How to get more followers on Instagram: what works

You get more followers on Instagram by being shown to people who don't follow you yet, then giving them a reason to follow when they reach your profile. In practice that means reels people watch to the end and send to friends, a profile that explains in seconds what you post, and a rhythm you can keep up for months. No setting, hashtag or app creates real followers on its own.

The shortcuts sold as growth hacks, such as bought followers, follow-for-follow and apps that like and comment for you, go against Meta's spam rules, which ban buying, selling or swapping likes, shares, views and follows, and engaging at very high frequencies, by hand or by app. They also leave you with an audience that never watches anything. This guide covers what Instagram says it rewards, how to turn visits into follows, and what to stop doing.

Each part of Instagram ranks posts in its own way, and only some of them put you in front of strangers. Instagram set out the main signals for each part in 2023:

Feed and Stories look after the followers you already have. New ones arrive through Reels, Explore and search, and through shares: each time someone sends your post to a friend in a DM, it lands with a person who may never have seen your account.

Tip: Your insights split the accounts you reached into followers and non-followers. If nearly all your reach comes from followers, nothing you post is being recommended, and that's the number to work on first.

Reels ranking leans on whether people reshare a reel and watch it to the end, so design for those two things before anything else.

• Put the payoff first. Show the finished result or the punchline in the opening seconds, then how you got there. A slow intro is where people swipe away.
• Keep it only as long as it needs to be. A short reel people finish does better than a long one they abandon halfway, because finishing is one of the things Instagram predicts.
• Make something people send to one particular friend: a fix for a niche problem, a joke about a specific job, a local tip. “This is so you” is the share you want.
• Keep the sound on. Instagram's Help Center lists muted, blurry and low-resolution reels among those people may see less often.
• Fill the frame. The same list includes reels with borders, logos or watermarks, and reels where most of the image is covered by text.
• Post your own work. The list also includes reels that aren't original videos, so reposting someone else's video is unlikely to bring you new people.

Instagram also predicts whether a viewer will open the reel's audio page, a sign they might make a reel with that sound themselves. Original audio, or a familiar sound used in a fresh way, gives people a reason to tap through.

Test ideas with trial reels

If you have a professional account, you may see a Trial option when you share a reel. A trial reel is shown to people who don't follow you first, so you can test a new format without your followers watching it flop. If it does well, you can share it with them afterwards.

Most people decide in a few seconds on your profile, after one post caught their eye. They're asking one question: will I get more of what I just saw?

• Name: the line above your bio is read by Instagram search, so add a plain description after your name, such as “Ana | Houseplant care”. It can hold spaces and words your username can't.
• Bio: say who it's for and what they'll get. “Keeping houseplants alive in small flats. New fix every Sunday” beats a list of hobbies.
• Pinned posts: pin the posts that best show what the account is about, not just the ones with the most likes.
• Grid: if the top rows cover five unrelated topics, a visitor can't tell what following gets them. Stick to two or three themes.
• Highlights: a “Start here” Highlight gives a newcomer a reason to stay another minute.
• Profile photo: a face or a simple logo that's still readable at the size of a comment avatar.

Series do more than people expect. When a reel says “part 3 of 10”, or belongs to a weekly format, following is the obvious next step for anyone who wants part 4.

New followers drift away if they stop seeing you. Feed and Stories rank posts partly on the history between you and each follower, so people who never interact with your posts see less of them over time.

• Reply to comments while the post is fresh. A reply often brings a second comment, and Explore pays attention to how quickly a post collects them.
• Post Stories on days you don't post anything else. Polls and question stickers give followers an easy way to interact.
• Choose a rhythm you can keep for three months. Two good reels a week beats a daily burst that stops after a fortnight.
• Stay on topic. Someone who followed for plant care and gets a run of holiday photos has a reason to leave.

Some loss is normal on every account: people tidy their feeds, deactivate or change interests. Watch the pattern over weeks, not the daily number.

Some of the quickest honest growth comes from being introduced by an account your future followers already trust.

• Collab posts: invite another account as a collaborator and the post appears on both profiles, in front of both audiences, with one shared set of likes and comments.
• Takeovers and guest reels: swap a day of Stories or a reel with a creator or business that serves the same people without competing with you.
• Useful comments: a comment that adds a tip or asks a good question on a bigger account in your field gets read by that account's audience. “Great post” doesn't.
• Remixes: remix a popular reel in your field and add your own take, so you start from a video people already care about.
• Honest tags: tag the place, and the people or brands that really appear in the post.

Giveaways bring a burst of follows, but many of those people came for the prize and leave after the draw. If you run one, choose a prize that only your future audience would want, so the followers who stay are the right ones.

Comment-for-a-freebie posts

Posts that say “comment GUIDE and I'll send it” collect plenty of comments, because the reader gets something useful straight away. Tools such as DMFast send the message automatically and can be set to send it only to people who follow you. That works when the freebie fits the account. Expect some people to follow for the file and leave later, and message only the people who asked.

Each of these promises fast numbers, and the numbers are the problem. Followers who never watch, like or share don't help a single post reach anyone.

Hashtags help a little with search and not with reach. When it introduced the five-hashtag limit, Instagram said a few targeted hashtags can perform better than many generic ones, and it has also said hashtags don't increase reach. Pick three to five that describe the post the way a searcher would (#monsteracare, not #plants) and spend the time you save on the opening of your reel.

Recommended reels can keep finding viewers for days, so the exact minute you post matters less than what you post. Post when you can answer comments for the next hour, and use your insights to see when your followers are most active.

Account type doesn't add followers by itself. A professional account (Business or Creator) is still worth having if you're serious about growing, because it gives you detailed insights, follows per post and trial reels.

If reach from non-followers has suddenly dropped, check this before you change anything else. Instagram's Account Status screen in Settings shows whether content on your account may not be eligible to be recommended, lets you remove the post causing it and lets you appeal. Its place in the menu varies by app version; searching Settings for “account status” finds it.

Content can lose recommendations without breaking a rule outright. Instagram's Recommendation Guidelines keep some posts out of Reels and Explore even when they're allowed on your profile, and the examples Instagram gives include depictions of violence, tobacco and drug use.

If Account Status is clear, the cause is usually the content itself, and the numbers in the next section will show you which posts to learn from.

Likes say people enjoyed a post. Follows say it made them want more, and that's the number to steer by. On a professional account, each post's insights show how many accounts followed you from it.

1. Once a month, sort your recent reels by follows rather than likes.
2. Look at the top three. What do they share: topic, length, opening shot, sound, caption?
3. Make three more posts on that pattern, changing one thing each time.
4. Check reach from non-followers next to follows. A post that reached strangers but won nobody probably attracted the wrong crowd, or your profile didn't match what they'd just seen.

Tip: Copy your own winners before anyone else's. A format that already brought you followers fits your audience; a trend that worked for another account may not.