Easy Instagram tips to grow your account

Would you like some super easy Instagram tips? I like Instagram a lot, which you would probably know if you read my blog. Since last year, I grew my account from 500 to 10k followers. People often ask me for how to grow their Instagram accounts; consequently, I decided to put it all of my easy Instagram tips in a blog post.

If you’ve already read lots of articles about growing your account already, you will likely be familiar with these strategies. Instead of rushing through them and thinking “yes, yes, I know, I know…” stop and try to think how you could improve in those areas. When I reflect on this list, I can always find ways of improving. I frequently use these six tips as a checklist. Whenever my engagement is down I go through the list to see if I have been leaving any of these out of my routine- more often than not, that is the case!

Instagram tips: #1. Make your photos flow together. More people follow accounts that have a consistent theme. I used to post whatever I felt like. While that is fine, if you are specifically trying to grow your Instagram, you should consider making your grid aesthetically pleasing. The easiest way to do this is to simply edit your photos the same way each time. You could also chose one dominant color and make sure that each image has that color (I do both of those things). I used to make every image blue, but I felt like it put my creativity in a box, so now I chose two or three dominant colors to create a theme that changes with the seasons. You can also use an app (I use the one called Inpreview) that will show you what your grid will look like before posting new images.

Instagram tips: #2. Many people are trying to grow their accounts, so why not work together? Sending DM’s requesting to trade shout-outs in stories is an awesome way for both accounts to grow. I contribute this to probably 75% of my growth. Just be careful that you don’t do this too much as you may lose followers by constantly advertising other pages. If you don’t know how much is too much, I’d suggest sharing other accounts (five max) once a week. This is not a hard set rule by any means- just do whatever feels right to you.

Instagram tips: #3. Be a user that everyone likes, including the algorithm. That means to comment a lot. The algorithm (theoretically) favors active users, so it raises your chances of making it to the explore page and showing up in hashtags/followers feeds. In addition, commenting can lead to forming friendships that you didn’t expect. I have gotten to know so many lovely women from all over the world- it all started from either a single comment or message; that is the beauty of Instagram. It is far better to leave meaningful comments rather than a quick emoji! The community is one of the best parts of Instagram and if you only comment with emojis you are missing out on forming friendships.

Instagram tips: #4. Use hashtags carefully- a few large ones, a few medium ones and mostly smaller hashtags. Unless you have an enormous following (and if you did, you wouldn’t be reading this!), photos in the big hashtags get lost within a few seconds if they are really ever seen at all. Most people browse through the most popular hashtag filter which cuts out almost all of the smaller accounts. Probably the best hashtags are ones connected to a hashtag project. by far, the most popular is Instagram’s very own #WHP project. Every Friday Instagram announces the upcoming theme, then shares six photos from that hashtag during the following week. There are lots of other smaller hashtag projects that individual users will feature. Some of my favorites are #quietinthewild by AClothesHorse, #takeyourbookoutdoors by BookishBronte, #naughtyteas by NaughtyTeas, #caughtflowerhanded by CaughtFlowerHanded and #natureonthepage (I forgot who is the moderator for this hashtag, please message me if you know!). There are also a few accounts that feature a number of hashtags: JJCommunity, creativlysquared and TV_Living.

Instagram tips: #5. Post when your followers are the most active. If you have a business account, you can check this via the analytics. (You can switch to a business account even if you don’t have a business) Why? Back to the algorithm again: Instagram measures how much activity a photo gets in the first few minutes to determine how much it will let your photo show up in hashtags and the explore page.

Instagram tips: #6. This shouldn’t be last because it really is mother of Instagram tips. Only post the best photos. Don’t just post for the sake of posting. The algorithm (again, theoretically) takes your last two photos into account when figuring out how many people will see your photo. The higher your engagement (likes and comments ratio to number of followers) then more IG will let your photos show up in hashtags and the explore page. Sometimes I want to share something, but it doesn’t fit with my grid- I will usually either wait to post it when it does fit, or I just share it in stories. If you need help getting started with better photos, check out my post on inexpensive tools for cell phone photography.