How to get the first 1000 followers for your business account?

If you’ve just opened your business’ Instagram account, it’s normal that you don’t have many followers yet. Accounts and their audiences evolve over time, yes, but there are still some things you can do to gain followers and build your base on Instagram. In this article, we will share useful tips on how you can gain the first 1000 followers for your Instagram business account.

1. Make sure your account is public to gain followers on Instagram

This may sound obvious, but for those who are seriously new to Instagram, it’s worth saying: Make sure your account is public and not private. If you have an Instagram business account, your profile is automatically made public.

You currently use a personal account for your brand, we recommend switching to a business account to access benefits such as account analytics.

If you haven’t switched yet and are running your business with a personal account, activate the “open account” option. To do this, go to your profile, on the Settings tab, click on the Privacy section. In Account Privacy settings, make sure the Private Account option is turned off.

2. Use hashtags

Even if it looks ugly, using hashtags is an effective way to gain followers on Instagram. Also, be sure to follow our first tip to fully exploit the follower-attracting potential of hashtags. You ask why? If your account is private, your photos will not be seen under hashtags. Research which hashtags fit your products, don’t fill your posts with irrelevant hashtags.

For example, if you’re a clothing business, do a Google search for “best clothing hashtags” to find the most used hashtags related to your industry? Include the most used hashtags as well as the relatively less used ones in your posts. While hashtags with more than one million users may seem more beneficial for your visibility, they can have the opposite effect as they are highly competitive.

3. Make your content visually appealing

Even if you use a wide variety of hashtags, people will not follow you if your content is not good. To gain followers on Instagram, pay attention to the quality of the content you publish, spend time and effort. Whether you’re a clothing company or selling cookies with different ingredients, take the time to take professional photos of your products. So you have a photo gallery of high quality images to promote on social media.

While snapshots you take with your smartphone are good at times, if your content is visually appealing, your followers will also be more willing to stay connected to your account. When sharing content on your business’s Instagram, also tag people and brands in your photos. Make sure to tag your photographer’s Instagram account in all of your photos too, especially if they have a good following… This will increase your chances of being shown in people’s Discover tab and be featured in Tagged Photos albums. The more opportunities you create to be found by other accounts, the better!

4. Draw

To gain followers on Instagram, you can try to do a raffle on your account. You’ll be giving away one or two items for free, yes, but a carefully regulated sweepstakes can be very helpful in increasing your follower count.

If your goal is to gain followers on Instagram, don’t forget to set one of the rules of the sweepstakes as “following your account”.

Most giveaways have multiple rules like “follow our account and tag two friends in the comments” to increase visibility. By allowing people to tag their friends, you can reach more people and increase your chances of gaining followers. Some sweepstakes also allow users to enter more than once, be sure to make this clear in your rules.

5. Create engagement to gain followers on Instagram

The saying “Treat others the way you want to be treated” also applies to gaining followers on Instagram. For people to interact with your business account, you need to interact with their account. If you’ve just opened your account, take 20-30 minutes a day to respond to your followers’ comments, like their content, and discover new accounts to follow to create engagement.