How To Leverage The Best Instagram Growth Hacks in 2025
For many businesses, it may seem that it is almost next to impossible to conquer ever-changing algorithms on popular social media platforms such as Instagram. However, there are some useful growth hacks that can be used without trying to reinvent the wheel that still result in growth in followers, increases in engagement, and more interested prospects.
Michael Krieger
Businesses often struggle with keeping up with the constantly changing algorithms of popular social media platforms like Instagram. Prepare to grow your followers, engagement, and profitability when you deploy these Instagram growth hacks without reinventing the wheel!
1. Create a Foundational Instagram Growth Strategy
Before you begin trying to grow your Instagram account, it’s important to take some time to create a detailed strategy. This will serve as a roadmap to help you achieve your goals for Instagram growth. Start by specifying the goals for your Instagram account. Specify your target number of followers, leads, and sales you want to reach by a specific date.
It is best to create a content creation strategy to maximize engagement with your target audience. Furthermore, people often follow a page because they believe the content within it was exceptional. To attract your target audience, share appealing photos or videos. It would be beneficial to hire a graphic artist or a videographer to enhance your brand perception. You should also strategize how you would include different types of content, including product-oriented, user-generated, or customer-focused.
We also recommend defining how often you plan to post each content category. The 80/20 Rule states that 20% of your content should be promotional, while 80% should engage your Instagram audience emotionally.
Consider engaging with posts on Instagram related to your business on other accounts. It has the potential to significantly enhance the visibility of your brand. Focus on recent posts for better engagement on Instagram.
Monitor your account and leverage user-generated content for social proof. This builds trust with your audience and highlights why they should choose your business over competitors.
Create a landing page and add the link to your Instagram bio. This will make it simple for your followers to visit important links. Use this page to direct traffic and convert your Instagram followers into clients.
Use a post scheduler to manage a content calendar and find the best times to share your posts. Tracking and comparing your performance with competitors can enhance the effectiveness of the Instagram growth strategies used by your business.
Ensure that your Instagram profile, along with your other social media accounts, are cross promoted with your other marketing channels. Add your Instagram link to your website's header, footer, sidebar, blog, transactional emails, team email signatures, and other social media platforms.
2. Add Keywords Into Your Instagram Username
When you have keywords in your Instagram profile, people are more likely to find you through the search feature. Use a consistent handle that matches your company's name or your other social media accounts for easy identification. We recommend including one or two keywords in your username to avoid keyword stuffing.
3. Define Your Most Ideal Persona
Defining who your best client is will keep yourself focused in making sure that your content appeals to them. These are the people who will likely purchase from your business, ideally in large quantities or with greater frequency. Make sure to apply our Instagram Growth Hacks in a way that connects better with this persona.
4. Create an Engaging Instagram Profile
To succeed in growing your Instagram presence, create an engaging Instagram profile. Creating a business profile on Instagram gives you access to Instagram Insights. This feature helps you understand how your audience interacts with your content. Adapt your strategy to focus more on successful initiatives and less on ineffective ones.
5. Create an Instagram Caption Strategy
One of the most powerful Instagram growth hacks is to craft a caption strategy to capture your audience’s attention.
Integrate emojis that match the descriptions or emotions that one may feel when you read your post.
Use tags to feature your best customers or staff members with their permission. After all, your audience will love seeing the people behind your business.
6. Use Relevant Hashtags
Creating an Instagram hashtag strategy helps your business grow followers. Hashtags on Instagram can boost followers by making your posts more visible to users interested in those topics.
There are opportunities to create the following types of hashtags: branded, community, and campaign. Your branded hashtag allows your target audience to easily identify and associate it with a business. To see past posts on your Instagram account, click on the hashtag.
One best practice is to include 5–10 hashtags in the actual Instagram post and additional hashtags in the actual comments. It is useful to save successful hashtags for future use with tools such as Preview and Later.
7. Use Instagram Advertising
At first glance, Instagram advertising might not appear to be as valuable as focusing on growing an organic audience. Hashtags are crucial for effectively growing your Instagram audience.
Instagram offers paid advertising to help you reach a wider audience that may not be familiar with your brand. It tends to be rather precise and offers formats such as standard photos/videos, carousel posts, and Story Ads.
Investing in paid advertising can help achieve marketing goals like increasing brand awareness and driving sales. Consider promoting your Instagram ads on Facebook to broaden your reach and optimize your account.
8. Leverage Instagram Reels
Create engaging Instagram Reels to showcase your best content, services, or events and captivate your audience. Share Instagram Reels to boost visibility and engagement for longer videos on your website or YouTube channel. Consider using this feature by tapping on the plus icon in the right upper corner of your Instagram app.
Use discoverable hashtags, clickable links, and mentions in video descriptions to enhance your business growth strategy.
Create an Instagram Reel to promote user-generated content. A gym can share a member's tagged story after a fitness class to showcase their positive experience.
9. Create an Instagram Influencer Marketing Strategy
To grow your Instagram effectively, identify influencers in your niche with similar goals and interests. Determine if they have an audience that you can potentially connect with to collaborate with your business. Look for indications such as blog highlights, brand tag mentions, and sponsored posts. Evaluate the brands they may already be promoting to see if they are complementary, not competitors to your business. There are Influencer tools that can help with this key step and save a lot of time in the long run. You can search for popular hashtags in your niche and contact relevant accounts that are not your direct competitors.
Look for micro-influencers with less than 50,000 followers. They are usually more willing to work for lower prices. You can increase the size of the account you work with over time. This will result in being able to offer larger payments to those who have bigger accounts.
Using influencer quotes on Instagram can be a great way to showcase your brand’s personality and attract more followers. Using quotes from famous comedians or YouTube stars can showcase your brand's unique sense of humor. If you use influencer quotes regularly, it could also increase your visibility on the platform. When sharing an influencer's quote, include both the quote and their image. It helps them find more posts from that person (and posts with their quotes) later on.
10. Start Conversations In Comments
Unfortunately, many businesses do not take the time to respond to their followers in the comments section of each post. Commenting on posts greatly enhances the level of interaction on your account. Replying to users’ comments that contain valuable advice also creates an authentic connection with them.
Instagram provides greater exposure to accounts with greater user engagement. They do this because they want users to spend more time on the platform. When users remain on Instagram longer, they become more profitable as the platform can increase advertising revenue.
11. Run an Instagram Giveaway
An Instagram giveaway is a great way to trigger user-generated content and leverage your current followers to spread brand awareness. Partnering with other influencers to create a giveaway loop strategy is a great recommendation. This strategy involves pooling resources to provide an amazing giveaway prize using a social posting and giveaway tool. In turn, this will help the contest become more viral while reducing your costs for running the giveaway. Encourage participants to follow all sponsors and engage with the post by liking, sharing, and commenting for a chance to win a prize. Furthermore, you could incentivize user-generated content which will amplify how much brand exposure your business gets on Instagram.
12. Create An Instagram Live
Using Instagram Live can help your business connect with your audience, grow your brand, and increase profits. Stay authentic, be responsive, and use this tool to tell engaging stories that connect with your audience.
Here Are A Few Best Practices for Utilizing Instagram Live
Promote Before Going Live: Use your Instagram feed and Stories to hype up your upcoming live event. Sharing what you’ll cover and the benefits of tuning in can increase the number of live viewers.
Increase Viewer Engagement: Boost viewer engagement by making your session interactive. Acknowledge viewers as they join, answer their questions, and respond to comments in real time. This makes viewers feel valued and increases their engagement with your brand.
Use Clear Calls to Action (CTA): Use CTAs in your Instagram Live. Encourage viewers to visit your website, explore new products, or use a special discount code. Make sure they know what you want them to do after watching.
Follow Up: After the live session, post a thank-you message in your Stories or feed. You might also share key moments or a replay for anyone who missed it. This can extend the life of your content and continue to engage your audience.
Analyze Performance: Review Instagram's insights for live videos to understand viewer behavior, engagement patterns, and areas for improvement.
The Instagram algorithm consistently emphasizes live content, frequently featuring it prominently in the Stories feeds of your followers. This increases the visibility of your content, reaching more potential customers.
13. Get Meta Verified
Meta Verified status offers immediate credibility, helping viewers recognize you as a real person instead of a bot or fake account. Verified accounts frequently stand out as they appear on the top of search results. It prevents impersonation because Meta, Instagram's parent company, will not verify more than one account for a person or brand.
14. Create Instagram Stories
Using Instagram Stories in your social media strategy can boost your brand's online presence, visibility, engagement, and sales.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of how to leverage Instagram Stories:
Increased Visibility:
Instagram Stories are displayed at the top of your followers' feeds, giving your content prominent visibility. This prominent placement can help keep your brand at the forefront of their minds. Moreover, using hashtags and location tags in your stories can make them discoverable to non-followers, broadening your reach.
Real-Time Marketing:
Creating an Instagram Story facilitates real-time marketing, allowing you to share updates, news, or promotions as they happen. Instant sharing creates urgency and encourages quick actions from your audience, especially with countdown stickers for events or sales.
Authentic Engagement:
Unlike the polished posts on your feed, Stories allow for more spontaneous and authentic interaction with your audience. Behind-the-scenes content, day-in-the-life videos, or raw unedited updates humanize your brand, building a stronger, more personal connection with your followers.
Engagement Strategies:
Polls & Questions: Use interactive stickers like polls, questions, and quizzes to engage your audience and gather insights into their preferences.
Swipe-Up Links: (Note: As of my last update, this feature is available for accounts with 10k+ followers or verified accounts). Use a swipe-up link to direct your audience to your website or product page, boosting traffic and conversions.
User-Generated Content: Encourage your followers to share their own content featuring your products or services and repost these stories. This not only boosts engagement but also provides social proof, endorsing your brand through real customer experiences.
Enhanced Brand Storytelling:
Stories offer a unique format to tell your brand’s story in a more comprehensive and engaging manner. Share your brand values, mission, and product benefits through engaging stories that resonate with your audience.
Exclusive Offers & Promotions:
With Stories disappearing after just 24 hours, they serve as an ideal platform for promoting exclusive offers and flash sales. This creates a sense of exclusivity and urgency, encouraging your followers to take immediate action.
Feedback Loop & Market Research:
Utilize the power of storytelling by incorporating polls and question stickers into your stories to capture valuable market insights in an engaging and informal way. This immediate feedback can be invaluable for product development, understanding your audience’s content preferences, and improving overall engagement strategies.
Augmented Visibility through Highlights:
Turning your best stories into Highlights keeps them on your profile permanently, unlike regular stories that vanish after a day. Categorizing highlights, such as testimonials, how-tos, and new products, improves your profile and helps new visitors understand your brand better. By using Instagram Stories strategically, businesses can strengthen their brand identity and build a more engaged, loyal online community. Remember, consistency is key —regular, engaging, and interactive stories will ensure your audience stays interested and connected with your brand.
Work with a top social media marketing agency that uses the latest Instagram Growth Hacks to create great posts and content. This will enhance brand recognition, generate leads, and boost website traffic. For more information on digital marketing services, contact Prime Marketing Experts at 617-651-1457 or email hello@primemarketingexperts.com.