How To Grow Your Instagram Page Followers Organically in 2021
CONFESSION: I cried myself to sleep over my Instagram page once.
I know, I know, there’s WAY worse things I could be crying over! But I had poured my heart and SOUL into growing my Instagram page. It took so much courage for me to even start my page to begin with. My poor husband was begrudgingly taking my photos, I was spending money on apps and equipment to make my photos amazing, I was getting up early before work and staying up late after work to make sure everything was PERFECT. And even with all that effort—I was LOSING followers.
Click here to get my instagram growth guide for 2020
I thought to myself. What was I doing wrong?? Is my content THAT terrible? Why is nobody paying attention? Why am I even bothering with all of this? I was upset because I had put so much work into it. And my Instagram page is for my blog which is about helping women save money by choosing affordable fashion. It’s truly a passion of mine! I love what I create. But it felt like a slap in the face that I was working so hard for minimal return.
Then something crazy happened.
A random girl messaged me on Instagram and invited me into something called an “engagement pod”. (spoiler alert: I do not recommend partaking in these) Basically a bunch of bloggers/business owners join together in a separate app called Telegram and post a link to their most recent posts. You are only allowed to post your links in the group if you also engage with all the other posts for the past 24 hours that were dropped in the chat. Basically ensuring you get a certain amount of likes/comments/views on your post!
It sounded so great, so I tried to keep up with it for awhile. But after awhile, I started to get angry!
The moment I decided to quit engagement pods was when someone in the group literally posted a picture of an old shoe on the ground. YES AN OLD SHOE. That was their post for the day! This old shoe had 1,000 likes!!!! It wasn’t artsy. It took no effort. It didn’t DESERVE 1,000 likes! But it was an eye opening moment for me. Succeeding on Instagram isn’t just about having great content. You need a strategy in place.
That’s when I became OBSESSED with learning about Instagram growth strategies. I literally read every blog post, I bought books, I listened to podcasts, I even bought courses on the topic! I have tried it all and while some tactics are just smart (like providing alt text on your images to make your posts more discoverable!) none of these tactics hold a candle to forming quality connections with people on Instagram.
The thing is I have come to learn that shady shortcuts are not the way I want to grow my business. I’m not going to lie to you, I used to be a numbers chaser. All it did was make me gain some followers who aren’t really interested in my content, and make me question my self worth when my posts didn’t perform how I wanted or expected them to!
I only want to promote authentic and organic communication and connection on Instagram. It’s the only way to truly build your page and ACTUALLY HAVE INFLUENCE. I would say 90% of influencers don’t even influence anyone to do much of anything. I don’t mean this to hate or shame, it’s just we get SO caught up in the numbers on Instagram and it becomes like tunnel vision. Whatever you can do to improve your follower count and likes. At this point in my blogging and Instagram-influencing career, I realize there’s very little worth in any of that if you’re chasing numbers just for number’s sake.
We also get told that brands won’t work with us if we don’t have X followers or if we don’t have such and such engagement rate. But it’s not true. All you need is to show them instances where you can prove your influence. If you don’t have the “numbers” to back it up, you either need to form more quality connections OR you need to prove it by sending screenshots of DMs where people say you inspired them or send samples of the quality of your work. That might not be enough for a lot of brands! But don’t get discouraged. I am telling you if you continue to show your authentic self, share what you love, and focus on forming REAL, quality connections with your followers, the numbers will follow. And I don’t just mean higher follower count and engagement rate. I mean CONVERSIONS. SALES. The thing that brands REALLY care about if your end-goal is to monetize and work with brands!
So basically, the idea behind Instagram is to up your chances of making more QUALITY connections. You want to link up with like-minded people and your ideal follower who you are trying to serve and speak to with your content! The more quality connections you form, the more you’ll enjoy success on Instagram!
With that being said, I am listing below some best practices that will just help you become more discoverable for the ideal follower you are trying to serve! These are not “shady” or shortcuts. These are just useful tips that will help drive more like-minded people to your page where you can then serve and connect with them in a meaningful way!
Optimize Your Bio
Your bio is your chance to make a great first impression and hook your target audience!! You need to optimize this in order to convert people just visiting your page into loyal followers of your page! A few things you can do to make your bio the best it can be.
A clear headshot/logo
Make sure that your profile picture is a clear headshot of you if this is your personal brand or you are the face of your business (influencers/bloggers/coaches/consultants/etc) OR if there’s no real “face” of your brand or person associated with it, a clear shot of your logo. This helps to show people you are a legitimate page/ a real person!
Don’t JUST put your name
Where it says to list your name, you should ALSO list what it is you do! Are you a nutritionist? A restaurant? A store? A Mommy Blogger? Putting this under your name will help YOUR page pop up when somebody is searching for exactly that!
Describe your page!
What are you all about? Describe your page in a way that when someone visits they know what you’re all about and make yourself sound like someone they would want to be friends with! For me, I put my location, what type of content I share, and a quote that I feel would really connect with my target audience of US-based millennial women on a budget!
Put your e-mail address in your bio
If you want to collaborate with brands, then you need to have this in your bio. Don’t make the marketing team hunt for this. I’ve seen this advice from multiple people who coordinate marketing campaigns for brands that work with influencers!
Put a call to action before the link in your bio
Give them a reason to click the link in your bio and drive them to your website! Maybe you’re offering a freebie, or you’re having a sale, or if you’re a blogger you can say “check out my latest blog post!”. Entice them to click through!
2. Post Quality Content
I know I said content isn’t everything. As evidenced by: the picture of the old shoe getting 1,000 likes. BUT if that person wasn’t in a ton of engagement pods, that photo would have probably gotten 3 likes tops. And if that person had posted an enticing, quality image, they probably would’ve ended up with 2,000 likes because more people would have been sharing and discovering the image. So while content isn’t EVERYTHING, it still counts and is the ONLY thing can get you to go viral. Content is still King!
Post clear, quality images
Take some time to check out accounts in your niche that are already successful. Look at the quality of their photos. Now take an honest look at your photos. Are they quality enough? If the answer is no, figure out how you can improve that. You don’t need fancy equipment. Your phone can take great photos. And I highly recommend downloading Lightroom Mobile and heading to Etsy to buy a cheap “preset” (AKA filter) to help elevate your photos! My preset I use was literally $4!
Post what people like
OK that sounds like horrible advice, but what I mean is, listen to what your followers enjoy most! You still have to be true to yourself and what you want to post, but experiment with different types of content. Maybe you found a quote that really speaks to you and represents your brand. You could try posting a photo of yourself and put the quote in the caption. Next time you could try to just post a graphic of the quote in a pretty font and colors. See which one performs better, and continue to create the type of content that your audience actually interacts with and enjoys!
Don’t ignore captions
Your captions are a huge part of your content strategy! Yes, Instagram is visual, but the written content is just as important! The caption is where you can dive deeper on your message. The caption also can be where you hook someone or convince them to follow you or buy whatever it is you’re selling. It’s where you can give context. Don’t just put a one-line punny sentence and think that’s all you have to do. Do the work and create meaningful captions that compel people to like/comment/save/and most importantly-SHARE.
Hashtags
Hashtags are important! Make sure if you are a smaller account, you’re not using too many BIG hashtags. Anything with 500K posts or more is too big for you. You’ll never rank for those. Try 20K-500K range. That’s your sweet spot. Research hashtags that people would be searching in your niche. Keep them relevant. And mix them up! Instagram does not like you using the same hashtags every time (they think it’s spam and will show your post to way less people).
3. ENGAGE
This is THE MOST IMPORTANT. Instagram is SOCIAL media. So it rewards you for…. being social! Engaging with others and building connections is the only way to truly succeed on this platform.
Engage with your current followers
If your current followers comment on your post, you better like and comment back! Both on their comment on your post, and then if their account is public, go engage with their content! You see the algorithm is designed to show people more of the content that they interact with most. So if it sees that your account and this other account goes back and forth interacting a lot, it will default to showing more of your content to their feed. You want to stay on the radar of your existing followers! This goes for IG stories as well. If someone interacts with your stories, strike up a conversation! It also just builds good will with your followers and they are more likely to support you if you actually speak to them and show you care!
Engage with people who don’t follow you
It’d be great if Instagram showed your content to people who didn’t already follow you that would be interested in your content. But they really don’t unless you make it onto the Explore page. AKA you have a huge account or your post went viral. Instead of trying to go viral (which while your follow count would explode pretty quickly and it would be awesome) you’re better off building up your account and getting eyes on your content the slow but steady way.
Search hashtags that are relevant to your page or search the comment section of a fellow blogger who is already successfully targeting a similar audience to who you want to target. Pick a few people and show some love on their page! Leave genuine meaningful comments or even send a DM.
Basically pretend like it’s the first day of school or a new job and you’re looking to make a new friend! Very few people are doing things like this, so you will stand out to this person if they vibe with you too and choose to follow you back. Seriously if you do this to a handful of people every day, think of how much good rapport and vibes you have built up around your page by the end of a year! If you reached 5 people per day (which cmon, we all have time for that!) You would reach 1,825 people who now like you and your page!! That’s a HUGE number. Not to mention if they suggest your page to their friends or followers. If they like you so much they engage with your content right away which tells the algorithm to show it to more people… the reach goes far beyond that!
I truly hope these strategies help you to optimize and grow your Instagram account. If you’re a blogger and looking for some more tips on growing and monetizing your account, check out my Blogging Tips Page!
