Use these few tips to increase your Instagram followers in about a month

 

In case you’ve been searching for tips on how to gain more Instagram followers, congratulations to you because you’ve just unlocked a guide that can help you get 1000 followers in just five minutes.

 

I know you love that tinge of excitement you get every time a notification pops on your gadget notifying you that your Instagram post has gained an interaction. Be it a like or a comment, the satisfaction is endless and most times, they serve as an indication that your account is getting all the attention.

 

However, guess what is better than one notification? Yes, more notifications and that’s where attracting more followers to your Instagram account becomes very important.

 

Yeah, now you know where I am headed, right!

 

The world has evolved to a point where online interaction now plays an integral part of human existence. Close your eyes for a second and imagine how humanity would have survived the recent global COVID-19 lockdown without the option of virtual communication.

 

‘No way.’ Yes, I agree with you.

 

Instagram has proven to be a key part of this shift because it provides a meeting point for people to connect. It is also an avenue for bloggers, creators, creative entrepreneurs, and businesses alike to display their goods and services to a diverse audience.

 

Is it possible to get 1000 Instagram followers in 5 minutes?

 

I know gaining 1000 Instagram followers in five minutes may sound unrealistic to you for a number of reasons. It’s possible that you’ve tried several tips in the past without any results to show for it or you just don’t believe in the claim. I’m here to give you a new belief, with strict application of the tips you’re going to get here, I bet you can increase your Instagram followers drastically in no time.

 

Get to know the Instagram Features

 

 

 

 

 

Instagram comes with different kinds of features that allow users to post content in various forms. Each feature serves a unique purpose and helps to maximize a user’s posts if adequately utilized.

 

 

The features are as follow:

 

Instagram Live: This feature allows you to broadcast events to your followers in real-time. It’s an amazing way of keeping followers abreast of unfolding actions as they take place.

 

Instagram Story: An Instagram story is the small ring-shaped feature that appears at the top of your Instagram feed. The ring around your profile picture becomes colorful when you post a story prompting your followers that they can tap to see what you’ve just uploaded.

 

Instagram Feed: This is the first point of contact when you open the Instagram app, it constantly updates lists of photos and videos. Instagram Feed shows you content from the accounts you follow and advertisers.

 

Instagram Highlight: This works more like the story feature in that it allows you to display contents on your profile. Highlights appear as a circle just below your Instagram bio, and can stay there permanently for as long as you prefer which makes it different from a story that disappears after 24hrs.  

 

Instagram Reels: These are short, entertaining video contents with music and other special effects that allow you to express your creativity. They are very similar to the stuff you’d see on TikTok. 

 

IGTV: Straightforward, this is Instagram Television but requires a standalone video app. IGTV allows users to upload longer video content compared to Instagram feeds.

Types of content to post on your Instagram account

 

Now that I have highlighted all the Instagram features and their functions in relation to uploading contents, l’d now proceed to talk about the various types of content you can upload on the app.

 

Photos: Photos are cool content you can share on Instagram and the process is very seamless. You can select photos from your phone gallery or simply take shots directly from your Instagram camera. A photo can be edited and also filtered to your satisfaction before uploading it on your timeline. However, study shows that photo contents attract lesser engagements compared to videos.

 

Videos: Unlike photos, videos require more effort to upload but they are great drivers of engagements and have more reach. You can post videos on the feed, share as stories and also use them as Highlights. 

 

Quote Cards: Think of this as a WhatsApp status blank card where you can write your opinions or ideas and post. You can also share your content in this form on Instagram. However, you need apps such as Canva, PicMonkey, and Inshot to create these quotes.

 

Instagram Reels: This is fast becoming the most used feature on Instagram. Reels allows videos with length up to 30 seconds per video.

 

Carousel Posts: Carousel posts allow videos and images up to 10 that can be uploaded once onto the Instagram feed. This requires a lot of effort and creativity to pull off. 

 

IGTV: Just like the conventional TV, IGTV is the best for uploading long videos and serialized content. Another advantage is that a preview of the content can be uploaded on the feed and viewers can be redirected to view the full content on IGTV.

How to optimize your Instagram page for more followers

 

Growth strategy for Instagram

 

While optimizing your Instagram page is a great idea, you first need to draw up a solid strategy before you consider that. These strategies are essential as they help you identify the goals of your Instagram account, just like in every other aspect of life, stating one’s goal provides a guide on the steps you take to achieve them. 

 

Here are goals you should consider:

 

• I want to engage with like-minded people within my community.
• I want to sell my products online
• I want to become an Instagram influencer
• I want to grow my email list
• I want to drive traffic to my website

 

Stick to a consistent style for your Instagram feed

 

 

 

You need to create a style for your Instagram feed and be consistent with it. This shouldn’t prove to be a difficult task because you’re not required to reinvent the wheel. You can easily steal from the groundwork already put in place by a lot of Instagram accounts and blogs and just follow through. 

 

A consistent feed style tends to dictate how your followers feel when they interact with your Instagram page. Your brand should be well represented by the choice of color, theme and overall aesthetics of your feed.

 

These steps outlined below will help you achieve a consistent Instagram feed:

 

• It’s important for you to identify your niche and post content that’s consistent with it. Your niche could be fitness, relationship, football, travel, etc, make sure anything you post on your account reflects the niche you’ve chosen. 
• Pick a favorite color or color palette but make sure it complements your brand
• Ensure you use the same filter on all of your photos and video.
• Ensure the level of brightness and saturation on all of your photos are on the same level
• Keep tabs on the feed of other successful Instagram accounts.

 

Set up your Instagram bio for success

 

It’s highly important to have an Instagram bio that best describes how you want people to perceive you. Being the first thing people see when visiting your page, you should go out of your way to set up a bio that attracts attention. Your bio should contain useful information notifying your followers of the benefits of interacting with your page. 

 

Inform them what they need to know about the page, display a link to a website or blogspot and you can also leave your personalized hashtags. Update your bio from time to time just to keep it fresh. 

 

Request for Instagram verification

 

Getting your Instagram account verified helps in optimizing your page. You know that feeling of assurance you get when you view a post on a verified handle, it goes a long way to convince a user to interact with your page. 

 

The blue verification tick is a symbol of authenticity and confers credibility on your brand and the content you post. 

 

The days of verification being an exclusive preserve of celebrities and big brands are long gone now so you should have no hassle in getting it done.

 

How consistently do you need to post on Instagram?

 

It’s important to state that there’s no general rule regarding posting consistently on Instagram hence, what works for you may not necessarily work for the other person. To not lose your Instagram followers, you need to design a schedule in order to come up with a suitable method for success. 

 

Decide the number of posts you want to upload daily and keep a consistent content calendar. You’d do yourself a disservice if you post content at random and haphazard times, study the time your posts usually get the highest engagement and plan your roll out around that period.  

 

 

What determines how to post consistently

 

• The biggest factor you should consider is the time your followers are active online
• Next is the type of content that generates the most engagement
• These factors help you identify what is working and what helps in audience retention.

Posting on Instagram Stories: General rule of thumb

 

• Stories are usually reserved for less formal content, so don’t be afraid to post playful and funny posts that can get your followers addicted.
• Let go of the caution when posting on Insta-story. Nobody views a story looking for perfection, it’s an avenue to reveal your true personality.
• One of the best ways to keep followers glued to your Story is by giving them a peek into happenings behind the scenes.  
• Feel free to use hashtags and geotags in Insta-stories to help deliver your content to a new audience
• For consistency, ensure that what you have on your Insta-story is an extension of the content on your feed. Steer clear of irrelevant stuff. 

How to use hashtags to grow your followers on Instagram

 

Hashtags work like magic on Instagram but you need to understand how to use them correctly. Hashtags can increase visibility on your Instagram account by helping your target audience to locate your posts without stress. In other words, it makes it easy for people to discover your content by simply searching for the hashtag on Instagram. You can build your brand through increased engagement using the right hashtags.  

 

Follow these rules on how to use Instagram hashtags to grow your followers:

 

• Use up to 30 hashtags per post for you to start seeing the result
• Ensure you add ”#” before typing out the keyword.
• Look up the hashtags recommended by Instagram to find out if they are related to your post before using them.
• Always add your hashtags to your post. Research proves that posts with hashtags get a 30% higher reach than posts without any hashtag.
• Use both broad and niche hashtags in your post. The aim is to reach both a large audience and a dedicated group at the same time.
• Do not skip branded hashtags. Ask your followers to use your branded hashtag too. It shows your audience how your customers are using your product.
• Use hashtags your competitors are using. If it is working for them, it ought to work for you too.
• Do not forget to switch your hashtags up in every post. This ensures your posts do not look spammy.
• Geotags and geo-hashtags should also be used on Instagram. They give your content the opportunity of showing up on the explore page on Instagram.

How does engagement work on Instagram?

 

Engagement is what gives life to your Instagram account, it provides the bloodstream that your account needs to stay alive. The more authentic audience you reach will be determined by the volume of engagement on your page because it acts as positive indicators to inform the Instagram algorithm of what to do with your content. 

How do you keep getting more engagement on your Instagram account?

 

There’s a simple strategy that you can deploy to help you attract more engagement on your Instagram account, and this is known as the 80/20 rule of engagement. This rule proposes that you spend up to 80% of your time and effort interacting with other Instagram accounts while the remaining 20% is reserved for creating content for your own page. 

 

Before you can imbibe this strategy properly though, you need to adhere to the 5-3-1 formula. The 5-3-1 formula involves liking 5 posts under one specific hashtag, commenting on 3 of the posts, and replying to 1 of their Insta-story.

 

Rules of Instagram engagement

 

Below are the rules that guide Instagram engagement; 

 

• Reply to every single comment on your post and also reply to the DMs (direct messages). You can achieve this by blocking off time every day to engage with the comments and messages.
• Like and comment on other people’s posts. It is social media for a reason, you have to interact with other people. And this can get other people and brands to notice you.
• Search hashtags that are relevant to you and your business to discover new and interesting accounts.
• Always encourage your followers to perform a certain action on your post. You can ask them questions, you can ask them to tag a friend, and you can also ask them to double-tap.
• Encourage your followers to share your post as this gets more people to see your content.
• Do not use bots for fake engagement. In the end, it will only hurt your growth on the platform.

How to use Instagram insights to grow your followers

 

Instagram insights, or analytics as some may choose to call it, is available strictly to owners of Business or Creator accounts. Insight will reveal to you how your stories, videos, highlights and overall account are performing. This will allow you to know your best-performing posts or content type so that you can continue to churn out more of such content for your audience. Instagram Insight helps a great deal to tell you what works and what doesn’t.

 

You must avoid these Instagram strategies to get more followers

 

You need to be aware that a wrong strategy can easily upturn all the great works you’ve done to gather more Instagram followers and in order not to fall victim to this, it is necessary to highlight all the strategies you should avoid.

 

You must be able to identify these bad strategies and keep far away from them, see the list below; 

 

• Resist joining Instagram PODs. Instagram PODs is a cluster of users usually between 15-20 in number who will like, comment and share each other’s posts to generate engagement. They create a chat forum where they indicate to the rest of the group that they’ve posted a video or photo on Instagram. This is not a reliable growth strategy as the desire to continue would peter out due to it’s inorganic nature.
• Don’t do follow for follow or follow/unfollow strategy. This is a strategy for people who don’t consider their content valuable to their audience.

• Shout-out for shout-out is another fast way to crash all of your hard work. It is a big no for me because you spend a lot of time and effort looking for accounts that will give you a shout-out.
• Avoid doing giveaways on your account. This will attract fake followers who will hit the follow button simply because of what they stand to win. The reality will dawn on you when they don’t win, they will desert your account in no time. 

 

To close this, I’d advise that you apply patience when trying to bump up the number of your Instagram followers. You need to manage your expectations; no tips or strategy can guarantee you millions of followers in weeks of just starting off.

 

Maximize all the Instagram features but know that it’s not compulsory you use all the features every day, you should focus on the parts that give you more results and improve on it.