6 Instagram Growth Hacks You’ve Never Heard of

Okay, so we have all heard of the basic tips to grow your Instagram following, like hashtags, quality photos, and consistency. But in 2020 the competition is steep and growing a large following naturally on Instagram is getting increasingly more difficult. Yes, these basic tips still do work but if your following isn’t growing fast enough or if you want an edge on your competition try these six more advanced tips that I bet you have never heard of before. 

Side note: If you are a beginner to Instagram and don’t know the “basics” to grow your Instagram following (it’s okay I didn’t either until recently), first check out my post, “How to get 20,000 REAL Instagram Followers in 2020”, which goes over the basics of Instagram growth (coming soon). Then come back to this post to learn how to truly master Instagram and its algorithm. 

Here are some tips and tricks I bet you have never tried to grow your following NATURALLY: No spammy behavior, NO buying followers and NO basic tips! I’ve been able to grow my following from 15k to 175k in one year with these tips.

1. Add DISCRETE Hashtags to your Stories 

Yes, I agree hashtags can look distracting, spammy, and borderline tacky. And on a visual social media platform, like Instagram, aesthetics is everything! You don’t want to ruin your cute story with a bunch of hashtags. Most people, including myself, just naturally never used hashtags in stories or at the very most, would only use a few hashtags. But recently, I started using hashtags in my stories and not just a few, but all the way up to 30 hashtags! This is how….

Type out all of your related hashtags in your story. Then hide your list of hashtags behind a photo, a GIF or other text, etc. No photos or gifs in your story? No biggy! Instead, shrink the text as small as you possibly can, to the point where your list of distracting hashtags is so small it can’t be seen at all. 

2. Hashtags in the Comment Section 

Similar to tip number one, I don’t like endless hashtags in my captions either. It’s distracting and looks messy. But I still want hashtags on my posts so new people can find me! Instead of putting a long list of hashtags in my caption, I now put the hashtags in a comment on my own photo.  

Bonus tip: Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags on one post, so use those! But make sure to keep them related to your brand and your content. 

3. Tags!

For every photo I post I tag 20 other pages that might possibly shout me out. You want the account you tag to be of course related to you and that post, I wouldn’t go tag a bunch of nature accounts,  while the photo is of me wearing a mini skirt and heels in the middle of LA. For example, my Instagram is all above fashion and fitness. So I tag a bunch of fashion and fitness pages. I am also a tall curvy girl so I tag a bunch of pages that promote tall women and curvy women. I like to build relationships with these accounts, by following them, liking and commenting on their photos, and consistently tagging them in my photos. They in turn post me on their page, well most of them not all. But that’s a huge audience you just reached for free. Hopefully, some of their followers will now follow you! 

4. Tag Small Brands

Brands like, Fashion Nova and Forever 21, get thousands of tags everyday. They don’t see half of these tags and even if they did, they only post people/influencers with a HUGE following. On the other hand, smaller brands are more likely to see your post and even repost it to their account! So if you don’t have 100+ thousand followers, go on the hunt for smaller brands. For example, if you are into beauty, instead of buying a new lipstick from Sephora, buy it from this small brand with less than 25 thousand followers and tag them! 

Bonus tip: If you are looking to become an influencer, tag this small brand consistently. They will start to recognize you and form a relationship with them. This will help you get a partnership with this brand in the future! 

5. Use New Instagram Features 

Every time Instagram releases a new feature, like, “Reels”, “Instagram Live” or “Ask me a Question”, post as much content as you possibly can with this new feature. Instagram will reward accounts and content using this new feature, by boosting your content in the algorithm. This means more people will see your photo/video and hopefully follow! In 2020, a relatively new feature is “Reels” and the carousel feature. “Reels” is basically the 15-second version of Tik Tok on Instagram. A carousel post is a post with multiple photos or videos, where viewers can swipe to see the rest of the content. Always be on the lookout for new features Instagram releases and get on it as soon as you can!

Bonus tip: Follow Instagram’s Instagram account….lol that’s confusing. Yes, Instagram actually has an account. Instagram will share information about new features to it’s stories and posts. This will allow you to know about and try these new features before the majority of Instagram users. Instagram will reward you for acting fast and being one of the first to try their new feature out! 

6. Carousel Photos 

Not only are carousel posts great to use right now because they are a new feature, but you should continue to post carousels long after the trend has gone away.

This is because, first, Instagram will show your content twice to your followers! For example, let’s say you post a carousel with two photos in it. Craig, one of your followers is scrolling through his feed and passes by your photo, without really noticing it. For whatever reason, he didn’t like, comment, or even stop to look at it. BUT the next day, Instagram will show the second photo on your carousel, to your followers who did not engage in the first one. This means, your post that Craig passed by without a second thought, has another chance to get his like or even a comment! This means you have TWO chances to show up on someone’s feed and have them engage with your content. 

Second, Instagram’s algorithm pays attention to the amount of time someone spends looking at a post. I know, kind of creepy. But why would Instagram care about the time spent on a post? If Instagram users spend a long time looking at a post, that means they have spent more time in general on Instagram, which means more money for Instagram. So what does Instagram do? It rewards accounts and content where Instagram users are spending more than the average post. It rewards, with more exposure, and boosts your account and content in the algorithm. Are you following along? AND what do carousels have? MORE photos, which means people will spend more time scrolling through each of your photos.