Almost everyone who joins Instagram wants to grow on Instagram wants to do it quickly. Get more Instagram followers as fast as possible. But social media isn’t an overnight success.
Moreover, you don’t get overnight success in any field. The concept itself is a myth. That one night of success stands on a foundation of hard work and sleepless nights due to undying motivation.
I’ve come across so many fellow Instagram users who are frustrated because their account doesn’t grow.
They post regularly, sometimes even twice or thrice a day.
And still their growth on Instagram is somehow super slow or stagnant.
It is true, many of us go through that. We feel frustrated, we think our content isn’t good enough, or maybe I just have bad luck.
People even resort to methods like buying followers to speed up the process. But that is just an unfair means.
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Why buying followers is not a good idea
Also, it does no good for your personal brand or your Instagram account. Anyone with a little knowledge about how Instagram works can recognize when you’ve bought the followers.
When you buy followers, two kinds of Instagram followers will be added to your followers’ list.
First type: A genuine person who has been paid a certain amount for being added to a fake followers list.
Although this person is real, they have zero interest in your profile and the content you post. So, they end up never engaging with your posts.
Bots accounts are a big NO!
The second type of follower you get when you buy followers on Instagram is a bot account. These accounts aren’t owned by a real person.
Bot accounts are just a piece of code. Sometimes they are programmed to make automated comments which don’t mean anything.
Also Read: Write Without Errors With Grammarly Keyboard for Mobile
What is the point of a follower on Instagram, or any other social network, if he/she doesn’t engage? The whole reason that these online hubs are called social networks is that they are platforms for people to be social.
Also Read: How to get more views on your YouTube video
Follow these tips to grow on Instagram organically
Treat Instagram like a Social Community
Don’t just post your pictures, sit and expect people to come and comment on them. Instagram is a social app.
So, getting social is a basic requirement. Comment and engage with other people’s posts as well.
Now, this doesn’t mean you go on a commenting spree with easy-to-make comments like a nice shot, nice one, great picture, wow, etc.
Your comments should be genuine and meaningful. While commenting, think of what kind of comments on your posts make you happy.
To find accounts in your niche, follow hashtags, and comment on the recent posts in them. A good number would be to comment on the 10 most recent posts.
If you’re not sure how to find the right hashtags for your profile, check out this Instagram Hashtag Guide I shared a while back.
Priority no#1 = Quality Content
It is true that the right hashtags help increase the reach & impressions you get on your posts. But your posts have to be of quality for that to happen.
Creating quality content should be your no#1 priority. Everything else is secondary.
When you put in your sweat in maintaining an Instagram feed, it shows. Hard work never goes unnoticed.
I began paying more attention to maintaining an aesthetic feed a while back. I love how it looks now. And when a random follower DMs me saying they love how aesthetic my feed looks, it makes my day!
If you are getting crappy reach for a few days or weeks, don’t fuss about it. Try to focus on the things on which you have control.
Work towards making your posts so good that people can’t scroll away before commenting on it.
Also Read: How to monetize a YouTube Channel
Follow for follow is dead
Do not follow people/small accounts expecting a follow back. Even if the person follows you back, in most cases that’s no good too. Follow for follow doesn’t help you to grow on Instagram.
There are chances that the user followed you back only as a courteous gesture. They might not be interested in the type of content you post.
You need to understand the difference between interested and like. Just because someone is not interested in the type of posts you make doesn’t mean your content is not of good enough quality.
For instance, I’m a Photographer. Even if person A is amazing at giving gardening tips, I won’t be interested in what he posts. That doesn’t mean that his content is not good enough.
It just means that I’m not his target audience.
Follow people only when you genuinely like what they post and when you feel like engaging with their content.
It is all about making solid relationships and networking. They’re people just like you who like when a person appreciates their work.
Keep a close eye on what’s trending
Try to build your content or mold it around what is trending at the moment. For instance, the time at which I’m writing this post, people all over the globe are in self-quarantine (and I hope that ends ASAP with the vaccine coming out).
Take a moment and think what would your Instagram followers stuck in their homes, would like to do. Everyone would be looking for ways to kill time. Try out new things. Rekindle their old hobbies. Get creative with whatever they have at home.
Mold this information to make your posts more relatable to these people. If you’re a photographer like me, you can share video tutorials on how to click amazing pictures at home.
Share tutorials and behind the scenes video clips
In the post below, I shared a small BTS video of the shot and EXIF details so that people can try it out at home.
View this post on Instagram
How to take self-portraits for the people who loved to be clicked but now their photographers are quarantined away from them. Teach people how to take flatlays if that’s your thing.
View this post on Instagram
I posted this self-portrait on my Instagram (@garimashares) along with a small video explaining how I edited it. You can go a step further by joining the BTS and editing procedure in one video and post it on IGTV.
Upcoming festivals can be a good trending topic to create content on. Even movies or TV shows that are being watched aggressively these days. If you make a creative post inspired by Money Heist, who wouldn’t share it on their story? More shares will help you to get more reach and as a result, grow on Instagram organically.
You can also make attractive posts by sharing a seamless post on Instagram. Here’s how to do it: How To Make A Seamless Instagram Post Without Photoshop
Find out your sweet time-spot
This is what I have experienced on my own account. There are 1-2 time spots at which, if I share a picture, it will always get a good reach. This is usually the time at which the maximum number of your Instagram followers are online.
To find out your best time to post, go to insights. See all the posts you made in the past 3 months sorted by reach.
Check the time at which the posts with a good amount of reach was made. How to do that?
Login to your account on the Instagram web app. Click on the post whose timings you want to check.
Click on the three dots in the top-right and select embed. Copy the embed code and paste it in any text editor.
At the end of the code, you will see the date and time mentioned.
<blockquote............A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/garimashares/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Garima Bhaskar | Delhi, India</a> (@garimashares) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2020-05-27T05:40:26+00:00">May 26, 2020 at 10:40pm PDT</time></p></div></blockquote> <script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>Use a UNIX timestamp converter like Online Unix timestamp converter and convert from the ISO 8601 time to RFC 2822 time in your local time zone to translate this time into something more readable.
