Going viral seems to be the most talked about subject when learning how to get more followers on Instagram, but sustainable growth on social media is built on connection – not virality.
Whether you have 50 followers or 5,000, this guide will break down practical strategies to help grow your audience, increase engagement, and turn followers into real customers. We’ll also explain how you can nurture a community that will support your businesses, with even small audiences producing real results.
Setting Up for Success
Before you start posting on Instagram to generate more followers, you should lay a solid foundation. Growing your following isn’t just about the content you post – your profile, your target audience, and your marketing strategy all have a part to play in getting your channel seen by more people.
1. Optimize Your Profile
One of the top Instagram tips for beginners is to optimize your profile. Think of your Instagram profile as your storefront. It should give users an idea of what to expect before they explore the rest of your profile.
Your profile photo, handle, and bio should be on-brand and memorable. Use a professional photo and a handle that people will remember easily, and always include a short description of who you are and what you do in your channel bio.
A strong CTA is also helpful here, such as a link to your landing page or a Nas.io hub where followers can learn more about you.
2. Define Your Target Audience
Knowing exactly who your target audience is can make content creation easier and more successful. 68% of consumers expect a personalized experience online, showing just how important it is to know your target audience and show them bespoke content.
Maybe you’re unsure about whether your audience is defined enough. If this is the case, ask yourself ‘If someone found your page today, what 3 things should they remember you for?’. If this question is difficult to answer, you may need to spend a little more time on your Instagram, ensuring that you have a clear niche. This will help your posts resonate more with your audience and attract followers who stick around.
3. Key Instagram Marketing Techniques
Consistency, storytelling, and leveraging Instagram’s features are some top ways you can ensure your posts are reaching a high number of people.
Posting regularly shows your audience that you are an active account, but also on Instagram that your profile is worth showing to their users. Storytelling can then build trust with these users, showing audiences that you’re real and can be trusted.
Leveraging different Instagram features can help ensure your channel is varied and focuses on value-based content over vanity metrics. Use a mixture of Reels, image carousels, Stories, and Lives – you’ll probably find one or two work best for your account, and you can prioritise these moving forwards.
Content Creation Strategies
Creating content that resonates with your audience is the best way to grow your following. You don’t need to post every single day, but the type of content you post is important. It will show your audience that you’re posting with purpose, consistency, and strategy.
1. Develop a Unique Content Style
Your Instagram content strategy should reflect your brand. Think about your voice, visual identity, and storytelling examples you can use to show that you are different and recognizable.
A top tip is to pick 3 content pillars and rotate them. This could be tips, behind-the-scenes content, and personal stories. A set of content pillars will help you stick to a structure and ensure your followers know what to expect when consuming your content.
2. Utilize Stories and Reels
Stories and Reels are Instagram’s most popular forms of content. Reels in particular dominate organic reach, with 38.5% of Instagram’s feed being made up of reels alone.
Short, snappy reels showing behind the scenes of your brand, or demo videos titled ‘how I did this’ work really well with Instagram’s algorithm, while Instagram Stories give your brand personality and allow you to interact with followers on a more personal level.
Make sure to share insights, not just aesthetics – value-based content drives real customers. Creating the correct audience can enable you to move engaged audiences from Instagram to monetizable spaces through platforms like Nas.io by directing them to courses or memberships you’ve designed.
3. Focus on Visuals and Captions
Simple, clean visuals drive the best results on Instagram.
Use tools like Canva or CapCut to make graphics with simple composition and design rules, and ensure that all of your image content aligns with your brand guidelines for a consistent look.
Captions are also super important on Instagram. Start strong with a catchy first line hook to grab your audience’s attention, and end with a micro CTA like ‘Comment if you’ve tried this’ to encourage your followers to interact.
Engaging With Your Audience
It’s important to engage with your audience regularly to help your following grow. Building relationships with your followers helps signal to the Instagram algorithm that your content matters and will help you reach more people organically.
1. The Power of Community Engagement
Community engagement is super powerful. This involves responding to comments, reposting user content, and joining conversations to help build trust and loyalty.
Even small, active communities can drive big results. A great example of this is the account Bala, a brand that launched stylish wrist and ankle weight products in 2017. They had a small following at first, but regularly engaged their community with Instagram Live workout videos that allowed them to grow their following and generate pre-orders for their website.
Platforms like Nas.io can help monetize an engaged community into spaces where followers can become customers, promoting online challenges or selling digital products.
2. Responding to Comments and DMs
Set aside 15 minutes each day to respond to messages and comments.
Developing a regular daily engagement habit ensures that your followers are always responded to, and you can use saved replies to common questions to save you some time.
3. Collaborating With Other Creators
Partnering with collaborators in similar niches can help you expand into new audiences, especially if there’s a good link between your two brands.
When collaborating, make sure your connections are authentic. Shared value is so much more important as it resonates with followers, as opposed to forced promotion, which will have the opposite effect.
Timing and Consistency
Understanding the best time to post on Instagram and how often can be really important for how well your content is seen.
The Instagram algorithm is known for rewarding creators who are consistent in posting and engaging with their audience at the best times, so bearing this in mind is key when posting content.
1. Best Times to Post
The best days to post on Instagram are Tuesdays – Thursdays, and posts generally perform better on weekday mornings and lunch hours (especially if your audience works Monday – Friday, 9 am – 5 pm). People tend to check Instagram on their morning commute or lunch break, so catching them at these times is important for engagement rates.
However, you should test your own account with Instagram Insights to see when your audience is most active. These stats will tell you when your followers tend to view your content, giving you the data to produce a content calendar that you know will resonate well with your audience.
2. Experiment With Frequency
There’s no one-size-fits-all schedule when it comes to posting on Instagram, and experimenting can help you find the best rhythm for you.
Start with a rhythm that you can easily sustain – there’s no point saying you’ll post every day if you can’t realistically commit to it. Try posting 3 reels and 2 stories per week to begin with, and tweak it as necessary. You’ll soon learn what your audience engages with and what you need to change.
3. Analyzing Engagement Rates
Engagement rates can tell you a lot about what your followers think about your content.
Use the formula ‘(Likes + Comments) / Followers x 100’ to calculate your engagement rate. An engagement rate of between 1% – 5% is generally considered good, depending on industry and your follower count.
High engagement rates tell you that your audience values your content, while low engagement rates indicate there may be work to do to give your audience what they’re looking for.
Don’t chase numbers – aim for higher engagement, not vanity metrics, to ensure your content resonates with your followers and keeps your audience growing.
Promotion Techniques That Work
Promoting your content can help you get followers, rather than focusing on organic reach alone.
It’s important to remember, however, that you must never spam your audience. Smart promotion is targeted, consistent, and always adds value.
1. Leveraging Hashtags (Smartly)
Hashtags can help your brand get found when people are searching for content on Instagram.
Using a mixture of broad, niche, and community hashtags can significantly increase Instagram engagement. Not only is this good for interaction, but it also helps consumers understand what your account is about in a range of different areas.
2. Running Contests and Giveaways
Giveaway posts and content get 3.5 times more likes and 64 times more comments than regular posts.
This makes them one of the best content types, and can help you to substantially grow your Instagram audience.
When running a giveaway or competition, make sure you’re attracting the right followers, not random entrants. The last thing you want is loads of new followers who unfollow at the first opportunity.
3. Cross-Promoting on Other Platforms
Repurposing content across other platforms is a great way to get the most from your content and also reach other audiences on different channels.
TikToks and YouTube shorts, or even your online newsletter, can easily be repurposed on Instagram to provide your audience with more valuable content. Many creators use Nas.io to centralize this traffic, with Nas.io acting as a community hub, email list, or digital product funnel. This strategy can even result in casual followers becoming engaged customers through monetization techniques like memberships and challenges on Nas.io.
Measuring and Improving Growth
A good way of improving growth on Instagram is to measure your results.
Understanding how your channel is performing can help you identify what’s working and what isn’t, so you can save time and energy and focus on what really helps your account reach more people.
1. Use Instagram Insights
Instagram Insights can help you track key metrics such as reach, engagement, and saves.
Keeping a close eye on these metrics will help you learn which of your posts is performing well and what you might need to change.
2. Adapt Based on Analytics
Checking your analytics regularly can help you identify your best-performing content and double down on these strategies. If Reels are driving great engagement, prioritize them. On the other hand, if stories aren’t generating any engagement, maybe they just don’t work very well for your brand.
A data-driven approach will prevent you from wasting time on formats that aren’t working, and will ensure your audience is seeing more of what they enjoy.
3. Continuous Improvement
Remember that no strategy is set in stone. It’s beneficial to review your strategy monthly to see if anything has changed with industry/platform trends or if something needs tweaking.
Always make sure to test new formats too – while it may be easy to post the same format, small tweaks such as adjusting captions or rephrasing your CTAs may help improve reach and engagement more than you’d think.
You can also experiment with Nas.io’s Magic Reach to learn more about your audience and promote further growth.
Conclusion: Followers Don’t Equal Freedom
Growing your Instagram following can be exciting, but remember that the goal isn’t fame. The main objective you should aim to achieve is sustainable business growth. Real success comes from building an engaged community that trusts your brand and interacts regularly with your content. They may even go on to become customers!
A few hundred true fans are enough to build a business, especially when you use Nas.io to turn them into loyal customers. Platforms like Nas.io allow you to turn your Instagram audience into a monetizable community, offering them courses, memberships, or AI-powered funnels that they’ll genuinely be interested in purchasing.
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