In our first two weeks on Instagram, we went from zero followers to more than 10,000 by following a set of rules that we crafted.
Then, with some experimentation and elbow grease, we went from 10,000 followers to amassing more than 2.5 million real Instagram followers--setting us up as one of the top accounts in our niche. We’ve been able to crush sales and conversions, drastically increase our online exposure and audience, and scale our business at a rate that’s exceeded the norm and even our own expectations.
All thanks to Instagram.
In the following comprehensive post, we’ve outlined a step-by-step guide on how we did this and how you can do it too.
As Instagram and its audience have continued to evolve, so have we. We’ve altered our plans and adapted our methods to see what sticks, and managed to climb the ladder to 2.5 million organic followers.
Now, we are here to show you exactly what we did to get this far and exactly how you can too. Discover how to amass a huge following and start taking advantage of the power of this exciting and ever-flourishing social network.
READ MORE: Growth-Hack Your Facebook Page: How We Got 10K Real Likes in 6 Months
1. Choose Instagram Content That’s Right for You
This part is going to take some thought and effort.
To gain a huge following of real people on Instagram, you have to produce content that’s not only made specifically for Instagram but also content that’s the right fit for what your audience wants. Finding the right approach and style is crucial because it’s going to become the way your followers recognize you.
Generally speaking, there are types of images that work well with a lot of industries; posters with inspirational or humorous quotes, quality food photography, or scenic images are safe starting points.
That being said, carefully consider what type of content it is that you’re producing. You have to remember that Instagram is such a hit because it’s a wholly unique platform, and the experience it provides the user is completely different than something like Facebook or Twitter.
…produce content that’s not only made specifically for Instagram but also content that’s the right fit for what your audience wants.
Consider things like: How are people going to find your content? What hashtags are you going to use? If someone searches one of these hashtags and finds your posts, are they going to be intrigued enough to click through to your account, or will they be disappointed that there’s no correlation between your post and the hashtag?
READ MORE: FREE TRAINING: Explode Your Instagram Account With Our IG Hacks Masterclass
What is it about the images you produce that will make people do more than just scroll on by? According to MIT neuroscientists, the human brain can identify images seen for as little as 13 milliseconds. In less than a second, a person decides whether or not you’re worth their time. That means you need to stand out.
Once you settle on your content type and strategy, it’s crucial that you stick to that theme.
The number one thing that keeps people coming back to any brand or business is consistency, whether it’s a Starbucks Macchiato or a Snickers bar.
It’s exactly the same as Instagram.
Be consistent with your content.
The reason Foundr has so many real followers on Instagram is our dedication to high-quality posts. They know that we constantly share high-quality content.
This is also why we’re highly selective of the type of accounts and posts we share, also known as “share-for-share” (S4S). We’re extremely protective of our brand and our audience, which is why we only ever want to be producing content we’re absolutely certain our niche wants.
A common problem a lot of people face when starting out on Instagram is that they’re not entirely sure what type of theme or content it is they want to produce. Unfortunately, there really is no simple solution, because at the end of the day you don’t want to be a copycat of a larger account. To be really successful on Instagram, you need to be a little unique.
The best way to get started is to do some research on hashtags (don’t worry, we’re going to dig deep into hashtags further on in this article). Check out SaaS’s (software as a service) to find out what hashtags are trending and which one fits you best.
Find competitors who use the same hashtags as you do, or even find users who follow these hashtags and see what other kinds of content they like.
READ MORE: How to Develop Powerful Business Core Values and Mission Statements
From there, it’s just a matter of testing out your content. Do some A/B testing, try one type of content one week and try something else the week after. Find out what works best, and really get to know your audience.
To get you started, we highly recommend using Canva. We have been using Canva on all of our posts, and we love the freedom it gives you to create the designs you want. Plus, it’s free to use!
READ MORE: The Ultimate Guide on How to Start a Digital Magazine From Scratch
2. Creating Content Your Audience Will Love and Interact With
Once you know what type of content is right for your brand, it’s time to really focus on creating great posts that you know are going to connect with your audience. This might seem obvious, but we always see the content creation itself getting neglected. Find out what your customers enjoy seeing on Instagram or what themes resonate with them, and populate your account with relevant images.
But you’ve got to connect with your audience, specifically. Remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
That’s why it’s so crucial to develop a good relationship with your audience so you learn what type of content it is they like. There have been numerous times when we’ve posted something that we thought would absolutely crush it with engagement, but it turned out to be a dud. Other times we’ve been left scratching our heads as to why this one post is so popular.
One good way to find out what your customers like is by checking out what your competition is posting, or what kind of imagery is used on the websites or blogs that are popular in your industry.
…develop a good relationship with your audience so you learn what type of content it is they like.
If you’re in an industry where what you’re selling is already visually appealing, photos of what you do is not a bad idea either. However, keep such images in the minority; posting a lot about yourself on social media is just like being the person at BBQ who only talks about themselves.
On that note, it’s really important that you don’t run the risk of “oversharing.” A celebrity can get away with it because a large part of their appeal and brand is their personal life. Fans are genuinely curious as to what Beyoncé is having for dinner or what exactly it is The Rock is cooking.
If you’re running a personal account, that’s also totally fine, because it’s explicit and clear that this is an account for sharing your everyday life.
However if you’re running a professional account, unless your personal photos actually fit in with the theme of your brand it’s not a good idea. For example, as a CEO or founder, a personal photo of how you’ve organized your work desk would fit in with your theme. A personal photo of you in Vegas doesn’t have the same effect.
Likewise in the post below, MeccaMaxima has shared a photo of their staff member. This content is on-brand, showcases their newest product, and adds relatability into the fold.
Be wary of oversharing. Oversharing means that you lose out on engagement because your content is just too off-topic and confusing to build a consistent audience.
IG Growth Tip #1: People Like Seeing Other People
Include faces in your photos. Images with faces have been known to increase engagement because our brains naturally want to interact with other people. Also, images that don’t include faces but instead are a point-of-view can help people feel like they’re a part of the image.
Have a look at a sample from Nokia Mobile’s feed. Not only has the image with someone’s face garnered almost double the likes of the other images, it immediately jumps out at you.
IG Growth Tip #2: Calls to Action (CTA)
Every post should have a strong CTA encouraging your followers to interact with you. This can be liking the photo, commenting, adding thoughts, or sharing it in their stories. By adding in a call to action, people are roughly 25% more likely to follow through on that action than without it.
The CTA should be relevant to the photo, and not the same as the one you used in your bio (more on your bio later). It’s a softer ask.
Think of a CTA as a way to remind people that there is an action they could take. By adding a CTA to your image, all you’re doing is reminding your followers that they don’t have to just scroll on past, they can actually do other things including liking your picture, or writing a comment.
Ask questions in your captions to encourage people to respond. This is a very simple tactic to make sure that your Instagram followers are interacting with your account.
“Putting a question in your caption always creates interest and forces people to read and hopefully respond.” – Bianca Cheah, founder and MD of Sporteluxe
The end goal with your posts is to boost audience engagement. You want them to be interested in your account and personally connected to your brand. A CTA is a way to build your community, to gently remind your followers that they can interact with you personally.
Examples of CTAs are “tag your friends who are like this,” or “double tap if you agree.” Always give your fans something to do. This helps your account spread like wildfire.
IG Growth Tip #3: Develop a Story
Capture people’s attention by providing a narrative; don’t just settle for a generic line of text. Get people invested and show off how much value you can provide in one go.
One of our favorite accounts to follow is Cereal.Entrepreneur. Each Instagram post is accompanied by either a small bio or an interview with the featured entrepreneur so you get a chance to know a bit more about them.
Developing a story also ties into emotion. Always look to elicit an emotion with your posts. Whether you’re looking to inspire people, make them laugh, or stun them, your posts should always aim to trigger an emotion with your audience. A great example to look at here would be Chubbies, and note how they’re always looking to make their audience laugh by posting an assortment of jokes and memes.
IG Growth Tip #4: User-Generated Content
Post some user-generated content whenever possible. Not only will this give your brand social proof and make people far more likely to follow you, but it’ll also help you build a vibrant and engaged community around your Instagram account.
Frank Body have almost built their entire Instagram strategy by curating user-generated content and the community hashtag #frankeffect. This has helped them build a community of engaged Instagram followers, as well as create hundreds of loyal brand ambassadors.
Regularly use your posts to ask followers to share their content with you. Make sure to give them an incentive for doing this, though, like running an Instagram competition or giveaway. You can easily curate their posts by asking them to use your branded hashtag.
READ MORE: 10 Instagram Growth Hacks For More Engaged Followers (Without Running Ads)
IG Growth Tip #5: Your Instagram Theme
Getting more people to interact with you also involves maintaining a consistent aesthetic theme so that your Instagram feed reaffirms your brand identity. A simple way to do that is to use the same filter.
It makes your images more recognizable, and your overall feed will have a more professional vibe to it.
Notice how Nespresso maintains its aesthetic theme by constantly making sure their posts have similar tones and colors. Not only do these posts look great, but because of the consistency and strong branding, you can see how their feed has a natural flow to it that builds familiarity and affinity.
Remember that quality always beats quantity when it comes to Instagram posts. Don’t post something for the sake of posting. Always make sure your content is providing value to your audience in some way.
3. Treat Your Community On Instagram Like Gold
One of the biggest mistakes people make when building an Instagram account is that they only ever see their followers as numbers.
It’s easy to become obsessed with watching numbers rather than recognizing that each person who chooses to follow you is actually a real person.
It doesn’t matter what kind of account you’re running, the same is true everywhere. You must always respect your audience.
I really can’t stress that enough, and it’s become even clearer to us as we’ve gained experience with the platform. If you’re not paying attention and listening to your audience, then you’re no longer building something that has any sort of meaningful impact. All you’re doing is stroking your ego.
So how do you know if you’re connecting with your audience?
While your follower count may be an important metric, our journey to 1 million followers taught us that you must also pay attention to your engagement levels. This means how many likes you’re getting, how many people are bothering to actually comment on your posts, how many people actually go through your Instagram sales funnel.
According to the famed Pareto principle, 80% of your results only come from 20% of your audience or 80% of your revenue only comes from 20% of your customers. While more of a rule of thumb than a hard scientific fact, the Pareto principle should make you realize that it’s not about having a large follower count as much as it is about having a large core of engaged followers.
You don’t want a huge follower count because it gives you bragging rights; you want a huge follower count because by increasing your reach and exposure, you increase the likelihood of finding one authentic follower.
A true and authentic follower is someone who absolutely loves your content and what you do.
They’re the ones that, if asked, will put down money to support your cause. Think about any time you’ve been loyal to a brand and chose them over something else.
If you ever want to develop any sort of influence or exposure, this should be your primary goal in growing a huge follower count. Ten thousand followers isn’t that impressive unless you have at least 1,000 true followers.
That’s why we treat our community like gold.
Make an effort to reply to comments on your content, and be sure to respond to as many DMs as possible. Actually show that there’s a human behind the screen. It’s a surefire way to make yourself stand out from the crowd. The Body Shop does an excellent job of replying to comments and suggestions.
Be as conversational as possible when engaging with other users, and be true to how you speak in real life. Emphasize the personality behind your brand and let people know that you’re not just another robot.
It’s amazing how many brands forget the social aspect of social media networks. It’s no longer a one-way communication model where the audience passively has to accept what you have to say. If someone takes the time to actually write a comment on your post, the very least you can do is reply.
It’s a simple reward for those who bother to engage with you in a dialogue. Something as simple as that goes a long way toward turning someone into a true fan. We’ll even send private messages to our new followers when it’s appropriate. The key here is to make your Instagram followers feel welcomed and happy to be a part of your community.
As we discussed in the last section, you’ll find posts that have calls to action asking people to comment tend to garner the most shares and tags. By starting a conversation this way, you can show your audience that you’re not some faceless corporation, but a person or people who actually care about others’ opinions.
It might even yield unexpected results, as we often find real gems within our comments for ideas on articles and different people to interview.
4. Post on Instagram Regularly
Aim to post on a regular basis, about once every three to four hours. However, don’t bulk post a whole bunch of photos in one sitting; users will often regard this as spam and unfollow you. Think of it like sowing seeds.
You don’t want to just plug all your seeds into a hole in one go; you want to spread them out.
You’re going for consistency.
If your audience can’t comfortably rely on you to post regularly, you’re not going to find many people willing to follow you on the off chance that you’re going to post something every now and then.
One other posting tip is to always post on Sundays. Sunday is usually a pretty quiet day on Instagram, making it the perfect opportunity for you to get ahead of the pack and get your posts in front of even more people.
5. There’s Gold in Your Instagram Bio
On Instagram, your bio is a crucial piece of real estate. You can best make use of this section by having a strong call to action. You can use up to 150 characters, so a short snappy CTA works best.
A strong CTA should be an absolute no-brainer for your audience. You already know that they can see your content, so make it worth their while to actually take a look at your bio by offering something that you know they’ll love.
To create a strong CTA, you want to be as simple and no-nonsense as possible. Because you only get one live link when it comes to Instagram, which is in your bio, you want to be able to get as much value as possible out of that link.
Your bio should also be compelling. Your potential followers on Instagram have a few seconds to decide whether or not they want to follow you. Your bio should capture their attention and make them want to follow you, or at the very least, scroll down further to check out your content.
Your bio should also be searchable. We included the keywords “startup,” entrepreneurs,'” and “entrepreneur magazine” so when people search on Instagram using these terms, our profile will show up in their search results.
6. Use Hashtags to Get More Instagram Followers
Hashtags (keywords preceded by #) might seem like something only teenagers use, but trust us, that’s not the case.
They are a way for viewers to navigate easily to topics they’re interested in. Attaching #hashtags to your image, therefore, enables your content to be found more easily by those who don’t already follow you. Think of a hashtag as a categorization of the content shared.
First, research the most popular Instagram hashtags in your niche, and then compile them. For us, this involved building a huge list of keywords that we found were relevant to what we do and what our images generally are about (#entrepreneur, #business, #startup, for example).
Make sure the hashtags are relevant to the content you’re sharing.
If you are sharing your new range of pillowcases, don’t add tags for the sake of adding tags like #cooking or #celebrity. Keep it relevant.
IG Growth Tip #6: How to Find Hashtags
Check out what the top-trending hashtags are with Tags For Likes. Use Hashtags, TagFire, and Grama to find hashtags relevant to your niche. You can also copy the hashtags that the top influencers in your niche are using. Use this as a way to not only generate more exposure and gain more Instagram followers but as a way to get on the radars of other influencers.
“Users can use Instagram’s Explore feature to find posts related to trending hashtags such as #LoveWins, #CanadaDay, and #FullMoon. If these trending tags are relevant to your brand, include them in timely posts to aid discovery. On the topic of search, Instagram also introduced the ability to search by emoji.” – Jim Tobin, president of Ignite Social Media.
Next, round up about 30 that include a mix of high-performing and low-performing hashtags. Use around 10 hashtags that have over a million posts, then another 10 hashtags that only have 10k to 50k posts, with another 10 anywhere in between. This way you make sure your posts get as much exposure as possible.
You should also find out what the hashtag of the day is and use it if it fits with your content. Whether it’s something like #motivationmonday, #smallbusiness, or #entrepreneur, get in touch with an even larger audience by participating in these hashtags.
Create multiple sets of hashtags to maximize exposure. Don’t just settle for one set of hashtags, create around three different sets of 30 hashtags each. Regularly rotate them so that your posts reach a variety of people relevant to your niche. Save them in a notes file so all you need to do is copy and paste them, and not have to worry about writing each one out every single time.
IG Growth Tip #7: Where Do Hashtags Go: Caption or Comment?
If you have more than 100,000 followers, don’t put your hashtags into the description of the photo itself. Putting them in the comment section instead will hide your list of keywords after others have added comments. You also won’t unnecessarily bulk up your photo description, allowing you to keep your description section free for a compelling blurb about the photo.
Accounts with 100,000 followers or fewer have a higher reach rate when they put hashtags in the caption.
READ MORE: 10 Instagram Growth Hacks For More Engaged Followers (Without Running Ads)
Reference each post with a full 30 hashtags. Instagram allows you 30 hashtags per post, so use each and every one of them to maximize your post’s exposure.
IG Growth Tip #8: Branded Instagram Hashtags
Create a branded hashtag to make it easier for others to find you. Original hashtags can help you facilitate conversations, increase your brand’s reputation, and help you build credibility.
Use your custom hashtag to build a community around your brand and regularly engage with your Instagram followers. It’s an incredibly easy way to make your followers feel like they’re a part of a larger community. You can see how customers and followers of Frank Body follow the custom hashtag #thefrankeffect, and how large a community has come together because of this hashtag.
You can also use a hashtag in your bio so that your account gets more exposure. This is a very easy way to make sure that your account shows up in hashtag searches as well.
7. Network, Network, Network: The Power of Shoutouts
It’s not all about pretty pictures and keywords. To thrive on Instagram, you’re going to have to reach out and interact with some real, live humans. Networking can work wonders in the social media sphere and it was a big driver of Foundr’s success.
When we started, we managed to get introduced to this huge network of entrepreneurs, all with accounts of over 20,000 Instagram followers. They helped us out big time by sharing our content, and there are similar networks for all kinds of industries, with users who are all willing to help out, so long as you return the favor of course!
Remember, if you help people without expecting something in return then you get good karma. Don’t approach joining and teaming up with other accounts with an attitude of, “What’s in it for me?” Rather, think of it as just helping your fellow person out, and you never know, good things may happen to you down the road.
IG Growth Tip #9: Use Shoutouts to get More Instagram Followers
When it comes to growing a huge following on Instagram, you’re going to have to get used to the idea of collaboration over competition.
This is where the incredibly powerful concept of S4S comes into play. For newcomers, S4S stands for “share for share.” If you’re looking to land a million followers on Instagram, or even tens of thousands, you need to get used to the idea of sharing other people’s content.
The basics of S4S are quite simple. You ask another influencer in your niche if they would like to share your content, and in return, you will share theirs.
This way you’ll be able to expose each other’s brands to each other’s audiences, some of whom likely have never even heard of you before. The best part is that if you choose who you do S4S with carefully, you’ll probably find someone with an audience who you know will like your content too. You’ll quickly discover that one of the greatest things about Instagram is that it allows you to tap directly into a niche with distinct likes, interests, hobbies, and needs.
As you can see from the images above, Kathmandu has shared an image from a travel blogger. Neither company is in competition with each other, but both are in the travel industry and instead compliment each other.
These types of transactions are unique to Instagram and absolutely invaluable for anyone who wants to cultivate a huge following. But remember that you should always look to be providing a mutual exchange of value.
Don’t think of others in your niche as your competition, but as potential partners.
If you’re afraid that someone is going to “steal your followers” and, as a result, refuse to work with others, then it is highly unlikely you’re going to develop any kind of real traction on Instagram.
IG Growth Tip #10: Types of Instagram Shoutouts
When you’re just starting out, it can be a little intimidating to ask other accounts to do a shoutout for you, but the benefits really do outweigh the costs. Having a large account shout you out will do more for your follower count than anything else. But it’s super important to make sure that you’re choosing the right accounts to get a shoutout from.
If you already have one strong account, use it to leverage your smaller accounts that may need more attention. For example, Actor Jason Momoa uses his own personal account to shoutout and promote his fashion label “So Ill”. His personal account has a reach of over 15million while his brand only has roughly 150k.
If you’re choosing an account based on pure followers and their theme or audience doesn’t match yours, then all you’ve done is wasted time and money, because there’s no guarantee that such a shoutout is going to get you a good ROI.
There are a few different types of shoutouts you can pursue.
- Caption only shoutouts: The page uses its own image and style that it usually would, and mentions your page in the caption. This is not as effective as your own image or branded image. Caption only can be a cheaper alternative.
- Or, your own image with your product or service + caption. This works better than just a caption-based shoutout, but you have to make sure the call to action is good. Some accounts will only let you put up the image for a certain period of time, and others will let it stay up. Usually the higher traffic the page, the more you see rules and restrictions.
The strategy behind the shoutouts can also vary. What we recommend is adding a CTA to follow your page instead of one that leads people to subscribe, as you can capture the audience and engage with them more.
We have tried both pushing the Foundr subscription and getting the viewer to follow our page, and we have found it’s more effective to get them to follow you. Clickable links won’t go in the captions, so it can be hard to get people to perform specific actions. It takes more time for people to go to the bio, find the link, click on it, and then subscribe than it does for them to click the follow button.
IG Growth Tip #11: S4S Bargaining When You’re Just Getting Started
Just like any other transaction in the world, S4S is all about having a mutually beneficial exchange. You have to ensure that both parties are getting something of similar value out of this exchange.
If you have an account with only a few thousand followers and ask another account with 500k followers, you’re either going to be ignored, politely refused, or outright laughed at. What possible benefit could that larger account get from the smaller one?
Unless you have something equally valuable to leverage, then you shouldn’t be asking someone to do S4S for you.
That leads to one of the questions we get asked the most at Foundr, “How do I provide leverage in S4S?”
A lot of people get discouraged by the idea of approaching bigger accounts for an S4S, because it seems like they don’t have a comparable follower count. But while your follower count may be the most important metric on Instagram, it doesn’t mean that it is the only metric on Instagram. If it was, then anyone could be an influencer with a couple of bucks and a few thousand bots as Instagram followers.
The best way to find leverage, in any business deal, not just Instagram, is to take a step back and think about what it is that only you can offer. What is that unique aspect you can bring that the other person might have a hard time getting?
For one, you can compare your engagement levels. If you can guarantee a highly engaged audience with many true Instagram followers then you can easily use that as leverage in S4S. Because the level of respect and loyalty you command from your audience is only something you can give, and that makes it a valuable commodity.
Beyond that, think about what else you can offer.
You can easily bring value and generate a ton of goodwill by being a regular commenter for a larger account. A valuable comment is something that is more than just the generic “oh wow, this is great!” statement. Stand out by taking the effort to be different.
Start an interesting discussion and let your targeted influencer know that you exist. Who knows, you might actually catch them in a generous mood and maybe they’ll give you a shoutout just because they like your moxie.
IG Growth Tip #12: Using Your Bio Link as a Bargaining Chip
One extremely easy way to offer leverage in a real and tangible way is by offering other accounts your bio link. On Instagram, the only place you can put a live link is in your bio. This is vitally important if you’re running any kind of sales funnel, but it’s also an extremely useful tool when trying to grow your follower count.
Use tools like Bit.ly or Pretty Link to track and monitor how much traction your bio link receives. This will give you hard data on how much value you can offer them.
As long as you keep the link short, fresh and you’re sure that the landing page leads to something your audience wants then there’s no reason not to offer your bio link as a way to leverage value. It’s a great way of establishing a business relationship by becoming an affiliate, and by offering something valuable in your bio link there is no reason you won’t be able to drive your follower count up.
READ MORE: How to Start a Podcast on a Budget
8. Working with Influencers to get More Instagram Followers
This is by far one of the best ways to increase the number of Instagram followers you have. You’ll be hard-pressed to find any other tactic to generate as strong as an ROI.
Create a list of 10-20 influencers you’d like to regularly engage with. Know exactly who it is you want to get in touch with because these will be the people who can help take your Instagram account to the next level. Get influencers to share your content or shout you out. Arrange for influencers to give you a shoutout by participating in an S4S deal.
Use hashtags to find out who the top influencers in your niche are. Take a look at what the top hashtags in your niche are and see if you can identify any particular account that consistently appears in the “top” or “trending” posts. You can pretty much guarantee that they’re an influencer and someone you want to connect with.
IG Growth Tip #13: Paying Influencers
You can also pay influencer pages to share your content or promote your product.
But before you do, make sure that you can get a guarantee on ROI. What you’re looking for is someone with an engaged audience, not necessarily a large number of Instagram followers. Remember that 1-2% of engagement is a minimum for working with someone. The higher, the better.
IG Growth Tip #14: Sponsored Posts and Full Disclosure
Be mindful that influencers and celebrities are required to disclose sponsored content on their social media channels. It all comes down to transparency and making sure followers are aware that someone has been paid or given something of value to promote a product as opposed to them just enjoying it.
In an effort to stamp out misleading product promotion or endorsements, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released a simple guideline on what you can and cannot do.
Influencers and celebrities are now required to follow these guidelines using hashtags or other signifiers. If you choose to pay or sponsor another brand to promote yours, make sure you follow these guidelines. This includes specific hashtags and, if it’s a business account, a “paid partnership” tag. You can see both examples in the post below, #sponsored and “paid partnership with earthboundfarm”.
READ MORE: 3 Ways to Create a Facebook Sales Funnel That Will Convert Customers on Autopilot
These rules only apply if there’s a financial, employment, personal, or family relationship. You are free to repost and share content from other brands that you love, just not pay, or be paid to do so.
IG Growth Tip #15: Influencer Account Swaps
Do an account swap with other influencers in your niche. Take over someone else’s account for a day and show off who you are to their audience and vice versa. This is a great strategy for anyone with a personal brand.
Australian based international contemporary art magazine ‘BeautifulBazaar’ hosted a takeover/collaborating with actress Emma Roberts and Karah Priest. The partnership allowed the magazine to promote Robert and Priest’s literary company “Belletrist” to their readers, as well as promote local artists and gain an insight into the behind-the-scenes artworld.
9. Bonus Instagram Followers Growth Hacks
Need some more growth hacks to supercharge your Instagram follower count? Here are 10 of our favorites!
IG Growth Hacks #1: Instagram stories and Reels
Did you know that in a study released by Instagram, more than 500 million users watch Instagram Stories on a daily basis?
Using stories and reels is an easy way to boost your brand’s exposure. Not all followers sit and scroll through their entire feed, and your latest post may get lost in the algorithm. By posting stories, sharing content, and essentially becoming incredibly active on the app, your posts will get a boost.
Instagram stories and reels give the chance to connect more with your followers.
They allow you to take photos, add custom effects and filters, and share them with their followers. As opposed to a post which stays online until you choose to take it down, stories expire after 24 hours although they are commonly stored in an account “archive” that only you can see.
If followers begin tagging your brand in their posts, a brilliant way to boost engagement and connect with followers is to share the content on your stories. They took the time to tag you, make sure you do the same. At Foundr, we love sharing this content in our stories as it boosts brand loyalty.
Make use of the Story Highlights option for your page, these are stories that you’ve shared that you want to stick to the top of your account. Highlights are a great way to share content that may not suit your feed aesthetically but are important to share. Below, Lulu Lemon has highlighted and categorized interesting and relevant stories.
In an effort to take over the gap left from the drama surrounding TikTok, Instagram has launched Reels. This new feature allows people to upload 15-second videos using featured music and other cool special effects, and it goes hand in hand with Instagram stories.
In addition to custom filters, gifs, and emojis, stories and reels also offer geolocation and other live-tracking data. Want to showcase your thermal-wear products to the local neighborhood? Tag your location, add the current temperature tag, and throw some cool effects over.
Pay attention to your story and reel insights. This data tells you important data such as CTR, skips, exits, and views per story.
READ MORE: How to Triple Your YouTube Subscribers in 6 Months
IG Growth Hacks #2: Giveaways
Hold giveaways on Instagram that require users to follow in order to enter. Everyone loves free stuff. Get a bunch of followers overnight by running a giveaway, but make sure to promote it otherwise you won’t be seeing any results.
Require followers to tag their friends in order to enter. This is one of the best organic ways to quickly build your Instagram followers. We regularly do this at Foundr in order to promote our upcoming courses, reach new followers, and share inspiring content with others.
IG Growth Hacks #3: Instagram Ads
If you have a budget, and an Instagram Business account, we highly recommend that you take advantage of Instagram ads as a way to capture new Instagram followers.
IG Growth Hacks #4: Viral Images
Create viral images encouraging your fans to tag their friends. Get ideas for what types of posts tend to be popular by watching what’s trending in your targeted hashtags. Create similar posts in your own style, and ask people to tag their friends.
IG Growth Hacks #5: Geolocation Targeting
Use geolocation targeting to identify followers relevant to your niche in a certain area. If you happen to run a brick-and-mortar business, this is an excellent way of getting the attention of local clientele.
IG Growth Hacks #6: Offline Marketing
Take your promotional efforts offline and promote your Instagram account through the use of physical products like branded stickers or pamphlets, for example. If you happen to have a custom hashtag you’d like to promote, use these physical products as a way to get people more interested and excited about your accounts.
IG Growth Hacks #7: Fan Pages
Create fan pages and use them to drive followers to your business pages. Instagram now allows you to run multiple accounts through their app, so take advantage of this by creating another account designed to support your main account. Use it as a way to experiment with different strategies and connect with other influencers.
IG Growth Hacks #8: The ‘Thunderclap’ Strategy
Organize a “thunderclap” and get multiple accounts to share a post of yours at the same time. This is a fantastic strategy to drive more traffic to your account, especially if you’re looking to sell a product. A shoutout from not one, but multiple influencers in your niche will guarantee that several thousand potential Instagram followers will see your post.
IG Growth Hacks #9: Social Sharing
Automatically share your Instagram posts on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. Give your posts that extra bit of exposure while simultaneously growing your other social media accounts. Similarly, make sure to reshare recent posts in your Instagram stories to boost engagement and visibility.
IG Growth Hacks #10: Psychographics
Fully understand your followers, not just through demographics but also psychographics. Consider demographics as black and white outlines in a painting, and psychographics as the color. Psychographics seeks to analyze your customer’s interests and hobbies, their lifestyle, and how they enjoy spending their time. It covers their characteristics, values, and beliefs. When it comes to data, psychographics represents the qualitative side of understanding individuals.
READ MORE: Psychographics 101: Everything You Need to Know; How It’s Used in Marketing
Our Favorite (Free) Instagram Tools
Video Editing Tools
- Veed.io – video editing tool that allows you to create amazing videos, add subtitles, and edit footage. We use the paid account, but they offer a free option for creating videos under 10 minutes 50MB with a small watermark
- InShot – A video editing app, we use it for basic video editing on the go
- VideoShop – another editing tool, we particularly use the split-clip tool and multiple selection editing
Tracking Stats
- Social Blade – used for tracking social media statistics and analytics. We love how accurate it is, plus it provides real-time updates and in-depth tracking
Design
- Canva – a graphic design platform. Incredibly interactive and flexible in design, allows you to upload your own images and has custom templates for Instagram posts, stories, and highlights
- UNUM – an app that lets you play around with the aesthetic of your feed. See how your upcoming posts will look, add rough filters, and a paid option to view your feed as a “colour block”
Image Editing Apps
- VSCO – one of the most used editing apps, VSCO has countless filters and sliders to help bring any image to life. VSCO is good for adjusting the lighting and overall color of a photo
- Snapseed – Snapseed has more interactive editing but requires a little practice. Brush tools, selective filters, and portraits are our favorite tools
- ColourTone – the free version has limited filters, but we love how well they work on different images. All the filters have been created by professional photographers, and there is the option to pay for more options
Post Scheduling
- AgoraPulse – for our content calendar, we use AgoraPulse. It allows us to schedule, reschedule queue, or bulk upload your posts. We use the paid version, but the free version is useful
- Later.com – another popular option for social media scheduling, later.com helps to schedule and organize upcoming posts.
But First…
Before you go running off to do all of that though, we’d encourage you to think about why you want to be on Instagram.
We can’t guarantee this method will work as effectively for you as it did for us. It served our purposes because of our particular niche and what we wanted to get out of the platform. Instagram is certainly a powerful tool, but it’s not really for everyone or every business.
A few questions you might want to ask yourself are:
- Is my industry or my product visually appealing?
- Am I willing to share stuff that isn’t directly related to what I sell?
- Do I have time to engage in a new social media platform?
If you answered no to one or more of these questions, you might want to rethink why you want to jump on Instagram marketing. You don’t want to be wasting resources on something that just isn’t for you. Otherwise, we’d encourage you to use this guide to boost your followers.
What are we missing, Foundr family? I know you all have a few Instagram tricks up your sleeve. Share your favorite, or let us know if you have questions on any of these in the comments below.
You should reply to every comment whether it’s positive, negative, or neutral. Maintaining public relations is a must for brand building. It helps you connect better with your followers.
Edwin Richardson || famoid.com
Hi Edwin, that’s great advice! Engagement is important for all brands. It shows you care about your audience. Do you have any advice for those dealing with negative comments?
Nice piece! Hashtags are one of the greatest ways to promote your posts on Instagram through organic reach.
I talk about this in my latest post about Instagram hashtags for followers, but there’s a positive correlation between the number of Instagram hashtags you use, and the organic reach your post receives.
Not only that, but your hashtag strategy should be targeted so that you’re driving business results, rather than just receiving reach/visibility.
Hi Brandon, thanks so much for the support. What has been your most successful hashtag strategy? You mentioned driving business results, how have you measured the success of that?
Thanks for sharing awesome all tips to get followers quickly.
Thanks Matthew, so glad you enjoyed the article!
thanks for the awesome content
Sharing posts on stories can help get some more engagement!
Thanks for this article. I regularly use Instagram personally and started managing an Instagram account for business and these tips are really helpful.
Thanks for sharing amazing tips to get followers quickly. I think everyone must read this once.
Very nice post .I am happy to be here .thanks for sharing such helpful article
thank you for this
I used Typorama as well and also I post and analyze with Ingramer bot. It was the only one that work smoothly after ig updates.
Thank you, Nathan for up-to-date road map and insights!
Interesting, I love IG. New follower of Foundr 🙂
thank you so much! I will try to follow your steps and increase my followers
Thanks Nathan for providing such article, I really enjoyed reading your article, and as an entrepreneur, reading this article really helped me a lot to build my skills to handle my Instagram smartly.
Thanks, Ronald! 🙏
many thanks for your great article
Hello, I want to ask you how can I develop and optimize the instagram profile? I’ve looked at several websites on the Internet that offer instagram buyers. But do not know if they are real and worth it at all. I will be grateful for useful advice. Thank you in advance!
I want to share with you that I’ve bought followers from this site https://smmkart.com/buy-instagram-followers/, and everything seems to me to be real. Will I ask if someone has bought from the same site to share how it is with him? Thanks in advance!
Great read! I work with Instagram influencers A.K.A. influencer marketing for my growth and this is what I think works best. You just need to keep a lookout for fake influencers though as there are already too many. Tools like engagement calculator and Influencer auditor should be very helpful.
Thanks Jonathan! Glad it helped you.
Great Article. We seem to get stuck at 1700 and cannot push any further. Some very insightful tips….here is to reaching that 10k
Hello and thanks so much for this article!
I have recently discovered your website, and after all the research, this webpage is probably the most interesting and inspiring site of all. The e-commerce I am building requires a lot of effort and energy, I sleep little because I want to make sure I understand fully all the principes and your advices are absolute gold! Not only good advices, but easy to read articles, free content and so much work into it.
I used to live in Oz and I wish I knew your website earlier to be honest.
A big thank you from France, keep up the good work!
Merci beaucoup
Tοns of thanks Nathan, i just saw the insta-light!!
This is a great article. I just started my IG in May. I was up to 590 followers withing a couple months. IG took almost 100 of those and even tho I have 10 to 20 a day follow me, IG rarely gives me one. I engage on a regular basis. I post everyday. I respond to all comments and like as many post as I can. I am trying to build enough followers to eventually earn money but it seems like I am stuck. Any idea how to get IG to let me have my followers. I have researched this extensively and can’t find any help. I love this article and it has given me many ideas. But if IG won’t let me have followers then I am not sure how it will work.
Wow this was a great read, keep up the good work! Hopefully now I can get myself some more Instagram followers
Really useful article! thanks! I use ingramer.com. I like it. And as a must I use vsco. I love it, good app!
Thanks a lot Nathan. I really need to build an Instagram account for my blog.
Thank you!
The article was really a great helpful for me. I have learned many things of which about I was not aware.
Hello Nathan,
What a fabulous, informative article. I will have to bookmark it, as it is information overload, as not familiar with most of what you covered.
I do know, I am going to search foundr on Instagram, and follow.
Most articles are generic, and I admit, I usually exit before the end. Not with your article. It was the perfect mix of actionable information, graphics, and honest insight.
Being a newbie Instagrammer who has yet to identify a niche, researching who has knowledge about what works.
I like how you mentioned for people to understand why they are using Instagram before investing time, and resources.
Much information to take away. I only recently learnt about using focus keywords so that my blog posts are searchable! I did two posts using “meaningful connections through social media” and “mending meaningful friendships.” Now, stuff doesn’t go to cyber space. Yes this is how technically challenged I am.
Thanks for writing an article that is helpful.
Christine Toda, todallyinspired.com
This is gold!
Thanks for sharing such a great, very informative and useful article to instagram followers improvement tips.
Keep it up.
This is by far the best article I’ve found on growing your Instagram! I really enjoyed the podcast you did with Gretta van Riel too, she’s such an inspiration.
Hi Foundr team. Thank you for your incredible feedback and pointers. I see that you’re particularly targeting businesses, but what if you are your business? I’m a model and the IG platform holds a huge weight on my position in my line of work. Do you have any additional pointers for those who have to share and expose themselves? How do you really gain a following by just exposing yourself? It’s narcissistic, right? Ugh. It’s truly an exhausting characteristic of my industry.
Would love to chat more.
Thanks,
Karli
Very interesting article 🙂 Thanks for this advice, Nathan.This is the best article I’ve found on growing your Instagram!
Thanks for writing such an informative and indepth article to gain follower. I learned a lot of new points and will use these tactics to grow my IG followers.
Hashatory helps you with generating the right hashtags which you can include along with your content. It helped me grow my engagement.
This is one of the best blog posts I ever read. Why ? Because it is one of the most actionable ones. Since I read it one month ago, I managed to grow my IG handle from 0 to 1000 followers. Thanks Foundr and Nathan. You guys rock!
Nice article!! I just had to start from scratch my brand’s social media profiles……many work ahead to do and many helpful tips that I am going to start using right away!
Respect your idea on Instagram followers.
thank for this article
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This is exactly what I have been looking for. You have covered almost everything.
I was trying to figure out the ways how I could increase my instagram following and now I have read your article and I think I am gonna make a huge audience on Insta.
Wish me luck Chan (Y)
Thanks so much for all of the pointers! Since I have followed these steps my account has started really booming. My IG which is under @dangerbrody is slightly different because I post for a variety of different topics and followers. However everything that you have said really helped boost my following! Since you recommended, network network network! I will end on a networking note! anyone who enjoys outdoor photography, food or adrenalin sports please follow me @dangerbrody Thanks!
How do you find “share for share” groups on instagram?
Thank you Nathan for this great article. Question : Can you upload the link of the app Kik that you mention in Shoutout part ? I can’t find it on web. thank you
Great article! Now is a great time to market on Instagram. I have tried everything from cheap bots, to paying an expensive freelancer to grow my following. The best thing I have ever tried is Relaxed Social Instagram Agency. I got 300 new followers each week. Thats my tip.
I really enjoyed this article. Thanks for reminding me about networking. In todays connected world we often forget that we are still dealing with humans and that it’s important to build relationships. Even if you never see the person, it’s still important. I’d suggest to try to get on a Skype video call (or meet for coffee) with anyone who is very important for your to build a strong relationship with. That visual human contact is going to strengthen the relationship and make you stand out.
Thanks for this advice, Nathan. Especially helpful is the suggestion to put all the hashtags in the comment section. I’m trying to learn the best ways to use hashtags
This is a great article, Nathan.
We actually followed some of the steps in this article and blogged about our experience. We have over 100 followers in less than one week and lots of engagement (100+ likes for our posts).
Hi Nathan,
Excellent article with a ton of useful tips! I’m hoping you can help me out with a quick question. For awhile I used Crowdfire’s Copy Followers feature to grow my account. When they discontinued that, I moved to Instagress, but now it’s gone as well.
I’m hopeful that your team has found a new tool that people can use to help people grow their accounts. The other tips work very well, but Instagress was really speeding things up. Can you let me know what your current recommended tool is?
I’d really appreciate some guidance on this,
Thanks,
Mary
Thanks @nickfanilov:disqus
Agreed @disqus_sXzx4niCJZ:disqus – Great advice!
Appreciated WJ 🙂
Thank you so much @authorcaujuanmayo:disqus
Wow that was a great article. Just came across this.
Those are great tips and I would definitely try them. I have been trying my luck on so many techniques, hope I find a solution with one of the above.
Appreciated @SamFisherhere:disqus
Hi Nathan. I wanted to leave a quick comment to thank you for your guide on gaining Instagram followers to thank you for the helpful, very descriptive methods included in the article.
Thanks
Learning how to grow your account and make extra money on Instagram is easy. Figuring out what to do to make extra money on Instagram is not so easy. There are hundreds of categories that can be split into thousands, if not tens of thousands of ideas. I’m using Instagram Pocket Rocket.. awesome and easy method to grow Instagram account and make money from from it. So far I managed to earn couple thousands of $.
This is by far the best article I’ve found on growing your Instagram! I really enjoyed the podcast you did with Gretta van Riel too, she’s such an inspiration.
Hi Nathan!
Thank you for this article. Helped me write my own article regarding this subject.
You’re welcome @jaywi:disqus 🙂
Nathan, awesome to see you doing so well. I have been following foundr and reading your tips for a while.
1 question I have is about follow bots. I tried it and while my audience grew my engagement dropped like a stone. Doesn’t IG hit you in the algos 😉 for follow bots?
Appreciated @disqus_GQALJflx88:disqus – I recommend not to use bots!
Great article! Thanks for sharing that! You can follow me on Instagram for some good stuff @janpahor:disqus
I’m also doing great with my strategies, DM me on instagram to exchange some knowledge 😉
Thanks @janpahor:disqus 🙂
I’m using Instagram Pocket Rocket.. awesome and easy method to grow Instagram account and earn from it. I’m using it about 10 days, earned good so far (about $500)
Very helpful Nathan. Thanks for the great article. As a startup business, I needed some advice on how to manage my business’s Instagram account.
Thank you @proshifter:disqus
Great article Nathan! Will try to stick to the plan and see how far it would get me. Quick question though on #4 hashtags, if you don’t include hashtags into your media description then it would not be associated with those tags if you add them in the comment would it? Would not it reduce chances of your media to show up in relevant search results?
@alexperevalov:disqus – Thank you 🙂 It looks spammy in the description having your hashtags there!
Arrived here from your latest post, most definitely worth the read! Been running my IG account for several months now, and most definitely going to grow it even larger in 2017 with all these tips added to my arsenal! Much thanks! 😀
Great article! This one is helpful, thanks for sharing keep it up,
Thanks @abegail_smith:disqus 🙂
I’m using Rexam’s Instagram Pocket Rocket.. awesome and easy method to
grow Instagram account and earn from it. I’m using it about 10 days,
earned good so far (about $500)…
always rereading this post
Thanks @typearls:disqus – Glad to hear you get so much value from it!
The hashtag on you Instagram picture helps organize and categorize your image or video content which helps in content discovery and optimization. If you put a hashtag which is very popular among Instagram users your picture can be noticed by my people who are finding picture according to hashtags. When many people notice your picture you automatically are able to generate likes on your picture. So hashtag is a great source in connecting with different users across the world.
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My girlfriend has got little more than ten thousands followers. She uses zen-promo, hash-tags. Remembers the timing and so on. Longer than two weeks, but she has done it.
Thanks @disqus_cRXjDTfEyu:disqus – Great share! Agreed it’s definitely possible!
Great article, thanks Nathan!!!!
Unfortunately I weren’t able to attend the webinar Yesterday, so was extremely
happy when I saw my inbox this morning with a link for it!
For such a long time I pushed my superiors for getting Instagram, which in the
end finally succeeded 🙂 However I have small question for you: I’m working for a
Danish e-commerce (actually a German company, but they have a page in Denmark), but we aren’t posting our images in Danish! Would you
recommend to use the language of the country or what would be most engaging?
Since our Instagram is in English, the Bounce Rate gets higher when they enter
a Danish page
Thank you so much @camilla_vestergaard:disqus – yes these strategies work no matter what countries or language 🙂
Ran into this post today and have just loved this step-by-step guide. Thank you so much for your tips, Nathan!
One last thing: I’m trying to download your free eBook “How to Get Your First 10,000 Instagram Followers”, but it’s not being sent to my email. I already registered my email and nothing has arrived – checked the spam box as well. How do I get it?
Thanks for sharing!
Hey @ericoshimada:disqus – Glad you enjoyed this post, in regards to the ebook, very strange. Please do contact our support team, and they will take care of you! [email protected]
Will do so. Thanks
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Awesome article, lots of good info here!
For businesses, is it valuable to have a social account if it’s B2B, and if what’s being sold isn’t something that the “businesses” necessarily want to interact with in front of their friends/followers? That’s been a unique challenge for my business and a few that I know of, so any advice would be appreciated.
Great article, thnak you so much bro!
Great article but I’m stuck with the shares for shares and networking. Can you write more about how you actually find the accounts to engage with? I mean is there a tool for finding people, like Followerwonk for Twitter? I downloaded Kik and it’s just sitting on my phone, I have no idea how to even get started using it.
Thanks @dannyflood:disqus glad you enjoyed it! To get started it’s all about networking and serving first and asking later. Reaching out to other accounts to develop relationships and partnerships! Hope this helps!
Nathan, Thank you very much for the article.
You and foundr rock brother.
You have inspired me a lot.
Although I have a question about this article, You talked about following or copying brand followers. How is it then Foundr is following only 83 now, Do you unfollow all the others who follow you back too as time passes by???
You’re most welcome @disqus_KpGFdIbTec:disqus – We’re here to help entrepreneurs however we can at Foundr!
We used this tactic a lot early on, but as time went on we don’t need to any more due the size and growth of our account. I think it’s only a good one in the early days.
Thanks @monty07:disqus – Glad you enjoyed it, please do keep us posted on how you go with the implementation of what we’ve shared!
Thanks @graavaa:disqus – Glad you enjoyed this one 🙂
I liked most strategies and tactics but I hate the “follow you and I follow back” thing because it still looks like begging, you know? I prefer to invest massively amount of time building up my value cup and deliver it to society.
Eventually, followers will come.
And stay.
Nice article nonetheless.
Best regards
Peterson Teixeira
Hey @disqus_Jxl69k4hZ7:disqus thank you so much for the feedback, and like anything please do take what is useful to you and discard the rest!
Spot on @disqus_GQ5Pmx4SEk:disqus – Hashtags can be a great way to reference your content, but also find people that are interested in your content!
Thank you @disqus_BDQNuAFDIa:disqus
Very very nice article Nathan! I love this article so much…its really beneficial for us ..I am big user of instagram.your tips are very helpful for getting more followers on instagram.such it’s very effective article..Thanks!
I really love this article! Thank you so much Nathan!
Hi Nathan,
That is a great post to get more followers on Instagram!
Great read. People often forget that using hashtags can actually have a huge effect in gaining targeted instagram followers if used correctly!
Since this update, you either do it manually or remove this tactic from your strategies list. Hope this helps! There are no other tools for this!
Since this update, you either do it manually or remove this tactic from your strategies list. Hope this helps Jenny!
Yes always credit where you can Patrick!
Very Useful Article Nathan. What do you do to attain followers for a new account now, with the new CrowdFireApp update?
Since this update, you either do it manually or remove this tactic from your strategies list.
Hi Nathan
If you’re still here? 😊
I have two branded Insta accounts – one for an established web news business 9k follows (with advertisers etc) and a new account with 8k follows so far which is student based in terms of fans – I’ve read all your advice for a while now but wanted to ask, in terms of using quotations – is it ok to use others’ quotations as long as they’re mentioned and credited (usually with a gallery recommendation of course) or are there any copyright issues? for example how does Foundr approach this, are your quotes ok to repurpose (I mean genuinely not a copycat site or anything)
Best wishes
Pat
My business partner and I are currently using Instagress to help grow our lifestyle account. Is it a bad idea to use crowdfire in conjunction with Instagress? Instagress recommends you don’t take manual action while it’s automated processes are running, but I have done this to some degree so far without issue.
You shouldn’t use both at the same time. It’s asking for trouble @disqus_U7t1ZKSvKg:disqus
Hello..Got a question, using other imagery to promote yourself is good?
Yes for sure!
Crowdfire recently got rid of the “copy followers” option as Instagram changed their policies & no third party apps are able to access IG accounts to copy followers. Is it even worth it at this point for ppl to download & pay to upgrade their CrowdFire account – that are trying to build a huge following on IG? Or is there another app out now that you suggest? Loved this article too Nathan!
Nice and very good guides to get real instagram followers. Instagram top social media that is best to engage to make advertise on any field.
Thank you @ariaclarke:disqus – Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Nathan,
The “copy followers” option is now gone from Crowd Fire due to the recent Instagram API update. Given this, do you have another tool/strategy that you recommend for following and unfollowing people in our niche?
Thanks,
Dan
Nathan, This is quite insightful and practical.
Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome @fasorantidamilola:disqus – Glad it was helpful!!
Great article!! I’ve ran @sole_nation for a couple years now and what you’ve suggested to help your accounts is pretty much what I did.
Now I’m trying to grow it more any advice?
Thanks @plorobles:disqus – Make sure you check out https://foundr.com/instagram-sales-funnel/
hi Nathan, thank you for your inspirations!! do you recommend that we switch gears at some point and no longer need to do the follow-unfollow? I can’t imagine following 10k people 🙂
and I see foundr only follows 100 or so accounts, so did you use the strategy to a certain point, then scaled back? were your fans annoyed when you unfollowed them? thanks a million!!!
You’re most welcome @apieceofrainbowananda:disqus 🙂
I do recommend you switch gears, we did this for the first 100k!
Nathan, can Instagram be done only from a Smartphone or is it possible on a lap top?
Smart phone only! But there are some tools that do publish via computer for you but they generally void Instagram’s terms!
Great article Nathan. Question about crowdfire. Is there a way of following an account’s followers with one click or do you need to do it individually? Do you need the upgraded account to do so?
Unfortunately it’s a menial task!!
instagram is high then higher ..people work for this ides ..
do his job for his boost up..
BOOM!
Thank you! Really useful stuff!
Missed your masterclass today, didn’t know about it :/ Will be any more maybe? Thanks!
You’re welcome @klemenzupani:disqus – No worries at all, please do email our support team and they will be able to look after you! [email protected]
Great article, As a novice at Instagram and social media overall, this article has a lot of beneficial information to refine my presence on Instagram. thank you! looking forward to the Instagram Master Class!
Glad you enjoyed it @naturallinens:disqus – That’s what we do at Foundr! Post epic stuff to help entrepreneurs 😉
Great article Nathan. Real entrepreneur spirit in providing valuable tools and knowledgeable information in asssisting other’s success. I am now a fan of foundr and its structure.
Thanks @billy_mantel:disqus – we’re here to serve!! Please do share this with a friend that might find some use to it if get the chance 🙂
We used the strategy once we got to 100k 🙂
any recommendations now Crowdfire has stopped CopyFollowers?
Hey @disqus_yPjsrJRFtq:disqus – Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you Stanley! Glad you enjoyed this one!!
Great tips shared in this post! I actually find it helpful to edit videos too that are fun and interesting.
Thanks Ace! Great advice!
@Nathan Chan thank you for your article! I don’t see much of such great tips these days. As for me, i’m using Schedugram for managing my Instagram.
This is a great article. But I have a direct question regarding the mass following through crowdfire. I see for example that foundrmagazine are following only 100+ people, yet there following is thousands.
On the unfollow day, in the copy followers 3 days a week and 1 unfollow day advice. Do you advise unfollowing even people that have recently started to follow you. Would this not lead to a loss of followers who remain. The problem is I can’t continue to follow all these hundreds of people I have copy followed as firstly there is a limit. Also it’s hard to keep track of your followers of the list is so big. Please can you advise on this specific point where you discuss the use of crowdfire. Thank you.
Thanks Nathan for this article, it has been helpful!
You’re welcome @jeanluctan:disqus – Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
This is all awesome advice for newbies – thanks! I know this is over a year old now but I’m always dubious about using 3rd party apps to get followers etc after a certain Twitter app got shut down – along with the accounts of anyone who was using it!
Are you still confident Crowdfire and JustUnfollow are safe to use to aggressively build up an Instagram following?
This is a great point @disqus_xpHwAKLmdZ:disqus – We’re looking to write a new article to show our updated progress 1 year later, as we’re now at 500,000+ followers in 13 months!
Crowdfire is a very legit app and company 🙂
Crowdfire. Got it. Now off to figure out how to work that thing. Cheers!
You’re welcome!!!
Great advice. The only thing I’d like to add is that Instagram has changed their description feature. It now only shows a certain number of characters so you have to get your point across ASAP.
This is a great point @kelseyvere:disqus – We wrote this post over 1 year ago now! It’s time for an update and a revisit as we’re now at almost 500K+ followers 1 year later!
well what payment system do you use for the shout outs through kik. bit more detail on that would of been appreciated. cause like i dont want to trust some stranger with credit card details or money transfer than they might not allso fulfil the request so you paid for nothing etc
We recommend using PayPal!! @dwaynejacksondailyurbancult:disqus
What a great post 🙂 I love it. How can I dwonload the Instagram domination pdf? I Just listened to your podcast on the wpelevation and I’m big fan from today. Thanks for the awesome podcast
Hey @sameh_henein:disqus – Please visit foundr.com/free
These are some awesome tips! I just started really paying attention to my Instagram account and have been doing a few of these.
Glad you got a ton of value from them @NicoleWilliamsCollective:disqus 🙂
Great article! I subscribed to get the Instagram Cheet Sheet but I never received an email. I tried too different email accounts and still didn’t get it. Can you help? Thanks 🙂
Thanks @disqus_uksNuvHwi7:disqus – Please do contact our support team via our contact form – foundr.com/contact
Last time I checked, Instagram has limits of 60 follow/unfollow an hour. If you do a batch greater than 60 in CrowdFire, will CrowdFire delay/space out your actions so that you don’t exceed 60 for each hour? Or do you need to manually self limit yourself to less than 60?
That is correct, there are definitely limits!
hye there.good article and am using crowdfire now..but i curious to know if they can detected my instagram profile when i copy their followers.. thank you so much nathan 😉
Great question @iszsufryna:disqus – I’m not too sure if Instagram can detect this!
Hi Nathan! I really enjoyed your free webinar and got massive value from it! Like all other things, it seems as though we are being inindated with 105643 new “companies” that promise “instant insta fame” what are your thoughts on companies that sell “legit” followers are employ tactis like follow to unfollow?
You can’t buy followers! Don’t trust it!
Hi, My account is about like drama. And i want my account to be popular. But is really hard for me to get lots of followers. How do I get lots of followers on instagram, real quick and real followers which likes my pictures.
Simple, follow this blog post and do the work! There is no shortcut!
Great article Nathan, thanks!! I’m very active on IG-I love it. My customer base covers several industries (schools, businesses, brands, events like marathons, groups like roller derby teams). I know narrowing down to a niche is important, but do you think selling to multiple niches (even when just starting out) can work? On IG I’m thinking about promoting to a different niche each week-1. follow users in that niche, liking and commenting on their posts. 2. Put out 4-5 fun/funny/socially relevant posts with “tag someone who…”. 3. End the week with a pic of my product geared toward that niche with call to action/promotion/discount code. Am I on the right track!
I think it’s always good to keep things simple. The more you overcomplicate the more confusing it is for your target audience.
I love this article. Thank you.
I got super excited and tried your method, but then I was “temporarily blocked” because I started following too many people. Do you know what the magic number is to follow/unfollow? I am bummed because I am reading online that a temporary block can last up to 4 weeks. Have you ever had this happen to you Nathan? Thank you again for this article!
Great tips. I just discovered this article.
One thing I don’t understand. You said and I quote “When we started, we also managed to get introduced into this huge network of entrepreneurs, all with accounts of over 20,000+ followers.”
How can you find this type of network?
Networking is key when looking to build partnerships!
Are you able to share the name of the network or how to “look to build partnerships”? Or if you can metion it thats ok too
Unfortunately I cannot @anfanination:disqus – However we do go into this stuff in depth in our paid course – Instagram Domination (igdomination.com)
I think it’s always good to keep things simple. The more you overcomplicate the more confusing it is for your target audience.
Hi nathan, this article was very helpful. I have one Question – I am planning to market my app the same way and i have already sorted out and listed down a few pages for shoutouts from them. I just wanna know – how many shoutouts are enough in a certain period of time ? and How much traffic does on shout out from a page that has around million followers would get ? how much spending is the correct amount of spending for such kind of marketing? Eagerly waiting for your reply.
Hi nathan, this article was very helpful. I have one Question – I am planning to market my app the same way and i have already sorted out and listed down a few pages for shoutouts from them. I just wanna know – how many shoutouts are enough in a certain period of time ? and How much traffic does on shout out from a page that has around million followers would get ? how much spending is the correct amount of spending for such kind of marketing? Eagerly waiting for your reply.
it just depends on your goals and metrics @avinshuaneja:disqus – I cannot say how much traffic a shout can bring, because it really just depends, you have to test, and you have to make sure that page has a great target audience for your product / service! You should get at least 500+ followers from a million account that shouts you, just depends? Some bring 3000? some bring less?
In regards to spending, it comes back to your ROI! Wish I could be of more help!
Yes thats true. It depends alot on product/service. and many other factors involved. Thanks for the reply @nathan chan. Much appreciated. all the best for your future endavours. Foundr is awesome.
You’re most welcome @avinshuaneja:disqus – At Foundr we’re here to serve entrepreneurs however we can!
Great article.
Thank you 🙂
Great advises, thanks you for sharing! I’d like the article even more if you’d added some useful applications. I think they’re a crucial time-saver, so i’m always looking for new ones luckily they’re released quite often. I personally use about 5+ different apps on daily basis. I can’t imagine editing without Whitagram and VSCO Cam because i don’t like instagram’s everlasting filters. Efficient management is impossible without detailed statistics, so Iconosquare.com is my choice. When it comes to following management i use fast-unfollow.com to easily get rid of up to 5000 users not following me back in one day. And finally a scheduler – latergram.me in my case – to keep posting consistently. For most of these apps there are analogues, but always inferior: they have either higher price or fewer functions. If you know some interesting apps please do suggest them to me, i’d highly appreciate that 😉
Hello Stanley, fantastic suggestions! We will look to a new article as this was wrote about 5 months ago, and our account has grown 50x since writing this!
Oh yeah i read about your growth on Huffington post! That’s truly amazing:) I guess being mentioned on huffington not just boosted, but skyrocketed your traffic:) Keep up the great work!
Great tips!
Glad to hear you enjoyed them 🙂
“Followers. It’s the ultimate Instagram metric that basically states in raw numbers how popular you are”…not sure if this statement is really accurate…Instagram and FB are littered with fake and inactive accounts, take the number with a grain of salt and look at the dollar value of each follower you have…then you have the ‘ultimate’ metric.
Hey Bobby,
You raise a fantastic point! What we meant by that statement is, people use your followers as a metric for how popular you are, but of course engagement is definitely king, and you are spot on! Check out the Foundr Magazine Instagram account, we are almost at 100,000 followers now after being on Instagram for under 5 months and our engagement is really solid!
Hope this article helped you 🙂
Nathan
Just FYI, the original poster cannot leave tags in comments anymore…you might get one or two tags in before you get a red error message when commenting. Have to go back to putting them in the description.
Hey Anthony, I’m not quite sure what you mean by this my man?
Unfortunately I get a weird error / red exclamation point whenever I try to add more than a few a tags to my posts with comments. I’m told there’s a 30 tag limit, but I get the error when adding fewer than 30 tags to a post in a comment.
I have yet to find the person who knows why I’m getting the error. :/
Just keep removing hashtags, till you hit the max 🙂
Okay so I have a naive question, how did you go about finding the right accounts to work with to shout out? I did a quick hashtag search and there are millions of photos with hashtagged “shoutout” lol. Is there any method you use?
I really loved this article. Theycomments were also extremely insightful
Not a naive question at all! Don’t look by hashtag search, look at what your current followers are following and engaging with. You can bet that your accounts niche has quite a few influencers that they are following!
Glad to hear you loved the article 🙂
Thanks for this article. I’m a big user of Instagram personally but have only recently started helping someone manage an Instagram account for their business and these tips are really helpful. Thanks for the tipoff about JustUnfollow. Going to check it out now 🙂
Hey Radhika! You are most welcome, glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Great article! What software/application do you use to edit and create all the photos?
Thank you 🙂
Most of the Foundr branded articles are created in Indesign CS6, however we also use an application on iOS called ‘WordSwag’ which we highly recommend too!
Hi Josh, Super excited to know that JustUnfollow has helped you fire up your Instagram marketing efforts! Your words shall definitely motivate our team to work harder and add more power to JustUnfollow. Wishing you kickass growth and success!
Thank you for getting in touch Shyamal! We love your webapp, its a game changer 😉
Keep up the great work!
Question: how do you batch schedule un JustUnfollow? Is that only available in the paid upgrade?
To batch schedule you have to use the iPhone app ‘JustUnfollow’. Enjoy 🙂
You have to use the ‘JustUnfollow’ app on your phone!
Hi Chris,
I work at JustUnfollow on Instagram Scheduler named TakeOff. There are two ways to use it.
One is to use it in the JustUnfollow’s mobile app. Otherwise, you could simply download TakeOff as a standalone app at http://gettakeoff.com/.
Let me know if you need any help! 🙂
Thank you @pilanites:disqus
You can batch @chrisbacke:disqus 🙂
Really useful article Josh!
The company I work for has been tossing around the idea of a company instagram account, but we couldn’t decide if it was going to be worth our time/effort. Some of your points at the end (is the brand visually appealing, do we have time to manage a new social platform, etc.) pretty much made up my mind for me. Thanks!
Instagram is booming right now! Glad to hear we helped you make your decision 🙂
wow! Really cool article, specially #3 and #4 !
I agree with Jordan, you guys are doing a really good job! That’s how I found out about foundr too!
Thank you Lucas 🙂 We are here to help however we can!
Great article! Thank you so much!
Great article. Love the practical advice on building an IG following. It’s clearly working for you guys, because that’s how I found out about foundr 🙂
Oh wow! Well there go 🙂 Hope you’re enjoying Foundr so far
Glad to hear you enjoyed it Jordan! Good to see our tactics are working 🙂
Chances are you’ve heard of a little app called Instagram. It’s a bit hard not to notice one of the most popular social media networks in the world. Based upon its simple premise of users sharing and liking images, it’s easy to see why you might think Instagram isn’t for your business.