Ah social media, the medium we all have a love/hate relationship with. I remember the simple days when having 20 followers who found your content funny and interesting was sufficient. Which it still can be, if you're just doing it for you. However in the world of content creators, we all know brands and people only look at your numbers great content. This post is not just about helping you gain 100s of followers, but how to increase the amount of traffic driven to your blog/pages and create a larger audience overall. I'd also like to point out I'm no internet influencer, I'm just talking from my experience and what has helped me grow on the likes of Instagram and Twitter.
1. Create a brand for yourself.
You don't have to go out and get merchandise for your blog, but having the same brand across social media platforms helps people find you and tightens your presence. I have 'personal' Instagram/Twitter accounts and then have one solely for my 'TeaWithGi' brand, which is where I post stuff targeted at readers and blogger friends, as I doubt my friends and family empathise with my tweets about #bloggerproblems.
2. Engage with other people.
If you never reply to comments, replies or take a second to tweet one of your mutual followers, nobody is going to want to be your online friend. Engaging with your audience not only boosts engagement, it also creates real relationships and more chances for good collaborations! (you never know who they're connected to) It's also a good idea to tag brands in your posts that are mentioned, as if they repost to their audience this could majorly help your growth too.
3. Follow wisely.
Some of you reading this might be guilty of following 100 people, then unfollowing them all once they've followed you back, but they ain't stupid girl they'll unfollow you right back (waste of time and effort). I'm guilty of sometimes following people and then unfollowing accounts that didn't follow back because, I'm petty (unless I genuinely love their account, then you can stay). Take some time in the day to discover accounts you actually relate with, as there's more of a chance of you creating a mutual connection. I doubt Jose from Brazil who loves football cares about your favourite autumn lipsticks.
4. Use Hashtags.
If you're looking to reach new people, hashtag away! I have a set of pre-set hashtags for each type of picture I post on Instagram and then tweak them depending on the photo. It allows more people to discover your photos and then maybe follow you if they like what they see. Just watch out for copy/pasting the same set of hashtags on each photo as you might get shadow banned.
5. Ask questions.
If you're inviting people to engage with you, the chances are they will! I love a good poll on Twitter and finding out more about my followers on Instagram and on here! The more random the better in my opinion!
6. Be aesthetically pleasing.
Instagram themes can be frustrating, especially when you want to upload a picture of you looking fly but you're in all black and your 'theme' is all blue (that is what personal accounts are for). I use VSCO to edit my photos to give them all that 'cool' look. Pinterest has tons of VSCO edit ideas to get the theme of your dreams.
7. Don't focus too much on the numbers.
As much as it looks great to have 10K followers across all your platforms, sometimes it's better to have 500 that interact with you instead of 'window shopping' followers. So basically work on engagement with your readers, and the rest will follow suit.
8. Be relatable.
If you tweet about being hungry, tired or Netflix, congrats you're relatable! People like to follow people who are like them and not trying to picture their life is perfect and flawless. Good on you if you wake up every morning looking radiant and can afford to have lunch out every day, but if you're coming across as a 'show off' and like you're above everyone else, you won't win over many fans (unless you're Blair Waldorf).
9. Join an Instagram pod.
There's been a lot of debate whether these are worthy/genuine or not. I was in a comment pod which I left because it just felt like a transaction and I couldn't keep up. Not to mention any names, but when you have someone posting pictures of trees every day, if it doesn't appeal to you, then you're not going to want to comment. I'm in a pod now where I genuinely love all the accounts and there's no pressure, we comment because we want to support each other. For those of you who aren't aware of pods, they're basically small groups of content creators who like/comment on each others posts to boost engagement. Here'a a shameless self plug to follow me on Instagram.
10. Don't fake it till you make it.
Buying 5000 followers might sound appealing, but firstly you'll be caught out because it's obvious and brands usually know. If you follow 100 people, have 20K followers and get an average of 50 likes a photo, I ain't know Einstein but something doesn't add up. Some people get away with it which can be frustrating for people trying to increase their following the natural way, but in the end you can be at peace knowing your following won't change when Instagram decides to banish bots/dead accounts.
As I mentioned, I'm no expert and growing your presence naturally can take time (especially with IG crappy algorithm) but if you persevere hard work will pay off.
G
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