The most effective way to reach more people and build your following on Instagram is to reach out to others!
It may sound strange but Instagram is designed to boost relationships between people.
The constant sharing and exchange of information are why the site has become so popular.
It has over two billion users with at least 500 million using it daily.
In short, if you want your brand to be successful, you need to get some of these people following you.
The simplest way to reach out to others is to start following other users.
When you follow them they will see your account and are likely to follow you back.
In addition, following someone, especially a well-known account with a large following, means your brand name will be in front of a lot more people.
Some of them will take a look at what you have to offer and may even become one of your followers.
All you have to do is find accounts offering similar services but not those in direct competition.
Then follow them and perhaps post comments whenever you can. Of course, it’s time consuming following a variety of other accounts.
That’s why you need to know how to auto follow on Instagram.
Understanding Auto Follow
Auto following means using third-party software to follow other accounts. You’ll need to set up the parameters so that the software knows who to follow.
For example, if you’re into skateboarding you’re probably not going to benefit from your account automatically following dancing businesses.
You set up the profile according to the types of accounts you wish to follow and the tool can find appropriate accounts for you to follow.
Then, it follows them for you.
It’s also possible to enter the URL of an account you are following already, or want to follow.
The auto follower will follow the account and all of its followers.
However, you may need to set a limit on how many followers to follow daily.
Instagram looks at your number of followers as well as how many accounts you are following, there needs to be balance.
If not, and you’re following many more people than are following you, Instagram will assume your account offers little value. This won’t help increase your account visibility.
The aim of an auto follow app is to help you organically increase your audience and your ability to sell your brand, without taking too much of your time.
How To Auto Follow On Instagram in 2024
The best approach to auto following on Instagram is to use a third party app.
Phantombuster is one of the best apps currently available.
Phantombuster
Phantombuster started offering data scraping tools in 2016 and has quickly become one of the most respected apps in the industry.
They offer a wide array of services from data scraping to auto follow, auto comment, and even automatically retweeting on Twitter.
There are over one hundred automated tools!
Phantombuster actually created the first auto follow phantom, which allowed you to automatically follow one additional account every hour.
Today, you can follow as many as 40 an hour!
How To Use Phantombuster
Phantombuster recognizes that people and businesses don’t want to waste money. That’s why they offer a free 14-day trial.
All you need to try the service is an email address and create your own password.
No credit card is required, you’ll instantly get access to five phantoms with up to two hours of use a day.
Of course, this only lasts for 14-days. After that you’ll need to subscribe to continue using the service.
The price varies according to the package but it starts at a reasonable $30 a month.
Once you created a Phantombuster account you’ll need to do this to get the auto follower working:
Connect To Instagram
Your first step is to open the Phantombuster account and then the auto follow phantom. You’ll be prompted to connect a session cookie.
To do this you’ll need to install the right extension for your browser.
There are quick links for Chrome and Firefox extensions or a link to find your browser type manually.
As soon as the session cookie is installed you’ll be prompted to connect to Instagram.
Simply enter your Instagram username and password.
It should be noted that when you log out of Instagram the session cookie expires and you’ll need to log in the same way each time.
Now you’re on Instagram via your session cookie you can search Instagram for the profile of anyone you want to follow.
It’s advisable to look at influencers in your industry. If they are in your niche but too big to be direct competition then they are no threat to your brand.
However, they will have lots of followers which are likely to be interested in your brand simply because it’s in the same niche.
You can also select the profile of friends or simply Instagram accounts that appear to have similar interests to you.
Accounts operating in the same field are likely to have followers that can be tempted to follow you, once they know you exist.
Select the first account you want to try and copy their URL.
You can then paste this into your phantom. You’ll see the box asking which profile you want to create auto followers from.
Add Your Filters
Don’t skip the filters section. It’s very important that you set these up properly.
As previously mentioned, follow too many too quickly and your account will lose value in Instagram’s eyes.
The first filter is how many profiles you want to follow each time you launch the phantom.
It’s advisable to keep this number under ten at first. The maximum the app will allow is forty.
There are various other settings worth looking at.
The first is whether to exclude private profiles or not. The choice is yours but private profiles are less likely to follow you back.
Next, it’s possible to auto follow profiles only if they have a minimum number of followers or if they have a minimum number of posts.
You can choose any number for these or leave it empty.
It’s also possible to choose to auto follow someone only once. That means, if they unfollow you the app won’t try to follow them again.
This is also optional but it’s recommended to select it. After all, if they keep unfollowing you then you’re just wasting your auto follow options.
Set A Schedule
Once you’ve saved your filter preferences you’ll be ready to look at a schedule. There is plenty of flexibility at this stage.
The phantom can run as a one-off. Or, you can set it to run once a week, every other day, or even every day.
Alongside this, it is possible to run the phantom more than once a day.
For example, if you’ve chosen to follow ten profiles when the app is running you can set the app to run three times a day, every day.
This will allow you to follow thirty accounts every day.
It’s also possible to set your notifications.
You can choose none, to be told if there is an error, when it’s been successful, or you can select the advanced options and adjust the filters even more.
Once you’re finished save your settings.
Get Started
You’re now ready to launch your Phantombuster auto follow on Instagram.
You literally hit launch and it starts running.
Whenever you want, you can access the Phantombuster dashboard.
You’ll find a CSV file waiting for you after every launch.
This will give you details regarding who has been followed, whether they are following back or have unfollowed your follow, and various other information.
The CSV files can give you feedback on your marketing success and will help you move forward in the right direction, with minimal effort.
Of course, you should also be able to log into Instagram where you’ll see your own follower numbers increasing.
Additional Step
The phantom will rapidly boost your follower numbers, in line with the settings you’ve created.
That can mean your follower numbers are increasing too fast and the numbers following you aren’t going up as quickly.
Phantombuster allows you to use several phantoms. It’s a good idea to use the auto unfollow phantom with the auto follow.
The unfollow phantom can take the list of profiles you’ve just started to follow and check if they have followed you back.
If they haven’t, the auto unfollow phantom will remove them, helping to keep your account tidy and manageable.
Top Reasons To Use Auto Follow
The Phantombuster app makes following other accounts easy.
However, if you’re looking to build your own following up and improve awareness of your brand, you may be wondering why you want to follow others.
To Boost Awareness Of your Brand
The most obvious reason to use auto follow is to boost awareness of your own brand.
This works because most people that get followed will automatically follow you back.
It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement as the people you are following and you gain more followers.
That makes your account more interesting to Instagram and they will promote it more.
This increased publicity can rapidly increase the number of people aware of what you do. That can make a huge difference if you’re selling something.
Of course, because you’re targeting people in your niche they will be keen to follow you and their followers will also look at what you have to offer.
When it works well it can make a big difference to your popularity and people’s awareness of your brand. All it takes is auto following the right accounts.
Increase Follower Numbers
As mentioned, most people that are followed will return the favor. It doesn’t always matter if they have any interest in your niche.
While you want followers that are likely to interact and purchase from your brand, it can be beneficial to simply increase your follower numbers.
Again, it will make your account look more popular to Instagram and that means they will promote you more.
In addition, more followers make it easier for you to auto follow more accounts while maintaining a balance between followers and following.
The more accounts you follow the easier it is to attract new potential customers.
Time-Saving
Building any type of business is difficult and time-consuming. There are simply too many things to do and not enough hours in the day.
The greater the number of processes you can automate the easier it is to save time and focus on what you can do to improve your content and your brand.
Using Phantombuster and the various phantoms they have to offer is a great way to automate several tasks.
FAQs
Why Phantombuster
There are other apps that offer auto follow options. However, few offer packages as useful as Phantombuster.
The price is affordable and, even with the starter package, you’ll get access to five phantoms.
You can even change the phantoms to find out which are the most beneficial to your business.
There are few that can compete with this level of service. In addition, you should avoid any free third-party apps.
Quality services cost to create and administer, if they are giving you the service for free then they are being paid in another way.
This is commonly done by selling your data or even accessing your financial information. It’s better to spend a little and get a high-quality service.
Summing Up
The bottom line is simple. If you want to know how to auto follow on Instagram then install the free 14-day trial of Phantombuster today and test it out.
There is no better way to see how effective this product can be and why it is the best way to boost your follower numbers and brand awareness.
It’s fast, effective, and won’t cost you anything to try. You literally have nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain.