How I Gained 1.1k Instagram Followers in 1 Month

Looking at my Instagram now, you might be surprised that I gained over a thousand Instagram followers in a month.

But I did. And I’ve got screenshots to prove it in this post.

Now, I have to be honest… After this 1 month of working my butt off on growing my Instagram account, I took a step back. And since then, I’ve really stopped trying to grow my Instagram.

Would I love if I gained more Instagram followers? Of course! That would mean more people that I could impact.

But right now, the growth of my blog is coming from Pinterest and Google, not Instagram.

So I view Instagram as a place to engage with my current audience instead of trying to grow it.

Now with all that said, it’s time to get to the good stuff. I’m going to share with you what I did to grow my Instagram account, some tips I’ve learned since then, and how you can gain more followers in the next 30 days!

Are you ready?

Let’s get started.

INSTAGRAM REPORT

My goal from February was to have 500+ followers. And with 344 followers at the end of January, I would say that this was a pretty reasonable goal.

But I ended up completely crushing that goal.

Here are some screenshots for ya…

My Instagram at the end of January:

My Instagram at the end of February:

I gained over 1,100+ followers on Instagram in a month! Yep, you read that right. In 1 month, I more than tripled my followers. And it was surreal to watch it happen.

Now let’s talk about how I did it.

HOW I GAINED OVER A THOUSAND FOLLOWERS

This month I worked my butt off on Instagram. And honestly, I spent a ton of time on the platform.

And I’m talking about A LOT of time!

I would spend hours on Instagram a day. And ever half hour to an hour I was on there doing something to help make my account more visible.

Now I’m not going to lie, some of the followers I gained won’t last. And haven’t lasted. Some of them are accounts that are trying to follow just to unfollow me. And I’m okay with that because I used that strategy myself.

And we’ll get into that in a bit.

1. Liked a lot of photos

For a week straight, I was on Instagram at least once an hour liking over 100 photos. EACH HOUR!

I couldn’t even tell you how many photos I double tapped in a day. I just tapped and tapped and tapped until Instagram got mad at me for spamming the platform.

These photos were from people that I followed. As well as some random accounts that I found through hashtags or the explore page.

And in all honesty, I liked photos that I didn’t really like. It was just a tactic to get my account seen.

That’s it.

2. Left quality comments

While I was liking away, I tried to comment on various posts with positive and thoughtful comments. And it wasn’t: “Great photo!”

Nope.

Instead, I would read their captions and respond to what they said. Or I asked how they took the photo. Or how they edited it!

I would even go and find new blog posts from fellow bloggers, read the post, and then go back to Instagram to leave a comment about it.

This took a lot more time than just liking photos. I put some real thought into it. And I think that made a big difference compared to leaving generic comments that everyone leaves.

3. Posted daily

In January I tried to post daily. And some days, I would even post twice a day.

But this month, I tried to take my posting schedule very seriously. So most days I shared twice a day. And if not twice a day, it was at least once. But honestly, I think I did miss a few days randomly.

And that’s okay!

With this posting schedule, my reach was increased dramatically! I had so many opportunities to reach new people.

Which ultimately led to more followers.

4. Changed the editing of my images

Before this, all my Instagram photos were black and white.

To explain… I’ve always been OBSESSED with black and white photography. If the world was black and white I think I would be happy.

But in late January I noticed something important: the Instagram accounts I looked up to and inspired me were all in color.

It didn’t make any sense for me to be sharing black and white Instagram photos when those weren’t even the pictures I enjoyed on Instagram. That probably doesn’t make much sense. But think about it… How many accounts do you follow that only share black and white photos?!

Probably not many.

So I completely changed my editing style.

5. Followed new accounts

This probably isn’t a shocker to you. But I followed a decent amount of new accounts.

Now, based on the screenshots above, it looks like I only followed a little over 200 accounts. But in reality, I followed more than that. Which I’ll talk about in the next point.

But I did try to follow some new accounts. At first, I was following just about every account I came by. Then I got strategic.

And I only followed accounts that actually interested me. But I tried to follow accounts that didn’t have too many followers. Sure I’m going to like accounts that have over 100k followers. But that wouldn’t help me to gain more followers.

So I followed some accounts that didn’t have as many followers as well.

6. Unfollowed people who followed-to-unfollow me

Also, I tried to follow almost everyone who followed me first!

Now I do get a lot of spam accounts that follow me. And that’s normal. So if you see accounts that try to tell you that they can help you get 1,000+ followers, IGNORE THEM! It’s spam. Only follow those accounts that are real, and interesting!

Following your followers is a great way to learn more about your followers and what they are up to.

But you have to pay attention to those people who are just following you to unfollow you. Again, this is normal.

I like to use the app Followers Pro for Instagram. This will show you who recently followed you, who unfollowed you, who isn’t following you back, and who you aren’t following back.

About once a day, I would go into the app and see who had unfollowed me. And if it is someone who I was following, and no longer have an interest in them… I would unfollow them as well.

I do the same thing with the area that shows me who isn’t following me back. If I have been following someone who awhile, and they don’t stand out to me, then I will unfollow them.

So if you want to weed out who you follow, and know who unfollows you, go get the Followers Pro for Instagram app!

LET’S WRAP IT UP

To say the least, growing your Instagram isn’t an easy task. You need to put in a lot of time and energy to really make it work for you.

And the main key to a successful Instagram presence is engagement. So continue to engage, engage, engage! And in time, there will be a great reward.

But also remember that your success is not determined by numbers. It does not mean that you are more successful if you have 10k followers compared to 1k. Instead, just be proud of every step of your journey and work your hardest to reach your dreams.

And if that means having a lot of Instagram followers, then more power to ya!

KEEP READING…

    

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Why, hello there! I’m Cathrin, the creator of The Content Bug. But since we are already virtual best friends, you can call me Cath. After working in the digital marketing industry, I decided it was time to share my love for online content creation, social media, and SEO with the everyday hustlers of the world… like YOU! You can almost always find me at a local coffee shop writing, reading and working on new things for The Content Bug. But when I have some free time, I love hanging out with my dog, going to a yoga class, and being outside. Stay connected with me on Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter to see what I’m up to!

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