HOW TO GET FOLLOWERS ON INSTAGRAM: FROM 0 TO 10 Thousand FOLLOWERS

When you’re about to start an online business, it can be exciting to imagine how you can successfully sell your product through Instagram … once you’ve built a following.

But the truth is that, your first 10,000 Instagram followers are the difficult to get. Why? No one knows who you are yet.

You’ve still got to prove yourself as a successful brand. But that doesn’t mean it’s not possible.

If you follow this guide on how to get followers on Instagram, you could hit 10,000 Instagram followers in as early as six months. No jokes or tricks!

#1. Get Instagram Followers by Joining Instagram Engagement Groups:

Ever wondered what people who get Instagram followers fast do differently?

They join engagement groups (aka. Instagram pods).

While it can be tempting to join the biggest Instagram engagement groups, the truth is you’ll get a more targeted list of Instagram followers by sticking to your niche.

The tactic is best for entrepreneurs just starting to learn how to get followers on Instagram.

You can find engagement groups for travel, beauty, fashion and more.

In these groups, you can get followers and likes from people who have shared interests.

But if you’re serious about getting their attention, you should also return the favor by following fan pages for people who join the group.

I’ve had friends get 2,000 new followers in only a couple weeks using this strategy.

While it might not help with immediate sales, it helps you gain credibility early on so your Instagram page doesn’t show that you only have a handful of followers.

Remember, this is more of a short-term strategy for your first few weeks on Instagram, not a long-term one for getting Instagram followers.

You can learn other awesome Instagram tricks like this in our free Instagram course.

#2. Re-post Others’ Content to Gain More Instagram Followers:

When I was starting out with social media marketing and building my store’s Instagram following, my entire posting strategy revolved around reposting other people’s content.

While doing this, I made sure to credit the original poster in my descriptions, every time. It’s the only way to gain followers without getting flagged.

When I first started, I’d take screenshots and add the pictures to my Instagram. What really helped my page take off was the Repost app. It allowed me to start reposting video content on Instagram.

One of the biggest home runs I had was when I re-posted a video that amassed 52,862 views, got 1264 comments and 9,147 likes. At the time, I didn’t even have 10,000 followers so this was a big freaking deal.

Why’d I repost other people’s content instead of posting my own?

Because I knew that it was easier to repost content. Plus, my visual and video content would never be as good as someone else’s. Hey, at least I’m honest about it!

How did I know what to re-post? I’d peek at the numbers.

Hashtags are a great way to get new followers. I was pretty active on Instagram so I’d browse the list of hashtags I came up with and used daily to find the top performing posts that weren’t posted by other fan pages (so not my competitors) but by individual people.

I’d then watch the videos and look at the pictures to see which ones I had the biggest reactions to. If I felt the urge to share someone else’s post, I knew I had to re-post it onto my page.

So if you’re just learning how to get followers on Instagram, this high-impact strategy is simple enough for a beginner.

Important: Instagram has now updated their policy and you’re required to ask for permission before re-posting.

#3. Get Promoted on Buzz feed to Grow Your Instagram Followers:

To get that Instagram followers boost, you need to find a way to tap into a massive audience. And no one embeds Instagram posts into their content as much as Buzz feed.

A Buzz feed staff member wrote an article about how she grew her personal brand as an Instagram publisher. She currently has almost 8,900 followers, but the article she wrote on the platform might’ve helped.

So if you want to experiment with Buzz feed, head over to its Community section where anyone can post their own content onto their platform.

Of course, you’ll need to follow their guidelines to get visibility and build trust.

Is Buzz feed not right for your niche? That’s cool. You can also use a tool called HARO where you get emails three times a day filled with requests from reporters who’re looking to get content and expert quotes for their stories.

Most HARO reporters allow a website link and social links. So you can hit two birds with one stone by getting a link to your store and Instagram account.

#4. Ask Customers to Share Their Photos to Build Instagram Followers:

When you’re just starting out, getting followers on Instagram will be a lot easier with customer photos in your feed. Why? It helps increase social proof.

If you’ve never had a customer before, reach out to influencers in your niche with under 5,000 followers. I know the number seems low but influencers with few followers on Instagram want to monetize their accounts and will be willing to take pictures with your products at a much lower rate.

You can also offer them an affiliate deal where they’ll get a commission for every sale they score with their customer referral link.

If you’ve already had a couple of sales, reach out to customers and offer a free gift or cash incentive for taking quality images with the product they purchased.

Offering incentives isn’t going to be your long-term strategy but for the short-term, while you try to build your brand, this can help you grow.

As more customers start seeing customer photos on your Instagram, they’ll naturally start tagging you in posts when they receive their products.

In a nutshell, if you comment on customers’ posts, re post their content and follow them, you’ll likely get them to follow you back.

Though some will follow you after tagging you in their post on their own. Get that word-of-mouth going.

#5. Gain Instagram Followers by Having a Consistent Style:

I know this sounds like one of those ‘blah, blah, blah’ ways to gain followers on Instagram. But it isn’t.

Here’s why: people don’t follow you because of the content you’ve posted but because of what they think the future content you’ll post will be like.

Say you have a corgi fan page, every day you post cute corgi pictures and videos without fail.

If Instagram users keep seeing your posts,they’ll eventually realize that you always post the cutest corgi content.

So they follow you with the expectation that your account will always be more of the same type of content.

Having a consistent style or theme is more than just a branding play, it’s about creating an expectation for your Instagram account that your followers or potential followers can count on. They want to see more of the same type of content, every day.

If you can deliver that consistency with every post, you’ll grow your followers on Instagram at a faster rate over time.

#6. Hashtags to Get Followers on Instagram:

Many experts will tell you to only use 5 or 11 hashtags or some other arbitrary numbers. But when I was building my store’s Instagram account, I ignored their advice and ran wild with it.

I’d copy and paste a list of hashtags from my phone onto my app. Then, I’d sometimes switch it up to try different hashtags. Andeventually, I figured out which ones were right for my brand.

Usually, I’d go as close to or right to the max number of hashtags possible — 30. That’s the magic number.

Truth is, you add all those hashtags in the first comment. And as your page engagement grows, no one will ever see the first comment because they’re too busy tagging their friends in your post.

Sure, when you’re starting out people might see it. But if the goal is to increase visibility, the easiest way to do it is to add more hashtags. As you gain followers, your posts will rank higher for those hashtag keywords giving you even more visibility.

If your hashtags are niche specific, you’ll increase your likelihood of being found by a relevant audience, which will help you grow your followers on Instagram as well.

So avoid generic hashtags like #love or #picoftheday if you’re selling fashion, for example.

#7. Use Your Instagram Posts in Blog Posts to Build Followers:

If you have your own personal or business blog, you can embed your Instagram pictures into your blog posts.

Like this Don’t forget to follow Oberlo on Instagram while you’re at it.

Say you have a fashion blog, you might write a blog post about styling tips. You can choose posts from Instagram where you show pictures of your layered outfits or a chic outfit look.

You’d then go onto the Instagram website on your desktop, go to your page, click the post, click the ‘…’ icon and click Embed. Then you copy that link into your blog post’s code section.

Over time, more people will be visiting your blog and will be more likely to check out your Instagram account too.

I know that this is more of a long-term game. Especially if you’re not getting traffic today. But adding your Instagram posts right from the beginning gives you a higher chance of visibility.

Start doing this and six months from now you should really start seeing massive returns.

#8. Follow People Who Like Competing Instagram Pages:

To get that Instagram followers increase, you need to find people who follow brands.

Who are your biggest competitors on Instagram? Note them down. Then, browse their posts to see who’s commenting on their posts. Follow them and engage with them.

Keep in mind that when choosing competitors on Instagram, it’s better to go for the smaller brands.

Why? Because if you were selling makeup brushes and trying to engage people who comment on Sephora, there’s a good chance that they’re not the right audience despite being in a similar niche. Bigger brands tend to have more customer loyalty.

However, if you have a competitor who has 100,000 fans on their page, they may not have a loyalty to that brand.

When commenting on posts of those you follow, don’t scare them off with a sales pitch.

And never use the same comment for every person you message.

If they ask a question on their post, give them an answer.

You can also look at the types of comments others are posting for ideas.

As you keep engaging and following people, you’ll start to amass a strong following of your own.