Don’t Post a Ton of Pictures at Once
10 Great Ways to Gain New Instagram Followers You may have a lot of pictures that you want to share with your followers, but do you really need to upload them all at once? This can actually turn your followers off because they may see it as spam. Post them over the course of a few days instead. This way, you also have continuous content flowing through your account.
Only Share Your Best Pics
Photo sharing is the main purpose of Instagram, so make sure that your photos are high quality. You will attract far more followers by doing so. If you are new to Instagram, gather together 10 or 20 great photos and start posting them. The more eye-catching the better. For those who have already been using Instagram to share photos on their Facebook, Foursquare, or Twitter accounts, you may want to start taking your photo-sharing more seriously. Instead of posting any and all pictures, choose the ones that are the highest quality and have the best composition. You may even want to go back into your account and remove any low-quality pictures that you have uploaded.
Post When Users are Most Active
Don’t wait until the middle of the night to post your pictures! Try and share your photos during the most active times of the day to attract the most likes and comments from your current and potential followers. If you can manage to get a lot of “likes” in a short period of time, your photo may make it onto the popular page. Once your follower list expands, this becomes less important because your followers will naturally do this for you.
Spread Your Posts Out
If you have four or five pictures that you want to share with your followers on one particular day, try posting them in intervals. Remember, it’s important not to spam your followers! Aim for posting a photo once every two hours. Instagram is used by people all over the world, so while you are on your lunch break, one of your followers on the other side of the world is getting ready to go to bed. Once you get on a routine of posting, you can learn the habits of your followers and post accordingly.
Start Geo-Tagging
Instagram allows its users to tag the location of their photos, so take advantage of that. Why is this important? It allows other people who are either near your photo’s location or visited that location to see your photos. These people may be more interested in following you because you are nearby or frequent places they are familiar with. 10 Great Ways to Gain New Instagram Followers
Tags Are Your Best Friend
Similar to Twitter, Instagram uses hashtags to group relevant pictures together. So, if you decide to post a picture from Times Square in New York, you can tag the photo with #newyork and also #timessquare. This allows Instagram users to find your photos quickly and easily.
You may also want to start tagging your photos with popular tags so that you can attract more viewers. The more tags you add, the more visibility your photo will get. Here’s a list of some of the most popular tags on Instagram:
#bestoftheday, #pretty, #ignation, #iphoneonly, #cute, #iphoneography, #earlybird, #instamood, #iphoneographer, #igaddicts, #earlybirdlove, #webstagram, #iphoneasia, #jj, #inkstagram, #instagood, #picoftheday, #instagrammers, #tweegram, #instadaily, #beautiful, #instago, #iphoneartists, #igdaily, #statigram, #instagramhub, #art, #igers, #instafamous
Keep in mind that you can only use 30 tags on each photo that you upload. Make the most of your tags and only choose the best ones.
Follow Other Instagrammers
Check out the portfolio of other Instagram users and start following them. They will receive notification that you have followed them and are likely to start following you back. It’s okay to be picky about who you follow, though. I personally only choose people that upload quality photos and are active with their followers.
Promote Your Account
Take advantage of your social media followers on other platforms and share your Instagram account with them. This is one of the quickest and simplest ways to get followers. Share your account on Facebook, tweet about it to your followers, and/or write a blog post about your photos. Many of your followers on those platforms will start following you on Instagram as well. 10 Great Ways to Gain New Instagram Followers
Only Leave Thoughtful Comments
If you really want to gain attention from other users, start leaving thoughtful comments. Just saying “Nice” or “Cute” is not really going to get others to check out your portfolio. Try to be a little more elaborate by saying something like, “I love the lighting in this photo. Any tricks or tips?” The poster is likely to respond and may even spark up a conversation that gets other users involved. In turn, you will draw more views to your portfolio. If you have great photos, many of them will start following you.