You’ve created your Instagram account. Added your photo. Even a bio. And a few posts too. But the followers are slow to come. Sounds familiar? Ouch!

Rest assured, when a social media manager creates his Insta account at the very beginning, the first followers are often the most difficult to attract. Why? You have to convince them, make them want to follow your account and prove that you can provide them with interesting content.

Don’t panic! You have to start somewhere. Our experts will help you gain followers on Instagram.

Here are our tips for gaining followers on Instagram in 2024:

Attract your target audience and build trust

If you establish a relevant content strategy, social networks allow you to attract the direct attention of your target audience. This notoriety allows you to increase traffic to your website and sales. In addition, your presence on social networks guarantees quality for your potential customers. It provides proof that your brand exists and another vision of your products.

Targeting real Followers

Would you trust a brand that lies about its customer reviews? It’s the same with Instagram. Be careful, if you want to have additional Followers,  aim for quality and not quantity. Fraudulent platforms can offer you to buy followers at low costs. 

Don’t fall into the trap of paying Followers

Don’t fall into the trap of fake followers! These techniques will quickly inflate your followers, but they will not engage with your content or buy your products. In addition, your visitors can see at a glance that your followers are fake accounts and this will give a negative image of your brand.

Instead, follow the advice of our social media agency! Check out the prices of social media management with our agency.

Our tips for increasing your number of followers on Instagram

Tip 1 to get more followers on Instagram: Optimize your profile

SEO is also for social networks! Targeting keywords in your name and bio will allow you to find followers more easily.

Choose a username that is easy to find

You want your customers to be able to find you easily on Instagram, your username can be up to 30 characters. Choose a username that is available, easy to search for, and as close as possible to your business name and website address. If you are a sardine brand in Quebec, avoid @sardines.ml.12599 and prefer @sardines.qc.

Keep the same name as on your other social networks (Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn): your customers will be able to find you more easily between platforms.

Optimize your Instagram bio and profile

Your Instagram profile is the shop window of your store. A visitor should be able to identify at a glance what it is about and want to know more. Your profile includes:

• Your name:  This can be different from your username. Choose your brand name
• A profile photo:  choose an image that is characteristic of your company (logo)
• Your website link  (if existing): if you are launching a specific campaign as part of crowdfunding or for the launch of a new product, do not hesitate to temporarily modify this link to guide your visitors.
• Your contact details:  business type and location (only if you have a business account), allowing your visitors to easily contact you.
• Your Instagram bio:  you have 150 characters to present your brand and make visitors want to follow you. The bio is a mini pitch of your brand. Don’t hesitate to use the  |  symbol to divide your interests and if possible use a few smileys to make your content more visual.

Tip 2 to get more followers on Instagram: tag your content with relevant hashtags

Using hashtags makes it easier for Instagram users to find content. Unfortunately, the caption text of your Instagram posts is not searchable. However,  hashtags do appear in search results. 

If you find  # numbers that your target customers are searching for, it will allow you to reach a new audience with your posts and gain followers. You can even create hashtags related to your business.

Users have the option to follow hashtags.  Using the right hashtags under your posts will allow you to appear in the Instagram feed of people who don’t follow you yet.

Some hashtags bring together large communities, such as #chocolatelovers, which brings together fans of cocoa treats.

How many hashtags can you include in an Instagram post?

You can include up to 30 hashtags in your posts, but we advise you not to overload your posts too much, this could harm your visibility.

Our expert advice: limit yourself to 5 hashtags per post,  don’t always use the same hashtags, adapt them according to the posts, and avoid the most popular hashtags. Avoid positioning yourself on trending hashtags (+10K followers) at the beginning of your Instagram strategy, you risk drowning in the middle of thousands of posts.

How to choose the best hashtags on Instagram?

• Take a short hashtag
• Check how the hashtag is used: does it match the products my business offers? What types of posts come up when people search for the #?
• Check out the hashtags your competitors are using: these can give you inspiration on industry best practices.

Consider including your location when you post. This allows you to  target a local audience. How can this help you gain followers? Your posts will be visible to people near your location who will be able to discover and follow your account.

Are you attending a conference or trade show? Consider making localized posts or stories. People searching for the event on Instagram will be able to discover you even if they didn’t have the chance to visit your booth.

Tip 3 to get more followers on Instagram: Post shareable content

Over 100 million pieces of content are posted on Instagram every day. How do you stand out and gain followers? The answer in one word: QUALITY.

Take care of your legends

The art of Instagram is in the visuals, but also in the captions. The first two sentences of your captions are the most important. After three lines, the user will have the choice to show more, or not.

To take advantage of these first words and win over readers, we advise you to start your caption with a key figure, a question or an observation subject to debate.

Publish quality content that interests your audience

Gaining followers is good, keeping them long-term is better. You are a roofing company and you decide to post a beach photo because you noticed that it works well on Instagram (especially with people in swimsuits in the photo)… very bad idea!

Ask yourself the right questions when establishing your content calendar :

• Is this post useful/interesting/entertaining for my followers? Yes/No
• Does this post-match my field of activity? Yes/No
• Is this post interesting for someone new to my business? Yes/No
• Does this post fit into my Instagram profile style guide? Yes/No

Did you answer yes to all the questions? Post!

The last question to ask yourself is: Could this post be shared by a visitor? This is what can allow you to gain new followers easily. Indeed, if one of your followers decides to forward your publication in a private message to a friend or even better reshare it in story bingo! You will reach new potential followers!

Tip 4 to get more followers on Instagram: Play with the available features, test the formats

Even though posts are the first type of Instagram content you’ll start with, this platform offers a multitude of possibilities: stories, reels, videos and soon Roll Call and Glimpse stories. These two new Instagram features (very similar to Be Real will be added in 2024). Sharing a Roll Call or Glimpse stories will allow you to post a new type of content that shows the daily life of your business.

Make stories regularly

A third of the most viewed stories are published by businesses! With over 500 million uses per day, why not use them regularly? As with posts, you can add hashtags and geotag your posts so that they appear to people who don’t follow you yet.

Your stories disappear after 24 hours, but you can keep your best stories in the story’s highlights.

Get started on reels

Instagram Reels is an app that lets you create and share short, entertaining videos. Like TikTok, Reels lets you edit videos using a variety of tools. Here’s how to use the reel format on Instagram.

So, test these formats which are often less competitive than posts. They will allow you to diversify your audience and gain followers!

Tip 5 to get more followers on Instagram: Interact with communities

The goal of a social network is to join conversations. You’re not alone, so take advantage of this pool of new followers just a click away.

Like posts from your followers, comment on posts from popular hashtags you follow or from accounts with similar interests to yours.

How to do it? Follow accounts and hashtags related to your field of activity. Your Instagram feed will automatically adapt.

One of the fastest ways to increase your followers is to create interactions with the followers of competitor accounts. For example, you can comment on one of your competitors’ posts by encouraging them and providing additional information to their posts.

To start your strategy, set yourself achievable goals: we recommend that you comment on 5 posts per day.

Tip 6 to get more followers on Instagram: Interact with brands

Partnering with accounts similar to yours is a great way to share your visibility on Instagram and gain each other followers. Instagram allows you to tag a user’s account on a post (directly on the post or in the caption) or a story.

There are different types of partnerships on Instagram: promo code, product testing, and highlighting a brand’s hashtag. But the simplest partnership to easily gain followers remains the contest.

Run Contests

Run a contest with a brand where followers must follow both of your accounts to participate. Here are  12 contest ideas to get you started.

While contests are a great way to gain followers quickly without spending a lot of money, here are our tips when you’re getting started with contests:

• Choose a brand or influencer whose community matches your target: new followers will unsubscribe as quickly as they arrive if you don’t aim right
• Don’t just do contests: limit contests to two per month at the risk of boring your community.
• Offer interesting and varied rewards: if you always offer the same prizes, your followers risk being disappointed.
• Don’t force your fans to share your post in the story to participate (this goes against Meta rules).

Finally, once the contest is over, remember to announce the winner in the story and on the contest post. This will avoid a feeling of frustration for participants who are impatiently waiting for the results.

Tip 7 to get more followers on Instagram: Make sponsored content

Yes, Instagram advertising is a great way to gain followers. Even if you post great content, Instagram’s algorithm filters the content presented to its users and not all of your followers will see your posts. Sponsoring Instagram content allows you to expand the audience of your posts by targeting new potential followers.

Be seen by your future followers

Meta ads allow you to target your audience based on a variety of criteria: location, age, gender, and interests.  Visit the  Meta Ads Manager to learn more.

Sponsored ads can get you featured in Explore, and being featured in Explore is a great way to expose your content to people who don’t know you yet! Explore is all the content that’s shown when you click on the Instagram magnifying glass. It’s personalized for each profile based on the content the account has interacted with and the accounts and # followed.

How to sponsor content in Explorer? It’s very easy, just select Explorer as the advertising option when you launch your campaign.

You are ready to have millions of followers!

That’s all we can wish you! The key to success on Instagram is regularity. We recommend posting at least three times a week. 

The more you post (relevant content of course), the more interactions you will have and the more the Instagram algorithm will promote you!

• Country: United States