Instagram is one of the biggest platforms to get yourself noticed (more than 400 million users worldwide) and keep a tab on people you interact with or would like to learn about. If you are a new user to Instagram, then the first thing you need to do is start following like minded people and may be get followed by others. You need to start from the people you personally know and then move on to people you are interested in.
Fortunately, Instagram has all the ways to find people that you have any type of relation with or people/brands you are interested in. However, it is not that easy to find everyone you know, as the search bar is not the most convenient way to access everyone.
Today, we are going to help you find almost everyone on Instagram who you may know. There are many different methods, so take few minutes of your precious time to get social on Instagram.
Manually Search for Instagram Users
The most basic thing you can start with is manually search for Instagram users by entering their name or Instagram username. This is not a convenient option as there is a good chance you might not have list of all usernames of your friends and entering just the name may show hundreds of users, making it hard to search.
To find the “Search” option, tap on the “Magnifying glass” icon at the bottom of the screen in the main interface. Now, you will see a “Search” option at the top, tap on it and you will be able to type in the name/username of the person you would like to follow on Instagram. Although, make sure your search is set to “People”, not “Tags” or “Places”.
You can also use the same search to find famous people and brands. Just type in the name of a celebrity or a brand and you will see the results. The results with a “tick mark in blue” are the official celebrities or brands, so make sure you only follow those results.
Find your Facebook Friends on Instagram
If you will allow Instagram to connect with your Facebook account, then it will automatically show all your Facebook friends that are also using Instagram. If you logged in with your Facebook account, then this option will be enabled by default, otherwise, you will have to allow Facebook to connect with your Instagram account.
The process is simple, tap on the “Profile” icon at the bottom right corner of the screen in the main interface. When you are in your profile, tap on the three vertical dots on the top right corner of the screen. This will open all your “Settings”, here you will find an option of “Find Facebook Friends” or “Your Facebook Friends”, tap on it and confirm access if prompted. Now you will see all your Facebook friends that are on Instagram with a “Follow” button next to them.
Add People from Phone’s Contact list
You can also find people from your phone’s contact list that are also using Instagram. Instagram will scan your Contact list and find everyone who is on Instagram using different factors, such as saved email address or contact number.
Just navigate to your profile by tapping on the “Profile” icon on the bottom left corner of the screen. Now, tap on the three vertical dots icon on the top right corner of the screen to access profile settings. Here, you should see the option of “Contacts”, just tap on it and you will see all your contacts that are on Instagram.
Get People Suggestions to Follow
If you are trying to find more people to follow, then you might like to check out who Instagram thinks you may like to follow. Instagram will use many factors that are connected to you to show people that may interest you to follow, so most probably you will find someone of your interest to follow here.
To get people suggestions, tap on the “Magnifying glass” icon in the bottom tray. Here you will see a button of “Discover People” at top, tap on it. Now you will see all the suggestions with few of their pictures below to get an idea of who they are and what they are interested in. Just tap on “Follow” next to their name to start following them while scrolling.
Find People by Popular Posts
Instagram shows all the most popular posts in the main search area. These are the posts that have most comments or likes, they have no direct/indirect relation with you. So don’t expect that you will be shown photos that are of your interest, they could be of anything. As these photos are popular, you might be able to find a reason to follow the author of the post.
Finding popular posts is easy, just tap on the “Magnifying glass” icon in the bottom tray and you will find all the popular posts on the next page. Here you can scroll down to see more posts and tap on any post to preview it. You will see all the comments and likes of the post and a “Follow” button to follow the author of the post.
Use Hashtags to Find People
If you really want to find posts of your interest, then using hashtags is the best way. Hashtags are basically keywords that you may use to search for photos that are of similar type. When people upload pictures they categorize it by adding hashtags, you can use a hashtag to find those pictures.
To search for hashtags, tap on the “Magnifying glass” icon in the bottom tray, and then tap on “Search” at the top. Here, navigate to “Tags” option to filter your search and just enter the keyword. For example, to search for pictures related to “Technology” type in “Tech” or “Technology” and you will see all the related tags and total number of photos under it.
Search for People in the Instagram Web Client
If you don’t want to search people on your Android or iOS phone, then you might like to try out Instagram web client from your choice browser. Just login to Instagram web client using your browser. You will see a very simple interface with just some few suggestions and search bar to search for Instagram users.
The search bar is standard, you can just enter name of a user, celebrity or a brand to find their Instagram accounts. If you will access any account you will be able to see all their posts, and other basic information.
Use Third-Party search Tools
As the Web based client of Instagram is very limited, many third-party service have sprung out to make it easier to find people on Instagram. One of such services include, InstaBAM. This service is meant to help you find Instagram posts and people that are near your location.
Click on “Find Photos Near Me” in the main interface of the InstaBAM website and you will see all the options on the right to search for photos. You can use “Photos Near Me” option to search for photos taken near your location “Location tracking needs to be allowed”. You can also click on “Map Search” to bring out a map and search for photos in any particular area. Popular and Tag search options are self explanatory.
If you are an iOS user, you might like to try out Huntgram. It will let you add filters to avoid content you don’t want to see and you can search people based on countries and best posts. It also has a side news and stories features to help get more information about a specific user.
Glimpse is another people finding app for iOS that is a combination of dating apps and Instagram. You can find Instagram users that are taking pictures near you, and you will be able to find people near you that you may be interest in, but you are bound to reply before 10 PM local time or you will not be able to access them.
SEE ALSO: 14 Cool Instagram Tips And Tricks
Conclusion
With the above methods, you should be able to find all your friends that are on Instagram. If they are not enough, Instagram makes it very easy to find people that may interest you and follow them with a single tap. Do try out third-party solutions for finding people on Instagram as they make it much easier and fun to find people near you.
Abubakar Mohammed
