Ah, the glorious 1k looks so pretty…but you don’t get the k on Instagram at 1000. Sorry, guys! Getting your first 1000 followers on Instagram can feel like an uphill battle, but don’t worry; we’ve all been there. Here’s what you can do to help you on your way.
Hitting the first 1000 followers on Instagram is challenging. This is especially true when starting from scratch with the platform from 0.
However, the most popular creators once started from 0, and similarly, it is possible with some tips, such as understanding your audience, posting relatable content, being consistent, etc.
We went through multiple resources and interviews with some of the top Instagram creators to find practical tips & tricks that work the best to hit 1,000 followers!
PS: Revamping our classic 18 Instagram tips with fresh, up-to-date insights and 2 new strategies to help you reach your first 1000 followers faster!
Keep scrolling until the end, and let’s elevate your Instagram presence together!
Top 10 Tips On Getting Your First 1000 Followers On Instagram
This list of tips is compiled in such a way that they will help you increase your followers and additionally help you grow your social media presence among other influencers.
| Sr. No. | Tips To Get Your First 1000 Followers |
|---|---|
| 1. | Create a good Bio on Instagram |
| 2. | Go public with your account |
| 3. | Be consistent with posting every day |
| 4. | Use hashtags |
| 5. | Stay updated with current trends, songs, and reels |
| 6. | Post at the right time |
| 7. | Use eye-catching captions |
| 8. | Collaborate |
| 9. | Stay active on Instagram |
| 10. | Go live from time to time |
1. Optimize Your Bio On Instagram
The Instagram bio should be alluring, as people like and follow what they see. Your profile picture and bio should have a specific aesthetic and be of good quality.
Like the blogger Tiffy, keep your bio with a short description of what you do and post it on your account. Tiffy’s account says that she posts easy recipes for her users with a link to her full recipes and a website, Kaidong, where she promotes some food products.
Similarly, you can tell your viewers about who you are and what you do in brief. Don’t go overboard and write paragraphs in your bio; try to keep it as short and detailed as possible.
2. Go Public With Your Account
Switch your account to public rather than private, as people follow you after seeing your content. Instagram also has availability of three types of accounts: personal, business, and creator.
When you switch to business or creator mode, there is a lot of growth, and it gives you proper space, features, and detailed insights on how your account will grow more.
Brand agencies, companies, etc, mostly use the business account, whereas the creator account is used by influencers, actors, etc.
3. Be Consistent With Posting Every Day
Posting consistently is the most vital role in growing your Instagram account. Learn to understand Instagram’s algorithm and how it shows posts. When you post more and if your account is public, your reels or posts will be visible on other people’s feeds.
Not posting every day is not an issue. However, you must create a schedule to post, for instance, every alternate day, every Saturday, etc., by ensuring that you consistently stick to that posting schedule.
However, your post’s quality should be good, and try following a particular style or aesthetic, at least in the beginning.
Take a look at the pop stars’ account, and you will observe how each of her posts complements one another with similar styles.
4. Use Hashtags
Hashtags are a must for the growth of your Instagram account. These hashtags are used by people when they want to search for a specific thing, which is what exactly will help your posts appear on other people’s feeds.
I searched for the christmas on Instagram, which led me to this various number of pictures with the same hashtag that I searched for.
One important tip is to use relevant hashtags, which many people use, to make your post visible more when searched for. Also, with evolving technology, you can use AI-generated hashtags using relevant prompts on AI tools such as ChatGPT, Bing AI, Bard, etc.
For example, I used a prompt to ChatGPT: “Generate relevant and most-used hashtags on an Instagram post on a Sunday.”
Besides, you can also include what’s in your picture for ChatGPT to give you related hashtags.
You can use any number of hashtags for your posts. However, you should not go overboard and use 100+ hashtags. A maximum of 15 to 20 and a minimum of 8 to 10 usage of hashtags is doable.
5. Stay Updated With Current Trends, Songs, And Reels
Staying up to date with current trends, patterns, songs, and posts of other internet personalities and meme accounts is a must. This matters as viewers are most likely to see trending posts according to Instagram’s algorithm.
The challenge in the above image showcases what these current trends are. The person in this video asked her coworkers to jump without bending their knees, which is hilarious.
You can also identify trending songs or videos on Instagram as they have a trending arrow beside the song audio and video while scrolling reels. Another way to find trending stuff is by putting trending reels or trending songs in an Instagram search.
It also gives you deep insights into what people might like and dislike while staying updated with newly released songs, movies, fashion trends, current affairs of the world, etc.
6. Post At The Right Time
It is said that posting at the right time is unimportant, but it matters the most. The audience is usually available in specific timelines, which makes it the most crucial factor to post at the right time to gain more followers.
The usual best time to post on Instagram is between 9 am to 1 pm. However, the right time for you might be different and depends on various factors, such as the country of your audience, time zones, age group, etc.
You can use Instagram analytics to check out when you receive the most likes, views, shares, etc., and schedule your post timing based on the highest audience engagement. Your own analytics will be your best assistance to understand your audience’s activities and the time they are likely to interact with your posts.
7. Use Eyecatching Captions
Your post captions should be eye-catching, meaning they must be interesting or have some type of humorous approach. These captions give meaning to your post.
You can keep these captions short and simple for fun posts. If the post is informative or sentimental or you want to give deep information about the post in the captions, then in that case, break it into short paragraphs or bullet points format.
Another method to generate captions is using AI tools such as Bing AI, Bard AI, ChatGPT, etc. For instance, I gave ChatGPT a prompt: “Generate captions for my Instagram post with pictures from my trip.”
ChatGPT will provide you with multiple options from which you can choose. (Check the screenshot below)
You can also give it a detailed prompt by describing your image and intent with the post. Based on the prompt, it will provide suggestions you can implement.
Besides, engaging captions pave the way for more followers to interact with your post and gain some at the same time.
8. Collaborate
Collaborate with other influencers, brands, companies, and celebrities to create new content and grow your audience. These collaborations can also help you get attention from other people’s audiences.
Moreover, if people find you interesting, they will follow you. Additionally, when you collaborate with other influencers or people, you will notice a boost in your engagement since you gain attention from your audience and theirs.
One of the simplest ways to do this is to reach out to influencers and other people in your niche.
9. Stay Active On Instagram
Staying active on Instagram is essential so that Instagram will prioritize your post’s visibility on other people’s feeds. Many people tend not to use Instagram and remain offline for many days, which doesn’t give them space to grow their followers.
Spend time exploring your account, use it at least 3 times daily, and post daily for fast and better results.
10. Go Live From Time To Time
Going live on Instagram is one of the ways to keep boosting your followers. Live videos make users interact with you and your fellow followers to engage more.
Doja Cat can be seen going live, and in the left section, you can see how fans can chat with her. Even Ariana Grande has commented.
Keep your interaction positive and subtle. Try different methods like Q&A and random giveaways to keep your users returning.
11. Engage With Your Friends
Engage with your followers and make friends. Give personalized replies to your followers through comments. Appreciate their compliments, tell them about other things, use emojis in text, and give new information.
Look at the right-hand side of the image and check how people interact with their posts in the comment section.
Post stories asking people for their opinions using the poll stickers with yes or no, this or that questions, which keep your users interested in your content. You can also practice giveaways from time to time to keep your users curious all the time.
As a creator, you can also put up some challenges, ask your followers to do the challenge, and, in return, offer them a gift for the winner.
12. Be Real And Not Reel
Being real and not reel means that your content should have some originality or signature (your style). Create reels, videos, and posts with trending audio and styles.
Figure out your unique style and keep it real with your audience. People like creators who are authentic with their audience. Rather than showing things you haven’t done, try to show things you have achieved –the good and bad. Balancing both is important to give your audience an idea of how you are showing your real side here.
13. Be Innovative
Be innovative and create new ideas for your Instagram account. Create and post content that is out of the box for which you can take the help of AI tools such as ChatGPT by giving it relevant prompts such as “Generate ideas to post a good picture on Instagram.”
Attract new audiences with fresh content and new ideas. There are various niches, such as fashion bloggers, food bloggers, dancers, singers, etc. Explore all the categories and try to find something innovative for yourself.
14. Be Educative
Apart from entertaining videos, give your users some informational and motivational content. Your Instagram followers should feel good and enthusiastic about interacting with you.
For instance, you can share personal experiences about your healthcare and fitness journey to encourage your viewers to lead healthy lives.
Discuss health problems, anxiety disorders, and stress with your followers and give them a realistic approach to these views.
15. Interact With Other Communities On Instagram
Interact with other communities and grow your account. Make friends that have similar tastes as you. Chat with people, make groups on Instagram, and build a safe space for people to talk.
Try understanding your audience and learning to connect with them in real time. Always like, share, and reply to support other creator’s content. Build your community via Instagram.
16. Tell People About Your Instagram Account Via Other Social Media Applications
Sharing your Instagram videos, reels, and posts across all the other social media platforms is another way to gain followers. For example, you can target your audience via Facebook, Snapchat, or through a shoutout on YouTube channel if you have one.
This way, your Instagram account will get much exposure, and your followers will skyrocket. So keep sharing links for your account and post these stories on Whatsapp, Snapchat, etc.
17. Be Relatable
People will enjoy your content only when it’s relatable to them. Relatable means something that everyone must have experienced in one way or another. Please don’t force yourself to be relatable; observe people to see what they will like and dislike.
Staying relevant is important so that people interact with your content, directly making a difference for your followers.
18. Post Good-quality Images And Videos
The quality of your images and videos depends on the aspect ratios of Instagram. Also, you can edit or enhance your photos with Instagram filters.
To post high-quality photos, you can try one thing:
Tap on your profile pic > Click on three horizontal lines > Open settings > Go to Account > Go data usage or cellular data usage > Click on upload at the highest quality.
19. Know Your Audience
Knowing your audience is a must to understand what your users like. For this purpose, you can check the demographics, do some research, and create a buyer persona, which means thinking from a buyer’s perspective to understand your target audience.
Vary your posts and keep up with the current trends, as Instagram’s algorithm visibility of posts and reels is based on current trends.
20. Use Analytics To Track Your Progress
Track your progress with Instagram insights and check the reach of your content with several days and top countries. Compare the timings of likes, shares, views, and overall followers.
These insights will help you determine in which areas your account needs growth.
Related Reads
Key Takeaways: Following the Above Tips, Your First 1000 Instagram Followers are a Cakewalk!
The top 3 tips for getting your first 1000 followers on Instagram will lead to more user interaction and help you immediately skyrocket your followers.
- Create a captivating bio – keep your bio short and sweet with a good profile picture.
- Post every day – Be consistent with posting regularly.
- Collaborate – You can collaborate with other influencers, making space for an increase in followers.
For research purposes, I used YouTube and Instagram. Some tips I gathered here come from influencers and creators who have reached zero to thousands of followers.
Besides, one of the biggest advantages you have right now is AI tools. Leverage the power of AI tools to build a solid content strategy for your Instagram account. You will be surprised to see how it takes the burden off your shoulders and its potential to improve your Instagram game!
What are the tips you’d like to add? Let me know in the comments below!
FAQs
Instagram doesn’t exactly pay you after hitting 1000 followers. However, making money on Instagram depends on how you monetize it, meaning brand deals, collaborations, etc.
Reaching 1000 followers on Instagram in one day isn’t exactly possible, but you never know. However, 2 to 3 followers a day is a good start.
You can increase your followers on Instagram with some tips, such as consistently posting, writing great captions, using hashtags, collaborating with other influencers, and posting relatable content.
You can not exactly increase your followers in a day or so. However, growing followers is not that difficult with the right tips, such as posting every day, posting at the right time, posting relatable stuff, etc.
It’s not suggested to use Mega Famous or any other services that offer Insta Followers for free or paid.
