How I Got 1,000 Real, Fun, Awesome Instagram Followers in 30 Days!

When I first decided to start this blog, I wondered where in the world I was going to find my blogging tribe. Where else were mommy bloggers hanging out besides their own living rooms? And then one day it dawned on me…Instagram! The problem was I had ZERO Instagram followers and my blog was only a couple of weeks old…I felt a little helpless.

So I signed up for a FREE Instagram webinar, which turned out to be an informercial for an Instagram course. BOO! I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to pay $400 to learn how to get Instagram followers, so instead I took to the internet and did as much research as possible..and then I just kinda wung it (winged it?) The results turned out better than I expected! I got 1,000 REAL awesome fun followers in just over 30 days (32 to be exact!)

Below I’m going to tell you the exact steps I took to reach 1,000 followers on Instagram.

Look at what your competitors are doing

Head over to some of your competitors Instagram accounts and pay attention to what types of photos they are sharing and which photos receive the most comments & likes. You can use this information not only to determine what type of content you will share, but also how you will be able to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Determine your Instagram Theme

If you look at some of the most successful Instagram accounts, you will notice that they have a theme of photos and a color scheme. For example, my target market on Instagram is Mommy Bloggers. I tend to share work station photos, funny & inspirational quotes, my morning cup of coffee, interesting products I find & lastly pictures of myself.

Beyond what type of photos you decide to share, you should also consider a color scheme. Now I know that sounds crazy, but I once heard the advice of “Keep candid and random shots for SnapChat, Instagram is the place for a cohesive collection of images” and I couldn’t agree more with that advice. The more I study successful Instagram accounts the more I see that they have cohesive themes & color schemes. My color scheme for Naptime Nation is lots of White & girly colors like pinks, turquoises & yellow. It all depends on what your target market likes and is attracted to.

Start your Instagram account and upload 6-10 images.

Before you follow anyone on Instagram. You’ll want to upload a handful of photos. It’s okay to do this now, because you have zero followers. This will be the only time that I would ever recommend uploading that many pictures at once. But the truth is you want to appear as legit. There are so many spammer accounts on Instagram, that users have gotten suspicious of accounts that don’t have many pictures.

Post 3-5 Photographs per day

As you are building up a following you will want to post several times throughout day to stay relevant and in peoples minds. Do NOT post 3-5 right in a row, you run the risk of annoying people! Once you have followers you can take this a step further and se to determine when the best time to post on Instagram. This tool takes a look at your followers and lets you know the prime times for you to post photos.

Use Hashtags (But don’t go crazy)

I used around 5-7 hashtags on each image and I tried to use hashtags that people were already searching & using; #mommyblogger #bloggerlife #hustle #girlboss & #bossbabe were some of the hashtags that my target demographic was using. Although it can be tempting to use funny or ironic hashtags, I’d recommend sticking with ones that people are searching for.

Use Likestagram to Find new Followers

Now that you’ve got your account rocking & rolling it’s time to find your perfect demographic and I’ve got just the tool for you to use, it’s called Likestagram. Likestagram allows you to set up triggers for certain hashtags. For example, I have my Likestagram set up to like 30 photos an hour that are tagged with #mommyblogger & #momblogger. Why? Because that is the exact target market I’m looking for. You will want to do a little research and figure out which hashtags YOUR target market is looking for and then pop them into Likestagram.

Follow Everyone That Follows You (Except Spammy Accounts)

Now this rule is one that you must follow! In order to get the love, you must GIVE the love. That means, if someone follows or likes one of your photos, check out their account and if they are legit, follow them. Then go a step beyond and like a few of those photos to show that you noticed them.

Spread the Love

As I mentioned above, Instagram is a two way street, you’ve got to give to receive. So, each time you post a photo & someone likes it. Repay the favor and like one of their images. If you aren’t following them yet, go ahead and give them a follow. This is a great way to show your Instagram followers that you are engaged and enthusiastic about what they are sharing.

Use Crowdfire to Monitor your Unfollows

Everyone has different motives on Instagram, so occasionally you will get followed by an account, ONLY to get unfollowed once you’ve followed them back. This is really shitty and there is no other way to put it. However, you can use a mobile app called Crowdfire to monitor who unfollows you.

Every couple of days I log into my Crowdfire app and click on Recent Unfollowers, this gives me a list of the people who recently unfollowed me. Now don’t take the unfollow personally, some Instagrammers just do this to boost their own numbers. I usually go through the list and unfollow anyone who has recently unfollowed me in order to keep my following to follower ratio pretty even.

Use Crowdfire to Follow your Competitor’s Followers

Now here is a strategy that I employed later in my 30 days, and if I had done it sooner, I’m positive I would’ve gotten to 1,000 in less than that. Within the Crowdfire app there is a place to “Copy Followers”. What you’ll want to do is go ahead and enter the Instagram name of your competitor and it will give you a list of their most highly engaged fans. Then all you have to do is follow them and hope they follow you back.

Comment often on your followers images

Show the love on your followers photos and comment every now and then. No you don’t have to like and comment on every photo one of your followers posts, but it doesn’t hurt to comment occasionally if you have something nice, funny or positive to say! Remember, people post on Instagram in order to receive some love..show them the love!

And there you have it, every single tactic I used to get to 1,000 fun, (and real) Instagram followers in 30 days! Now that you’ve got an Instagram strategy, head over to Instagram and follow me @NaptimeNation and I’ll do the same to you!