1. Understand that nobody on this blessed earth cares about you as a person on IG. Unless I'm a bot, or we're blood kin/friends, i have no reason to follow you out of the blue.

2. Keeping this in mind, ask yourself why you want more followers.
If you just want to be IG famous/numbers, there's a route for that. If you're an artist and you want an increased IG following, there's a separate route for that.

3. use what the platform gives you. use hashtags to expose your post to a larger audience, but don't just use bloated normie tags like "instagram" or "rapper', find some juicy ones with 5k-100k posts like "yourcitymusicscene" or "carpentersofIG". Those will hit a nice audience who will be specifically interested in that.

4. Crossover with like minded people, so shout people out, celebrate their accomplishments, make stuff with them and then tag them in it.

THE ARTIST WAY
1. FOCUS ON THE MUSIC. Seriously, if you aren't making bomb music, then why the cuss are you trying to grow on IG? sure you can practice some good habits to prime your growth, but who is going to follow you as an artist if you don't have great music?

2. Identify a niche. Figure out how to identify yourself as an artist. You need to make it easy for people for find you and give them a reason to follow you. DON'T JUST SAY "wElL I'M a RaPPeR anD THAt'S aLL".
So don't just say you're a rapper, say you're a melodic trap artist from norfolk virginia or whatever identifies you. Don't just say you're a producer, say you're a furry lofi producer from sacramento california

HERE'S THE IMPORTANT PART.
3. Cater to that niche. for example, If you a producer, post some tutorials on REELS, tag them with reels tags as well as tags for your niche. Show me how you get your lofi sound and geotag sacramento california. Post some videos of you jamming in your fursuit.

If you're a rapper, do some freestyles. Duet some tiktoks freestyling, then post the video and tag the OP on IG.

AND HERE'S THE REALLY IMPORTANT PART.
4. Make it easy for people to discover you.
Post your IG link on you soundcloud, on your spotify, on your genius, etc. Play shows and have a banner with your IG handle, collaborate with peers and get some fanbase crossover when they shout you out on IG. Make great music and make people say "man, i want to follow this chap on the gram."

done.

THE IG FAMOUS WAY.
Similar to the artist way.

1) Find a niche. Let's say you're really good at carpentry. Or lets say you cook and are from austin texas. Incorporate that into your bio/branding

2. Make content. like above, post reels of your recipes, make an IGTV series of you cooking or doing a full carpentry build. Tag it with niche tags and make it consistently.

3. Collab with people, do stuff irl and post it to IG with geotags and hastags

4. Repeat

Alternately,
1. find a meme demographic, like zoomer memes, sports memes, etc.
Curate a stash of memes, tiktoks, and video clips.

2. Post daily with niche tags.

3. Profit.

I've gotten on explore page multiple times just by posting tiktoks by a guy from my city and using appropriate niche tags.

There's obviously value in networking and shoutouts and all that, but this here is the sauce, folks

BTW, HERE'S THE MNOMIC FOR FINDING/MAKING CONTENT THAT GETS SHARED.
Entertain

Educate

Emotion.

People need to find your stuff funny or engaging, learn something from it, or get a strong emotional reaction from seeing it.

I know I’m on ktt saying this but there’s much better s*** to be doing in life than worrying about IG followers

That's true....

But if you do care, here's a guide

Obviously is for business/career type s*** that OP is talkin about

I didn’t read op lol I just got clout thirsty homies who spend they entire savings on clothes for ig likes and still live with they mom

maybe you should actually read the guide before you comment on it

Those your homies?

you could've @ me bro damn...

By association lol no bums in my close circle