How Do You Actually Grow on Instagram These Days?
In this two-part series – the first installment (woo!) of our CrEATives Hub – we’re talking all things Instagram. Yes, we’re doin it for the ‘gram today, friends, and it is my hope that this quick and dirty guide will not only give you the tools and the fuels to better manage your feed – but that it will also give you some real-deal strategies to actually grow your numbers – like, for real. I do believe that when it comes to running a creative business, there are factors at play that are far more important than sheer numbers. WHO is following you and WHY are more crucial components in one’s platform-building journey – at least for me this has proven its truth time and again. Quality over quantity, as they say. That being said, there are still times when social media can be a bit of a numbers game, and your size does, in fact, matter. This happened to me when I was trying to land a book deal and I was told that I “wasn’t famous enough” to ever get one (i.e. I didn’t have a strong enough platform).
So. I took that feedback and used it as motivating fodder to enact a very simple and straightforward strategic plan to grow my numbers – quickly, sustainably, and authentically (i.e. just say no to BOTS and boughts {bought followers}). I have implemented the following strategy three times now, and each has proved massively fruitful, growing not only my following by many thousands of people each time, but much more poignantly, the process got me, my brand, and my voice in front of hundreds of thousands of fresh accounts – fresh RELEVANT accounts – which is exactly the goal.
Today’s post is the first part of a two-part comprehensive approach to both improving your feed’s engagement and overall aesthetic while also bringing in the added benefit of genuine growth. So many mega-influencer Insta-guides claim to give strategies that will help you “beat the algorithm,” but most of these guides were created by people who grew their followings before the current algorithm was even a thing. And if you look, their followings are dropping now – not growing.
So, “beat the algorithm” you can not. At least not in any way that has been truly codified and certified. But that’s mostly because it’s constantly subject to change. Sometimes the sleeping giants of Instagram will awaken and bestow upon your feed some signs of life, some engagement, and if you’re lucky – some actual growth. But for so many people, no amount of “best practice following” ever really helps. I have plenty of friends who have incredible IG feeds from which they make a great living, but they still haven’t grown a single bit over the past year. Many of us are actually shrinking in size, in fact.
But while you might not be able to beat the algorithm, you CAN play nice with it, and enact strategies that will reliably help you to grow if there comes a time when you just plain want to do that (like me, when I needed to get over 10,000 followers to get a book deal, and future me who wanted to sell said book). When applied at the same time as the best practices contained within this two-part series, I promise you’ll be well on your way to a renewed sense of Insta-growth. And with that, let’s get started.
Your ‘Gram is Your Brand – So Own It!
Now, I would imagine that you wouldn’t be here in the first place if your IG page didn’t matter to you on some level past your own personal pleasure – we’ve got private accounts for that, right? No, I’d imagine that you’re here reading this post because you’re interested in pushing your page past that, and onto a more business-oriented playing field.
Love it or hate it, IG provides an almost unparalled opportunity for people of all walks of life, in every corner of the world to strategically and effectively grow a brand (and hence, business) FOR FREE. Y’all, I’ve made many thousands of dollars from simply leveraging my Instagram page. It’s such an invaluable tool when wielded properly. It’s jam-packed with nifty features that I like to view as tools – things to better help you get your message, your mission and yourSELF across to the world.
So, instead of feeling overwhelm every time they roll out a new feature (live stories, IGTV, etc.) simply look at it as another opportunity to promote your brand, if you want to.
Next up, I’ve got a few Best Practices to help power-up your Insta-experience. I say Best Practices, because these are the things that, while important and very helpful, won’t guarantee anything for you. These are the things that every webinar and Instagram Growth course will tell you to do to SKYROCKET YOUR INSTAGRAM! But, no. It’s not that simple. They might help you with that, and they might not. It’s kind of a crap shoot (but stay tuned for my actual guaranteed strategy for growth. I promise we’re almost there …).
Congratulations on Your (Instagram) Engagement!
Alright, let’s kick things off by addressing the big “E” word – Engagement. Since Instagram is a social media platform it is, by definition, built upon the social relationships and interactions of the people who use it. If we didn’t interact with one another, the ship would sink, y’all. And so, Instagram does tend to reward those who interact with others on the reg – that means liking other posts that you think are dope, commenting when you see something that floats your boat, and doing so in a way that is REAL. Simply dropping a few heart-eyed emojis every once in a while won’t cut it. You gotta put the “social” in social media for things to fly. When you do, the same things tend to start happening to you, and to your own posts. It’s karmic, really – what you put out there comes right back to you.
Look at those silhouetted people jumping for joy! Hooray!
Anyway. Here are a few simple best practices for maximizing your own engagement:
1) Leave comments regularly when you see things that truly move you in one way or another. It’s the authenticity that shines through, and in many cases, people feel that and will reciprocate eventually.
2) Ask questions and give CTA’s (calls to action) as much as possible. {ex: What is your favorite thing to do when fall hits? or Be sure to click the link in my profile to snag my latest recipe!}. You’d be surprised how simply encouraging people to click around or answer questions will breathe new life into things – it can make a difference.
3) Show your face! I realize not everyone wants to do this – and it’s not a make or break thing – but people tend to interact much more when they see a human element in an image. Even a hand in a recipe photo can generate more interest than an image without one, so play around with ways to bring more of YOU into the mix, in whatever way you feel most authentic and comfortable.
How to Actually Grow Your Instagram Following (the single most effective way to exponentially grow your following)
All of the best practices that I’m going to lay out in this two-part series are valuable and helpful in their own right. But honestly? You can have the prettiest, most well-curated feed in all of Insta-land and it won’t get you anywhere if people can’t find you. Crossing your fingers and hoping that your hashtags will prove fruitful, or that some big account that you’ve tagged will feature your photo, or … or. Those are passive approaches to growth over which you have zero control. So, how do we fix that, and put a little control back into our hands in this Instagram environment that is largely out of our control? How do we MAKE SURE people find you and realize HOW AMAZING YOU ARE?
I’ve got one word for you, friend: TAKEOVERS.
Wait, this isn’t new?! You must be thinking to yourself. And you’d be right. The good old-fashioned Instagram takeover is the single best (read: sure-fire) way to truly grow your following at a rapid, exponential rate. Just hear me out on this – I know, if you’ve spent any time on IG, you’re familiar with this practice; it’s been around since IG was born. But have you ever considered implementing takeovers as a real-deal strategic move for growth? If not, you should! It’s the single thing that I have found to be effective every. single. time. Guaranteed.
Things like virtual parties and giveaways are okay – they do the job to an extent, but they don’t really help to establish the lasting growth we’re talking about here. Let’s take a closer look . . .
Instagram Growth Case Study #1: The Giveaway
{These are the quickest case study reports ever. Don’t worry, I won’t droll on here too long}. I did a giveaway with a bourbon company one summer that grew my numbers by the hundreds in a single day. That’s always fun, right? But once the giveaway was over … bye bye, new buddies. The numbers dropped right back down – and that’s because they weren’t in it for ME – they were in it for the booze, guys. They only started following me because they had to in order to gain entry into a big bourbon-themed giveaway. Yes, some people stayed with me, but the giveaway didn’t provide the stable, surefire growth that we’re all looking for.
So, in all, giveaways are a nice way to accomplish part of the goal: getting yourself in front of lots of people (via the cross- promotional benefits). But the fact that people’s incentive to follow you is grounded in winning something weakens the strength of their follow, if that makes sense.
Instagram Growth Case Study #2: The Virtual Party
Ah yes, the virtual “party:” whereby you organize a group of Instagrammers to post on the same day, with some sort of theme being the glue that ties everything together. While I think this trend has died down quite a bit in recent years, it still underscores the point I’m trying to make quite nicely. From pumpkin parties to coffee parties, I’ve participated in a range of this type of thing, and they do afford some residual benefits, but almost entirely to the hosts. The idea is that you get a bunch of other people to post on the same day, and you hope that they will give you a shotout when they do , thus sending new eyes to your feed.
This is a quasi-effective strategy for growth, that does a nice job of giving the host some decent exposure. I’ve achieved some nice exposure on my actual blog from this type of thing, but from a social media standpoint, the majority of the growth potential from this sort of thing applies solely to the person who hosts/organizes “the party.”
EXAMPLE: I’m enjoying a vegan chai latte today as part of @insertnamehere’s annual Virtual Tea Party! #virtualteaparty2018
See what I mean? The host gets a “feature” on every post in which they’re named. Pretty smart, and can be effective so long as you find willing participants to play along. It is simply a way to ensure that your name gets in front of new eyes, which is the major objective for growth, at the end of the day. The next most important? Making sure those new eyes actually care (at least a little bit) about what they’re seeing. More on this in a sec …
Instagram Growth Case Study #3: THE TAKEOVER
Here’s where it starts getting good, guys.
Let’s talk takeovers now, shall we? In this case study, I’ll highlight a friend who is a wholistic nutritionist and food blogger, and has expertly honed her business by defining her mission, her message and her aesthetic into one very clear, cohesive and powerful brand.
Two summers ago, this friend staged a week-long (peaceful!) Insta takeover with a diet and wellness-focused feed that has over 1 million followers – and she successfully grew her following by several thousands – and is still growing strong as a result. Here’s why this brilliant move on her part worked so well:
Compatibility: For her takeover, my friend targeted a feed whose message and branding were right in line with her own. This is smart for several reasons: 1) It increases the liklihood of effectively pitching the page’s administrators when trying to initially set up the takeover (more on pitching, later!). If your messaging is aligned with theirs, they don’t have to worry about losing or confusing their own followers.
2) By targeting a feed with a similar brand/message, this friend ensured that her content would be seen by an audience that she knew would want it – it’s right in their lane. So, any followers she did get, would stay for the long haul (as opposed to a giveaway, for example).
3) Value-Driven Content: my friend utilized her takeover to the fullest by really giving the followers of this feed a glimpse of what she’s all about – her expertise, her knowledge base, and HERSELF (that’s important).
She used her chance to show people what they’d get if they followed her, and it completely paid off. The most important business strategy you can employ when managing an IG feed is to consistently give your followers something of value – make it worth their time! By sharing recipes, information, tips, tricks, and beautiful photos that were all relevant to that audience, my friend knocked her takeover outta the park.
From Pitch to Homerun: Peaceful Social Media Takeovers and How to Stage Them
Three Questions and a Little Letter
When strategizing your takeover, there are three helpful questions to keep in mind. Once you’ve got them sorted out, use your answers to help fill in the blanks on the following pitch letter to use when contacting other page admins or social media managers about doing a takeover.
1) What pages or accounts are compatible with yours? Or, maybe more specifically: what other brands would mesh easily with your own?
2) What can you offer them with your takeover to make it appealing and alluring. How will this partnership benefit them? What are you bringing to the table here? Obviously you’re benefitting, but how are they? Perhaps the fact that they get a break from social media for a little while might be, in and of itself, the most appealing part of the whole she-bang.
3) The nitty gritty stuff: what will your takeover look like? How long will it run and how many posts will you do? Getting a good idea of the content you’ll be sharing and the overall theme at this point is helpful. You can tweak and alter the specs for each brand/page that you pitch when the time comes.
Sample Pitch Letter
Good morning __!
My name is __ and I am a blogger, freelance photographer and … (just say a little bit about yourself here). I’m a big fan of your page/brand/etc., and I’m reaching out to discuss the possibility of me doing a takeover on your Instagram page, as I think it could be a very mutually beneficial collaboration and, as a genuiune follower of yours, it’s something I would truly enjoy doing.
I’m looking to connect with people and grow my own platform in an authentic way, and I’d love to get to know your tribe, as we share so many values, ideas, and interests. I can offer you great content, custom/tailored photography and thoughtful captions (which I will send prior to my takeover for your approval), giveaways, fun videos in stories, and a nice blend of information and casual, conversational captions. I personally enjoy when pages I follow change things up by allowing others to do the occasional takeover, and I’d love to organize one with you, if you’re interested!
Thank you for your attention here, and I’d like to discuss further if you think it could be a good fit on your end. Thank you in advance for your consideration!
This random stock picture above basically evokes the exact feeling that I’m hoping you’ll experience once you successfully implement this strategy – seems pretty accurate. I’m pretty sure I did this exact thing, more or less. Yessssssss.
A few extra key points and good-to-knows for your Instagram Takeover:
- Make sure you actually do follow the brand/account you’re pitching.
- To locate the right person to send your pitch to, head to the company’s website and find the marketing or social media strategy department/people and simply email them. This is more effective than sending a DM to a brand’s IG page, but in a pinch (a pitch pinch?), that also can work.
- Keep it short and sweet. You’ll lose people otherwise.
Here is a ready-made pin for you! Simply save it to your “Social Media Tips,” or “Marketing Strategy” or “Blogging Tips” boards and you’ll be all set when you need to reference it.
