Building Your Instagram Following

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.

Building Your Instagram Following

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
Christina Gleason (976 Posts)

That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.


By Christina Gleason

That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.

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