When you first start out on Instagram, it may seem difficult to gain new followers. Believe me, I’ve been there. Today, I’m going to share my top tips with you on how to gain an authentic, sustainable following on Instagram. These followers will stick around for the long term and engage with your posts. They will support you and look forward to your content each week! Curious? Let’s jump in!
My Number One Rule – Don’t Play the Follow and Unfollow Game
Following and unfollowing may seem tempting at first. If you follow 100 people a day and 20 follow you back, you’re gaining followers right? Well, sure, but who’s to say these “followers” stick around? Then, once you get their follow, you’re ready to hit unfollow. You unfollow and guess what? They drop like flies!
This has to be one of the most unsustainable ways to grow as an influencer. Yet, so many of us (yep, including me) have fallen for it.
I remember hearing other influencers say “don’t follow and unfollow” and I was like, nope, I’m going to keep it up because it is working for me. Little did I know that this was hurting my engagement rate and ultimately impacting the amount of brand deals I was eligible for. A fluctuating following number is not attractive to brands because they can easily tell that you don’t have an engaged following.
Instagram is KNOWN to flag this activity and punish you for it
Following and unfollowing is also a really easy way to get BLOCKED by Instagram. Instagram has totally caught on to this and WILL STOP you.
Getting blocked by Instagram will be extremely detrimental to your business and account. For one, your account has been flagged by IG for suspicious activity – now you’re on their bad list and they may penalize your posts in the algorithm for this temporarily. Oh, and did I mention they basically shut off your account? The few times I was blocked by Instagram, I couldn’t post, comment, or like anything for an ENTIRE WEEK. I can’t imagine if this happened now, with my strict content calendar and brand deals planned months in advance.
So, if you want to follow and unfollow people, go ahead. Just know it is a one way ticket to getting your account flagged by Instagram, and the followers WILL NOT stick around.
Ok, rant over, let’s get to the good stuff! Let’s talk gaining an authentic, sustainable following.
Here’s my favorite ways to gain an authentic, sustainable following on Instagram:
Stop Obsessing Over Your Following Number
For a long time, I OBSESSED over my following number. I often set goals based on how many followers I’d like to gain. For example, I’d like to reach 20K by June 2021.
I don’t do this any more. I focus my goals more on providing quality content to my following that they connect with. On financial success. Or even on dream brands I’d like to work with.
Focusing on your following can be a dangerous strategy as it can lead you to cut corners (like the follow/unfollow game) when trying to build your audience. It can lead you to seek out any follower, instead of a follower who will support you for years to come. A follower who values what you have to say.
When you stop worrying about the numbers, you can focus on connecting with your existing audience and making sure you are providing as much value to them as possible. This strategy will help promote your goal of growing an authentic, sustainable following.
Oh, and guess what? You don’t need a specific number of followers to start getting brand deals. I go through my entire journey as an influencer in this post. Gaining the attention of brands doesn’t come from a follower number. It comes from an engaged audience. So stop obsessing and start getting to know your audience!
Remove ghost followers
On that note, take some time to get rid of GHOSTS! What do I mean by this? A ghost follower is someone who “follows” you but does not like/comment/share any of your content. Removing ghost followers is one of the easiest ways to boost your engagement rate. I know it may seem counterintuitive to remove followers. The fact is, these followers are not helping you. They do not engage with your posts ever. No likes, no comments, no saves. This means they are ACTUALLY hurting your engagement rate. Why?
This graphic from Keyhole explains the engagement rate formula. As you can see, you take the total number of likes and comments and DIVIDE by the number of followers.
Let’s do a simple example. Say your number of likes and comments totaled is 100. In the first example, let’s use 500 as the amount of followers. 100/500 x 100 = 20%. Now, let’s say you have 300 followers. 100/300 x 100= 33.33%.
This proves my point that ghost followers are just hurting you over time. They contribute to your following number, but they don’t add anything to your number of engagements on your posts. These followers do not contribute to growing an authentic, sustainable following.
Here’s how to spot and remove a ghost follower on Instagram:
When you open up your Instagram profile, click on your followers. Here, you will see a list of everyone who follows you. You can click “remove” on each of these followers.
There are a few easy ways to spot ghost followers. Ghost followers often don’t have a profile picture. Their username may be a combination of letters and numbers. You will often see they are following far more people than are following them. They may have a few photos, but you rarely see a face. Below are a few examples:
Just promise me you’ll give it a try – I promise it will help your engagement rate and you won’t miss these guys!
Deep Dive on Your Analytics
Looking into analytics can be one of the easiest ways to get a pulse on the type of content your current audience is enjoying. I frequently look at Instagram insights and analytics to give me a feel for what my audience likes or dislikes. Fohr.co is a great resource for more detailed analytics for all of your social channels. Analytics are an integral part of content creation and marketing. Use them to your advantage! If your current followers are gravitating towards some posts over others, create more content that mirrors what they are loving. Produce less of what they aren’t. If your current is enjoying content, chances are new followers will be attracted to that same type of content. This strategy will help you grow your authentic, sustainable following.
Survey Your Audience
In addition to diving into analytics, you can always DIRECTLY ask your audience what they like and what they want to see more of! I do this all the time – I frequently create polls, question boxes, and quizzes on stories with questions like “Instagram grid post or reels?” “What topics would you like to see for Tip Thursday?” “What questions do you have for me?”
Use these built-in Instagram features to check in with your audience. Their responses may even surprise you or give you ideas for future posts.
Only Accept Brand Partnerships that are Genuine
When choosing which brands to partner with for collaborations, only choose ones that align with you, your personal brand, and your following. Think – is this something my followers would use or like? How can I put my own spin on my branded content? How can I organically integrate the branded content into my feed? The last question is something I have been really working on myself. In the past, I would share posts that were very clearly branded and product-focused. My goal now is to find a balance between my personal brand and sharing the product in a genuine, organic way.
Let me show you some examples of my past branded content. These posts did not organically fit into my feed. It is very obvious even without the arrows which posts were sponsored.
Now, let’s explore some better examples of branded content. These are more recent posts I’ve created with the goal of the content fitting into my feed more organically.
See how this content feels a lot more natural? It’s because I accepted each of these campaigns knowing that the product or service featured was something that would appeal to my audience. My focus was to bring in my personal branding and colors to ensure a more natural fit. I remember in years past, my branded posts would not perform well. I think it was because the content didn’t fit in naturally with my feed and audience. My branded content now consistently performs stronger with my audience. Luckily, I’m also able to bring stronger analytics and numbers to my branded partners and ultimately, maintain longer-term relationships with brands due to the stronger results I’m providing.
Provide Valuable Content Consistently
This may seem like a given but it took me a long time to understand exactly what this meant. For a long time, I was just trying to get a post up every day. I was nailing the consistency portion, but I wasn’t providing any value.
Value comes in different forms. Every time I share a new post, I consider the following. “Would someone save this to refer to later?”
As we know, saves can be huge for engagement. They are also a great indicator that you are providing value to your audience as they are saving your post. Maybe they are saving because they liked your outfit and you’re sharing a great sale on your shoes. Maybe you’re providing travel recommendations for a new city. Or, maybe you’re talking about your favorite Starbucks drink and everyone is sharing theirs in the comments.
Think about what will get your audience to save and keep coming back to your content. Below is one of the easiest ways to make that happen:
Start Offering a Regular Series to Provide Value to Your Following
Offering a regular series is a great way to retain your audience. Series can be a great way to build trust and expertise with your audience as well. For example, I share my “Tip Thursday” post every Thursday consistently. Sharing this post has positioned me as a thought leader and expert in influencer marketing with my audience. My audience has come to expect that each Thursday, they WILL get new influencer marketing tips FOR FREE.
I never miss Tip Thursday and I plan my content far in advance. Sharing this series has helped me to provide value to my audience as they work to learn more about influencer marketing. The series has also allowed me to retain followers who want to read and save my content each week. The posts always receive the highest engagement of any of my posts.
Give it a try yourself and let me know how it goes!
Partner with Influencers in Your Niche for Giveaways
Partnering with influencers in your niche can be great way to gain followers. If they enjoy fashion content and follow a fellow fashion blogger, and you are a fashion blogger, chances are, they might enjoy your content too!
Giveaways can be great. But, don’t go overboard with them. Handpick some giveaways for products you as a consumer would actually want to win. Ensure that the influencers you have partnered with are people you would want to follow. Ask yourself if this giveaway will help you reach your goal of gaining an authentic, sustainable following.
I did a whole blog post on the questions I ask when deciding to take part in a giveaway. I outline what makes a good and bad giveaway. Below are the questions:
Do you think you will implement some of these strategies as you work to gain an authentic, sustainable following on Instagram? Do you have any tips that have worked well for you? Please share them down below – let’s all learn from each other!
Are you a new blogger or content creator looking for more resources? Check out these recent posts:
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