Instagram is the top platform brands and influencers can use for online marketing. Not only are there almost two billion monthly users, but there are lots of features that can help you build a follower base and generate leads from the network. One of the biggest problems is that many brands think to get a follow, you must give a follow.

But what to do if you don’t want to follow back thousands of people to grow your profile? In this post, you will find some tips on how to succeed on IG and the secrets of making money on Instagram without followers. Stay tuned!

Follow Back Strategy 

The follow-back strategy is the oldest and is probably the least effective way to generate engagement on social media. The idea is that you follow an account, and in return, this person is coming back to yours. However, there are some disadvantages of this strategy, including:

• You must ensure that the accounts you follow are relevant to your audience.
• There is no prearranged agreement that a follow to one person will mean they will subscribe back.
• It takes lots of time to go through Instagram and subscribe to loads of accounts, especially if you’re researching suitable individuals in your target market.
• You might get blocked when you follow too many people at once.
• It looks unprofessional to have more people you follow than those who subscribed to your profile.

Ditching The Old Strategy

Instead, brands need to look at new ways to get followers on Instagram without following anyone. There are many options on there that can encourage users to decide to follow your profile and start buying from you. Here is a list of the potential strategies that you can use.

1. Get More People to Initially Follow You

You should first get those involved in your brand, like family members, friends, co-workers, staff, and suppliers, to like your IG account. This initial influx of likes adds a little weight to your social proof.

The higher your social proof, the more attractive your brand will look on the platform. Or you may buy 20 followers on Instagram who are real and active without following or liking anyone back!

2. Publish the Right Amount

The next step you take is to start publishing content. A lot of new Instagrammers begin posting content, but there are some problems with this strategy.

Too much content can look spammy and push some of your audience away. It takes time to build a fanbase, and you want quality over quantity. Publishing 1-3 posts per day is sufficient to get instant new accounts in your fanbase.

3. Publish at the Right Time 

It would help if you also looked at publishing new content at the right time of the day. There has been a lot of research that has shown what times are best for publishing on Instagram.

When you adhere to publishing content at these times, you will get more users on Instagram and Tik Tok without following them and therefore have a more extensive reach. Research has found these facts about publishing and viewing behaviors on Instagram:

• Publishing new content on Mondays at 11 am is a perfect time.
• Publishing content on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 10 am, and 1 pm will generate the best results.
• You should publish new content on Thursdays and Fridays between 10 am, and 11 am.
• Content posted at any time on a Sunday will not perform well.

4. Use Hashtags

Another common tactic is to use hashtags on your social media content. It is usual for brands to overload their hashtags on content, with some publishing up to 20 hashtags for one image. However, research has shown that to generate the best results, including getting Instagram followers without following them, you should look at publishing content with just three or fewer hashtags.

With proper tags, you can still get excellent content reach. If you used unique hashtags for each post and three posts per day, you could get 63 hashtags in a week.

5. #NoFilter

One of the top trending hashtags to use is the #nofilter hashtag. This hashtag denotes that the image has had no alterations to it. Consumers prefer this kind of content; therefore, when you use it in your content, you can attract an audience. Using this at least once weekly, if not daily, can be very important.

6. Ask Other Brands to Feature You

If you’ve made connections with other brands and they have a massive fanbase on IG, why not get them to mention you in a couple of posts? There are numerous ways to get other brands to mention your account. Either you can do a video together, or they could say they use your product/service. Just don’t hesitate to DM them and offer cooperation. Whatever option, if they can get real followers, so can you!

7. Run Some Competition

Competitions are an excellent mainstay of the social media game. You can create a competition where you provide a prize for a winner or a group of winners. You then set entry criteria like following your account, liking some content, or making a comment. You can tell audiences they have a better chance of winning if they do more than one action on your account.

8. Improve the Quality of your Content

One of the main problems audiences have with smaller brands is that the content they’re producing is not good enough. Several things can hold your content back, which include:

• Spelling mistakes in the text content.
• Images are blurry or not clear.
• Content is dull or too dark.
• Photos or videos that do not belong to you.

9. Just Ask

One of the most common mistakes new Instagram brands make is that they don’t ask for a follow. Although it seems like pleading, asking is one of the most efficient ways your brand can get more followers on Instagram without following them back. It is the same tactic YouTube, and TikTok creators use on their channels.

10. Create Videos

Videos are an effective medium to create engagement between you and your intended audience. The more videos you produce for your channel, the better results you will get.

Research has found at least three videos per week will generate good results. There are numerous types of videos that you can create on Instagram, from Stories to Reels. Mixing these with a live feed can be a perfect way to reach a larger audience without following back.

11. Use your Website

Another option you might have if you have a website is to get people who’ve bought a product to like your IG account. This tactic can be easily done using a ‘Thank You’ page on your website.

You don’t even need to sell a product; you could offer customers a free ebook or offer to subscribe to your mailing list. By providing these options, you can gain Instagram followers you never knew existed.

12. Cover Live Events

Live events bring in lots of attention on Instagram and other platforms. You can utilize your account to cover those events with ease. Healthy and beauty bloggers could use a new fashion show as a way to film and showcase a new designer. Using the proper marketing, the live feed from that area could allow more people, especially if they had already paid attention to the event.

13. Optimize your Profile Picture

Be sure you’re using the right profile picture for your profile. If you’re a personal blogger, then this could be your portrait. A smiling face is very enticing and will increase followers in higher numbers than a symbol or generic letter. However, big brands should use a logo as it is instantly recognizable.

14. Optimize your Username

You must make sure you’re using a highly memorable username—something short, catchy, and relevant to your content. There are numerous ways to create a good username. You could use an online name generator or pick up a dictionary/thesaurus to look for synonyms.

15. Upgrade your Profile Text

Another good thing to do is upgrade your profile text. When people look at who you are, they want to ensure that they’ve got someone who is relevant. So talk about the brand and what you promise to deliver to the audience. Give them tangible benefits to subscribing to your account, like ‘daily travel inspirations from the world.’

16. Be Yourself

The best way to get IG followers without following is to be yourself. Your natural personality is by far your most vital asset, and with that, you can win over users who will want to subscribe to your account and purchase from you. And, of course, you will have to showcase your bright personality in your amazing content. This way, you’ll see many followers coming back for more really fast!

Conclusion 

Building your base on platforms like Instagram is barely an easy task that requires time and patience. It is especially challenging if you want to grow without following people.