How to Get More Followers on Instagram: 5 Key Strategies

Who doesn’t love the idea of gaining Instagram followers without spending a dime? Before you raise your guard that this post is about paid bots, let’s set the record straight! In this guide, we’ll explore 5 key strategies for how to gain followers on Instagram fast for free.

Here’s the key tip to enhancing your customer experience: a good content experience. With over 2 billion monthly active users, Instagram is an impressive customer touch point that you can’t miss out on.

Leveraging this social media platform allows you to interact with your audience in an informal and human manner without words ruling the screen. But, you can’t do that without followers. And, no, we aren’t talking about bots–they’re real and human followers. However, gaining Instagram followers is no piece of cake unless you’ve got the right strategy.

That said, this guide covers a comprehensive list of the 5 key strategies you must know to get followers on Instagram for free, along with proven stats backing our tips of how to Instagram followers and likes. Let’s get the ball rolling!

Note: Instagram’s algorithm shows content according to your interests and location. While this may be interesting at times, it can be annoying, too. However, if you’re posting content that has a wider audience in another region, connecting to a VPN, like SurfShark VPN, will trick the geo-restrictions and ensure content visibility in the targeted region.

Get More Followers on Instagram: A Quick Rundown

Here’s a quick rundown of how to get followers on Instagram:

• Optimize Your Instagram Profile
• Develop an Instagram Content Marketing Strategy
• Explore Creative Captions and Relevant Hashtags
• Improve Engagement and Community Building
• Engage in Brand and Influencer Collaborations

5 Strategies to Get Followers on Instagram for Free

This guide isn’t a quick pathway to gaining Instagram followers and likes. However, we can assure you that these steps will result in a sustainable Instagram following via organic approaches. But how’s that different from quick Instagram followers that you can pay for?

It’s the sustainability in the long run. Paid followers often stick just because they got paid for it. On the other hand, the free ones relate to your content and love your business for being there. They cement a stronger foundation of your Instagram followers who want to stick through.

Pro Tip: Focus on quality over quantity to get followers on Instagram.

Keep reading the sections below to learn how to get followers on Instagram.

1. Optimize Your Instagram Profile

Social media optimization helps you gain visibility, i.e., it ensures that your content reaches your audience. Similar to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Optimization (SMO) ensures that your content and profile are optimized to appear in the search results.

That said, here are 5 areas that you must optimize on your Instagram profile to get followers on Instagram:

1. Profile picture
2. Username
3. Bio
4. Location tags
5. Business Links (optional)

Upload a Professional Profile Picture

Ensure that you upload a professional-looking Instagram profile picture that resonates with your brand’s aesthetic, i.e., the brand’s identity in formal terms. Ensure that the picture is appropriately sized and not bulging out of the borders.

Optimize Username, Bio and Location

Start with adding keywords in your:

1. Instagram handle
2. Profile name
3. Profile bio

This will ensure that your account is discoverable to your audience. For example, if you’re a small cupcake business, a name like Cupcakes and Cream is a user-friendly handle. Meanwhile, ensure that your Instagram handle is precise but almost the same name as the full profile name.

Add Location Tag to Instagram Bio

Adding a location tag to your profile is like giving a friendly wave to the algorithm, letting it know you’re right where your target audience is and you’re to connect with the people on Instagram. Here’s how to add the location to your Instagram bio:

• Go to the Instagram app > Profile.
• Select Edit Profile.
• Manually type your location and use a map symbol or any other emoji to make the location stand out.
• Tap Done/Check mark to save changes.

Adding Location to Instagram Business Account

As a business/creator account, you can add a physical location via the contact information section to connect with the people on Instagram. Here’s how to do that:

• Open the Instagram app > Profile.
• Tap on Edit Profile.
• Navigate the Business information section and select Contact Options.
• Add the Business address.
• Save your changes.

Add Business Links

You might not have a portfolio or a business website, and that’s alright. This step is optional, but adding a business link in your Instagram bio ensures a seamless user experience and connect with the people on Instagram. Meaning, a new user can directly hop to the link to check your business website, especially if you’re an eCommerce store. Or you can add the Calendly link so a client can schedule a meeting in no time.

Add Highlights of Your Important Stories

You can be a business or an Instagram content creator–some stories require being pinned on the wall. That’s where Instagram highlights step in. It can be a memory of your dog or the Menu of your bakery; organizing your stories as highlights helps your users find quick access to the helpful stories.

Here’s how to add Instagram story highlights:

• Go to your Instagram Profile.
• Navigate the + sign for Highlights below your profile bio.
• Tap on New and select a story. Select Add.
• Manage highlights by tapping and holding the highlight on your profile. Add or remove stories, change the cover, and delete the highlight.

2. Develop an Instagram Content Marketing Strategy

Why would you sail a ship without a direction? It’s the same on Instagram. Before you start to connect with the people on Instagram, you must develop an effective Instagram content marketing strategy that helps navigate the direction. As a recapitulation, here’s your beginner’s list to get followers on Instagram:

1. Set Clear Goals and Understand Your Audience
2. Create Engaging Content and Optimize With Hashtags
3. Create a Content Calendar

Set Clear Goals and Understand Your Audience

Start with drafting an objective of what you aim to achieve. For example, you might want to create brand awareness, drive website traffic, or boost sales. Simply put, sketch out the goal, such as “I want to increase the follower count by 15% within 2 months.”

Know Your Target Audience

For example, you’re running a skincare brand that features a retinol product. That’s where you know your target audience is mostly women above 25, i.e., the millennials. If you’re only delivering in Florida, then that’s the target audience’s geo-location. That said, the blueprint must include the following to connect with the people on Instagram:

• What’s their age and gender?
• Where do they live?
• What do they use Instagram for?
• When are they most active on Instagram?
• What are their pain points?

Create Engaging Content and Optimize With Hashtags

According to Instagram, a skin care brand can start a conversation by inviting its customers to enter a giveaway by sharing a post featuring its product. However, content types can vary. Hopping back to the retinol product, reels and carousels showcasing retinol benefits, methods of use, and before/after results are also preferred content types.

Here’s the drill: learn patterns from your existing audience of what they prefer, which can be a giveaway, reel, informational post, or giveaway (since we all love the free tag!).

Create a Content Calendar

You’ve to ensure consistency when posting on Instagram to connect with the people on Instagram, it might be posting regularly or uploading stories, but there always has to be something.

However, you can’t post anything at any time. Instead, you must know about the best times to post on Instagram. For example, Monday mornings (9 A.M. – 2 P.M.) are good times to post on IG to get Instagram followers and likes.

But, the post times depend on various factors, such as business type, goals, and target audience. Since you’ve identified them, create a content calendar and schedule your posts accordingly.

Here are quick steps to create a content calendar to get followers on Instagram:

• Define what you want to achieve.
• Plan content that resonates with your followers.
• Mix content types, such as photos, videos, stories, and more.
• Decide how often to post (e.g., daily, weekly).
• Plan around important events or campaigns.
• Use tools like Buffer or Instagram’s scheduler to schedule posts.

3. Explore Creative Captions and Relevant Hashtags

Worried about your Instagram followers not loving the content? Boring captions might be the culprit here. When creating Instagram posts, here’s what to always add:

• Creative Captions
• Relevant Hashtags

Creative Captions

Every niche requires creativity. While some might require concise and to-the-point captions, others might require a gist of creativity in detailed captions. That said, what’s working for someone else might not work for you. And you’ve got to be creative with the captions for that instead of replicating another brand’s captions.

Use relevant Hashtags

Don’t forget the hashtags to connect with the people on Instagram, but don’t go overboard with them. According to Sprout Social, using too many hashtags can decrease engagement. Use a few relevant hashtags only, and they should be good.

4. Improve Engagement and Community Building

Networking and building a community is always a two-way game when you connect with the people on Instagram. Once you’ve got Instagram followers and likes post, respond to them to build a sense of community and show that it’s a human behind the screen and not a bot. Overall, here’s the gist of improving Instagram engagement:

1. Engage and Build Community
2. Run Paid Ads
3. Track, Test, and Adapt

Engage and Build Community

Instagram engagement is defined through likes, comments and shares. You can always boost engagement by responding to comments, such as, if someone asks about the benefits of the products you’ve posted, reply with a description to connect with the people on Instagram but ensure it’s readable and user-friendly than like a bot responding.

On the other hand, run polls and ask questions about your stories to connect with people on Instagram. Moreover, encourage your followers to share their experiences and tag you to connect with people on Instagram. This way, you can portray a realistic user experience on your profile to generate trust and reliability for the new followers.

Run Paid Ads

Using Instagram ads, you can target specific audiences and get followers on Instagram. That said, you can boost posts or run ads with specific goals, such as:

• Age
• Gender
• Location

Track, Test, and Adapt

As a rule of thumb, you learn from mistakes. That said, track post metrics using Instagram Insights to check which posts perform the best. This is where A/B testing steps in. Include different types of posts and analyze which type performs better. Later, based on your performance, tweak your strategy according to your audience’s best response.

5. Engage in Brand and Influencer Collaborations

May it be Instagram or your full-time job, networking improves your circle. For example, if you’re a fashion stylist, collaborating with a fashion brand, such as clothing, will help you create new content about ways to style a new release.

This way, the followers of both profiles can engage in a single post, create a larger community, and connect with the people on Instagram. But before that, there’s quite some research you can’t miss out on:

• Find Relevant Influencers
• Collaborate With Influencers
• Build Relationships

Research Relevant Influencers

You can be a tech enthusiast, a fashion stylist, or a baker–you’ve got to have a niche. This niche helps connect with like-minded people, i.e., the target audience. That said, research other influencers of the same niche so that the audience can interact with new, yet similar, content. While researching relevant influencers to connect with the people on Instagram, here’s what to check:

• Engagement rate
• Authenticity
• Collaborations with similar brands

If you checkmark all the pointers, send a direct message to the influencer outlining what you’d like to collaborate on.

Collaborate With Influencers

Instagram collaborations pave the way for enhanced brand visibility to your target audience. Moreover, Instagram has rolled out its Partnerships feature, enabling brands to collaborate more seamlessly. However, you must be eligible for partnerships, i.e., have a Creator or a Business Account. Before that, ensure that you comply with Instagram’s policies, such as:

• Instagram Partner Monetization Policies
• Community Guidelines
• Content Monetization Policies

Conclusively, look for brands that fit your audience’s interests but aren’t your competitors. And the collaboration should have something to offer more than individual benefits.

How to Get Instagram Followers and Likes: The Don’ts

When you start looking online for tips to get followers on Instagram, you’ll come across a list of ads promising to give you a set number of followers in no time. Although it might be tempting to pay for them, bon’t forget they’re just bots! That’s the worst way to get followers on Instagramand build an Instagram community or build genuine engagement.

While Instagram is home to millions of monthly users, 59% of them use the app daily. Opting for the following approaches might just make you lose your chance to interact with your audience.

1. Don’t Fall for the Bots

Here’s the first DON’T: the Bots trap. Despite how appealing they might seem when they boost Instagram followers and likes, they’re the worst option available. Moreover, Instagram shuts down fake likes and followers accounts.

2. Buying Followers

The algorithm’s smart, and buying fake followers for Instagram can actually hurt your account in the long run. These fake accounts don’t interact with your posts, which makes your engagement look low.

This makes Instagram think that either your content isn’t interesting or it’s the fake followers. Following this, it shows your posts to fewer people. Plus, having a ton of fake followers doesn’t look authentic, making it harder to build a community or collaborate with other brands.

3. Engaging in Follow/Unfollow, Like-For-Like or Comment-For-Comment Tactics

Mass-following or constantly liking posts just to get likes back can actually hurt you in the long run. Think of it this way: you wouldn’t want to make friends just to get something in return, right? It’s the same with Instagram.

Focusing on building Instagram followers and likes and genuine connections with people who are genuinely interested in your content is the best way to grow your account in a meaningful way. It takes a little more time, but it’s much more rewarding and sustainable in the long run than this tactic.

4. Spamming Other Accounts

We all hate the extra salesy approaches; it’s the same on Instagram. Spamming other people’s comments with your own links or irrelevant messages can really annoy people. If you consistently do it, people might even block you or report your account, which can hurt your online reputation and make it harder for you to grow Instagram followers and likes organically.

5. Ignoring Your Audience

While we mentioned user engagement and community-building key strategies to organically grow your Instagram followers for free, ignoring the same audience that builds your social presence might negatively affect your profile. Gradually, this will result in a follower drop, and it might be hard to recover from that.

Concluding Thoughts: Is Gaining Followers on Instagram Truly Easy?

Seeing all those brands and influencers with impressive follower lists can seem daunting, but it’s the organic growth that takes them there more than bots. You can only get Instagram followers and likes if you follow the above-mentioned solid Instagram content marketing strategy and stay as far as you can from our list of DON’TS.

Conclusively, for a better reach to your audience, we recommend posting at the best times of the day, avoiding posting on weekends, and posting according to geographical interests. However, if you believe that the post’s content is better suited for another region, we recommend connecting to SurfShark VPN’s server. This will change your virtual IP address according to the server’s location, and you’ll be able to reach your target audience to gain Instagram followers and likes.