How to Get 20k Instagram Followers in 2025

As a photographer, designer, or artist, you know that Instagram–in addition to your portfolio website,  is one of your most powerful business tools. Curating your feed to attract new followers can be challenging work. It’s all too easy to find yourself with an Instagram full of selfies and endless photos of your cat. How do you maintain that personal vibe while also successfully using your feed to show off your creative work?

We spoke to a few seasoned Instagram users with enviable follower-to-following ratios to get their tips on how to improve your Instagram game. From breathtaking landscape photos to perfectly-planned style shoots, these creatives know what makes an Instagram feed work. Hint: be yourself.

2025 Update: When the Algorithm Changes it All

Well, not everything but enough that we want to give you the best insights for growing your following.

The Instagram algorithm has significantly evolved since our first publication of this piece in 2017. While there remains value in the best practices shared by some of our most visible members, we also have to adapt strategies for self-marketing to the current landscape.

Video is Everything

Keep in mind that while authenticity and consistency remain crucial, the platform now heavily prioritizes video content (especially short-form Reels), watch time, shares, and saves. Likes are no longer a primary ranking factor in engagement. The AI systems are designed to predict what content keeps users engaged for longer periods and what they find valuable enough to share or save. Original content is king, and repurposed content from other platforms (with watermarks) will be penalized. Engagement in the first 3 seconds of a video is critical.

Reflect on your own attention span and watch habits—there’s so much content out there vying for our attention that it can be challenging to create that hook, but definitely possible. Think about what draws you into content, and what keeps you engaged until the end. Follow other successful photographers, filmmakers, content creators and artists who appeal to the demographic you’re looking to cultivate. It can be really tempting to throw everything in and hope it works, but look for patterns and strategies that will work for you. If it’s not you don’t do it. 

To make the most of the advice our members shared, we’ll provide some tips and tricks on how to utilize these social media strategies in 2025. Read more to find out how you can grow your business and strengthen your digital presence.

Richard Gaston 

@richardgaston: 88k followers

“Over the past couple of years, I’ve found the image of nature and secludedness to be the most engaging, particularly images of small, isolated cabins in vast landscapes. They reflect the peace and serenity which everyone desires.” 

“My favourite type of image to capture is one that conveys the concept of combining nature and human elements. Instagram is all about consistency, regardless of the profession you hold. Users who admire that sort of style will then engage and become influenced by the work that is being produced. My primary suggestion is to be confident in what you post. Post it because you like it. Keep posting, and eventually you’ll notice you have acquired a theme and a following who appreciates your work.”

2025: A Changing Landscape 

Richard’s advice on finding a theme and consistency is still golden, but for maximum impact now, consider how to translate those “images of nature and secludedness” into dynamic Reels. Think about:

• Behind-the-scenes videos of you scouting locations, setting up shots, or even just a time-lapse of a scene changing.
• Short, looping videos of the kinds of tranquil landscapes you photograph, perhaps with calming trending audio.
• “Storytelling” Reels that take viewers on a visual journey through a secluded location.
• Carousels that combine still images with a short video snippet, or tell a visual story across multiple slides.
• Engagement prompts in captions: “Which of these scenes brings you the most peace? Let me know below!” or “Where’s your favourite secluded escape?”

It may feel cynical, but engagement drives your exposure. That said, it’s a good idea to make these questions ones that feel true to you and the people following you. In short: don’t be out of touch with the people supporting you.

Nicole Pagan 

@leavesyoubreathless: 27.3k followers

“I would describe my Instagram aesthetic as youthful and delicate. I definitely love to post a lot of my personal work because I think people identify with that. I think that if you keep your feed cohesive, it stands out more visually. I normally have my feed featuring the same colour tones as my mood.”

2025: Interaction & Influence

We love Nicole’s emphasis on a cohesive aesthetic, and personal work is more relevant than ever, especially with the push for authenticity. To develop this:

• Authenticity over perfection: While a cohesive feed is good, overly polished content can feel less genuine. Show your process, your candid moments, and let your personality come through, particularly in Instagram Stories and Reels.
• “Day in the life” or “mood-based” Reels: Show how your mood influences your creative process or the colours you choose. This builds a deeper connection with your audience.
• Interactive Stories: Like the advice above, use polls and quizzes in your Stories to ask followers about their favourite colours, moods, or even to guess the inspiration behind your latest piece. This drives engagement, which Instagram rewards.
• User-Generated Content (UGC): Encourage your followers to share how your “youthful and delicate” aesthetic inspires them or what it means to them in their own work, and reshare their content (with credit). This also gives you an opportunity to amplify others—something that the algorithm likes, but also makes for some nice creative Karma.

Scott Rankin 

@othellonine: 158k followers

“I try to make my feed minimal and cinematic. People respond most to epic landscapes. If your post includes a large mountain reflecting off an emerald green lake, you’re going to get likes no matter how many followers you have, basically.”

“I think consistency is a key, and being genuine is another. There are a lot of people posting the same types of images right now, so it’s hard to stand out. I would say if you strive to improve your photography in order to challenge yourself, your feed will reflect that and people will follow along, especially if you are taking the time to interact with the community. Make connections. Comment on posts you like, and let others know you appreciate their work.”

2025: Bring Them on Your Adventure

Scott’s focus on “epic landscapes,” consistency, genuineness, and community interaction are still critical. Here’s how to push them further:

• Reels for cinematic impact: That “epic landscape” shot is even more powerful as a short, cinematic Reel. Think drone shots, time-lapses of changing light, or a pan across a vast vista, all set to trending, atmospheric audio. The first 3 seconds are vital for hooking viewers.
• Optimize for “Saves” and “Shares”: Instead of just chasing likes, create content that people will want to save for inspiration or share with friends. Educational carousels (e.g., “5 Best Spots for Mountain Photography in [Region]”) or highly inspiring Reels are excellent for this.
• Deep Community Engagement: Beyond just commenting, aim for meaningful engagement. Reply to all comments, ask follow-up questions, and engage in DMs. The algorithm rewards active two-way conversations. If you’re a shy person, think about how tough it is for you to comment: when people put themselves out there to appreciate what you do, it’s really nice to acknowledge that effort with your own.
• Collaborate Strategically: Scott mentions making connections. Try actively seeking out collaborations with other photographers or artists whose work you admire. Joint Reels or posts can expose your work to new, relevant audiences.
• Instagram SEO: Use relevant keywords in your captions and bio (e.g., “Landscape Photographer | Cinematic Vistas”) so that people searching for specific content can find you.

Weronika Izdebska 

@ovors: 84.4k followers

“I’ve noticed that backstage photographs and self-portraits are quite attractive to my followers. It’s just one part of my content, but it allows them to see a bit more, experience some moments with me in a more intimate way. I treat social media as both my portfolio and some kind of a diary, especially when I travel. It’s being combined in a very natural way, and I feel that the boundaries between those two categories are often blurred. I believe that the most important issue is to be faithful to your own aesthetic. The art of choice is also the key. Less is more, in many cases.”

2025: Letting the Audience See the Real You

Weronika’s strategy of blending portfolio with personal diary, especially through backstage and self-portraits, is absolutely on-trend with the emphasis on authenticity and connection. When your audience can see something of themselves in you, you’re showing them that what you’ve achieved is possible for them. Think about a time when you had that same experience, and let that be a guiding principle.

• Reels for “diary” moments: A lot of “diary” content is perfectly suited for Reels. Think short vlogs of travel experiences, quick glimpses into your studio, or “get ready with me” self-portrait sessions.
• “Blurring boundaries” with video: Use video to truly blur the lines between portfolio and diary. A Reel showing the creative process, from initial concept to finished self-portrait, is highly engaging.
• Behind-the-scenes (BTS) Reels: Show the raw, unedited moments of your creative process–the struggles, the triumphs. This is the “backstage” content that fosters deeper intimacy and relatability.
• Instagram Live sessions: Go Live for Q&A sessions about your process, inspirations, or simply to share travel anecdotes. This builds real-time connection.
• “Less is more” in a video world: While video is key, Weronika’s “less is more” applies to quality over quantity. A few truly captivating and well-produced Reels will outperform many mediocre ones. Focus on strong hooks (first 3 seconds!) and maintaining viewer attention.

2025: Behind the Scenes & Viewer Value

• “Aesthetic” Reels: Short, visually pleasing Reels showcasing interiors, styling, or travel montages with trending, soothing audio are highly shareable and can go viral.
• Tutorials and “How-To” Carousels: For post-production or setting up a shoot, create step-by-step guides or “before & after” carousels. For styling, give as many details as to what you did, and where to find items you used—ensure you indicate it’s not an ad. These are highly savable and provide value.
• Interactive polls/quizzes in Stories: Ask followers “Which design do you prefer?” or “Rate this interior design style.”
• Behind-the-scenes of styling: Show the effort that goes into creating those beautiful shots in a Reel or Story. Styling is hard work, involving making and unmaking, and frustration before success. Authenticity resonates.

Best Practices for Instagram Growth with the 2025 Algorithm

Beyond the individual advice, here are overarching strategies to gain followers and thrive on Instagram today:

Prioritize Reels

This is non-negotiable. Instagram is pushing Reels heavily to compete with TikTok.

• Focus on Watch Time and Retention: The algorithm rewards content that users watch for longer periods and even re-watch. Aim for strong hooks in the first 1-3 seconds.
• Original Content: Create your own content. Reposting heavily or using watermarked content from other platforms will hurt your reach.
• Trending Audio & Effects: Incorporate trending sounds and effects, but don’t force it.
• Captions and On-Screen Text: Make your Reels accessible and engaging even without sound. Use clear, concise text overlays.
• Looping Content: Reels that seamlessly loop encourage re-watches, boosting watch time.
• Experiment with Length: While short, punchy Reels are often best, Instagram is experimenting with longer Reels (up to 3 minutes, and even 20 minutes in testing). Test what works for your audience and for your content.

Optimize for Shares and Saves 

These are now heavily weighted “value-driven” engagements.

• Educational Content: Carousels with tips, tutorials, or “how-to” guides are highly savable.
• Inspirational/Relatable Content: Posts that resonate emotionally or offer a fresh perspective are more likely to be shared.
• Memes & Shareable Graphics: If relevant to your niche, relatable memes or insightful quote graphics can be highly shareable. If humor is your thing: make your own.

Authenticity is Everything (Video is Still Also Everything) 

Overly polished, inauthentic content performs poorly.

• Behind-the-Scenes (BTS): Show your process, your workspace, your struggles, and your successes. People connect with the human behind the art.
• Personal Storytelling: Share the stories behind your work, your inspirations, and even personal anecdotes (within your comfort level).
• User-Generated Content (UGC): Encourage followers to share their experiences with your work or inspiration drawn from your content. Reshare their posts (with credit). This is especially relevant to exhibiting photographers, artists, or commercial photographers whose work is often seen in the wild.

Engage, Engage, Engage 

Build a genuine community.

• Reply to Every Comment: Don’t just like comments; respond thoughtfully and ask follow-up questions to spark conversations.
• DM Engagement: Respond to DMs promptly.
• Active Community Participation: Actively comment on other accounts in your niche, especially those you admire. Don’t just drop an emoji; leave meaningful comments.
• Interactive Stories: Utilize polls, quizzes, question stickers, and sliders in your Stories to encourage direct engagement.

Leverage Carousels 

They continue to perform well, often outperforming single images.

• Multi-Image Storytelling: Use carousels to tell a story through a series of photos or videos.
• Educational/Informative: Break down complex topics into easily digestible, swipeable slides.
• Photo Dumps: These informal collections of candid photos are trending and show authenticity.

Master Instagram SEO 

Users are increasingly using Instagram’s search bar.

• Keywords in Bio & Name: Include relevant keywords in your Instagram name and bio (e.g., “Fine Art Photographer | Landscape Artist”).
• Keywords in Captions: Use descriptive keywords in your captions.
• Relevant Hashtags: Use a mix of broad and niche hashtags (aim for 3-8 highly relevant ones, rather than overloading with 30). Research trending hashtags–use them wisely

Consistent Posting Schedule 

The algorithm rewards consistency.

• Find Your Best Time to Post: Use Instagram Insights to see when your audience is most active and schedule your posts accordingly.
• Quality over Quantity: While consistency is good, don’t sacrifice quality for the sake of posting daily. A few high-quality, engaging posts a week are better than many low-effort ones.

Collaborate with Other Creators/Brands

• Cross-Promotion: Partner with artists or brands in complementary niches for joint Reels, Lives, or giveaways. This exposes your content to their audience and vice-versa.
• Influencer Marketing: Even micro-influencers can drive significant engagement and growth.

Utilize Instagram Stories & Highlights

• Daily Stories: Post 1-2 engaging Stories per day.
• Highlights: Curate your best Stories into Highlights on your profile (e.g., “Travel,” “Process,” “Client Work,” “FAQs”).
• Stickers for Engagement: Use interactive stickers to drive engagement within Stories.

Analyze Your Insights 

Regularly check your Instagram Insights to understand what content resonates most with your audience (watch time, saves, shares, comments, reach). Adjust your strategy based on this data.

Get Serious:

If your business is driven by social media traffic and engagement, ie: client booking, exposure to brands, even partnerships, then you will want to invest in a social media management platform so that you can get deeper into granular details of your content performance. This means you can action the insights to better your marketing strategy. 

Here are some social media management platforms and our rankings based on their application to photographers, designers, artists and filmmakers.

1. Later

• Benefits: This platform truly performs for visual creators. It offers a highly visual content calendar, allowing you to preview your Instagram grid and plan your aesthetic. Its detailed analytics specifically for Instagram and TikTok provide insights on best times to post, hashtag performance, audience demographics, and deep engagement metrics for photos, videos, and Reels. It’s also great for managing a link-in-bio page.
• Best Serves: Individual photographers, artists, designers, and small studios who are heavily reliant on Instagram and TikTok for showcasing their work and connecting with clients/audiences. If visual planning is paramount, this is a top choice.
• Pricing (USD – Billed Annually):
  • Starter: ~$16.67/month (for 1 social set, 60 posts/profile, basic analytics).
  • Growth: ~$33.33/month (for 2 social sets, 180 posts/profile, more advanced analytics, social inbox).
  • Scale: ~$73.33/month (for 6 social sets, unlimited posts, custom analytics, competitive benchmarking).
  • Note: Later offers a free plan with limited features, great for testing.

2. Sprout Social

• Benefits: While pricier, Sprout Social offers incredibly robust, customizable analytics and reporting that can provide granular detail on every aspect of your social presence. This includes advanced metrics on engagement, audience sentiment, competitive analysis, and performance across all major platforms.
• Best Serves: Growing creative businesses, agencies, or established individual creators who need in-depth data for strategic decision-making.
• Pricing (USD – Billed Annually):
  • Standard: Starts at $199/user/month (for five social profiles).
  • Professional: Starts at $299/user/month (for unlimited social profiles, competitive reports).
  • Advanced: Starts at $399/user/month (with AI-powered features).

3. Iconosquare

• Benefits: This tool offers highly detailed analytics specifically for Instagram and Facebook, which are often primary platforms for visual creators. You get insights into follower growth, engagement rates, reach, impressions, and even competitor benchmarks. It’s strong for understanding content performance (photos vs. videos vs. Reels) and identifying your best-performing posts.
• Best Serves: Visual artists, photographers, and small businesses who are primarily focused on maximizing their presence and engagement on Instagram and Facebook, and need deep, dedicated analytics for these platforms.
• Pricing (USD – Billed Annually, approximate conversion from EUR):
  • Launch: ~$53/month (for 10 social profiles, 1 year data retention).
  • Scale: Price increases with more features and profiles, offering more advanced analytics and benchmarking.

4. Buffer

• Benefits: Buffer is praised for its clean, intuitive interface and for providing clear insights into individual post and story engagement, follower growth, and optimal posting times. For creators, it helps you understand what types of visual content resonate most with your audience (e.g., photo series, short films, design mock-ups).
• Best Serves: Individual creators, freelancers, and small creative teams who prioritize simplicity and clear, actionable analytics without needing overly complex features. It’s excellent for maintaining a consistent presence across multiple channels.
• Pricing (USD – Billed Annually, per channel):
  • Free Plan: 3 social channels, 10 scheduled posts/channel, basic analytics (30-day history).
  • Essentials: $6/month per channel (unlimited posts, advanced analytics).
  • Team: $12/month per channel (unlimited users, collaboration features).

5. Hootsuite

• Benefits: Hootsuite offers a broad, unified dashboard for managing and analyzing multiple social media accounts, including visual platforms. While its deepest analytics may require higher tiers.
• Best Serves: Established creative professionals or small agencies (think: your photography business as it expands) managing a wide array of social profiles (e.g., Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube) who need centralized scheduling and general performance metrics across all of them.
• Pricing (USD – Billed Annually):
  • Professional: Starts at $99/month (for 1 user, up to 10 social accounts).
  • Team: Starts at $249/month (for 3 users, up to 20 social accounts).
  • Note: Hootsuite no longer offers a free plan 🙁

By integrating these updated best practices, particularly the heavy emphasis on engaging video content and genuine community interaction, you can significantly enhance your Instagram growth strategy and move beyond the 20k follower mark in the current digital landscape (we gotta factor inflation, right?)

With a great social media strategy, you will still want your own space.

Your Portfolio: The Foundation of Everything

Portfolio featured: Gaetan Caputo

While social media is great for reach, remember it’s a rental. A dedicated portfolio website is your professional home; you own it. It gives you ultimate control over your professional image and a stable base for your creative career.

Why a portfolio website is essential:

• Full Control: Own your content, your presentation and design, your platform. No algorithms (just SEO), no distractions.
• Instant Credibility: A professional website tells clients you’re serious, organized, and established.
• Business Ready: Easily integrate contact forms, contracts, services, and e-commerce to convert interest into income.
• Showcase with Impact: Present your best work in high resolution, beautifully organized galleries, letting it shine without social feed clutter or cropping.

Ready to Take Control of Your Creative Future?

Don’t let your incredible work get lost in the sea of content. Give it the professional home it deserves.

Start your free trial with Format and launch your stunning portfolio website today.

Author: Alex McGill, January 21, 2017 

Last Updated: July 22, 2025 by the Format Editorial Team