Instagram is the marmite of the social media world. We just love to hate it.
If people aren't moaning about how hard it's become to grow on Instagram then they are complaining about the non-chronological algorithm and while I totally agree that it's certainly more difficult to grow right now I have also seen a considerable difference in my 'gram since I started to take back control.
Step One - Unfollow & Notify
I unfollowed people who's feeds i'd either outgrown or didn't enjoy any more. Not to any fault of the creators but my tastes have changed as I've grown up. I first got Instagram on my 21st Birthday and I have changed so much in those past 6 years so naturally the people I want to follow have changed too. By 'cleansing' my feed I find that more of the photos that I want to see now appear in my feed.
I also clicked the little three dots in the top right hand corner and started turning on post notifications for my favourite instagrammers and now the algorithm seems to have twigged to who I want to see.
Step Two - Keep It Personal
While perfectly curated feeds are visually pleasing for the eyes they also come across a little bit like the person in the photos is on a permanent stage. Constantly acting. People originally loved instagram because it was more personal and the places, clothes and lives shown were seen as achievable.
Let's also face it. We all love to be nosy too. We're a bunch of bloody nosey-parkers.
Longer captions help to give a more personal touch to your posts and let your followers get to know you and what's going on if your life. I find that some of my more personal posts on instagram are performing better than the more curated posts and I'm also embracing insta-stories to help achieve this, which neatly brings me on to Step 3.
Step 3 - Embrace Stories
While I've never really got along with YouTube through the self-criticism of myself on camera, I am starting to love stories on Instagram. It's micro-vlogging on a new level.
To help elevate my stories I've also started using other apps too. It seems a little strange to use an app to post content on another app but I find that it gives my stories a personal yet curated edge. Although you will also still see me dancing around the kitchen like a goof ball shot straight from my iPhone too.
Apps that I really love are:
Over - Collages, Fonts and Graphic Overlays
Font Candy - Fonts
Video Leap - Get for on-phone Video Editing
Hype Type - Animated Fonts
*Some of the apps do offer in-app purchases or subscriptions but most are fun to play around with.
Step 4 - Engage More
So since I gained more control of my feed and started seeing more of the pictures I loved and not images I'd liked 4 days previously I found that I was more inclined to engage with photos. Instead of just double-tapping I now want to comment and click away and follow on content. Since I've felt more compelled to click it's actually helped my own Instagram because more people seem to be finding me.
Now I know I'm still sub 1k on followers, so i'm probably not the best places to discuss boosting instagram, but my following has grown by over 10% since I started to take control of Instagram and make it work for me and my engagement levels have soared.
Have any of these tips worked for you? Or do you already do them? I'd love to know how you get on with them.
Make sure to follow me on Bloglovin', Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest to stay up to date with all the latest posts.