Let’s face it: We’ve all heard from people going around telling everyone that “organic Instagram growth is dead”… I have never heard a more ridiculous statement in my life. Organic growth on Instagram is far from dead, and I’ll prove that to you today. I’ll show you step by step how you can grow Instagram followers organically and achieve results just like this:
Before we jump into the actual growth strategies I just want to mention that while organic Instagram growth is very important, paid growth strategies such as paid ads and shoutouts are something you should look into as well. I personally use paid methods to build up the initial following and engagement on my accounts before I can really start leveraging organic growth.
You need a certain amount of engagement on your posts in order for you to be able to reach people organically, and paid ads or shoutouts are a great way to lay that initial foundation.
How To Go Viral On Instagram
What so many fail to understand is that “content is king” on Instagram. If your content doesn’t have the potential to go viral, none of the strategies I’m about to share with you will help you build a following organically. Make sure to check out our article on how to create viral Instagram posts to find out how we find and create viral content for our pages.
Do You Need A Large Following For Organic Instagram Growth?
Organic growth becomes a more and more powerful tool over time as your account keeps on getting bigger and bigger. The reason for that is that your engagement plays a crucial role in Instagram deciding whether your content is worth promoting or not. And the more (real) followers you have, the higher your engagement and chances of ranking on hashtags will be.
That, however, doesn’t mean that organic growth is reserved exclusively for big accounts. Small accounts can leverage the strategies below as well, it may just not be as effective until they build a solid following themselves or back up their efforts with some form of paid growth.
Hashtags For Organic Instagram Growth
Hashtags are by far my favorite tool for organic exposure on Instagram. When used correctly, you can get 10s of thousands of impressions to your posts through hashtags alone. This can result in massive growth completely organically. And the best part is: There is a proven formula that you can use to make this happen.
How Organic Growth Through Hashtags Works
Any given hashtag on Instagram always features 9 selected posts at the top of the hashtag and shows it to people who follow or look up the hashtag. This is where you want your posts to be featured because it will bring hundreds/thousands/tens of thousands of eyeballs to your content. If you can rank one of your posts on multiple popular hashtags you are guaranteed to get a ton of exposure for your posts and your profile. But how can you make that happen?
Ranking Your Posts On Hashtags
At the end of the day the amount of likes, comments, saves, and shares your post gets determines whether it will be ranked on hashtags or not. If a given hashtags top 9 posts have on average 400 likes and 20 comments, you will need to get at least 400 likes and 20 comments yourself in order to have a chance of ranking for that hashtag. If you can’t reach those numbers yet you need to look for a more suitable hashtag.
I understand that this concept can be confusing at first, which is why we put together a completely FREE Hashtag Research Guide which you can use to find the right hashtags for your page.
Getting On The Instagram Explore Page
The explore page is one of the best ways to reach a new audience on Instagram. It is, however, harder to reach the explore page than to rank on hashtags for one simple reason: There is no simple step-by-step process that you can follow to get there.
Ranking on the explore page is possible through great content. There are four main metrics that you want to look out for. If these metrics are solid for a post, it’s chances of getting on the explore page are high.
- Likes
- Comments
- Shares
- Saves
Before Instagram decides to promote your post they show it to a small part of your audience first. If that audience responds to your post positively they will show it to more and more people.
For a post to get on the explore page, you need to have an above average performance in your likes, comments, shares, and saves. Increasing the amount of saves your post gets is becoming particularly important for organic Instagram growth.
Instagram Engagement Groups
Whether your goal is to rank on hashtags or the explore page: Joining an engagement group or building one of your own is definitely one of the best ways for you to get your engagement up and increase your organic Instagram growth.
What is an Engagement Group?
An engagement group consists of multiple Instagram accounts within the same niche. The purpose of the group is for the members to engage with each others posts by liking and commenting within a short amount of time after one of the members uploads a new post. This helps boost a posts engagement and, thus, increases its chances of ranking on hashtags or the explore page organically.
Where can you find Engagement Groups?
You can either create your own engagement group or find existing groups to join. Let’s go over a couple strategies for finding suitable groups:
- Direct Message multiple accounts within your niche and ask them if they are already in an engagement group. If you do this with a lot of accounts and most of them are not in an engagement group, you should consider creating your own and inviting them to join.
- Google “Telegram *your niche* engagement groups” and join a couple engagement groups in your niche. A lot of engagement groups are hosted on telegram sozi you will definitely find some there.
- Join some Instagram growth forums & network. You will make a lot of connections and some of them will have similar accounts with existing engagement groups which you can join.
- Facebook groups are another great way for you to network with other Instagram users. Join a couple groups and you’ll definitely find engagement groups for you to join.
Conclusion: Organic Instagram Growth In 2020
Let’s recap the most important points that you need to keep in mind if you want to become a pro at organic Instagram growth:
- Content is king. Good content is the foundation for your Instagram growth.
- Hashtags and the Explore Page are the most powerful tools to grow on Instagram organically.
- The amount of likes, comments, saves, and shares you get within the first couple of hours after posting are essential.
- Engagement groups are a great way for you to boost your engagement organically.
If you have any questions about organic Instagram growth feel free to send me an email at emil@socialsummitagency.com or check out the Underground Viral Secrets to learn everything you need to know about building a following on Instagram organically.
