How to get your first 1000 followers on Instagram

Social media is a powerful marketing tool. And Instagram, with its more than 2 billion active users, has long been an integral part of modern business as one of the largest sources of potential customers. This platform is gaining momentum every day. Companies and brands are actively engaging their target audience. In addition, Instagram provides all the necessary functionality for running business accounts with access to statistics, the ability to conveniently communicate with potential customers, find products and services, etc.

One of the most important tasks for the owner of any business account on Instagram is to gain followers. A large number of followers is a sign of credibility and the fact that the brand's page publishes content that is in demand and interesting to the target audience. Increasing the number of followers on Instagram can help you build brand awareness and attract more customers to your business.

In this article, we've put together some recommendations that will help you gain your first 1000 Instagram followers without much effort.

Why do you need to gain a lot of followers on Instagram?

There are many benefits to growing your Instagram following:

1. Increased exposure, because the more people you have following your profile, the more influence you have over your audience and you can use this to share your ideas, opinions and knowledge with more people. You have the opportunity to become an authority in your field.

2. Increase sales, as a large number of followers can lead to an increase in the number of customers and, as a result, to an increase in sales. You can use Instagram to drive traffic to your website.

3. Increase in popularity, because the more followers you have, the more people will know about you and your brand.

4. Collaboration opportunities. Brands and companies may be interested in collaborating with you if you have a significant number of followers, which can lead to new opportunities for your business.
   

However, it should be noted that the quality of the followers is also important, as a large number of inactive or irrelevant followers will not bring you the desired results. Therefore, when thinking about how to promote Instagram, it is important to think about quality first and foremost.

How to gain followers on Instagram? 

Understand who you are looking for 

The first step to gaining Instagram followers is to have a clear idea of your target audience. A target audience is a group of users who need a specific product or service. They are also potential buyers, so they can have a significant impact on sales - increase them, recoup the costs of advertising campaigns, transactions, customer acquisition, and business promotion.

How to choose a target audience? There is a list of criteria that it can meet. These include age, gender, geolocation, hobbies, marital status, social status, etc. To identify the target audience, you can start by answering the question: "Who might need our product or service?" After that, continue to complete the portrait of the audience by analysing the information. You can also identify your target audience by studying the pages of competitors to see what type of people prevails among their subscribers.

Another effective tool that can help you find your audience on Instagram is thematic hashtags. Users who post posts with such hashtags on their page can become the target audience for your business.

Thus, understanding your target audience helps you build a successful Instagram brand promotion strategy that is aimed at achieving specific goals of your business.

Start with your friends 

If you're a small business and you're developing your business Instagram page from scratch, don't hesitate to enlist the help of your friends and family. Simply ask them to follow your account and share your profile on their pages. Explain that this will help support you in achieving your Instagram goals and that it will help you build a more active community and start growing your brand faster. Even people with hundreds of followers can bring you your first clients. Of course, you shouldn't expect to build a successful Instagram business with the help of your inner circle alone. But it's a really good option to get started.

Create quality content 

After identifying your target audience - a key stage in the development of any Instagram profile - it's time to create content that will be of interest to them. Remember that your goal is not just to post photos and videos, but to inspire, motivate, and evoke emotions in your followers. Creating successful content for Instagram is a process that requires attention to detail and careful planning. Here are a few tips to help you write high-quality text for Instagram posts:

• Keep your posts short and to the point. This will allow your readers to absorb the information faster and keep their attention. Remember that most Instagram users quickly skim through a lot of content, so your text should be easy to digest.

• Use informative and vivid visual content. Instagram is a social network where visual content plays a key role. This means that photos and videos are no less important than text. Visual content attracts more attention than plain text and can help you attract new followers and keep old ones interested.

• Be original, bold, and candid. To be unique and interesting to your audience, it's important to create your own content.

• Test and analyse your content. Content analysis will help you understand what types of content are most popular with your audience and what types of content don't generate the right response.

• Write down ideas for posts. Keep 15-20 topics in mind at all times. This will help you to be inspired, keep yourself in a creative mood, and not give up when you run out of topics.

• Write about what makes you feel emotional. Everything you post on Instagram needs to be filtered through yourself, based on your own experience, and be sincere with your reader.

• Check the facts. If you constantly share information that is not verified or true, your users will stop trusting you.

• Make intriguing headlines. State what the text will be about in a few words, and then rephrase it with some emotional colouring.

• Structure your posts. Divide your text into subheadings and add paragraphs to make it easier to read.

• Choose simple topics that interest your audience. Adapt knowledge in plain language, as this is very much appreciated by subscribers.

It's also important to remember that we don't have to create only the content we want. You always need to think about how your audience will react to what you post. You create posts for them, not for yourself.

Subscribe to potential followers 

Instagram, like many other social networks, is a place where activity and interaction play an important role in increasing the number of followers. If you're looking to grow your audience, one of the most effective ways is to follow potential followers. Here are some reasons why it's important:

1. Identify interested users: By following accounts that actively communicate and interact with content similar to yours, you have the opportunity to grab their attention.

2. Increase your visibility: When you follow other users, they receive notifications of your followings and visit your profile more often.

3. Expanding your network of contacts: By following a wider audience, you expand your network of contacts and open up new opportunities for collaboration and interaction with other users.

4. Attract new subscribers by following competitors: Following popular accounts in your industry can draw the attention of their audience to your profile and encourage them to follow you.
   

However, remember that the limit for Instagram subscriptions is 300 per day.

Use hashtags wisely 

Hashtags are a powerful tool for attracting attention on Instagram. They help people find your content and, if used correctly, attract new followers. However, it is important to use them wisely, following certain rules.

First, it's important to be specific. Use hashtags that accurately reflect the content of your post and the interests of your audience.

Secondly, don't overdo it. It's important to find a balance between the number of hashtags and the quality of the content. Use only those hashtags that are truly relevant to your post and its context. Instagram recommends using only three to five hashtags.

Hashtags are divided into 3 groups according to the number of times they are used:

• High-frequency (100 thousand posts and more).

• Medium frequency (50 to 100 thousand posts).

• Low-frequency (less than 50 thousand posts).

Use the most relevant hashtags and alternate between medium and low-frequency ones.

Another important aspect is to update hashtags regularly. Monitor trends and change your strategy accordingly. Using hashtags on Instagram can be very effective if you follow these rules.

Subscribe to competitors' subscribers 

Following your competitors on Instagram is a strategy that has many advantages. First, it allows you to reach a new audience that is already interested in a topic related to your product or service. These people have already subscribed to your competitor, so it's likely that they might be interested in you.

Second, subscribing to your competitors' followers gives you the opportunity to analyse their audience. You can study their interests, behaviour, and demographics to better understand your target audience.

Third, it gives you the opportunity to connect with potential customers. You can like and comment on their posts, as well as communicate with them in the direct mail.

Remember:

• Do not follow all competitors' followers at once. This can lead to your Instagram account being blocked.

• Try to follow people who are really interested in your product or service.

• Communicate with the people you follow. Like and comment on their posts, as well as communicate with them in the direct line.
  

Plan your posts in advance 

Scheduling Instagram posts in advance gives you a number of significant benefits:

Time savings: You can prepare content for a week, a month, or even a quarter in advance, which frees up your time for other tasks such as communicating with followers, analytics, or promotion.

Improving the quality of content: With time for planning, you can carefully consider the topics of your posts, select high-quality visuals, and write interesting and informative texts.

Increased engagement: Pre-planned content gives you the opportunity to publish at the best time for your audience, which can lead to more engagement and better reach.

Creating a clear strategy: Post scheduling helps you to clearly define your Instagram account goals and develop a strategy to achieve them.

Reduced stress: When you know you have content ready to go, you don't have to wrack your brain every day to figure out what to post.

Ability to analyse results: By scheduling posts, you can track their results and improve your content strategy based on this information.

Preparing for the holidays: You can prepare posts for holidays and significant dates in advance to avoid missing important events.

Increase your credibility: Regular and high-quality posts will help you build authority in your niche and gain the trust of your followers.

Publish at the right time 

Posting at the right time on Instagram can significantly increase the reach and engagement of your content. This is because Instagram's algorithm ranks posts in users' feeds based on relevance and topicality. When you post at a time when your followers are most active, they are more likely to see your content, like it, comment on it, and share it.

To determine the best time to post on Instagram, it's important to research your audience and analyse their behaviour. You can use tools such as BrandVox to track follower activity throughout the day and week.

In addition to posting during peak times, it's also important to post content regularly. This will help you keep your audience interested and engaged.

Use a consistent visual style 

If you want to create a successful Instagram profile, it's important to use a consistent visual style. This will help you attract new followers, retain existing ones, and make your profile look more attractive and professional. When people see your posts in the feed, they will immediately know who they belong to. This increases the chances that they will stop to watch your content.

Promote your posts 

Promoting posts on Instagram offers a number of benefits:

Increased reach: Your posts will be seen by more people than just your followers, which leads to a wider audience and new customers.

Increased engagement: Promoting posts can increase likes, comments, and shares, which shows interest in your content and boosts your profile ranking.

Flexibility of customisation: You can target ads to a specific audience by age, gender, interests, location, etc. This makes promotion more effective.

Achievement of clear goals: You can set up an advertising campaign to increase sales, website traffic, subscribers, or simply to increase brand awareness.

Convenience and simplicity: Promoting posts on Instagram is easy and convenient. You can do it directly in the app or through the Facebook advertising account.

Affordability: Promoting posts can be budget-friendly because you can set a daily budget that works for you.

Analytics: You can track the results of your advertising campaigns and analyse their effectiveness.

Be funny 

Memes are a universal way to make people laugh and smile. As a result, they can significantly increase engagement with your content, as people are more likely to like, comment, and share posts that make them laugh. Therefore, incorporating memes into your Instagram strategy can help you create a unique voice and visual identity. Memes often go viral, so using them can help you reach a wider audience.

Studies have shown that people are more likely to buy from brands they like and feel an emotional connection to, which can be helped by using memes.

Publish Reels 

Instagram Reels are still one of the most effective ways to reach a new audience on Instagram. Useful short videos quickly gain views if they are made well.

How to create a high-quality Reels on Instagram:

• Choose a theme. Decide what your Reels will be about. It can be anything: an entertaining video, a life hack, a funny moment, a dance challenge, or a product review.

• Pay attention to the trends.

• Use high-quality lighting and sound.

• Add variety: use different angles, transitions, effects, and text overlays.

• Choose trending music or sounds from the Instagram library.

• Add subtitles.

• Write an interesting description that will engage your audience.

• Add relevant hashtags so that your Reels can be found by people looking for content on the topic.

Specify the geolocation 

Geolocations allow you to reach new audiences who were not aware of your business. Users who live in or are interested in your area can see your posts in the geotagged feed, which can lead to new followers and customers. But you don't always need to specify the exact location where the photo/video was taken. Analyse your target audience. Determine which places they visit most often and indicate the locations in your posts.

Use keywords in the description 

One of the important things that should not be overlooked is the profile header. It is your "face", makes the first impression and gives an answer to what is going on in your account. Interesting text and the use of keywords in the header communicate your brand's benefits and influence the increase in subscriptions and sales. Therefore, keep it short and clear, Instagram gives you 150 characters for this.

Experiment with different types of posts 

Experimenting with different types of posts on Instagram is important for several reasons. First, it helps you determine what content resonates best with your audience. Different types of posts, such as photos, videos, stories, and live broadcasts, have different advantages and disadvantages, so it's important to try them all to see what works best for your brand.

Second, experimenting with different types of posts can help you reach a wider audience. Not all Instagram users are the same, and they like different types of content. By publishing a variety of posts, you can increase the chances that your content will be of interest to more people.

Finally, experimenting with different types of posts can help you keep your profile fresh and interesting. If you always post the same type of content, your followers may get bored. By posting a variety of posts, you can keep your followers interested and keep them coming back for more.

Interact with your audience 

This helps build trust and engagement. By replying to comments, liking and engaging in discussions, you show your followers that you care about their opinions and are interested in communicating.

Collaborate with other brands and influencers 

Collaborating with other brands and influencers can help you make your brand more recognisable. When you appear in other people's content, it gives you the opportunity to showcase your brand to a new audience. Also, when you collaborate with other reputable brands and influencers, it can help you build trust in your brand. This is because people trust recommendations from people they know more.

Conclusion 

Remember that building a successful Instagram profile is an ongoing process that takes time and effort. Don't give up if you don't see results right away. Keep creating quality content, engaging with your audience, and promoting your profile, and you'll eventually achieve the success you want.