Part of growing your Instagram, either as an influencer or as a brand, is developing a tight-knit network of blogs that you follow and with which you interact regularly. Even though Instagram’s “Suggested” tool has been around since 2016, few people realize how easy it is to find lookalike accounts with similar demographics, follower counts, and interests with just the click of a button. Not only can you use the feature for networking and following purposes, but if you’re a brand looking to scale your influencer campaigns organically, this is a quick way to do it.

Here are three easy steps to mastering the Suggested tool:

1. Find a “baseline” blog. This blog is key to the “Suggested” tool working as well as it can. If you’re looking to increase your network of followers, start with accounts that already read your blog or with which you’ve engaged in the past. For example, I’m a food blogger, so I’d look for a blog that has a similar follower count to mine (10k-15k), that posts photos similar to mine, and with which I already engage often. If you are a brand doing this for an influencer campaign, then look for accounts that appeal to your target demographic or choose a the account of an influencer with whom you have already done a successful campaign.
2. Click the “Following” number on their page and scroll to the “Suggested” tab. You will then get a “suggested” list of 30 accounts that the Instagram algorithm considers to be “lookalikes.” From there, you can check these accounts to make sure they’re the type of account you want to follow or recruit for an influencer campaign. Results aren’t always perfect and you may run into some accounts that aren’t quite what you were looking for, so make sure to double check the quality of each account before mass-following all 30 accounts. It also helps to like and constructively comment on a few of their posts to begin engagement, regardless of what you’re trying to do with the Suggested tool.
3. Want to go even further? Go to the “Suggested” tabs of the “Suggested” accounts! This is a bit of a crapshoot because the more degrees of separation you get away from your baseline blog, the more quickly you will find yourself in different niches that may or may not be relevant to your brand or goals. That said, if you’re a brand looking to recruit a large number of people over a period of time, or if you are interested in branching out over multiple niches, it can be a super quick method to discover more types of accounts that might be interested in your content.

Have you used the suggested feature to grow your Instagram before? I want to hear your thoughts!