Wondering how to get more followers on Instagram? You do not want to spend the slightest euro in your strategy of acquiring new Insta followers? I have analyzed dozens of Instagram accounts for you to identify their best tips (and reveal them to you for free in this article). Here are 24 free (and underrated) tricks that will help you grow your Instagram followers faster than you expected!
Quick Read: 24 Tips to Gain Free Instagram Followers in a Nutshell
Are you a speed reader? I understand you, I’m the same. Here are the 24 tips detailed in this article summarized in a few key points:
- Optimize your Instagram username and account name
- Optimize your Instagram bio
- Optimize your Instagram profile picture
- Optimize your Instagram feed
- Optimize your featured stories
- Define an editorial line and strategy
- Create and share quality content
- Publish posts, stories and reels as regularly as possible
- Use your other social accounts to attract new followers
- Use these hashtags dedicated to gaining followers on Instagram
- Use hashtags smartly in your Instagram posts
- Identify your competitors on Instagram (similar accounts more popular than you)
- Follow hashtags associated with your niche
- Interact with other Instagram accounts that publish the same type of content as you by liking their posts
- Interact with other Instagram accounts (in your theme) better known than you in the comments
- Follow your competitors’ followers daily and selectively
- Create Reels (in bulk)
- Repost your Instagram Reels on TikTok, Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts, Pinterest and Linkedin
- Prefer carousels to simple images
- Optimize your captions with long descriptions
- Pay attention to Instagram limits so you don’t get your account banned
- Keep an eye on your subscribers vs subscriptions ratio
- Make collaborations with other Instagram accounts
- Create a Qr code redirecting to your Instagram account
Want more details on each section? Just keep reading ;).
24 Tips to Organically Increase Your Instagram Followers
With over 800 million monthly active users, Instagram has become one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. If you haven’t started using Instagram for your business yet, now is the time to get started! But how can you gain followers on Instagram and how can you retain them? Here are 24 Instagram tricks, which work in 2023, to organically gain more followers ! Let’s go !
1- Optimize your Instagram username and account name
Optimizing Instagram username and account name is clearly one of the most underrated tricks when it comes to earning potential associated followers.
For what ?
Simply because the username and name of an account greatly influence its visibility in Instagram search results.
So when someone searches for a keyword associated with your activity on Instagram, they’ll be much more likely to find your account if it uses the term the user is looking for in their username and account name. .
You do not believe me ?
Do a search on any generic word in your industry and look at the first results that appear in the “accounts” tab of your search, you may be surprised.
If you need a real-life case, just search Instagram for “seaweed” and check out the account search results.
It’s good to know: the nickname of your account must not be longer than 30 characters.
2- Optimize your Instagram bio
The Instagram bio is one of the important elements to optimize from the start on your Instagram account.
For what ?
Because it is one of the first elements that a potential new follower will consult.
An optimized Instagram bio must therefore clearly explain what your account brings as added value to a target follower.
So you have concretely 150 characters to convince a visitor to become a subscriber!
Here is an example of an optimized Insta bio (if we had to make one for our own Instagram account): “ #digitalmarketing media consulted by more than 12 million people, we share our best digital tips with you every day! ”
You can also add a hashtag or two in your account description to optimize your profile’s ranking on Instagram’s search engine.
Good to know: your Instagram bio should be no longer than 150 characters.
Here is another example of a successful Instagram bio:
3- Optimize your Instagram profile picture
The profile picture associated with your account is also crucial for optimizing the number of new subscribers.
The more attractive it is, the better.
Most people browsing Instagram want to follow people, not brands.
If you can, ideally prefer a photo of a person to the logo of a company (or your brand).
Keep in mind that you can always replace this photo sooner or later with your logo if you want to “professionalize” the look of your Instagram account in the future when you have many followers.
Of course, there are always counterexamples (eg Respire by Justine Hutteau).
The choice of profile photo will have to be made according to your activity and your will or not to embody your own brand at 200% or not.
Good to know: to maximize the quality of the image when it is hosted on Instagram, prefer the .png format and minimum dimensions of 100 x 100 pixels even if we recommend that you upload an image of 400 x 400 pixels wide to optimize rendering, regardless of the device used to consult your Instagram account.
4- Optimize your Instagram feed
Designing a professional Instagram feed is key to converting an account visitor into a future follower.
Whether you opt for the diagonal, vertical, checkerboard, monotheme or puzzle style, the most important thing is to stick to it over time to have a flow of Insta posts that is pleasant to look at (and that makes you want to subscribe)!
Along with the account description, featured stories, and profile picture, this is one of the crucial elements that will or will not make a visitor want to subscribe to your account.
It’s good to know: there are already pre-made professional Instagram feeds that can be bought for only a few euros online and require little technical knowledge to modify them.
5- Optimize your featured stories
Featured stories, also known as permanent stories, are Insta stories that you can pin to the top of your profile.
You can create as many featured story categories as you want.
However, we advise you to stick to the different types of stories you share (to be defined in your editorial line).
Optimizing your featured stories will help you give insight into the content you share to your future followers.
Good to know: customizing the featured images of your stories to grab attention and maintain graphic consistency with your entire feed is more than recommended.
6- Define an editorial line and strategy
Offering consistent and related content is key to attracting new Instagram followers and retaining them.
Defining your editorial line is therefore one of the most important steps when you want to optimize your Instagram account, whether it is already existing or brand new.
To define an editorial line, you must first know who you are addressing: who are your target subscribers?
When you have identified the typical profile of your target subscriber, all you have to do is ask yourself what types of content this person searches for and likes the most.
(You can have several targets and have one type of publication per targeted target, the different targets must not be too far from each other for all of your followers to find all of your relevant publications).
It’s good to know: an editorial line helps you plan your content over time and define an editorial calendar that will save you time in the long term when creating your content for Instagram.
7- Create and share quality content
I see you coming, you’re going to say to me: “He’s cute, but what is quality content? “.
Quality content is content that you, instead of your target follower, would have liked to view and interact with.
Not clear enough?
Your images must be beautiful, your videos captivating, your captions interesting, your content inspiring, …
Of course, depending on the niche (sector of activity) in which you operate, quality content will not be the same (some sectors require more videos than others, for example).
It’s good to know: do not hesitate to look at the most popular content of your competitors to identify the themes that appeal to your target audience.
8- Publish posts, stories and reels as regularly as possible
The velocity, understand, the rhythm of publication, is key to quickly break into Instagram and obtain the most subscribers possible, for free, without having to use any paid tool.
We therefore recommend that you publish as much quality content as possible at the most regular interval possible (without spamming your subscribers).
A good average is to publish between 1 and 5 contents per day (all types combined).
It’s good to know: it is recommended to publish ideally at least once a day but nothing prevents you from varying the formats and publishing several times a day via different formats (Reels, post, story).
9- Use your other social accounts to attract new followers
If you already have an audience via your other personal social accounts like pros, it would be a shame not to use them to gain your first additional subscribers on Insta.
If you have a blog, newsletter, YouTube channel, podcast, adding a message or CTA directing your current audience to your Instagram account (explaining why they should follow you there) is a very good way to gain new qualified followers quickly and for free.
It’s good to know: you can conversely use Instagram to redirect your new subscribers to your other social accounts via the “links” section of your Instagram bio which allows you to natively add several external links.
10- Use these hashtags dedicated to gaining followers on Instagram
Using popular hashtags dedicated to gaining followers on Instagram is a good way to gain your first subscribers easily (be careful, however, they will clearly not be your most active or loyal subscribers).
Among the hashtags that quickly allow you to gain a few additional followers when used in your publications, here are the most used:
- #like4likes
- #likeforlikes
- #like4like
- #likeforlike
- #follow4follow
- #followforfollow
- #followme
- #like4follow
- #likeforfollow
Pro tip: create many such posts when launching an Instagram account, then hide these less qualitative posts from your Instagram feed after a few weeks with Instagram’s Archive feature.
It’s good to know: using hashtags dedicated to gaining subscribers is a good strategy to get started, but we do not recommend that you use it in the long term at the risk that your subscriber base is not qualitative enough. .
11- Use hashtags wisely in your Instagram posts
No, the use of hashtags on Instagram has not died since the modifications of the algorithm of the social network co-founded by Kevin Systorm.
On the contrary, it is still possible to achieve good organic visibility through the selective use of the right hashtags, especially since Instagram launched the possibility for accounts to follow posts associated with specific hashtags.
To find the best hashtags to use in your posts, we recommend reading our article dedicated to Instagram hashtag generators.
Pro Tip: Alternate between very popular hashtags, moderately popular hashtags and niche hashtags to optimize the overall performance of your Insta posts.
It’s good to know: we recommend no more than 3 quality hashtags per publication. Prefer highly targeted hashtags to overused and overly competitive hashtags.
12- Identify your competitors on Instagram (similar accounts more popular than you)
Having more subscribers for free on Instagram also requires carrying out a quality competitive analysis.
The larger your list of competing accounts, the more likely you are to attract their followers to your subscriber list.
To discover your competitors, all you have to do is search for keywords related to your industry in the “Accounts” section of the Instagram search engine.
You can also identify relevant accounts by following specific hashtags.
It’s good to know: we advise you to identify at least between 10 and 20 competing accounts (or similar to yours). The more you have, the better. You can also target accounts in niches different from yours but followed by your typical target follower (these accounts may also be good candidates for creating win/win partnerships when your account takes off).
13- Follow hashtags associated with your niche
Following hashtags associated with your industry makes it much easier for you to engage with accounts that post about topics that relate to your niche.
The accounts with which you will interact with likes and/or comments will generally be your potential followers for your account, so we urge you not to underestimate this approach.
Good to know: you can follow as many hashtags as you want, but we recommend that you only follow the 10 most relevant and popular with your activity at first and then gradually expand the list as your account will grow and you will always want to attract more new subscribers.
14- Interact with other Instagram accounts that publish the same type of content as you by liking their posts
We introduced it in the previous tip, but this tip of interacting with other active Instagram accounts that post about topics associated with your account, through likes, is a great way to grab attention. potential followers to your account.
It’s good to know: you should not overuse this trick so as not to see your Instagram account banned for spam. We therefore recommend that you like posts for 5-minute slots per day only. The important thing here is to do this regularly and recurring over time.
15- Interact with other Instagram accounts (in your theme) better known than you in the comments
We introduced it in the previous tip, but this tip of interacting with other active Instagram accounts that post about topics associated with your account, through comments, is a great way to grab attention. potential subscribers to your account.
It’s good to know: you should not overuse this trick so as not to see your Instagram account banned for spam. We therefore recommend that you comment on posts for 5-minute slots per day only. The important thing here is to do this regularly and recurring over time.
16- Follow your competitors’ followers daily and selectively
Similar to the other two previous actions but much more formidable and powerful to gain new Instagram followers, following selectively (and not en masse) accounts that follow the accounts of your competitors is one of the best tricks to quickly and free get more qualified followers to his Instagram account.
Doing it by hand, without tools, will help you better target accounts and limit the risk of Instagram penalizing your account.
It’s good to know: when this technique is used intelligently, it is formidable for gaining new subscribers on a daily basis. We recommend that you go gradually with this technique. For example, you can start by following 5 to 10 accounts per day. Avoid following more than 20 accounts per day, it will quickly look suspicious to Instagram and your account could be banned / deactivated (this is not the goal).
17- Create Reels (in bulk)
If you use Instagram daily, you have surely already noticed how much the social network acquired by Meta a few years ago likes to push this video format to its users.
Creating and regularly sharing Instagram Reels to your followers is currently one of the best ways to gain huge organic reach and therefore appear in the eyes of thousands of potential followers.
The more regularly you publish Reels, the more chances you have that some of your Reels will break through and thus bring you a significant number of new subscribers!
Good to know: for Reels to go viral, they have to be dynamic and encourage the audience to consult them until the end.
18- Repost your Instagram Reels on TikTok, Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts, Pinterest and Linkedin
It would be a shame to create many Reels on Instagram and not cross-post them on your various other social accounts (even if you are not very active on them.
For what ?
Quite simply because the vertical video format is THE format of the moment and all social networks highlight them more than any other type of publication. For the same initial work, you could thus reach 2 to 3 times more organic reach by simply planning the publication of these videos on other social networks.
Nothing prevents you, on these other social networks, from inviting people to follow your Instagram account (and thus, gain new subscribers organically without paying the slightest euro in sponsorship).
It’s good to know: as long as you haven’t created your initial video via the TikTok platform, you can freely cross-post your Instagram Reels on all other social networks without their reach being restricted. However, we recommend that you rather share your videos natively via each social network and not simply redirect users to the link of your Reel Insta.
19- Prefer carousels to simple images
Photo carousels get a significantly higher average organic reach than single photos.
For what ?
Simply because Instagram’s algorithm rewards posts with the highest dwell time.
Thus, the more visuals you add to an Instagram carousel post, the more likely it is that the user will spend time on your post and that Instagram will recommend it to other followers or similar accounts, even if the other interactions ( comments and likes) are not in large numbers.
Good to know: you can add up to 10 images and videos to your Instagram carousels (and you can switch between videos and images within the same carousel).
20- Optimize your captions with long descriptions
Optimizing your Instagram post captions is also a very good way to obtain a greater organic reach for your publications and thus, indirectly, promote the discoverability of your accounts to potential new subscribers .
As with carousels, the interest of long post descriptions is to promote more time spent on the publication.
The longer an account that views a post will stay on it, the more this publication will be considered of quality in the eyes of the algorithm and the more it will recommend it to other users.
Good to know: you can add up to 2200 characters, or about 275 words, under each Instagram post. So you have plenty to express yourself to try to captivate your subscriber (current or future)! If the subject interests you, we also invite you to learn about copywriting techniques to optimize your writing to make it captivating.
21- Pay attention to Instagram limits so as not to have your account banned
For one of our final tips, we strongly advise you not to overuse all the techniques we’ve shown you here when it comes to following accounts, adding hashtags to your posts, commenting on posts, and liking posts.
Indeed, if you go too hard and too quickly on your accounts (especially when using third-party tools that promise you worlds and wonders), the biggest risk you take is to get banned from Instagram!
We therefore strongly recommend that you follow the different limits that we have recommended in the different sections of this article, and this, to avoid any penalization of your account (recovering an Instagram account is possible but if you push the cap a little too far, it will no longer be possible to recover it).
It’s good to know: you can consult the list of Instagram’s different limits here (but we advise you never to flirt with these limits and always stay well below Instagram’s radar).
22- Keep an eye on your number of subscribers vs subscriptions ratio
A low follower-to-follower ratio is synonymous with a quality account that doesn’t need to mass follow to organically get new followers.
Although we strongly recommend, at least in the beginning, to follow targeted, it is also more than recommended to do a periodic cleaning in your subscriptions so as not to send a negative signal to the accounts you follow.
The idea here is to keep a number of subscribers to number of subscriptions ratio below 1.
How to interpret this ratio?
- If it is greater than 1, it means that you are following more accounts than you have followers.
- If it’s close to 0, it means you have significantly more subscribers than subscriptions (ideal).
It’s good to know: the closer your number of subscribers / number of subscriptions ratio is to 0, the better.
23- Make collaborations with other Instagram accounts
Instagram collabs are a great way for two accounts to use their respective audiences to boost each other and gain new qualified followers.
It’s good to know: the more the accounts with which you make partnerships are close to yours, the more likely you will be to attract new qualified subscribers. You can also make collaborations with Instagram accounts further from yours but which in any case target the same target subscriber profile.
24- Create a Qr code redirecting to your Instagram account
Creating a QR code directing people to your Instagram account can be a great way for a brick-and-mortar business to gain new followers for free.
If you don’t have a physical business, this strategy can also work by printing the QR code on your flyers or business cards, for example.
Good to know: you can either create an official Instagram QR code directly from the mobile application or the computer version of the social network or you can also use a free online QR code creation tool.
Some frequently asked questions about gaining followers on Insta
How to get followers on Instagram quickly (for free)?
As with everything, there is no secret recipe for rapid success except to work hard (more than the others) and over time on your Instagram account so that it breaks through and obtains a significant number of likes. subscribers over time.
But if you’re in a hurry (like everyone else), here are the best tips for gaining Instagram followers fast (without having to). s pay with a fake follower buying service):
- Create mass Reels: 1 per day ideally;
- Follow about twenty accounts / day that follow your competitors (every day);
- Periodically clean your list of followed accounts to keep only those who follow you;
If you had to focus on just a few things, these would be it.
These are the actions that offer the best number of Instagram followers gained / time spent and it’s clearly within reach of anyone with the Instagram mobile app and 30 minutes of free time a day.
How to boost your Instagram account?
To boost an Insta account and get more followers, follow all the tips presented in this article step by step, starting with optimizing the account and its feed.
Next, create lots of quality content in formats that engage Instagram users (Stories, Reels, Carousels, Posts with long captions).
The next step is to selectively follow accounts that follow your most popular competitors on a regular basis.
How to get 1000 followers on Instagram (for free)?
Having your first 1000 followers on Instagram is clearly the most complicated task, but, with a little method and rigor, it’s accessible to anyone !
When you start, the bar of 1000 subscribers often seems insurmountable.
On average, it usually takes between 6 months and 1 year to reach this threshold of subscribers by publishing regularly.
By using the 22 free techniques that we have listed for you in this article, you could perfectly reach your 1000 subscribers much faster, in less than 3 to 6 months .
You do not believe me ?
Test this strategy, be diligent for 6 months and come back to share your results in the comments of this article, I’m sure by then your Instagram account will have gained many followers for free and you may start to consider becoming a part-time influencer (at first).
When you see the salary of influencers, I think there is a way to motivate more than one of you to be serious for a few months.
The key lies in imposing a productive routine on yourself and above all not giving up too quickly, even if the results are slow to arrive. The hardest part is always the beginning!
Once you hit your first 1000 followers, you will see that your Insta follower count will only grow much faster!
