For some people, Instagram is just something they do for fun. They post new content to it a couple of times a week. They check out trending posts. But, for the most part, they don’t really pay that much attention to it. For others, Instagram means a whole lot more.
There are a lot of people out there who try desperately to become famous on Instagram. They want to get as many followers and likes as possible. They may even treat it as a part-time job. And, for some, this makes sense. There are an awful lot of people who make money on Instagram. But, in order for this to happen, you need to be visible. That means you need a ton of followers.
How Does Instagram Work?
Before we talk about how to get more followers on Instagram, let’s chat a bit about what Instagram is and how it works. Instagram is a social media site similar to Facebook. The only difference is Instagram focuses more on videos and pictures than anything else.
The goal is to share the best photos and videos you can find. You can upload videos that are up to 1 minute long, which is longer than most other video sharing sites. Then, people can search for your videos and pictures. If they like what they see, they can like your individual post and follow all of your stuff.
In order to use Instagram, all you have to do is create a free account. You can ask Instagram to connect you to Instagram users that happen to already be your friends on Facebook. This is a good way to start out as it will give you a handful of followers right out the gate.
You can access Instagram on your laptop, iPad or mobile device. In fact, most people who use Instagram prefer to use it from their cell phones. This way, they can check their feeds for updates throughout the day.
Just like with Facebook, your Instagram account will have your profile and news feed. You can customize your profile so people can get to know a bit about you. Make sure you don’t set your profile to private. If you do this, people can’t follow you on Instagram without your permission. A lot of people won’t bother to follow you if you’re set to private. So, if your goal is to get more followers on Instagram, do not mark your account as private.
Once your account is set up, you can start sharing content and interacting with other users on Instagram. You can do things like tag, share, comment and like. It’s very similar to any other social media site you might use. And, just as with other sites, the goal is to have as many followers as possible. This is what makes you famous on Instagram. It can also lead to other awesome opportunities.
What is a Follower and What Does Having a Lot of Followers Mean?
On Facebook, when someone wants to start interacting with you, they request you as a friend. They send you a request and you have to approve it before they’re added to your friend list. There are also ways you can have followers on Facebook, but you have to set your profile up a different way.
With Instagram, people can follow you whenever they want. A follower is just someone who saw one of your videos or pictures and wants to see more. They may be attracted to your profile for all sorts of reasons:
- They think you’re hot – Let’s face it, this may be the single most reason people follow other people on Instagram
- They think you’re funny – This is always a good thing. If someone thinks your content is funny, they’re going to follow you but they’re also going to share your content. This is how people go viral.
- They think you’re one of a kind – We always tell people to be as unique as possible on Instagram. Would you want to follow someone who posts boring content? No. You want to make sure you show a side of yourself that is unique and special. Maybe you do makeup tutorials or like to put on fashion shows in your bedroom. This is the kind of stuff people might want to watch.
Once someone follows you, they can continue to follow you or unfollow you later. This is why it’s important to post often. If you don’t keep your followers entertained, they’ll go somewhere else.
What is Considered a Lot of Followers on Instagram?
The average person on Instagram has about 150 followers. And, for people with less than a couple of hundred of followers, they may all be Facebook carryover. For example, when people join Instagram they can ask to be connected to Facebook friends who also have an Instagram account.
This may sound mean, but if you only have 150 followers, you don’t exist as far as the Instagram world is concerned. It isn’t until you hit 1,000 followers that the Instagram algorithms really start including you. When people reach the 1,000-10K range, they’re in the most common group of users.
Once you get between 10K-50K, you can expect to be approached to be a possible influencer on Instagram. And, once you get to 50K-100K, you know you’re doing something right. You’ll notice that the really famous people on Instagram have hundreds of thousands of followers. Later, we’ll tell you how you can reach this number in no time at all!
How to Get More Followers on Instagram
Believe it or not, there are very simple ways for how to get more followers on Instagram. It’s not rocket science. It all comes down to a few things:
- What kind of content do you post?
- How often do you post?
- How interesting are your videos and pictures?
- Do you take advantage of opportunities to get new followers?
If you want to get more followers on Instagram, you do need to put in the work. You can’t post a couple of videos and expect to wake up the next day with a million followers. For the most part, it takes time. Here, we’ll talk about 10 surefire ways to boost your number of Instagram followers. You’ll notice that what it comes down to is this – people want to follow interesting and funny people. If you’re not interesting and funny, fake it. And, if you can’t fake it, accept the fact that you’ll always have about 150-200 followers.
- Use Creative Hashtags – Remember, people use hashtags to search for cool content. If you don’t use creative hashtags, nobody is going to find your pics and videos. You also want to use the same hashtags so you can create a way for people to find you
- Watch to See What’s Trending – There’s always new stuff trending on Instagram. Maybe it’s a challenge of some sort. Or it could be a certain song that people are singing in their videos. When you see something is trending, jump on the bandwagon. There is no shame in that!
- Share Viral Posts – If you notice a certain post has gone viral, get in on the action. Share it or even add to it. Next thing you know, your video or picture can go viral too. Even if you add a couple of dozen people with a great post, it all adds up.
- Use Descriptive Captions – Again, remember that people use search engines on Instagram all the time. If you use boring or one word captions, it’s not going to be very interesting. Look at some of the captions on stuff that does go viral. Then, mimic this so that you can get a lot of mileage out of your posts as well.
- Stand Out – One way to get a lot of new followers on Instagram is to stand out. You need to be unique. Find your niche and run with it. For example, if you have a really cute puppy that people love to follow, take pictures and videos of him all the time. Or, maybe you’re really good at taking strange ingredients and coming up with awesome tasting treats. If this what you’re good at, become known for it. This will definitely help boost your Instagram followers.
- Collaborate – Find other people who are famous on Instagram and collaborate with them. Or, find strangers who do the same kind of content as you and work with them. Two brains are sometimes better than one. The other thing you can do is collaborate with brands. This can not only help you get famous on Instagram, but it can also help you earn money
- Post More Videos – If you don’t post all the time, people will not want to follow you. The more content you post, the more followers you’re going to have. There’s nothing wrong with posting 2-3 videos or more every day. People are going to come back to see if you have new content. If you don’t, they’ll move on to someone else.
- Post More Selfies – Nothing gets more hits on Instagram than selfies. People love to see you in your natural habitat. Or, you can take selfies of you performing strange stunts or tricks. This is what really gets people to follow you. They can’t wait to see your next installment.
- Promote Your Profile on Other Platforms – Don’t forget to post your stuff on other social media sites. You can cross-post on Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. This can only help boost your number of followers.
- Create Funny Memes – People love memes. They love funny memes, stupid memes and shocking memes. Whether you create them yourself or share other people’s memes, they’re good attention getters. It only takes a few seconds to read and people love to share them. This can get your followers’ followers to want to follow you too!
If you do all or even some of these things, you should your number of Instagram followers go up. Just be patient. Very few things happen overnight. The goal is to get your current followers to share your stuff so other people can see it. Then they’ll start to follow you. It’s a domino effect. If you put time and effort into creating unique and interesting content, people will notice. And, one they notice, you gotta do what it takes to keep them happy.
Why Would You Want a Ton of Followers?
Some people want a lot of followers on Instagram so they feel important. This is kind of like being popular in high school. People like to be liked. The more people that follow you on Instagram, the more people are looking at and sharing your pictures and videos.
For some young people, becoming famous on sites like Instagram is huge. They want their content to go viral. And, once this happens, they want it to continue to happen. Some people get obsessed with how many followers they have. And, certain celebrities like to brag about how many followers they actually have. This is often the case with reality stars. They gauge their importance by the number of Instagram followers they have on any given day.
Are There Any Shortcuts to Getting More Followers on Instagram?
We’re always looking for the easy way out. And, there’s nothing wrong with that. Why take months or years to build up your Instagram following if you don’t have to? There are actually ways to boost your number of Instagram likes and followers virtually overnight. There are services you can use that will send anywhere from 100K-150K new likes and followers to your Instagram account. And, a lot of these services are absolutely free. They can either send them to your account all at once, or they can send them to you a little every day for a week or two. This way, it looks a bit more natural that you would go from 100 followers to 150K followers so quickly.
