“How do you get so many Instagram followers?” that’s a question I’ve been asked quite a bit recently. While 80,000 followers may seem like a great number, in the ocean of Instagram, I’m just a tuna compared to the Insta-megalodons like Tammy from @OhMyGoshPolish with 1,400,000 followers.
Tamara joined Instagram at Christmas 2011, now 5 years later her account is the biggest personal nail account on Instagram. Tamara says she’s always been “obsessed with nails, nail art and art in general”, so it was easy to decide on her Instagram subject. She’s an avid advocate of Instagram as an important social media channel regardless whether you’re a brand or an individual: “It provides an instant interaction, gives individuals and companies brand control”. Tamara adds “you can blog or sell products just on Instagram. @Stylishnailart does just that and she is very successful.”
So dear readers, if you haven’t been paying much attention to your Instagram, it’s time to begin. If anyone knows how to get more Instagram followers organically*, it’s Tamara. Read her handy expert advice below!
10 Tips On How To Get More Instagram Followers **:
- Make a decision about your Instagram Account’s direction and stick to it. For instance, don’t start out as a Fashion Blogger then start posting photo’s of puppies, people don’t tend to like a ‘Bate and Switch’ scenario. Its ok to post unrelated photo’s every now and then but if you do it too often your followers will just unfollow.
- Don’t spam your followers feed, leave at least 2 hours between posts.
- Post according to seasons but also think outside the box and post bright colours in winter, it gives people a warm fuzzy feeling to see Bright Summery colours when its cold outside. Also look at your account as a whole, the colours you are posting etc when a user comes to your page you want them to see it as pleasing to the eye before they ‘read’ (not a lot of reading happens on Instagram) anything as its the photo’s you post that will attract them.
- Avoid posting too many personal photos. It’s ok to give a glimpse into your personal life, however these posts should only be posted at ‘Non-Peak’ times and be infrequent. Or, create a personal account for those photos.
- Get to Know your followers, e.g. where they are from? What they are interested in? etc.. ask them for their opinion.
- Respond to your followers questions, Instagram is interactive.
- Research who you are posting to and where in the world they are situated and post accordingly.
- Give back. Give your followers something for nothing! Giveaway’s are fun and everyone loves free stuff plus they are a great way to get noticed.
- Advertise. If your profile is business related, go to the Explore page (the most Popular photo’s on Instagram at any one time, these photo’s cycle through the Explore page for a period of 4 hours) and look for large accounts that do Sponsored posts. These pages will charge you a set fee to post your content to their followers. Kind of like ‘Word of Mouth’ for Instagram.
- Connect. Get to know who are the Influencers are in your field e.g. Instagram Bloggers and contact them to see if they are willing to receive your products for review.
Are you on Instagram? What are your best tips for growing your following?
You can find and follow Tammy @ohmygoshpolish:
Instagram
YouTube
Twitter
Facebook
If you would like Tamara Unwin to help you to grow your business or blog on Instagram, she provides private consultations and has a proven track of successful results. Email Tammy directly at ohmygoshpolish@westnet.com.au.
*, ** Editor’s Note: as attractive as it may be getting some dodgy instant Instagram followers will not do any good for your brand. Ratio 10,000 followers and 20 likes per photo will always look suspicious. Those fake followers that may make your account look ‘popular’ will not add any actual value to your business or brand. They are not interested in your business as they are what they are – just a number. So don’t look for easy ways to grow your following do it organically, do your ‘homework’, follow the great tips above and you’ll see great results sooner then you expected.
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Tammy unwin says
Totally Agree with your last tip!! It is So easy to tell if an account has a high number of ‘Bought or Ghost’ followers! The likes/comments to Follower numbers don’t add up.. Plus the photo’s on those accounts will Never visit the Explore page as their “followers” are not engaged with their content at all.
Thanks for this Maria!! you are a GEM! xxxx
Maria V says
You’re so welcome Tammy! I’m really hoping your fantastic tips will help the readers to improve their Instagram performance. So true that posting consistently great photos on the same subject can sky rocket your numbers on Instagram. I also noticed people don’t like faces… i don’t know why. Well, unless you’re Miranda Kerr, anything gets more likes than your own face. Even if you check some of the biggest fashion bloggers Instagrams – a photo of their shoes or lunch get more likes than their pretty face. So strange!
Tine @ Beautyholics Anonymous says
Great tips, thanks for sharing! Just wondering, is there a way to know when your peak and non-peak times are for your followers?
Tammy unwin says
Thank you! The Statigram website is a Great Resource website which lets you know all kinds of statistics including where your followers are from in the world.
Maria V says
Jeez! I didn’t know that. Checking it out now! Thanks again for sharing! xx
Setu Rohini says
Great Tips..thanks for sparing time to give this info to us. So Kind of you.
Jaquelin O'leary says
I have got a pretty good method to attract new followers, and iconosqure is a crucial part of it. You need to go some place where lots of posts are made, take a picture and geotag it, and then follow everybody who made the same thing in the same location. Most of people feel engaged in such situation, so many would follow you back. Or you can search for people with some similarities using Iconosquare (still wanna call it statigr.am). To increase the number you should, of course, also like and comment. After that you’ll have to unfollow those who are not interested in your account, and here you may face some difficulties if you’ve added to many people. Sometimes I have to deal with thousands, so I found a service ttps://fast-unfollow.com allowing to unfollow up to 5000 users per day. If it’s just a personal account and you only manage dozens or hundreds – it’s still useful because of the welcome gift of 1000 free unsubscriptions. If your instagram is for businesses, not for pleasure, its utility rises dramatically.
Maria @SoNailicious says
Thanks for sharing your tips Jaquelin! I agree, it’s great to connect with others – whether it’s via geotagging or just a common tag. But I have to disagree on the whole “follow-unfollow” concept. Mainly because I don’t see any value for any brand in this kind of strategy. Following someone just because you want them to follow you back? I don’t think it’s the best way to build a loyal following or develop a meaningful relationship with your fans. To me my followers are not just “users” – they are real people and I prefer to treat them like my friends rather than just a number. But great point on geotagging!
Kevin Smith says
That’s good, thank you! But more and more people start using special services or apps to gain more followers on instagram. And not just for usual account but for business pages. My brother runs a little business and uses some app like zen-promo (.com?) or kind of like that and he found so many new customers with that. I don’t know how it works but works. Maybe it’s fine to do this way cuz’ it’s not “illegal” on instagram (he’s still now banned) but some says it’s cheating. Maybe
Eric Fishborn says
This is very good. And what about another way to get followers – apps? I mean special services that finds real followers. Apps that creates fakes and bots are useless and must be forbidden. I say that because I use zen-promo (.com) to find more followers and it helped me a lot! People see my content and just follow me by their own will. What do you think about?