You’re an influencer, and for most people, this doesn’t happen by accident. Some outliers do exist. Sometimes, a person’s post goes viral (100k views on a post), and they move up the ranks from a small following to influencer status.
However, if you’ve worked hard to gain followers and found that you’ve hit a plateau, you can readjust your strategy using the points below.
1. Buy Real Followers
What’s the fastest, easiest and most effective way to get followers as an Instagrammer? Buy them.
What most people don’t realize is that many Instagram influencers got their start with paid followers. It’s not easy to get followers organically. It takes a ton of time and effort.
Buying real followers will help you grow your account instantly and get the social proof you need to attract natural followers.
Make sure you buy real Instagram followers, like what we offer at Viralyft.
2. Post Regularly – Pro Tip: Use a Scheduling Tool
How often are you posting? If you post once a day, it’s not enough. Instagram wants you to post more and make its algorithm happy. You should post 3 – 5 times a week to keep your followers engaged and expand your reach.
Stories should be posted two times per day.
If you know that you won’t be consistent with your posting, you should use a scheduling tool. The following tools are some to consider:
You’ll find many tools that will help you keep to a posting schedule. If you post enough, you’ll improve your odds of new people seeing your posts and Stories.
3. Cross-Promote Your Content
You have an Instagram following of 120,000 and you’re also on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, X and Snap. There’s a good chance that your followers on these other platforms are not following you on Instagram.
So, what can you do?
Cross-promote your content. Post links to your Instagram on these accounts (add them to your profile), and don’t be afraid to post a screenshot of your Insta on these platforms. You can attract a lot of followers by simply cross-promoting your content.
4. Create Unique Content Your Audience Will Love
Your audience follows you because of your:
- Insights
- Beauty
- Personality
Sure, you’ll find models that have millions of followers on Instagram. These individuals always need to look amazing and post content to keep their audiences engaged. Knowing and understanding your niche will help you create content that potential followers want to watch.
For example:
- If you post financial advice, people don’t want to see you surfing unless it ties into finances in some way.
- Fitness influencers shouldn’t post content about frugal shopping for clothes because their audience doesn’t want this type of content.
Instead, when you know your audience, you can create content that they love. Stay within your niche, gain influence from other creators and spend time perfecting your content. Creating unique content (that’s different from what others are doing) will help you gain followers.
However, there’s one thing to note: followers will come in time. You may post your best content today and no one sees it or follows you. Continually create top-rate content and followers will eventually come.
5. Engage with Your Followers
Influencers need to touch on their followers in a deeper way. How many times do you comment on a celebrity’s post, and they never reply? A lot. However, if Selena Gomez responded to you, it would turn you into a follower for life.
If you’re not engaging with your followers, they won’t:
- Share your posts
- Engage with you
- Tell their followers about you
Everyone wants to feel seen and heard, so see and hear your followers. Respond to your audience and the comments they make on your account. View and like your followers’ posts, and you’ll notice your follower count will begin to tick up.
6. Use the Right Hashtags
People follow hashtags. For example, if you run a farm account, you may find that #savethebees is a popular hashtag. You can create content on saving the bees and also leverage this hashtag to reach new followers.
You need to find the right hashtags to use for your posts.
How?
You can:
- Type the hashtag into Instagram search to see how many posts have the hashtag
- Research hashtags that others in your niche are using
- Use tools to research hashtags
If you have the budget to use tools to search for hashtags, you can try tools like:
Tools can help you speed up your hashtag research, but they’re not 100% necessary.
7. Use the Right Keywords in Your Username
Your username isn’t the URL that people need to follow to go to your account. Instead, it’s a name that is on your profile’s main page. If you’re a fitness trainer, you might change your name to John Doe Fitness Trainer.
Why?
It will alert potential followers about your account and the type of content that they can expect to find.
People want to follow real people or those who post content that interests them. So, add in one main keyword to your username to help people gain insight into the posts you plan on making.
8. Optimize Your Bio
Your Instagram bio is the perfect opportunity to attract new followers. To optimize your bio, make sure that you’re including:
- A description of what you do or your niche
- Your personality
- A link
- A call to action
You only get 150 characters for your bio, so make them count.
9. Post at the Right Time
Your audience is more active at certain times of the day or certain days of the week. It’s your job to figure out when these moments are, and post at these times.
Instagram and experts offer some recommendations on when to post, but every audience is different.
There’s no real universal best time to share content on any social media platform.
How do you know when your audience is most active on Instagram? Check your insights.
- Tap “Insights” on your Instagram profile.
- Navigate to “Your Audience.”
- Tap “See all.”
Here, you can see when your audience’s most active times. Make a note of these times and try to schedule your posts according to these insights.
10. Analyze Your Stats To Improve Your Content
Instagram gives you access to analytics that help you understand your audience and the performance of your content (what’s working and not working).
Analyze your stats to create more content that people love and less content that people ignore.
Maybe your audience loves entertaining Reels, but they’re not big fans of single-photo posts. Focusing more on entertaining Reels will allow you to grow your following organically.
Pinpointing trends can help you become a better creator, learn more about your audience and reach your followers on a deeper level as an influencer.
11. Collaborate with Other Influencers
Collaborations are a great way to get more followers because you’re immediately expanding your reach.
But don’t just partner with anyone. Make sure that:
- Your audiences are similar
- Your followers have similar interests
- The partner’s values are aligned with yours
Invest time in seeking out collaborations with other like-minded influencers and brands that your content will appeal to. Doing so will allow you to attract more followers naturally.
12. Try Posting Different Types of Content
Instagram has become a versatile social media platform. You can create all kinds of content and post it on Insta, including videos, pinned posts, Stories, carousel posts and more.
Take advantage of this opportunity by experimenting with different types of content. Never lose focus of your niche and audience, but try out different kinds of video content or Stories. Go live. Chat with your followers. See what resonates with them.
You may find that you’re really great at creating engaging Reels that get tons of views and followers.
If you stick to just one form of content, then you’re alienating a large number of users who may be interested in what you have to say.
13. Promote Posts
If you’re serious about attracting more followers and you have a budget, try Instagram promotions and ads. Advertising on Instagram will allow you to reach a wider audience.
You don’t have to promote a product or service.
Create a great post for Instagram that embodies who you are and what you’re all about, and then promote it. Your sponsored content will attract more followers.
Promoting your content on Instagram will cost you money, but many influencers find that it’s worth the investment to unlock access to such a huge audience.
To create a successful promotion campaign, consider the following:
- Analyze your top-performing posts to understand what your followers want to see
- Understand your audience to know who to target with your ads
When creating your “ad,” make sure that it grabs your audience’s attention and makes them stop scrolling to learn more about you as an influencer.
14. Use Geo-Tags To Attract Local Followers
As an influencer, you want to reach as many people as possible – no matter where they are in the world. But don’t underestimate the value of appealing to local followers.
Instagram now has a map feature that allows people to see what’s going on in a certain location. They can view Stories that are geo-tagged by users, and then follow them if they like their content.
Geo-tagging is a really simple and effortless way to expand your reach and attract more followers organically.
So, if you’re out and about and posting to your Stories, don’t forget to tag your location. It takes just a second to do and you’ll gain new followers as a result.
15. Don’t Ignore Short-Form Video Content
People love short-form videos. In fact, people find short-form videos to be 2.5 times more engaging than long-form content. On Instagram, Reels should be your prime focus.
Reels are snappy, fun and engaging – just what your followers want to see. And Instagram’s algorithm loves Reels.
Create short-form videos that are relevant to your niche and that users want to see. Add captions, filters, music, stickers and other elements to boost engagement and attract followers.
And the great thing about creating short-form videos is that they can be cross-promoted on other platforms, like TikTok, to further expand your reach.
If you want to attract more followers as an influencer, start with these 15 tips. Focusing on creating content that your audience will love is the key, but make sure that you’re using all of the tools at your disposal to understand your audience and what they want to see.
