The Truth About Instagram Growth

The Truth About Instagram Growth

The Reality of How to Grow Your Instagram Following

Why do some Instagram accounts grow so quickly?

If you have a brand on social media, you’re undoubtedly interested in how to grow your brand, reach more people, and hopefully make an income doing something you’re passionate about.

There have been A LOT of gripes about Instagram lately, and many creators are frustrated at the lack of reach and engagement seemingly implemented by the dreaded algorithm to work against us, rather than with us.

I’ve been blogging for 5 years now, and it’s taken me that long to get a solid grasp on the best tactics. I’ve researched, experimented, and talked with other bloggers and this is a what I’ve learned....

There is no magic growth serum. Are there tactics you can apply that will help with your growth over time? Absolutely. You likely already know them:

1️⃣ Lots of engagement with new accounts + your current followers.

2️⃣ Consistent, quality, aesthetically pleasing imagery that your followers want to see.

3️⃣ Hashtag research.

4️⃣ Authentic giveaways, collabs, and shoutouts from similar accounts.

It also helps to have outside accounts like a blog, Facebook page, Pinterest, YouTube, etc. to attract followers across platforms. The problem? This amount of work is impossible for one person to do alone.

That’s why slow growth is NORMAL. Creatives aren’t usually skilled in marketing and data analysis. We’re not normally super organized (at least I’m certainly not 😂).

The accounts you see skyrocketing to instafame are doing 1 (or more than one) of 4 things:

1️⃣They have lots of help, like a photographer, or marketer significant other who are willing to work with them consistently.

2️⃣They are working their asses off 12 hours a day, 7 days a week with no work/life balance and have probably had several breakdowns.

3️⃣They’re paying for a service or virtual assistant to do some of the administrative work so they can focus on creation.

4️⃣They bought all their followers, likes, and comments (yes, this is 100% a thing.)

No judgement here (unless you bought your followers, cause that’s just shitty). I’ve tried just about everything (but I have never and will never buy followers, and you shouldn’t either).

The point is: it’s okay if you’re not growing as fast as you want. Most people aren’t. Focus on the things that you can do better. Focus on the followers that are most loyal to you. Do what you can, with the time you have, while still being able to practice self care.

Disappointed? Aren’t we all! It used to be much easier to gain a following on Instagram. Now, there are a million factors that go into your growth including the algorithm, the age of your account, your hashtags, your content, the sheer amount of Instagram posts that are created each day; you get the picture.

If you’re really committed to your brand, then start with making a plan and investing in yourself and your business. Googling ‘how to gain Instagram followers’ isn’t going to help you; you probably already know what you need to do. Quick fixes (to ANYTHING in life) are usually worth avoiding. Instead, work hard, be consistent, keep educating yourself, keep experimenting, and eventually you’ll reach your goals! Don’t forget: it’s the tortoise that wins the race.