Itâs not too late to start an Instagram account in 2021. It is possible to grow your followers to a strategic number, even now.
Read on to find out how to grow your Instagram this year, with free post templates down below.
Check out my Instagram account for more ideas @olympeandgeorge.
1. Make high-quality content
As simplistic as it sounds, creating good content is the first step to growing your Instagram.
Ask yourself, if you visited your profile for the first time, would you like what you see? Would you stick around for more?
You have to give people a reason to follow you. Will they learn something with you? get inspired? motivated? be entertained?
Make sure to decide on the direction you want your content to go.
Work on the aesthetics of your page. You can choose a colour palette and stick to it to make it look nice. You could also choose two colours and alternate them in your posts to form a grid pattern. There are other patterns like choosing 3 colours and alternating, it looks nice too.
Another one is a gradient page, you change the colour of your posts progressively so each colour melts into the next. I personally think it looks the best but oh boy the work that must be.
Sticking to 1, 2, or 3 colours is easy enough and looks more put together.
Thatâs for the general appearance of your Instagram account but you also want to put thoughts into each post you make.
Each of your creation should have a purpose. Your posts can tell a story or educate people.
For example, apart from your close friends and family, people probably wonât care that much about what you had for breakfast. However, if you post about ideas of food to make for breakfast that holds value for people.
Another example would be if you post a picture of yourself at the Eiffel Tower. Close friends and family will love to know that you are enjoying your time in Paris. Other people would need more to be engaged, like tips on how to avoid queues at the entrance or how to take the best Instagram pictures in Paris.
To recap our first tip: make it look pretty and interesting to people who donât know you.
2. Create interactive posts
The second tip when you start an Instagram account is all about boosting interactions. The Instagram algorithm cares about the engagement and interactions people have with your posts. Hence why it is crucial to create interactive posts.
Such posts are:
- Carousels, so people can swipe through and show your content is good enough to make people want to see the next page
- Reels, do better on hashtags and it shows the algorithm that you get people to stick around for a few seconds to watch it
- Comments-provoking posts, ask questions in your posts or captions to have people give their opinions and comment
- Content that can be saved and shared, those are the two most important metrics for the Instagram algorithm at the moment
- Polls and questions in stories, keep your followers engaged.
3. Like prospective followersâ posts
The first few hundreds of followers can be a pain to reach. But you need to get the ball rolling to grow exponentially.
Make sure to use all the hashtags you can (up to 30) and choose them well.
Find a balance in size for each of your hashtags. They need to be small enough so that you appear on the ârecentâ page of the hashtag for more than just a few seconds, but simultaneously they should be big enough so you can reach new followers. I find a few hundred thousand to be the sweet spot at the moment.
Although using the right hashtags is very important, it wonât be enough in the beginning.
You have to interact with other accounts if you want them to interact with you.
A good way to increase your spotlight is by liking other accountsâ posts. Beware to do it in a non-spammy way, you donât want to be banned.
My advice is to go into the ârecentâ part of hashtags in your niche and like a few posts you genuinely enjoy and comment if you feel like the other person did a good job.
You can spread positivity and account awareness at the same time.
What that does is send a notification to the other person that you liked or commented on their post, which might bring them to check out your profile.
Now, that wonât necessarily mean theyâll follow you. They might like a post or comment on one instead or they might not do anything in return. This will at least increase traffic to your page which is key when you start an Instagram account.
Itâs not an exact science but it definitely brings traffic to your Instagram account which is clearly lacking in the beginning stage.
I wouldnât recommend the strategy of following and un-following accounts in the hope they follow you back. The algorithm doesnât seem to like it. Work on organic growth instead.
4. Engage, engage, engage
If someone likes your picture, go check their profile out and like a few posts in return, if you genuinely like them.
When you get a comment on a post, like it and reply to it. That does two things: first, it shows the person that you care about what they said and you took the time to reply to it, second, it works in your favour for the algorithm.
When someone comments on your post, then that post has 1 comment, then you reply to it and the same post now has 2 comments. As the amount of comments matters for the algorithm, you might as well double the amount of them whenever you can.
Start conversations to engage with people and grow as a result.
5. Post stories
Stories are the most popular content of the app. They are not necessarily about reaching new followers. Their purpose is to keep your followers coming back for more.
When someone follows thousands of different accounts and spends 30 minutes on the platform, they wonât see all the content made by all the accounts they follow.
However, if you post stories consistently, you will show up on top of their feed frequently, it might serve as a reminder to check you out and stay engaged.
6. Stay consistent
All those good advice are worth nothing if you donât keep it up for a long time.
These are not quick fixes. You wonât go from 0 to 10k overnight (or you might, who knows?).
Slow and steady wins the race.
Donât give up, adapt your content and strategy to make it work but persist and youâll get to wherever you want to go.
Stick with these 6 tips and you’ll see results even if you start an Instagram account in 2021.
Stop thinking it’s too late, begin right now. Otherwise, in a year you’ll regret you haven’t started yet.
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