Beginner Instagram Tips
Here is a short how to build your instagram following. It’s not the fastest way but it will lead to organic interaction (because who wants to pay for fake interaction?) Some people fall under the trap of wanting THOUSANDS of followers while they only follow a select few. As if that means they are special or “win” or whatever. Thinking of it that way will lead to There are bots and things you can use to follow people and unfollow them. And a LOT of people will do this to build their following so their numbers look impressive. This does not build a good following. Not one that will get you the best interaction. 1. Only follow accounts you are interested in having in your feed-regardless of IF they follow you back or not. (Don’t follow to unfollow or to get someone to follow back. People notice and it’s tacky and insincere… and rude.) You want a feed you enjoy so you’ll be more likely to interact with others and be genuine in those interactions as well. If you really want them to follow you back, (don’t message them asking to) then follow them and let them know you are alive by interacting. Liking and commenting, not just right then and there where you like and comment on everything going crazy on their posts, but rather make sure you visit their feed regularly to like and comment. This will not guarantee they’ll ever follow you back, but you’re more likely to catch their attention in a positive way that will make them want to interact with you as well. 2. Figure out hashtags and switch them up with posts. Do not use the same hashtags for every post. Create a list of say, 100 or so (It could totally be more) hashtags, randomize the list them break them up into groups of 10-15, then alternate between them. I know you can use up to 30 hashtags before IG deletes the entire caption, but I like to toss in a few post specific hashtags with my posts a lot of the time. 3. Post pictures you would want to see. You know what kind of photos you love to see on IG and you’re there to connect with others. So it stands to reason that you’d post the type of photos you like to see. Other wise it’s just going to feel like a chore and you’ll hate it. 4. Interact with the accounts you enjoy. As I mentioned above under #1, interact with those whose feed you enjoy. Not all at once but regularly. It is a lot of work, but write it down and make a list of users you really enjoy the most of the ones you follow. Liking and commenting is a GREAT way for other users to see your name and they will be curious and check out your feed and many times will follow you back. 5. Study what the accounts you like do and develop your own version. (Type of captions, types of images you like to see, how they use hashtags. etc) Find a handful 5-10 accounts you REALY love and study them. try to figure out what exactly you love about them and why. Once you figure out those details you can then figure out how to use those things to create your own unique feed that will attract the type of followers you want. 6. Make sure people can look at your feed so they know if they want to follow you. Your goal is to attract real people not bots. If your personal IG account is private, consider making a second account that can be public. Private accounts aren’t usually followed by anything other than bots and “follow for follow” (another not so great thing to do.) 7. Follow for follow sounds great… but really isn’t. It’s tempting to do a follow for follow thread as a way to gain a bunch of followers. But it’s really not. You’ll end up with a feed of random crap. It would be better to make a list of accounts and everyone can just go through them all, and look at each account and only follow those whose aesthetic you enjoy. Granted this isn’t a super popular thing to do because people really just want followers but again, you’ll end up not liking your feed and then there is a lot of unfollowing and it’s just a waste of time otherwise. 8. Click on hashtags and see what photos pop up. If you like the majority of those photos, keep that hashtag in mind then add it to your big list of hashtags, and even consider following it. Following hashtags is a good way to fins new accounts that you might like and want to follow.
9. Post often.
Post often about 1x a day. More than that and depending on content you might lose followers. Can you post less than that? Yes. Though having a regular schedule (which I do not) helps build following. I do notice that the more regularly I post the better my follower growth is. It will take time to build a following but you’ll get there!
