The power of social media cannot be overestimated, especially in the past few years when big platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) have seen an explosion in users, thus many individuals have used these platforms to get eyeballs to their craft, service, product or personal image.
Instagram is one of the most popular among the platforms above and despite the constant change in algorithms here and there, it’s still one of the best social media platforms for growing a personal brand or image.
Currently, growing an Instagram page is not by luck, but rather by strategy, and in this article we’ll be having a look at how you can grow an Instagram page from zero to 20,000 followers without utilizing any form of paid ads or promotion.
How To Create An Instagram Page (Niche & Branding)
Creating an Instagram is truly as simple as can be, however, it’s the minute details in branding that a lot of people seem to ignore. Right before you create your page, the first thing you should note is the niche that you want to go into and who your target audience is going to be.
The niche or cluster of related niches you choose is very important because some niches naturally tend to go more viral than others. So when choosing a niche, I advise you to take a look at what is currently trending and garnering all the attention on Instagram or you can also go for an evergreen topic that won’t lose relevance in the future.
Niches like motivation, wealth, food, memes, etc, are known for doing quite well regardless. When it comes to branding your Instagram page, simply select a name and username that matches the niche that was selected and create a simple logo using Canva, you can change this to a more professional one later on.
How To Optimizing Your Instagram Page (Settings & Bio)
Firstly, head to your Instagram settings and change your account to a professional one, that way you’ll be granted access to more widgets like a professional dashboard where you can see all your stats and the freedom to select your career, recommending you choose ‘Digital Creator’.
With a professional account, you can also freely manipulate the items that would appear on your bio which is very important because this is what people usually see when they visit your page. You can also add an external link when your brand later demands it.
Your Instagram bio should be laced with keywords relating to your niche and the kinds of content that you will be creating. For example, if you choose motivation as your niche that same word should appear in your bio and closely related syllables as well.
What Content To Post On Your Instagram Page
Content is always king, and this is by far the most important part of growing on not just Instagram, but any social media platform out there. Before you start creating content, look for the seven best-performing pages in your niche and study what they are doing.
Take your time to analyze their strategy, especially the kind of content that they post, particularly the ones that go viral on Instagram. Here, whether it’s Instagram reels or photos, no need to reinvent the wheel, you just have to do what has already been proven to work.
If you want to recreate what the aforementioned top-performing pages in your niche are doing, ensure you don’t duplicate their content, but find out what makes it work and inject that serum into your content.
When it comes to creating and editing videos that would be used as reels, Capcut is currently the number one standard due to its ease for beginners and a ton of features available for free. Canva can also be used to create short videos and non-complicated images that match the style of your image.
How To Grow Your Page To 20,000 Followers
This is where strategy comes into the equation. After studying the kind of content the best performers in your niche are putting out there and reverse engineering it, you should post content, particularly Instagram reels, more frequently.
Most of these already established Instagram pages usually push out high-quality content at least once a day, however, for a page that’s just starting you should post content at least three times a day, and probably even four times if possible.
The goal here is to match quality with quantity to increase your chances of going viral on the platform. The Instagram algorithm has been known for favoring creators who put out content in moderated volume.
Now it won’t happen overnight, but due to my experience, if you are consistent and push out three to four pieces of content daily, it would take on average two weeks to start seeing good results and in about a month of consistent work utilizing the strategy already discussed, the Instagram page should have gotten to 20,000 followers or more.
Other Underrated Methods To Get Followers On Instagram
Although the strategy above is one of the best out there currently, other ways exist to get followers to your Instagram page. While they are not as effective and won’t get you thousands of followers, it’s still worth trying out.
Follow For Follow Method
This method is very simple, all you have to do is follow a bunch of Instagram pages in your niche. Follow at least thirty at a time and in most cases, these pages will follow you back and boost your visibility on the platform.
This method also tells Instagram that your page is very active and prompts it to show your account on the recommended section of the pages that you have followed. This means that when someone follows the pages in your niche, your page will also be recommended to them.
Commenting On Bigger Pages
Whenever any of the bigger Instagram pages in your niche makes a post, simply go to the comment section and make a very good remark about the topic of the content.
To do this method, you need to be very active on the platform and turn on post notifications for at least seven of the big pages, that way whenever they post (photos or reels) you will always be among the first to comment.
ALSO READ:
Conclusion
Building a strong social media presence is a non-negotiable at the moment, especially for brands as it directly correlates to brand visibility/exposure, which is crucial if you are trying to make sales. On Instagram, this brand-building process has become much easier as you can tell by the content of this article. If you find any of this information useful, kindly share and check out my other blog posts below.
