Organically Grow Instagram Followers and Channel

lauryn preston

So, you want to attract more Instagram followers organically? That’s awesome! Because the social media professionals at Kiopi have several great pieces of advice that actually work to increase your Instagram followers organically.

It isn’t an easy process–growing your Instagram account organically, trust us. We know. We’ve tried all the tricks of the trade over the years, and we’ve been through all of the ups and downs that social media marketing has to offer, been through the dreaded Instagram algorithm changes.

The only way to get more organic Instagram followers is to approach your Instagram marketing strategically.

It’s important to understand that these are not “quick fixes.” While you can simply purchase nonexistent followers or similarly related accounts, this doesn’t help your Instagram organic growth, nor does it help your bottom line if your goal is making money with Instagram.

How to Grow Instagram Followers Organically

Increasing the amount of Instagram followers is vital for any brand or influencer. The more followers you have, the more opportunities to convert leads into customers will increase.

Instagram growth won’t be possible without focusing on getting real new followers. The goal is to grow your followers organically rather than with phony engagement from bot accounts. Every method you use for Instagram growth should focus on organic growth and real followers instead of buying followers.

In this article, we’ll provide you with tips to help you organically grow your Instagram followers organically by using a well-thought-out Instagram strategy.

Know Your Target Audience

In order to get a larger Instagram following organically, you first need to know who exactly you are posting for on Instagram.

Don’t waste your time and money trying to appeal to everyone. You won’t.

We suggest that you focus on your particular market. Focus on those who genuinely want to be interested in your business.

Once you have your ideal customer or target market in mind, identify the following in mind when you create content:

Their age
What they do for a living or how much they make, in general
Their major challenges and pain points
When they’re most active on Instagram

Once you’ve identified these social media measuring metrics, you will have a better understanding of how you need to craft your social media content in a way that will most appeal to your users.

Optimize Your Instagram Account

Before you start with organic or paid social media marketing efforts, let’s consider how your Instagram account is set up. Does your Instagram profile “look the part”? Will it attract your target Instagram audience? If you’re running a valid business, do you have an Instagram business account?

Here are a few things you need to consider to grow Instagram organically.

Instagram Username

Having a search-friendly username is important if you want to grow Instagram organically. You’ll either need to stay with your brand name or whatever’s closest to your existing social handles.

Additionally, you can shorten your name to a variation your target audience would recognize if your name is too long.

Instagram Bio and Instagram Bio Link

Your Instagram bio should include your slogan, tagline, as well as a branded hashtag if you have one.

Be mindful of where you point your bio link, as this is an essential part of turning Instagram followers into meaningful traffic or customers.

This is the only way to direct followers to your site and promotions.

You could link your homepage; however, it is not always ideal. To encourage more meaningful interactions, having a social landing page that points to multiple links can be more effective. This provides your audience with total control of how they interact with your business next, meaning a better experience for your followers.

Instagram Profile Picture

It’s ideal to have an appropriately-sized logo. Text that is included in your profile picture should be legible on a smartphone or tablet screen.

The details listed above are essential to your brand identity on Instagram. They also impact the discoverability of your account. It’s also essential to build a follower-friendly account, which means that you’ll need to invest in the following points.

Keep a Consistent Social Media Content Calendar

You likely won’t gain followers on Instagram if you post on Instagram when you feel like it.

Major accounts with an engaged audience all have one thing in common: they all consistently create engaging content and are genuinely interested in the opinion of their target audience.

What builds your audience is creating engaging content and providing value for your own audience, no one else’s.

Posting consistently is what will help you keep your preexisting followers. You don’t want your Instagram account to sit there and collect dust. Therefore, sticking to a regular posting schedule is vital. You don’t have to have a set number of when and how often you publish an Instagram post, but most brands post daily or near that.

Being seen by your target audience on their Instagram feeds on a consistent basis is one of the best ways to grow Instagram followers organically.

If you’re concerned that your posts are not getting seen enough, consider using features like Instagram Stories or Instagram Reels to get more eyes on your content.

(Learn how to make Reels on Instagram here.)

If you’re having trouble maintaining a consistent social media calendar to generate engagement, then consider using a social media content calendar like the one offered by Kiopi.

With Kiopi’s social media content calendar, you can easily schedule and organize your social media deliverables in a way that helps your business.

Using this content calendar also allows you to quickly go back and see if you’ve already created a similar post on Instagram.

Use Kiopi’s Social Media Scheduling Tool to Post in Advance

Brands are undeniably at the mercy of social media algorithms to reach other users.

Posting at ideal times can give your Instagram content, including your Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels, more visibility.

This speaks volumes about the value of scheduling Instagram content and working towards time-tested posting habits.

With Kiopi’s social media scheduling tool, you can schedule Instagram posts and content for other social platforms far in advance with the click of a button. Kiopi also makes it easier for you to determine which times of the day you should post on Instagram.

If you see your audience engage more with Instagram posts that are posted at 6 pm, then try scheduling posts around that timeframe. More engagement from your current followers will help organically grow your Instagram followers, as well.

Scheduling content in advance can ensure control and organization. Kiopi was designed to simplify your social scheduling on all major platforms, not just Instagram. Kiopi allows you to post on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google Business all at once!

Improve Your Engagement Rate

Growing your Instagram following count means engaging with your audience.

One of the most successful ways to do that is by responding to and republishing their content. That’s where user-generated content comes into play.

User-Generated Instagram Content

What is user-generated content?

User-generated content is also called consumer-generated content. This marketing strategy uses the content generated by your audience or customers and redistributes it to your followers.

Businesses that publish more user-generated content have the ability to build social proof by showing followers that you’re invested in them. Everyone likes to feel special. It’s a win-win for everyone when you use user-generated content.

Instagram Influencers

Another way to grow your audience is by partnering with relevant influencers with an established following and engagement group.

Influencers are unique in that most of their audience trusts their opinions. This helps remove the step of “trust-building” for your brand.

Instagram influencer campaigns allow you to organically target your audience by working with other brands that are similar to yours. Ask the influencer to incorporate a few keywords or hashtags that you’ve researched and add those keywords to their post. This will help the algorithm realize

Content creators can help improve your brand visibility by getting your brand in front of your target audience and building continuous awareness of your products.

Avoid Fake Followers on Instagram

When you’re trying to grow your Instagram followers, you may be tempted to buy Instagram followers. However, there are drawbacks to doing this that outweigh the benefits.

Fake Instagram followers:

Confuse your potential organic followers: An inactive account with low engagement and a big following can be suspicious. This can put off other fans that would otherwise follow you and engage with your content.
Provide no monetary value to your brand: It’s simple, bot followers can’t buy your stuff.
Generate no buzz: When you have 10,000 fake accounts following your Instagram account, how many will likely engage with your feed posts, stories, or reels?

Actual people have the ability to share, like, comment, and engage with your Instagram posts. Also, the time that you spend interacting with real followers is actually appreciated by them. If you take the time to answer questions and engage followers all the time, it will likely result in customers regularly returning to share shout-outs and positive content.

Share Your Instagram Account

If more followers on Instagram is your goal, don’t be shy about sharing your Instagram account. Never underestimate the impact of social media on business. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to promoting your Instagram, here are a few ideas to help promote your Instagram account:

Add social media icons to your webpage and marketing materials. Social media icons make it much easier for new followers to find your business and help you connect with customers.
Feature an Instagram feed on your homepage or product pages. A large number of brands have user-generated content feeds on-site.
Reshare Instagram-specific content or announcements on other social media accounts. You could talk about an upcoming Instagram Live on other social media platforms.

Post Relevant Content on Instagram

Instagram’s algorithm can be erratic. What works for one brand may not work for another brand.

You’ll find out quickly that on Instagram, some content performs better than others, especially when you are using a social media posting service like Kiopi.

Using Instagram analytics tools provided by Kiopi will help determine the best content strategy for your brand.

Our analytics tool will also provide you with Instagram insights that will give you an overview of the Instagram accounts you’ve reached, as well as the number of interactions, profile visits, and website taps, along with other statistics.

Instagram users love to interact with photos and videos they think are good. So, you need to create and post content that is relevant to your existing followers. Studying trending content formats will be especially beneficial when working to create content.

Use Proper Hashtags

What are hashtags?

Hashtags are a way that social media users can find specific content more easily.

A staple of the Instagram platform has been Instagram hashtags.

However, they don’t hold as much weight as they once did. Adding an abundance of hashtags to your Instagram posts isn’t going to automatically get more Instagram followers. Focusing on more industry-relevant hashtags for your audience will be more effective than focusing on how many hashtags you include in the post captions. You can also include trending hashtags that are relevant to your location or an event that you’re hosting.

The reality is that social media best practices are always changing and evolving, so your hashtag strategy may need an upgrade from time to time.

How Not to Grow Your Instagram Followers

As social platforms become increasingly saturated and competitive, some brands are willing to take major risks to gain instant results in their follower count.

At Kiopi, we don’t recommend buying followers on any platform. Buying followers to grow your Instagram account can be a serious mistake for a number of reasons.

Real followers know what fake accounts look like. This can damage your reputation and keep your account from growing an authentic Instagram following. The sudden follower spike caused by bot accounts is a red flag for relevant users.

Fake followers also don’t bring anything to the table. An overabundance of fake followers can mess with your Instagram metrics. So if your “followers” don’t engage in your content, then your follower count isn’t going to matter much. You may look like you have a bigger follower count at a glance, but at that point, who cares?

If the reasons listed above aren’t enough, buying Instagram followers also violates the platform’s terms of service.

How Kiopi Can Help You Organically Grow Your Instagram

Kiopi allows you to manage your Instagram account and other networks in one application. From our easy-to-use dashboard, you’re able to use our scheduling tool to schedule social posts, engage with your followers, and measure how much your efforts are affecting your business.

If you need business growth faster, you can also advertise on Instagram. This is different than buying fake followers. We recommend trying our organic methods first, as this will provide a better outcome in the long run.

Plan your social marketing strategy using Kiopi’s social media calendar and our social media analytics tools to optimize your social campaigns. We make social media management easy! See if we’re the right fit for your business by taking advantage of our 14-day risk-free trial! We offer a variety of low-cost plans so that Kiopi can fit into any marketing budget.

Ready to try KIOPI? Start your free trial today.