How I Doubled My Instagram Followers in One Month

If you follow my 2014 Goal updates, you know that Instagram has been an area of weakness for me in terms of social media. At the beginning of July, I had 283 followers and today, I have 618! I have finally been able to double my Instagram followers by implementing these five strategies. Now, I am not promising you that you will see thousands upon thousands of new followers in a day but I do promise you, that the chances of you being able to double your following quickly will increase dramatically.

Go Public: This one was hard for me to implement but is imperative if you plan to grow your following on Instagram – you must make your profile public. Let us say for example that you follow me on Instagram, I will click over and view your profile. If I see that your profile is set to private, I will not follow you back. However, if your profile is set to public and your content is something that I would not mind seeing in my feed (i.e. no graphic material, etc.) then I will more than likely follow you back. This is how most IGers work. They will follow you back so long as it appears you want them to. If your profile is private, they have no idea if you want them to follow you back.

Rock Your Bio: Make that bio awesome! Short, sweet, simple, to-the-point, and most of all make it you. Give your potential followers a little flavor of who you are and make sure you include your blog’s link.

#HashtagOverKill: Hashtags are super important on Instagram and you need to be using them! One of the easiest ways I have been growing my following is by participating in #FridayIntroductions which is a hashtag started by The Tiny Twig and Jess Connolly (Naptime Diaries). This is where you give a quick recap of who you are so your followers remember who they’re following and you answer whatever the question is for that week. It is super fun and is an easy way to meet new IGers. Other popular hashtags to use are: #tbt #fbf #followfriday #love #photooftheday #amazing #smile #follow4follow #like4like #look #instalike #igers #picoftheday #food #instadaily #instafollow #followme #iphoneonly #instagood #bestoftheday #instacool #instago #follow #webstagram #colorful #style #swag

Engage: Okay, so this one is what you should without a doubt do on all your social media outlets – ENGAGE! These followers are potential readers and you need to interact with them. Let them know you care. Just like you do not want to hear crickets on your blog (you know, no sharing of your posts, no comments, etc.), people who comment on your social media want to know you have seen their post. Make-it-count.

Networking: There are couple of different ways that you can network; you can find other bloggers in your niche to follow you and you follow them back along with engaging in each other’s’ posts or you can be active with large networks like SheSpeaks or SITS Girls. Typically, when you interact with large networks, they will post on their Facebook page a “Link Up” post where you link to one of your specific social media accounts and you have to follow at least three new people. It is a great way to gain new followers and it is super easy. This is another reason it is imperative that your profile be set to public because if you follow a new IGer from one of these Link Ups they will most likely want to follow you back but won’t if you are private.

****Bonus Tip**** Link up your Facebook Fan Page (Sunny with a Chance of Sprinkles has a great article on how to do this – read it here) and Twitter accounts to Instagram. I post every Instagram photo to Twitter and post a few relevant ones to Facebook. It helps those who are following you on those two social media accounts to find you.

What is a way that you have used to gain new followers on Instagram? I would love to hear your strategies! 

Linked Up To: Thrifty Thursday, One Project at a Time