I'm sharing my story about how I got 225k followers on Instagram in 6 months and what I believe are the success factors when growing a social media account.
The story
- Part 1 -- The Beginning
- Part 2 -- Kindness
- Part 3 -- Persistency and Patience
- Part 4 -- Content is King
- Part 5 -- The Future
Content is King
Bill Gates already said it in '96 and it's true, CONTENT IS KING. You can be as kind, as persistent and patient as one could possibly be, but if your content is bad, you won't grow a big, successful social media account. So try to make your content as good as you can and try to keep improving it.
TIP: Don't just sit back and relax once you've found a way to make good content
How to make good content
If you want to start making, and keep making, high quality content, these are some steps you can follow:
- Find your passion
- Learn how to make high quality images and/or videos
- Find the right form
- Adapt when necessary
Find your passion
The first step to making good content is to find out what you are good at, what is you passion? What would you like to share with the world and what do you believe the world would like to see from you? Maybe you're passionate about food, visiting restaurants, trying out new recipes or it could be that you have a passion for crochet, diy crafts, knitting, whatever!
Why you should use your passion?
First of all you probably have a lot of knowledge about the thing your passionate about, you can share this with your followers. Secondly, it's way more fun to post about something you're passionate about! Managing a big social media account is a lot of work, be sure you'll have fun putting in all this work and effort.
Source: Pexels
Learn how to make high quality images and/or video
You can be an amazing cook or you can make the most amazing kawaii crochet dolls, if you make bad quality photos of your work, they won't appeal to your potential followers. Your photos should be able to grab the attention of the viewer! Your food photo should make them drool and your travel pics should make them wanna be where you are.
TIP: Follow a photography workshop
Source: Pexels
Be willing to invest in yourself and in your social media account, learn as much as you can about photography and filming! There are so many ways to learn (YouTube is a wonderful source) and you really don't need fancy equipment. Working with light and composition can go a long way.
Find the right form
While working on my Instagram account I found out that my (potential) followers prefer certain kinds of posts. People seem to like tutorials, step by steps and content that amazes or satisfies them. Think of videos about cutting into a cake of stretching some slime, they are pretty simple, but people seem to get mesmerized by them.
The post below for instance attracted likes and comments because the viewers got tricked. They initially thought they were seeing a chocolate chip cookie and were surprised when they found out it was a 'how to paint fur' post! (I didn't mean to make a fur cookie though! It was an accident, I swear! haha)
It is hard to tell what people will like exactly and what content will attract more likes and comments, is it the colors? The form? The shape of what you're showing? It's a matter of trial and error, really.
TIP: Find a way to mesmerize (potential) followers
It helps to look at other popular content online. Check out what kinds of posts go viral and see if you can apply the format to your own content or maybe give a twist to it.
Adapt when necessary
A winning concept that has given you loads of likes and new followers might work for a while, maybe a week, maybe a month or maybe even longer. Eventually it'll start to get 'boring' though. If you see that you are starting to get less new followers every day, think hard and come up with something new.
Here are some examples of formats I tried out the last 6 months.
Are you having trouble with coming up with something new? You can always ask your followers what they would like to see next!
More posts about my Instagram success factors will follow soon
STAY TUNED!
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