Out of all the social networks, Instagram has become the most powerful in terms of influencer marketing potential and building a successful personal brand. Before the release of Instagram in 2010, the job title of ‘influencer’ barely existed. The photo and video sharing platform catapulted the idea of selling your own personal brand into the limelight. Now, there are approximately 500,000 people who identify as an influencer, which is a huge 39% of all profiles with over 15,000 followers. 

But how would one person go about gathering such a huge following? Unfortunately, it’s not quite as simple as posting a few snaps from your holiday or showing off your outfit of the day. Building a personal brand, and gaining Instagram followers takes a number of carefully considered steps. While the road to Instagram fame may seem like a long and slow journey, there are certain steps that can boost your following in an instant, such as ProfileFollower, which will allow you to gain an instant boost in genuine followers, allowing your profile to appear more appealing to other social media users, and reach a far wider audience. 

1 Post consistently and regularly

In order to build up a strong Instagram following, you should be posting to your profile at least once a day. This content needs to be of consistent quality, and carry a similar tone of voice that matches your profile. This will keep followers engaged in your content, and the consistency will eventually mean they are more likely to share your content or profile to others, therefore building your following organically over time. 

2 Interact with other profiles, as well as on your own

While you may be solely focussed on building your own following, it’s important to interact with other profiles as a user, as well as a content creator. This means commenting, liking and sharing other profile’s content, and supporting profiles you enjoy interacting with on Instagram. It’s also really important to acknowledge the users who comment, like and share your content. You can do this by replying to comments on your images, or sharing a post of theirs to your story.

3 Understand when is the best time to post for your profile

This one can be a bit tricky, but when done right, it can reap a lot of following rewards. If you have access to your Instagram analytics, take a look at where the majority of your followers are based, and take note of the relevant time zones. For example, you may be based in the UK but a lot of your followers may be based in the USA. If you are posting at 1pm UK time, that’s going to be 5am in LA. This means, the majority of your followers will not see your post, as it’s not the right time for them to be online. Once you have your timezones figured out, you can use scheduling programs to time when your posts go out to maximise your post interaction and potential for increased following. 

4 Try doing an Instagram Live, Video or Story

Instagram is always coming up with new ways to keep its users engaged. It is no longer just a platform to post photos; you can now post videos permanently to your profile, post a temporary 24-hour story for posts you don’t necessarily want on your feed forever, or even go live and broadcast to your followers. It’s important to mix up how you communicate with your following to get the most engagement out of them. These different communication methods also allow you to show a different side to the person behind the profile. The Instagram Live feature, for example, has proved popular with celebrities and influencers who would like to connect on a more personal level with their followers. 

5 Collaborate with other profiles

A great way to boost your following is to collaborate with a profile who holds similar values to you. This could be teaming up on an Instagram Live and hosting a Q and A together, or you could even join up to hold a contest with each other. This will be a mutually beneficial venture, as both profiles are gaining exposure to the other’s following. Just be careful to pick your collab carefully to attract the following you desire.