Thoughts on getting started on Instagram.

[fawnly]

I feel like I'm jumping into the whole Instagram thing a little too late, but better late than never, right?

What are some techniques you find effective in gaining legitimate followers? I seem to end up attracting nothing but bots / fake accounts more often than not. Sure, it's another follower, another number, but it's one less person to engage. It's a little disheartening.

Has anyone found that hitting the popular page has helped them to gain actual followers? (I'd actually really love to know the answer to this.)

What about mass liking certain tags? (I have personally found this brought in more bots than real people.)

I should note that this is more personal rather than business / money making.

I just have no idea where to go from here. My content is not bland or bad and it's original. Maybe I'm just going about it the wrong way.

Thoughts?

 

[DopeyDuke]

I feel like I'm jumping into the whole Instagram thing a little too late, but better late than never, right?

What are some techniques you find effective in gaining legitimate followers? I seem to end up attracting nothing but bots / fake accounts more often than not. Sure, it's another follower, another number, but it's one less person to engage. It's a little disheartening.

Has anyone found that hitting the popular page has helped them to gain actual followers? (I'd actually really love to know the answer to this.)

What about mass liking certain tags? (I have personally found this brought in more bots than real people.)

I should note that this is more personal rather than business / money making.

I just have no idea where to go from here. My content is not bland or bad and it's original. Maybe I'm just going about it the wrong way.

Thoughts?

If you go with popular tags then chances are you'll get general traffic, including bots who follow back.

Try to be more specific in engaging your niche. It doesn't matter if it's business or personal. Pick the right audience for whatever you are promoting.

 

[brodel34]

If you're into the art of mobile photography and genuinely take nice pictures, a good place to start is finding instagram users that you really like and compare to what you're trying to do on instagram. Follow them, users like them, their followers, and the people they actually follow.

 

[fawnly]

If you go with popular tags then chances are you'll get general traffic, including bots who follow back.

Try to be more specific in engaging your niche. It doesn't matter if it's business or personal. Pick the right audience for whatever you are promoting.

I don't employ the mass follow technique. I have gained followers through likes / comments only. I only search for users I wish to follow myself.

I feel that a lot of tags are just filled with bots. It's early days here though.

I'm well aware of where I want to head and who my audience is. Growth is slow but sure - today has just been frustrating. I think we all want to wake up in the morning, magically with 10,000 more followers. More than anything I am curious how everyone else is going about things. Someone just posted a thread about getting on the popular page, which is also right up my alley.

Thanks for your input though, I'm definitely steering away from any of the popular tags from now on. Lesson learned. ^_^

If you're into the art of mobile photography and genuinely take nice pictures, a good place to start is finding instagram users that you really like and compare to what you're trying to do on instagram. Follow them, users like them, their followers, and the people they actually follow.

80% of who I follow is related to my Instagram / users who would be classified as in my niche. A lot of these guys have large followings on and off IG, which is something else to consider.

 

[brodel34]

80% of who I follow is related to my Instagram / users who would be classified as in my niche. A lot of these guys have large followings on and off IG, which is something else to consider.

yeah i'd say immerse yourself in your niche. i like to utilize follow spurts. follow around 200-300 people and then use unfollowgramDOTcom to unfollow those who didn't follow you back after about a day or so. Then slowly unfollow the people who followed you back but tread lightly.... baby your followers. if you are interacting with some of them more than others, they might notice quicker that you unfollowed them and then unfollow you back. if you feel like a user is going to unfollow you if you unfollow them, they probably will.... give those users time so that you can blend into the crowd a little. Repeat the process when you think the time is right.

 

[Rory hammerson]

Just try to go with tags that your instagram is about, then you'll attract some people that wanna see your stuff and hopefully won't unfollow and you can slowly just gain from there