Growing a strong audience, with authentic and engaged followers, is how you can uphold your credibility as a creator. For businesses and brands, building a larger following helps you reach more people and drive awareness of your products.
So how can you gain more followers? That was the focus of last nights ‘Instagram School’ lesson with Vamp creator @romeosfashionfix. Juliette talked us through her fascinating audience growth journey, tips on guarding against bots and her best advice for building your following.
Juliette, a fashion blogger turned Instagram creator, has been working on her personal brand for seven years.“There’s no shortcuts. It takes a lot of time and hard work” she said.
While there are no shortcuts, she did have a lot of advice for others looking to grow their Instagram following:
Do create quality content
Creating quality content should be your number one priority. When people come across your page, you want to give them a reason to follow you and not leave. Give them what they want to see, which is usually quality work.
Here are some tips from Juliette to help elevate your content:
#1 You don’t need a new fancy camera to shoot, an iPhone will suffice. Juliette aways carries a glasses wipe to clean her camera lens, which is how she achieves those crisp, sharp shots.
#2 Use Pinterest and create mood boards for every content shoot you do.
#3 Learn how to edit your images. That doesn’t necessarily mean becoming a Photoshop master. Apps like VSCO have some great filters to help bring your images to life and keep a consistent feed.
#4 Before shooting, clean up the area behind you to make your shots look more professional.
Do be consistent
Consistency is key, not only to gain followers but to retain them. When you’re constantly sharing high quality content, your audience is going to continually support you. They’ll trust you’re always going to provide the content they fell in love with, when they first started following you.
The more you grow, the more followers you’ll gain from other countries. Juliette suggests to do some trial and error tests for different posting times. Once you’ve nailed that, post on the regular.
Do use relevant hashtags
Users scrolling through a hashtag feed, are already interested in that type of content. So when you use appropriate hashtags, they have a reason to engage with your post. Avoid using lots of hashtags, that aren’t relevant to your work, just to try get in front of the eyes of more people. “Theres not point in being in front of the wrong people” she said. This won’t secure engagement or follows.
Don’t take shortcuts
“When you want to learn the tricks of the trade, just learn the trade.” Juliette doesn’t believe in taking shortcuts when it comes to growing your Instagram following. Things like buying followers or joining engagement pods could damage you in the long run, and may ruin your reputation with brands. An authentic but smaller following will attract brands better than a large following with bots.
Do get brands to notice you
Juliette shared with us a strategy she used to do, while she was just starting out as a fashion influencer. She would always tag the brands she was wearing and email them her content, in hopes they would re-share it, or engage with the post they otherwise wouldn’t see. “Be proactive and don’t be afraid to work hard and grind to get where you want.”
Don’t over analyse your analytics
“Don’t obsess over numbers, focus on content quality.” Numbers do count as a content creator, but most of the time brands are after strong engagement rates and quality content. “The number of followers you have, does not determine influence.” You want a following who genuinely engages with your content, because they enjoy what you have to say.
Want to find out more? Watch our Instagram Live with Juliette
Upcoming Instagram Lives:
- 14 July 6pm AEST: How and why to use the Paid Partnership and Branded Content tools with @iansangala
- 16 July 6pm AEST: How to create engaging video for Instagram with @nickehfilms
Missed last weeks live chat with @biancabeers? Here is her dos and donts of community management.
