I admit it! I have the Instagram bug; bad!. Whenever I find myself with a few spare minutes to myself I’ll log in, scroll through profiles, discover new people and interact with fellow Instagrammers as much as possible. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m very impressed with how well my Instagram has been going – I’m securing brand deals, gaining followers and actually enjoying every minute that I’m doing it!
What many of you don’t know however, is that up until 4 months ago – yes 4 – I’d never really paid much attention to Instagram. I had an account with a fair few followers but nothing amazing and I posted very rarely. Fast forward a few months and my Instagram is growing so fast that I can hardly believe it myself!
So this is where I started 4 months ago:

Like I said, I had a few followers but nowhere near enough to be taken seriously as an Instagrammer. Fast forward 4 months and this is today:

I’m not going to say for one second that it’s easy to grow an organic following – because it’s not. There are so many options out there these days to entice us into doing the opposite that it almost seems silly to put in the hard work yourself. I’ll even be the first to admit that, initially, I tried one of these and “bought” 1000 followers. This felt amazing at first until I realised that these followers were – for all intents and purposes – dead weight! I’m now having to (very slowly) delete all of these ghost accounts.
There are a few tried-and-tested ways however, to grow your following completely organically. Here are a few of them:
1) There is no quick way.
By this I mean, you will have to be dedicated. You can easily make it happen in the same sort of time period that I did but you also must consider that I typically spend around 3-4 hours a day self-promoting. There are a lot of ways to self-promote, all of which I will eventually show you.
2) #Hashtags are key!
Those pesky hashtags sometimes feel like they have a life of their own and (honestly!) they kind of do. A lot of the time it’s just playing about with a few different hashtags and hoping for the best. Just remember, Instagram allows you 30 hashtags per post – use them!
3) Captions are more than just a “caption”
That space you have to write in does not always have to be directly linked to the photo you are posting and should never be undervalued. This space should be utilised as much as possible – draw in your audience; write captions that will entice other users to want to comment and interact!
4) Be consistent…
…. with both content and regularity of posts. I’m still struggling with keeping all my photos flush ’cause it’s hard to plan out – but truth be told when I see a feed that does this, I swear I have a mini orgasm! It looks so good and it’s so much more appealing.
Also, post consistently – be that once a week, twice a week or everyday. However often you choose to post, keep to it!
So there you have it. A couple of tips to get you started so give them a try, just please make sure to actually enjoy it – Instagram is a social platform after all; socialise with people! I have loads more information to share with you on how to boost followers, which is why I’ve decided to design and build a course which I will be putting out there very soon, so if you’re interested in getting on board, please go and subscribe to my mailing list! You will have seen the pop up for it when you entered my blog! (I will also send you some other tried-and-tested ways to boost your Instagram periodically so it’s well worth it! Good luck and have fun!
P.S. if you want to leave your Instagram handle in the comments, I will gladly give all my readers a follow! šš
Follow me on Instagram: monteiro_nico
