19 Strategies for Growing Your Follower Count on Instagram

As on other platforms, so on Instagram: you should always aim for quality over quantity in your marketing strategy. Nonetheless, reaching a certain number of followers is still important. The more people see your content, the greater your chance is at growing your brand awareness, and marketing new products – that is, if the right people are seeing your posts.

In order to grow your follower count though, it is not enough to simply have an Instagram profile and post a couple of pictures. If you want to increase your reach long-term, you need a good strategy, or better yet, several. With our tips, you’ll be perfectly prepared to achieve this goal.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #1: Post regularly

Posting a picture once a week is too little, posting 15 a day is too much.

You can only find out the ideal number of posts per day through trying out different options. Start out with one post a day, and slowly increase the number to up to three posts a day, including reels. When it comes to stories, you can post even more. Since they do not appear in the feed of other users, the result is not so spammy.

It is key to post regularly, and continuously adhere to upload times, in order to attract users’ attention to your content.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #2: Post relevant content

Keep in mind that in order to attract followers, they have to be genuinely curious for your content. If you are unsure which type of content your followers are interested in, there are several ways to find out:

• Conduct polls.
• Create personas.
• Check out which content works best for your competitors.
• Evaluate the posts your target group is sharing.

Don’t just pay attention to relevant content, but likewise keep an eye on staying varied, both in terms of topics, as well as formats. After all, you don’t just want to win over new followers, but keep them interested in the long run. To achieve this, you need exciting content. Note that in many cases, videos will be even more effective than photos.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #3: Host challenges

Challenges are a great way of gaining new Instagram followers. All that you have to do in order to host a challenge is inviting other Instagramers to take part in the challenge, and make up a framework, ideally with daily topics or tasks, or even just keywords.

By offering a prize for participating in your challenge, you make it even more attractive. And if you reward new followers of your account with extra credits, your follower count is sure to grow.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #4: Comment and like posts by other Instagramers

If you keep to yourself on Instagram, you’ll miss out on lots of fun, and chances to acquire new followers. So comment and like other people’s content regularly, in order to motivate them to follow you and react to your posts as well. It’s of course best to focus on accounts with a similar target audience.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #5: Make use of Stories

After Stories appear at the top of your account, they are often the first thing new visitors see about your brand or business. This means that with good Stories you can gain more Instagram followers.

Likewise, you can market your products extremely well by using Stories. A survey carried out by Instagram shows that more than a third of the respondents say they are more interested in a product or brand after having seen it in a Story.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #6: Publish Reels

With Reels, Instagram has created a TikTok clone that has been quite successful so far. Apart from the fact that short videos are especially trendy among young people, it has another advantage: Successful reels are also shown to people who don’t follow you yet. This opens up great opportunities to create more reach and generate additional followers. 

Reels are suitable for many types of content, from behind-the-scenes videos and funny content to competitions or cinematic impressions that make you want to visit an attraction:

It is important that you learn about the subject and the special characteristics of reels before you start your first reel. For example, keep in mind that reels are preferably played in a loop.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #7: Use hashtags and links

Concerning hashtags, there are contradictory opinions around. It has been a truism of sorts up until now that more hashtags equal higher engagement rates. However, a Quintly study suggests otherwise. They conclude that for an account with between 1000 and 10 million followers, the engagement rate is highest when no hashtags are used at all.

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri also emphasized in an Instagram Story that hashtags only bring more reach in a limited way. At the same time, he affirmed that they provide additional context and increase the chance that content will appear on a hashtag page. So a targeted, not excessive use is still useful. Additionally, it is important to use links in feed posts and in stories.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #8: Use your own visual langauge

Even die-hard fans of Instagram will agree: a lot of content on the platform is exchangeable.

Even die-hard fans of the platform won’t deny it: a lot of things on Instagram are interchangeable.

All the more you stand out from the crowd if your posts have their own visual language. The trick is to combine recognition with a little something extra to attract attention to your images or videos.

The fashion brand Boheme Goods succeeds quite well. Above all, their images make you want more – a decisive criterion for new followers.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #9: Make sure your profile is well-rounded

In addition to individual posts, the overall impression of your profile or your company profile plays a central role. It can be the deciding factor in turning visitors into followers.

Make sure you have a common thread by incorporating your corporate design and playing with recurring colors, filters or motifs. An old but still effective tactic is to alternate posts in certain formats or colors in a fixed rhythm. This creates a checkerboard pattern, for example. More unusual variations turn your account into a total work of art that instantly sets it apart from the competition.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #10: Localize posts

Use geotagging to attract users to your posts who are interested in a certain location. You can use this feature not just in the Feed, but in Stories too. To do this, choose the smiley sticker “Location” at the top right, then select the place you want to tag. It is generally a good idea to localize all of your posts.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #11: Work with ads

Naturally, most people would prefer to simply increase their follower count organically. However, paid ads can multiply your efforts’ effects.

Placing Instagram Ads works similarly to Facebook Ads. Your placement options are Feed, Stories, Explore, Shop and Reels.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #12: Pick up on trends

In social media, it’s generally useful to stay up to date. On Instagram, too, you increase your chances of gaining new followers by picking up on current trends. In this context, it’s worth taking a look at the Instagram Trend Report for 2022, where you can learn more about the growing interest of young people in sustainability and the popularity of absurd humor, for example.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #13: Collaborate with influencers

The right influencer can direct your target group’s attention towards your brand and/or products and increase your follower count in the process. However, Influencer Marketing is by no means an easy, one-size-fits-all kind of endeavor. Choosing the right influencer is key, because only if they fit your brand and products will your campaign come across as authentic. Micro Influencers don’t have a large following, but their audience is all the more engaged and interested in what they are being presented with compared to followers of big “Instagram Stars”.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #14: Evoke emotions

Pictures and videos that evoke emotions are most likely to get shared, which is why they are particularly useful for growing your follower count. The rules are clear: don’t just post boring product pictures. Instead, showcase your products or services as they are being used by people, and make them part of a story.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #15: Use other platforms

Try to see Instagram not as a decoupled element of your Social Media Marketing, but rather as an integral part of the overall strategy. This way, you will find many chances to promote your Instagram channel on other platforms, to a different audience. Such strategies could be:

• Embed Instagram posts in blog posts.
• Embed your Feed in your website.
• Mention your Instagram account on other platforms like Facebook or Twitter.
• Present your Instagram posts in emails to customers or newsletters.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #16: Deals and Freebies

It’s an open secret that giveaways can push users to flock to your channel. As long as you are aware of the legal constraints, rewarding users for taking part in a competition, or giving freebies away as prizes, is an easy way of garnering attention. For instance, you could request users to repost your post, or leave a comment, as part of a contest.

Additionally, Instagram is great for announcing special deals etc.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #17: Change it up with User Generated Content

Who wouldn’t like to see their photos on a big account’s feed? So make the most of that by publishing User Generated Content, thereby making a convincing case for them and their audience to follow you on the platform. Additionally, it will give your account a personal touch, because content produced by “regular” users seems more authentic and less pushy than obvious “advertising”. User Generated Content can also work as a great placeholder in case you’re fresh out of unique ideas yourself.

In order to identify relevant User Generated Content, create a brand hashtag and ask users to add it to their pictures’ descriptions. For example, furniture store Wayfair regularly publishes posts by users who are showing off their Wayfair products in the context of their own homes.

Strategy for more Instagram followers #18: Instagram Collab

The Collabs feature on Instagram allows you to multiply the reach of posts and gain new followers. A second account is added as a co-author of a post. The post itself then appears in both feeds or profiles if the co-author has given their consent. This makes Instagram Collab ideal for collaborating with influencers. 

Strategy for more Instagram followers #19: Evaluate analytics

Regular analyses are an essential part of any successful Instagram strategy. With Instagram Insights, the platform provides you with its own comprehensive tool for this purpose. You can gain even deeper insights with additional software. Swat.io supports you with a wide range of options for cross-channel analyses. If your focus is on follower growth, take a look at when your account gained or lost new followers.

This can often tell you which content is working or not working for your target audience. But also consider other influencing factors, for example, changed posting times or advertising campaigns.

Why paying for followers is not worth it

Gaining a noteworthy number of followers takes time. Since many people and companies have a constant lack thereof, it is hardly surprising that purchasing followers is by no means uncommon. After all, they are available for comparatively little money, and offer immediate results. Nonetheless, we suggest you abstain from taking that path, seeing as it’s fraud and barely pays off: usually, account owners only experience disadvantages due to bought followers.

And there is a simple reason for that: Behind bought followers is usually nothing more than either bots or people who have no interest in your content – and it shows. Of course, there is the occasional Fake Follower who will drop a Like or a “Wow”, but an actual conversation with them is practically impossible. If you look closely, you will easily spot if an account has mostly Fake Followers: for instance, if the number of reactions to posts doesn’t match the number of followers at all. A brand’s image can take a substantial hit when being exposed for buying followers, and you are likely to push away potential followers instead of drawing them in by participating in this questionable practice. At worst, your brand’s or company’s image will be damaged permanently.

Patience pays off. This way, you will have a greater number of followers, and you won’t have to pay for them either. With a well-conceived Instagram Marketing strategy, you won’t just get more followers, but interact successfully with those you already have. And all in all, by putting our tips to practice, you will be able to make the most of your Instagram Marketing.