Instagram, with 2 billion monthly active users and 200 million daily active users, has raised many self-made celebrities overnight. The question arises, how do they do it? Are there any secret growth hacks to grow your followers overnight? In this blog post, we will take a deep dive into 7 secret growth hacks that will grow your followers faster than usual.
The 7 secret growth hacks in this blog post will leverage the Instagram algorithm and users' psychology to make your content undeniable and highly discoverable. It doesn't promote any illegal methods or shady tricks to buy fake followers. These are genuinely effective methods to grow your followers in a very short period.
7 Secret Growth Hacks
1. Start with Micro Niche
These growth hacks will work for those people who have just started their Instagram journey. Starting with a Micro Niche lowers your competition to fight big players in your Niche. It also makes your content relatable to specific people who are more likely to follow you.
A micro niche is a refined niche up to 2-3 levels in depth. For example, if you are a fitness coach, then choose Fitness coach for old-age single parents. Or if your niche is Travel vlogger, then make it a Budget travel blogger in California City.
What do you need to do?
- Choose your niche, then dive in 2-3 levels down ( e.g., Cooking > Vegan Cooking> Vegan cooking in budget for hostelers )
- Look for content ideas targeting your micro niche's audience pain points.
- Drop 3-5 contents in your micro niche
2. Schedule Notifications
Instagram blocks you if you DM unknown people or even followers rapidly. It's considered spamming. But, Instagram never stops you from liking others' pictures, comments, stories, etc. Use this secret hack to schedule notifications at a specific time in a day, probably when your users are most active.
Every time you like a comment, post, or story of someone, Instagram automatically sends notifications to them. Believe it or not, people are addicted to notifications. They have an urge to check Instagram notifications every day.
What do you need to do?
- Choose a big player's Instagram account within your niche
- Open their post and like everyone's comments.
- Visit some of their audience's profiles and like their stories and posts.
- Do this every day in the peak hours to send bulk notifications to the target audience.
This secret hack will increase your profile visits, so make sure your Instagram Bio is updated and has some valuable content in it.
3. Engagement Bait
Almost all social media platforms prohibit clickbait, but Enagagement Bait is are purely ethical way to grow your followers. So what is Engagement bait? And how to use it?
Enagagement Bait is a method of creating content that encourages viewers to engage with your posted content. It can be as simple as sharing or commenting. Some good examples are as follows:
- Post like "Share to that one friend", "Tag someone who.."
- Easy questions - "Only 1% people can solve this", "Only a genius knows the answer",
- Like donation - "Like if you miss someone", "Like if you are ready to change yourself", "Like if you still miss"
This growth hack makes your content sharable, which gives an instant boost of followers. Specifically, if you are focused on Instagram Reels, then for sure, Engagement bait will be your best option as people have a habit of talking in Reels.
4. Save the Trends
You usually have seen when a new song is released, a new movie is released, or if anything is happening in the news, at that time the whole of Instagram is filled with content related to that trend. You should save the trends like that and make some content around them.
Don't just copy others, but take a step further and reinvent. Think about how you can use those trends and twist them for your niche. For example, if a new song is trending, and you have a recipe Instagram account, then make a new video syncing your cooking skills with the song.
What do you need to do?
- Save trending reels, songs, and content within your Instagram account.
- Reinvent your content based on the trend
- Keep a track of new trends and keep updating.
5. Collaborations
For new Instagrammers, collaboration is one of the most powerful methods to instantly boost your followers. You can collaborate with your direct competitor, as well as with the indirect competitors. For example, if you have a podcast Instagram account, you can not only invite other famous podcasters but also motivational speakers, book writers, fitness coaches, etc.
Collaborations are a win-win situation in which no one loses. You will get more reach by inviting another Instagrammer, and they will get free content to post on their Instagram accounts.
Collaborations can be paid or free. It totally depends on the person or the company you are collaborating with. But whichever you choose, it will bring in new followers to your account.
What do you need to do?
- Make a list of collaborators that you think will be suitable for your niche
- DM them on Instagram or write a proposal via email.
- Schedule a date and prepare the content structure for them
- Create content and post it on Instagram.
6. Leverage Instagram Saves
Instagram saves are the most underrated interaction, but it's extremely powerful. If a person saves content, it gives Instagram a strong signal that the person will come back to check that content later.
Further, it tells Instagram that this content has great value and it will show it more relevant audience. This brings in new followers to your account overnight.
What do you need to do?
- Create content that is valuable enough to save. e.g., A list of free AI tools, Important dates, a cheat sheet, a travel checklist.
- Experiment with different content ideas and check the stats that work best for you
- Create similar content to the best-performing content.
7. Early Feature Grabber
Instagram has been continuously evolving since its first launch. They keep testing new features with different audience bases to check which one users like. If you become an early feature grabber, quickly adapting to new Instagram features as soon as its launched. Instagram does a favor for you and boosts your content on its own.
Unlike before, Instagram has extensive features like Edits, Story stickers, Cam Filter, Broadcast channels, Instagram groups, Blend, Meta AI, search filters, and many more. If you are utilizing all these features while creating content, you are already in the promotion zone.
What do you need to do?
- Keep track of Instagram's new feature updates
- Join the beta program of Instagram, so you will get early access to new features
- Utilize Instagram's new features for creating content
Wrap Up
The dream of rapid Instagram growth isn't just a fantasy. By leveraging these 7 secret growth hacks – focusing on micro-niche content, strategic engagement bait, trend saver, proactive DMs, smart collaborations, savable content, and eary grabber – you can significantly accelerate your follower count.
Try to implement any of these 7 secret growth hacks today and let the Instagram algorithm work for you.