The American dream is still alive and well in the form of amassing Instagram followers. Unfortunately, many users crush that ideal by bombarding their followers with every hashtag linked to their generic skyporn pictures to achieve traction on the photo-sharing app.
Starting on Instagram as a brand might be difficult. What is the first thing you must do? Increase your Instagram followers quickly.
But how exactly? How to get Instagram followers without using hashtags? Continue reading to know about it.
The days of buying followers or using bots are over. These tactics may increase your follower count temporarily, but they will not benefit you in the long run.
That’s because the only Instagram followers that are useful are those who care about and engage with your brand. A fake follower count may enhance your ego, but it will not benefit your Instagram approach.
What Exactly Are Instagram Hashtags?
A hashtag is a string of characters, numbers, and emoji prefixed by the symbol # (for example, #NoFilter). They are used to categorize content and make it easier to find.
Hashtags can be clicked. Anyone who clicks on an Instagram hashtag or does an Instagram hashtag search will be taken to a page that displays all of the posts that have been tagged with that hashtag.
Why Should You Use Instagram Hashtags?
Hashtags are crucial for growing your Instagram followers and increasing your reach. When you use a hashtag, your post will display on the hashtag’s page. If you include a hashtag in your Story, it may be included in the related hashtag Story, also displayed on the hashtag page.
People can also select to follow hashtags, which means that your hashtagged post may appear in their feed even if they do not follow you (yet).
Instagram hashtags may be a terrific method to develop a community online and encourage people to interact with your company. For example, as people’s workout habits shifted in 2020, Nike Los Angeles used the #playinside hashtag to highlight locals are getting active in their homes.
Update Your Instagram Account:
One of the most critical stages before figuring out how to increase Instagram followers is to optimize your account. Consider your brand’s Instagram bio to be the “homepage” of your account.
How would visitors know the account belongs to your brand if it lacks a bio, image captions, a suitable username, or a profile photograph? It may seem apparent, but your bio and image on Instagram help establish the pillars of your business identity. Because the link in your bio is your only way to attract Instagram traffic to your website, optimizing your account is critical.
If you’re unsure where to connect, consider marketing or product pages related to specific keywords, hashtags, or campaigns on your Instagram account. While linking to your homepage is acceptable, why not provide consumers with a consistent experience when moving from your bio to a site?
This has resulted in the popularity of IG link landing pages, which host relevant links to the most recent few pieces of content referenced on a brand’s feed and “link in bio” postings, which help guide audiences to those links.
You should choose a username that is as search-friendly as possible, which means keeping it near your brand name. If your company name is very long, shorten it to something that your target audience will recognize.
Don’t include any digits or special characters in your username, and try to keep it consistent with any social networking accounts you currently have.
But if you are a lazy lad like me, read on to know how to get Instagram followers without using hashtags.
Find New Accounts:
Despite reaching 700 million users (1 billion as of December 2018), it’s quite easy to find yourself cycling around the same group of individuals on Instagram, and breaking out of the same cluster of users can be difficult. According to the six degrees of separation notion, your new followers are closer than you realize; you must engage with them.
Six degrees of separation is the concept that all living creatures and everything else in the world are six or fewer steps apart, allowing a chain of “a friend of a friend” statements to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.
Take a look at who has lately liked/engaged with your most recent post. In addition to showing some love to those folks to keep them interested and coming back for more, have a look at who has interacted with their postings.
There may be some overlap of users you’re already familiar with, but there will certainly be new accounts that you don’t follow and who don’t follow you. Examine each of the accounts and, if they appear to be your target demographic, show them some insta-love.
Don’t bother reading through their follower list because they may have some spam and bot follows; instead, read the comments to see a genuine conversation.
Create A Consistent Brand Story And Aesthetic:
Perhaps you want to stimulate people’s interest by demonstrating how your product is manufactured. Share an employee’s point of view to humanize your brand. If you want to position your brand aspirationally, consider showing your clients’ lifestyles or achievements.
It is critical to keep a consistent brand personality and design whatever your goals are.
At a glance, your posts should be immediately identifiable. Consider your Instagram grid as one unified element. You can always utilize Instagram Stories to showcase content that doesn’t exactly suit the style of your main feed.
Use Keywords To Appear In Searches:
People must first find you on Instagram before they can follow you, and there isn’t a lot of text on Instagram that can be searched. In actuality, on Instagram, only two fields contribute to search results: name and username.
Your Instagram handle is your username. It’s a good practice to keep it consistent with your other social media handles, making it easier for people to locate you. Use your brand name or a version of it that people are likely to search for while looking for your brand.
Your name can be anything you want it to be, up to 30 characters long. Keyword stuffing is not really a good idea, but including your most relevant keyword in the name field will help boost discoverability based on the search.
Find New Users Through Accounts You Follow:
This is likely the most underutilized option, as it is frequently rejected as “why would I want to know what the people I follow are up to?” You’ll find this quite beneficial if you’re tracking your target audience and competition.
When you click on the heart at the bottom of your screen, you will see the words “Following” and “You.” You will always be defaulted to “You,” but if you click on “Following,” you will be able to view what the people you follow are up to in real-time! The comments they leave, the likes they give, and the accounts they follow.
Unfortunately, this is also where you discover that some accounts you may admire are engaging in poorly targeted bot activity, as seen by generic comments (“excellent shot,” “good pic,” “love this”) and like the most random selection of pictures.
Avoid these posts and instead check for what looks like an actual activity, such as who they are commenting on, what they like, and who they follow. If you like what you see, you’ve just discovered some new accounts to interact with. You’ll also gain insight into your target audience by observing what makes them double tap!
Use the “Discover People” Tab:
“Discover People” are Instagram accounts that Instagram recommends you follow. You may get to this by clicking the + sign in the top left corner of your profile. The “Discover People” page will open when you click on it. If your smartphone contacts or Facebook profiles are linked, you will see people you know in “real life” but have yet to follow.
If you’ve followed everyone you want to in your address book and on Facebook, you can disconnect simply by touching on them. Instagram will then offer you people who follow you who you might like to follow back, as well as a selection of accounts based on your activity and the behavior of others who have interacted with you.
Don’t feel obligated to follow everyone, but it’s a good idea to look at those mentioned and interact with some of their posts. If you aren’t interested, click “Hide.” There appears to be a glitch at the moment as they reappear; perhaps, Instagram will fix this soon.
Another user advice is to use the small drop-down arrow next to a user’s blue “Follow” button. Instagram can suggest users based on their likeness to the account you’re now seeing, which may be a terrific way to discover new people to follow or engage with.
Use Geotags:
You will think like your customers if you have a thorough understanding of their demographics. Make a list of all the places you believe your customer has been.
Assume you sell cashmere wraps, and your target consumer is affluent women in their 30s. You must think like her, and perhaps she prefers Champney’s spa weekends? Go to PLACES and search for “Champney’s.”
There are many Champney Spa locations so you may work your way through each of the different spas and each of the people who have tagged themselves at these locations, engaging and following people who you believe are your target audience.
In my experience, the “friends and family” Instagram user does not use many hashtags, but they do geotag themselves at a location, similar to the check-in feature on Facebook.
Aim For Explorer Tab:
When you click on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the Instagram app, you’ll be sent to the Explore tab. This is where, according to Instagram, “you can find photographs and videos that you might like from accounts you don’t yet follow.”
Instagram posts, Stories, and IGTV are all available on the Explore tab. Users are first presented with a grid of content selected by the Instagram algorithm. They can then use the topic channels at the top of the screen to delve further into various content subjects.
Every month, half of all Instagram accounts visit Explore, and that is a big opportunity for brands trying to expand their audience.
Avoid Fake Followers:
There is a significant difference between an Instagram account with false followers and one with actual followers. It may appear tempting just to buy Instagram followers, but the negative consequences outweigh the benefits of organic follower development.
Fake Instagram followers are more likely to:
- Deceive new followers: If visitors arrive at an idle Instagram feed with tens of thousands of followers, the account’s trust will suffer. Don’t entice them to follow you. Build trust and long-term relationships to increase engagement.
- Have no ROI: While it may appear to be easier to buy followers, your acquired bot or unmanned new followers will not be purchasing anything. People follow brands on Instagram because they like what you’re sharing or your company in general. These are true spenders who add monetary value to your company.
- Make little-to-no noise: If you have 10,000 false followers, how many of them will comment, like, and share your content? More than likely, Instagram will clean up these bot or false accounts, delete them, and make your posts look like engagement graveyards.
Real people may share, like, comment, and engage with your Instagram posts. Furthermore, these users appreciate it when someone on the other end responds.
Post The Content That Your Followers Want:
While this is easier said than done, learning what content your followers like to see is a good idea. On Instagram, you’ll immediately notice that some material performs better than others, and this is why testing is so critical.
The smallest detail, whether it’s filters, captions, content types, or post times, can make all the difference. Keep an ear to the ground for new Instagram trends so you can post popular stuff.
Your brand should invest in Instagram analytics tools to take your analysis to the next level. This will enable tracking, benchmarking, and analyzing Instagram content across accounts easier.
Be confident in your content strategy by experimenting with different filters, subtitles, and other elements to find what works best for your target audience. If you’re not sure where to start, look to your competitors.
While you shouldn’t explicitly mimic your competitors, taking notes on what they’re doing or publishing is a good idea that creates interaction. A little competitive research can help a lot. You may use our Instagram Competitors analysis to see what other brands in your industry are doing well.
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FAQs
Can you grow your Instagram without hashtags?
It isn’t easy, but it’s certainly doable. Suppose you’re attempting to build your Instagram account and using 30 hashtags under each post yet seeing no engagement boost. In that case, you should think about the different ways mentioned in the above article to expose your posts to your target audience.
How do you get 1000 followers on Instagram?
- Create and improve your profile.
- Choose a content creator.
- Adhere to excellent practices in photography and editing.
- Establish a regular blogging schedule.
- Curate a portion of your stuff.
- Maintain a consistent, platform-specific brand voice.
- Create interesting, shareable captions.
Do Instagram promotions get you, followers?
Although Instagram does not allow you to optimize for followers as Facebook does, you can still utilize advertising to grow a quality following.
