Follow For Follow (F4F) in 2025

In August 2024, a fitness-focused Instagram account, @thehomegymhub, began posting 2x daily.

To expand its audience, the account adopted a simple strategy: it followed 100 users each day from similar, larger pages. The logic was clear—people who followed those pages might also follow @thehomegymhub.

The account specifically targeted users who engaged with posts from other prominent home gym accounts, ensuring the audience shared a genuine interest in the niche.

After a month, the account had 600 followers while following 1,500 accounts, achieving a 40% follow-back rate. To refine its following list, the account unfollowed users who didn’t follow back.

Tools like followsBack can help identify the users that don't follow you back across platforms like Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and X. For those prioritizing safety and privacy, free methods are also available.

This cleanup left the account with 682 followers and only 658 accounts it followed. Over the next month, the account grew organically, adding 80 followers. To boost growth further, it resumed following 100 users daily, this time targeting those who actively engaged with fitness-related content.

Over 92 days, the account hit Instagram’s following limit of 7,500.

Its follower count rose to 2,981, and engagement improved significantly — one reel garnered 25k views, far surpassing the usual 2-3k.

Now, the account is methodically unfollowing 100 users daily to maintain a balanced following-to-follower ratio. This step, though time-consuming, is crucial for algorithmic favorability, as accounts with more followers than followings tend to perform better.

This experiment highlights that following accounts can effectively grow a follower base, particularly when targeting the right audience. However, success isn’t solely dependent on this tactic. Consistent posting of quality content, collaborations, and active community engagement remain vital.

The account also tried leaving comments, but they didn’t yield significant results and required considerable time and effort. In contrast, the follow-for-follow method, though occasionally time-consuming, proved to be a reliable way to convert roughly 30% of the effort into tangible growth.

While this method may not suit everyone, it offers a straightforward starting point for growth. The Follow For Follow (F4F) strategy still holds value in 2025 and works in niche markets. For accounts in broader or more competitive niches, the results could be 3-5x more impactful.

Note that Instagram only lets you do around 200 a day before they start asking questions. Know the upper limits of the algorithm.

The F4F strategy also signals your niche to the algorithm, especially when a significant number of followers share a common interest. For example, The Home Gym Hub's followers share one common interest: home gym.

In the case of @thehomegymhub, the strategy worked well, proving that with the right approach, F4F can still be a useful tool in the social media growth toolkit.

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