If you use Instagram, you probably wondered how you would grow Instagram followers organically, without the need to use any tricks, just a good strategy, and awesome content, am I right?
Here at Nitreo, we do that research for you, so you don’t have to spend hours of your time reading and filtering information that isn’t good.
We have been working in social media for years now, and definitely learned something along the way, so hop in and join the ride, you’re about to read some awesome tips to grow Instagram followers organically and efficiently.
Check out the 11 tips below. We selected them so you can become a boss at Instagram marketing.
1. Know your audience
The social media world is amazing, but you have to realize at some point that this is the internet and you can’t please everyone, so you need to know who likes your content.
There are a few things you need to find out so you can focus on that public.
- At what times do they log in to Instagram?
- Their age
- What they like to see on their feed
- Where they live
You found out all of those, now what? Now you can build and adapt your content to appeal to your followers and to get more people with similar tastes to follow you.
2. Know who you’re up against
There are tons of brands working for a living out there, so you will always have competition, no matter what you do.
Knowing what brands are doing and how they engage with customers and their followers can greatly impact your results. You should never copy someone’s work, but understanding why another brand is successful is key in adapting to the market.
Let’s say that you have no idea how to build your brand’s voice for social media, what do you do?
My recommendation is to check out how your competition is approaching its followers. Are they casual? Maybe they even joke around with the audience when replying to comments?
Those are things you can do too, just be sure to stay true to your tone and you are ready to engage your following!
3. Have an awesome profile and bio
Your username should be consistent so your followers can find you across all social media platforms, this will make it easier to keep track of any updates you post.
An Instagram name can include a keyword related to the business you’re in, this will make it pop up in searches more often, so be sure to do that.
You should also include a website linking to your business, this will be the only clickable link in your whole profile.
Create a great bio using up to 150 characters. While you don’t have to use all of the characters, you should make sure that enough is said about your business and that it would make people follow you.
A great example of a brand rocking this is @innout and their famous burgers:
4. Promote your Instagram profile linking it often
You want to make sure that people will see your Instagram profile everywhere.
Send out a mass email out promoting your page, include the link in your email signature, on your website, and wherever you can think of. If you have different platforms, you have space to ensure exposure for your brand.
Sending out emails to your contacts might sound weird, but believe me, they won’t mind one or two emails about it if the content is great.
5. Stay relevant being active in the community
Becoming active in the community you’re in will build connections and credibility for your brand in that niche, you will be visible for the people who are engaged in that niche, and will generate more followers and possible customers.
Like many other social media platforms, Instagram has those communities that constantly engage in certain subjects by following the same hashtags.
You should aim to be vocal about what is going on, simple one-line comments won’t do, so you have to be out there expressing your brand identity.
If you do this, people will interact with your content and your profile will have more chances to appear on the Explore tab.
6. Post interactive stories
Trying to grow Instagram followers organically is no easy task, but if you engage with your followers via stories, this will be a lot easier!
You can post polls, questions, and ask your customers to tag you in reviews of your service or photos of your products.
When replying to those interactive stories, be sure to tag the users, as they will enjoy being featured in a page’s social media feed and most likely will repost that story, expanding the reach to their followers as well!
People who browse their stories have a high chance to visit your page when the content is great.
7. Use highlights
Instagram has a feature to highlight stories into specific sections that will be available to whoever visits the page.
Tell your audience what your brand is all about, promote events, contests, and any other great ideas you might have.
Remember to be consistent with your brand identity, if you need more information on this, check out our article on using Instagram templates to ensure your content is aesthetically consistent.
Take Coca-Cola as an example, they highlighted their sponsorship for the 2021 Olympics, as well as the company joining the NFT market for the very first time.
7. Use hashtags correctly
We all know you can use up to 30 hashtags on your posts, but should you be using all of them?
If you use all of the hashtags to grow Instagram followers organically, you’ll notice that the reach is actually lower!
The fewer hashtags you use, the more people will be reached, as Instagram will split the number of people that see your post with each hashtag used.
Now that you know that, aim to use only hashtags that are relevant to your niche and business, this will ensure that people who are legitimately interested in that will be reached.
We recommend that you use between five and ten hashtags, as this seems to be the most effective number.
Read more on this in our article on Instagram strategies and how this can boost your reach!
8. Tag other users in your captions
Let’s say a customer sent you a picture using your product or service.
What you have there is a great opportunity to post user-generated content.
Don’t be shy, ask the user if you can post their picture on your feed or stories and tag them in it. They will most likely love the idea and your followers will see that as real human interaction with the brand, and who doesn’t love to see that?
9. Plan ahead
Can you imagine running out of content that is ready to be published? Yeah, it doesn’t feel great.
Be sure to have content ready for at least a few posts, it doesn’t have to be super complex content, you can have a couple of videos introducing your team, photos of the backstage, how things happen, even a post asking a question to your audience.
With this strategy, you will have time in between events or product launches, for example, to plan for the more complex stuff.
10. Engage with other brands
Sure, you have competition out there, but this doesn’t mean that brands should be seen as your nemesis.
Find accounts and brands that are similar to yours, visit their profile, and if you like what you see, like their content and comment on their posts. This might actually create a relationship with that brand in the long run.
This kind of networking can bring in followers, likes, and even customers from time to time, as brands that don’t have an influence in your region can recommend you to their audience who doesn’t have access to them.
11. Include the location tag in your posts
Instagram can tag your geolocation on your posts and stories, be sure to add that to your content.
Users can search for locations directly on the app, and this will cause your post to show up when people filter posts this way. It might not seem like much, but every bit of reach matters, and you will be surprised by the results.
Here is an example by Apple, if you check their profile, notice how they always use their location tag and many other tips mentioned in this article.
Summary
These were the most effective tips we recommend using that will help grow Instagram followers organically. Remember that there is no exact math for social media marketing, and you should always try new things and strategies as you go.
If you want to grow your account even more, with no hustle, we recommend trying out Nitreo, the #1 Instagram growth service out there, no bots, no sketchy business.
Red is the content creator for this blog, working directly with the Nitreo team, he aims to help clients and Instagram users to optimize their content and metrics. He is also a photographer obsessed with urban photography and portraits, so you can expect a few posts about Instagram photography from time to time as well.
Red has worked as a Portuguese translator and interpreter for over 7 years, he also felt really weird writing this bio in the third person.