So I am not a pro, I don't have 10 thousand followers on Instagram, I don't have a youtube channel and I don't have a clue how Tik Tok really works.... But I'm going to give real advice and my experience on growing a following on Instagram.
I started my "skinstagram" back in early 2019 as a casual hobby to show off my skincare collection, to take pretty pictures, meet people who also love skincare and as a tribute for a friend. I had no idea I would hack the system and figure out how to eventually receive products, make meaningful friendships and even make income off of posting these photos of my skincare obsession. I started out taking photos on my window sill of my current collection and finding cute props to make them more fun. I met a few key other influencers who helped me grow in the beginning. I joined a couple engagement groups, followed hundreds of people a day, commented on nearly every photo I saw and started buying copious amounts of product to get this blog of mine started.
I would write intentional captions, showed my face on stories, shared my skincare routines, tips, tricks and information I either knew from before or was accumulating. I began to reach out to brands asking to collab (aka asking for free product so I can try it and review in a post). Things quickly took off for me with what I was doing and I even did a handful of giveaways that brought in a bunch of followers.
I think the main thing I did in the beginning was following a metric shit load of other accounts. I found any and every skincare blogging account I could find and followed them, liked a bunch of their posts and left some eye catching comments. This is how I got the attention of my now skincare family. I found 8/10 I would get that follow back. The engagement groups were fun too, I found some real genuine friends and people (women) who were just as obsessed as me and got the likes and comments I needed to have my content pushed to the followers who I wasn't in groups with. I have now left those groups as I found it quite draining to keep up with the constant additions to the group, the liking/commenting every single day when I didn't always feel genuine in the support. Now I feel more comfortable organically engaging with content as it comes across my feed.
Alright, so what am I doing now that I'm not "starting out" anymore? Easy. Not much. It's not about all the things I'm doing, it's about how much.
First of all, I have amplified the quality of my content by a large amount because I know that people are more likely to stop scrolling if they see something eye catching, beautiful and of high quality. Luckily, behind the scenes I have my fiance helping me out. He is an avid photography lover who researches cameras, lenses, techniques and lends me a helping hand to bring my visions and creativity to life. So yeah, make sure you have a decent setup, dope lighting, cute props, and a whole lot of authentic to you creativity for your content. You definitely don't need an instagram husband, you can be a one person show and still produce everything perfectly how you want it! It's just something special we like to do together. Oh, also post everyday, even if it's just on stories. Consistency baby.
Second, I am thoughtful with my captions as much as I can. I definitely get burnout or writers block when it comes to captions so I'll keep it short and sweet, but honestly, if you have a good hook in the first sentence or a call to action, your reader will want to continue consuming your content. Whether it's a question, lovely quote, funny joke or a sneaky trick to keep them reading, do it. Then be very careful with how you word things so that it flows and is captivating to keep them going until the end. Keep them long or as short as you want because it's still what you want for your page.
Thirdly, ENGAGE. How else is your engagement to increase if you don't put the effort into your community? Write back to all those comments you get, answer your DMs in a reasonable amount of time, like when someone else replies to you and use those fun engaging polls and stuff on stories. More importantly, go out to the feed, explore page, through your followers, through hashtags and like, save, comment (intentionally and genuinely), and share others content. Don't just do it for the sake of doing it though, if a photo looks ugly to you, it's okay to scroll past, but if you find yourself staring at a photo longer than the last one, thats your sign to take that extra 5 seconds to leave a thoughtful comment or share to your stories. Give love to your community. If you find someone is commenting on all your photos and replying to your stories, share the love right back! Creating friendships is honestly the BEST fucking part of Instagram.
Fourth, I highly recommend heading away from your home page to find new accounts to engage with and follow regularly. Doesn't need to be everyday like I used to, but you could if you wanted to. Follow hashtags, I follow the Osea hashtag because I'm always looking for new Osea lovers like me. Go on explore and see if you can find some content that looks great to you. You can also check out some of your favourite creators or brands posts, see who engages with them and you could find some true gems of people that way too, or find top lovers of your favourite brands!
Fifth, Stay pure. I mean it. If you start feeling fake or seem like you're doing the content creation for all the wrong reasons, people will feel it. Don't put all this effort in just so you can say "I have a million followers" or do it for free stuff. Don't do it for others.
DO IT FOR YOU. PERIOD.
If you aren't doing Instagram for you, you'll never be happy with it. I personally do it because I genuinely am obsessed with skincare and have the most open personality that I am desperate to share. I love to share about mental health because suffering with the crap inside my brain is draining and isolating. So I share to create a community and help others feel less alone in their feelings. It makes me feel good knowing I am helping others. I love sharing about skincare because I know how it feels to have "bad" skin and feeling clueless and desperate to fix it. I share what's working for me, some tips and whatnot so that others don't feel as clueless as I did. Again, I just want to help! It makes me feel fulfilled that what I share brings me the most joy and gives back. Seeing how pretty my photos flow together and having fun with the creative stuff I can come up with is pure joy. It helps me get through the days and gives me more of a purpose. I'm not the kind of person who can sit behind a computer and play video games until 3 am like my fiance, I crave connection. I crave talking to others about what I love. So I put up a story talking about the new body butter I want and know that at least one person will have an opinion and will want to chat too! It's amazing and it's something I do for me.
So that's about it. I know it's not ground breaking. But stay true to you, have fun, build relationships on the platform and get out of any comfort zones. I'll be sharing another post soon about little tips and tricks that help too ;)
Much Love,
Erin xox