How to grow your Instagram followers with analytics

Followers. They’re the foundation for repeat viewership, sales and social proof. We all want more followers because a meaningful audience is good for business. It is evidence of a customer base that wants to keep in touch; it is a core audience that is keen to view new content; and, let’s face it, it feels good to see that follower count rising.

If you want more followers (who doesn’t?!) we’re here to help! At Minter.io we provide in-depth social media analytical data to help rocket follower growth. The graphs and tools highlighted in this article are designed to help you understand your follower growth and, crucially, get more of it.

Let’s get more followers rolling in…

Followers

The Followers graph in the Audience section of your Minter.io Instagram data shows the number of followers within the selected date range. See the current trajectory of your follower growth as well as trends over time, and pinpoint anomalies to hone in on. Spikes can provide clues for further investigation which may lead to an improved approach to follower growth, while dips can be explored to discover moves to avoid.

Follower Change

The Follower Change graph in the Audience section of your Minter.io Instagram data shows the absolute increase or decrease in followers during the selected date range. This provides an even clearer approach to pinpointing days that made the difference to your follower count. Use spikes in data to uncover content, collabs and external events that may have had a hand in growing your follower amount. Note declines and negative follower change amounts and use this information to avoid pitfalls that led to unfollows and slow follower increases.

Posts by Follower Change

Sort posts by Follower Change to get clear on the content that drove the most positive change in your follower count. You can do this from the Posts section or the All Posts section of your Minter.io Instagram data. Armed with this knowledge, you can come up with creative ideas and new content by replicating elements within the top posts that drove follower change. Think about the themes, editing styles, music, colours, captions, text-overlays, fonts, media types, hashtags, calls to action etc. to shape new content around the top-performing posts for follower change.

Stories by Follower Change

Sort Instagram Stories content by Follower Change to view the content driving follower change from your Stories posts. You can do this from the Stories section or the All Stories section of your Minter.io Instagram data. Discover patterns in the Stories posts that drove the highest amount of positive follower change. Take note of the themes, music, colours, text amount, stickers etc. to shape up-coming Stories content using your top-performing posts for follower change as inspiration.

Collab Impact on Followers

The Collab Impact on Followers graph in the Collabs section of your Minter.io Instagram data shows how each collab affected your follower count. Collab posts are shown on this graph to make the impact obvious. Notice which collaborators influenced the most positive follower change amounts and consider further future partnerships with the highest-performing collaborative partners. Also take note of the content shared within these collabs, as this can provide insight into what works well for your collaborative efforts. Replicate similar styles, themes, media types, and editing styles in future collabs for an increased chance at increasing your follower count.

Follower Growth by Month

The Follower Growth by Month graph in the Benchmarks section of your Minter.io Instagram data shows the average follower growth compared with other Instagram accounts in the same cohort. Use this data to shape your understanding of how your follower growth is performing in comparison with accounts of a similar size. This provides wider context for your account. If your account lands near the lower bar of this graph, consider focusing your efforts on increasing your follower count by trying a new approach and/or leaning heavily into the techniques included in your top-performing posts. If your account is near or exceeding the upper bar this shows that your follower growth is comparatively doing well, so continuing with your current strategy may be a constructive approach.

Ask AI

Get more from your data using the Ask AI feature. Notice the 'Ask AI' button next to data graphs? This provides a quick way to get explanations and clarification around specific graphs and the data within them. Select the button and continue with the prompt ‘Explain the data’ or input a prompt of your own. 

Ask AI utilises the artificial intelligence woven into the Minter.io AI Analyst, which is a feature designed to bring additional depth, understanding and actionable steps to help grow your social media accounts and their performance.

AI Analyst

Head to the Minter.io AI Analyst section of your Minter.io social media data to accelerate the understanding and improvement of your follower growth using artificial intelligence. Use the chat box to ask anything about your report and get information tailored to your account using your own data to shape it. Start with a suggested prompt or type in one of your own.

Need a little inspiration? Try one of these follower-related prompts:

• Tell me about my follower amount and how it has changed over the past quarter
• How can I create new content to gain more followers based on my current audience demographics?
• What techniques can I use to gain more follower this month?
• Create me a 7-day content calendar to gain more followers
• Give me inspiration for gaining new followers with my next 3 reels
• Write me 3 CTAs to encourage people to follow my account
• Why has my follower growth slowed and how can I course-correct?

To unlock all the graphs and the AI Analyst featured in this article, head to Minter.io - the social media analytics tool for brands and businesses online. And the best part? Instagram is only the start of the social media platforms we cover. Discover analytics for your Threads, TikTok, X, Facebook, LinkedIn and competitor accounts too!