What was once only a social networking platform has grown into one of the most effective marketing platforms available to companies all over the globe. More than 1.21 billion people use Instagram. This implies that, unlike very few other things, the appropriate Instagram strategy may help your brand connect with millions of prospective clients and dramatically increase your company's income.

Instagram is undoubtedly a sea of incredible prospects, but it also brings with it fierce, brutal competition. Instagram growth is more difficult than it always was. This article is for you if you want to learn how to get more Instagram followers and surpass your rivals.

Make sure to read this post through to the end as we will be sharing 15 amazing tips to raise your Instagram marketing game and increase your following over time.

15 Ideas for Increasing Instagram Followers in 2022

The best 15 strategies to use right now to increase your Instagram follower count are listed below:

1. Decide on a user-friendly username
2. Improve Your Bio
3. Post Frequently
4. Tap Into Trends
5. Collaborate With Other Creators
6. Stick to a Niche
7. Avoid Fake Followers
8. Post Shareable Content
9. Switch to a Business Profile
10. Cross-Promote Your Account
11. Focus on Instagram SEO
12. Run Contests & Giveaways
13. Use Instagram Ads
14. Engage With Your Followers
15. Post What Your Audience Wants

We are aware that a list of 15 might be somewhat intimidating, particularly if they are all equally effective ways, but the good news is that you can use just one tool—Eclincher—to implement all of the aforementioned strategies. It includes a wide variety of functions that may properly satisfy all requirements related to boosting social media presence.

15 proven methods for growing your Instagram followers

Time to go into the specifics! The 15 Instagram methods that will give your follower count graph an exponential arc are covered in full in this part, along with all the nuances of the techniques and danger zones.

1. Decide on a user-friendly username

Few individuals will start following you right away after learning about you. A user will often need a few attempts before beginning to follow your account.

To make that happen, however, you must have a username that is simple to remember and seems legitimate. Imagine getting a person to follow you, only for them to find they can't remember your username when they want to look you up!

It's difficult to remember usernames that are complicated and include several special characters and digits. Additionally, it gives your account a little unprofessional appearance since, in most cases, duplicated, phony accounts are the ones who add special characters and digits to their usernames in an effort to impersonate the original author.

Additionally, having an approachable username makes it simpler for you to get followers via recommendations and referrals. If your account name is difficult to remember, those who learn about your material from a friend or acquaintance won't be able to discover it online.

Take the brand "Zara," for instance. If you search up the company online, you will see that their Instagram account is exactly the same as the business name, with no additional letters or numeric characters. Naturally, it's quite simple to remember, and the likelihood of a typing error is really low.

On the other side, you may discover a ton of different user names if you scroll down, such as "zara roy official05" and "makeup by zaara01". None of these names, although being rising influencers, are user-friendly, thus they won't draw a loyal and sizable following.

2. Improve Your Bio

Of course you have to provide your users a cause to follow you. Sometimes the algorithm may automatically display your upcoming material on a user's feed after they browse through your account or content by searching for it on Instagram's explore page.

By doing this, customers will continue to encounter your brand even if they choose not to follow you. However, if you want them to become a new follower, you must demonstrate what more you have to give and why they need to be among the first to learn about it.

Your bio is your first opportunity to make an impression on prospective users. It is your finest chance to convey in a few memorable phrases the essence of your brand and what you have to offer.

Your Instagram bio should be succinct, clear, and customer-focused. Instead of bragging, demonstrate how your clients will profit from your service.

Are you interested in growing your Instagram following for your brand? Here's an illustration: According to Maybelline's bio, all of its products are cruelty-free and environmentally friendly. This one statement may convert a prospective consumer who firmly believes in animal rights into a fan.

Let's face it, practically all other cosmetic brands provide the same items, but Maybelline distinguishes out with products that are free of animal cruelty. How did a consumer discover about this? from a bio!

3. Post Frequently

Only a small percentage of people will click the Follow button when they see your account and content for the first time, as we previously discussed. You must continue publishing often and integrate your brand into their life in order to reach the remainder and the majority of them.

Every second of the day, hundreds of companies and artists post on Instagram. Today's internet users already have a short attention span, and on top of that, algorithms from platforms like YouTube, Snapchat, and Tik Tok are vying for their attention.

Therefore, the only way to finally win over a consumer and gain their loyalty is via constant attempts to develop a connection with them. Continue to publish material that will appeal to your audience and offer them a flavor of your own style. They will adhere to you once they see that you are among the greatest in your field.

Electronics companies like Apple and Xiaomi, for instance, update once daily or every other day. On the other hand, businesses that focus primarily on content, like Cosmopolitan and Elle, publish many times every day.

You need to identify the ideal posting frequency for your business and sector. Even while posting often is vital, going overboard might irritate your followers and cause them to limit or unfollow your account.

Joining an Instagram scheduler tool, like Eclincher, is the easiest approach to make sure you don't interfere with a regular posting schedule. For those who do not have the time to manually update their Instagram feed on a regular basis, its bulk publishing and auto posting tools are ideal options.

4. Tap Into Trends 

It goes without saying that using trends is the greatest approach to attract attention and reach a larger audience. There is no better way to say it than "making a big deal out of" trends. This is particularly true in the reels area of Instagram, where a single trending song may offer you quick access to millions of people.

Instagram trends should be followed for a variety of reasons. First off, if audio is popular on Instagram reels, the social media juggernaut will promote any post that has that audio. This indicates that your material will be promoted without further work or expense on your part.

Another justification for joining Instagram trends is the simple truth that it is well-liked by your target demographic. Discovering potential user interests is one of your main duties as a marketer. Trends lessen your effort since you'll be leaping on stuff that is widely adored with little to no possibility of failing.

Timing your material correctly is one of the most crucial considerations when attempting to capitalize on a trend. Once again, you must find the sweet spot. If you are too early, you won't benefit from Instagram's boost or participate in the frenzy.

On the other hand, if you catch the trend too late, it's likely that the audience has already become tired of postings that follow it, and your whole plan may backfire.

5. Collaborate With Other Creators 

Regardless of the social media platform you choose, working with other artists will always be a tried-and-true method of growing your fan base. Even as your brand expands, there will always be a portion of the audience you have not yet reached. This is the main justification for working with others.

In order to avoid wasting time, reach out to other partners' audiences rather than trying to connect with every single member of your target audience. The kind of service being offered will determine the manner in which you decide to work with other businesses and producers.

If you are a company, for instance, you can pay influencers to advertise your goods and services on their feeds or to simply put a face on your social media marketing campaign. In any case, you will be enhancing the value of your brand and expanding your user base thanks to the influencer.

However, if you are a content producer yourself, you may choose to collaborate with someone else and upload material to both accounts. You may exchange audience reach in this way for mutual gain at a low cost.

While working with others, you should keep in mind that you should only partner with influencers and personalities in your industry; otherwise, your attempt to reach a new audience will be fruitless, and even if you are successful, it won't last long because the audience was never interested in or fit into your niche, to begin with.

6. Stick to a Niche 

Let's use a few well-known content producers as examples, starting with Khaby Lame, who rapidly rose to fame on Instagram and Tik Tok after beginning to produce videos during the lockdown. The highlight of all of Khaby's films was how he took videos where the original creator did something stupid and played out the same sequence with a simpler fix and a sarcastic tone.

Similar to this, you will notice that companies like Tinder often post relevant relationship memes on their Instagram page.

As you can see, the creator (or brand Tinder) in each of these instances has selected a certain method of approaching their audience and adheres to it. Now, if they want to vary it up, they risk losing their uniqueness and becoming lost among the hundreds of other businesses engaged in the same activity.

So, finding a specialty that makes you distinctive and recognized is essential if you want to succeed on Instagram.

7. Avoid Fake Followers

Avoiding the phony followers is the easiest way to gain genuine followers on Instagram. You need to be conscious of the idea that people are more inclined to believe you if you have a larger following. The temptation for new companies to purchase phony followers and utilize them to entice new, genuine followers is increased by this.

Although phony followers may first give your profile a nice impression, they ultimately do more damage than good.

First off, Instagram may penalize you by banning your account or reducing your reach if they suspect that you are purchasing phony followers.

Furthermore, bogus followers don't interact with your account. Even if you have a large number of followers, your new post engagement will be minimal if you need to acquire the most interaction for your Instagram captions, reels, stories, etc. This will make your scheme obvious to actual users, who will be able to see it right away. This might damage your chances of ever gaining their trust again.

Additionally, Instagram's algorithms give postings a boost if they are already doing well. This indicates that Instagram will promote your post to new audiences more as it receives more interaction.

Now, your engagement ratio will substantially decrease if your followers do not interact with your material, signaling to Instagram that it is not worthwhile to promote your content. No future postings of yours will get a natural boost.

8. Post Shareable Content 

You must concentrate on converting your current followers into devoted promoters if you want to dramatically increase the size of your follower base. The objective is to provide content through personal DMs or stories in order to connect with others outside of their own feeds, such as their friends, acquaintances, and connections. One of the finest answers to the question, "How to grow your Instagram followers organically," is this.

The life of that article will expire there and then, for instance, if you reach 16k individuals with unshareable material. If you have shareable material, though, some of those 16K individuals may reshare it with their stories or direct messages as well.

Your overall reach immediately exceeds 800k even if just half of them share your message and if each of them has at least 100 followers. For this reason, rather than using standard photos of their goods and services, marketers are instead producing relevant memes and reels.

Along the way, you must make sure that the quality of your content maintains or even improves. And only when you are adhering to a predetermined content strategy will you have enough time to focus on the development of great content. Using Eclincher's Visual Calendar is the easiest approach to develop and maintain a flawless content upload schedule.

9. Switch to a Business Profile

A white swan event would be for a company or creative to experience instant success on Instagram. In general, it's a protracted game performed using a variety of marketing tactics and gradual awareness of your client base.

Understanding your target audience's preferences is the first step in increasing your Instagram following, which is why switching to a business profile is essential.

You can get in-depth analytics for your whole account as well as for each individual post with an Instagram business profile. It contrasts how many people saw your post against how many interacted with it. In order to tailor your content to the user's tastes, it also provides information about the user's gender, age, and location.

You may use premium business services on Instagram, including promoted posts and Instagram advertisements, if you have a business account. In addition, promotions—which can only be made via business accounts—are the ideal method to broaden your reach on Instagram, in case you weren't previously aware of this.

Clickable links on stories are another advantage of having a company presence on Instagram. Instagram is notorious for not allowing users to publish links in posts or stories. Instead of restricting audience engagement and interaction to Instagram alone, you may route visitors to your blog or website by adding links to your Instagram stories.

10. Cross-Promote Your Account

Limiting yourself to one platform is a bad idea. To reach all facets of your target audience, advertise your Instagram username on all the other platforms where you are active.

For instance, if you have a website, you may show a carousel of your Instagram posts under each blog article. This will not only keep website visitors interested for a long time, but it will also increase visibility for your Instagram account.

Similar to this, you will see that many companies employing video content marketing to advertise their services on YouTube often post their social media handles in both the video and the description box. The general rule is that the more exposure your Instagram account receives, the greater the number of followers you will have.

11. Focus on Instagram SEO 

It's true what you just read! Instagram has its own algorithm, which may be influenced in your favor via search engine optimization, much as Google and other search engines.

Making ensuring your account is searchable is the first step in developing your brand on Instagram. Small companies should attempt to include their major keyword in their username or bio, unlike well-known brands like Apple or Nike. As a result, anytime someone searches for information pertaining to their sector, their accounts will come up.

Additionally, as a novice, your best chance is to go to the "explore" button to connect with new audiences if you don't already have as many followers as you'd want. Make careful to utilize relevant hashtags while doing this. To reach the greatest amount of new visitors, combine less competitive, less common terms with prominent keywords that have a wider reach.

User retention is the most important SEO aspect on Instagram. Instagram will continue to promote your content as long as your postings can keep people on the platform. Therefore, be sure that the design of your content encourages readers to respond, interact, and share.

12. Run Contests & Giveaways 

Incentives are among the best strategies to encourage people to follow your account. These days, there are a lot of companies and artists online, suggesting that it will only grow harder to locate a niche that no one else is serving. Running competitions and holding giveaways is a wonderful place to start if you're having trouble coming up with a USP that will offer you an advantage over your rivals.

For instance, if you own a beauty company, you might design a campaign where the top five winners would get face masks and serum. Typically, marketers set a requirement that participants follow them on social media before they can formally join the offer.

There are three ways that planning freebies can help you. In the beginning, you will get a ton of new Instagram followers who are eager to win a free gift. If your material suits their interests, they could continue to follow you even if they don't win.

In order to reach a broader audience, you may also invite participants to tag their friends in the post.

Additionally, if your product is really that wonderful, the winners may continue to use and suggest it after the offer is ended if they like it so much.

13. Use Instagram Ads

Finding original techniques that nobody else is already employing is difficult given that there are thousands of businesses and content producers online. Every company out there continually improves its Instagram profile, posts, and strategies to get as many followers as possible. So, sometimes you need an additional push from Instagram itself through Instagram advertisements.

The greatest benefit of Instagram advertisements is that you can anticipate a return on your investment. As a result, you may design your advertising budget in a manner that supports your objectives.

You may choose from a variety of promotion strategies, such as partnership and influencer marketing, rather than only relying on Instagram's native advertising to sell your company.

Additionally, there are several meme sites (yeah, we cannot ignore them) and digital publications with millions of readers that provide emerging firms the opportunity to advertise.

If you're utilizing Instagram advertising for the first time, it's preferable to go with the native promotion option, which provides you more freedom over the audience your ads will target.

However, Instagram advertising are a for-profit answer to the problem of "How to increase my Instagram followers?" Would you want to learn how to increase your Instagram following for nothing? Make use of Facebook Creator Studio.

14. Engage With Your Followers 

Customers don't want to interact with a business that is quiet and doesn't address any of their issues or queries. Though it would be hard to respond to every remark, try to at least react to the first few that are pertinent.

For instance, if you upload a picture of your product and someone comments with a question about the pricing or availability, be sure to respond to them before you direct message (DM) them.

In a similar vein, if someone comments negatively on your article, respond to them in the comment box publicly to resolve the matter and restore consumer faith in your company.

Before choosing to work with your company, clients primarily depend on the opinions and experiences of other users, which you must realize. Therefore, if a consumer sees a remark where you have not addressed a user's questions, they would think that you are an inattentive company that doesn't care to engage with its clients.

Similarly, it will be a bit difficult for a consumer to believe you if they read a bad review and discover that you haven't responded or have even defended yourself.

Building individualized, long-lasting connections with your followers is another excellent strategy to increase client retention.

Do you find it desirable that an inbox management function will route all customer contacts to a single inbox? Of course it does! Register with Eclincher to use this feature right now.

15. Post What Your Audience Wants

When you switch your Instagram account from personal to business, you must stop focusing on what YOU want and start thinking about what your users are expecting from you. The only certain strategy to expand on Instagram rapidly is to post what your target audience wants.

Analyzing the interaction you get with your current postings is the simplest method for discovering the preferences of your target audience. Check your Instagram statistics to see which posts are attracting the most attention and which ones are not.

A poll asking what sort of content their followers want to see may also be posted by companies and content producers on Instagram stories. This underutilized strategy works well. Your followers may sometimes offer their deepest thoughts, opinions, and requests for material in the comments. Find the ideal material for your business by paying attention to your fans, interacting with them, and monitoring trends.

Instagram Follower Growth: Comparison Table

An overview of all 15 techniques covered in depth above may be found in the table below. We examined all of the advice based on important factors including efficacy, whether or not they are free or need the use of equipment, and how long they should be used for.

How to Get More Instagram Followers, in conclusion

We believe you now have a thorough understanding of how to grow your Instagram following. In order to increase your Instagram following, you need to put in practice, persistent work, and patience. There isn't a magic trick that always works the same for everyone. You must continue to experiment to see what suits you the best.

But don't worry—with the 15 tips listed above, you can get through the majority of the first difficulties.

Combine your Instagram marketing tactics with Eclincher, a top social media marketing tool, to gain a good start. No one can stop your company from expanding at a fast pace when you have access to the greatest premium features and endless assistance from the Eclincher team. To keep your team members informed and in tune with the planned postings and their timeframes, you will have access to a visual calendar. Additionally, tools like bulk publishing and inbox management can help you overcome the majority of challenges related to planning posts for a dynamic site like Instagram.

Thanks to Krishi Chowdary at Business 2 Community whose reporting provided the original basis for this story.