Instagram is still one of the biggest social media platforms for influencer marketing, promoting your brands and businesses and to effectively garner a community which matters.
However, the competition is cut throat on the platform. With more and more users increasing on the platform, it becomes harder than ever to create your own space and name on Instagram.
You find it hard to grow your followers, engagement rates, impressions and interactions for your content being created on your profile and persuading the algorithm to recommend your account to more people.
That’s why we have brought 08 best strategies for growing followers effectively and faster on the platform.
You can use these growth strategies to optimize your account thus forcing the algorithms to suggest your account to more new users on the platform.
8 Effective strategies to get more followers on Instagram (for free)
The tips being mentioned in this blog are organic Instagram marketing tips which enable you to grow your account following without any gimmicks or short cuts.
If you follow these strategies and tips properly, you can grow your Instagram followers in 2025 and become an irresistible profile on the platform.
Let’s begin!
1. Optimize your Instagram profile
The first tip for growing your followers fast on Instagram is to optimize your profile in a manner that it becomes more searchable on the platform.
Instagram isn’t just a social media platform but has transformed into a large search engine which is relying more and more on keywords and content optimization.
That’s why it is crucial that you include keywords to make your profile more discoverable on the platform and to turn more potential followers into actual followers.
Here is how you can optimize your IG profile in 2025 to amass more followers
Choose the right username and handle
- Keep your username simple, clear and easy to search.
- Avoid random numbers or spammy special keys in your handle and username.
- Keep it simple. For example, Sarahdesigns is better than Sarah123.
Use a clear profile picture
- Use a profile picture which is clear.
- If you are representing a brand, a clear brand logo is better.
- Make sure it is recognizable.
Craft a compelling bio
- Explain who you are and what you do.
- Use keywords related to your niche
- Add life to your bio with emojis and line breakers.
For example,
Travel vlogger | Explore the world together
Travel agent at your service
DM for prices and collaborations.
Add a call to action and links
- Call to actions make it easier to increase followers effectively.
- Links in bios help you to direct your followers to your blogs, landing pages and other social media handles.
- For example, a CTA like, “follow for more tips” can increase your follower rates.
Create a story highlight
- Creating highlights can help you to organize your stories properly.
- You can name your highlights according to your story moods such as books, products, reviews, UGC etc.
2. Post high quality content
Content is still the king on Instagram in 2025. Posting high quality can help you bring in more followers, because audiences feel themselves compelled to follow a page which creates valuable and engaging content.
Focus on quality over quantity
Focusing on quality over quantity can help you to make your profile successful because posting 1 valuable post everyday is better than posting 4 useless posts everyday.
This way, you can be more consistent and qualitative at the same time on Instagram. Each post on Instagram should serve a purpose and goal.
Develop a consistent visual identity
Your Instagram grid is your portfolio. You should have a consistent visual identity with clear graphics, color scheme and fonts for your profile and posts.
This makes your profile stand out because your profile will look more organized and cohesive this way.
Plan a posting schedule
Planning a schedule can help you to be consistent with your content posting on the platform. You can combine your content according to your requirements:
- Reels for growth and discovery
- Carousels for engagements and saves
- Stories for daily interaction
- Static posts for brand identity
Use captions that connect
Captions are a great way to connect with your audiences. Use captions in your videos which can really resonate with your target audience.
Don’t just post a picture or reel but also write a captivating caption with them in order to engage your audience for a longer period of time.
- Captions should be relevant to your posts.
- Even if you are writing a short caption, enhance it with storytelling.
- Write relevant keywords in your captions to make them more searchable on the platform.
3. Use hashtags in your videos
Using hashtags in your videos may seem like a redundant strategy but it still helps you to make your posts more discoverable and rankable on the platform.
These hashtags can be combined with your keywords to boost your posts on the platform. Many creators combine popular and niche oriented hashtags for Instagram growth.
The platform allows you to use 3 to 5 hashtags in your post but it is always recommended that you only deploy hashtags which are relatable to your posts.
Avoid using spammy hashtags and hashtags which have nothing to do with your content on the ‘Gram. This way you can use hashtags the right way in your posts.
Here are some more tips for using hashtags in your posts:
- Mix different types of hashtags such as combining a variety of hashtags. For example, combine popular, niche specific, branding and location hashtags for more growth.
- Research hashtags before using them. Use tools like hashtagify, Instagram insights or flick to search for relevant and low volume keywords on the platform.
- Place hashtags in your posts strategically such as at the end of your caption to maximize clarity and to make them look neat.
- Analyze what’s working using Instagram insights. Instagram insights help you explore the best hashtags which you can use or avoid the worst in your posts.
4. Always post at the right time on Instagram
If you aren’t posting at the right time on Instagram, all your valuable content may go in vain and you can miss all the relevant chances to gain more followers on the platform.
Think about posting times on Instagram as heating a pizza in a microwave. If you take out your pizza before the right time, it’s gonna be sordid and if you overcook it, you can have a burnt meal.
If you are posting at a time when your audience is inactive, all the hard work and building an active online presence can give you no benefits at all.
That’s why you should check out which times suit you the best to post on Instagram. How do we find that? Well, we use Instagram analytics and other tools to figure out.
Here is how you can find the most relevant times using Instagram insights:
- Go to your professional dashboard and check insights.
- Go to the new followers section
- Scroll down and look at the “most active times” to see when your followers are online (by hour and by day)
- Mine is showing that my audience is most active on Sundays.
- You can also find the gender sections, age range and top locations on this page too.
General best time to post on Instagram
The general best times to post on Instagram are:
- Morning, lunch break and evening on weekdays (7 AM to 9 AM, 11 AM to 1 PM, 6 PM to 9 PM).
- On weekends the best time is mid-morning to early afternoons (10 AM to 1 PM).
General tips
- You should use scheduling tools like Buffer, Later and other tools to manage your posting times on your account.
- You should post at different times to find out which time works the best for you.
- You should also adjust your time zones according to your followers to find the best time to post on Instagram to gain more followers.
If you cannot manage your time on Instagram, you can manage nothing on the platform.
5. Create shareable and save worthy content
The content which is shareable, save-worthy and “repostable” on Instagram, can always help you amass more followers on the platform.
Repost is a relatively new feature being introduced by Instagram and it can help you gain more followers on your account easily.
When a new user reposts your content on the platform, the user’s friends can also see their reposting, thus helping you increase your follower count on the platform.
The most shareable content on the platform is the one which is user-friendly, not vulgar and in simple terms, “family first” content.
Why shareable and save worthy content matters
- Shares: Help you to gain more exposure as new audiences can see the shared content on stories and reposts.
- Saves: The content which is saved can be revisited and brings more engagement and followers on your account.
Content that drives shares
The content which is shareable can help you bring in more followers due to excessive exposure on the platform.
Here is the content that drives more shares:
- Relatable memes and quotes
- Trending topics
- Motivational and inspirational content
- The content which is hooky (which covers a controversial topic but doesn’t contribute to these controversies)
Strategies to make content more shareable
Following are some strategies to make content more shareable on the platform:
- Use strong CTAs in your captions. Such as “save this for later or share with your friends”.
- Use branded templates and consistent fonts so your posts look professional and can be shared easily by people.
- Combine education and entertainment to create content which can be shared by audiences of all age groups on the platform.
- Use different formats and combine carousels, reels and static posts to gain more exposure on the platform.
6. Repurpose content across platforms
One of the smartest growing hacks on Instagram in 2025 is repurposing your content on Instagram.
Repurposing your content means you can pick content from your other profiles and redirect it on Instagram. This helps you to build your profile without creating brand new content every time.
You can recycle, repackage and reformat your content from existing channels and reuse it directly on your Instagram account without any risk of copyrights.
How to repurpose content on Instagram
Here is how you can repurpose your content on Instagram:
- Turn your tiktoks into reels. Simply download your tiktoks, remove watermarks and upload them directly on your Instagram.
- Turn your blogs into carousels. If you are a blog writer, it is recommended that you turn your blogs into carousels and share them on your public account.
- Repurpose your YouTube shorts into reels by sharing them on your Instagram account too. This can help you create content for one channel and share it on two.
- Transform your tweets into Instagram threads. You can also share these tweets and threads as carousels on Instagram too.
- Turn your stories into highlights by saving your best stories into IG highlights. This way you can make your content available even after 24 hours.
Best practices for repurposing
Following are the best practices for repurposing
- Tailor to the platform
- Avoid direct cross promotion.. Always make amendments to CTA, captions and hashtags.
- Design and edit your content in bulk, so you can post your content efficiently on different platforms easily.
7. Use paid promotions strategically
Organic growth works the best on Instagram but if you want to increase your followers genuinely on the platform, you should run branded ads on your profile.
These paid ads are considered the best return on investment on the platform and a hefty sum of revenue is generated by Instagram through these ads.
This is a paid Instagram promotion plan but it doesn’t violate the policies and services of Instagram because these are recommended by the platform itself.
Here is how you can use paid promotions effectively on your profile
Promote your best performing content
- Don’t waste money on promoting posts which didn’t go well organically.
- Check Instagram insights to figure out which posts are brought more engagement (buy likes, views, comments, saves)
- Promote posts which are worthy of sharing on the platform.
Define clear goals before running ads
What exactly are you looking for:
- More followers: Run “profile visit ” campaigns
- Awareness: Run “reach campaigns” raise awareness about your page on the platform.
Target the right audience
Use Instagram’s ad targeting to filter audience by:
- Location
- Age and gender
- Interests (fitness, fashion, entertainment etc).
Experiment with formats
- Reels ads: Long vertical ads which can be shown in the reels section by the platform.
- Story ads: Target audience directly by jumping on to the stories section
- Carousel ads: Perfect for showing multiple tips, products or features in one go.
- Explore ads: Reach people actively browsing new content.
Use compelling creatives and CTAs
- Keep ads short (ads under 15 seconds are enough)
- Include text overlays so audience understands without sounds
- Add CTAs like “follow for more tips”, “shop now”, or “save this for later”.
8. Track analytics
Growing on instagram in 2025 isn’t just about creating content but it is also about tracking your content regularly on the platform checking out what is working the best for your account.
Analytics give you a behind the scenes look at how your content is working on your platform and which content you should double down on the platform.
Analytics help you to see which content type works, understand audience behaviors, track growth performances and measure ROI of ads too.
Key instagram metrics to measure in 2025
- Reach and impressions – show how unique accounts see your content and how often. High reach means your content is getting exposed to more non followers.
- Engagement rates – track likes, shares, comments and views on your content.
- Follower growth rate – track how many followers you are gaining or losing over time.
- Reels performance – Reels are the best performing format on instagram. However, you have to keep a check on them to find out which reels are working the best.
Tools for tracking analytics on instagram
- Instagram insights: available freely for businesses and creator accounts on the platform.
- Meta business suit: Great tool for tracking analytics and scheduling content
- Third party tools: Later, Hootsuite, Iconscout and sprout social also help users to track analytics on their accounts.
Free vs paid Instagram followers
All strategies discussed in this blog are free (except running ads) but if you are looking to increase your followers fast on Instagram, you can also go for buying followers for your account.
While many Instagram marketers speak negatively about buying followers, we think it can work as a significant initial boost for growing followers on the platform.
These plans especially work the best for new users, creators and businesses on the platform as they need some initial motivation to create more content on the platform.
Paid followers work the best when you use them wisely on your account and profile. Here is how you can do it:
Choose real and active followers:
Always choose a service which provides only real and active followers for your growth on Instagram. Fake followers or bots can harm your account growth.
Combine with free growth
This is the most important strategy. These paid followers are for initial boost. So, you should combine these with all the free strategies we have provided above to get the best results out of them.
Use for campaign launches
These paid engagements work the best when you are launching a campaign, brand or event promotions. These followers increase your visibility immediately.
Gradual growth
Whenever you buy Instagram followers for your account always go for gradual delivery instead of sudden spikes and surges in your account following.
Free followers are the cornerstone of long term growth on Instagram and paid followers are just a push which you give your account and content for increasing visibility on Instagram.
The best practice is to blend paid followers with valuable content creation on the platform.
Best practices to gain more followers on Instagram: Key takeaways
In 2025, gaining more followers on Instagram is still crucial as a profile can never become monetizable and popular without followers. For new and old users, creating content, posting on the right time, sharing content regularly and all other organic strategies are important to grow on the platform. However, we have also covered paid strategies for users to explore on Instagram. These include running ads or simply buying followers for their accounts. The best practice lies in combining both of them for your account growth.
Comment down below to share your best growth strategy!
Frequently asked questions
How to get more followers on Instagram for free?
You can get free followers on Instagram by creating valuable content, by using hashtags and keywords in your content, by posting at right times, by optimizing your profile and by checking insights on the platform too.
How to get 1k followers on Instagram in 5 minutes?
You can get 1k followers on Instagram in 5 minutes by creating viral and trending content on the platform. This trending content gets viral often by Instagram’s algorithm and can bring in 1k followers fastly on your profile.
How to get more followers on Instagram fast?
You can get more followers on Instagram fast by creating shareable content on the platform. Content which is shared on stories and in DMs get more chances of gaining followers fast on a profile.
