How to Get More Instagram Followers

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24 Feb 2026

Growing followers on Instagram is not a luck game. Imagine this, you make a reel with your heart’s desire, spend hours on a caption and hit publish, but your follower count doesn’t budge. Meanwhile, someone posts a shaky clip with a trending sound and they pop up everywhere.

Why? It may feel unfair, but it isn’t magic, it’s a method which we’ll show you.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to get more followers on Instagram without learning hacks or buying bots. Growing just in numbers is not enough, you need to get the right audience to save, share and engage with your content. Nothing here is "techy", but it gives you practical tactics to plug into your content calendar today. Along the way, we’ll also show how using social media scheduling tools can simplify your workflow and keep your Instagram growth consistent.

Let’s dive in!

What “More Followers” Really Means and Why It Matters?

Before looking for How to Get More Followers on Instagram, you first need to ask yourself "More of who?". As 10,000 random followers won’t deliver the same impact as 1,000 people who are truly interested in your content, save your posts and buy from you.

Think about:

Who do you want to attract (niche, interests, problems)?
What they should think of your profile when they land on yours?
Why would they tap Follow instead of scroll past?

Once you define all these, each of your posts, Stories & Reels get laser-focused instead of "posting just to be active". So follow the steps that we have listed for you.

Turn Your Profile Into a Follow-Worthy Page!

Your profile is your "landing page". Even if a Reel goes viral, people decide seconds later whether to hit Follow based on what they see here.

Optimizing Your Instagram Account

Change to a professional account (Creator or Business) for insights and extra tools for growing. You also get access to:

Follower activity to see when they're most active
Top content performance
Basic demographics such as age, gender and location

This data helps you fine-tune your Instagram strategy and figure out when is your best time to post and what content works for your niche.

Optimizing Your Instagram Bio

Your bio should answer 3 questions instantly: Who are you? What does it serve? Why should they follow?

Things to include in your bio:

Who you help: Busy moms, small business owners, new creators...
What you do: Simple fitness tips or reels that sell or Budget travel hacks etc.
What they get for doing the following: Daily content ideas, 2-minute tutorials, no BS advice.

Example: "Providing creators, brands, businesses and marketers an all-in-one platform to turn Followers into clients".

Also, add personality, an emoji or two if your brand is on point and a call to action like "Follow to know how” or “get your free trial".

Optimizing Your Instagram Feed

Your grid should feel intentional when someone hits your profile.

Use consistency in style: colours, fonts, filters that match your brand.
Pin 3 of your best posts at the top of the page (Intro, biggest value post & strongest social proof).
Mix content types: Educational carousels, relatable memes, before/after and results to reach wider audience.

Finally Ask yourself: "Would I follow this grid if I saw this for the first time?

2. Mastering Your Instagram Content & the Algorithm

The Instagram algorithm is not a monster. It is a system that shows people what they will enjoy most.

Important signals that it looks at:

Watch time (For Reels & videos)
Saves and shares
Comments and DMs
How often people visit your account

To trigger all theses signals you must

Make content that the audience prefers to watch until the end.
Share "save worthy" tips, templates or checklists.
Use hooks in first 3 seconds on Reels & first line captions.
Encourage interaction using questions, polls and Comment on your experience.

Always think less about beating the algorithm and more about creating content your ideal followers want to watch and pass on.

3. What are the Best Types of Instagram Posts?

Different post types play different roles in your social growth.
Reels: Great for reaching and discovering. Short vertical videos with hooks and value or entertainment. Reels are usually the quickest way to reach people who do not yet follow you.

Carousels: Great for guides, tips & educational material. They keep people swiping and can drive lots of saves and shares if the content is valuable for them.
Static Posts: Great for clear, scroll-stopping visuals, quotes or announcements to attract your audience with a clear message.

Stories: Best for building relationships, BTS, quick offers, announcements, updates and more to stay in the daily loop.

Lives: Excellent for deep dives, Q&As, launches & collaborations. Lives give people time with you and build trust.

Mixing these formats keeps your audience varied and your content from becoming repetitive. Here is how you can use these formats for posting on Instagram.

4. Hashtags & Geotags Increase Discovery

Hashtags & geotags will not save weak content, but they do help good content reach further.

Hashtags:
Use a mix of:

Niche hashtags (#socialmediatips, #instagramtips)
Audience/identity hashtags (#smallbusinessowner, #marketers)
Content-specific hashtags (#reelstips, #carouseldesign)

When you use relevant hashtags instead of broad ones with millions of posts. You will surely stand a better chance of appearing in smaller, but targeted hashtag pages.

Geotags:

If your content or business is location-based, tagging your city or venue can show your posts to local users searching or browsing in that area. Suitable for cafes, restaurants, studios, events and local creators.

When you combine these together, it helps Instagram understand what your content is about and who might like it.

5. Posting Your Content at the Right Time

Many research and data indicate that weekdays usually perform well particularly late mornings and early evenings in your main time zone. There are two ways to find the best time to post on Instagram. You can follow generalized posting time or find one that is specific to you.

The best time to post specific for your brands depends on your audience. To find yours, follow the below steps

Get a professional account.
Check out your insights to see when your followers are most engaged.
Post around those peak times and see what gets the most engagement.
Later analyse the data and post your best content on your best days & hours.
Fill in the gaps between feed posts with Stories to keep your account active.

Timing doesn't replace good content, but it makes good content reach more people.

6. Schedule Posts in Advance

If you're someone who posts only when you get inspired, then your growth will also be random. Don’t expect your followers to engage when you can’t maintain consistency. So, scheduling your posts in advance helps maintain feeds that both your audience and the algorithm are satisfied with.

Why it works? Consistent posting makes your account appear more often in feeds and Explore, reaching more audiences. This also prevents you from disappearing for days or weeks at a time.

How to Start Scheduling on Instagram?

Plan at least 1-2 weeks of content in a simple calendar.
Record 3-5 reels at a time.
Batch your creatives as two to three days a week.
Pick which type of post goes out on which day (Reels/Carousels/Images/Stories).
Write captions, research hashtags and pick the right times to post.

This is one of the simplest ways to build a system over time to increase followers on Instagram.

7. The Smarter Way to Schedule Your Instagram Post

You can simply use social media management tools such as GUDSHO Social, Buffer or Metricool to plan and schedule 30 days' worth of posts in just minutes. The platform will automatically publish your posts at the right time without any human intervention. Not only that, you can use the same to publish on various social channels at once and track their performance from a single dashboard.

Posting Schedule Format

When you know what to post, map it out into a simple schedule format

Example Weekly Flow:
2-3 Reels (Value + Trends).
1-2 carousel (how to, mistakes, tips).
Stories almost every day and multiple times (behind the scenes, polls, updates, announcements)
1 Live once or twice a month (Q&A, workshop or training)

Cross-Promoting Your Instagram

You need to showcase yourself in places where your audience is more likely to click your profile.

Add your Instagram link to your email signature, website and other social profiles.
Use your Instagram handle in YouTube video tutorials, podcasts or webinars.
Post Reels on Shorts, TikToks and other platforms to get a little push to your IG account.

8. Grow Your Instagram Followers Through Engagement

You cannot grow your followers just from what you post, you need to interact with your audience. Engagement is one of the core in Instagram’s growth algorithm and not just a metric.

Engage with your existing audience

Reply to comments beyond emojis.
React to DMs thoughtfully and quickly.
Use stories to reply to your audience’s questions & shout out to followers.
You can also use the social inbox feature from social media management tools to track and reply instantly.

Engage outside of your account

Comment on posts relevant to your niche and provide helpful thoughts instead of a generic "Nice!".
Join conversations on larger accounts that your audience is already following.
React to Stories or answer their questions.

What do you get when you follow these two things?

Puts you in front of everyone’s feeds and new audiences organically.
Builds trust so people think they're following a person and not a "page".

Common Mistakes to Avoid to Grow on Instagram

The following are a few things that slow your growth even when you do a lot of "right things". Try for slow, steady and loyal growth instead. It's what creates better opportunities, sales and long-term impact.

Don’t try to chase viral trends that are outside your niche.
Posting and ghosting (no replies, comments or interactions) won’t build trust.
Don’t change your niche often and stick to one as it may confuse your audience.
Stop focusing only on follower count, as engagement and community help you grow better.

Wrapping It Up! Turn Your Instagram Into a Follower Magnet

Think of growing your Instagram followers as a growth system or a steady process, not a one-time trick. Make your profile clear & compelling so visitors know why they should follow you. Create content that people want to save, share and watch. Use # hashtags and geotags to increase discoverability and show up to your ideal audience. You can schedule your posts in advance using social media management tools to ensure consistency and on-time posting.

Most importantly, experiment with when you should post on Instagram and observe your insights to find out the things that work best for you. With strategy, consistency and real engagement, followers stay, interact and become your fans easily.

Ready to make Instagram work for you? Hit publish, and your growth story starts now.