How to Get More Followers On Instagram in 5 Easy Tips
Instagram has without question become a very valuable social media tool over the years. If you have an Instagram account, you can clearly see that not just random people use it for sharing a photo of what they had for dinner yesterday, but businesses and business people are using it too to showcase their products, to showcase their creations, their work, their music.
However, one thing that most people look for, is how to get more followers on Instagram so as to expand their reach to potential fans, potential clients that may be eager to do business with them as well.
If your Instagram account is a bit stagnant, or quiet, or you've not been posting consistently because you're disappointed at the amount of fans that you have, don't worry, you're not alone. However, amidst all the stress and worry about the amount of followers you may currently have, there are ways to improve things.
In this brief guide, I will break down 5 easy tips on how to get more followers on Instagram, so read on.
Optimize your Instagram Bio
One of the biggest things that I see people do often with their Instagram accounts, is not taking full advantage of their bio. Your bio is your billboard, it is the window into who you are on IG and what you are about, what your business is about, what you are about as an artist if you make music.
So making sure you optimize it is crucial. To do so, you'll want to make sure that you put a link in your bio that links directly to your music, or to where you have your project showcased. This way, people will see that link and go immediately to your content, so they can see what you're about. You'd be surprised just how many people forget to, or don't bother with, putting a direct link on their bio. This is very important! And besides, unlike other social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, you cannot share links on Instagram at all unless you're paying for an ad, so having a link in your bio is even more important than any of the other social media platforms, especially to drive traffic to your music or website page as a result.
One valuable tip that I suggest, with regards to a link on your Bio, is to utilize a service such as Linkname. Linkname is a service that allows you to create multiple links to different websites or web pages, and houses them all into one place, so that when a person clicks on the Linkname link you create, it will take them to a page that has all your created links in one place. This works well for when you have more than one single track out there, or maybe have two albums out and want to create a link for each of them, or if you just want to link all of your social media platforms into one area for people to click on and subscribe.
You'll want to make sure that your Instagram bio also shows a good picture that represents you, as you are the face of your own brand, especially if you are a musician, filmmaker, author, or other business person doing things individually. If you're a business, you'll of course want a picture of something that represents your brand and what your business is all about.
You'll also want to make sure to leave a brief description in your bio that explains who you are and what you are about, or what your business is about. So for example, if you are a hip hop artist, make it play into your personality, but don't overdo it either. Make it something simple like:
Rap Artist reppin Brooklyn, NY
Cooking up Tracks for the fans
Working on my 3rd album
Hit that link below for my work!
Something simple like that should help people know who you are, it's brief and to the point, they can see where you represent, and see that you're working on your first album, third album, second mixtape, or whatever it is. Make your bio represent you, not something like "Aye, send them beats to me, and to all the ladies out there, drop them digits" or something weird. That won't represent you at all as far as getting more people to know who you are as an artist. Get what I mean?
Posting Consistently and on a Consistent Schedule
Another tip I want to provide on how to get more followers on Instagram, goes without saying. Post consistently. If you are not posting, people will just simply NOT find you at all based on the first post. Or should I say, they'll find you at random, once a week or once a month. If you want more followers to find your account, you MUST be consistent with your posting.
So I'll first start with saying posting consistently. If you are a musician, an artist (whether rap artist, R&B singer, etc), you need to post consistently every day or at minimum, 4 times a week. I have personally been posting at least once a day and it's helping. Plus, it's exposing more of my hip hop beats to others out there, which is what I want as a business since I'm a beatmaker / producer.
If you are an artist, you want the same thing to occur in the form of fans who will hear your music, who will resonate with your music. So I recommend doing at least 4 times a week if not every day. And if you're worried about what to post, there are lots of things you as an artist can post. If you make music, you can post a snippet of a verse from one of your songs and tell people to check out the link in your bio if they like what they hear and want to hear the rest.
OR, you can create videos that have an introduction to an album or single you're getting ready to release in a week or month's time. It can be a 15 second teaser video that let's the potential fans hear either a hook to your song, or the first 4 bars before you end it, teasing them to check out the rest.
You can also post videos of you freestyling or doing a cover for someone else's song out there, especially if you're a singer. People love listening to covers of songs, and hearing what an independent artist can do in singing someone else's song.
The sky's the limit as far as what you can post, but I suggest to post consistently each week so that people find you, hear or see your work, and resonate with what you are doing. Make sure that you are posting more about your craft and what you create, than of random things though. You want people to get a feel for who you are as an artist. I tend to see Instagram pages out there of hip hop artists, and out of let's say, 15 posts they have, only one or two of them shows some of their music, while the other posts are about things like weed, or a random shot of the person with their friends, or a video of a football highlight snippet, and so on. You need to make it more about YOU as an artist or as a business, and plug in those occasional random shots in there to further emphasize on who you are as a person. Remember that you are still building your brand as a musician or business first and foremost though.
And with consistency, make sure you're trying to post around the same time if you can. So for posting every day, I recommend looking at your Audience Insights to get a feel for when your audience is busiest, and post around that time. For example, with my audience, it seems that every day between 3pm - 6pm is busy, and from 6pm - 9pm even busier, so I try to post around that time if I only post once in the day. I like to post twice a day if I can, though I make sure to do so at least once a day. You can do 4 days a week too and do something like posting on your four busiest days. Just don't make it random, like posting on Sunday at 1pm, on Monday at 7pm, Thursday at 2pm, and Saturday at 11pm. Try to aim for when your audience is busiest.
Avoid Buying Fake Instagram Followers
This is a major tip I want to emphasize on. People tend to think that the way to get more followers on Instagram is by buying follows. However, this is a big NO for two reasons. The first reason is that these followers are NOT targeted followers no matter how much a person or business tries to sell you the idea that they are.
The only way to guarantee targeted followers would be to run Instagram or Facebook Ads with specific audiences that are targeted to your style or brand. The second reason is that Instagram frowns upon fake followers and not only will they eventually remove them, but you run the risk of banning your account as well. This ban can be a temporary one, or even permanent. It is not worth losing your Instagram account just for the sake of fake followers. So I would steer away from them at all costs.
Share your Instagram Link Everywhere
If you are wondering how to get more followers on Instagram, how about sharing your Instagram links elsewhere. The best way to improve on building followers would be to plug your link in wherever you're able to. For instance, if you are on music platforms like Soundcloud, Spotify, or ReverbNation, and they have a field where you can plug your Instagram account link, do it.
If you post to Youtube, then you can also utilize the description portion of Youtube to create a link there directing people to follow you on Instagram as well. And you can either drop some info on Twitter's bio, or create a pinned Tweet for a few days or so with a link to your Instagram, directing people to follow you to stay updated on your work. Just keeping your Instagram link or information on only Instagram will be a slow process. However, when you spread out your link to other platforms, people will slowly start to find you and follow you that way as well.
Post Content That Your Followers Want, and Keep Them Engaged
My final tip in how to get more followers on Instagram, is to post content that your followers want to see, want to watch, want to engage with. Just posting some random Instagram posts about a piece of chicken you had for dinner yesterday is good, if you are sharing a food channel and teaching people how to cook.
However, if you are a musician, you want to post more content that your fans will want to hear from you. ALSO, you want to post content from time to time that ENGAGES your fans. The more you keep them engaged, the more people will look for your content and even share it to others to check you out.
Engagement definitely helps. As a musician, you can create posts that engage your audiences with the following types of questions:
- This is a snippet of my latest song. What verse resonates with you most?
- What kind of song do you think I should release next? (and you can leave this open ended, or ask them to choose an option)
- What kind of song do you want me to create next?
- If you like this song, let me know below with some Fire emojis. The more emojis you put, the more I know you enjoy this song!
- What are some of your favorite songs? (relating it to your flava or genre)
- When I wrote this song, I was really feeling (insert feeling). Who can relate to this song?
- Know someone going through what I expressed in this song? Tag a friend or two to see if they can relate to this song!
BONUS (Very Important) - Engage on Other Profile Content
So this is one that I feel is very important as well, especially if you are hoping to build more fans. Take some time each week and engage with others on Instagram you see, using hashtag searches. You may find other hip hop artists, R&B singers, or other content creators whose content on Instagram you can comment on, and that in turn helps people to find your bio, go through your content, and comment as well. The more you do this, the more you'll find that people enjoy your work and will also follow you as well.
Those are some examples of engaging questions that you can ask. You don't have to engage for every single post. However, the more you do it, the more you'll get engagement. And the more engagement you get, the better Instagram will do at suggesting your posts to more people.
I hope with the following 5 tips above, that it can help you to grow as an artist, as a musician, or even as a business if you alter or edit some of the examples above to better fit your type of business. I hope that this has been helpful and gives you more insight on how to get more followers on Instagram because it is possible... without buying fake followers!
If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email at genycis@yahoo.com any time. Blessings! 
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