Growing Instagram with 100% Hands-free Approach

There is barely any niche that does not have potential customers on Instagram. Even if you post images with just quotes written over them people prefer that than simple text.

It is required for a business owner these days to include Instagram in their marketing strategy. However, it does not have to be a time consuming chore thanks to the tools I am going to list today.

Step 1 of Instagram Growth: Finding Pictures

Instagram is all about pictures, it is essential that you find sharp looking pictures to post. If you have an in-house artist who could give you pictures that may be a resized version of pictures you created for a different platform, that works well.

However, if that is not the case you can still use Google Images to find pictures. I am going to show you how to do that like a pro. We will be looking for pictures in the public domain without copyright protection. Here is how to do it:

Go to Creative Commons Images and search for your keywords.

Select Google Images as the source, although you can try with other sources if they produce better results.

This will show you hundreds to thousands of images, make sure you select a decent sized one so the picture looks nice. Always double check that your searches and moving back and forward has not changed search settings. You only want pictures that won’t get you into trouble.

The search results should say “Labeled for reuse and modification”

Now find a decent picture and click on it. You will see two buttons. One is to See the Image and the other is to go to the page where this image is hosted. We want to go to the page where this image is hosted as there will be many such images there.

Click on Visit Page button

Once you have landed at the page your head will be filled with glee because this page has dozens of pictures you can use for free. You can simply download them one at a time and build your collection.

Are you calling it tedious? Come on. You are a marketer, hard work pays off. Wait, don’t go, I’m just kidding.

There is an extension that comes handy for that. It is called Image Downloader and you can find it here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/image-downloader/cnpniohnfphhjihaiiggeabnkjhpaldj

Tip: Don’t use it on Google Image search results as the extension will simply hung up due to sheer number of images on one page.

Once you have this extension installed go to the page where those images are placed and click on the extension button. Give name for the subfolder and click select all images.

Click on select all first and then unselect images you don’t want.

Click download and it will download all files to your computer.

Tip: Make sure you are fine posting these images. Don’t be lazy there. Don’t post something with your competitors logo on it or branded by someone else.

Step 2 of Instagram Growth: Scheduling Pictures

Now that you have a large collection of images ready to go on your Instagram, next step is to schedule them.

To schedule images on Instagram, I have never seen anything better than Fan Harvest. It allows you to schedule images for future and unlike other tools that send you notifications at the time of posting, it just posts them. No more intervention needed from your end. If you have been using other tools you know how big a deal that is.

Select the image, add your message and hashtag and schedule it.

Fan Harvest has a Bulk Scheduling feature. It allows you to schedule bunch of images in one go. It is such a time saver.

Tip: Find proper hashtags and add as many as you can to each picture. Enter a lot of space after your message so that the hashtags start in the next line.

Step 3 of Instagram Growth: Engaging users

You already have an Instagram account that is going to post 1–2 images with proper hashtags every day.

Sure, those who are searching for those tags will come to check you out, but most of these users are bots. They are using tools to fake this engagement.

Thank them for making you look like a celebrity, but your work is not done yet. As a marketer you will not fall for this.

You want to attract real users. Those who are interested in your niche and thus will end up spending money on your business.

For this, what you want to do is set up some hashtags and engage with people who make Instagram Posts with those hashtags. You can even copy the followers of your competitors. This can also be done using Fan Harvest.

Just give your keywords to search posts for and/or the name of your competitors whose followers you want to follow and select the frequency of engagement.

Tip: If your account is new start with slow speed and increase it to medium and then fast gradually.

Start slow if your account is new and go faster after a week or two.

With that you will have an Instagram account that continuously posts great stuff and engages relevant users.

You can sit down during the first week and set up your posts for the entire month. Then let people come and check your amazing profile out. Add a link to your bio and get free traffic to your brand.

Don’t forget to add some of your own pictures that promote your brand in the mix as that is why we are doing this.

Total Costs

We are using 3 tools in this.

Creative Commons image search: FREE

Image Downloader plugin: FREE

Fan Harvest: $15/month

Not bad for a continued source of traffic, eh?