Three years ago, I grew my Instagram account to 10,000 followers in less than five months. Over the last couple of years, I have been able to use my growth strategies to gain over 100K followers on my Instagram @beingsummershores. Much has changed over the last few years with how to grow Instagram followers. Things are definitely not as they used to be when I first started growing my account! With the present day algorithms, more than 1 billion monthly active users, and so many creative brands, Instagram is now a much more competitive platform and harder to be seen. But it is possible to grow, even in 2019! If you are going to stand out and show what you got in order to hit your 10K+ Instagram followers target, you are going to have to work smart about it! Keep reading for 7 proven tips on how to grow your Instagram to 10K in 2019.

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CHANGE UP YOUR INSTAGRAM PROFILE

Does your Instagram profile look creative, aesthetically-pleasing, and planned out in connection to your brand identity? A potential follower will only look at your profile for a few seconds before deciding whether to follow you or not. You better utilize these few seconds to impress them! The five most important things to pay attention to when crafting your Instagram profile is your name, high-quality profile picture, website URL, professionally-crafted stories and highlights, and your bio sharing who you are. The connection between these five essentials must give a clear picture of who you are. If you take a look at my profile, you will realize its crafted and optimized around the niches am passionate about. It’s important that you do the same!

BE YOURSELF

Instagram is a social platform where socializing is the rule of the game. If your question remains “how to get real Instagram followers,” then you better be real. Real followers and potential followers are all after knowing who you are, so be yourself! They need to understand what drove you into your blogging niche, how you cope with life dynamics, your passion in life, what you love, and what makes you happy.

ENGAGE USING THE $1.80 METHOD

The most fundamental ingredient for getting more followers on Instagram is to engage with both your audience and new potential followers. And it’s more then just engaging, as simply saying “cute” or dropping a quick emoji aren’t going to get the engagement that you are looking for. Before commenting, look at each account closely by read their captions throughly. Always provide a genuine compliment based on the photo and caption, and be sure to leave more then four words. Gary Vaynerchuk created an amazing strategy called the $1.80 method to easily grow your Instagram account!

Find 10 successful hashtags in your niche
Leave a comment (your two cents 😉) with at least four words on the top nine posts for each hashtag
Continue for all 10 hashtags!

This is just one of many growth strategies that will allow your account to be seen by more people!

TARGET THE RIGHT ACCOUNTS

The best way to target accounts is to engage with people in your same niche. Figure out what your top niches are, and follow people with similar lifestyles as you! Since my top niches are parenting, health, and wellness, I follow people using hashtags like #firsttimemom, #mommybloggers, #momofboys, #naturalhealth, #fitmom, etc. Instagram now allows you to follow hashtags and see posts in your feed, which is helpful for engagement! When you see those posts, engage and form a community with others in your same niche!

POST EVERYDAY WITH THE BEST HASHTAGS

Although it can be frustrating at times, the Instagram algorithms have changed and will keep on changing. One thing that stays the same is how hashtags help show your posts to the world. Instagram allows you to use up to 30 hashtags per post, so find different hashtags to use everyday that are in your niche so you can reach the right accounts. Just be sure to not use the same hashtag over and over again can lead to your account getting shadowbanned, which means Instagram will flag your account and you’ll be seen by less accounts. Be sure to post everyday with the best hashtags so your account will continue to get the most profile views!

CHANGE UP YOUR AESTHETIC

I am constantly changing up the way I take photos, my editing, and how my feed looks in general. Before posting anything, I always ask myself this… if I was scrolling through my Instagram as a fan, would I stop to comment or like this? If the answer is no, I switch up the content I’m creating! Although I do not consider myself a professional photographer, I take my good time to ensure I take high-quality pictures. And before I post any, I must take time to analyze its quality, essence, and relevance. I actually use a professional photographer to take the majority of my photos because I know they will be the quality I need for my feed.

grow OTHER PLATFORMS

Getting 10k followers on Instagram will never be a simple task and definitely requires a plan! Although there is a lot you can do on Instagram to grow your following, it’s also important to grow your other platforms so you can reach a larger audience. When your blog gets more monthly readers, you are likely to also bring that traffic to your Instagram! Also try cross-promoting your Instagram posts to your other platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Website, email newsletters, and YouTube, as you will get more impressions then just working within the Instagram platform. Pinterest is a quickly-growing platform that is an awesome way to bring in more Instagram followers, by linking your pins to your Instagram post links!

The Instagram algorithms can be so frustrating when you feel like accounts aren’t seeing the content that you’ve taken hours to create. Although it may seem impossible at times, you can still grow your account quickly in 2019! Do you have any more questions about growing your Instagram? Are you looking to add a virtual assistant or even a social media manager to your team? Check out SUMMER SERVICES!

HOW TO GAIN 10K INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS IN 2019