Most users will make up their mind about your profile in a split second while making the decision to either hit that follow button or exit your profile. You only have a short amount of time to make the best impression possible. To help increase your chances of getting someone to hit the follow button here are a few areas you should focus on:

1. Profile makeover

To increase your chances of getting new visitors to hit that follow button, you might want to think about giving your profile a serious makeover. You want to make sure that your photo and video posts include the best, most high-quality content you can put out there. The higher the quality, the more impressed a potential new follower could be. Try to refresh the look of your profile and the quality of your content by:

• Picking a great profile photo that accurately reflects you or your brand in addition to writing a bio that sums up what you or your brand does for your audience. 
• Always switch to a business profile to increase your insights into your current followers.
• Stay on brand and keep a posting schedule that is consistent and using relevant hashtags to make sure your content is showing up in the right places.

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2. Getting in front of your Target audience 

You can have a great-looking Instagram profile with lots of awesome content, but if you’re not doing anything to get your content out in front of the eyes of your targeted followers, then you’re going to have a hard time increasing your follower count. This is why it’s important to meet your followers where they are. Some of the best practices include

• Look at the specific hashtags your target audience is using and add them to your content.
• Look at the locations of where your followers are posting and add that to your content.
• Like or engage with your followers’ content because who doesn’t love attention from a brand.
• Follow them; follower vs following ratios on Instagram don’t matter as much as they used to.

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3. Your followers are your biggest fans

With the ever-changing algorithm, encourage your followers to engage with your content. When you utilize your existing followers to engage (like, save + comment on your posts) you increase your chances of showing up in the Explore tab of other social media users your followers are connected to. On top of that, it also signals to the algorithm that your content is high quality and should be shown to more people. Here are a few ways you can encourage your followers to engage with your content:

• Asking your followers in the post caption to tag a friend.
• Utilizing your post caption to ask your followers to like or leave a comment.
• Liking comments left from your followers on your posts.
• Replying to comments left from your followers on your posts.
• Visiting users who liked or left comments on your posts and returning the favor.