Instagram is one of the widely used social media platforms and the sixth most visited website in the world. Some analytics have shown that on average people spend 30 minutes in a day scrolling Instagram. These statistics are enough to show you the importance of Instagram in growing your business globally. But if you have a long-term goal, then buying followers is not of any help to you. These followers might be fake which can destroy your brand image. Now the first question arising in your mind must be – How to get free followers on Instagram?
Don’t worry my friends! If you want to establish a strong brand or become an influencer, you will need many followers. Your followers are the potential customers who can turn into loyal customers and help your brand grow. You must have heard about many sites from where you can buy Instagram followers.
We are here with the complete guide about driving real traffic on your Instagram handle. These are some simple tips and tricks you should keep in mind while promoting your Instagram. You will be able to see the flow of real followers to your Instagram who will engage with your content. But don’t forget to remain patient through the process!
Get Free Followers on Instagram
Make a proper Instagram marketing plan
Nothing is effective without planning. You must plan a thoughtful Instagram marketing strategy and set business-oriented goals. Firstly, ask yourself why you need followers and what you want to accomplish. Do you want to increase brand awareness, boost product sales or simply drive traffic to your website?
Answering these questions will help you decide your brand aesthetic and how to get Instagram followers free. Instagram accounts are said to be successful only if it can retain followers. So, your brand should look appealing enough to the visitors to make them your loyal followers.
Optimize your Instagram bio and profile
Your Instagram bio and profile are the first things non-followers will see when they’ll visit your account. So, make your bio compelling enough to make a non-follower follow you. You can gain Instagram followers free only if your bio is clear, complete, and attractive. Your username should be unique and easy to remember. It would be better if you use the keyword related to your brand, in the username.
Use those 150 characters in the bio wisely to make the visitor click on the follow button. It should clearly describe your brand and the type of products or services you offer. You should emphasize how your brand can add value to their lives. You can add only one link on your Instagram, that’s in your bio. It’ll be better to add your website’s link.
Know your target audience
If you’re wondering how to get followers on Instagram fast for free, you can start with knowing your target audience. Your target audience is those people whom your brand is trying to reach. You should try to know the age, location, and type of work your target audience does so that you can offer them the services accordingly.
You should also try to understand their way of using Instagram and when they are mostly online. If your content or products can help them in any way, they would love to follow you and remain loyal followers. So, find them and show them through Instagram about how your brand can bring change in their lives.
Make use of relevant hashtags
Using hashtags wisely plays an important role in getting new followers on Instagram. Your posts are not searchable, but hashtags are. So, if you use relatable hashtags for your content, people may click on the hashtag and find your account. Many people follow hashtags also. If you post content with that hashtag, your post will appear in their feed. From there, they may follow you.
But it’s better to focus on quality rather than quantity in the case of Instagram hashtags. You should avoid hashtags like #followmeback or #likesforlikes because it won’t help you get real and engaging followers. You might get followers temporarily, but they will unfollow you if you don’t follow them back or they may be bots. It will be meaningless to have followers who don’t increase your sales.
Create a brand story and aesthetic brand value
People may be curious to know more about your brand and products. You can make your Instagram handle look more humane by sharing brand stories of satisfied customers, how products are made, and your employees’ views. People tend to trust and follow those brands which have honest reviews of employees and customers. If you’re able to showcase your brand’s achievements and how your brand is helping many other people, they will be more than happy to follow you. You should be consistently showing the updates of your work through stories, to your followers.
Use proper keywords to appear in the search results
People will follow you only if they will be able to find you. Every text on Instagram is not searchable. Only your name and username can appear in searches. Your username can be up to 30 characters. So, you can include the keywords related to your page in the username. For example, if Paul is a graphic designer, he can include the graphic designer in his username along with his name or his company’s name.
After that, he will appear in the searches of people looking for graphic designers. So, he can get free Instagram followers as well as profit in this way. Remember not to stuff so many keywords in the username.
Cross-Promoting is always helpful
If you are easily discoverable on other social media platforms, you will see your followers gradually increasing. You can share the link of your Instagram handle on Facebook, Twitter, and your website. You can also organize an Instagram-exclusive coupon, contest, or event and promote it on other social platforms. It will give a reason to people to visit your Instagram from where they can follow you.
You can also highlight your best posts on other platforms. Those who are new to Instagram can post at least 15 posts on Instagram before cross-promoting on other accounts. You must include Instagram posts on your website so that visitors can be directed to your account from there.
Post quality content consistently
Consistency is the key if you want to retain Instagram followers for long. Your followers will readily lose interest if you aren’t following a regular posting schedule. Also, you won’t get new visitors if you post once in a while. Generally, you can’t post more than a few times a day but you should try to post at least on alternate days. In this way, your account can be saved from being forgotten.
Besides that, the quality of your content matters a lot. Create content that people want to see and like to share. You have noticed that people quickly share the posts they like in their stories.
So, if your post is shared on the stories or by some website, it will drive new viewers who can follow your page. You can also use infographics as people find them attractive and informative. Your posts should compel your followers to re share them.
Use Instagram nametag and try to get featured
Instagram nametag is an easily scannable code that allows Instagram users to directly visit your account without any username. You can use the printout of this code on the packages of your products, signage, and your business cards.
It will help you get real-time followers with whom you interact in any conference or seminar. You can get your network online in this way. Also, you can get your Instagram name tag by clicking on the three lines tab on the top-right of Instagram and then selecting the nametag option.
You can also get featured on Instagram Feature accounts. These accounts reshare other users’ content based on hashtags or tags. They have a huge following. So, if your post is featured, you can be exposed to a whole new audience. Feature accounts are available for almost all niches. You can find them when you’ll be searching for hashtags.
Use location tags
Tagging your location is the best way to attract the audience, especially if your business has some physical location. It will help you gain lots of local followers also. You can also encourage others to tag the location of your shop. People can simply click on the location and see the posts updated from your shop, restaurant, or office.
If you go to any business conference or seminar, you must tag your location while posting. It will expose you to many targeted audiences present there with you. It’s an amazing way to boost followers for free.
Always tag people from your niche
You can tag people who are featured on your post or relevant to your content. Tagging is the best way to network with people in your niche. You can tag them in your posts or stories too. They would love to share the post or story with their audience and they may visit your account. It will compel the tagged people to return the favor by sharing your content.
Always remember that you should tag relevant users only. Don’t randomly tag anyone to get attention or something. Your account should look professional. From relevant users we mean your customers, suppliers, famous people from your niche, colleagues or employees, someone who taught you something, or people who appear in your posts.
Try to engage with the audience
Instagram marketing is all about network building. Then only you will be able to get free and real followers. You can’t build a network without engaging or communicating with the audience.
You can like, comment, or share the posts of some popular and credible businesses or users. They will most likely return the favor by promoting you on their page. But don’t post comments like “nice post” or “awesome post” because it looks like bots or fake users.
People will notice your account in the comments and visit your profile if they find your comment thoughtful and interesting enough.
Follow people in your niche and do collaborations
You can find the relevant people from Instagram’s “suggested for you” section. You can follow them or some of their followers too. but don’t follow too many accounts at once.
It’ll look unprofessional. Instead, you can follow only people popular in your niche. Also, don’t unfollow after they follow you back because it will make you look like a fool and unprofessional.
Another most important thing is a collaboration with other users. Influencer marketing is a great way to increase followers fast. Most people readily trust the brand promoted by the influencer. So, you can collab with any influencer from your niche and tell them to give an honest review of your brand.
Further, you can reach out to other brands similar to you or partner with them. Most people are afraid that they’ll lose their brand’s popularity if they partner with other brands. But that’s just a myth. Instead, you are exposed to a large group of target audiences and other brands get the same. So, it’s a win-win situation for both brands.
Make good use of Instagram stories
You should post consistent Instagram stories to remain in the eye of the audience. Instagram stories provide you with many interesting features like audience poll, ask me anything, yes or no questions, chat stickers, and much more.
So, make sure to use these features to connect with them directly. Use hashtags and location tags also. It will look like a one-to-one conversation with your customers and your brand seems trustworthy.
Interact with communities and highlight your best stories showcasing your achievement or something interesting about your brand. Many people visit your story highlights also when they visit your account. So, your story highlights can also make them click the follow button.
Go for Instagram lives and live collaborations
Going live on Instagram is always trending. You can make the best use of live videos with features like questions and comments. You can engage with your viewers in real-time.
Your live videos appear in the stories section. You can make them disappear after the Instagram live ends or make them stay for 24 hours. You can also add it as an IGTV video. Going live on Instagram can help you grab the attention of the users.
You also go live with other brands by using the “go live with a friend” feature. Either you can host or invite them as a guest or ask them to invite you as a guest. It is the best opportunity to gain many followers.
Especially during the pandemic era, many celebrities and brands are hosting small talk shows in Instagram lives. Live collaborations are always beneficial for both parties.
Use IGTV reels or series to attract users
Research has shown that people find video content more engaging and attractive. So, make good use of this feature for promoting your brand. IGTV videos can be an hour-long while reels can be up to 30 seconds.
People will follow you instantly if they like your content. But the best way to make the viewers follow you is the IGTV series. It can increase your discoverability and bring potential followers to your account.
Post at the right time to get visible
If you are looking for a hack about how to get more followers on Instagram for free, then let me tell you about the relation between posting time and traffic. Instagram uses an algorithm that considers the timing of the posts as an important factor.
You have many options of Instagram analytics tools like Hootsuite analytics, which help you analyze the best time to post for your account so that it is visible to most of your targeted audience.
If your brand has younger people as the target audience, it’ll be better to post in the evening. Several social media analytic tools like Hootsuite also help you schedule your posts and stories. So, you don’t have to worry about posting at any time.
Organize contests and giveaways
It is one of the best methods used to get followed by viewers. You can run a contest where the process involves asking people to follow your account or tag a friend to any of your posts. it is one of the best ways to get free followers on Instagram.
Distributing giveaways is also a good way to gain popularity. Tagged friends of the viewers also get to know about your brand. This is how networking helps you. You can also encourage user-generated content as a part of your contest. It’ll bring new followers to your account.
Use Instagram analytics tools
Instagram analytics tools can be a great help for you. These tools gather data about your every post which includes information about your reach, engagement, top posts, and many more. It’ll also let you know about the demographic information of your followers including gender, age, and location.
These tools will tell you the best time to post when your maximum followers are online and also reschedule posts for you. You can analyze the data regularly and develop a marketing strategy accordingly.
You can use social media management tools like Hootsuite, Postso, and many more. They provide the best analytics of your account and help you manage posts. A brand needs to handle so many social media accounts. So, using social media management tools can reduce your work by half.
Try advertising on Instagram
Instagram ads can help you reach out to many new people who wouldn’t see your content otherwise. A little investment in ads can expose you to a large group of people and it is a completely legit way. Design a fascinating Instagram grid and catchy captions
Whenever a user visits your account, your posts should look eye-catching along with a long and crisp caption. Detailed captions are always helpful in getting the attention of the visitors. Also, don’t forget to use emojis while writing captions. Emoji makes you look more friendly and adds humor to your account. Tell me who doesn’t like emojis nowadays!
Buying Instagram followers
We would recommend buying followers to those brands that are well-established and have good content or products. If a little boost in followers can help you get ahead of your competitors, then it is not a bad thing. But you should be careful of the spam and bots involved in many sites. Some trusted sites help you get real followers. They are enlisted below:
Summing Up
You see that Instagram has completed its 10 years in 2020 and is still gaining popularity. Due to the pandemic situations, all the businesses are going online – from small to large scale brands. So, it is important to keep your Instagram account up to date. Here is all about how to get free followers on Instagram.
If you follow the above-mentioned tips for your Instagram, I am sure you will see positive results gradually. Buying followers is not the ultimate solution to increase your followers. You can go for it if you have an established account and need a little boost to kick-start your business.
But you can retain followers only if your content is great and you follow proper Instagram marketing strategies. Instagram has changed the lives of many people and has made them stars overnight. So, no matter if you are a celebrity, influencer, or businessman, a good Instagram following can make you popular in no time. Hope the tips mentioned above are helpful for you!