Backstory
After launching the social media accounts for my blog a little over a year ago, I saw the most immediate growth on Instagram. I quickly realized that quality social media management was a full-time job – a job to which I had a mere two hours per week to dedicate towards. I attended workshops and conferences that told me about follower ratios, posting times, hosting giveaways, and more – my head was swimming. Before long, I deleted most of my personal social media accounts to grow my blog Instagram because I started to see the pay off. Followers came, likes came, comments came, even money came attached to campaigns with some major brands.
When I hit 3,000 followers earlier this year, I was pretty proud of the following I had maintained, but became somewhat greedy. I knew that a larger following will get my foot in the door with major brands I had been dying to work with. Engagement with your followers (likes and comments) is also crucial to maintaining a strong account that brands will identify as a good fit to showcase their products. It’s certainly true that you need to invest both time and money to grow a brand. Between buying my new camera and investing money into collaborations and giveaways with other bloggers, I continued to see growth.
At almost exactly the one year anniversary of my blog’s Instagram account, I met my goal of 5,000 organically grown followers – and Instagram threw me a curveball. Instagram’s change from chronologically ordering posts to giving preference to those with more engagement and those who are ranked higher according to their algorithm of popularity throttled my growth, and left me wondering how to continue gaining followers consistently.
Testing the Waters
My email does an OK job of blocking spam, but my social media accounts are still plagued with spammers via comments and direct messages. I couldn’t help but notice all of my notifications for spammy comments were focused on gaining 1,000+ followers for “less than $10”. Naturally, these ads piqued my curiosity given that I had fallen into a growth rut. I shamefully committed one of the biggest blogger No No’s and googled “Buy Instagram followers”. I was honestly shocked how many sites turned up. On the first page of search results alone, there were dozens of sites that had featured “packages” of likes and followers on any social media account desired. “Real” followers for just $1.80!? Sign me up!
Before you panic, I did not spend any money. I did, however, find a site that offered 100 free followers just for visiting. There was zero information required to input aside from my Instagram handle – Please don’t hack my account. What happened next, however, I really cannot explain. My “100 free followers” arrived around 24 hours after I submitted the order. They followed all at once, and shockingly, some of the accounts looked real enough, with a significant number of photos and followers to show. In the 24 hours thereafter, however, I gained roughly 500 more followers and several of my photos from the last two weeks gained 20-100 likes on each. Some of these accounts look incredibly fake and spammy, but several were real if not made to look incredibly real.
Right now, my Instagram follower account is sitting at 5,691. I have absolutely no idea if this “company” site malfunctioned and mistakenly credited more followers (and likes?) than intended, or if the intense surge in followers actually stimulated more growth and visibility that prompted others to follow me. Of course, I am sure another Purge is upon us during which time Instagram deletes ghost and inactive, spammy accounts, but I’m curious to see how these ‘free follower’ businesses have evolved to combat the seemingly annual purge of such robot followers.
Ultimately, as confusing as the experience has been, “buying” followers for a brief boost in viewership doesn’t seem like a bad idea. However, you must remember that when Instagram wipes out such accounts – your stats go with them. If you want to grow an engaged following organically, here are a few strategies that have worked well for me:
- Post at consistent times.
- Know your audience. Are they predominately on the East or West coasts?
- Posting during the morning commute and after dinner works well for me.
- The weekends are where Instagram goes to die – forget your Friday night post.
- Host giveaways with other bloggers, but keep loops to under 25 accounts. Make sure these accounts are similar in nature to you.
- Use hashtags. 7-9 usually do the trick. Come up with a signature hashtag for your type of account or that is specific in nature: #kentuckystyle
- Like and leave comments on photos from accounts near you using the Places search tab.
- Attend local events. Tag local businesses. DON’T TAG MAJOR CELEBRITIES OR RETAILERS.
- Don’t over edit photos – use filters as needed, but select them consistently.
- Basing your account around a color theme (warm v. cool) can help improve the overall aesthetic of your account
- Flat lays are your friend. Food photos fare well also.
What tips for posting do you have to share? Leave some love for hustling bloggers in the comments.
