How I Grew My Instagram

Hey guys,

Lately, I’ve been receiving a lot of emails and DMs asking me how I grew my Instagram so quickly over the last year. I’ve been on the platform for long-ass time, but only the last 14 months did I decide to take it a little more seriously. That’s not to say I set out to become a micro “influencer” – it was essentially a way of exploring and showcasing my style during lockdown.

In August 2021, I noticed a bit of traction on a particular post – nothing crazy, but it was getting a little more attention than any of my previous posts had. And with that, a slight influx of followers who had seen me on the Explore page. Cool. And from there, my posts went from strength to strength, and by August 2022, I had hit 50,000 followers which is utterly insane; I never felt I was deserving of my following, but hearing so many people say they use my page as inspiration for their own wardrobes is incredibly uplifting.

I wish there was a secret formula, or maybe a cheat sheet on how to grow your following – I really do. But being honest, there just isn’t. But! That’s not to say I’ve picked up on a few things that can certainly improve your chances and beat the algorithm.

Knowing When to Post

Know your audience, and think about when the majority will be idly scrolling online. There’s no point posting at 3am (unless you’re trying to target a different time zone) because chances are, your followers are going to be asleep and may miss your post entirely by the time they wake up and login.

For me, I find evenings (after typical working hours) is a good time to post – usually around 7pm when a lot of people have settled in for the evening. Weekends are okay, but only in the early-ish morning when a lot of people will be waking up, or if it’s a rainy day! Yes, that’s right – the weather can have an impact. A wet, windy day means people are more than likely to spend it at home, and probably on social media. Another good time to post is midday Mon-Fri – when people are taking their lunch breaks.

Be Consistent

It goes without saying, posting regularly will improve your chances of posts being seen. Be consistent in your posting times, your content, and strategy. Posting at random times, or going months without posting, or even posting too much could have Insta’s algorithm fighting against you and your posts being hidden from your followers’ timelines.

Use Hashtags Wisely

I think we’ve been fed the misconception that the more hashtags, the better. I don’t think this is true. Using too many hashtags can be picked up as spam by Instagram, and ultimately, this could result in your posts being “shadow banned” from the explore page. Shadow banning, although not an official Instagram term, refers to a user’s post being hidden or restricted on the Explore page or people’s timelines. Usually without our knowledge! It sucks, and unfortunately, Instagram has the ability to deprioritise our posts should we take advantage or the hashtag system or even overuse specific hashtags.

Do your research, check out which hashtags are high performing and relate to your content. Sometimes choosing tags that aren’t top performing and choosing ones just slightly below can improve your chances of being seen. But be careful, using hashtags over and over again will likely result in your posts being restricted/hidden.

Quality Over Quantity

I know I said be consistent, but don’t spew out content every single day. For whatever reason, Instagram doesn’t like it. I find posting 3-4 high quality posts a week is far more effective than a bang-average post every day. I follow people who post daily, and only by visiting their profiles have I realised I have missed all of them because I never even saw them in my feed. Meanwhile, users who regularly appear on my timeline are those who post maybe every other day. So don’t be tempted to throw out content just because you can.

Engage Carefully

We all want to support and be supported, and it might be tempting to speed through your feed and double tap on posts at a rapid pace without even looking at the content, but be careful, Instagram can actually limit your account if you do this too often. By all means, engage with the posts you see, but be sensible about it – you don’t want to get labelled as a spam account. Big up the ones you love by commenting with something engaging such as questions about the content itself.

Encourage Saves

Instagram often prioritises posts that users like to save; my nail posts often perform very well because they are saved sometimes thousands of times – people love bookmarking nail inspiration for their next trip to the salon. You can achieve the same results with other posts too i.e. outfit ideas and “how to style” reels and posts. People love saving posts that they can take inspiration away from or come back to later.

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