Chapter 5
Finding People to Follow
IN THIS CHAPTER
Searching for friends from your contact list
Using Explore and Search to find new friends
Determining who you want to follow back
Identifying a community for ideas, support, and encouragement
Growing your Instagram following is one of the hottest topics on Instagram. If you’ve spent any time there, surely you’ve encountered sales pitches to buy followers or purchase a crazy software program to increase likes and follows. Don’t do it. Yes, it’s impressive having a big following, especially when starting your account. However, any followers you buy are likely fake accounts or people who would never interact with you.
In this chapter, you discover how to find followers the right way. First, you see how Instagram can access the contact list on your phone to find more followers. Next, you discover ways to explore and search for followers in the Instagram app. After you start getting followers, find out who is worth following back and when it’s best not to bother. Finally, find out how to develop a tribe — an online family that helps and supports you along the way as you grow your account.
Finding Your Peeps
If you’re new to Instagram, you may be wondering where to start. Instagram is happy to help you make connections. One way Instagram can help you connect with others is through the contacts stored on your phone or tablet. After you activate this feature, your contacts are periodically synced with Instagram’s servers. Instagram does not follow anyone on your behalf, and you can disconnect your contacts at any time so that Instagram can’t access them.
For privacy purposes, this feature may be best as a one-and-done in the beginning versus a constant connection.
To connect your contacts, follow these steps:
- Go to your Instagram profile page by tapping your photo at the bottom right of your phone’s screen.
- Tap the three lines at the top right.
Tap Settings.
The next screen offers you a variety of account settings to choose from.
- Tap Account.
To proceed, scroll down and tap Contacts Syncing.
The next screen offers you the ability to have Instagram periodically sync and store your contacts on Instagram’s servers. Instagram does not auto-follow them for you; you can pick which contacts to follow.
Slide the tab at the top right so it turns blue to allow syncing.
You may also see a pop-up to confirm the sync. Accept the sync to proceed.
- Tap the back arrow at the top left of the screen twice to get back to the main Settings menu.
- Tap Follow and Invite Friends and then select how you would like to invite friends: by SMS (text message), by email, by other options available on your phone, or by following Facebook friends.
- The first three options create a message to be sent to contacts with a link to connect to your account.
- Following Facebook Friends takes you to a page where you can either Discover People or choose Facebook.
- Tap Follow next to the names of the people you would like to follow, as shown in Figure 5-1.
FIGURE 5-1: Instagram can suggest people for you to discover or show you Facebook friends to follow.
If you change your mind at some point and want to disallow Instagram’s access to your contacts, tap the three lines on your profile page, tap Settings, tap Accounts, and then tap Contacts Syncing. Tap the Connect Contacts tab to return it to white, which terminates Instagram’s access.
Some of your friends may have set their accounts to private. In this case, you see Requested after you tap Follow. They need to approve you before you can view their profile and posts.
Finding New Friends
Now that you’ve found your phone contacts on Instagram, it’s time to follow the people who you may have a genuine interest in based on the content they provide. Instagram offers several options for exploring, searching, and suggesting new followers to you.
Exploring the Explore function
Instagram loves engagement. When people are actively engaging with others, it makes them more likely to stay on the platform rather than going somewhere else like TikTok or Twitter. And to keep those people, Instagram offers many ways to engage with them. One way is through the Explore page. The Explore page offers photo, video, and Reel posts that Instagram thinks may be interesting to you.
The Explore page is algorithmically sorted and selects content based on the likelihood that you’ll like the content. The more you interact with certain types of content, the more of that you will see on the Explore page.
Here’s how to use the Explore page:
Tap the magnifying glass at the bottom of any screen.
Several photos, videos, and Reels are presented, as shown in Figure 5-2.
Tap any post that interests you.
Now you can scroll down to see that post and other similar posts.
- Tap the Instagram username at the top of any post that interests you.
Look around the account. If you like what you see:
- Like one or more photos: Double-tap each individual photo or tap the heart icon.
- Leave a comment: Tap the photo/video/Reel and then tap the comment bubble. Enter your text and tap the blue Post link.
- To follow a user: Tap the blue Follow button at the top of the user’s profile page.
After you follow this page, Instagram offers several other accounts that it thinks you’d enjoy following. We detail this method of finding accounts to follow in the “Letting Instagram suggest users to you” section, later in this chapter.
FIGURE 5-2: The Explore page displays a variety of posts you might like.
This method of finding followers is time consuming. Also, popular accounts may not be looking to follow many new people, so there’s no guarantee that you’ll get a reciprocal follow. However, it’s always worth a shot and is a nice addition to your follower strategy.
Searching the Search feature
Another great way to find new accounts to follow is through searching Instagram. Instagram offers five ways to search: Top, Accounts, Audio, Tags, and Places.
To try out the Search feature, tap the magnifying glass on any page. The Explore page appears, as described in the preceding section. Tap the Search field at the top of the page, and enter a search word or phrase. Tap See All Results, and then you see Top, Accounts, Audio, Tags, and Places are now available for your choosing, as shown in Figure 5-3. (Android users see icons under the Search bar.)
The Top feature shows you accounts that match the general topic you typed in the search bar. To find new followers, search for a topic or a keyword that interests you. For instance, typing healthy eating presents several accounts that have content related to nutrition and healthy eating. Scroll through those that are interesting and follow those you like.
The Accounts feature can be used in a similar manner to the Top feature, but you may also choose to search by someone’s name. If you have a list of names, try searching for people by name. For those that pop up, scroll through to their accounts and follow them if they seem to be active. Personal accounts are more likely to be private, so you’ll need to request access.
The Audio feature presents audio that matches your search terms. Tap on the photo of the audio track to go to the page for that audio. You can save the audio to use on a Reel later, scroll through Reels by other people using that sound, or choose to use the audio and start a Reel using that sound immediately by tapping the Use Audio button that appears at the bottom of the screen.
FIGURE 5-3: Search by Top, Accounts, Audio, Tags, and Places.
The Tags feature allows you to search by hashtag. Start simply by choosing your interest and see what appears. For example, if you’re a dog trainer, start with #dogtraining, or even type just dog training without the hashtag symbol. If you get too many results to be useful, add your city or state, such as #dogtrainingsacramento. Scroll through the accounts and tap the ones that call out to you. Then follow the ones that seem active and engaging.
The Places feature enables you to search by location. Depending on what your search term is, the results present places that fit those search terms. If you allow your location services to be on, you can find people or businesses near you by tapping Near Current Location. Several nearby locations pop up for your choosing. Tap a location near you, and all the posts that marked that location on their post pop up. Tap some posts that catch your eye, and follow the ones you like.
On all the accounts you follow, make sure to like several posts and leave a meaningful comment or two (not just an emoji). This technique greatly increases the odds that the account will follow you back.
Letting Instagram suggest users to you
Instagram is on a mission to grow. Therefore, its main goal is making its users happy by making their accounts grow. When you follow someone, an algorithm kicks in and displays other similar accounts that you may like following. In Figure 5-4, we decide to follow @elevateitnow, a marketing and creative agency. Instagram then presents many other marketing business accounts, and we can decide whether to follow them.
FIGURE 5-4: After you follow an account, Instagram presents similar accounts you might like.
Deciding Who to Follow Back
After you’ve employed the techniques described previously in this chapter, you’ll begin to get more followers. It’s a great feeling to see that number go up on your profile page. Your next decision is whether to follow those accounts back if you weren’t already following them. In this section, you discover how to view your followers and decide who is best to follow back.
Viewing and following your followers
So, you’re starting to see more followers on your account. Now it’s time to discover a simple method to follow them back. You’re not required or even expected to follow someone back, but searching through your followers often yields some great finds! New followers appear in your notifications, but if you don’t check your notifications often, it’s worth checking out your follower list every few days to see who you may want to follow back.
Checking your follower list is easy:
Go to your profile page and tap the number above followers.
All of your followers appear, with the most recent followers at the top. As shown in Figure 5-5, followers you haven’t followed back have a blue Follow link to the right that you can tap to follow. If you’re already following an account, there is a remove button.
- Unless you recognize the username, tap that name to view the user’s profile page.
- If you think that the user is someone you’d like to follow, tap the blue Follow button on their profile page. Otherwise, use the arrow on the top left of the page to go back to your follower list and try again.
Like a few posts and leave a meaningful comment.
When you like posts from an account, that follower is more likely to engage with you in the future.
FIGURE 5-5: Followers you haven’t followed back have a blue Follow link to the right.
Reciprocating a follow or not
Now that you know a simple method for following back, the question is whether the account is worthy of following back. Some accounts have a habit of following accounts but then unfollowing them if they didn’t follow back. You might see your numbers rise by 25, just to fall back by 22 the next day. It’s a frustrating game that you should avoid.
Do follow back the following:
- Accounts of friends, local businesses, and other people you know and like in real life (or as the kids say, “IRL”)
- Accounts of businesses you do business with or other related associates
- Accounts that provide content inspiration
- Accounts of people you have met on other networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn
- Accounts that you find personally interesting and satisfying to view and interact with
Don’t follow back:
- Everyone who follows you because you feel some sort of obligation.
- Spammy accounts whose profiles probably list only a few posts and who often sell follower services.
- Accounts that use bots to leave automated comments. (Nothing is worse than having someone write “Love it!” when you post that your dog just died.)
- Accounts that contain content you have no interest in personally or professionally.
- Accounts that follow you for a few days, then unfollow you, and then follow you again a week later. They often use the #follow4follow hashtag, which means if you follow them, they will follow you back. Stay away!
You may discover your own rules for following accounts. Keep in mind that it’s okay to unfollow people, too. Maybe they stopped posting, or their content no longer interests you. If you tap on your Following list from your profile, Instagram presents a category called Least Interacted With. Tap that to view those accounts. Tap the following button to unfollow an account. Clean up your feed every so often to ensure that you’re viewing the best content for you.
Finding Your Squad
If you compare all the popular social networks — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram — the one that takes the cake on community engagement is Instagram. This section explains how to use hashtags, influencers, and interaction to find your ultimate Insta-squad!
If you’ve been on Instagram for a while, you’ve probably seen posts talking about community. But what does that mean? A community is a supportive group of people talking about and interacting with you on Instagram. They offer advice, give a heads-up about changes on Instagram, provide support, and leave comments that can help boost your posts.
Your first step is finding a community that fits with your interests. An easy way to do this is through hashtags. A hashtag link is formed when someone places the # sign before a word or phrase. That link goes to a separate page on Instagram displaying other content using that hashtag. It also displays other similar hashtags. If you like cats, for example, searching #cats yields several other relevant hashtags such as #catsofinstagram, #catstagram, #catscatscats, #catsagram, #catsoftheday, and #fluffycat.
Choose one hashtag to tap, and you see Top, Recent, and Reels (as shown in Figure 5-6). Tap to follow any of the accounts that interest you and share your mutual interest of whatever you like most by commenting and liking their posts.
While you’re commenting on their posts, you’ll probably start seeing other people showing up frequently on the same accounts. Follow, like, and comment on those accounts, too, and before you know it, your squad is developing!
To further solidify your relationship, send other account owners direct messages (DMs) to introduce yourself. (DMs are covered in Chapter 6.) Let the relationship flow naturally, and tell them how much you enjoy the conversations you’ve had.
You may also find your squad completely away from Instagram. For example, Facebook groups catering to niche markets often have Instagram communities that coincide with the group. They may have their own unique hashtags to easily identify them on Instagram. You may also discover them by following the admin of the group and seeing the same people interacting on Instagram.
Not finding the community you’re seeking? Start your own! Run a contest or campaign asking people to submit a photo that goes with your hashtag. For example, if you’re a graphic designer, you could start a challenge using #graphicdesignotd, where designers post what they worked on that day. People love challenges like this because it provides post inspiration and an excuse to show off their work! Keep checking the hashtag for submissions, and thank everyone for participating. Then follow them, and keep coming back regularly, commenting and liking their posts. All of a sudden, a squad is forming!
FIGURE 5-6: Search hashtags to see Instagram’s suggestions of accounts that use that hashtag.
With any of these methods for finding or creating your community, the most important element is engagement. By liking and commenting often, you get the same in return. Members get to know each other on a deeper level by watching for those special posts every day. Like the old saying goes: The more you give, the more you get back!