We all know that getting followers on Instagram is a tough journey, but what if this article solved that struggle in five easy and doable steps?
With more than 500 million daily users on Instagram, everyone should be able to get a few daily followers, right? Read on for organic growth on Bookstagram.
1.Make it a goal.
The most important part of growing any audience is to make sure you know what you are striving for, even if that implies a low/random number of followers. There is a lot of people that are only doing Bookstagram for the fun of it, as a hobby.
But even for these people I ask you: Does it hurt to know a few tips about gaining more followers?
Manifestation is something very powerful and if you know you goal then maybe you will push yourself farther even unconsciously to achieve it.
For example I am striving for getting 3K followers per year.
Make it a priority to know what type of followers you are chasing tail. Know your brand and your niche closely: for more info on branding yourself.
Type of followers:
Inactive: accounts which are not used by anyone for a long period of time.
Ghost: accounts that almost never or never liked/comment on your posts.
Niche: accounts that are part of your key audience, for bookstagrammers these are people that like to read or (in depth) people that read the same books as you; like your favourite genres; have a similar style.
Here is an accurate timeline for gaining followers. It is not impossible to get them more rapidly, but it is also not impossible to get them more slowly. It all depends on the way you go about it, other might have a different experience.
2. Change your account to Business and use the insight feature.
I can totally recommend changing your account to an Instagram Business Account", said Seraina who is a bookstagrammer since 2017. She also added, "Insights are really helpful. Especially when it comes to the posting time and audience activity".
I cannot tell who much insights are helpful towards building an audience. Changing your account to a business account is something you can do directly on the Instagram app going to settings menu. After 5 minutes, it is done.
Once you are a business account just tap the three line on the upper right corner and go to insights, you will see this:
One of the most important things to know from insights is when to post. With this feature you can see what days are best for posting, if you don't post daily. This way you can choose days to post that are the best for your engagement and make a consistent schedule of posting.
"Post regularly, this is important because the Instagram algorithm is more likely to show your pictures if you're active on Instagram", Ayse from Ruthless Heroines, an Instagram business account, said.
You can also see what time of the day is best for posting on the audience tag. This tell you what hour your followers will be online and as such when you will have a higher number of views.
With insights the power of statists is yours, you can see what content is better liked on your account. Which is the one with more comments, etc.
Also, have you noticed that 87% of my audience are women? For more info on this topic: here.
3.Interact with your audience and possible followers.
Engagement is the most important part of social media marketing, without it you will not grow an audience.
When you have a low number of followers it may be difficult to grow because people don't know you. But if you follow the engagement rule you will grow nevertheless.
Find new accounts by using the "discover people" feature of Instagram or the discovery page. When you find an account that you really like do this:
1.Like 20 of their photos (Warning: Instagram can block you if you pass around 350 likes per hour).
2.Comment on 2-3 photos, be wholesome about it and don't just comment an emoji.
3.Follow their account, if for some reason you don't like their content don't follow for a follow back.
4.Also:
"Maybe write a message to get to know them better", added Seraina.
Another way to meet new accounts is to use an SFS or a shout-out-for-shout-out session. This is when a group of bookstagrammers do this:
And the final way of meeting new accounts is to join engagement groups.
These are chatrooms on Instagram where a lot of bookstagrammers join in to make friends and show mutual support:
Seraina said, "I do have partnerships, which I tag on my photos. We like and comment them. Not just because we want to grow. It’s a win-win situation".
But what about engaging with you followers? Well the easiest way is to use the "least interacted" tag under followers on Instagram. You can also target the followers that comment your posts regularly to show some love.
The app Report+, to use this app features you will need to pay £30 for a year, is amazing to target followers that support you and give them support as well even if you are not following them:
4.Giveaways are amazing.
"I've done a giveaway, and it helped me gain more followers", said Nadja who is a Bookstagrammer with 3K.
Giveaways are super useful on bookstagram to grow a following and the secret is: Book depository and free international delivery.
If you have more than 1K followers you must likely will have a people from all around the world and so making your giveaway international is a win-win. But delivery fees can be too expensive.
By making a giveaway via book depository you can get free delivery world-wide and also the audience can choose the book they want making it impossible for them to not participate since they are in control!
Making monthly giveaways this way can make you account grow at lighting speed. It will keep growing even after a few days because of the snowball of all the tags and shares from the original post.
I have gain 50 followers in one day for example.
5.Cleaning out your account for success.
Having inactive and ghost followers on your account can be very bad for your engagement and your growth, so clean them out with the app Cleaner:
Only 15-20% of your following actually see your posts and this is at random, meaning that if 50% of your following is inactive only 7.5% of your active followers will see the post.
By using this app you will up this number drastically and that will help engagement which will help boost your posts which will then help you get to the discover page and be well, discovered!
How to use the app: You will need to pay around £5 for the premium features. With that just go on to the followers in the bottom menu. Make sure all your followers are counted and if not scroll down making it load more followers. Then click quick select-Advance quick-select- select inactive users. Then block all these followers.
Yes you will use a lot of followers but it will be worth it in the end.
BONUS: Hashtags
Do not use big hashtags only, use a combination of super used hashtags and minor hashtags for the ultimate combo. Here is a list:
POPULAR hashtags: #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookphotograhy #books #bookshelf #bookishfeature #booksonbooks #booksofinstagram #bookblogger #bookreview #bookrecommendation #bibliophile
MINOR hashtags: #readingtime #readersofinstagram #bookcommunity #booksmakemehappy #readingchallenge #coffeeandbooks #candlesandbooks #bookstoread #lovebooks #ukbookstagram #smallbookstagrammer #*nameofthebook*
Don't forget that you can use up to 30 hashtags on your posts and Instagram will NOT hide your post because of it! Also do not use the same hashtags in two posts in a row.
But do not obsess about the numbers!