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Best and Most Followed Instagram Accounts for Inspiration

Hélène Heath
January 5, 2019
Last Updated On
September 13, 2023

Instagram is a great place to hone your brand voice, increase engagement and drive website traffic with link in bio solutions — To stand out among the competition, it’s helpful to follow a variety of inspirational brands. Likewise, checking out the most followed Instagram accounts helps you learn what makes these accounts so popular and stand out in a sea of 1.35 billion users. 

In this blog, we explore: 

  • The most followed Instagram accounts. 
  • The best accounts to follow for brand inspiration. 

Best Instagram Accounts for Brand Inspiration 

Inspiration can come from likely — and unlikely places. While data, AI and more offer excellent insights into which content works best for you, diving into your feed first-hand is helpful to see how content looks on the native channel. These brands are producing thought-provoking content and are leaders on Instagram.

Here are some of the best accounts to follow for inspiration. 

@jacquemus

  • Followers: 6M
  • Following: 956

We’ve discussed Jaqcuemus’ inventive, AI-generated out-of-home marketing campaigns before. Still, its Instagram feed is a treasure trove of inventive visuals showcasing its products in eye-catching, unique ways. Their brand voice is uniform and bold throughout their Stories, Reels and feed content. They use Story content to share a mix of lo-fi and hi-fi content that invites users into the world of Jacquemus with playful, lively imagery. 

@asos

  • Followers: 14.7M
  • Following: 1,204

Asos is a UK-based retailer that carries a wide assortment of products from home furnishings to clothing and makeup — and their feed, Reels and stories follow suit. They tap into Instagram trends like brand ambassador partnerships, product close-ups that lend themselves to displaying the tactile experience of a product, haul-focused UGC and more. Asos’ Instagram account is great inspiration for using creator-led UGC in a variety of ways.

@createcultivate 

  • Followers: 735K 
  • Following: 4,117

Create cultivate is geared towards women-owned small businesses, but marketers of any size can benefit from their colorful feed. You’ll find advice from entrepreneurs, social media statistics (nice reminders as you scroll through your feed) and webinars aimed to help women succeed in business. 

@libertylondon

  • Followers: 14.7M
  • Following: 1,204

Liberty London is a UK-based department store featuring luxury brands that showcases their campaigns with thoughtful Reels highlights showcasing window displays, products and cool features, like their Reel with an art historian to discuss artwork that inspired Liberty London fabric prints. Liberty London’s feed is a masterclass in visual brand cohesion while promoting a number of different products, brands and campaigns.

@nogood.io

  • Followers: 33.6K
  • Following: 91

This is a fun account with humor targeted towards digital marketers. They cleverly use Instagram Reels trends, which is great content to relate to and inspire your use of Reels trends in content. 

@dazed

  • Followers: 1.9M
  • Following: 2,504

Dazed is a magazine and Media and Publishing company that shines a light on a plethora of topics contained in its magazine pages. They feature carousels that touch on upcoming and existing cultural features, stylized images from photoshoots and more. Another interesting feature they use to their advantage are Instagram Guides — a collection of existing, curated Instagram posts and text — that touch on everything from the best art shows to attend, Winona Ryder and Raf Simons. Get inspired by their Guides and look for opportunities to educate your followers with Guides content. 

@adweek

  • Followers: 1.9M
  • Following: 2,504

Ad Week’s Instagram account is a must-follow for digital marketers. This is a great way to stay on top of industry trends, interesting advertisements, competitors campaigns, and everything else related to digital and traditional advertising. 

10 Most Followed Instagram Accounts

Many Instagram accounts have the most followers due to ownership by famous actors, singers or athletes. However, these accounts can still inspire brands by seeing which accounts resonate with users, how they engage their audience, who they follow and more. Here are the ten most followed accounts on Instagram: 

1. @instagram 

  • Followers: 655M
  • Following: 99

Instagram is the most followed account on Instagram, with 655 million followers. They use their feed to feature popular creators and educate their audience on a slew of topics from emerging designers, content for global events like World Freestyle Day and a weekly series titled #WeeklyFluff featuring a cute new animal each week. 

Brands should check out their ‘IG Tips’ Reel highlight for tips for navigating the channel, editing content, and more.  

2. @cristiano 

  • Followers: 603M
  • Following: 568 

Cristiano is the most followed individual on Instagram, with 603 million followers. His account includes a mix of the soccer star (or football, depending on where you live) on the field, behind-the-scenes shots and content for brand partnerships. His feed is an excellent balance of personal and professional content, mainly featuring Ronaldo, versus images of places or things without a human presence. 

3. @leomessi

  • Followers: 486M
  • Following: 300 

Soccer is among the most popular sports worldwide. Another soccer star, Lionel Messi, possesses the third most-followed Instagram account. His account combines brand endorsements, hi-fi, on-field action shots, and personal family photos. Messi’s account is a masterclass in seamlessly blending endorsement and personal content. 

4. @selenagomez 

  • Followers: 486M
  • Following: 300 

Selena Gomez has been one of the most followed people on Instagram and the most followed woman on Instagram. Her account features glimpses at her life, promotions from recent projects like her new single and glimpses at new products from her beauty line Rare Beauty. 

5. @kyliejenner

  • Followers: 399M
  • Following: 90 

Kylie Jenner’s Instagram feed is full of selfies, Kylie Cosmetics content and modeling work done for other brands, like Acne Studios. In her teenage years, Jenner built a reputation for being transparent, fun and compelling on social media channels like Snapchat, which has translated to her Instagram following. 

6. @therock

  • Followers: 390M
  • Following: 769

The Rock’s Instagram feed contains lo-fi selfies and videos that give users a glimpse into his life behind the scenes, his exercise regime, family and more. He also uses his account to share upcoming projects and endorsements, but his personal life takes the most space on his feed. 

7. @arianagrande 

  • Followers: 378M
  • Following: 601 

Ariana Grande’s feed contains some organic, lo-fi content but it’s mainly dedicated to photos from music projects, tutorials and new releases from her beauty beans, r.e.m. beauty, and her fragrance line. 

8. @kimkardashian

  • Followers: 364M
  • Following: 288

Kim Kardashian loves the selfie so much that she dedicated her book, Selfish, to them. Her feed mixes family, selfies (including numerous outfit photos), and content featuring Skims products.

9. @beyonce

  • Followers: 317M
  • Following: 1

The only person Beyonce follows on Instagram is her husband — just like her following list, Beyonce has a closely curated Instagram account featuring tour looks, impressive on-stage moments and other solo shots of the singer.

10. @khloekardashian

  • Followers: 311M
  • Following: 109

Khloe Kardashian’s content is a mix of endorsements, product shots from her brand, Good American, selfies, family and more. Khloe is known for sharing inspirational quotes on her stories and personal family shots that make her content, although curated, feel personal. 

Drive Instagram Engagement With Dash Hudson

Dash Hudson’s Instagram Insights contain everything you need to plan, schedule and monitor your content performance. Instagram Insights include an at-a-glance look at Story performance, Instagram UGC opportunities, Dashboards that let you organize content by campaign, performance (posts with the highest engagement or impressions, for example) and more. 

FAQs

Which account type is best for Instagram?

The best account type on Instagram depends on your organization type and goals. There are three types of Instagram accounts — Personal, Business and Creator. If creator marketing, influencing or promoting your professional industry are your aims, a creator account is best. If you’re a brand or organization, a business account is best, while the best account for individual users is a personal account.  

What are the best Instagram accounts to follow?

The best Instagram accounts to follow will depend on your industry, niche and goals. For example, a beauty brand focused on building a community should follow influencers, other beauty brands with a strong sense of community, and even Instagram accounts that offer social media strategy tips.

Instagram competitive analysis will help you determine which competitors you should monitor and look to for inspiration, along with industry benchmarks to measure your own performance against. 

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