Hi Froger, I've tried creating a thread asking a similar question, but that didn't go anywhere. Hoping you can provide some insight into my situation. I have a travel photography account with 4.7k followers. This account is getting 900 to 1,500 likes per photo (90% of which are coming from people who already follow me), but is experiencing close to zero organic growth. I have never used any bots, just manually liking a ton of photos to reach this number (1k to 2k a day). I get 50 to 80 followers a day with my manual liking method, but only gain 1 or 2 real looking followers when I stop.
Looking at similar accounts that seem to be growing at the same rate without doing f/u or liking (while getting less likes per photo than I do), I can't help but think that instagram is somehow limiting my exposure. Do you think this rate of organic growth normal for an account with my size and level of engagement? Will there be a point at which likes I get from my followers, assuming they increase proportionate with follower growth, start pushing me to the top of more hashtags and on some explorer pages, resulting in greater organic growth?
I am trying to decide if I should start fresh (focusing on DM groups, power likes, etc.) or stick it out until I reach some critical mass of followers. Will greatly appreciate some guidance!