Instagram: How To Get More Followers
Ever since Facebook brought Instagram and re-figured the algorithm , Instagrammers have found that growing their following on Instagram has proved to be far more difficult than we thought. Before I was able to get an average of 900-1000 followers per month but the algorithm meant that my account had reached stagnation and I didn’t know what to do. My enthusiasm for Instagram had waned and I struggled to get past 3,000 followers. But then something changed, I was so sick of brands turning me down because I didn’t ‘have the following’ they were looking for that I made it my mission to grow my following on Instagram. In the space of a month, I have gone from 3,200 followers to 6000 followers and counting, while averaging 845 likes on each photo, an increase of 87.5 %. While brands had always found me through my Instagram before, I have found that more ‘Instagram based collaborations’ have come my way since employing the changes below and I don’t even have to post 2 times a day to garner a bigger following.
You might be wary of me being just another blogger to lure you into my money making course-sadly I don’t have one- but you will be thankful to know that I am just here to help my fellow bloggers out. I have had so many of you wonderful readers ask me how I managed to increase my following so quickly and wanted to demonstrate the strategies and tactics I have used and how they have evolved since my last Instagram post ‘How To Get More Followers On Instagram‘ was written.
Learning How To ‘Super Target’ Your Audience In Order To Gain More Followers
Prior to a month ago, the concept of ‘super targeting’ was as alien to me as keeping a micro pig. But employing the ‘super targeting’ strategy not only increased my following but it also increased my engagement, including the amount of likes and comments given on each photo. But what is super targeting? Super targeting is when you identify a set amount of ‘influencers’ in your niche, that have a good amount of following and interaction. Automatically you would expect the account with the ‘highest amount’ of followers to be the one to give you the most followers back in return but that is not the case. For example consider these two influencers that I have super targeted: Sarah Ashcroft (713 K followers) vs OannaFashionsimbol (29.8 K followers).
While you may think that Sarah Ashcroft would garner the most likes considering she has a bigger following and more amount of likes, it is Oanna’s account that has given me the most users in return. For example only 45 new followers have come from Sarah’s account, whereas 200 new followers have been generated from interacting with Oanna’s account. But how on earth do I know how many followers are being generated from each super targeted account? Well it is simple, read on below to find out more
How To Super Target
- Pick 10 influencers in the same niche as you that have a micro to high following. The key is to look at their engagement i.e. the amount of likes and comments rather than how many followers they have
- Once you have chosen said ’10 accounts’ check their top three latest photos and pick random users who have commented on each photo and interact with their feed. A mixture of both likes and comments seem to work the best.
- Like and comment on a minimum of 50 super targeted influencers followers feeds per day. The key is to space out your interactions though as you don’t want to appear too ‘spammy’ so if you choose to interact with more than 50 accounts a day, leave a few hours in between. I tend to interact with accounts at times that I know my users will be most active.
- Keep track of A. the influencer accounts that you are super-targeting and B. if you want to be even more organized, write down the names of the accounts you are interacting with. Using an app called Unfollowers +, you can determine who has followed you and check it against your list. While keeping track of how many followers you gain from each targeted users account is not the most important step, I do it because I like to keep an eye on my analytics.
- Not all ‘super targeting’ has to be done through influencers either. Although ‘influencer targeting’ has given me the most amount of followers, locational and hashtag targeting works too. In terms of location, I targeted 4 locations, making sure to have a mix of well known and lesser known locations to target niche users. For example the locations I targeted were ‘Shoreditch’, London, Madeira and the US, because that is where my audience is based. Picking locations to interact with is ideal if you know where your users are from and the ‘type of content’ they would be interested in following.
Use Relevant Hashtags
Without hashhtags I am pretty sure my engagement would be far lower than it is now and that is because it is a great way to find new accounts like yours. With the introduction of Instagram’s latest murder device ‘shadow-banning’ I and other readers noticed a dip in likes and engagement, meaning that certain hashtags we were using were getting shadow banned. So therefore I hear you ask, how on earth do you avoid shadow banning? Well, I find that using a mixture of ‘low conversion’ and ‘high conversion’ hashtags seem to work best. Confused? Essentially you need to look at how many people are using a hashtag and remind yourself that overly popular hashtags like #fashion 377,687,644 is more likely to get shadow banned than a lesser used, more niche hashtag like #Fbloggersuk which has 169,855 posts. More confusingly however is even the lesser used hashtags can still get shadow banned so here is what I advise.
How To Use Hashtags
- If you post regularly, you might find that engagement and following can become ‘stagnate’ and that might be because of the ‘over-use of certain hashtags. To ensure your photos are not getting shadow banned use different hashtags for each photo that are still relevant to your niche. For example in this Instagram Photo linked which got 1,085 likes, I used the following hashtags #abmlifeiscolourful (1,815,391), #acolorstory (998,748), #colourgram (6,086), #colorhunters (5,198), #abmlovesmurals (23,603), #ihavethisthingwithcolor (189,773), #thatcolorproject (212,786), #walltraveled (646) and #lookoftheday (14,924,979). Although the majority are ‘low use’ hashtags, because they are niche they tend to be less prone to getting shadow banned.
- To get more followers, it is not only about the hashtags you use but how you use the hashtags. For example you can only use 30 hashtags in a caption, so what I tend to do is insert more hashtags as a comment on my post, before people start commenting. It means that the photo will look less ‘spammy’ and that the hashtags will disappear in the comments but still generate more followers.
- Try and aim to get at the ‘top’ of the hashtags that you use by interacting with the hashtags you have chosen. For example in my latest photo which has 900 likes I used the following hashtags #dating (2,290,807) #iamchichi(1,489), #ootd (127,378,292) , #wiwt (7,713,916), #wiw (6,855,548), #whatimwearing (1,002,047) #whatiwore(7,340,052 ), #blogger (35,912,352), #fblogger (2,449), #fbloggers (2,191,015), #fbloggersuk (169,862) #fashion (377,701,113), #fashionblog (11,809,554 ) #blog (20,001,941) #streetstyle (28,913,386) #outfitpost (4,859,683 ) #fashionblogger (39,447,418). In at least 7 of the hashtags I used, I made it into the top three hashtags and that was because A. the amount of likes and comments I had received and B. through interacting with those ‘said’ hashtags.
- Use different hashtags in each photo to avoid getting shadow banned and gaining new followers . To find out whether your tags have been shadow banned use https://shadowban.azurewebsites.net/ to find out what tags have been shadow banned. For example in the photo above the tags #instadaily, #igdaily, #instapic, #photooftheday, #instafashion, #colorcolourlovers, #acolorstory, #flashesofdelight, #colorhunters, #amblifeiscolorful, #abm, #candyminimal were shadow banned.
Interact With Accounts In Your Niche
Similar to ‘super-targeting, interacting with followers in your niche will allow you gain more followers. Unlike super targeting though, you are not targeting accounts based on their following and engagement ratio but through their relevance to your accounts niche. For example, because I am a ‘fashion’ blogger on Instagram and use street art as my aesthetic, I combine a search for both ‘fashion’ blog accounts and ‘street art feeds’ because they will be the most likely to interact with my account.
Primarily interacting with accounts in your niche can be done by searching through relevant hashtags (see above) but another way to find accounts in your niche is by reading blogs i.e. through a google search and then finding their social media accounts. Once you have found their account, you will notice other bloggers or instagrammers interacting with their accounts and you can follow and like/comment on their content to form an ‘alliance’. Which brings me to my next point:
Like and Comment On Photos In Your Niche
Once you have found said ‘niche photos’ whether that be ‘street art’ or ‘food’, ensure to comment on their photos, rather than just liking their content. Comments tend to be seen by users more than ‘likes’ which means that other users who happen to stumble upon their content might find your comment, like your feed and follow you. When commenting, make sure that comments are meaningful, as comments that are less than three words and just ’emoji’s’ are not seen as authentic comments. Plus a comment that connects with the photos caption or photo shows thought, meaning the user is more likely to follow you.
Geotag Your Photos
Geo-tagging means turning the ‘location’ on for a photo i.e from my feed you can see that many of my photos say ‘Brick Lane’ or ‘Shoreditch’ because that is where the majority of my photos are taken. Without geotagging there might be less chance of your photo being found and we all know we need to try our hardest to beat the dreaded altoreigm. This is because users might be wanting to travel to a particular place and your location may show up in their search. I find that when people are searching for street art in London they stumble across my feed, because of the geo-tag I have used.
Have A ‘Unique’ Theme
Now this is a bit of a contentious one I know. Some feeds do very well without having a ‘set theme’ but for me personally I am more likely to follow a feed that has a set theme than one that is miscellenous. It shows presentation skills and a good grasp of aesthetic but then again we all look for different things in the themes we follow. Whether that be a ‘monochrome’ aesthetic or a colourful feed like mine, finding a theme that will seperate your account from others, will help you gain more followers. But how do you create a unique theme? There are so many ways that you can create your own aesthetic and that is by identifying a ‘gap’ in the market. Take a look at how I created my feed below.
How I Created My Unique Feed ‘Theme’
- Believe it or not I used to not use street art as my aesthetic and would use a variety of different, often scenic locations to make up my feed. Finding ‘street art’ helped hone my aesthetic and eventually I cut out all other ‘locations’ out completely because there was a gap in the market for ‘street-art’ led feeds. Although I had seen plenty of accounts that ‘featured street art’ there were very rare feeds that dedicated the entirety of their accounts to street art.
- My next step was colour-code my feed in rows of three. Those who know me in real life know that I am a perfectionist when it comes to ‘colour coding’ so whether that be matching my clothes to the wall, or finding an alternate wall to clash against the clothes I am wearing, it is all about making the colours pop. I typically use a colour theme of blues, pinks and reds, as many of the walls I use seem to be those colours. By analyzing those colours I have used, I have found that those with lower saturation as opposed to bright have not only garnered more ‘likes’ but they have also gained more followers too. In the photo that got the most likes, I used mixed colouring – red and white- which was tieing into that weeks theme of ‘red’ but you don’t neccessarily have to colour code like I do unless it is part of your theme.
- The last photo in each row will mirror the one below it, either through a similar colour that will mark the beginning of the next weeks theme or through using the same wall. This allows my feed to look clean and cohesive.
Use Facebook Groups
One of the biggest ways I have increased my following is through using Facebook groups. Whether that be through taking part in threads, or promoting our links, this has helped boost my Instagram precence. Follow threads are a great way of increasing your following and you get to meet some cool bloggers in your niche, as well as outside of it too. Although there are plenty of Facebook groups that are catered to all social media channels + your blog like Blog Support Group and Bloggers United , if you want groups that are specifically tailored to Instagram, then Instagram Fabulous , UK Instagram Support and Instagram Bloggers UK are the best ones.
Making Use Of Instagram’s Interactive Features: Instagram Stories
When Instagram introduced their ‘Instagram Stories Feauture’ I almost wept with joy. While I don’t use it as often as I should, I have found that because my account is not private there are some people who watch my videos and stories because it has been suggested to them. Thus an increase of followers is ensued; that being said if you post too often that can make you lose your following so strike a balance and see what works best for both you and your audience. Posting a mixture of ‘behind the scenes’ type videos or photos and even screenshots of your blog can not only bring you more followers but also bring more traffic and thus followers to your blog but more on that in another post.
Tag Influential Accounts
Some bloggers have found that tagging ‘famous’ or well known influencer accounts in their photos can often gain more likes and follows. But if you really want to generate a higher following, I find that creating a shoutout and tagging accounts that you feel inspired by works more effectively as users are likely to A. Re-gram or share your content and tag you in return meaning their followers may follow you in return.
Including CTA’s ( Call To Action) in Caption
Regardless of the length of your caption, creating a ‘call to action’ i.e ‘sign up to my account with Like To Know It‘ or ‘click the link in the IG bio to find out more’ is an interesting way of A. engaging with your audience and getting them to interact with your external content and B. you gain more followers because you are actively ‘calling out’ to your audience which of course is rather exciting for them. I tend to include an excerpt from my latest blog post, meaning that people who stumble upon my account will not follow my feed but they will also visit my blog.
Schedule Your Content & Maintain A Consistent Schedule
Because I am signed up with Like To Know It, I am part of their ‘Reward Style’ Database, meaning I can schedule my Instagram content through the app. So when I am ready to post I just click on the scheduler and then it copies over the content to Instagram, although it can not post the photo for you without your permission. Ideally you want to be posting at least once a day at a set time that works with you and your audience although because of my full time job, I only post 1-3 times a week which probably means I could be getting more followers if I posted more often. You need to find a time that works for you; for me I post at 8 PM, because that is when I am able to post the content and also when my followers seem to be the most active.
Host A Giveaway and Partner With Other Influencers
Although I have not hosted a giveaway, I have seen that other bloggers have partnered with other influencers to host a giveaway, meaning that they have gained more of a following as a result. The only thing with a giveaway is that many users may unfollow after the giveaway is ended so just be wary of that. For others though partnering with another blogger has allowed them to get more followers.
Cross Promote To Gain Followers
As well as Instagram I am sure that you have Facebook, Twitter and more so why not cross promote to gain followers. For example whether that be by including your account at the end of blog posts or promoting your account on Twitter, your other channel followers may follow your feed if they like your content. I find that Twitter, apart from the blog, seems to be the best way to cross promote, as we all know that tweets can be the biggest driver of both ‘traffic’ and ‘following’.
There you have it, Faded Spring’s long and rambling -but hopefully informative- guide to getting more followers on Instagram. Any Questions?
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Phwoah Ana, I am so excited about this Post. Because I definitely had the same feeling about IG after the Facebook Change to a curated feed.
I have not really reached out to many brands because of our Low Follower numbers on IG. With some help from a VA all this is possible For sure. Otherwise, OMG Late nights galore. You are a rockstar. Thanks for sharing!
Wow! I didn’t even know about shadow ban, and I’m using the same hashtags in every photo till now! I really loved all of your tips! I’m about to find mine 10 influencers and write them down! Thank you for sharing these with us…
P.S. Would totally love if you make a post about Hashtags!
This is AMAZING thank you!!! I am bookmarking this and am going to start implementing it! I find IG to be so hard to gain new followers & never know which hashtags to use! Thanks again 😀 xx
I needed this break down on instagram too much! Although I have nearly 10k I don’t have the interaction I wanted so I am going to implement your super targeting and let you know how it goes! Thank you!
Great tips, Ana. Instagram has been so frustrating for me lately. Like you, when I first joined just over a year ago, my followers increased so rapidly and I was getting 1500 likes on most photos. That dropped to around 200 likes (at best) a few months ago and my number of followers have really stagnated. I know I am also a little lazy and don’t interact or engage as much as I perhaps should – will definitely try your tips to see if that helps!
Wow, this is so useful! I have been trying to build up my Instagram and growth has been beyond slow😣 I’ll definitely be trying some of your tips, thanks for sharing!
Lou
reallifewithlou.com
Wow what an information packed post! I love Instagram and although I have a relatively small following I enjoy using it as a platform to improve my photography 🙂
I absolutely agree with the interaction, we may moan and complain about the algorithm, but Instagram is about community and if you put in the work then you will get results.
And great cohesive content, so you feed looks good when viewed on the grid.
Interacting will others in your niche will always help and I like facebook groups too although it is very time consuming to do
This is the best breakdown of Instagram I’ve seen. You’re a genius! I’ve bookmarked this and am going to try it out. Thank you! 🙂
I am almost limit when it comes to IG following since I started using IG I have been joining giveaways and now that I turn into blogging I wanted to create new IG account solely for my blog only. Thankfully I came across this post and now I have the idea in how I could grow an Instagram account. This is very helpful
There are lots of great tips here. I have found that facebooo groups have been great for increasing all kinds of engagement.
Wow! That has to be one of the best guides to using Instagram that I’ve read! I don’t believe you’ve left a single element out and followed I think anyone will see an increase in following and likes, and ultimately engagement. I think Stories are a great way to create awareness and lovely to get behind the scenes snapshots as you say. The only thing I do is ‘aim’ to post 1-3 times a day. I’d also play around with long form content on some posts too. There’s a restricted word count but you can add even more value to your audience by adding more information.
I think that plus all your advice will secure awesome engagement levels.
I used to say that hashtags were everything, but with the new algorithm – they’re not anymore. I think it’s a whole combination of everything you mentioned.
These are all great tips! Te one with targeting influencers and then reaching out to 50 of the person that engages with their publication is brilliant! I’ll defo do that! thanks for sharing! xx corinne
Wowzers what a useful post! Super targeting makes a lot of sense but sounds quite labour intensive. I hate this shadow banning nonsense!
Interesting and super relevant for me at the moment as I only recently started on Instagram. I hope to join some of those instagram accounts you mentioned and hopefully boost my follower count, thanks so much for sharing these tips.
This post is awesome. You’ve given so many fantastic tips. My engagement has plummeted, so I need to sort my hashtags and put more effort into interacting with others. Thanks!
A really interesting post, and one that you are right that given the alogorhythm is particularly topical right now. Thanks for sharing what has worked for you.
Ana, this is fantastic. Instgram scares me silly and I haven’t known where to begin, so have just ignored it. This covers everything I need to know in a way that I can actually understand. Thank you!
I’ve been trying to build my Instagram following for a while. This is some great information that we all can use.
Super targeting, by and large, does work! I’ve seen my Twitter account spike because of it.
This is really helpful especially as I struggle the most with In stag ran
Some seriously good tips and tricks here lady, always knowing what is what x
Wow! This by far the most useful article about growing your IG following I’ve ever read and I’ve read a lot! I love how you included concrete and actionable steps instead of vague advice like “take good pictures.”
I’m saving this post!!!
Thanks for sharing!
-Yvonne
http://www.TejanaMaluca.com
I’ll have to bookmark this! I hardly have any time for social media these days due to my busy and sometimes hectic schedule, but I’m going to definitely take your advice since I’d love to extend my following on Instagram.
thank you! I have been trying to grow, I recently passed 1000, and my next goal is 2500
This is one helpful blog post. I’ve been trying my hardest to grow mine and it is working. I went from 380 to more than 500. I’m trying to get to my year end goal of 1,000 so I’m going to take this as a guide to help me achieve that. I’ve never heard of super targeting so I might start there and go down. The Facebook group and hashtags have worked so well for me so far. Love the blog post and hope yours grows even more!
So many helpful tips, thank you! There’s definitely a lot more to it than simply posting a picture. I’m so close to 2000 followers so hopefully if I implement your tips I’ll be there in no time!
Really interesting and helpful post – the first one I’ve read in a long time that actually makes some different suggestions of how to increase numbers and engagement!
You are a savior <3 This post is really very informative and I can actually see lot of to-do's for my account from this post. Thank you so much for this amazing post !
Great tips. I love Instagram but also find it hard to grow my account.
Definitely need to bookmark this article so I can work on my following and engagement, thanks for sharing you tips and tactics
This is fantastic!! THANK YOU! ☀️
VERY hard but i have notice things are different. now i understand why. informative. i will try again. thx
Ana this is an awesome article you have written (my favorite so far). I am going to test out some of your ideas , I’ve been stuck at over 1k for quite some time & I would love to grow.
Wow wow WOW! So many tips that I hadn’t a clue about trying before I read this. Super targeting and commenting more plus geo-tagging I will try asap. I’m part of a few fb groups but need to use them more!
Thanks for sharing!
Leigh at Fashion Du Jour LDN x
http://www.fashiondujour.co.uk
really not bothered about instagram in a pro active way – however i will definitely share this post on my Facebook,twitter and instagram stories as i believe it will help so many people who have complained to me about instagram. So this is really good information and insight into how to do more !
cheers Ana
I really think shadow ban happens because I sometimes see on my instagram that hashtags seems to be not working. LOL. But I see your point. And I agree with you on targeting, and getting more engagement on the posts.
http://www.clairebearblogs.com
This is brilliant but can you expand on how you search using two different hashtags please?
What do you mean by two different hashtags hun? If you pop me an email I will be sure to answer any questions you may have x
What an amazing post! I have found my following to go a bit stagnant despite regular posting and having a religious layout with my grid. I’ll deffo give some of these tips a go!
Thanks for sharing.
Danielle @lady_loves_online
Fabulous! I am so excited to put these into action!
I feel like this is the most detailed, comprehensive list of IG tips and tricks I’ve ever read! THANK YOU for keeping it so real (P.S. I literally LOL’d when I read “micro pig” :-} )
Instagram is something I still need to do, but just so busy at the moment however, I will b saving this link as it is a fab guise – thank you 🙂 x
I just wrote such a similar piece but our advice is similar and different which is so so useful! Amazing!! L x
So many great tips! I will definitely be bookmarking this.
Great post! Definitely saving this for future use!
Thanks for the tips, i’m trying to get more followers on Instragram
Oh my gosh, this is SO helpful! I really don’t know what I’m doing on Instagram and my goal is to hit 10K by the end of summer. With your tips, I hope to accomplish this.
Thanks for the comprehensive guide Ana. I’m bookmarking this post so I can try implement some of your hints and tips as I’d really like to grow my IG account!
So much amazing information here!! I thought that I knew my stuff on Instagram but I’ve never heard of super targeting before! I’m definitely going to give it a try!
It is a lot of work to create a huge following with any social media outlet. These are great tips! I am working on my instagram account and trying to build it up!
First, I love your outfit. I am not a big instagram person but have started to use the hashtag more on twitter. I look forward to seeing how it helps.
Interesting and helpful post. Instagram really has changed so much now that it’s difficult to get the same response as before but these are some great ideas.
great suggestions and very comprehensive post. I will need to up my game on Instagram. R
I am bookmarking this post! So so helpful and super spot on!
Great tips! I want to grow my IG too, but there are so many social media accounts and so little time. Little steps for me.
These are great tips! I’d love to grow my IG followers so this helps a lot for my blog. Thank you for sharing such great information.
Awesome! Have been looking on how to use instagram to gain followers.
These are great tips! I’m newer to Instagram after wanting to tear my hair out with Facebook. And while I know Instagram’s algorithm is tricky, Facebook’s algorithm has been so totally screwing me in the last few months that I’m overjoyed with Instagram. Though I know that can change in a heartbeat as I spent a couple years feeling I could get past any Facebook algorithm change. Anyway, I’ll start putting some of these tips into action.
You listed so many useful tips in this post! I ‘m going to have to go back through it to make sure that I take my time implementing some of them, if not all of them. Thank you for sharing!
Obsessed with all of your insights. You learned so early on in the game – I wish I had too! I’m still learning all this stuff now, even at 85k followers. Smart girl !
Wow you have 85 K followers?! That is amazing teach me your ways! xx
Great Post! I love your advice and the photos. I am definitely keeping these tips in mind for my Instagram account. Thanks for sharing.
XOXO //SINCERELY OPHELIA | NYC Petite Fashion Blogger</a
I don’t have an Instagram account ( I know it sounds weird But yea, that’s true lol). am gonna save this for my future use if ever I have one 🙂
Wow! Great advice. I’m trying to grow my Instagram and it was doing ok and now it’s slower right down which is very frustrating. Great lipstick by the way! What is it?
These are such great tips here. I fear that not all of them would work for me. Mainly the fact that my niche is so broad I am not sure I would do well trying to limit the color spectrum. But maybe. I will definitely be looking up locations and influencers and interacting with people who interact with them. This is such a great idea I didn’t think about it before. Or I just have been busy. I know it will take work but it’s worth it.
I will definitely bookmark this post! And I guess interaction is the key to everything.
Woah, I would like to try these tips! I am still starting to pay more attention to my IG, and only did some of what’s written here kike scheduled post, hashtags and geotag. What excites me is the super targetting! It might seem of a lot of work but I will definitely try this one. Thank you for this!
Very informative post. I have been struggling big time with my Instagram account. I will definitely try to utilize some of these tips for myself.
Ohh these are actually amazing tips! Totally agree with you on the interaction point, with other from your niche, it really does make a difference.
Excellent and very inspiring post, Ana! I’ve been struggling for a while (or to be honest over 6 months) with the fact that my follower count is keeping the same. Good thing is that it isn’t dropping but it’s super frustrating when it just stays the same. I’m scheduling and planning my content with an app called Planoly which is great because it has helped a lot in making my feed more beautiful. I’ve also increased the quality of photos by shooting more with DSLR.
Your post helped me figure out what I’m actually doing wrong. It’s lack of interaction. I’m in couple fb groups and I do give others some likes and comments daily but I guess I have targeted those interactions incorrectly. I will for sure start super targeting today! I hope it helps me to gain some more followers. It would also be cool to get regrammed or to get a chance to host a giveaway with others. I hope super targeting will help me with those too. Once again, thank you. 🙂
Great read and helpful tips, I really don’t use hashtags as much as I should so I’ll definitely be following your advice. Thanks!
This is a great post, Ana. I’ll definitely give your tips a try 🙂 I’m one of the lucky ones who hasn’t been affected by the algorithm changes, but then I’m not as active as many Insta users, so that might be why 🙂
Louise x
Amazing post – thanks so much for the tips. My engagement on instagram has been so low recently. I had far more likes when I had half the amount of followers!
Also I think instagram is getting ridiculous! Why would it shadowban #acolorstory!!
*angry face*
This is really useful for me now as i was looking for something like to grow my IG 🙂 Thank you so much !
I am a slacker when it comes to IG. I need to get on trying to grow my account a bit more, and this is really helpful advice. I will have to try out some super targeting later on today!
Glad I came over this post. I have no idea about this the algorithm and the engagements, etc. Thanks a lot for sharing. I learned a lot by reading this post.
These are really great tips. Still dont really understand ‘shadow-banning’ as you said the tag #photooftheday was shadow banned, but when I check a photo using the website link checker is says my photo is fine. so little bit confused
That means that all the hashtags you have used have not been shadowbanned. You are doing something right 🙂
I am quite the opposite with hastags and use ones with not so many uses, more because I use specific ones for specific photos x
I have gained followers thanks to hashtags. It definitely helps especially if you’re using a hashtag that a lot of people use as well. These are all helpful tips!
I have grown my following throughout the years and it was a little challenging at first. It pays to super target, because interaction helps you get noticed.
That was an interesting article, i used to use instagram but i found it very addictive so i quitted. I`m sure that if i would still use it this would be handful for me. 🙂
These sound like some great tips, I have to admit I’m not a huge Instagram user I find all of social media a lot of hard work to maintain.
I’ve been really struggling with Instagram since the algorithm changed, so thanks for these tips x
I am sharing and bookmarking this post too! honestly I’ve been so down and disenchanted with Instagram of late, I feel like I’m wasting great photos, my photos don’t show up in any hashtags I use and my engagement has gone from 200+ organic likes to struggling to get 40 per photo! I’ve never heard of this Super-targeting but I’m definitely going to try it! Thank you so much for posting this!!
Ellie | http://www.scotchandstilettos.com
Good advice, very detailed, it’s amazing how popular Instagram has become!
I love all of your tips here! I’m trying to focus a lot more on Instagram this year and I think all of this will really help. I was growing my following fast and now it’s been much slower.
I will have to read through this post because the ideas are great and thank you for sharing. I have been growing my instagram but not as fast as you have, I will have to try some of these tips.
WOWZA, that’s incredible results. So many helpful tips here too!
So saving for later, thanks for sharing!
There are some really useful tips here, thanks for sharing Ana – I was completely unaware of shadow banning, checked the site and my last few posts have been banned! Will have to start checking the hashtags I use! x
I haven’t really been focusing too much on Instagram. I am, however, using a lot more dedicated hashtags which seems to help a little bit of growth.
Instagram is not something I work on much and is kind of the only social network I sort have left out for my blog. I still keep it pretty personal but am soon learning how I can leverage my instagram.
Instagram looks like it has a serious strategy. Thanks for sharing some of the tips that worked for you in growing your IG following.
Not sure if I have the stamina to be super targeting users 50x a day! That’s a lot of work hahaha – I do love and use the geotag feature on almost all my photos though as well as the hashtags in the comments. I keep them organized in folders based on location/subject so I don’t have to think about it too much before posting!
Best,
Rebecca
I’ve struggled to build a good following on IG . This is really great advice that I’ll be implementing for sure!
Very helpful. Tons of helpful tips. thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much for this post! I’ve only recently started my blog and my blog’s Instagram, but am finding it so hard to gain followers. I notice I am even losing followers (most likely spam), but it’s disheartening. I’m definitely gonna utilize your tips! Following you now, love xx
These are super awesome tips for Instagram users. Loved reading it and bookmarked it too. 🙂
Awesome tips lovely! I have neglected my Instagram so much lately, must get back in the game! So thanks for sharing this, perfect timing 🙂 x
These are great tips! I seriously feel like it’s so difficult to grow my following. Hoping these tips will help!
http://thebbar.org/
I’ve never thought about this before. I don’t know a lot of strategies and it would be nice to have more followers than what I have now. I think these are all going to help me out. Thank you so much for sharing your tips and tricks.
Great tips! Engaging with my followers and users in my niche, as well as targeted hashtags seem to work well for me!
Very insightful tip, thank you for sharing.
It is far too much work to grow on IG these days! Some fab tips though! xo
Some really great tips here! I have saves it for later to try 🙂
This is such a helpful article! I have always wanted to grow a significant number of IG followers. Now I know how. Thanks for the loads of information you provided.
Thank you, Ana, so much for sharing all this fabulous information! I had a pretty good start with Instagram but then suddenly it all stopped and for months now I haven’ gain any new followers and the likes of the posts have decreased. i definitely need to start working harder and now it’s quite easy becayse of your tips and advice i finally know what should be done.
These are all great tips! Definitely going to try super-targeting!
xx,
Amanda || http://www.fortheloveofglitter.com
Wow, that’s a whole lot of information packed into one post! I’ve read half of it and am bookmarking it to refer to tomorrow when my mind and eyes aren’t so tired! It’s extremely helpful, Ana, thank you!
These are SUCH fantastic, detailed tips! Thank you so much! I’m so confused by the shadow ban though. Apparently some of my photos were banned, while others weren’t. With the same hashtags!
Oh my gosh these are some great tips! I need to get better on engaging with people on Instagram. There just never seems to be enough time.
These are some great tips. I’ve been working on growing my Instagram following and this is exactly the inspiration that I needed. I look forward to seeing some growth on my account.
Thanks, these are really handy tips. The ones you mention at the start, about seeking out influencer accounts and then interacting with their followers is cool and I’ve never heard of it before. It makes sense, as we all know, everyone loves it when someone interacts with their account! Looking forward to trying a few of these out 🙂
These are seriously great tips. I have been trying to make it to the 100k club but it’s taking me some time. I guess it’s start to implementing your strategies.
Meghan | beyondbasicblog.com
As a newbie on IG and social media in general, I found this post very helpful. Will try some of your strategies to grow our IG following. Thank you for the heads up.
Thanks for your awesome tips! I have to give time for my IG account following soon. Kudos!
This post is so interesting! So many useful informations and great tips!
You really shared the tips and knowledge with this post. Thank you. I need to take Instagram more seriously x
Thank you for staring these tips. I will definitely try the super targeting via influencers. I was trying to target people via smaller or local hashtags but havent really given a try to targeting followers of influencers.
Very interesting post. I need to start getting Instagram really!
Thanks so much for taking the time to write this, I’ve really been struggling with Instagram recently, so this is super helpful! 🙂
So much great advice here. Thank you
This is brilliant Ana, thank you so much for putting it together. Im finding Instagram the hardest to grow so I’ll try out all of these tips.
Hi Ana. Just downloaded the unfollowers + app. My amount of followers hasn’t budged in the past few months. Thanks for the tips!
Wonderful insights. I am also struggling to grow my followers as well as engagement in Instagram. I have tried some tips before but they just didn’t work. Your tips are novel and worth a try.
I find Instagram is the hardest platform of mine to grow. Sometimes it’s easy and other times it struggles! Great tips here though.
Great post and very detailed, I love it!! You have inspired me to go further. Thanks Ana, your posts are always full of great information and beautiful photos x
Fabulous article. I just sent it to my VA. I do many of these tactics but have never micro-targeted. Love this.
This is the most useful instagram growing post ive ever read thank you for sharing
Whoah this post is amazing! I feel that my IG has got a little stale and I literally have gained no new followers this month, which is really weird. My likes have tailed off too, so I need to sit down and make important notes from your post and start trying them xx
I’m really working on my Instagram at the moment so I will be taking these tips on board and giving them a try once Jack is back at school after half term
Definitely going to employ these tips on my Instagram. I have noticed that being more conscientious with my hashtag selection and using Facebook groups has helped my likes and followers increase.
Oh my goodness this must have taken you ages to write. So helpful and in depth thank you. I certainly target followers in my niche bit there’s loads here I can implement. Saving for later thank you. Wow at your following. It took my 4 months to get to 1k.
Wow, this is such a well thought out and informative post. Thank you so much for putting this together!
Such great tips and advice Ana! I remember you writing on one of my blog posts about growing your Instagram fast and how someone had crammed about you so thats awesome!! Hopefully applying some of these tips will work for me!
Great tips. I now know how Instagram works better thanks to your tips. Thanks for all the information
So many helpful tips in this post, definitely love the one about focusing on 10 accounts and interacting with some of them! I think I may have to try this for myself..
Amazing! Been looking for something like this, I have been using more hashtags and interacting more but hadn’t thought of focussing on one or two other influencers. Lots of top tips!
These are some really insightful tips, thank you for sharing! xx
Wow! So many ideas! I can see that you worked hard to get more followers so well done for getting more followers! The target idea is way too much work for me, but I will remember it for one day! Greta post and thanks for sharing
Seriously for starters, this article is so spot on and can speak to many people – myself included. Secondly, thank you so much for sharing this in-depth information because all too often things are put out there as a “resource,” when there is no explanation to accompany it! You did just that. You are awesome and so is your blog!
This is so awesome! I’m going to use some of the tips on my IG. I’m pinning this!
These tips are incredible! So kind of you to taking the time and write this post for her, I really appreciate that. I will certainly implement these tips and try to increase my following also!
Awesome tips for how to effectively use Instagram.
Thank you for sharing your detailed method for growing instagram followers, very useful. I will try this with my account, so far it has less than 200 followers but lets see what happens in a couple of months time.
This is super helpful. I’m going to save it for later and have another read through and take some notes. Thank you for such an easy to under explaination. So many people make it over complicated or too simple.
Interesting read! This gives great insight on how to do it step by step. I will start with joining blogger groups and from there start employing the other steps you shared.
Ana, I can’t thank you enough for this post. I’m not even kidding, I’ve read, re-read, and taken notes on all of the different strategies. The world of social media is a crazy one. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on it, they change the algorithm and everybody is trying to get their bearings again. The first thing I’m going to do is focus on niche hashtags. After that, interacting with others in the food blogging realm. I’m so excited to see some better results. A million thank-yous (again) .. you’re the best!
Wow, I really love this tips and this is so helpful for me. I will keep this in my mind
I started with Instagram recently, so this post has come at a very right timing. I am sure to grow quite a bit if i use this information correctly. thanks
Just thought of one more thing .. If you’re looking for a really great podcast to listen to, Food Blogger Pro featured an incredible guest on their May 23, 2017 episode. Her name is Danielle Liss and she talked a lot about how important reach is now for brands when they’re looking to hire bloggers. She touched on a number of the large platforms, including Instagram, with a focus on what bloggers should be charging. It was really interesting to hear how the gold standard used to be page views, but has now moved to social shares. Lots and lots of food for thought!
You just brought Instagram to a whole new level. I can’t believe there were so many new terms I wasn’t aware of. Thank you for this post xx
This is so incredible. I wanna try this as soon as possible. such a great and wonderful tips.
lol as alien to me as keeping a micro pig (whats a micro pig hahaha)
these are such brilliant and fantastic tips that i’m going to incorporate asap. gonna try the insta story right now infact thanks
Wow, thanks for all this insightful information. I havent really been looking into the instagram algorithm because I have been gaining sufficient followers but I might have to put some of these practices into place to try and up my game even more.
I’ve always found hashtags the most important and alongside a continual theme for your niche whatever that may be, it makes it easy on the eye to have a strong theme and style on Instagram
I am not a big fan of Hashtag. It never benefits me !! But your article give a reason to try one time this hashtag theory
OMG , Ana you are the best! Thanks for these useful tips …m so gonna incoprate it into my insta strategy. Following you on insta right away! 💓💓💓
I love this post and I’m going to get to work now and use the information in it. My instagram became so stagnant I’ve just taken a break from it for a few weeks because it was finding it really frustrating. I’m going to give these tips a go for sure! x
Great post Ana.. it is so lovely to see you sharing what you have learned with other bloggers. Social media can be a real battlefield!
Brilliant post with fantastic tips. Thank you so much for sharing. I am at 14700 followers and a bit stuck. Kaz x
My growth has stalled! THANK YOU! I am going to try these tips.
This blog post definitely has a lot of information. I have almost 15,000 followers on Instagram, but I do not like it when I have people who follow me and then as soon as I follow them, they unfollow me.
I saw this post yesterday and went to my IG to apply some of the things you said. I am so glad, I did because I am seeing changes with following my competitors and installing Unfollowers already. This is by far the most comprehensive article I have read on growing an account!
Your tips are so useful, but wow, instagram has become so difficult and time consuming hasn’t it.
I am still struggling with instagram but your post is very helpful to work as a community with other instagrammers to get traffic. I have just been spending time on my own page but not so much on interacting with others.
Thanks for the tips I normally just follow a bunch of people on IG they tend to follow me back I will try ur hashtag as well
This is an excellent post Ana and I am very impressed by the fact that you are honest about revealing your tips on how to grow on Instagram. I’ve booked marked this post in order to refer to it again. Well done on a fab post! x
What a fantastic post, full of really helpful tips, and ways that I hadn’t heard of before.
Some really, really useful and helpful stuff here. I’m actually going to print it off to read and digest properly and try to put some of it in action! Thanks
When love to learn the new tips about how to use hashtags on Instagram. By the way I have one suggestion for you that is getriver and tool which can help you grow your reach with the related Niche
Thank you for your advice! I had not heard of getriver, I will check it out now x
Some useful advice here. Do you think Instagram is over-rated though? It’s rubbish at driving traffic, doesn’t seem to do much for brand. My suspicion is that it’s only popular because brands prefer to use ‘influencers’ in the space and so there’s money to be made.
That is a good question and I am glad you asked me. It can frustrate me at times, I do get traffic from it but like you said it is great at making money for brands and influencers if used in the right way. But I feel like you need to have a high following on it to make money, sadly I am not at that stage at the moment.
Well you have certainly shown that there is a lot to Instagram if you are determined to seriously grow with it. You obviously are very knowledgeable in this area and I really enjoyed reading this piece and learning a number of things I didn’t know. Also love your fashion by the way!
Awesome post! Will definitely try the super targeting method. Thanks for helping everyone out with this much needed post 🙂
Wow! This is amazing information on how to grow an IG account. I love all the in-depth detail. I really appreciate your sharing these fantastic strategies! Thank you so much. 🙂
Thank you will have to give some of this a try, always fab to learn more
This is such a great list of tips! This is definitely the best guide I’ve ever read on how to use and grow on Instagram! Thank you for sharing, I’ll surely follow your tips!
Samantha | https://samanthacarraro.wordpress.com/
Some great tips, I am always looking to grow my IG. I have noticed a decline in interaction too
This is by far the best tips about Instagram I’ve ever read! Everything is explained goodly, precisely, and in details. I don’t really know about Shadow Banned. Thanks Ana for this useful post!
These tips are very useful thanks you so much ! I learned a lot !
This is so useful! I haven’t heard of some of these tips so will have to try them out . Thanks for sharing!
Amanda | https://ldnrose.com
Congrats anna for the all progress you made. I am happy for you. This is an awesome post, very detailed and well written. I personally saw a lot of of difference in mine when I intereact with niche influencers and like a hundrededs of pictures in the hastags. But all these do take up get a lot of time and you need to be very consistent.
Congrats Anna for all the progress you made. Very happy for you. This is an awesome post, very detialed and well written. I personally saw a lot difference in my engagement when I interact with niche followers and like hundreds of pictures in the hastags I use but all these do take a lot of time and you got to be very consistent which I am not able to due to my job and other personal stuff
These are all great tips which I need to try. Although, I have to admit I’m not a big fan of Instagram themes.
http://ohduckydarling.com
Hun, you’re a total rockstar!!! This is probably the first authentic and relevant ‘how to grow followers’ post I’ve seen! Instead of focusing on cliches you provide us with genuinely helpful advice- thank you so much! I have no idea how you manage to handle it all, you’re such an inspiration and I have oh-so much to learn from you! Xx
I’m currently having trouble getting out to a non-vegan audience (my target audience) so your techniques actually seem like an incredible way to spread the message in a fun and concentrated way. Thanks for the mega tips!! 💚
Boy have I have using Instagram all wrong! I’m going to need to dedicate more time to Instagram to figure this all out. I’ve never heard of Super Target before, but it sounds like a great way to gain engagement on an account. I also need to research scheduling apps and see which one will be the best for me. Thanks for sharing the tips to your success!
I have been trying to gain followers on my instagram so I’m going to have to give some of these a try! I thought the targeting was a really good tip since I had no clue about it until this post.
These are great tips! It always amazes me how much my followers grow when I choose the right hash tags!
So glad I found this guide, I’ve had it saved in my Facebook links up until today meaning to get round to reading it. Very useful information. Just out of interest, how much time per day would you say is needed to spend time growing your following and engagement in this way? 🙂
Thank you for your tips! I am always looking for new ideas on increasing my audience. I’m going to have to use some of your secrets.
Wow there’s so much to it. I honestly feel like all my social media is stagnating but I don’t have the time to commit to any radical steps. This advice is awesome for those that do though.
V ❤️
Great post. Very detailed.
Such an honest and giving post. High-Fives all round!!
Rebecca
xx
Thanks for breaking that down so cleanly. I have seen some of this advice before, but you put it all together in one comprehensive post.
Some great tips here..do you not find however commenting on 50+accounts a dAy is really time consuming ?
It is very time consuming but interacting with your followers accounts is so important for building relationships and growing your following. Also ensuring that comments are high quality helps x
I really want to thank you for the most detailed and so easily explained tips and tricks I have read so far!!
THANK YOU for keeping it so real..
It think it will be working and I can’t wait to apply them all and tell you the results 😀
This was such an informative read! I have been implementing most of these and I definitely saw the difference! Thank you for taking some time out!
I’ve paid for courses that didn’t give me near as much important information as you just did! THANK YOU!!!!! Can’t wait to start implementing everything!
Aw Eryn ,
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post and I am so pleased that it helped you. I understand your frustration because I too found information via courses to be vague so I thought why not write my own guide? Have a lovely day xx
I’ll try to do my best to uplift my instagram spirit once again. Thank you Ana!
This is a really great breakdown on how to use Instagram, thank you very much. I haven’t used it much because I honestly wasn’t sure how much work I wanted to put into another social network that I wasn’t sure would drive traffic. However, I have found it useful as I’ve increased my presence there for connecting with other people in my niche.
I’m definitely going to use your advice and try and use Instagram more fully, thanks so much!
Very useful tips, thanks for sharing your insights. I think this will be the year of negotiating the algorithms of all the social platforms lol!
Wow, I knew some of these steps and was going to implement them. You explained everything so beautifully. Good article
Great tips, Ana! I feel so inspired that I can grow my following! Thank you so much.
Ow! Thank you so much for sharing this post! These are such great tips. I’ve been growing my Instagram feed at a steady rate, but I would like to amp it up and make some dents in the following. 😉 So, I’m going to find some influencers and look at their comments because I haven’t tried that yet!
this is so helpful. been struggling so much with instagram,trying to grow it and posting quality content. super helpful.
Such a helpful post, Ana! I’m bookmarking this for later as I’m trying to grow my IG account.
Great ideas! I’m going to try it! Thank you!! 🙂
Great insight and post. Thanks for sharing.
I have read so many articles on growing an Instagram following and this is by far the best one I have come across! I love how you broke everything down into actionable steps. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
What a great article! I found it super interesting as I’m still trying to figure out how Instagram works sometimes! I’m defeinitely going to try out some of your tips. Thank you for sharing!
This is super helpful! Thank you for the actionable tips. I do my hashtag research but I still feel like maybe I’m getting shadowbanned especially because I’m not seeing engagement from hashtags themselves.
Thanks for sharing your process in such detail. I definitely have to engage/comment more on other accounts in my niche. I think that will really help to improve my overall engagement on my account. Thanks!
Good advice. I’m looking forward to seeing trying some of these.
Great tips thanks for sharing them with us
This is just what I needed. I hope to get established on Instagram next month. I have the site, just not much of anything on it, so I need all the help I can get. Thank you.
Wow, I really learned a lot from this! Thank you for all this useful info! I’m setting this aside to remind myself of these tips later!
That is a lot of fantastic advice! Thank you!
Great read and valuable information! Thanks so much!
Woah! mammoth post Ana! so, so good! Insta is a bit of an enigma to me ! so thank you thank you for this post… I’m trying to learn about how to use it better! Even though I’ve been in marketing for many years, Insta is still illusive! ha ha ha … I’m gonna try your recs and get back to you with results! xxx
Very informative! You have explained everything in detail and I am following this the hashtag process and it really works.
what a great piece
Thank you so much for these tips, I lost all hope in Instagram, but I’ll give your recommendations a try.
These are great tips! I’d love to grow my IG followers so this helps a lot for my blog. Thank you for sharing such great information.