Get More Instagram Followers: #AskCWH Episode 2
We all want them…..
No, not donuts. Instagram followers!
It doesn’t matter if you’re a blogger, an Instagram influencer, or a high school student; I bet you that you would never turn down a couple more (or a couple thousand more) Instagram followers. While numbers are arbitrary, engagement is everything. An increase in followers means an increase in the number of people engaging with you over that picture of your latte. No shame in that!
Now this isn’t just a post for how to get more likes on Instagram, but tips for how to grow your Instagram following the honest way, so people and brands will find you. (Because buying follower packages and collecting spam accounts doesn’t count, missy!)
As is Friday tradition, you can watch this episode of #AskCWH in video form:
No headphones? It’s alright, chica. Let’s dive on in:
First things first, followers are not for sale
I’ve recently been contacted by companies who’s sole mission is to provide you with packages to get more followers. For $36 dollars, you can have your photo up on their Instagram page for 3 hours and you can get 1,000 followers.
Does this work? No. Should you do this? No.
You don’t need sketchy scam sites like that. It’s totally free for you to tag relevant brands in your photo for a chance to be re-grammed and have thousands of eyes on your picture! Here’s an example of a picture I posted of my favorite La Croix beverage cans. They didn’t pay me or ask me to do this, but when they saw my picture, they thought it was cute and regrammed it to their 33,000+ followers! I gained quite a few followers from it and didn’t pay a cent.
How can you stick out to these brands and popular accounts? Easy… take better pictures!
Pictures in good, natural light are more aesthetically pleasing than shadowy, heavily filtered images. You don’t need a fancy camera, just a window or a bit of sun and you’re good to go.
Also, make sure your pictures are cohesive and cohesive to your brand.
What I mean by this is that your photos should each fall into a similar color scheme or editing pattern. Don’t post a picture of a turquoise beach and bright pink peonies and follow those up with a dark and moody picture. Call it an “Instagram theme” or call it chicken salad – doesn’t matter. It looks better if your gallery sticks to one aesthetic!
The second half of that tip is to make sure your photos match your brand. If you blog about makeup and fashion, put that on your IG account! People aren’t going to want to see pictures of you and your friends at the bar if they are following you for makeup tips. (Instagram has dual logins now, so maybe look into creating a separate, personal account if you can’t part with your Friday night bar grams.)
Lastly, and MOST IMPORTANT…..Use relevant hashtags!
How do people and brands stumble across my account? Hashtags! I’ve mentioned this on the blog before, so I won’t go crazy. Just remember, hashtags are your friend. Did you just upload a picture of your cute Kate Spade bag? Tag them and use the hashtags #livecolorfully and #katespadeny. Imagine Kate Spade (Kate freaking Spade!!!) regramming you to all their purse-loving fans. #Goals.
If you have any more questions for me, you can post in the comments below or shoot me an email at hello@cristinawashere.com. You might just see your question on next Friday’s episode of #AskCWH!
X,
Cristina
