How to grow your Instagram account to 10k+ and become an online influencer

Using my own experience and digital marketing knowledge, I’m going to be helping you to grow your Instagram following and reach 10k followers. This isn’t an easy process and it takes a lot of time and work, but if you’re willing to put in that time, I have some tips for you!

In May 2019 my Bookstagram account, BooksNest, reached 10,000 followers and I hit the status of Influencer. I started my account in January 2016, but it wasn’t until mid-2018 that I really started to grow. Shooting up from 1,500 followers to 10,000 in just under a year. But how did I do it?

For context, here’s a post I wrote about my Instagram journey. You can see the many different forms my account has taken in its three years and at what point I started to shape my feed to look the way it looks now.

So I mentioned that my Instagram account only really started to grow in the last year, reaching from 1.5k to 10k followers. This was also around the time I did two things: started my current theme and joined a very active Instagram pod. I will go into both of these things in the points below. I think it’s important to know though, the two starting points to me really putting my all into my account and seeing the results.

Sit down and grab some snacks, this is going to get detailed!

Interact with and follow other users on Instagram

Liking a few photos on your timeline is great, but do you know what’s even better? Writing genuine comments and following users whose accounts you love! If you want to go on your very own like spree and find new users to share the love with, make sure your interaction is genuine. Otherwise, you’ll just be labelled as another spammer and won’t gain anything from the engagement.

I like to find accounts similar to mind to engage with, not only do I genuinely mean the comments I leave, but I find the accounts good inspiration for my own! Seeing how well everyone’s accounts are doing, makes me motivated to invest time into the platform.

Post good photos you know will be popular

I fully believe you should post photos of content you love and feel passionate about, that’s the point behind creating photos. But the more you post, the more you’ll see what kinds of posts your followers like. Working on this feedback, you can make sure to shuffle in some popular photos every now and then to help you grow. For example, I know a Harry Potter photo will always do well!

If I look back on my account when I very first started, my photos are very different from what they are like now. I even switched from using a DSLR camera, to using my phone. I think it takes time to get the right composition for your photos and it’s a lot of trial and error. But with practice and changes, you can see what responds the best on Instagram and go from there. Look at the accounts you love and see how you can take tips and inspiration from them when taking your photos.

Create a theme on Instagram

Having a theme on Instagram isn’t the key to success, but it helps create consistency for your page. Creating a theme can be something as simple as a filter, colour scheme or a location. You don’t have to spend money on props, nor do you need to restrict your photos, but having some consistencies can really help.

For your followers, a theme shows them what to expect from your photos and encourages them to follow you. If brands want to work with you, having a theme will give them a rough idea of what to expect from your content. Generally, Instagram themes offer consistency for both you and your audience. However, saying all of this, themes can feel restrive to some users, so they don’t work for everyone. Maybe not having a theme could also be considered as a theme?

Utilise Instagram Stories

I love Instagram Stories, I think they’re a brilliant way of getting live content out there that is fleeting and fun. The 24-hour time limit on stories makes this content exclusive, if you don’t watch it now, it will be gone. This is exciting for marketers and influencers alike, as we try to get our heads around the perfect Instagram Story content ideas.

There are so many brilliant apps to create graphics to use on your Stories or the in-app Instagram filters and features such as Boomerangs and Videos. You can really engage your audience here, whether you’re telling them about your new post, or asking them to take part in a poll. This is a place to show your audience the real you and tell them why they should be following you. A lot of users tend to look more at Stories than they do the Instagram Feed, so it’s worth keeping this in mind when creating your content! I try to always have something up on my Story, even if it’s just one post.

Switch your Instagram account to a business account and use analytics

Having a business account on Instagram enables you to get access to the full range of Instagram analytics. This is useful for several reasons; brands will ask for anayltics on posts on occasion, you can see what is performing well, you can know the best times to post.

But how do you set up a business account? Instagram > Profile > Three lines at the top right > Settings > Account > Switch to business account > Follow the instructions. Contray to theories online, having a business account makes no difference to how well your photos will do on the app.

In Instagram’s analytics you can find out your most popular posts, how many people your posts reach and where these people come from. You can also view analytics on the best times and days to post your photos to receive the best response. It’s really handy to take a look at these stats every so often if you’re really wanting to improve your account.

Don’t be afraid to ask your followers for help

Every milestone I have hit on Instagram is because of my followers and it’s been something I’ve shared with them. I love the humans who follow me on Instagram, they are genuine and lovely people and I enjoy being able to connect with them on a daily basis. I’ve made many real-life friends because of this platform too. Which is why I’m not afraid to ask for help.

When it comes to trying to reach your next 10, 100 or 1,000 followers, sometimes just asking your audience for help goes a long way. Getting a shout out from accounts with different followers to yours could result in a huge bump in followers. A quick story time for you – in January my account turned 3, I wanted to hit 5k on my account’s birthday, a day or two before this I was on 4.4k. All I did was ask my followers for help, interacted with them and participated in shout outs and boom. 5k. Just in time for the three year birthday. Sometimes all you need to do is ask and the lovely people of Instagram will help! Stories especially make it so easy to offer support to other users now.

Instagram Pods

Instagram Pods cause quite the stir on marketing articles, are they good or bad? I can only talk from my own experience, but I think they are great. I credit my recent growth on Instagram down to the Pods I’m in. For those of you who don’t know what an Instagram Pod is: an Instagram Pod is a group chat of users who share their latest posts to the chat after liking and commenting on every shared post. The point of the Pods is to try and beat the Instagram algorithm. The better your post does in it’s first few minutes to an hour of posting, the further it will be pushed on the platform.

Not only have these Pods helped my engagement grow, but they have introduced me to new friends. They allow us to build communities of accounts that share common interests, which is the point of social media in the first place. I think it’s important to be in Pods with accounts you really like so your engagement is still genuine. Don’t bulk comment a heart emoji, or ‘nice photo’, because Instagram will recognise this looks like spam.

I’ve recently seen a lot of talk about Instagram banning Pods etc, but I think this refers to huge external group chats of hundreds of users sharing photos for engagement, not the small max 15 people chats within the app itself.

How do you join an Instagram Pod?

This is a popular question I wanted to add in. You can join a pod by one of three ways.

• Start a pod yourself by messaging accounts on Instagram with posts that you enjoy and a roughly similar follower count to you. Set some rules about sharing content only once you’ve liked everyone else’s first and just make sure you keep an eye on things in the chat.
• Search online for pods to join, there are loads of websites with lists of places to find pods, but these are more likely to be the kind that are hosted externally from Instagram.
• Be invited to join a pod by another account, this is probably the easiest option, but won’t always be the first one that happens. If you’re not keen on starting your own Pod, you could always ask around your Instagram friends and see if they’d like to invite you into one they start.
• Find out more about Instagram comment pods here.

I hope my Instagram tips have been helpful and can assist you in growing your account!