I’ve grown several Instagram accounts over the past five years and have realised that in 2023, it is SO much harder than it was in 2018! The algorithm has changed and the number of users on the platform has grown incredibly, which makes it harder to build an account.
But. It can be done. And it’s worth making Instagram a key part of your social media strategy, too, as more users means more potential to get your brand in front of their eyes.
So, if you’re looking to build an Instagram audience from scratch, then this short, to the point guide will explain exactly how to go about doing it.
In the beginning…
Before I get into the nuts and bolts, a quick note on the word ‘audience’. Although that word does describe followers in some ways, it is important to remember that many of those followers are also trying to build their own following/audience. As such, I find it a helpful reminder that I’m not just trying to up my Instagram follower number, I’m also trying to engage with other users and to build a community of like-minded people.
So, it’s just as important to give back – to like, comment and follow your own followers’ accounts, or even to follow them first.
This guide assumes that you have set up your Instagram account and are yet to post anything. But if you’ve published posts and got barely any response, these tactics can still help your account to grow.
Okay, let’s get down to the strategy I used to build an Instagram audience from scratch in both 2018 and 2023. Get a Google Doc open and let’s go…
1. Hashtags
So, you have your image ready, and you’re all set to unleash it on Instagram. Great. But before you do anything else, it’s time to do a little research. The first thing we’re going to look at is hashtags.
Using hashtags is a vital part of the strategy to increase Instagram engagement on your post content. Choosing the right hashtags is easy.
- Find a user in your niche who has a decent following (1000-2000).
- Find a recent post that this account has created that:
- has done well in terms of number of likes (at least 100) and number of comments (10+)
- is similar in content to the one you are about to post
- Like that post, follow that account, and make a note of the username/post as you’ll need them later.
- Next, check the hashtags on that post and copy them into your Google Doc if they are relevant to your post (which they should be, if the published post is similar to what you’re about to post). If some hashtags aren’t applicable, don’t include them. Instead, find another similar post on that account and check those hashtags for any others you could include instead. You want around 10 hashtags.
- Quick tip – don’t hashtag in the story itself, it makes them harder to read.
2. Captions
Often underrated and thought of as an afterthought to the image itself, the captions are the place where you can really begin to get engagement on your posts. Ideally, they should be at least three paragraphs long.
Again, write your caption out in the Google Doc, above the hashtags you’ve pasted in. When writing your captions, make sure to:
- tell the story of your post. Why are you posting it? What’s interesting about it? What will your target audience find interesting about it?
- check for spelling and grammar (write it in Google docs and use Grammarly)
- ask a question that people can latch onto and that they may want to answer
- mention the challenges and things that you might do differently next time. Your learning points can be useful for other people.
3. Timing
Choosing when to post is a crucial part of the puzzle. You want as much engagement as soon as possible after publishing your post to help with the Instagram algorithm.
- Pick a time to publish your post when your target audience is likely to be active on the platform. I know this can be tricky given the global reach of Instagram, but if you feel most of your audience may be UK based, publish at a time when they are likely to be active. 8-9am and 7-9pm tend to work well for me.
- You can schedule Instagram posts to publish at your chosen time, rather than having to do it live.
- When you first publish your post, you will very likely get zero response.
- The first three posts I put up didn’t generate a single organic like.
- It doesn’t matter.
Follow the process above, choosing different hashtags for each post as appropriate, and publish 3 posts.
4. Engage
Now comes the time-consuming bit, so grab a coffee and give yourself an hour or so to properly focus on this.
- Go back to the post you liked in stage 1
- Click on the post likes so that you can see all of the people that liked that user’s post.
- Go through those people’s acounts one by one and check the following details:
- Is the number of followers the account has similar to the number of accounts it follows?
- Is the content that the account has published similar to the type of content that you have published/will be publishing?
- ONLY if the answer to BOTH of these questions is ‘yes’, then:
- Go through the posts on that account and start to like some (around 5).
- Read the captions and find a way to genuinely comment on one of the posts. Don’t just put a thumbs-up emoji, write a considered sentence specific to that post, so that it feels genuine and personal, and that the person knows you are not just copying and pasting a comment.
- If you really love the account, follow it. Otherwise, leave it as likes/comments for now.
Once you’ve done this for all of the 100-ish accounts that liked that post, sit back and wait. You will almost certainly get some interactions, be they likes, or likes with comments.
- When a user follows you, follow the account back.
- When you get likes but no follow, click through to the user’s account, like a few more posts and leave another comment, and then follow them. I find that 8 times out of 10 they follow back.
- When you get comments, see below.
5. Comments:
When you receive comments, always reply to them, and reply using the person’s real name (not the username, unless it’s a business profile). Something like:
‘Thanks, Alice! Really glad you liked it. I appreciate you taking the time to comment 🙏’
Using their real name tells the person that you’ve taken the time to check out their account, and this small detail is very powerful.
Once you’ve repied, go back to their account and like/comment, just as you did before. If they also followed you as well as leaving you a comment, follow back. If they didn’t follow you, follow them anyway. Again, I find that most of the time, they follow back.
How to Build an Instagram Audience from Scratch – The Next Steps
And that, in the simplest way I can describe, is it.
Just keep doing that every day and your account will almost certainly grow. Yes, it’s time consuming. But in the end it will be worth it if you are committed to building a brand. Time is the only thing you will need to spend, as we are in the incredible position of being able to utilise social media for free. Gary Vee talks about this in a talk he gave in Brazil in 2023—it’s really worth a watch if you need a kick into action.
The downside of social media marketing is that it is rarely evergreen. By which I mean you can pin a few posts to the top of your Instagram feed, but the algorithm soon forgets the majority of your posts and won’t send much organic traffic your way. Unlike search engines like Google or YouTube.
So, to really give your brand some serious rocket fuel, your Instagram posts really should be used as a funnel into your blog or YouTube channel, so that you can then steer people to subscribe to your email list or channel.
Conclusion
And that’s it. That’s all I do to grow my Instagram following. It may be a slow and steady way to build an audience on Instagram, but it works. And just think, if by following this method you only get five new followers every day for a month, that’s 150 Instagram followers. Do that for a year and you’ll have over 1800. You then start to get some serious traction, and your organic reach should enable you to escalate from there pretty quickly if you’re consistent.
As your posts begin to generate more organic likes, you can then look at branching out into Instagram Stories that your followers will see, and Instagram Reels that anyone can see. And once you have a big following, Instagram Live can be fun, if you dare! But to begin with, if you’re interested on Instagram growth, focus on the posts for at least the first few months.
If you’re in need of help creating your Instagram strategy or social media campaigns, feel free to get in touch.