You’ve probably heard that Instagram is the “platform” to be on. And so I thought I should go in and it would be a great platform to launch my blog and magazine apps.

 

And in 5 months, I’ve gained 5000 followers organically without buying any follower. I know plenty of other people who have managed to grow much quicker and bigger than I have. I’m nowhere near the “you’ve made it” Instagram Influencers. By writing this I hope that I can help those who have the opportunity to go down the same path. Maybe we can even grow together (as Instagram keeps on evolving). I would say it’d be very helpful if there’s a blog post like this 5months ago.

 

In the first 3months, I used to spend more than 4 hours on Instagram every day, 7days a week! It’s an exhausting task though I enjoy doing it and have made some awesome friends through the account. Now Instagramming becomes part of my life, I’m actually looking forward to checking out my Instagram the very first thing in the morning and before bed. As things go with a flow, now I’m getting much BETTER results with lesser time! (I spend about half an hour a day on it ). I will cover this in my next post on how I manage my Instagram efficiently.

 

My experience comes from lots of trial-and-error and mistakes made. Here’s what I learned and my most treasured Insta-tools:

 

1. Share Good Photos

This should go without saying, Instagram is a visual-based platform, you need to have a good photo to get the audience’s attention.

If you don’t have your own photos, you can always find some good royalty free pictures. 

 

Here’s where I find Free images for my account:

• Depositphotos
• Pixabay.com
• Unsplash.com

 

Related posts: Top 10 Best Sites to get Free Stock Images

 

For photoediting, I’m a huge fan of Canva, I use it most of the time to edit my photos. There has the exact size (1080×1080) for instagram post and you can use it for Free.

Of course, there are many other good tools that you can use, eg apps like Words swag and Phonto. Just pick one site that you’re comfortable with and stick with it. And you can create a series of posts with your own style efficiently.

 

2.Post Consistently

You have to post consistently to stay relevant to your audience and Instagram loves consistency!

 

When I started building my account, I used to post 3-4 times every day, that explained how I spent 4 hours a day on the platform. I’ve tested about everything with posting. And now I post once a day, so far it works fine for me.

 

Don’t be afraid to test out and find the best time to post on your Instagram page.

If you have a business account, you can use the analytic insight to understand your followers better and track the optimism posting days and times.

 

In my case, I don’t really see the difference of how posting at the “peak” time would affect my post performance.

No matter how many frequently do you post, do post consistently.

 

If you’re going to post every day, make sure you use the right Instagram scheduling tool to schedule your post in advance. The tool will automatically post it to your account at the scheduled time. It can save you tons of time! 

 

At the moment, I’m using Apphi for this purpose. Take Apphi for a Test Drive. It’s free and you can add unlimited Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to manage. If you want to have advanced features, it starts at $9/month. (Get 10% OFF here on your First Payment)

 

You may want to check out this list of top Instagram scheduling tools here.

 

3. Use Hashtag Effectively

Hashtags are king on Instagram. And one of the easiest ways to grow your following organically, fast is using quality hashtags.

 

Tools like Hashtags for Likes will find the best hashtags to give you the biggest exposure & reach on Instagram. Simply copy & paste and reach more followers.

 

You can add up to 30 hashtags to your post, but you don’t have to use them all. Till recently, there’s a debate going on not using any hashtag at all.

 

I have tested with my posts without using any hashtag for a week. And came to this conclusion, I will still use some relevant hashtags on my post but not using all 30hashtags on every single post. This might change in the future, as Instagram is evolving and nobody knows the algorithm, choose to do what you’re comfortable with. But remember don’t use a hashtag that’s banned in Instagram.

 

Learn how to use Instagram Hashtag for maximum engagement here.

 

4. Engage, Engage and Engage!

The truth is you have to go out there engage with other posts! Your job is never finished after you click the “share” button. Instead, it’s just the beginning.

 

To get maximize your engagement rate, you have to:

• Like other people’s post (but don’t overdo this by mass liking or you’ll get warned)
• Commenting other’s post.
• Always give a genuine and relevant comment with minimum 4words. Don’t just write a single word like “Nice”, “Cool” on every post as it may look like an automatic bot. Leaving a valuable comment will help you gain more followers, people will get interested, click into your profile and may even follow you
• Reply people’s comment on your post
• Like other’s post that are using the same hashtags as you
• Follow new user in the niche
• Visit your followers accounts and engage with their posts too

 

The list goes on and on; this is where I spend most of my time to build my following. Be social!

5. Join Engagement Groups

In order to get your post listed on the Top Post section and to reach more audiences, it’s best to get more people like, comment or even save your post during the first hour of posting!

 

This is my recent post that listed in the Top 9 Post section for #makeithappen and this helps me gain more than 100followers organically in less than 12 hours.

To do this, you need to join some niche-related groups, where the members are actively engaging with each other’s post. I joined lots of engagement groups, from Instagram direct message groups, facebook groups to telegram groups. When you’re new, some opportunity seekers will try to sell you some engaging groups. You can always find some free groups to join, there are tons! It will take you some times to find good and engaging ones.

 

*To pay it forward, for the past year, I’ve been giving my fellow readers special access to join some of the groups for free. I’ve been receiving lots of messages and request till now. With constant changes to its algorithm and also members of the groups, I decided to stop inviting people to the groups. 

Also, there’s no one group that can fit all niches.

With that said, engagement groups are an amazing way to cultivate friendships, community, and most importantly, grow your Instagram following. 

 

 

Conclusion

These 5 steps may sound simple and easy. But it’s how I did it without using any paid services. If you’re following these steps in this post and put on your effort, you can grow your following organically in no time!

 

Also, check out Tailwind’s free Instagram 101 Webinar that will walk you through everything you need to know to become an Instagram Expert!

 

If you have any tips or tricks you’d like to share, go on and let me know in the comments below.

We’d love to hear from you.

 

Update: As a blogger, I continue to try and experiment with new things. To my surprise, I found that my Pinterest account (with only 700 followers) generates x6400 more traffic than my Instagram. That really blew my mind.

If you’re ready to expand into other social platforms, you should definitely give Pinterest a try!

To help you get started, check out this helpful Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Started on Pinterest and also this 10 Strategic Ways to use Pinterest to Drive Blog Traffic

 

Related reading:

• How to schedule Instagram Posts like a boss
• How to create Instagram Stories Images for your business
• How to Create Custom Instagram Highlight Covers in less than 5 minutes
• How to Post GIFs on Instagram
• 7 Best Time-Saving Instagram Scheduling Tools

 

I live and breath making an income online. 

I’ll be sharing more of ideas and guides soon. Stay tuned.

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