You know the number-game is really important for social media platforms, especially for Instagram. The more the follower you have, the more you will be popular. If you are an aspiring influencer, getting the first 1000 real followers can be your important milestone. After opening the Instagram account if you think how other influencers get the huge number of followers then don’t doubt yourself; you can achieve that too!
For any social media platform, time is an important factor; you have to be patience and persistence. In this blog, we will discuss some useful tips, using which you can get your first 1000 followers on Instagram. If you already have crossed the boundary of 1000 followers these tips will surely help you increase your followers further.
1. Create a compelling Instagram bio
The first step of getting more and quality followers on Instagram is to decorate your own profile with spark and reality. If you want the attention of other people, you must pay attention to the embellishment of your profile. Whenever a new person would come to your profile, they will look at your bio; your profile description must be interesting so that you stand out among the crowd.
You must let your personality shine through your profile description. You can also add a link to your bio so that you can intensify your presence through your own blog or website. Do not post too big links; try to make it shorter using Bitly or other software.
2. Beautify Your Feed
When an Instagram user visits your profile, he/she will surely check your feed. But if they find it empty, they might not be interested in following you. So, post a number of high-resolution pictures of yours to make your profile visitors understand what you are and what are your interests.
At first, you can keep your profile private on purpose. Upload at least 10 to 12 pictures then make it public so that the visitors get a proper glance at your profile and will decide in seconds that yes, they will follow you. By rapidly scrolling through your feed, reading your bio, and clicking on a few pictures, they will make the decision.
Whenever you will upload a picture, make sure you are sharing the story of the frame too. Use an interesting caption that justifies the frame. There is no harm in descriptive captions as long as that is related to your selected frame.
3. Upload Stories Regularly
Only one-time uploading photos will not help you in the long run to get more followers. You have to upload stories, as well. Good picture editing with consistency is not enough to increase your followers continuously. You must upload interesting and eye-catching stories regularly. Your stories will continuously feed your viewers with your presence.
You can add a short video with or without boomerang to make it more interesting. The stories will be available on your profile for 24 hours, and then they will disappear automatically. It will help your audience to know you better. It will always engage them in your profile.
Again be creative while uploading stories. Don’t share too much same story as people may overlook and right swipe it.
4. Editing Pictures
As a visual platform, Instagram allows you to display everything that is visually appealing. If you do not upload high resolution and meaningful pictures in your feed, people will not follow you; even if they follow in the first place, they will unfollow you after a couple of weeks or months if you fail to please them with your content.
A picture that is unique, colorful, and interesting at the same point should be uploaded. The quality of your picture plays a major role in all these; the gadget is, therefore, important too. You can try a number of photo editing apps to make your picture look beautiful. Some such apps are Snapseed, Lightroom, Photoshop Express, Canva, Picsart, etc.
Hashtags are very useful in discovering different profiles of different interests. So if you want your profile to be discovered in the different search, then try using meaningful hashtags. Every post you can use 35 to 40 different hashtags. 
However, do not add hashtags unnecessarily only out of getting followers; you never understand the changing Instagram algorithm. If Instagram found you using too many hashtags, it may block you for some time. So, only use relevant hashtags.
Some hashtags like #Ootd, #Pictureoftheday, and #ThrowbackThrusday may help your profile get more response. You can also get creative with the hashtags, not that you only have to use the already popular ones, you can create your own hashtags if it would be an interesting one, and you never know people may start using that too!
Try to use location tags as well; if you are visiting a new place, don’t forget to mention the name of the place in your account; it will give a clear picture of your activity to your followers.
6. Engage with Influencers and Photographers
A real connection is always helpful and pays you back. You can try making friends with other influencers or photographers to make engaging content together. A collaboration work like this will make your profile more visible, and eventually, more users will come to know about your presence.
Try to comment on their posts to establish a visible and genuine relationship so that others can see your real connection with the outer world. The engaging activity can be frustrating if you try to reach already popular Instagramers; in general, they don’t require your support to grow, but it’s just a matter of time and patience.
Maintain a friendly and polite tone throughout at the time of approaching as it will help others to understand you better.
7. Say No To The Shortcuts
You know there are many services outside that claim to help you by adding more followers. If you go for them, it will worsen your presence because none of them are genuine. Moreover, the quality of your followers will be degraded too. You want a genuine community as your followers to make the social media experience more interesting, right? For that, avoid those fake services and believe in yourself.
These automated services won’t let you form a genuine community. Even if you take their services once, the moment you stop taking it, you will start to lose your followers, which are more embarrassing. So, no short cuts.
Remember, your followers are way smarter than you think. If they saw your follower is growing faster than ever, they will understand easily that you are taking some unauthorized steps to make that happen.
8. Try to collaborate with small brands
If you are new on Instagram, you must try to understand the collaboration game. It can be between a photographer and an influencer, or between a brand and an influencer. You can approach small in house brands to collaborate. Do you know how it works? If you like the product of some brands, you can approach collaborating with them; in turn, they may gift you their products, and you have to arrange the shoot for them.
The monetary section can or cannot be included in the matter of collaboration. The brand may pay you money or may gift you something. There is no thumb rule in the whole matter; it entirely depends on how you want to handle it.
9. Interlink your other Social Media profiles
For better response and visibility, you can interlink your other social media platforms with your Instagram account and vice-versa. Mention your Insta account link in other accounts like on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. make your audience know that you are no more restricted your presence to only these platforms; you are on Instagram too!
This way, people from your other social media profiles will also follow you in your Instagram profile, and your social media community will become stronger.
10. Don’t post too many pictures
Don’t get obsessed with the number of followers and avoid posting too many pictures to attract them. If you continue to do so, the followers may backfire on you. Don’t make them bored with your presence.
Uploading one picture a day is the healthiest practice on Instagram. You can go posting up to three pictures a day, not more than that. Don’t be forceful with your content. If your content is not creative and engaging, it will fail to please your existing followers and will not attract more followers. So, be careful while selecting and editing the frame.
11. Develop Your Own Style
Try to create your own unique style that will help your followers to recognize you among the huge crowd. The followers are very tech-savvy and educated; if they understand you are trying to copy others or producing something that is not worth following, they will not think a moment before unfollowing you.
If you love fashion, the stick to it, at least for a couple of months, so that your viewers will have an idea about it. Don’t forget to wish them on big occasions like Diwali and other National Holidays, so that they will feel more connected to your presence. You can utilize your account on posting reviews as it is a great way to increase your followers and to engage your existing followers.
12. Add A Call To Action
It may not sound personal, but a CTA can enhance the quality of your content. You can go local for this; for example, if you are visiting a coffee shop of your locality, post a picture of it along with your review. Ask your followers to visit the place before a certain time to get an offer (if any).
Try to maintain a conversational tone with your followers it will make them comment on your post, thereby more your profile will get more engagement.
13. Know the right time
Another effective and important social media formula is timing. To build a sizable Instagram follower, you must maintain proper timing. If you live in India, try to post something new on your Instagram profile between 10.00 am to 12;30 pm and between 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm because these hours are considered as the pick hours for social media platforms.
If you are targeting the weekend, try posting during the brunch timing from 12:00 pm to 4:30 pm as people are most active during these hours. The timing may vary a little depending on what you are posting, well it’s complicated!
14. Promote your profile
If you are serious about enhancing the visibility of your Instagram profile, then you can promote it once in a month or once in a week. We are not encouraging or promoting the monetary section of any platform here, it’s completely optional, and for the sake of getting more visibility, that is all! It will be just an initiative to let people know that you are worth following.
Hope with these effective tips; it will be easier for you to get your first 1000 followers. There is no thumb rule of getting Instagram followers, though you cannot be quicker. Invest some time behind educating yourself, try to find your interests, don’t just follow others blindly. Just because everybody else is doing something does not jump on doing the same thing; this way, it will be hard for you to stand out among the crowd. Play with your interest and combine it with creativity.
After achieving your first 1000 followers, you can post a thank you note to greet the followers. It will be a good gesture, indeed!
