The other day, I went car shopping and managed to grow my Instagram following by 50 followers. In ONE DAY! It was crazy, you’re probably thinking, “How did you grow your IG followers so fast?” or the other question is, “You’re car shopping, why weren’t you paying attention?” Because my sister makes all the decisions and I’m just there to sign the paperwork! But anyway, I’m going off-topic. So, here’s exactly how I was able to grow my following so quickly and why this won’t be happening again… unless I lock myself up somewhere and just spend the night on Instagram.

Here’s how:

1. I posted 2 photos in a day at optimal times.

You can figure out that people tend to search Instagram during their lunch and at night after they eat dinner and are just laying around. For myself, I posted at 1 PM and again at 9 PM. After the time change though, I started posting at 10 PM. You can use an app like Iconosquare to see what your optimal posting times are. Please note that you can do the FREE trial for 7 days and then it is paid. But by using the free trial you will be able to find your optimal times and stick to that schedule. In the future though, it is good to invest in it if you are serious about your Instagram because your audience is always changing. Posting 3 photos are great, but no more than 3.

* I find that with each post, I get more followers so I try to post at least 2 times a day. Make sure that you are still posting with high quality content. If you don’t have high quality content, don’t post at all.

After looking through my hashtags, I found someone whose feed I liked and who was my target audience. As a designer and social media manager, my audience is creative entrepreneurs and bloggers who are looking to step up their businesses with gorgeous graphics or social media consulting. Sound like you? Check out my services here.

After you find someone who is your target audience (remember looking through the hashtags so you can find someone who posted recently):

2. Go through their photos and like 3 of their most recent photos.

3.  Comment on the photos that you can write a RELEVANT comment on.

This is key, don’t write, “Oh that’s wonderful!” that is just wasting your time and their time. If you find a photo where the caption really connects with you, or the photo really speaks to you, write an amazing comment. The more sincere and amazing your comment is, the more likely that person is to follow you back. The reason why this works so well is that even if that person doesn’t follow you back – others will see your comment and think, “She seems like an engaged user and I totally can relate to her comment! I’m going to follow her.” This WORKS. I do this all the time. In my paid course, I break down why this is so effective and why those who comment more get more followers (and no, it’s not just because the person whose feed you are commenting on will follow you back).

4. If you REALLY like their feed (because I don’t believe in following everyone who follows you) go ahead and follow them.

I repeated this over and over again, making sure that my comments were great and that the target audience could benefit from my services.

When you are first starting to build your Instagram, you may find that a small percentage follow you, but now that I’ve been using this over and over again I find that I get a 80% follow rate.

Some things to think about when you are having trouble choosing the perfect person to follow.....

In my paid course, I talk about how to find the perfect person to follow but here’s a quick overview:

1. Make sure that they are engaging on Instagram, if you see them replying back to comments then they will be more likely to follow you.

2. Make sure that they don’t have a huge amount of followers, if they do then your comments may go unnoticed or your activity on their feed may not be seen due to the high amount of notifications they may get. For me, I make sure to target smaller accounts with less than 1,000 Instagram followers. 

Love this post? You'll love my FREE IG course even more! This is a section taken out of the free course that is jam-packed with things like creating the perfect bio, instagram no no's, and even more!