Instagram Hacks
Let’s get into it. Something that I’ve really HATEDabout connecting with Instagram influencers is when people LIEstraight to your face about HOW THEY DID IT. About 2 years ago, I met up with an old friend who had about 50k followers. I simply asked, “how did you do it?”and he replied with a coy shrug and said “I don’t know.” I call B.S. Sometimes people “fall” into fame like the Yodeling boy… but most times influence is gained by intentional systems and processes. It was easy to see (after some time) that this guy BOUGHTfollowers. His following has only gained about 1k in the last 2 years and his photos get like 200 likes. So what is a bot? You pay someone for a program to have a bunch of fake followers (not real people) to “follow” you but if you go to each of these “people’s” profiles, they have like 3 photos, no followers, etc. They aren’t real.
There are a couple of problems with this type of follower. 1.YOUKNOW THEY ARE FAKE.2.OTHER PEOPLE, like me, KNOW THEY ARE FAKE. It’s obvious.And 3.They don’t engage. If you want to work with brands, bigger influencers, businesses, etc., they are going to be looking for real engagement. Someone’s “like count” should be going up dramatically when they are gaining followers. Okay, so let’s cut to the chase. I’ve never bought followers. Partly because I don’t even know where I would do that, and secondly, now that I know how cheesy and annoying that is, I’d never want to.
So, what are some hacks?
How has it ACTUALLY worked?
How have I gained real followers and real influence in quite a short amount of time? Well, I’m here to tell you.
I never want to be one of those people who lied to my face 2 years ago, 1 year ago, a few months ago.
ONE : Liking and Commenting
This is without doubt the most tedious strategy. When I first started, I would be constantly liking and commenting on people’s photos. I’d go to a hash tag and like, like, like, comment (more than 4 words), etc. and it WORE ME DOWN. This was without doubt the slowest, most painful way to do things. But, it does work. VERY slowly, but it works. If you have no money or resources, this is a way you can continue to inch forward one by one.
TWO : Follow Unfollow
This is a tactic I REALLY try to stay away from. I am still following a bunch of people I don’t even want to see from doing it this way. Ugh. It’s the worst. All it does is piss people off and hurt people’s feelings. If you’re going to follow someone, really mean it. I even got onto this system my friend put me on that would follow people and then unfollow them 3 days later. At first it seemed great because it got me like 50 followers a week. Then I started making people mad and people HATE being unfollowed. So, I got out of that system completely. The thing is, this is still a way that you can (slowly) gain some followers. It sucks, but it works.
THREE : Collaborations
Okay, so we are getting to a more “humane” way of gaining the following. Working with other influencers and bloggers is a great way to get in front of the right people, which is the goal, right? You want followers who are going to like and follow the same things you like! The only problem with this is that unless the person you’re working with has a massive following, the most you’ll ever get from being in a photo with them or doing some project together is a few hundred followers at most. I’d still collab as much as you can, but don’t expect to gain massive numbers. So, let’s get to the best ways.
FOUR : Shout Outs
There is nothing more annoying than someone DMing you SFS? NO! NO SFS. Haha These people have realized that Shout Outs are KEY. Let me take you back through my shout out history. About a year ago I met with a blogger with 100K followers and she took a screenshot of my instsgram and put “Follow @bluehavenbelle” on her Insta story. I looked at my following the next day and I didn’t get A SINGLE FOLLOWER FROM IT. I was like, holy cow, that is bazaar. I later went through her following and she, indeed, has a bunch of fake followers. It made sense. Fake followers aren’t going to follow some random you put in your story cause they simply aren’t real. So I just counted it out.
It wasn’t until I met a bigger Portland blogger that I knew the true value. This girl posted a photo of me on her main feed, instructed me to make my profile private for the time that the photo was up, and said “Follow @chelseaericasmith”. I gained like 500 followers within 30 minutes. I was literally BLOWN AWAY. My jaw was officially dropped. I was, for lack of a better word, SHOOK. I’d been pain stakingly breaking my fingers doing all of these annoying processes and had never thought this would work like it did. So, we made an agreement and she shouted me out several more times. The only thing that made me feel a bit uncomfortable was the kind of photos I needed to post and the kind of followers I was getting from them. Not to go into too much detail but I’ve got like 70% male followers now, which is NOT exactly what my target market is. BUT I am still super appreciative of the help!
So, this is a great way to get ahead, but there are a few keys. 1. Go after accounts that have more than 150K followers. Send them a DM offering them money for a 1 hour shout out on their main page. 2. Make your profile private 3. Accept them all before you turn back to public. It’s THAT simple. Wow, I almost think that those people I originally met with honestly just didn’t know these hacks, they just bought fake followers. So, at the end of the day, I’m glad I never had the chance to do it. The best thing about these shout outs is that they are FULLY following you on their own volition and they WON’T UNFOLLOW (goals. Goalz.) Phew. So what else?
FIVE : GIVEAWAYS
I’m sure you’ve entered one before. You have to go to a page and follow all of the accounts that that account is following and you get entered into win a sum of money, a Gucci purse, a trip, or whatever the case may be. If it’s something that YOUR target market will love, you’ll probably get a bunch of followers that are in your target audience, which is good. You buy in,they promote it on a big account, you get followers. The only problem with this tactic is that 30% or so unfollow once the giveaway is over. It’s your job to have the best possible feed to make sure that when they’re clicking through it… they want to stay.
I’d say getting people to click follow is now the easy part. Getting them to stay is the hard part.
You guys know that the cream always rises to the top, right? Well, it’s true here too.
If your stuff sucks, no one will stay. Bloody truth.
SIX : WORD OF MOUTH
I have a friend from high school whose wife started a business making hand crafted signs. LIKE, WOW. They are the most amazing signs you’ve ever seen. She’s a genius though. She gets photos from her clients of the signs hanging in nurseries and BOOM, she has free postable content. She’s paid for college tuition, a house, two kids, etc. with this business she started in her HOME. She has over 60K followers and has SUCH an amazing tribe. So, how did she do it? She brings SO much value and her stuff is SO good that she can grow organically. Do you know how many people I’ve told about her? I’ve pulled up her account probably 2 dozen times and showed other people. Think about 60K people doing that. She is getting the most real, most authentic following of them all. This is where the riches are in the niches. If you do something really specific, and you do it well… you could gain this kind of amazing word of mouth following. As a blogger who blogs about EVERYTHING, it’s WAY harder to get that. I know that my friends and family check in on my feed often, but how do you captivate people outside of that circle? It’s hard, but it’s doable.
If you stick to your brand and develop your thing, you can slowly but surely get there.
Wow. Okay, so I hope you learned something today. I just want to be the resource and blogger who SHARES secrets, not holds them back. If I had known these tips right off the bat, I would be in a whole different place. This is not an industry where there is only one winner. I want you to win TOO. I want you to be able to make your dream, your side hustle, your small business a REALITY.
Trevor used to say “you just want to be instafamous.” That is NOT correct. I want to gain influence simply to be able to do my THANG and make money doing it. Someday, when I want to sell necklaces, I’ll have a base. I’ll have people who will trust me and like me and want to buy from me. I simply see an Instagram following as leverage for making that possible.
If you don’t have the time, money, or resources to do any of these things… make sure you’re doing the little things as well (that are free). Use hashtags that are interesting and different. NEVER USE HASHTAGS like : #follow4follow or #like4like, those are the most desperate sounding things I’ve ever seen. NO. STAHHHHHAAAPPP. If you’re wearing a jean skirt with rhinestones, #rhinestonejeanskirt and guess what! People looking for that will find you. Use a few good big ones, but not too many. Make sure to engage with the following you do have; like or comment back on their comments.
OKAY, WOW. That was definitely a brain dump. So, I know I focused mainly on getting a following in this post, but I know people want to KNOW, so here I am.
If you have any other questions, either DM me on Instagram or message me here:
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Hope you’re having a great Friday!
Xoxo
