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Picture of Elizabeth HallBy Elizabeth Hall
March 16, 20225 min read

How to Extract The Instagram Followers of Your Account

Here's how you can extract the followers of your Instagram account into a spreadsheet in minutes. Step by step guide using PhantomBuster automations.

Instagram does not offer a native feature for extracting followers, but you can use automation tools for this.

A list of Instagram followers has one thing in common: the profile they’re following. This could lead to identifying Instagram users interested in your account. 

Here's how to extract all followers.

How to extract Instagram profile followers into a spreadsheet

While the answers to a lot of algorithm-based questions may remain puzzling (like how does Instagram show its following list?), getting access to helpful metrics from one of the most prominent social media networks in the world has been made painless.

Here’s all you need to do:

1: Create a free PhantomBuster account.

2: Add the Instagram Follower Collector Phantom to your dashboard.

3: Connect to Instagram using PhantomBuster’s browser extension.

4: Drop in the Instagram profile URL of the profile that you would like to scrape. Note: the profile you are scraping can’t be private.

5: Run it.

Take Note:

Instagram limitations will allow you to extract 5000-9000 followers every 15 minutes.
For some profiles, a maximum of 50 followers will be displayed. In these cases, this is all the user data this Phantom will be able to access.

Sometimes there's a discrepancy between the follower count on Instagram and the output of the Phantom. Instagram's follower counts are not always correct since certain profiles that are banned, deleted, or otherwise unavailable may still be counted in the follower count, but will not be scraped by the Phantom.

What are the benefits of extracting Instagram followers?

We're so glad you asked.

Here are a few reasons why people love this Phantom.

It’s essentially a ready-made list of people potentially interested in your content

A list of Instagram followers is perhaps one of the most useful bits of information if you’re looking to expand your network because it provides a list of people who are already following people in your industry. 

What can you do with this list?

Once you have your Instagram follower list you can perform automated actions on them like follow, like, comment and watch their stories. The notifications should spark interest in your targeted audience, potentially rewarding you with new followers and likes. 

It saves you an incredible amount of time spent scrolling

PhantomBuster allows you to extract a maximum of 5000-9000 Instagram followers every 15 minutes, manually which equates to hundreds of working hours per week!

This Phantom extracts the maximum number of followers and picks up where it left off in the launches that follow. 

Keep track of your competitors like never before

By using this Phantom’s “Watcher Mode” you can keep a steady eye on your or your competitor’s growth evolution.

This feature exports new followers as they appear, leaving no guessing as to what is working and what isn’t.

Make the most of your exported followers list with these pro tips.

What's next: 3 tips

Tip 1: Get to know your audience

Knowing your audience is always an asset and with the ability to scrape any Instagram profile’s followers, it just got a lot easier.

With Instagram Business, you have access to Instagram Insights, a built-in native analytics tool you can use to get additional stats on your list of followers. The native feature offers many valuable insights, like what time of day your followers use Instagram.

If these followers happen to follow one of your key competitors, then you’ve landed yourself crucial marketing data.

Tip 2: Engage, engage, engage!

So you’ve done your research, know your audience, and are ready to start growing your following- what’s next?

Did you know that commenting on an Instagram post signals to the algorithm that the content is high quality?

Once you have your list of followers, you can use PhantomBuster's other Phantoms, like the Instagram Auto Commenter Phantom.

This will allow you to write multiple comments that will be published randomly on each post.

Tip 3: Humanize your brand

Use your Instagram following list viewer to be more human. Sure, automation is your friend, but people seek out authenticity. By gaining insight into Instagram users' followers, you can engage with a tailored response.

User-generated comments and reviews are more valuable than ever, that’s why brands are veering away from speaking about their product and choosing to share the real experiences of users. Using this newfound knowledge, you can drive relevant traffic directly to your product or service.

A well-optimized link in your bio or post driven by relevant traffic can work wonders. Analyze the trends in your Instagram following list (ie. what other pages are they following, what they are saying about competitor products) to help your business find its appropriate voice.

Instagram following lists can often be the missing key to transforming your Instagram profile into a powerful traffic driver for your business. This essential tool can potentially increase engagement, and sales and even help define your brand’s voice.

So, if you’re to expand your business and save an immense amount of time, sign up in seconds to get started. 

Written by
Picture of Elizabeth Hall
Elizabeth HallMarch 16, 2022

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