Top 5 tips to grow your Instagram followers

Learn how to grow your Instagram followers with expert tips from Ling Lin, social media marketing expert and founder of Forêt Marketing.

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There are no magical hacks that will blow up your Instagram following overnight. Well, unless you're Jennifer Aniston.

Growing Instagram followers requires a long-term commitment, a well-thought-out plan, truly engaging content, tactical execution, and a sincere purpose. 

There is no overnight success. What appears to be overnight success is the result of consistent hard work and likely numerous trials and errors. That being said, once you’ve established solid foundations, there are a few strategies that can help you increase your Instagram following. 

Let’s review them. ⤵️

Grow your Instagram followers with these 5 proven strategies

I collaborated with Ling Lin, social media marketing expert and founder of Forêt Marketing to bring you her top five tips to grow your Instagram followers.

1. Collaboration posts

Publish posts together with your collaborators on Instagram, and very importantly, utilize the "Invite collaborator" feature so that the post appears in both of your feeds. This technical step is what makes all the difference. This way, you can reach the audience of your collaborator, and if they're curious, they will check out your account and maybe even give you a follow if they like what they see. This tactic works without fail for my clients.

💡Ling’s pro tip: Always aim to collaborate with accounts that have more followers and a wider reach than yours. Target accounts that are one level above yours to get the ball rolling. For example, if you currently have 1,000 followers, try collaborating with accounts that have around 5,000 followers. If you have 5,000 followers, aim for accounts with 10,000 followers. Establishing your organization’s credibility and presenting a creative collaboration proposal can help open doors to partnerships with much larger accounts.

Example: Let's use @museum21design as an example. It's a relatively small account with approximately 630 followers. However, when it collaborated with @boijmans, which has 68.5K followers, their joint posts garnered significant attention. On average, these collaboration posts reached over 4,000 accounts and elicited 100 engagements. In contrast, Museum of 21st Century Design’s solo posts typically reach only about 144 accounts and receive 14 engagements per post. This represents a remarkable increase of 2.7K% in reach and a 600% increase in engagement. The comparison of two posts with nearly identical visuals highlights the increased performance when shared on different accounts.

💡Ling’s pro tip: Coordinate the collaboration beforehand, agreeing on a posting date and time that aligns with both of your feeds and schedules. If you’re not using any tools that support collaborative post-scheduling, remember to add the collaborators when you’re making the post, because once a post is published, collaborators cannot be added afterward.

2. Cross-promotion

Use your diverse marketing channels, particularly during offline events, to drive traffic to your Instagram page and increase followers. If you host an offline event, inform your in-person audience about your social media accounts. The audience you acquire from these physical events tends to be more engaged. I have consistently seen a surge in new followers after my clients made appearances at speaking engagements, hosted workshops, or organized pop-up shops.

Example: Let's revisit @museum21design as an example. When they organized an offline tour and shared a reel featuring highlights from the event, the account immediately saw a significant spike in reach and a notable increase in new followers.

3. Instagram Story reshares

Want a quick way to spice up your Instagram Stories and grab attention? Scout out cool content that your followers would love and reshare it in your Stories. Don't forget to tag the original creator and relevant accounts so they know you've shared their content. People are naturally curious, so they'll likely check out who tagged them. But keep in mind, this might not work as well for accounts with tons of followers. Add some thoughtful comments when sharing, and you might even get a reshare from them, giving you a chance to reach a whole new audience. 

Example: For the Museum of 21st Century Design, I reshare stories about current exhibitions, graduation shows, or any other exciting events that align with its audience's interests. 

💡Feeling stuck on what to add to your reshares? Consider conducting a poll or asking a question. Experiment with Instagram’s native story stickers to further engage your audience.

4. Curated content

When it comes to growing your Instagram following, curated content accounts tend to have an easier time gaining followers compared to those focused solely on original content. Why? Consistently sharing high-quality curated content is often more manageable than constantly creating original content from scratch. However, the importance of originality shouldn't be overlooked in either case. Even with curated content, putting your unique spin on things helps you stand out from the crowd.

Example: For my fashion platform @acreati_com, I developed a unique 'shop through visual stories' concept. Inspired by photographers who create photo series to tell stories, we began blending fashion and non-fashion images in each Instagram post, consistently presenting intriguing diptychs. This refreshing approach quickly became Acreati’s signature style, leading to frequent tags from users creating their own diptychs inspired by our content. By breathing new life into existing content and showcasing it in such a creative manner, we make hitting the follow button an easy choice for our target audience.

And let's not forget about memes — they're essentially curated content with original text slapped on top, and they work like magic.

While original content is still crucial for setting yourself apart, don't shy away from experimenting with curated content as part of your content mix. Just be sure to get permission, give proper credit to the original creators, and play by the rules of copyright law. It's all about finding the right balance that works for your strategy.

📌Important note: With Instagram's latest update emphasizing the rewarding of original content and penalizing aggregators who repeatedly share unoriginal content by excluding them from recommendations, it’s crucial to prioritize the creation of original content. Inject your unique perspective into reshared content or collaborate with original content creators to maintain visibility and engagement.

5. Paid ads

Don't be afraid to invest in paid social media ads. With complete control over your budget and the ability to forecast results in advance, you can efficiently boost your follower count and expand your brand's presence on Meta. For first-timers, I often recommend starting with just €5 a day. Run your ad campaign for a week, dip your toes in the water, and see how it goes. It's a low-risk way to explore the possibilities.

💡Ling’s pro tip: Run ads with tangible business objectives, such as conversion, lead generation, or website traffic. This approach helps you attract followers who are more likely to become paying customers.

Example: Instagram ads have an average conversion rate between 1% and 3%. Of course, this will depend on the effectiveness of your campaign. But it works. For photographer @awamumoja, I ran a lead generation campaign on Instagram and Facebook. We adopted an open call concept, commonly used in the art world, inviting all makeup artists in Europe to submit their work for a chance to participate in the Cannes Film Festival. With just over €300 in ad spend, we reached 109K people within seven days, received 140 submissions from 20 countries, and saw a 477% increase in website traffic along with a rise in followers.

Over to you: start growing your Instagram followers 

Much of what contributes to effective social media management and growing your Instagram followers is skillful execution. For instance, publishing a post together with your collaborator can yield different exposure compared to posting alone. Next time, after you've figured out what to do, take a moment to consider how to do it cleverly, and there you have your hack!

About Ling

Hi, I’m Ling Lin. I’m a seasoned social media expert and creative marketer with a decade-long track record of broadening audience reach and optimizing marketing effectiveness. My distinctive edge? Integrating strategic audience insights with captivating visual storytelling to elevate social media impact.

From crafting innovative social media strategies and managing marketing campaigns to meticulously planning content calendars, creating engaging content, coordinating collaborations, and rigorously analyzing and optimizing performance, my expertise is tailored to your needs.

With a dedicated focus on the creative industries, spanning from multinational corporations and startups to non-profit organizations, I have supported museums, art institutions, fashion brands, photographers, and more in their social media endeavors.

Feel free to explore some of my work on social media on my website and via my personal bio site.

If you need any help with your social media marketing, don’t hesitate to reach out.