How to tap into existing social media communities for effective influencer marketing
Luke McCarthy
November 12, 2024
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Instagram. You’ve got it, you use it, you spend time and energy creating amazing content for it, and you’ve slowly built up a base of followers that you connect with on a regular basis. Now, you want to track these followers to discover who’s following you, who’s followed you recently, and who’s unfollowed you.
While the Instagram app itself gives you some visibility into your follower movements, it’s not the best way of tracking who follows and unfollows you. Which means… yep, you guessed it, there are some delightful apps designed to do all these things for you. They add insights, statistics, and details that you can use to improve your Instagram performance, connect with your followers, and ultimately, increase your followers.
In this simple guide, we list the best Instagram followers trackers available today – both paid and free.
Wait. Before you dive into downloading and registering with an Instagram followers app, you should always check that it’s reputable and trustworthy. You don’t want to open yourself up to being hacked or phished because you downloaded a risky app.
So, go for apps registered with Instagram. A dodgy one may sneak in from time to time, but on the whole, registered apps are a much safer bet.
Not sure whether your existing apps are registered? Log into Instagram in your web browser and go to Settings>>Authorized Apps. If you have any apps that don’t sit in this list, consider deleting them and changing your password. Just to be safe.
Now, onwards to the Instagram followers apps that should be safe to use. Remember, always check before you download, especially if you need to input any personal information.
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Recently acquired by Sprout Social, Simply Measured offers a bunch of tasty features for you to use and is one of the best Instagram follower trackers on the market. You get social intelligence insights as well as reports into your average likes, comments made by your followers, and interaction per post. Simply Measured is no longer free, but there is a free trial, so you can test it before parting with your hard-earned cash.
Iconosquare connects all your social media accounts and provides you with easy to understand analytics that you can use to enhance your follower engagements. It’s used by some of the biggest brands in the world, including Netflix, Ikea, and Mercedes Benz, so it’s definitely worth a look.
Buffer has a juicy, feature-rich free package that you can use when you set out to unpack your Instagram followers and get your head around analytics, tracking, and listening. You can use the free version to plan, publish, and gather insights across up to three channels. However, you will need to pay $6 a month per channel if you want the in-depth engagement tools and analytics reports.
Crowdfire has a number of excellent features that go beyond just tracking your followers. This tool helps you to discover content that fits your topics of interest and connect with your readers, schedule your content, and manage your followers beautifully. It has great reviews and makes it a lot easier to refine and customise your Instagram posts and build audience engagement.
This very well known app isn’t just available for use on Instagram (good to know if you want to expand your insights to other social media platforms) and it includes a lot of different features designed to enhance your social media performance. It’s more for brands that have a number of platforms and a significant presence as it comes with a hefty price tag to match its hefty feature-set.
Now that you’ve got a handle on who’s following your Instagram account, you may want to dig into why people are unfollowing your account. This will help you to get a better feel for how your Instagram strategy is working (or not) and what areas need work. However, many unfollower apps are not authorised by Instagram, so be warned.
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This application offers you quick access to your accounts statistics and will tell you how many new followers you have, who unfollowed you, and who isn’t following you back. You can also assess the accounts you don’t follow back, see the profiles that are most liked, and gain visibility into your ghost followers.
Ghost Hunter helps you to clean up your accounts and get inactive followers, ghosts, and commercial accounts under control. It’s good at helping you keep your Insta clean and tidy while you work at building your network and community.
If we could only pick the top three, it’d be:
Crowdfire is one of the top Instagram follower trackers because it’s not only authorised by Instagram, but it’s got a bunch of different features that can help you take your account management to new heights. You can take advantage of the free account (which you can use indefinitely) but that comes with limited features, so you may want to consider ramping up to a paid account for a tonne of tasty extras.
Iconosquare easily joins the ranks of the best Instagram follower trackers thanks to its rich analytics and superb feature set. It comes with community analytics, engagement insights, a customisable dashboard, and more than 100 metrics you can use to measure your follower engagement.
You get a lot of features with Hootsuite, which is why it’s one of the best on the market. It includes publishing and scheduling, content curation, campaign management, messaging and customer service, ads, analytics, access and security, training, and social enhancement tools. You can track your followers and then some with this solution.
If you want an app that can track both your followers and your unfollowers, then this is the list for you. Although most of the apps talked about above offer you some visibility, the following shout about it loud and proud.
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You can use FollowMeter to monitor the growth of your followers and see who’s unfollowing you through some nifty analytics. The tool is very easy to use and comes with a very clear security mandate – it doesn’t ask for access to your Instagram credentials. However, while this app says it doesn’t use your data, it isn’t authorised by Instagram.
IG Tracker is a Chrome product designed to help you check fake followers, track and analyse your followers and unfollowers, and discover your lost followers. It comes with a few clever features and you can directly email the creators for support.
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The free Crowdfire account doesn’t come with many bells and whistles, but it should be enough if you’re just starting out and want to get your head around tracking and assessing your followers. You can always upgrade at a later date if you want more insights into your Instagram profile.
Buffer’s free version allows you to plan, publish, and gather insights across up to three channels. For in-depth engagement tools and analytics reports, however, you’ll need to pay.
Yes, Hootsuite is expensive but the free trial is worth checking out if you’re just exploring whether you need an app to track your followers. Its features are superb and you get excellent support as you make your way through the different capabilities on offer. You can also use the platform to enhance your Instagram marketing, build a successful influencer strategy, and so much more.
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Crowdfire does have a free option, but its paid services are really the ones you want if you’re looking to transform your brand’s Instagram tracking and engagement. The VIP package allows you to link up to 25 accounts, comprehensively manage scheduling and publishing, curate content, autotailor posts, track mentions, and dig deeply into analytics across different platforms (except Twitter). VIP costs $74.98 a month, with Premium coming in at $37.48 and Plus at just $7.48.
Since Simply Measured was acquired by Sprout Social, its features have been pulled into the entire platform offering. The Standard version is $249 a month, the Professional is $399, Advanced is $499, and Enterprise is POA. Each plan comes with plenty of added extras that include competitive reporting, trend analyses, and follower tracking.
Plenty of features, lots of different pricing options, a solid reputation that comes with extra support and a variable pricing system… These are all massive ticks in the YES box for Iconosquare and why it sits comfortably in the best of Instagram follower app rankings.
This platform has a unique payment method – you only pay for what you need. There are no setup fees and you’ll get ongoing support. You can pay annually, with a discount of up to 22%, try out a free 14-day trial, or pay monthly at a cost based on the number of social profiles you’re tracking. The Pro package is €49, Advanced is €79, and Enterprise is €139.
Hootsuite starts at $99 a month for the Professional package billed annually and goes up to $249 for the Team package, $739 for the Business package and POA for the Enterprise package. Yes, it’s pretty pricey, but you get an awful lot more for your money than just a tracker. Plus, there’s a free 30-day trial for both the Professional and Team solutions.
Now that you know how to pull your followers together and remove the ghosts, you can use our guide to Instagram for marketers to refine your campaigns and strategies. We’ve also got a guide to creating the perfect Instagram captions, one on the best time to post on Instagram, and everything you need to know about boosting your Instagram Reels.
Considering influencer marketing to maximise your social media success? Get started with a free demo.
