Instagram Tips – The Ugly to Truth About Growing Your Instagram

Hey guys,

This post is a post that is a long time coming. It is a subject that has gotten so much backlash, caused so much drama, and is also a mystery for many bloggers starting out. But now that I have interns who help me with my every day social media, I teach them everything I know about maintaining and growing my social media channels. There is so much that goes into growing your social media, and Instagram is a big part of it. For those starting out it might seem overwhelming when you are not growing at the rates some bigger bloggers are. But what most people don’t realize is there is a lot of back end people don’t tell you that goes into growing Instagram. And unfortunately it isn’t always fair and it isn’t always organic growth either. So this post isn’t your cookie cutter Instagram tips post you might read everywhere else. This post is the nitty gritty ugly truth about growing your Instagram.

So let me share with you my story when I first started. Before I started  blogging I had two Instagram accounts one personal and one fitness. My fitness Instagram grew to 10k in less than two years organically because I shared my fitness transformation on there. To this day it still grows with little maintenance and faster than my personal/fashion Instagram. However I don’t post consistently nor do I interact with my followers there so I don’t have the best engagement.  On the other hand my fashion Instagram has great engagement but grows at half the rate even with the help of engagement pods and constant interaction with my followers. It was frustrating the past year learning the algorithm and trying to grow my fashion Instagram, and let me tell you I have tried every Instagram tips. It was a year of trial and error, and I have finally come to a point where I finally found a system that works for me.

But if you really want to know the ugly truth about growing your Instagram here are some ways business and bloggers are growing their Instagram.

1. Follow and Unfollow method

Have you ever had a business/blogger follow you and unfollow you the next day? Well don’t take it personal but this is one way they are growing their Instagram. I hired a company to grow my Instagram and they used this method and let me tell you how much I am still recovering from it. Yes it gets you results, but you also end up following random people’s account that you don’t know and sometimes they even unfollow your friends. I wish I never hired someone to run my account because it was a waste of money.

2. Buying Followers

Yes this happens and it is so easy to do! For $50 you can get 10,000 followers! Unfortunately here is the deal with buying followers, your engagement goes down. These followers don’t really engage with you, and engagement is key to getting more views on your Instagram. Plus what is the point of buying followers who never engage with you, never visit your blog, and therefore doesn’t generate any sales for your blog?

3. Buying likes

I know people who have tried this and didn’t find this beneficial at all. Yes you have 500 likes but it isn’t real engagement. Brands and other bloggers can notice when you buy likes because it is instant likes within minutes you post. However those likes are not going to get you traffic you need for your post.

4. Automated comments

Have you ever had a random person comment a very generic and almost random comment on your picture and it obviously doesn’t make sense? That’s because they are using an automated method that comments generic comments according to certain hashtags. Unfortunately this method is not fool-proof and can easily make people unfollow you when they realize you are not being genuine.

5. Automated likes via hashtags

I use this method, and it is the only automated program I trust, though it is not always fool-proof. Some popular ones people use are Archie and Likestagram. What it does is it likes pictures for you using hashtags you use. With this method you have to be very specific with your hashtags because sometimes if you use a generic hashtag like #fashion or #fit you will find some very disgusting pornographic pictures there too! And that is not something you want floating in pictures you’ve liked feed. Subscribe and you will get sent my list of 30 engaging  “SPAM” free  hashtags I use to grow my Instagram .

6. Engagement Pods

Here is another way businesses/bloggers are growing their Instagram. I am in several of these and it helps keep your pictures “alive”. Basically what it is a group of bloggers who share their pictures in a message to be liked and/or commented on. Another reason why I love this is because I get to engage with some beautiful Instagram accounts who i may not have followed on my own.

7. Old Fashion Method

What is the old fashion method? Spending hours on hours a day engaging with your followers and liking and commenting organically on Instagram. This is a tried and true method that some people have time to do, and depending on how many hours you want to invest in a day, you can get a substantial amount of growth from it. But it is a lot of hard work.

8. Hire a Virtual Assistant or Intern

The bigger you grow the harder it will get to keep up with your Instagram. I hired an intern because it was beginning to consume me. I would spend hours at night catching up on my engagement pods and replying to all my comments. It was getting too much to handle. I currently have an intern who helps me maintain and grow my Instagram.

So there is the ugly truth about growing your Instagram. It is a lot of hard work that goes into it, as well as tactics and automatic tricks to beat the algorithm. So don’t take it personally when you realized some of your fellow friends/bloggers are using some of these method. It is after all just business. They may be growing at a faster rate than you are, but you have to ask yourself this is it worth it? the time? the money? the engagement or lack of? Where do you draw the line when it comes to growing your Instagram? If you bought your likes or followers would you be ok with that? Would you be ok with all the “random”, “strange”, maybe even creepy men following your account. Sometimes there are days where they follow by the hundreds the larger you grow. This is a price you pay when you become “Instagram Famous”.

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So here is the ugly truth about growing my Instagram, after making tons of mistakes along the way  I’ve realized the only way I am going to make my business grow is to focus on my content, create meaningful relationships, and not worry about what everyone else is doing. These are my best Instagram tips. I’ve increased my followers, my pageviews, and my sales by providing quality content for my followers. There is no cookie cutter way to Instagram tips, however there is a sure fire way to get your pictures noticed on Instagram that will help grow your followers. Subscribe for 30 engaging, yet non spammy hashtags that I use to increase my visibility, my likes, and followers.

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