5 Tips for How to Grow Your Instagram
Instagram, we love to hate it and we hate to love it, amiright?
As someone who has wanted to be an author for a long time (I am on the slow and narrow road y’all), I knew one thing, that having a platform was an important aspect of that.
If you look back to my first posts ten years ago on the same account I use now, you will see I posted pictures of ducks and my refrigerator because no one knew what Instagram was or what you were supposed to do with it.
I have wondered to myself why I have learned to grow my account and the only solution I can come up with is that I love the challenge, I love that it’s possible, I love the community, I love the friendships and it is a wildly creative outlet for me!
So with all that said, if you have a message you are wanting to get out, here are a few things I have learned along the way that have helped in my growth. Take them or leave them! You might think to yourself, it can’t be that simple. It is. If you do these things for long enough, it will work….you just have to stay committed to the process.
Note: This is how I have done it and it has taken my way longer than others. This is like a diet, many people do different things, many different ways will work if you do it, this is what has worked for me.
5 Tips for How to Grow Your Instagram
Be Consistent
I told you it would seem too simple but I promise you, consistency is KING in social media. When I was really going for it I would post twice a day. If you really want to grow and you have the bandwidth, post 5 or 6 times and see what happens. I dare you to try it. It works!
2. Use & Interact with Hashtags
If you haven’t checked out my Hashtag Strategy post you can check that out for more details. You can use up to 30 hashtags per post and this is how you become discoverable to people who might be interested in your content. Also visit these hashtags and become a part of the community by commenting, liking and messaging these accounts!
3. Keep People on the Platform
This doesn’t have to be skeevy, it is just the way the algorithm works. If you can find ways to keep people on your content longer, interacting more with what you share, the algorithm will trigger that it is good content and show it to more people. The goal of any platform is for it to get the most use possible. Use carousels for storytelling, use long-form captions, or use longer stories. Think of creative ways that you can share that will cause people to linger a bit longer on your content.
4. Pay attention to what is popular
Things change rapidly on social media and what the algorithm will push. It is constantly searching for trends and what people are most engaged with. What worked well a while ago might bring crickets soon thereafter. Keep on your toes, be willing to change and innovate and take risks. Look on your explore feed and see what is working well for other people and try to create content in a similar fashion.
5. Engage, Engage, Engage
Again, this builds off of the previous 4, but social media is just that, social. It is so important that you interact with the people you are serving as often as possible through comments, messages, stories, and features, and if at all possible do not use a third-party app to post.
Start doing these things for the next couple of weeks and come back and let me know if you saw any changes! I would love to hear!
I plan on creating an in-depth Instagram course that will get into everything I have learned from my years of research on this platform.
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