How to gain 1K followers on Instagram each month

For some of you, it might be a struggle getting to your first 1K followers. For others, it may be tough sustaining growth to 10K or more.

1K is a milestone because 1K is the minimum requirement if you want to join the Fuelgram engagement groups for Fuelgram Likes or Fuelgram Comments.

But I have a secret.

It's actually not that hard.

In fact, I've been able to grow accounts to 1K in just 10 days, and I'll show you exactly how to do it.

Here are my top 10 tips for how to get 1K new followers in 30 days.

Here are my top 10 tips:
1. Optimise your bio for keyword search (add your keyword and location in your name)

2. Create a visual theme (it doesn't have to be pretty but it has to be consistent!)

3. Use an Instagram planning app (I use Preview)

4. Find and leverage relevant "tag for feature" accounts in your niche

5. Tag bigger accounts on your stories to get reposted

6. Do Shoutouts for Shoutouts (S4S) or pay for a shoutout

7. Hit the Explore Tab with PowerLikes

8. Optimise your link in bio

9. Follow accounts in your niche

10. Follow accounts that have a high probability of following you back

Name: Add your keyword and location in your name - this is the only searchable thing within Instagram.

Bio: Use mentions and hashtags in your bio as they are now clickable.

For example, if you are a beauty brand or beauty blogger or makeup artist

• Add keywords in your bio (e.g. lipstick, makeup, beauty, makeup artist, MUA, blogger)
• Add hashtags in their bio and post (e.g. #lipstick, #beautyblogger)
• Add the company that you work with or are affiliated to (e.g. makeup artist at @sephora)

Country: If you're an aspiring influencer, I would highly recommend putting your country in your name and bio as well, as that makes you searchable to brands looking for influencers. When I search for influencers, I search for country name, 2 letter country code, or IDD country code or emoji flag.

(How do I do this? I go to Google and type "site:instagram.com blogger UK" to search bios and posts captions.)

• Travel Blogger just havin' a good time in Sausalito, CA, USA
• Photographer based in Milan, Italy
• Student, based in +44
• Dutch boy training to be a chef. Currently based in NL

You can have a tile theme, color-based theme, diagional theme, puzzle theme but DO HAVE A CONSISTENT VISUAL THEME.

Tile Theme

Rainbow Theme

Color Coordinated Themes

• Read this post by Preview App on 21 Instagram Theme Ideas if you need help picking a theme.
• Here's another post by Sked Social with 13 Instagram Themes

It doesn't have to be pretty but it should be consistent. A recent article in the Atlantic "The Instagram Aesthetic is over" suggests that Instagram feeds are becoming less "pretty" and more real / authentic.

One example to check out: Jocko Willink (@jockowillink) is a US Navy Seal and best selling author with over 700,000 followers. He posts the same picture of his watch at 4:30am every day (the time he wakes up).

His number of followers (700k+ ) and engagement is CRAZY for basically the same post every single day.

Is his feed pretty? No. Is it consistent yes.

My #1 favourite is Preview App. I also like using Later App.

Both have free tiers. Preview is perfect for individuals, Later is more appropriate for teams who collaborate on one Instagram account.

Both apps have their plus points: Preview gives you access to Unsplash (free royalty free stock photographs) that you can use to supplement your content. It also has great image editing features like filters (incredibly useful for creating a cohesive theme if you use the same filter consistently), stickers, text, frames.

Later gives you analytics, inbox monitoring and a useful reposting and permissions feature (great if you crowdsource your content).

When you plan your Instagram feed in advance, you can ensure that you create a consistent visual theme that will help you attract more followers.

Here's a neat trick to find "tag for feature" accounts in your niche.

Say you're a babe with fitness account.

Go to Google and type "site:instagram.com -inurl:/p tag for feature fitness babes" and viola! You'll see all the accounts that will feature you on their feed.

Go ahead and tag as many of them as you like in your next post!

Some of them may ask for $$$ to feature you, but cross that bridge when you get to it.

At worst, you remain on their tagged feed.

Use the same search operator "site:instagram.com -inurl:/p tag for feature add your search query"

You can add location, niche, gender to the query.

For example:

• "site:instagram.com -inurl:/p tag for feature men milan"
• "site:instagram.com -inurl:/p tag for feature travel"
• "site:instagram.com -inurl:/p tag for feature food"

To get followers, you'll need people to discover your account.

One easy way to do this is to tag bigger accounts on your stories that are likely to repost your story!

How do you find these accounts? Here are some suggestions:

1. Tag a local restaurant 
2. Tag a local gym or gym instructor 
3. Tag authors (people like Ryan Holiday, Austin Kleon and others will repost if you tag them on a post)
4. Post about celery juice and tag Medical Medium, he'll repost your post on his stories to his 1.8M followers

Hit up a bigger account and ask for a shoutout for shoutout on stories.

Important: Design a nice story layout with a strong call to action - this should include a clear reason why people should follow you and your instagram handle (make sure it's clickable or use a sticker)

If you want to pay for a shoutout, find accounts that will do it for $2-10.

I'll do a shoutout on my 9K account for $5! Or on my 50K account for $15. For $20, I'll shout you out on 4 accounts. Ping me if you're interested!

If you want to hit the explore page, try Fuelgram PowerLikes!

What are powerlikes? Powerlikes are when large accounts (over 20,000 followers, combined reach of over 100M followers) all like your post within minutes if you posting.

This is your best chance of hitting the explore tab and once you do, more people will see your account and you will get more followers.

The catch? Powerlikes are expensive.

Fuelgram powerlikes cost 11 euros per post for 500 likes and 30 comments.

FYI, if you're a serious powerlike buyer, I have 35 powerlikes to sell (usual cost 332.5 Euros from Fuelgram, selling for $180).

Use Link Tree (free) or elink.io (free) Strikingly (free) or Carrd (free) to create a personal website.

This is probably the most important tip I can give you.

To get followers, you need a follow first strategy.

Search for the Captivate app in the IOS store or click here.

Identify competitor accounts that are similar to yours. For example, if you're a travel blogger, search for travel blogger accounts and "copy user followers".

To clean your followers, you can use the sister app Cleaner. Read more about Captivate and Cleaner in this post.

Alternatively you can upgrade for more advanced automation with FollowLiker.

Here's how the math works:

If you follow about 350 accounts a day and 10% or 35 of them follow you back, you get 1K new followers a month easily.

(IMPORTANT: Make sure you target your niche closely, to ensure that your followers are the most relevant to your account)

The fastest way to get 1K followers is to follow accounts that have a high chance of following you back.

However, how do you identify such accounts?

Accounts that have a high probability of following you back typically have a good following to follower ratio.

This means that these accounts are following significantly more people than they have followers.

For example:

• If a user follows 2K users and has 1K followers, their following/follower ratio is 2X
• If a user follows 1K users and has  2K followers, their following/follower ratio is 0.5X

My criteria for a good following/follower ratio for high chances of follow back is 2X.

So there you have it!

If you have a good bio, solid feed, you tag other accounts and you adopt a follow first strategy, you should have no problems growing by 1K each month!

• Instagram Hashtags Cheat Sheet 2019: your secret weapon to going viral (2,700+ Hashtags)​
• Instagram Pods: The 2019 List of Instagram Engagement Groups (200+ groups updated May 2019)
• 7 Free Chrome Extensions for Hacking Instagram Growth

Go to Home Page or Blog Index