How to Gain Followers on Instagram

You spend hours planning and creating content for Instagram without measuring the impact. With each post, you only get a few likes and comments from your handful of followers. But how do you gain followers on Instagram if you don't publish great content?

There's no such thing as a perfect method, but there are a few best practices that we've outlined below. 

Optimize your biography

Make the most of these 150 characters that Instagram gives you to describe your brand. Your Instagram biography tells your potential followers who you are, what you do and what action you hope people will take after visiting your profile. So, we recommend that you include in your Instagram bio:

• a clear description of what you do
• Your brand personality
• A call to action (store, find out more, contact us, etc.) in the form of a link.

Your link in bio is your only clickable link on your Instagram bio, so use it wisely. Some companies include a standard link to their website, while others change it regularly to reflect recent posts.

Find your best time to post on Instagram 

Notice how we didn't write "finding the best time to post on Instagram" in the headline? In fact, there's no universal answer to the question of when to to publish on Instagram to reach the greatest number of people. But there are ways to determine the ideal times for your followers, in relation to your target audience. For example, 18h08 has made this "moment" for addressing its audience the name of its brand.

In fact, we realized that the working people we were targeting get off work at 6pm, or at least that's the beginning of the end of their day. It was therefore ideal time to offer them an attractive product at a reduced price. That's how we determined our own timing, based on our audience and the desired interaction.

To help you do this, use Instagram Insights to find out when your audience is online. Tap the "Insights" button on your Instagram business profile, scroll down to "Your Audience", then tap "Show All". From there, scroll down to find your audience's most active moments. Don't hesitate to change this moment in time if your audience tends to change as it grows.

Publish content regularly

A 2021 study of 14 industries shows that companies share an average of four Instagram posts posts per week. But we recommend publishing at least once a day to get more followers on Instagram. Brands that regularly engage with Instagram posts tend to get the best results.

 If your posts are shared regularly and get good engagement, Instagram's algorithm will probably show your posts at the top of your followers' feeds and you'll gain followers.

Of course, quality is always more important than quantity. Publishing more often doesn't necessarily translate into higher higher engagement rates. Focus on creating content that will resonate with your target audience.

Instagram scheduling tools let you post consistently without having to worry about posting directly from the app every day.

Discover how the Instagram algorithm works

Many Instagram users initially panicked about the switch from a chronological feed to the sorted timeline. However, since the change, the average post is seen by 50% more followers than before. So focus on learning how to use Instagram's Instagram's algorithmic system to your advantage.

There are six factors that determine what appears in the Instagram timeline of each person: interest, topicality, relationship level, engagement frequency, following and use.

Here is a brief overview of what each of these factors refers to:

• Interest How much Instagram thinks someone will like the post based on their previous activity.
• News The date of publication of the publication
• Relationship accounts with which a person regularly engages
• Frequency how often a person uses the Instagram application
• Follow-up Publications of accounts that a person is following
• Usage How long someone spends on Instagram

Instagram's algorithm aims to surface the best content for each user. So, while six separate factors may seem very worrying, the best thing to do is to create high-quality content consistently with a view to gaining followers

Experiment with different types of content

Instagram is much more than just photos. Over the years, the app has introduced many ways to share content content on the platform. Mixing photos with different types of content is one of the best ways to gain more followers on Instagram, as it gives you the opportunity to reach and connect with a wider range of people.

Remember: the algorithm looks at interest and strives to show people the types of content they interact with most often. So, if someone likes and comments on Instagram reels more often than other types of publication, they'll probably see more reels in their Instagram feed. However, if another person interacts more frequently with carouselthey'll see more of this type of content in their timeline.

Each type of content has its own advantages. Here are just a few examples, Instagram Reels has an advantage because it's the most recent type of content, and Instagram is always offering new features. Since the launch of Instagram Reels in 2020, the app has moved the Reels button to a central position in the menu bar and made Reels appear larger than photo posts on the Explore page. Considering that 200 million people visit the Explorer page every day, this extra visual space can make a big difference to the number of people you reach.

The Instagram TV (IGTV) videos also appear 4 times larger than photos on the Explorer page. And, like IGTV videos videos can last up to 60 minutes, this type of content is ideal for longer videos.

Write beautiful captions

Beautiful photos get people's attention - great Instagram captions keep it. The captions allow you to provide more context or details about the photo or video you're sharing. What's more, using keywords in captions can help you appear in search results on the app.

Instagram captions can be up to 2,200 characters. Of course, not all captions need to read like a blog post. Play with different lengths. Some photos go well with a short, fun caption with a few emojis, while others could benefit from something longer and more reflective.

The average length of Instagram captions is on the rise, but most brands still don't come close to that 2,200-character limit. In 2020, the average was estimated at 405 characters, up from 142 in 2016.