I was late in joining Instagram.
All I really had to share were daily pictures of my kids, something I might be cooking and didn’t feel like sharing a million pictures of nothing.
I didn’t spend much time growing my following until December.
I started by doing four little things.
And it grew.
Table of Contents
Posting pictures.
The first thing that I did was start posting at least one picture a day, with a goal of three a day.
Not just pictures of my kids, though those are easy to come by.
I searched Pinterest for photo challenge January (or any other month) for generic photos.
You can also search for niche related challenges, some I looked for were: parents, foodies, photography, and fitness.
Use hashtags.
Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per picture.
This required another search on my part.
There are a lot of hashtags out there, and often they are the first step to followers to find you.
Popular hashtags: #love #food #picoftheday #tbt #fbf #followfriday #photooftheday #amazing #smile #follow4follow #like4like #look #instalike #picoftheday #instadaily #instafollow #followme #iphoneonly #instagood #bestoftheday #instacool #instago #follow #webstagram #colorful #style #swag
Search hashtags + (your niche) for niche specific hashtags.
Engage.
Engage, engage. Follow, comment, and like others pictures.
Make your Instagram scrolling time count.
Social.
Share your pictures to your other social media accounts as well.
Instagram will link to 5 other social media accounts, sharing your picture for you.
This can help your followers on other platforms know that you are on Instagram and and get them to head on over and follow you as well.
Especially Twitter and Facebook.
Using these methods for just under a month I gained over 100 followers.
Considering I had a whole 300 follows in 11 months this was great growth for me!
P.S. do not forget to follow @totsnetwork
Do you use Instagram for your business? I’d kind of like to have an account for mine, but I’m not sure I want to give up my personal account. Is there a way to do both?
We only have one instagram account for TOTS. Instagram is supposed to be a bit more personal and not just businessy. If you really want to keep business and personal seperate you will need two different accounts. It would be a bit of a pain as you would have to log out and log back in. There is no easy toggling between accounts like with twitter.
I mostly take pictures of my kids for my personal, and I’m not sure my blog readers would be interested in them. And then again, I’m not sure I want them to be terribly interested…Ah! I didn’t think I could have two accounts since the website says to install the app to get an account, and I had already done that with my personal. I was wrong! Set up a new account. 🙂
I always think two accounts are a good idea. I like to keep my ‘worlds’ separate to a certain extent.
I grew my Instagram account before starting my blog. I could definitely use these tips to grow more! Especially those generic photo contests!
Great post! Im a huge fan of Instagram, its a great source for tons of different people!
I agree there is something for everyone on Instagram.