5 Instagram Follower Count Tools to Track the Competition
Followers have become a social currency, notably for Instagram. For influencers, the more followers you have, the more credible you are. In the case of businesses, the number of followers can be directly proportional to the company’s revenue. Even people who don’t belong to any of these categories still put great value on the number of their Instagram followers.
That being the case, it is important to check out how other Instagram accounts – especially those within the same niche – are doing in terms of the number of followers they have, and how those followers react to the actions of their account. Here are five Instagram follower count tools that anyone can use.
Instagram Follower Count Tool: Livecounts
Livecounts is developed and maintained by 4user.org, a provider of several online tools. Among the tools that are available on Livecounts are its YouTube money calculator, Twitch sub count tool, link shortener, and their Instagram follower count tool.
To use the Instagram follower count tool, just type in the Instagram username in the search box, the number of followers will appear, and is updated every five seconds.
You can add the Instagram accounts you’re monitoring to your favorite channels by clicking on the heart icon in the upper right hand side of the screen. These accounts will appear in your sidebar under “Favorite Channels.” You only need to click on the Instagram profile picture to check the updated number of followers.
Instagram Follower Count Tool: Instastatistics
Instastatistics was created by Realify, a Netherlands-based digital web agency that develops web and mobile applications. The tool is easy to use. When you enter the exact username, Instastatistics will return the follower and following count, the number of posts, and even the user’s bio and website.
The good thing about Instastatistics is that you can search for an account even when you don’t know the exact username. For example, if you want to see accounts related to makeup tutorials, you can type those keywords in and the site will return accounts that are related to that topic. Only the first account on the list is clickable though, so if you want to see the statistics of other accounts on the list, you have to remember their usernames and type them into the search box.
Instagram Follower Count Tool: Gramblast
The Instagram follower count tool called Gramblast is simple. You need to know the exact username of the Instagram account as you type it in the username field near the bottom of the page. The site will return the account’s profile picture, number of followers, and number of photos. There is also a “Follow User” button which will take you to the user’s Instagram account.
Gramblast is also a provider of social signals for Instagram. You can read our review of its Instagram services here, and see how you can use it to keep pace when your competitors’ follower numbers surge ahead of yours.
Instagram Follower Count Tool: SocialBlade
SocialBlade is known for providing free statistics for major social media sites like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Twitch. Its Instagram follower count tool does more than count an account’s followers, as it also provides basic analysis. However, this tool is typically for Instagram business accounts, and only for those who have more than 100 followers.
To use the tool, you need the exact username of the Instagram account you’re tracking. Search results will include SocialBlade’s grading system, the account’s rank in terms of followers, following, media, and engagement count. It also includes a daily statistics summary of followers, following, and media for the past two weeks.
Instagram Follower Count Tool: Gramlike
Gramlike is a website where you can buy Instagram likes and views. It also has other tools aside from the Instagram follower count tool, such as the Instagram photo and video downloader and Instagram profile picture viewer.
To use Gramlike’s Instagram follower count tool, just type in the username. You will see the profile picture, the number of followers, and the number of posts.
Track the Competition and Grow Your Instagram Account
Tracking competitors is a very old marketing strategy that is still very effective in the age of social media. You have to know where the others are at so you will know where you need to be. If you are a travel blogger, then you should take a look at how the Instagram account of other travel bloggers is doing. The same is true for others in different niches. Even politicians need to check out the competition.
Per Politico: Ted Cruz was spotted on his phone on a flight back from DC looking at a photo of Beto O'Rourke.
via @playbookplus pic.twitter.com/Gx4NeBWUaB
— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) September 25, 2018
After seeing how the competition is doing in terms of Instagram stats, you can either learn from their success, or learn from their mistakes. Either way, you can grow your Instagram account by tracking your competitor while asking these questions:
- What is their content strategy? Checkout the type of photos they post and how regularly they post them.
- Captions are equally important, so take a look at their caption style, and learn what your account should post on Instagram.
- Do they collaborate with other Instagram accounts? Partnerships are a great way to grow your following on Instagram, but only if done properly (i.e. collaborate with people within the same niche so you can reach out to your target audience). Check which influencers your competitions are collaborating with, and see if you can do better. This Instagram post says it best:
- What hashtags are they using? Examine the hashtags they’re using. Are they using generic hashtags for all their posts, or do they use specific ones too? No matter how the competitors are using hashtags, make sure that you don’t commit these hashtag mistakes.
- Do they run contests or give exclusive discounts to attract more followers? Instagram accounts that run contests draw a lot of engagement from followers and can even convince people to follow your account. This works the same when exclusive discounts are given through the Instagram account. Investigate how the competition is doing these types of promotions and look at the mechanics.
- How do their follower counts react to using these tactics? Most importantly, you need to look at how the tactics above affect their follower counts. Did it grow after they ran a contest? Did it decrease when they didn’t post anything on a certain week? How did posts with and without hashtags perform?
From all these questions, you can shape your own Instagram marketing strategy. Put in action the do’s and don’ts that you learned by tracking the competition with the use of any of the five Instagram follower count tools in this article.
Date: December 10, 2018 / Categories: Apps, Engagement, / Author: Rich Drees
