Cormac Reynolds — February 20, 2017 If you have an Instagram account, then you now it’s an amazing platform for sharing photos. However, it is only fun if you have many followers. If you are new to the social media platform, there is a good chance that you might not have as many followers as expected. Well, you can always get more followers using simple and non-spam methods as outlined below.
It is a quite exciting to sign up on Instagram for the first time. You’re ready to share your photos with the rest of the world. However, if you don’t have any followers, you will not get any comments or likes and that can be quite disappointing. So, here’s what you need to do to increase your followers using legitimate methods.
1. You Need A Clear Focus
Once you have signed up on Instagram, you need a clear focus. If you are an amateur or aspiring photographer, you can always use the platform to showcase your amazing photos. However, you should never post any poor quality photos such as you hanging out with your friends since they will defocus your original objective. People who are interested in your photography might not feel so good if you post a poor quality photo of the sandwich you had for lunch earlier.
Many Instagram users post snapshots of their life allowing their followers into their lives bit by bit. Of course, it is a bit harder than sharing some photos. Unless you are one of the celebrities, you will find that only people who know you in real life would be interested in learning what you do every day. For instance, if you take a look at @iPhonePS, you will only find photos about iPhones and nothing else. Followers would become discouraged about following the account if there were pictures of partially eaten sandwiches or drinks.
2. Customize Your Account Accordingly
Once you have chosen the focus for your account, the next step is making the account look amazing. A good profile photo and an interesting description will do wonders. However, you need to make sure that your photo feed looks amazing as well. That’s the first thing followers look at before they decide to follow your account.
Depending on the focus of your account, you should create high profile photos, at least 20 to match with your objective. Remove any irrelevant or ugly photos that might not align with your focus. You should learn how to take better photos by practising with good composition to entice your followers. You can always experiment by taking photos under different types of lighting for the best results.
Of course, before anyone chooses to follow your account, they will take a good look at your photo feed and debate whether they need to be seeing such photos in their Instagram feed. Avoid posting boring photographs, silly memes or screenshots or photos about your food because many people are tired of seeing such things on their Instagram feed.
You can always delete your old photos and always emphasize on quality rather than quantity. If you spend a considerable amount of time improving the type of photos you post on your Instagram page, you will start getting more followers. If you are having trouble using a specific type of phone, you can always research more about it and find ways to use it to your advantage to get the best photos.
3. Try Leveraging Other Social Media Platforms
If your profile on Instagram looks amazing, you need to let people on other social media platforms know about it. That’s when you need to start leveraging your followers on other channels. You can always share your Instagram link to Twitter, Facebook or your blog to get more followers. If you have a few email contacts, you can always draft an email telling them you have signed up for Instagram and request them to follow you.
Of course, you can always inform your email contacts the type of photos you are going to post and request them to follow you if they are interested. Depending on the size of your contacts on these other platforms, you can get your first 50 to 100 followers on Instagram instantly.
4. Connect With Other Instagram Users
If people on other social media platforms are following you on Instagram, you need to find people on Instagram who will be interested in the type of photos you are going to upload. Don’t use many hashtags, ask for shoutouts or start trading followers for likes and vice versa. These tactics might work at times but the chances are quite low. Therefore, don’t put your eggs in one basket.
One tactic that always works is getting someone’s attention by leaving a thoughtful or nice comment on their photos. Short comment such as great photo or nice, might not get you anywhere. You can always say something thoughtful and give your reasons for liking the photo. Next, the user will be interested in checking out your profile and eventually follow you.
People find it annoying if you are constantly asking them to follow you. That’s why leaving a thoughtful and nice comment will do wonders. Also, if your photo feed looks amazing, these people are willing to follow you back without any pressure. Well, you might be wondering how to leave as many comments as possible on other users’ photos without going mad.
First, you can’t do it from a mobile device because it will be quite overwhelming. So, switch to a computer and leave as many comments as possible. You can always find a hashtag that relates to what your account focuses on and leave comments on the photos that use that specific hashtag. For instance, if you are posting about cars, you can always find other accounts with related hashtags. It’s a good chance that such people would like to know and follow accounts with the same topic.
Next, you should leave your comments on photos that were posted within the last 24 or 48 hours with less than 5 comments. If you leave your comment in a post with more than 50 comments, it’s tough for someone to go through all those comments looking for yours. It might seem like a lot of work but it is worth every bit since you will get more followers on your profile.
Therefore, rather than using spam techniques to get many followers, you can use this amazing trick to get genuine and authentic followers who actually want to know what your account is about. So, take the time to post good comments on other people’s photos and they will be interested in following your account as well.
5. Always Keep Your Followers Engaged
It doesn’t make any sense to increase your followers on Instagram if you don’t want to keep them engaged. Therefore, you need to post very high quality photos consistently. If possible, you can try posting a new photo every day but you should focus more on the quality of the photos you are posting rather than the quantity.
Don’t post too many photos at once because it will annoy your followers. Try spreading your photos evenly and avoid posting more than one photo within 6 hours. If your followers leave comments or start discussions with you, always respond. Saying something like thank you to a comment from one of your followers will definitely keep them happy and engaged. Always try to avoid negative comments regardless of the type of comments your followers are leaving.
If you go into attack mode and fight with your followers because of any comment, you will start losing them by the second. Therefore, try to keep things civil, regardless of how annoying or condescending some of your followers might become. Regardless of what they say, at least they are following your account and that’s what is important.
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