Grow Organically on Instagram. Instagram is nothing new. It has been around for years and has grown to help people and businesses express themselves and their products. Or it is an easy way to share pictures with your family and friends.
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What is Instagram?
Instagram is a social media application you share pictures and videos from your smartphone. It was started in 2012 and has just grown since then. People love visuals and pretty pictures. It allows you to follow other users and be able to like their photos that they post.
Most Instagram users would like to have a large number of followers. So, how do we gain followers?
How to Grow Organically on Instagram?
Instagram is always changing and adding new concepts to improve. But even with those changes, these are the tried and true steps to grow.
Know your Audience
Know who your followers are. Your followers are the accounts that are following you and see the photos that you post on their home page. So, if you have a business and depending on what your business is, your audience is your potential customers that you are trying to appeal to.
Experiment with your posts and see what your audience likes. If you have a business account on Instagram, you can see the insight of your post. Insight shows you the demographic (gender and age) of who liked your photo.
Quality Photos
Once you know who is your audience, you can start creating content. Remember, Instagram is a visual social media app, people want to see pretty pictures. Have a theme to make your Instagram feed seem consistent. There are multiple themes and presets you can use to give your feed that consistency.
Post Consistently
Just like the Quality of Photos, you will have to post consistently also. Some Instagram users post once or twice a day. If you are not up to that commitment that is ok. You can post once a day or once a week, as long as you are consistent. Find a good schedule for you and stick to it.
Engage on Similar Accounts
ENGAGEMENT IS KEY! Instagram is a social media app, so you need to be social. It is nice to receive likes and comments on our own photos but to grow your following you need to return the love. Depending on your spare time, spend an hour a day liking and commenting on similar accounts.
Make sure to also like and comment on photos of accounts you may not follow. A good way to do this is to go to the search bar on Instagram, search any hashtags you may use, and comment on photos that appear under that hashtag. This also allows other accounts to see you posting genuine comments and may take a look at your account. Genuine comments are best, leaving an emoji is not considered a genuine comment.
Use Relevant Hashtags
Instagram allows you to post 30 hashtags along with your photo. This is a great way for your photo to be seen by accounts other than the ones that already follow you. Make sure to use a mixture of large hashtags and smaller hashtags.
Use relevant hashtags that go along with your photo. You can add any brands, niche, location, events or more, but make sure they go along they represent aspects of your post.
Conclusion
If you take anything away from this I hope it is that engagement is key. Make sure to like and comment on accounts that you like and also in the same niche as you. Instagram is a great way to make connections. Don’t be afraid to message someone and just let them know you like their content.
Whatever you do, do not “buy” followers. Yes, you will gain a large number of followers but they aren’t true followers. You want to make connections and gain accounts that will interact with your posts.
However you use Instagram I hope you found something useful in this post. How to grow organically on Instagram. Good luck with your growth!
If you enjoyed this post check out Fall Home Decor Ideas and Ways to Make Extra Money.
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22 Comments
Sarah Combs
Great tips! I find it hard to grow on Instagram but know that growing slowly with active followers will benefit me in the long run. Thanks for sharing!
Julia Hess
It definitely takes time, but having active followers is so beneficial!
Amber Myers
Thank you for this! Instagram can be so tough to grow and I never know what I’m doing. I’ll keep these tips in mind!
Julia Hess
Instagram is tough to grow with. Hope the tips help!
Tara Pittman
This is good info. I need to work more on my Instagram stories.
Julia Hess
Me also, the next thing I need to tackle is the reels that they just added.
Hannah Marie
I have an Instagram account and having a bigger audience is very tough. I don’t know what I’m doing there but with these helpful tips i now know what to do. These tips are really helpful.
Julia Hess
I hope the tips help!
Sara
Great Instagram tips! I definitely could use these tips to apply to my own IG account.
Julia Hess
There is always room to grow and add new techniques to see what works best for your account!
Sophie
LOVE these tips! I work in marketing and so many times we forget the point of social media is to actually be social and not just push out our own content and expect people to engage.
Julia Hess
So very true! We need to share the love to get the love!
Kasia
Instagram has gotten so much harder. It’s hard to reach a new audience lately. I’ve been struggling with this even though I do everything you have mentioned here. I hope it gets better from now on.
Julia Hess
I have definitely seen a drop lately after they rolled out the new update and the reels. It is always changing and I am hoping it will getter better soon also.
Joanna
I have given up Instagram a while ago, when it seems to be a world full of bots and no real engagement anymore. I now use it just for myself, and post for my friends only.
Julia Hess
Yea, there are definitely far too many fake accounts. But that’s a great reason to have an Instagram!
Jessy Lauren
I need this in my life! It’s a constant struggle for me on Instagram. What would you say is the first focus to start?
Julia Hess
Instagram is always a battle. It seems like I become good with something and then they change it! But I would focus on figuring out your audience and creating a theme. Then, work on engaging with your audience and other people in the same niche.
Chelsea
Thanks for the tips. I’m still in the process of growing mine. I’ve had some great success with groups within my niche. Finding other accounts who write and post about similar topics and then engaging with each other has been a great way to connect and find new accounts (and a great way for new accounts to find me!) Do you recommend scheduling posts versus organically posting them?
Julia Hess
Yes, I love engaging with similar accounts even if we don’t follow each other. It is a great way for other accounts to find you! I honestly have never attempted scheduling posts, so I cannot speak on that aspect.
Seriah
Thanks for these great tips! I actually deleted a bunch of photos and started rebranding my IG to match my blog site. I’m slowly but surely getting somewhere.
Julia Hess
Yea I have thought about doing that but in the end, I didn’t want to lose my old photos on there. Hope rebranding helps you grow!