How to Get Followers on Instagram: Following Instagram's Recommendations

You will mainly gain followers on Instagram by getting your posts recommended to people who do not yet follow you, namely in Reels (short vertical videos) and the Explore section. The process is: choose a clear topic, regularly create short videos that people watch to the end, save and share, test them with trial Reels, and based on statistics, do more of what brings new followers.

Where do new followers come from on Instagram?

Instagram states that recommendations in Reels and the Explore section show content to people who do not follow you, and that the feed also contains recommended content alongside posts from accounts you follow. Recommendations are therefore the place where new people can discover you.

Instagram in its in the official explanation of content ranking describes that each part of the app has its own algorithm. In Explore, according to it, the recommendation grid is made up of accounts you do not yet follow, and in Reels most of the content comes from accounts you do not follow (as of November 2026). In this sense, the algorithm is a set of rules and predictions according to which the app selects what to show to whom. For Stories, what matters most is how often you see the account and how you interact with it. In the Explore section, according to the same source, the popularity of a post plays a much bigger role than in the feed or in Stories, and that is precisely why it is the place where new people find you.

You can find a more detailed analysis of the individual parts of the app in the article how the Instagram algorithm works.

What does Instagram look at when deciding on recommendations?

Instagram estimates how likely a specific person is to do something with a post: watch it through, like it, save it, share it, comment on it, or start following the author. The higher the estimate, the higher the post is shown.

Meta in description of the Explore section's system explicitly lists, among other things, the following predictions (as of November 2026):

• how likely you are to start following the author of the post,
• how likely you are to view the post for longer than five seconds,
• how likely you are to watch more than 95% of a video,
• how likely you are to like, save, share or comment on the post.

In practice, this leads to a simple conclusion: the content must capture people's attention in the first seconds and give them a reason to watch the video to the end, save it, or send it on. For Reels, Instagram also lists among its signals information about the video itself (sound, visuals, popularity) and about the creator. In the same explanation, it recommends avoiding watermarks from other apps, as they limit distribution to people who do not follow you, and refers to the Account status section, where you can find out whether your content is eligible for recommendation.

How to gain followers on Instagram step by step?

The most reliable approach is to repeat a simple cycle: topic, video, test, evaluation, adjustment. The following steps are based on the recommendations Instagram gives to creators.

1. Clarify your topic and who you are creating for. A person starts following you when they can tell from your profile what they will keep receiving from you. Your profile bio should state in one sentence what the account is about.
2. Switch to a professional account. You will get statistics and access to creator features, such as trial reels.
3. Start with Reels. On Instagram's page How to Grow for creators states that Reels make up more than 50% of all time spent on Instagram (as of November 2026).
4. Create your own content. Instagram advises creators to show their own personality and perspective, teach people something new, add their own view on current topics, and have a surprise or punchline at the end of the video. Avoid uploading videos with another app's watermark.
5. Test with trial reels. Trial reels are, according to Instagram's pages about Reels a feature that first shows the video only to people who do not follow you, so you can see how it performs before showing it to everyone. It requires a professional account (as of November 2026).
6. Post regularly. Instagram does not officially state an ideal number of posts per week. Choose a pace you can maintain for several months, because without consistency you have nothing to evaluate.
7. Respond and engage with the community. In its creator recommendations, Instagram mentions authentic communication with the audience. Reply to comments and messages, and comment on posts by creators in your field in a substantive and relevant way.
8. Review your statistics. Once every two to four weeks, look at which posts brought the most new followers and create further variations. For how to do this, see the article how to read statistics on Instagram.

What about hashtags and posting times?

Neither an ideal number of hashtags nor the best time to post is officially specified by Instagram. Use hashtags as an accurate description of the topic, and choose the time based on statistics showing when your followers are active in the app. You will find the specific selection process in the article how many and which hashtags to use on Instagram.

Which growth methods should be compared, and how do they differ?

Besides your own content, there are collaborations with other creators and paid advertising through Meta's tools. Each route does something different and suits a different goal.

Method	What it delivers	What to watch out for
Your own content (Reels, posts, Stories)	Followers who are interested in the topic, and data on what works	Requires time and consistency; results do not come immediately
Collaborations with other creators	Exposure to an audience that already follows similar topics	Choose creators whose audience is close to your topic, otherwise new people will not stay
Advertising on Instagram	Display to a chosen target group according to your budget	Without good content, followers from advertising will not stay
Paid follower package	A higher number on the profile as initial social proof	Violates the platform's rules and does not bring audience interest

Social proof is a phenomenon in which people consider a profile more trustworthy because more people already follow it. On its own, however, it will not make anyone stay if the content does not engage them.

What should be avoided when growing on Instagram?

Avoid anything that artificially generates interactions: exchanging likes and follows, groups for mutual commenting, and automated following and unfollowing. Meta's policies classify these as spam.

Meta Community Standards, Spam section prohibit attempts to sell, buy or exchange interactions, such as likes, shares, views, follows, clicks, or the use of certain hashtags. They also prohibit sharing and interactions at a very high frequency, whether manual or automated, and contests where the prize is cash or its equivalent in exchange for interactions (status as of November 2026).

Older advice is therefore outdated. So-called engagement pods, i.e. groups in which members agree to like and comment on each other's posts, are exactly such an exchange of interactions. In addition to the risk of reduced reach or account restrictions, they distort your statistics, because the reactions do not come from people who are interested in the topic.

Also do not sign up for third-party apps that promise followers in exchange for your login details. Never share your password or two-factor authentication codes with anyone.

How long does it take to gain the first thousands of followers?

There is no verified answer to this, and Instagram does not state any typical timeframe. Older estimates such as “so many months to reach 10,000” have no basis in the platform's data.

The speed of growth depends on the topic, competition, video quality, and how often a video reaches a wider audience. For most accounts, the number of followers grows unevenly: slowly for a long time, then in a leap after one successful reel. It therefore makes more sense to measure how many followers each post has brought than to focus on a target date.

When paid promotion makes sense and when it does not?

Instagram and Meta's rules do not permit the purchase or exchange of interactions, so restrictions on reach or on the account cannot be ruled out. These are also highlighted in terms and conditions Art. 3.3. Purchased followers do not replace content, do not guarantee audience interest, sales or reach, and may worsen the ratio of interactions to followers, because the follower count grows while reactions to posts do not. Do not rely on them as a way to meet monetisation or verification requirements either; check the current conditions in Instagram's Help Center.

A package may make sense as a supplement for a new profile that already has good content and posts regularly, where a higher follower count serves as initial social proof alongside your own work. It does not make sense if content is missing or weak, if the account already has a warning or restriction, or if you expect sales and audience interest. If you decide on a package, you can find the service description on the page followers on Instagram and current prices in price list.