Julie Deily is here to talk to us about Instagram and how to get more followers the legit way. She was laid off from her job a few years ago and took that as her opportunity to throw herself into blogging.
Create a Plan and Set Goals
- Know why you’re posting. (to gain more followers? bring them to your blog? sell a product?)
- Know who you are and what your brand is.
- Decide what you’ll post, how many times you’ll post each day, etc. Experiment and change as needed.
- Batch process. (Aim for 1080 x 1080 pixels.)
- Schedule replying and commenting time.
- Set specific goals, action plan, and deadlines.
Your Username and Bio
- Your username should be easy to remember. No numbers!
- Try to pick a name that is the same as your other social media accounts.
- You can change
Share Content (Consistently)
- Take pictures on your phone and your DSLR
- Post every day on Instagram
- Ask questions and engage; call to action
- Share a story; long captions are fine
- Know your platform; share your best photos. Don’t post 15 times a day all within 15 minutes.
- Share IG stories; IG is not SnapChat.
- Use hashtags and create your own
- Reuse your own content
Build a community
- Social media is not a billboard
- Be intentional
- Comment and like others’ photos, even if you don’t follow them or they don’t follow you
- Comment pods (the more likes and comments you get within the first few minutes of posting, the more exposure you’ll get – sort of like a catch-22 – so some people use IG direct messaging to let others know you posted something; comments need to be 4+ words long)
- Look into Admirers in CrowdFire
- Reply to questions and comments
- Interact on hashtags that you care about
- Don’t spam
#TypeAShare
- Share a photo using this hashtag
- Like and comment on at least 5 photos using that hashtag
Use Tools to Automate & Analyze
- Iconosquare (lists, comments, analytics)
- IFTTT
- Canva
- Photo editing apps (snapseed, pictapgo, a color story)
- Dropbox
- Later.com
Other Stuff
- Turn on 2-step authentication
- Business vs Personal Account – we’re all pretty wary; we want the analytics, but we’re worried about the algorithm and if they’re going to be like Facebook where you have to pay to get seen