Growing an Instagram page

Postmortis

Postmortis

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Whilst we had a couple of good threads lately regarding Pinterest, I can't see any recent Instagram ones regarding best practices/tips & tricks.

Myself I'm entirely new to Instagram (I know, I know) and made my first account on Saturday for a website I've recently started.
What I've been doing so far:
  • Post a mix of unsplash/pixabay niche related photos + repost trending posts while giving credit to the original author (about 5 posts each day).
  • Add 30 hashtags for each post (using a hashtag generator related to said post).
  • Give out the occasional like + comment to those who I follow.
  • While I was getting a good volume of likes (via the hashtags), I found that no one was following my account. So gradually over the past few days I've been following those who've interacted with similar pages in the same niche (around ~100 each day).
  • So far everything has been done manual.
Results so far since Saturday:
aa9529P.png

+ 2 website clicks from the link in the bio (could have been robots)

Obviously that followers/following ratio is pretty shit so I think I'll have to start unfollowing people eventually.

The questions I have:
  • Is there an easy way to see who doesn't me follow me back?
  • Are there any rough limits as to how many people I can follow/unfollow each day?
  • Any other good ways to get new followers to a page?
  • Is there a good scheduling tool you'd recommend?
  • Am I doing anything obviously wrong?
Cheers!
 
Great stuff, thanks both.

Some takeaways from both videos
  • Hashtags: use a mix of popular ones, medium and low ones to cover all tracks. Most likely to remain sticky for lower ones whereas when you just use the most popular tags (which I what I was doing), you're basically gone in a minute in the 'feed' or whatever it's called. Won't be using a hashtag generator anymore, instead will do it manually to get a feel how popular each tag is. Another thing that some people seem to be doing is instead of putting the hashtags as a list as part of the picture, they turn it into a paragraph with words inbetween and post that as a comment (e.g I love going for a #swim in #santamonica during #sunset etc).
  • Engagement groups is where it's at, supposedly most commonly done via Telegram, I'll be looking further into this. Essentially when your stuff gets enough engagement there's a chance to appear on the 'explore' section which seems to be kinda similar to being on the first page of reddit for your particular niche.
  • The follow/follow strategy is still decent when starting out from scratch, I'll keep doing this until about 1-2k followers. Going forward I'll focus on following users who've just left a comment on a similar page instead of following a random list of users so I know they've been active lately.
  • Share-for-share seems decent as well to gain new followers, finding similar pages from the same niche and make a deal to give each other a shout out. When SumoMe were starting out, they said they did about 4 of these a days mixed with other posts.
  • While it's intriguing, seems to be risky to bot nowadays, best to keep things manual as Instagram has become much stricter. Action blocks are a thing now as well, basically when you follow/unfollow to many people at once. Not entirely sure where the limits are at so I'll be taking this easy for now.
  • To drive people to your website (aka the link in the bio), do either a post or story once or twice a week with a CTA.
  • Don't follow more than 5,000 people at a time (I believe 7,500 is the limit), seems sketchy in the eyes on Instagram.
 
Postmortis said:
Is there an easy way to see who doesn't me follow me back?
Click to expand...
I think Instagram shows this information now when you look at your following list.
Postmortis said:
Are there any rough limits as to how many people I can follow/unfollow each day?
Click to expand...
Never follow and unfollow on the same day- either follow or unfollow. Along with this, give 2-3 days for people to follow you back before unfollowing them. Also, never perform more than 199 combined actions per day. Ultimately, the focus should be put on achieving a high follow-back ratio. Meaning, you follow 100 users, and 20 follow you back- a 20% follow-back rate. Also, I wouldn't follow up until the 7500 limit, as when you do this most people can tell you're mass-following. I always follow up until 1000 and then start unfollowing- 3 digits looks smaller than 4, meaning your follow is more valuable in the eyes of the user.
Postmortis said:
Any other good ways to get new followers to a page?
Click to expand...
Aside from follow/unfollow? Not really. Engagement groups maybe, but the interactions need to come from high quality, niche relevant accounts to provide any benefit. To get more organic growth, your goal should be to get as much engagement on your new posts as fast as possible. To do this, post at the exact same times on the same days, and you can also post "previews" of your new posts in your Instagram stories- simply blur out the posted image and have text saying "new post" in the story.
Postmortis said:
Is there a good scheduling tool you'd recommend?
Click to expand...
There are quite a few available, but pricing wise, your best bet might actually be to get Jarvee ($20 a month) and schedule posts from it, as opposed to paying $13 a month for "x" scheduling service.
Postmortis said:
Am I doing anything obviously wrong?
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My main concern is your content. You mentioned using images from Pixabay etc. It's important that these images are Instagram worthy. I would advise you to maybe take a look at Reddit for images depending on your niche- you can also simply repost posts that perform well in your niche.
 
For scheduling I really enjoy apphi.

Engagement groups are huge, especially for newer accounts. Even better if you just pay a large page to use your @ in their engagement groups. This gets pages 100k-1M followers to like/comment instead of a bunch of other spammy small pages.

In 2020 I am anti follow/unfollow. This is how I great my first 100k back in the day but now I feel like it just marks your account as spam and Instagram fucks with your reach/engagement.

If you want to bot I prefer to like peoples posts who are engaging with your competitors/related hashtags.
 
Postmortis said:
The questions I have:
  • Is there an easy way to see who doesn't me follow me back?
Click to expand...

Two options I've found -
https://nomesigue.com/instagram-unfollowers/
https://unfollowgram.com/


Postmortis said:
Are there any rough limits as to how many people I can follow/unfollow each day?
Click to expand...

Moderate the bot activity or they will red flag your account and makes it easy for a take down, until you're aged a bit. That's why it's good to buy a cheap account that' old.


Postmortis said:
Any other good ways to get new followers to a page?
Click to expand...
- reddit
- tumblr
- pinterest
- like and comment tons of pics on hashtags or event locations where your target audience ould be found ( i used bots for this )
[/QUOTE]

Postmortis said:
  • Is there a good scheduling tool you'd recommend?
Click to expand...
- Look up "instagress alternatives' in google
- hootsuite still around?
- gramblr alternatives also may be available

Postmortis said:
  • Am I doing anything obviously wrong?
Click to expand...

Every path can be different. Dont be afraid to explore.
 
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