Instagram has truly evolved, long gone are the days where you could grow instantly, now the algorithm is more sophisticated and competitive. Here is a no bs approach to Instagram growth and getting the algorithm to favour you, 2021 edition.
If there’s anything I have learnt in 2021 is that if your new to the whole Instagram scene or you want to start a fresh account, your first 1000 followers will be the ones who will dictate where the algorithm will place you and who it will recommend you to.
This Instagram growth also depends on what is Instagram recommendable content.
Instagram growth relies on a multitude of factors which include:
- A solid foundation and profile optimisation
- Audience development. Who is your target audience? What does your audience need from you?
- A content strategy which is value based
- Algorithm which recommends you content to other people who don’t follow you YET.
- Content which doesn’t breach Instagram’s rules.
- How engaging your content is, to get people to stop and look. This is the ‘view time’
- Consistent content.
Instagram methods of growth include:
- Interacting with your potential target audience (comments, likes, DMs, etc.. )
- Paid ads
- Shoutouts
- Producing valuable and engaging content which makes that audience actually stop for longer to view your content!
- Hashtag planning and research
- Linking your Instagram to a further social platform.
Let’s create a solid Instagram plan so that you can get the most out of your account. You’ll be surprised how important the first 1000 IG followers are.
How to train the algorithm to favour you
Getting your first 1000 followers will train the algorithm to recommend you to your target audience.
The methodology I’m about to describe is not based on the algorithm itself but rather on YOU, so what you put in, in terms of effort is what you get out of it.
I got this method from Hey Dominik, his method relies on human input rather than on the Instagram growth software.
The important part to growing your account is to first optimise your Instagram account to achieve the best results. The Instagram growth methods are of no value if you don’t get this part right.
So let’s get right into it.
Choose your niche
Instagram’s algorithm has a clearly outlined the manner by which it operates, people underestimate how important it is to select a specific niche. This specific niche allows Instagram to place you and recommend you to your target audience.
Therefore clearly outlining and producing content which is relevant to that specific niche helps Instagram to categorise you.
This will pave the way for a solid foundation and train the algorithm to recommend you to those who could be interested in your type of content.
Optimise your account and Instagram profile
We have touched on this subject, it’s as simple as this: YOU HAVE ONE CHANCE TO IMPRESS THEM. First impressions are very important but what do I mean by optimising your Instagram account?
What is Instagram Optimization?
Instagram optimisation entails curating everything that appears on your profile to it’s best level.
Here are the key steps needed to achieve an optimised profile:
- Turn your profile into a business account or a creator account
The reason behind switching to business or creator accounts is that you get a multitude of benefits which include:
- Insights – this feature will allow you to track the behaviour of your followers and how well your posts are doing. This is so important because you can then create focused content which your users will definitely enjoy. This takes the guess work out of the equation and gives you clear metrics.
- Contact buttons – direct contact buttons which allow followers to easily get in contact with you through email, dms and sms.
- Shop – now you have the option to incorporate your shop directly into your account with more ease.
- Ads – will allow you to promote your posts with ease.
- Location and opening hours – exact business location and opening hours are featured.
Switching to a business or creator account is as easy as clicking on SETTINGS then click on SWITCH TO A PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNT.
2. Setting up your Instagram SEO
SEO is search engine optimisation, it is a feature that makes you searchable if set up properly.
On Instagram the first place where you get a search term opportunity is the username. Setting up the username in a manner that it represents your overall definition will allow new users to find you.
Let’s say a brand is looking to work with a beauty blogger in London , you may want to include beauty blogger London in your username.
Instagram has become more sophisticated and now their search bar is starting to provide a search engine type of experience rather than searching via the hashtag system.
Through testing it I noticed that not all search terms come up as your typical search that you get on google, but I assume that is because it is a new developing feature.
The fact that Instagram is now rolling out a search bar that is like that of a search engine is exciting as it will help delivering an opportunity to be seen by your target audience.
How is this important to you?
It is important that your caption includes a detailed description that will help you be searchable through this new Instagram change once it is featured on all the search term. AS IT WILL GIVE YOU ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY FOR GROWTH.
3. Setting up your profile in a professional manner
Let’s face it in the sea of instagram you may well get ONLY one shot to hook your potential target audience, that’s why the set up of your profile is so important.
The Instagram profile should look professional wether you are a business or a creator.
Here is a checklist to help you achieve exactly this:
- Set out the logistics of your account like the exact niche, brand colours and prepare an exact content strategy.
- Upload an eye catching profile picture
- Set up your bio ( I have a whole post about the best tricks to set up this part)
- Decide which contact buttons you want to be featured on your profile , an email button , a location button or a message button.
- Decide which action buttons you want to feature : order food, book now and reserve.
- If you have a shop you also have the option to set this up on your profile.
- Set up your Instagram highlights with your brand colours. You can download some free Instagram highlight covers or affordable Instagram highlight covers.
- if you are just starting a new Instagram profile make sure you have at least enough posts to start off with once you’ve completed all the above steps.
Join my email list to get your free Instagram growth checklist, a daily Instagram planner 2021, a weekly Instagram planner 2021, a monthly Instagram planner 2021 and an Instagram growth tracker for you to easily get organised.
Instagram Content Strategy and planning
Create a solid content strategy that provides value to your target audience
I want you to ask yourself , why do you personally follow specific IG accounts?
In my personal experience I follow specific accounts built around:
- my personal interests
- these accounts providing information or content that is of interest to me
- the specific profile being able to provoke in me certain emotions such as entertainment, happiness or an outlook on current world issue.
Your content should be built around what your followers would need in your specific niche.
Sit down and strategise by:
- Identifying your target audience and what type of content they enjoy (you can monitor what works and what doesn’t from your insights page).
- Build content based around your target audiences’s needs.
- Prepare content in advance so you can post consistently on your channel.
- Follow trends and check what your competitors are doing (ask yourself what can I do better, differently with my unique flare).
- Instagram encourages not to use content that has watermarks from other platforms, or reposting older content! They encourage FRESH content even on stories!
What type of content should you focus on Instagram?
Adam Mosseri does a weekly q&a on his Instagram profile and he has stated multiple times that using all of the available features on IG is recommended.
Try to produce varied content style in the form of:
- Classic Instagram post
- Classic Instagram videos
- Classic Instagram Stories
- Instagram Carousel posts
- Reels
- IGTV posts
- Guides
There’s an unconfirmed rumour that Instagram increases your reach when you use their newer features.
Planning out IG content
Planning your IG content is very important , it keeps you organised and most importantly consistent.
Think about the people you love to follow, you and I both know that we love daily updates.
Don’t forget to stick to your niche, as this is the main reason why your target audience would want to follow you.
How to plan IG content in advance
The big question around this is ,how do you plan out Instagram content?
Well, you could plan out content monthly or weekly, depending on what feels best for you. I really DON’T recommend planning content out daily because you will soon burn out.
Obviously, there’s an exception to the rule when there are trends that just spring up and then you can possibly adjust your content strategy.
Here is an example of how I plan my monthly content strategy around the different spheres of my niche , seasonal content and what my followers may need.
This is the easiest way to strategise and keep organised on your path to IG success.
I have created the perfect package for you to get easily organised, free of charge, just sign up to my email list:
- a daily Instagram planner 2021
- a weekly Instagram planner 2021
- a monthly Instagram planner 2021
- general niche content planner
- an Instagram growth tracker
- an Instagram growth checklist for you to easily get organised
Fishing for IG content ideas
If you are stuck for Instagram content ideas, there are so many ways to get inspired depending on your niche which include:
- Follow your direct competitors , see what you like and what you could improve with your authentic flare (note how I emphasised authentic flare, this is because you Should not copy other creators content but rather get inspiration by them, don’t forget to tag them for the inspiration, it’s only fair).
- Watch Youtube videos from people in your niche, check the comments section ,see what people are asking and what they are interested in.
- Other social media channels offer great sources of inspiration like: Reddit , Facebook, Twitter and even Snapchat.
- Ask yourself what would you want to see if you were interested in a product or topic and then build around this.
The Instagram Algorithm
The Instagram algorithm is ever changing and sophisticated but Instagram have been very open as to how it works.
Instagram stated that ‘The Home Feed Ranking System ranks the posts from the sources you follow based on factors like engagement, relevance, and freshness’.
Instagram picks the best post to recommend to you from who you follow and from who you don’t, based on how it ranks on:
- engagement
- how relevant the post is
- how interested the user is or could be
- content quality
- freshness
- target audience interests
Let’s go into these factors to better understand how this could affect if your post is seen.
What do they mean by Instagram engagement?
Instagram engagement is any action carried out to engage with a particular post or account, this comes in the form of:
- How long the user stops on your profile or post, in other words the VIEW TIME.
- Liking the post
- Sharing the post
- Saving the post
- Commenting on the post in a manner which shows extensive interest.
- Responding to stories
- Initiating a response which makes the user message you in the DMs
There is no particular importance awarded to each type of engagement unlike the unfounded rumour that is circulating on Instagram. Specific actions don’t carry a certain degree of importance according to Instagram.
A series of people on Instagram were circulating ‘unfounded rumours’ that shares were more important, then saves, then comments and then likes.
It is actually more sophisticated than thought and entirely depends on each individual IG user behaviour which you can clearly find on Instagram’s blog.
Let’s take a look at what I mean, with a hypothetical example:
Let’s say USER X’s IG behaviour is one that ,they always share posts they are interested in and never likes posts.
If user X likes your post, this specific action will carry more value than if he/she shared it because it is an action they barely carry out.
Can you see why specific user behaviour has different value depending on that unique user Instagram behaviour.
However, there will be also factors which will negatively impact engagement, which is also based on user behaviour:
- those who press not interested and see fewer posts like these.
- if audience scrolls past your post, this shows a behaviour of someone who is NOT interested in your content.
The importance of engagement type relies on specific user behaviour that’s why Adam Mosseri has stated that it is ever changing.
The important takeaway from all of this is to be AUTHENTIC and produce content that people enjoy rather than focusing on what type of engagement would get you extra ‘algorithm recommendation points’.
The sophisticated IG algorithm tracks behaviour and is able to distinguish behaviour which is real from behaviour that is forced.
Relevancy and target user based interest
I can’t stress how important it is to pick your niche, this allows Instagram’s algorithm to recommend you to your target audience.
Let me give you an example, if you are interested in make-up tutorials and you follow people who create looks, then Instagram will show you content from two categories of people:
- Connected recommendations
- Unconnected recommendations
Connected recommendations are based on those who you follow, so the post that will be shown will be the ones who are relevant to your interests and user behaviour as well as how Instagram ranks them.
Unconnected recommendations are those which are based on your activity on IG which you don’t already follow but could possibly interest you.
By this Instagram algorithm model can you now understand how important it is to find your passion and your niche.
This will allow Instagram to recommend your posts to those who are interested in your type of content as long you follow Instagram’s terms and conditions and don’t engage in behaviour that is NOT RECOMMENDED.
If you are wondering what is not recommended behaviour my post about the 10 biggest Instagram mistakes destroying your growth according to the latest Instagram updates may help with this.
Have you ever noticed how the Instagram growth YouTube guru’s always suggest you identify and check your competitors ?
This is because Instagram will rank you against your competitors and people who produce similar content to yours! Ask yourself what can you do better with your AUTHENTIC AND UNIQUE style. What do you provide that they don’t?
Content quality and freshness
Instagram has the ability to understand which content is high quality and how ‘fresh’ it is through software image, text, sound recognition and decoding.
Ranking is based on the two above factors. Your goal therefore should be to produce high quality content which is useful or interesting.
Let’s be honest with ourselves, now that high quality lighting , editing , video and imagery is readily available, the baseline standard expectations are higher than ever.
By freshness, you have to remember that Adam Mosseri has stated multiple times that this is an ever evolving platform and creators should evolve with the platform.
Let me give you an example, Reels has been introduced or shoppable stories ,it is important that you include the new features in your content production schedule (if it’s been rolled out to your account).
Instagram rules violations
Instagram has far evolved from the simple platform it used to be.
A multitude of behaviours and content types can get your account permanently deleted as well as “not recommended”.
Here is a list of Instagram actions that will limit your Instagram account:
- Content which doesn’t foster a safe community, such as eating disorders, self-harm, suicide, graphic imagery, any type of violence, sexually explicit content, products that are regulated and reshaped content from non-recommended accounts.
- Content of cosmetic procedures, health claim products and business models which claim to be risk free such as forex/Bitcoin trade.
- Contain which contains clickbait, engagement bait or contest/giveaway promotions.
- Low quality content such as reposting content from other sources or that you have no authorship over.
- False or misleading content which leads to disinformation in vaccines or news as well as the use of fake documents.
- The building of followers or likes in a misleading way.
- Any behaviour which is not of a genuine authentic behaviour (bot like behaviour)
- Old content or not original content.
Therefore engaging in non recommended actions is definitely not the way to go if you want to get a chance of Instagram actually showing your account to new people.
Now that you have optimised your account let’s see some methods of Instagram growth to get your new account both in sync with the algorithm and ready to be professional enough urge users to follow you.
We are now going to focus on Interaction based Instagram growth which solely depends on how much work you put in. This makes you the driving force behind this growth type rather than the algorithm.
Interaction Based Instagram growth
What is Instagram growth based interaction?
Instagram interaction is when through your account you interact in any sort of way available on Instagram with other accounts.
The types of Instagram interactions include:
- Likes
- Comments
- Comment likes
- DMs
- Story interactions
- Ads
Why is IG interaction Important ?
Instagram interaction is at the core reason why social media is defined as SOCIAL MEDIA.
It is called social media because it is a platform created to socially interact online with others.
When you interact with content and people you are setting off a virtual social interaction and through this interaction you build a series of:
- Friendships
- Fans
- Possible future clients
Also the interaction that you get in return tells the algorithm that ‘yes I am interested in this account’ ,this will allow you to get recommended to more accounts which are interested in similar accounts.
Bear in mind though that the overall outcome is totally dependant on what type of content you offer. Once you get your target audience’s attention what ultimately will make them decide if they want to follow you is your actual content.
Can you see now why it’s important to follow the steps above and optimise your Instagram account?
How many daily interactions should I perform?
Instagram to my knowledge has NOT set out in stone via any of their official information channels what the Instagram action limit is.
Many marketing and Instagram experts have stood a common ground when it came down to Instagram interactions limits by doing their in house research.
Instagram interaction limits are dependant on a series of factors:
- The age of your account
- How real your interaction is
- How genuine your account behaviour is
As mentioned above the algorithm software is sophisticated and what you must avoid is the behaviour a bot would carry out. For example a bot will:
- Perform quick likes in an attempt to reach the most accounts.
- Leave irrelevant comments which are of a spam like nature or just an emoji type interaction.
- Leave copy and paste comments on multiple target accounts.
- Like comments at an extensive speed.
- Send spam type DMs which are basically copy paste to all the accounts. This is bot like behaviour.
Overall this means, you have to make MEANINGFUL interactions which to be honest with time will help you grow your follower base.
Through extensive research I found that social pros advise you to carry out REAL interaction as Instagram is “now even more sensitive to bot like behaviour”.
Don’t forget that if your account is new you are more restricted to the amount of actions you can carry out whereas if you have an aged account there is more leeway.
Bear in mind that Instagram has tightened the limits for getting action blocked but on average Instagram will allow the following interactions:
*don’t forget that for newer accounts the numbers may well be much lower.
INSTAGRAM LIKE LIMITS
Instagram likes should be kept at around 300-400 likes per day.
I don’t recommend you go clicking randomly away like a bot but think of someone who is genuinely interacting with an account, they look at the post and make their decision as to wether or not to like it.
Remember, that you liking the post is to be done in a genuine manner, these likes need to be spaced out during your day. Look at the post and make sure for the least it is a post you would like.
INSTAGRAM COMMENT LIMITS
Social pros recommend 2-5 comments per hour and a max of 20-30 comments per day.
Josh Ryan stated on one of his YouTube videos that he recommends around 50 comments per day spread throughout the day, however I am not sure how he reached this exact number but I assume that due to the fact that he runs a social media growth company, their in house research must have come up with these numbers.
As you can tell there is a huge gap in numbers between the two sources. I would opt for a lower end number if you are new to the platform and a higher end number for an aged account.
It’s not all doom and gloom, the fact that fewer comments are allowed gives you a chance to write more thought-out comments that are targeted to specific posts.
INSTAGRAM FOLLOW AND UNFOLLOW LIMITS
Follow limits and unfollow limits were set equally to 7-13 per hour, which mount up to 100-150 follows and unfollows per day.
Again, this is so you are not identified as a bot.
INSTAGRAM DIRECT MESSAGE LIMITS
Instagram direct messages should be kept between 20-30 per day.
Think about it from the perspective of genuine behaviour, none would send out more than that except for special occasions.
My advice is to send targeted specific dms that are different for each user you are contacting.
How much should I set aside for an interaction based IG growth?
You could set 1 hour to 90 minutes per day, spread out through your day to achieve your goals.
Examples of Instagram growth based interactions
Make sure that when you interact with your target audience you remember that it’s NOT ALL ABOUT YOU. In other words make your interaction meaningful and targeted.
Here are some practical examples of what to do and what to avoid doing for each interaction category.
EXAMPLES OF LIKE INTERACTIONS
DO like content that you are genuinely interested in and make sure you DON’T just go on a random like rampage.
EXAMPLES OF COMMENT INTERACTIONS
DO comment on posts where you can provide some sort of value or that is specific to that user’s caption by:
- Looking at the picture/ video
- Reading the caption (you’ll be surprised how many people skip that step and it’s a major telltale of spam engagement behaviour. The user also will know you are not behaving in a genuine manner but rather are fishing for accounts to follow you).
- Comment with meaningful or value based sentences.
Let’s expand on this last point.
Let’s say that the caption to the photo or video you have interacted with is asking users their thoughts on a matter like: which is your favourite make-up palette.
I recommend commenting in a manner that shows thoughtfulness and effort. I can guarantee that the user will truly appreciate your effort and definitely notice you.
My comment would look like this:
Great video/ shot, I particularly enjoyed the shades you used. My favourite palette is definitely my Huda Beauty Nude palette it’s the one that I reach out for the most on a daily basis.
Can you see how much effort and how targeted the answer was.
This makes that account then interested in clicking onto your profile to see what content you offer.
This is what NOT to do when you comment:
- do not just leave emojis
- do not ask them to follow back
- do not promote your page in their comments
- do not promote your products in their comments
- do not skip reading their caption
Leaving a comment which is either self promoting, irrelevant or just an emoji is not the way you want to take your account to the next level. It creates instant mistrust and people will definitely not want to follow you.
When it comes down to comment likes it is important that you like those comments which are in line with your thoughts and actually read the comment you are liking.
This creates genuine engagement which allows you to grow and spark an interest in your profile.
Also someone who is reading the comments may read your comment and be like let’s see what this other account is all about.
This can create more connections in the long run.
If you are commenting on big pages, you should opt at turning notifications on and commenting as soon as they post so that your comment doesn’t get buried in the multitude of other comments.
Big accounts can give you a great opportunity too for getting noticed.
EXAMPLES OF FOLLOW AND UNFOLLOW BEHAVIOUR
People can spot a fake a mile away DO NOT go on a follow and unfollow rampage which is random.
Think about it from their perspective, if someone was to follow you and not interact with your account it would generally mean, they are doing the typical follow and unfollow, whereby they unfollow you once you follow them back. THIS IS A BIG NO NO.
What you want to go and do, is go on their account like or comment on some posts you enjoy and then FOLLOW them. What does this behaviour suggest? It suggests that you are not spamming and you are genuinely interested in that account.
This will prompt them to have a look at your profile and decide if they want to follow you.
EXAMPLES OF DIRECT MESSAGES
Let’s always put ourselves in the receiving ends shoes, what type of message would you enjoy receiving versus what makes your skin crawl.
Unsolicited dms include messages which are:
- Self promoting like “please follow me or comment and like my post”
- Irrelevant messages sent to that account
- bot automated spam like messages which are obviously sent in bulk
- messages that ask for favours like shoutouts
- message which ask the person to make purchases through a discount.
People can spot spam behaviour a mile away! You will loose respect when you engage in this way and are likely to even get reported as spam or blocked.
Whereas if you send thoughtful targeted messages to that specific user, you will definitely earn both respect and spark their curiosity.
Real life example:
Let’s hypothetically say you are messaging a beauty blogger whose name is Natasha.
Hi Natasha, I really enjoyed how you used the Huda palette (targeted to the content that you have looked at on their profile), the look you created was really beautiful. I look forward to seeing your future content.
Notice how I made the message personal by using their name and targeted to their content. Under no circumstance did I mention my account or ask for favours.
Do not please create templates for messages to send all over because you may well get caught out.
EXAMPLES OF IG STORY INTERACTION
Again, as per all the advice above DO interact with peoples stories with a genuine comment and not your standard emoji. You will find that people truly appreciate the effort and this builds a great basis for a great social experience.
I will now touch on further methods of growth but in synthesis as these will be future posts which are truly extensive.
Paid ads method of growth
I’m not a fan of this method to be honest because I haven’t got great results from it and it is very expensive.
I am not fond of how the ad will show also to your own followers, which to me doesn’t make any sense because they already follow you.
I personally haven’t seen any worthy growth which is worth me spending money on. Just because it doesn’t work for me doesn’t mean it won’t work for you, you can also test it out and see if it’s worth the investment.
Shoutout growth method
The shoutout method of growth is very old school but is a great method for getting your account seen by more people who don’t already follow you.
A shoutout entails an Instagram account posting a story or image of your account on their story.
Shoutouts can be free of charge , such as a friend posting about you or shoutout per shoutout basis were two accounts swap out shoutouts.
Shoutouts are also paid and these can be tricky for a multitude of reasons:
- The account shouting you out is not in your exact niche so their followers regardless of their follower count may not be interested in yours.
- There’s a lot of influencers ‘claiming’ they have great reach through their followers but actually have huge amounts of fake followers which obviously will not convert in new followings.
- It’s not a certain guarantee that the followers of whoever shoutouts you out will follow you.
For targeted shoutouts you should try opt for accounts within your niche as that’s where your target audience is hanging out.
Hashtag planning and hashtag based Instagram growth
Hashtag research and the use of hashtags for growth can be a successful way to get your account seen by more people. Fohr insights state that when hashtags are done right you can increase your engagement on average by 12.6%.
However, it is not a stable way to get followers as Instagram is so ever changing but a great little bonus to increase reach.
The trick to Instagram hashtag research is to choose 30 hashtags in total.
When you choose your 30 hashtags remember that is the maximum amount of hashtags you can use on a post on Instagram.
The trick is to choose 5 which are specific niche community hashtags and 25 hashtags that are specifically relevant to that post.
But what hashtags do you choose? In my experience go and find medium to small hashtags with a lot of engagement as well as your target audience.
Keep an eye on your insights and see what hashtag combination works and adjust it accordingly.
This takes practice and tweaking it your hashtag list can bring further reach to your profile.
Linking your Instagram to another social media platform as a click through for growth
Through extensive research I found that marketing companies encourage using another social media platform so that you can have people directed to your Instagram account.
Influencers have been doing this successfully currently with both YouTube and TikTok which have a great rap for bringing in traffic.
Have a link to your Instagram in your other social platforms this gives an extra chance for your account to be seen.
I hope this enlightened you to more information as to how Instagram growth can be successfully achieved with the right knowledge.
Don’t forget that knowledge is power.
Did you enjoy this post? Have you implemented any of the techniques above to grow you Instagram account? Let me know below in the comments section.
