of audience.
6. Promote Your Instagram
Do you use other social media platforms? Promote your Instagram to increase your chances of getting more followers. If you have other communities like forums, consider asking other users to follow you as well. It can work so long as you don’t just go there and ask people to follow you. Engage with users in your niche to increase your chances of getting more followers.
7. Work With Instagram Influencers
Do you know that about 60% of consumers say they would follow a brand when it’s being promoted by an Instagram influencer that they trust?
If you want to succeed with Instagram, learn how Influencer marketing works. Find Instagram influencers in your niche and get in touch with them. Encourage them to help you advertise your product or service.
8. Use Instagram Stories
Engage your audience and encourage more Instagram followers by taking advantage of Instagram stories. You can create Instagram Polls and ask the audience to participate, and don’t forget to use relevant hashtags to attract more Instagram users to your account. Also, remember to post beautiful Instagram stories to get more Instagram likes and followers.
Don’t forget to post your Story Highlights to your profile to introduce yourself or your brand to your new and potential Instagram followers.
9. Tag Your Location
Another way for users to find you on Instagram is by geotagging your location. If you’re attending a seminar or a class, tag your location so a targeted group can see you on Instagram.
You can also tag relevant users to your Instagram post. You will gain more Instagram followers when they decide to repost your Instagram content.
10. Advertise
Another way to get Instagram followers is by advertising on Instagram. This isn’t entirely free as you’ll be paying for advertisement, but it’s a good way to reach out to your target audience. You won’t be paying for Instagram followers, just advertising through Instagram.
11. Follow Relevant Accounts
An effective way to gain more Instagram followers is to follow relevant accounts. For example, if your niche is travel writing, follow other travel writers on Instagram. Some of them may check out your posts and follow you, especially when they like your content.
You can find relevant accounts in the Suggested For You or click on Discover People in your profile. Keep in mind to not follow all of these people at once. Instagram only allows a certain number of accounts that you can follow in an hour or a day.
12. Publish Beautiful Photos
Because Instagram is mostly a visual platform, you must post high-quality photos. If you’re a travel writer, post only great photos from your travels. If possible, learn how to take great photos. You can attract more Instagram followers when your content is both engaging and beautiful.
13. Embed Instagram Posts in your Website or Blog
Do you have a website or blog? What about Facebook or Twitter? To gain more Instagram followers, make sure that you embed Instagram posts to gain more traffic. If they like your post, chances are they may follow you on Instagram too.
14. Consider a Collaboration With Another Brand
Have you considered a collaboration with another brand? It can work especially when you can organize a contest featuring both of your products or service.
If you’re a food blogger, consider collaborating with restaurants or cafes in your area. You can encourage both of your followers to follow the brand you’re collaborating with for a price or something. This strategy is a great way to gain more Instagram followers.
15. Engage With Other Users
You can draw attention and attract genuine followers when you engage with other users. Apart from liking posts, make it a point to also comment on them. By commenting, we mean real comments and not very generic comments. Otherwise, they may think that the comments are from bots.
Remember that users get notified whenever you comment or like their posts. They may decide to check out your profile and follow you.
16. Pin the Best Comments
Some users don’t know that you can pin up to three comments for each of your Instagram posts. Use it to your advantage by either posting more compelling captions about your post or pin favorite comments by users. Choose comments that will likely encourage other users to follow you.
17. Organize Contests or Giveaways
By hosting contests or giveaways, you can ask users to follow you to qualify for the contest. You can also ask them to tag their friends and follow you. If the tagged users like your posts, they may follow you as well.
18. Learn How to Use Instagram Insights
If you’re serious about growing your followers, know how to use Instagram Insights. By reviewing it regularly, you’ll know which of your posts are performing well and which are not. You’ll know what time of day your audience is likely to engage with you. Make use of this data to help you get the most from Instagram.
19. Go With a Live Collaboration
You can go live with Instagram. This means that you can engage with your followers in real-time. If you have collaborated with an influencer, you two can use this feature to attract more followers.
A live video can work because all of your followers will be notified when you “Go Live with a Friend.” You can either add this video to your IGTV or make it available 24 hours more in your IG Story.
20. Schedule Your Posts and Stories
You may not always be available to post content on Instagram. However, there are 3rd party tools like Hootsuite that can help. 3rd party tools will post your content directly to Instagram.
Planning your content also allows you more time to think of great captions instead of writing one on the spot.
Familiarize Yourself With Instagram Algorithm
The Instagram algorithm is a set of rules that decide what content goes to your newsfeed, what gets featured in the Explore Tab, or what order Instagram stories show up. It will look at your past behavior and then evaluates each content to see how interesting it would be to a certain user.
Its goal is to give users what they want every time they open the app. A few of their ranking signals include interest, timeliness, following, session time, and frequency of use. You can take advantage of this algorithm, so your post appears consistently on a user’s newsfeed.
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