The best way to grow your audience is to know your audience, the best way to know your audience is to know your competition.

I find that the best way to grow my audience is to research someone who is doing much better than I am and within my niche then do my own thing while keeping in mind what I want to accomplish.

I have 4 main Instagram accounts that I research and learn from, even tho I've never met them, I consider them my Mentors.

They are:

• Gary Vaynerchuk (More commonly known as Gary Vee)
  
• Tony Robbins
  
• Eric Worre
  
• Tai Lopez
  

Of the above list only Eric Worre follows me back, then again I just started using instagram consistently less than a year ago.

When You research your competitors and/or mentors, view the hashtags that they are implementing and remember that you can use up to 30 Hashtags and I recommend using all 30 available slots.

When You start typing the hashtags, you will notice a number and that is how many times that the hashtag has been used. i recommend using mostly hashtags that have between 10,000 - 100,000 at first but also mix in some that are in the Millions as well as some like #WealthyAffiliate that haven't been used near as often yet, Yes yet!

When you use Hashtags with your posts, you'll notice that you'll start having followers.

Always view the followers to make sure that they're not fake accounts, there are many out there among the more than 800 Million Instagram users today. There aren't supposed to be any that are porn but they will show up from time to time. (Simply Report them and then Block them) also look out for the ones that say SM-Followers etc... or Grow your Instagram for Free etc... as they are all Fake and Scams as well.

It is far better to grow your Instagram following the right way than to grow with fake, Scam and Generic Followers.

When You do find Friends who follow you and they look legitimate then follow them if you would like to, that simply means that their posts will show up on your home feed for you to see.

Also, always follow those who are tops in your industry and even those who comment on their posts. There is a great chance that as long as your content is good, that they'll also follow you in return. Keep in mind that you can only follow 7,500 people on Instagram but can be followed by an unlimited amount of people.

When you repost someone else's post you can simply give them credit by adding "Repost @EricWorre" or "Repost @GaryVee" or whomever's post it is that you are reposting.

You can also grow your audience when you connect your Facebook and Instagram accounts because by connecting them your Friends at facebook will be notified that you are now on Instagram.

Don't forget, just as is this case with anything else. 10,000 followers means that only about 1,000 will be active and then only 100 will contribute. Those are just how the numbers come down with many areas of life, Gym memberships, Church memberships etc...