How to Get 100 Followers a Day on Instagram
Introduction
Instagram is a huge social
network with over 1 million active users – a user base that is continuing to
grow even now with no signs of slowing down. It is quick to manage thanks to
its largely visual nature, and has some of the best engagement on the web.
Many companies use Instagram to
boost their products and services to extraordinary popularity. Moreover, there
are countless ‘Instagram celebrities’ who make a living from posting to
Instagram alone. Some of them get paid hundreds
of thousands of dollars for a single post.
That ought to tell you something
about how much big companies value Instagram!
But despite all this, countless
businesses are still failing to gain any momentum on the platform. That’s
because they’re stuck posting the same content day after day, not providing any
value for their audience, and not quite ‘getting it’ when it comes to what
sticks or what strategies work.
That’s where this quick report
comes in. Read on and we’re going to change the way you view Instagram and the
way your business operates.
Instagram – Seller of Dreams
This report is split into two
parts. First we’ll see how you can create a real movement by understanding what
makes Instagram tick. Then we’ll get into the granular details – the tips and
tricks that make any Instagram account grow faster. We’ll start with the big
picture, then get down to the details. And speaking of big picture, that’s what
Instagram is all about for business. It’s about selling a dream or a ‘value
proposition’. Being very visual, Instagram lends itself to promoting feelings
over figures – it shows people who are successful, who are happy, or who are
very trendy.
This in turn creates an instant
visceral reaction in the viewer, who is socially motivated to want to do the same things and feel the same way.
That’s why we follow aspirational accounts, and it’s why Instagram posts have
the potential to influence moreso that anything you can accomplish on Twitter.
Like they say: a picture is worth a thousand words! In
fact, you could even go so far as to pin many a cultural movement on Instagram.
Instagram is at least partially responsible for the selfie for instance –
selfies are at least somewhat a way for teens and others to express themselves
online and this has spilled out into countless other mediums. Some would go so
far as to blame Instagram for creating a more narcissistic population.
Likewise, Instagram can be held partially responsible for the entire ‘hipster’
movement.
Hipsters are generally regarded
as millennials who are very
‘self-aware’ (or self-conscious,
depending on your point of view). They are people who are dissatisfied with
many aspects of modern society, and who have as a result decided to be actively
‘different’ from those around them. They
are less interested in making lots of money and wearing suits, and more interested
in taking photos of beautiful sunsets, of their holiday destinations, and of
plates of food.
Instagram helped to facilitate
this shift in focus by providing just the right tools. The simple filters that
Instagram offer allow anyone to take a mundane moment from their life and make
it look ‘beautiful’ or at the very least, artistic. In doing so, they alter our
focus and find the beauty and the appeal in our lives. And to this day,
Instagram is filled with hipsters
taking photos of their food, or of glasses standing alone on tables. Then there
are the photos of bullet journals, carefully placed on desks surrounded by
coffee and potted plants. There are other corners of Instagram of course. There
is a huge fitness community for example, filled with photos of people looking
tanned and muscular while jogging down the beach. Travel is absolutely huge.
Beauty and beauty products likewise have a big place. And fashion is perfectly
suited to this visual medium.
Art and photography do well on
Instagram too. And there is a larger silver-surfer contingent than you might
think, made up particularly of people who enjoy activities like hiking, bird
spotting, sewing etc.
Then there is the rather dubious
concept of ‘stunting’ on Instagram.
What is stunting? It’s the act of
creating an account in order to portray a particular image, that actually isn’t
authentic. Most often? It means looking extremely wealthy and successful. For
example then, a stunter might post an image of their hand on the wheel of a Lamborghini,
wearing a Rolex and with a wad of cash on the seat next to them. In reality
though, they are testing the car at a show-room, the Rolex is a knock-off, and
the cash is just $100 that they withdrew in small notes.
Believe it or not, people actually
make a living from stunting! This is the most concrete example of the ‘law of
attraction’ in action. Fake it until you make it!
If all this sounds surprising,
the point is that we can do the precise same thing for our business. By posting
about the lifestyle and using the
filters and your photography in order to make it all look amazing and
desirable, you can make an account that is highly persuasive and that will grow
exponentially.
Think of this as a movement,
rather than just a corporate brand. It’s why companies like Apple are so
successful – they speak to the creative side, the showy side, and the
aspirational side of the buyer. That’s what Instagram will let you do.
What and How to Post
With all that said, you need to
make sure you are posting images and videos that help to convey the message you
wish to portray. Ideally, someone should see one of your images and feel
inspired and moved – in turn seeking out your content to learn more.
For many, this means taking photos that are as
attractive as possible – so if you have photography skills, then that’s ideal!
Each photo should somehow tell a story, and show the benefits of the product or
service you’re offering. At the same
time, it also means sharing videos – which actually have a higher engagement
than video on Instagram!
But what if you aren’t an amazing
photographer or you aren’t confident in your skills? Fortunately, there are
some things you can do to get around that.
Editing
Both pictures and videos should
be edited in order to get the very most from them – this way you can turn a
bland photo into something truly eye-catching. If you are serious about your
photography, then shoot your images in the RAW file format, using a flat color
profile (low contrast and vibrancy). This provides you with the maximum amount
of pure information, meaning that you can then open them up in Lightroom or
Photoshop and make them look fantastic by playing with the color curves,
saturation, etc.
This is also an opportunity to
add text, effects, and more. There are some amazing ‘presets’ you can find for
photography that will generate some amazing looking shots. Note that Instagram
also now offers basic editing allowing you to add things like vignette effects,
or to alter the contrast and shadows etc. This is an easy way to ‘fix’ a photo
that perhaps came out a little over-exposed for instance. Video can be edited
meanwhile using Sony Vegas Pro,
Final Cut, Adobe Premiere, or
even iOS software like Luma Fusion. This way, you can chop together a long
piece of footage to be punchier and more exciting. Add some music and color
grading and you can make your video much more impactful.
Using Stock Photography
Another option is to use stock
photography! You can find royalty free photo sites, or alternatively buy them
from a site like Envato Elements (elements.envato.com). Here, you’ll find huge
lists of photos that are available for you to use and even to edit.
And that’s the key point, because
you can edit photos in order to make them unique to your brand. For example, if
you have a fitness business, then you can take photos of people in the gym or
running on the beach, and then add motivational quotes over the top and some
filters. These kinds of accounts are extremely easy to run and maintain and yet
they are highly successful because they tick all the boxes we’re looking at.
In seconds, you can download an image of someone jogging on
the beach, turn it black and white, then add some beautiful text with a fancy
font on top. It just take a few moments to learn the editing skills and to get
access to the account. The same strategy can work whether you’re selling cars,
a dating website, or practically anything else.
The best bit? It ticks all the boxes we’re looking for:
allowing you to convey your value proposition, create photos that stand out,
and help your audience to feel something that motivates them to buy.
Frequency and Tips
Using editing and occasionally
stock photos, you can create a high volume of high quality images that people
will want to follow you in order to keep seeing.
The next trick is to make sure
that they are getting found and that they are getting engagement.
So how often should you post? The
good news is that the guess work has been taken out of the equation: businesses
on average recommend posting 1-3 times per day in order to achieve maximum
engagement. They recommend posting between 10am-3pm for local businesses, or
6pm GMT if you have a global audience.
The next tip: post in portrait
orientation wherever possible. This will increase the amount of space your
photo takes up in a vertical feed, and it will increase the amount of time your
audience sees it for as a result!
Next: use the right hashtags.
Instagram lets you add up to 30 hashtags for each image post, and that means
you have thirty opportunities to help people find you. If you could play the
lottery for free 30 times, would you only enter five times? No!
The best hashtags are the ones
that are popular (100,000 posts+) but not insanely popular (1,000,000
posts+).
Hashtags that are too popular
will mean your content gets drowned out the moment you post, while those that
are too niche won’t bring enough views in. Aim for that happy sweet spot in the
middle, but also use a range of hashtags with a couple at both end of the
spectrum.
More valuable still are the
hashtags that are very hot topics in your niche, or that are trending
generally. Use ‘news jacking’ in order to ride off the success of a popular
topic. Ask yourself what you could post that would be relevant.
More Ways to Engage
Finally, make sure you engage
with your audience using every other available trick. You can pay for sponsored
posts and ads, but you actually don’t need to if you focus on answering the
comments on your posts, commenting on other people’s posts, and liking their
photos. Follow people in your niche too, and try to use hashtags and mentions
to get noticed by bigger brands.
Follow 20 new accounts and you’ll
likely get 10 follows back as long as they are relevant and especially if
you’ve engaged with them in the past. And remember: this growth is exponential
over time.
Using Instagram’s Live Video and
Stories is another way you can engage more – especially as these will sometimes
notify users that you’ve just posted. That’s a great way to interact in a more
personal and direct manner with your audience, which in turn means that you can
build that trust and authority.
Finally, work with other creators
to do ad swaps and to promote each other every so often.
If you do all this, if you are
consistent, and if you put real effort into delivering a message to your
audience – then there is every chance that you could generate AT LEAST 100 new
followers a day. And because this growth is exponential… the sky is the limit!
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