A problem you will encounter very often on social media is very few followers. As a consequence, you will experience very little engagement and very few likes. Sound familiar? It happens to the best of us.

This problem with followers not growing quickly is mostly by design. Before you go and pour a ton of money into running ads, let me try and explain why this is happening.

Audience

The first major factor affecting your followers is your audience. Initially, your audience is comprised of people that actually know your account exists. You get to invite people in your address book or contact list when you first open the account.

You could also invite friends one on one by telling them via the other platforms you’re using that you have now created an account and they should follow.

Real Life Scenario: Housemates that participate in the Big Brother Nigeria show quickly grow a large audience because they’re on TV and the show has such a massive real life following already. It’s also not uncommon to find that some of these accounts get flagged for suspicious behavior very quickly because of the speed at which they grow.

Slight digression: the algorithm picks up such things as suspicious and a member of their team must review it, and the reasons why it is growing so fast before a decision is taken.

The case above is the reason why I would always advise against buying followers. Apart from the lack of engagement, if there is no obvious reason for the rapid growth, the account is most likely going to be suspended for flouting community guidelines.

Content

The second major factor is content. There are a couple of factors involved in getting Instagram content right. The formula changes very often and I cannot give you an exact model for posting content, but I can give you an outline.

The major focus of Instagram and Facebook is meaningful social interactions. In my opinion, what this means is that the content should be interesting, original and hold some value for the audience.

Look at your page and ask yourself, why should people interact with my content? What am I putting out that would keep people coming back? These questions would help you tune your content strategy.

Formats

Formats are related to content but are very important if you want more followers.

Currently Instagram supports Images, Slideshows, Videos, Stories, Live Videos and Reels. In order of importance, Reels rank the highest while images rank the lowest on the engagement scale. There are however exceptions to this rule.

What Next?

Shareability: In order to gain more followers, you basically have to expand your audience from the existing one to a larger one.

One of the best ways to do this is to create content that resonates with the audience. Your friends have their own circle of friends that have their own circle of friends, and it goes on like that.

If your content has shareable value, there’s a chance it will get to the much coveted explore page and reach even larger audiences.

Tip: Sharing your content to your stories may help you get more people to see it.

Hashtags: Always use the right hashtags for your content. As a rule of thumb, use only hashtags that have a connection to your content and your account. Using wrong hashtags may reduce your ranking (I believe that there is some sort of ranking system, but I have no verbal or written confirmation of this).

Hashtags are crucial and will open you up to new audiences that are looking for content for that hashtag.

Play Around with Formats: Instagram typically favors their newer formats, but the older ones are also very relevant. Play around with things a lot to see what works. If you find the right formula for your account, you can remove or archive whatever you feel isn’t working later.

Be known for something: It’s always good for your Instagram account to be known for something. As much as possible, try and keep your content within the areas you want to be known for.

Community Guidelines: I need to scream this to the rooftops. Please read community guidelines carefully and follow them. Instagram will suspend your account for flouting them.

A few common examples:

Reposting other people’s content because it’s popular: Please be careful about this. Copyright rules exist and, in some cases, they involve money. If they issue a notice to Instagram, your account will be suspended until you pay the money (this is especially true if your account has a large following).

Sharing confidential information: If you share private information that is not in the public interest, your account can be suspended if it’s reported.

If you’re thinking of opening a gossip page, think carefully about this. There are lines that should not be crossed.

Running Adverts: If you’re going to run an ad please make sure you’ve followed the steps I outlined above. Don’t end up wasting money on ads that won’t convert or reach your goals.

In closing, I will say this, there’s no need to get frustrated about not getting likes or followers. Your goal is to expand your audience. Experiment with the knowledge I have shared and check your results.

Please leave any comments you may have below or send me a message using my contact form.

The force be with you!