Are you struggling to get followers on Instagram consistently and sustainably without breaking your bank?
We won’t focus on using bots or buying followers as these methods won’t really work. In case you get the desired results from these methods, the results don’t last long, and your account may get suspended.
Let’s get started with 8 proven methods to get real Instagram followers for free without further ado.
8 Best Ways to Get Free Instagram Followers for Free
- Optimize the profile for Instagram search
The search query of users works in the same way as it does for Google. People type the keywords into Google to find the information they want or a related account.
Two fields will pop-up in the Instagram search results: User name and your name.
So, you should consider adding at least 1-2 relevant keywords within your name/username to ensure that whenever a user searches for something relevant, there are chances that your account will appear in search results.
As per Instagram’s guidelines, the search results that a user sees depend upon various factors.
Some of these factors include your followers, the people you follow, what photos and videos do you like on Instagram.
For instance, if you want to rank for the word “sunglasses,” you should add this word both in the name and username.
- Write attractive and keyword-rich captions
To stay at the top of the Instagram search, it is crucial to write captions for videos, photos, and text posts that are rich in keywords. Instagram recently announced about the topic of Instagram search that English-speaking users in UK and Canada along with other 4 countries, will be able to search something on Instagram using the keywords.
Previously, people could only search by using hashtags and usernames. However, this announcement from the Instagram spokesperson is a game-changer.
According to the spokesperson of Instagram, “a lot of factors” include the captions and type of content users are being considered to determine the relevance of a topic to the search query.
- Embed Instagram posts into your blogs
Using clickable Instagram posts in the blogs is a great idea to direct users to the post or account.
Placing the Instagram posts in your blog posts whenever you are writing on a relevant topic isn’t just an easy way to drive traffic from the blog to the Instagram profile but also convert them into followers.
Here is how you can embed the post:
- Go to your Instagram profile using a desktop computer and click the post that you want to embed.
- Click on the ellipsis icon and select “Embed.”
- Then copy and paste that embed code where you would like to show the Instagram post.
- Arrange more giveaways
Instagram accounts that run a giveaway or contest grow around 70% faster than those who don’t. Despite that, only 2% of Instagram accounts think about hosting giveaways.
You just need to make following your account the main requirement to participate in the contest or giveaway. Combine that requirement with another one; for instance, tag your friends and share the post with others for maximum exposure.
- Choose the best time to post
The day and time that you choose to post the content on your profile affect engagement and growth.
Thus, you might be thinking what the best time to post on Instagram is?
It depends on whom you are asking the question.
According to Later, the best overall time to post on your Instagram profile is between 9 am to 11 am EST.
On the other hand, according to HubSpot, the best time, on average, to post on Instagram is between 2-3 pm CDT.
So, we can say that there is no definitive answer to this question.
It depends upon your audience type and the business domain you are operating.
The “best” time to post the content change from business to business, and you should analyze the one that suits the best for you.
Here are a few things to consider to find the specific best time for your Instagram posts:
- Devise a posting schedule
- Study analytics
- Change the posting schedule
- Again, study analytics
- Then choose the winning times of the day and days of the week a
However, there are also some social media scheduling platforms like Buffer that can do the job for you.
- Post user generated content about your brand
The content, be it photos, reviews, videos, etc., is the content that is created by others.
It is considered as the word-of-mouth’s modern version.
If you think that how it can get you the followers, then here is the answer.
When you post a UGC, two things happen:
There is a very high chance that when you post a UGC and give credit to the person, they will post it. This will create free advertising for your brand. Besides, when the original creator shouts you out, the audience will be well aware of the brand and make a purchase with you.
- Post more about what’s working already
If you are running a business account, you are more likely to get the analytics from Instagram on the individual posts.
One of such metrics is “Follows”- the number of people who are following you from a particular post.
After that, analyze the color scheme, goals, pain point, and type of content that is the main reason for success. Once you have found it, create content alike.
- Boost Your Posts
You pay Instagram to amplify a post to your followers or target audience while boosting a post on Instagram.
It will help you in increasing the reach.
When we said that we are going to discuss the proven and free ways to get the real followers for us, we mean that.
We aren’t saying here that you should run paid ads, instead have a look at the post analytics and see what type of posts have brought more followers and reach for you.
Paying to get followers isn’t a good idea, but you can boost the posts that are historically known to get more reach to get more organic followers.
We just discussed looking at your post analytics to see what specific posts have garnered the most followers for you.
Here is how it works:
A share from a boosted post will automatically increase the post’s organic reach.
The reason behind this is the organic users see the post and start commenting, sharing, and following the page.
This ultimately leads the post on the newsfeed of other organic users, and the followers will increase automatically.
This strategy can help you in introducing your brand to a new audience, reach out to more followers, and amplify the overall reach.
Quick Recap
You have gained an insight into the 8 best ways to get real Instagram followers for free. To recapitulate, we have gone over the following strategies:
- Optimize the profile for Instagram search
- Write attractive and keyword-rich captions
- Embed Instagram posts into your blogs
- Arrange more giveaways
- Choose the best time to post
- Post user generated content about your brand
- Post more about what’s working already
- Boost Your Posts
Here you go! These are, no doubt, the proven and most effective ways to get Instagram followers for free.
Be sure to include these strategies in the social media marketing plan and ask for help from experts if you still have any ambiguities.
