Engaging Other Users
Follow people who share interests with you. While it's okay to follow as many people as possible in an attempt to get them to follow you back, try following accounts that post things that can inspire you (and vice versa). These accounts will be more likely to follow you back, making your time-use much more efficient than if you indiscriminately followed people.
Like people's photos. For every 100 likes that you leave, you'll get around 8 follows back, provided that you like photos on average, non-celebrity accounts. While you most likely won't be able to climb your way to 1000 followers on this method alone, it's a good place to start.
Leave meaningful comments on photos. It's a well-documented fact that commenting on people's Instagram photos leads to an upswing in followers. Unfortunately, this also means that a lot of people will leave one- or two-word responses on photos in hopes of receiving a follow. Leaving a well-thought-out comment will increase the odds of the creator following you back. On a DIY home office photo, for example, you might say "Wow, I love what you've done with your office! Would love to see a tutorial!" instead of "Nice" or "Looks good".
Message users who have a low number of followers. Sometimes it's best to leave a considerate message for someone whose content you enjoy; not only will this most likely make their day, it will also encourage them to follow you, especially if you already followed them. Keep in mind that messaging someone can be seen as an intrusion on their privacy. Be polite and respectful when messaging other users. Never ask for a follow from someone whom you message.
Post consistently. As the people who follow you will come to find out, you may only post once a week—and that's fine! However, if you have a reputation for posting once a week, stick to that model (or even post more often occasionally). Failing to meet your established posting schedule will result in losing followers. This is less a method for gaining followers and more a method for retaining the ones that you have. Try not to post more than a couple of times per day.
Post at the right time of day. Mornings (7 AM to 9 AM), early afternoon (11 AM to 2 PM), and mid-evening (5 PM to 7 PM) are all peak activity areas for Instagram, so try posting during these times. These times are based on ET (Eastern Time), so you may need to adjust to fit your timezone. If you can't make these times, don't worry—several studies have shown that posting during these times, while helpful, is not a deal-breaker.
Optimizing Your Profile
Choose a theme for your profile. Themes do two very important things: they focus and organize your content, and they ensure that people will always know the general persuasion of the content they're going to see on your profile. People can also see the way you are. Themes can also help streamline your content creation process, since having some boundaries is often better than having none at all.
Add a relevant, informative bio. Your bio should mention your theme, your website (if you have one), and something interesting about you or your process. Everyone has something that makes how or why they do what they do interesting—find yours and mention it here! You can also add tags to your bio if you have a specific tag associated with your content.
Use a captivating profile picture. If you have something that captures the essence of your theme, your content, and your personality, use it. If not, find something that comes close—people should be able to take a look at your profile picture and your bio and know approximately what to expect.
Link your Instagram to social media. You can link Instagram to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and more, allowing you to post your Instagram information anywhere that you frequent. In this way, you'll be able to pull in more follows from people who already follow you on these other social media platforms. This can make you stand out more.
Never make your Instagram posts private. One downside of attempting to garner Instagram growth is that you can't protect your account against people who you don't know, as doing so will alienate future followers. Keep your account public and easily followable, and you'll have a stream of follows trickling in.
Tagging Your Photos
Use tags in all of your photos. A common way of tagging involves writing a description, putting several spaces under the description (often using periods as place-holders), and then tagging as much as is relevant. Try posting around 30 hashtags on each of your photos when you're first starting out to increase your chances of being found.
Experiment with popular tags. Places like https://top-hashtags.com/instagram/ list the top 100 hashtags of the day, so try placing a few of these in your posts' description boxes. Keep in mind that some tags are bound to be so popular that they make your post hard to find. Specific, targeted tags are usually the best way to go. Don't exclusively use popular tags.
Create your own hashtag. If you like, you can create your own hashtag, or take one that's not used all that much and make it your own. Try working this tag into as many posts as possible as a sort of signature for your profile.
Geotag your pictures. Geotagging your photos means including the location where the picture was taken in the post, which will allow people in the surrounding areas to find your photos.
Avoid using unrelated tags. Don't place tags that don't pertain to your photos in the description, as doing so is often considered spam.
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