4 Ways To Grow Your Instagram Account

When I put up this poll asking if anyone wanted a blog post on how to grow their Instagram, I literally thought the majority of you would have voted “don’t care” because one, a lot of my followers have more followers than me, two, a lot of you aren’t influencers/bloggers. So yeah, I was pretty shocked 100% of you voted to share how to grow your Instagram. So, let’s get into it, first I’d like to disclose I don’t know the “secrets” of Instagram, I’ve read their policies, so this is all based on my experience and what I’ve seen works and what doesn’t.

1. Post Quality Content Constantly

I know this might be obvious, but I see a lot of people who want to grow their Instagram don’t post daily or even once a week. What happens is, if you don’t post constantly Instagram sees that you’re not as active as opposed to someone else who is posting EVERY DAY and in return doesn’t show your account to new people or on the explore page. By not posting constantly, you are getting no engagement on your post, so it gets kind of pushed out/down because Instagram loves boosting pages that have lots of engagement.

2. Have Engaging Content

The content you’re putting out has to be good, and that could look differently depending on the niche you’re in, but nonetheless good content is still important. What is good content? In my experience, if you’re in the fashion/styling world, a clear, good picture that is either aesthetically pleasing or a cute outfit. I try not to ever post anything for the sake of it because I truly believe your Instagram feed is what you’re getting judged on. When you meet someone in person, you have a few seconds to make an impression. Same with Instagram, if someone goes on your page and your feed sucks, then they’ll think you suck and move on without a follow.

The general rule of thumb I follow is to have something entertaining or informational. I’ve seen that brings me a lot more engagement which in return shows my page to more people and get new followers.

3. Engage with your followers

First of all, for any of you who might not know what engagement is, it’s likes, comments, saves, and shares. This is why it’s important to like and most of all, comment on your friend’s page who is out there trying to do this for a living or if it’s their business account. This is so important to Instagram; it shows that people are into the post and will show it more. If you like the products, the shot, the caption, just leave a damn comment lol. It’s not that hard. But it goes both ways, you as the “influencer/business” have to engage back. Comment back everyone who comments on your pictures especially if you’re not getting thousands of comments a post, you do have the time to reply a simple thank you. Also, like other people’s pages and engage with them. It’s a two-way street and I’ve seen that the more I engage with other accounts, more followers start trickling in, it might not be a skyrocketing growth, but it’s still growing and with people I actually like.

4. Use hashtags properly

Everyone knows about hashtags but not how to use them effectively. The hashtag game has changed and there are a shit ton of videos and articles telling you how to use them. I think one day I spent two hours just reading about hashtags and trying to figure out how I can rank upon them. A lot goes into using hashtags, let’s say you’re a fashion blogger and you think using the hashtag #fashionblogger is smart, let me tell you, it is NOT!!! Unless you already have millions of followers, you will get lost in that hashtag and by lost, I mean, no one will see you there so it’s pointless using it. That hashtag alone has been used 110 MILLION times. It will be very unlikely for you to pop up there.

The 5 Hashtag Method

I heard of various methods and tried a few and I found this one worked best for me. This takes a little bit of time but if you want to grow, time must be put into it. I’ll just break it down for you what this method is:

• 5 hashtags ranging from 10k-50k
• 5 hashtags ranging from 50k-100k
• 5 hashtags ranging from 100k-250k
• 5 hashtags ranging from 250k-500k
• 5 hashtags ranging from 500k-1mil
• 5 hashtags super specific to your post for example, if you have pink shoes on try using #pinkshoes

Using this method, it can help push your content out there. A little bonus tip, if you want to get really crazy, before posting, go to a few of the hashtags you’re going to use and engage with other people using that exact hashtag. Then once you post your content along with your hashtags, it can help boost your post because Instagram saw you were active on those hashtags. As I said, this takes some time. I created an excel sheet with all of my hashtags and to be honest, I have to go back in and refresh them because you don’t want to use the same exact hashtags for every post. Instagram can see that as spammy. Create like 3-5 different list of hashtags and rotate them. Have a list of travel hashtags, food hashtags, casual hashtags, etc.

And OMG, please use all 30 hashtags, I’ve read some people believe you should only use 1-10 but the reality is, Instagram allows 30 for a reason…to USE THEM OF COURSE. If Instagram allows 30 hashtags, use 30 hashtags. Why are you wasting the feature?

If the 5 Hashtag method is too much for you, you can try the 3, 6, 9 method.

• 3 hashtags 250-600k
• 6 hashtags 50k-250k
• 9 hashtags 15k-50k

I know I said four but here are some bonus tips.

Follow for Follow

Follow for follow but in a positive way can help you grow as well. You can’t expect everyone to follow you and you not follow anyone. Find similar accounts to you and your business and follow them. That way it’s not a spammy F4F, it’s genuine and in return, you also get REAL engagement. People who do a lot of the spammy follow for following have low engagement because they both don’t genuinely care what they are posting which in return, lowers your chances of being seen and can minimize your growth in the long run. For me I see it like this, I rather have two thousand REAL people who genuinely care about me and my business than 10k people who don’t give a fuck about what I’m out here doing.

Go To Events

Go to events in your area. This helps you meet other likeminded people and make friends which is good for you and your business. Don’t be shy, I was at first and now I love going even though I may not know someone there.

Be yourself

Influencers follow other influencers and can get influenced but that doesn’t mean your whole personality changes. The thing is, knowing who you are and what you’re into is what makes you, YOU! If you have different hobbies, enjoy different music, don’t change because it’s not “cool”. If you want to blog about something that’s not as “popular” just do it. Be yourself while doing it and people will like it. I started blogging about Real Estate, something I thought nobody gave a fuck about but it ended up skyrocketing and then it evolved into what it is now. I never tried to be someone I’m not, I thought to myself, hey I’m a Realtor and I love fashion so why can’t I do it all? I didn’t want to put myself in a box or niche which is what everyone tries to tell you to do, so I created my own space where I can be me and write about anything I wanted. So just keep that in mind, being honest with yourself and honest with your followers is very important if you want to grow.

Conclusion

This whole influencer blogger world is so saturated that you really have to be passionate about it. Truth is, not everyone doing it is going to “make it” just like everyone who attends law school doesn’t become a successful lawyer. Only the ones who are fully committed, dedicated, passionate, and want to create rather than be “Instagram famous” will make it. There is a difference and I think that’s what sets apart a lot of people. Most successful bloggers and or influencers all kind of have the same story, they never in a million years thought this was going to be their job but they were passionate and put so much work into it that it became their reality. 

This goes beyond just Instagram, anything you want in life is earned not given. You must truly be in love with what you’re doing.

So, thank you for reading, I know this one was long but growing an IG is a lot of work and it’s always changing but these 4 tips I think will forever remain accurate and relevant.