5 new ways to get more Instagram followers
Instagram has changed a lot the past year. That’s why you’ll need a new approach and strategy. We’ll give you 5 new ways to get more Instagram followers.
Create a well-coordinated look for your Instagram feed
Your Instagram feed is your landing page. It’s the first thing people will see when they check out your profile. So if you want to get more Instagram followers you’ll have to put in some work to create an Instagram feed with a nice look and feel. With ‘your feed’ we’re talking about the complete look and feel of your profile. Posting one amazing picture just isn’t enough anymore. The look of your feed is simply the first opportunity you have to make a good impression on people and persuade them to click that like button. How do you create a coordinated look? Colors are key. Of course, you need to post cool, interesting, inspiring pictures that show who you are as an artist. But if you want to take this to the next level, you’ll need to dive into the world of color coördination. This is one of the things that can set your Instagram feed apart from the rest, without having to invest in a professional photographer.
We’ll give you a few examples:
The content in these pictures isn’t even that interesting. Nevertheless, your mind is still triggered by the cohesive look and feel of these Instagram feeds, which simply triggers your interest in seeing more content and finding out more about the person behind the content.
How did they do it? As you can see they all picked a color scheme. Example number 1 started with grey tones, mixed with some sand shades. On the second row, he continued with the grey tones but he’d let the sand colors reappear. Besides that, he introduced some blue hues. On the third row he takes on these new blue colors, shifting to a more darker color scheme, but again he uses the sand tones, completing the color cycle and maintaining his cohesive look.
The other two examples use the same technique but in a more simple way. The second one just repeatedly uses blue and brown colors to create his coördinated look. The third example just uses black and white tones.
Depending on your content you can experiment what kind of color schemes work best for you. The key is consistency and constantly using at least two rows that with matching colors, before you gently shifting to a new color scheme. Another tip we can give you is VSCO. Vsco is a great (free) app you can use to edit your pictures. They have amazing presets, but you can also create your very own preset. Using the same edit on your pictures will also help you to create a synchronized look.
Create an inspiring Instagram bio
Having a well written Instagram bio is something people tend to forget. If you click on an interesting picture in your explore feed, you might get curious enough to check out that person’s profile. While checking out this person’s feed you could perhaps see him or her working on some music, hanging out with some cool kids, but you actually have no idea what this person is doing and pursuing in life. The thing you’ll ask yourself is: ‘is this someone who just jokes around, or is it really someone interesting enough to follow?’ The next thing you’ll do is check out his bio. If the bio just consists of a few emoji’s, you probably won’t hit that follow button. If the bio says something like:
Producer from Amsterdam
Signed @Moon Jelly Agency
Debut album dropping in July 2018
Check out my latest track: www.youtube.com/moonjellymusic
You’re more likely to follow this person now, since it’s quite obvious he or she is seriously working towards an interesting goal. This makes it much more interesting to follow this person and keep track of his or her journey.
Because how cool is it to say you’ve already been following this person from the start before they even blew up. That’s the trick. Be smart and play into that mindset. You’ll have to make it look cool for people to follow you!
Introduce yourself through Instagram Stories Highlights
The Instagram Stories Highlights feature is perfect to show potential new followers who you are and what you’re all about. Look at each highlight as a short movie trailer. Categorize each highlight. For example, new music, work in the studio, friends, inspiring things etcetera. Don’t limit your highlights to solely business or music related things. If you want people to follow you, they will have to like you as a person as well. Nobody wants to follow someone who seems to be full of themselves. Make a good mix that shows what you do as an artist, but also who you are as a person. Getting that like factor will get you the likes and follows of your fans.
Gain more exposure through your Instagram Stories
2018 will be the year of Instagram Stories. Since the organic reach for your regular posts will drop because of Instagram’s algorithm, your Instagram Stories will become more important to engage with your (potential) followers. But how do you use Instagram Stories to actually ‘gain’ more followers? It’s simple, hack your way into the public Instagram Stories on the explore page. The Instagram Stories on the Instagram explore page can be seen by everyone, so if you get featured in one of them you can reach a lot of potential new followers. How do you hack yourself into these stories? Well, Instagram uses geo-locations and hashtags to create these stories. For example, Instagram has a Story for ‘Amsterdam’. This story is bound by location and hashtags.
So appearing in a public Instagram Story is pretty simple:
- Use a location-based hashtag in your Instagram story
- Use a location in your Instagram story
You don’t need to specifically use the location ‘Amsterdam’. If you’re eating in a restaurant in Amsterdam and you’re using that geolocation, Instagram will automatically recognize this as content suitable for the public Amsterdam Story. It’s not solely city based. When there are big events like a concert or a big festival like Coachella, Instagram will gather these hashtags and turn them into a public live event story. So using the hashtag #justinbieber and the geo-location of the venue in your story might get you featured in the public story of this event. If you get featured in a public story, Instagram will give you a notification that your story will be shown in their public Stories. Lots of people watch them, which makes it another great way to gain more followers. So use your Stories wisely.
Get featured on other channels
Another thing to try is to gain more followers through other online channels or platforms. It’s not just a simple tag or mention by other people on Instagram, but it’s also getting mentioned in interviews or blog posts, doing podcasts, appearing in vlogs etcetera. When people see or hear about you online, they’ll probably look you up on Instagram before even trying Google, LinkedIn or Facebook. So making sure you have a strong online visibility is another great way to gain more Instagram followers. Outsourcing is the key here.