The world of social media is growing and although there are loads of new ‘hot’ social sites popping up more regularly than a field of pimples on a oily-teenager’s face, most aren’t worth owrrying about too much. But every now and then a new social portal gets it right. And that site is the reason you’re here trying to learn how to get more Instagram followers, right?

To put it simply, Instagram is growing stupidly fast. And just like Twitter, already thousands of celebrities are using it to connect with their fans, just the same as they did on Twitter. Oh, and if you’re already losing faith in humanity, you might like to ignore the fact that shake-and-bake pop-gerbil Justin Bieber is already the most-followed person. Sometimes, I just want to set fire to everyone…

Ahem…moving on.

While Instagram marketing may not be a tactic for every kind of business, it sure is something that a lot of companies, up-and-coming artists, clothing labels and soforth could use to help boost their online advertising and promotion. So without any further ado, here are my tips on how to get more followers on Instagram the fastest way possible:

1. Upload GOOD Content

Now I’m not trying to treat you like some mewling, slobbering, pant-crapping child here, but the first and probably most important thing to remember is that you should only be uploading your most impressive and best photos to your Instagram followers. Unless you’re a celebrity, (who thousands of mindless denizens of the web will follow anyway, regardless of what you post) nobody gives three craps that you’ve just folded your shirts and decided to show the world how awesome you are at it. The best way to look at it is as if you were a potential follower finding your own picture on Instagram. If you saw it, would you want to follow that person? If the answer is no, don’t post it. Posting only one quality photo a day is much more effective than posting a dozen which are the photographic equivalent of fingerpainting with feces.

And we should also be launching our new buy Instagram followers service soon, so keep an eye out for that! But in the meantime…

2. Geo-tag Everything

One of the features of posting on Instagram is that you have the opportunity to geo-tag where you were at the time of taking the pic. You should do this ALWAYS. When you tag the location of a cafe you were at, event or something similar, it gives other people who were at that location the ability to see all the pics uploaded at the same location. Chances are, if someone is close to you geographically, they will want to keep updated with what you’re doing, resulting in a follow. This should be a fundamental of  how to get more Instagram followers you should always take advantage of.

3. How To Get More Instagram Followers With Hashtags

Just like with Twitter marketing, you have the ability to attach up to 30 hashtags — similar to keywords — to every photo. It doesn’t take a noodle-surgeon to figure out these are a great way for people searching Instagram for certain topics to find content, or similar images. While it may seem more tedious than watching your grandmother knit a sweater for your pet hermit crab to attach 30 tags to every image you post, you should take into account that this is by far THE MOST EFFECTIVE TOOL for getting followers, especially when you’re new to Instagram. And for those of you with the attention span of a stoned sloth, there is a reason I capitalized that. Just be aware that whatever hashtags you do use are relevant to what you post, for example, using the hashtag #food when you post a picture of what you had for dinner. Oh, and you can find a totally awesometacular list of top trending keywords on Instagram here.

4. Comment, Like, Comment, Repeat…

One of the best ways of getting targeted Instagram followers is by commenting and liking other photos, especially popular ones that are similar or relevant to yours. Now before you go and start becoming some kind of evil spam-demon and mass-liking everything you see, let me say that I only recommend you do this sparingly. The reason is that from time-to-time I do see people using the app that are getting more Instagram followers by just going out and ‘liking’ everything they see. It works, though only to a certain extent. You will get followers, but only in general those who are doing it to get follow-backs or something similar. The main aim of using this tactic is that you’re getting a large number of highly-targeted followers who will be interested in whatever you want to promote through IG. Unless you just want a bunch of moronic Bieber-fans, stick to my advice.

5. Promote Yourself Everywhere

This one should be common sense, though I’m going to mention it anyway. If you have other marketing channels (ie; blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc…) you should let your existing fans and followers know you’re now a member of the Instagram family so they can follow you there. The more you promote yourself elsewhere and let people know you’re now photo-blogging like a mad teenage hipster who’s just been given their first iPhone, the better your chances of harvesting new followers. Remember, social media success is all about perseverence and constant promotion. Get yourself out there.

Okay, so these four tips may sound simple, but should get you on the road to getting more followers on Instagram quite quickly. As always, the aim should be to get people following you who will be interested in what you have to post and won’t unfollow you as soon as you post a picture of your new kitten. Although, kittens are damn cute.

And remember, make sure you check out our Facebook, Twitter and YouTube marketing services for a better chance at succeeding in social media!

Anyway, I wish you luck with your new IG marketing efforts and I hope this post has helped you learn more about how to get more followers on Instagram!