A Different Instagram Journey

Hi everyone, and welcome to my Instagram journey. I know, you are thinking 'what is different about this journey?'. I am new to BHW, and have pondered starting a journey thread, specifically around the points of what is actually interesting to people reading. One thing I know is that there are a LOT of people thinking of starting something with IG, or have just started...like me.

So, what is different about this one then?

In short, I currently have only one Instagram account, and I do not intend to have any more. Well, I have one more idea, that may come into this thread as a second account, but that will be it, no more than two. I won't be mass building accounts, using proxies, mass following methods or anything like that.

The devil is in the detail. This journey is not about huge numbers of followers gained quickly, or which software is best to use (I will be using two pieces of software, which I will talk about further down).

This journey is all about the engagement level, and the QUALITY of the account. It is about how I interact with my followers, what I am posting, when I am posting and who I am choosing to follow; and of course how the account is growing, because everyone loves a stat.

The goal of this thread is to document what happens when you choose to build a high quality account right from the start, and have specific methods to attempt to do it.

The goal of my IG account is to steadily grow, AND maintain high engagement and interaction, both from followers to me and vice versa.

The niche that this account is in is interior design and living spaces. Later down the line, if it becomes successful, I will look at monetization options.

As far as software goes, I will be using Massplanner ONLY to unfollow, nothing else. Massplanner is set currently to unfollow at a very low rate. I will also be using a repost app to post content to my account.

All other activity within IG will be done by me manually, so following, commenting, liking all that good stuff.

I will explain a bit more about who I am following, why, and other details as they come to mind. I will be posting 2-4 pictures a day. I have found the best time for this is in the morning in the GMT+2 timezone.

This journey will not be fast, I doubt for a good while there will be amazing growth, but there will hopefully be interesting things to share from approaching growing an IG account with the focus on quality right from the start. I am also using this journey to stay motivated and help with self accountability.

So, here are the opening figures for my account:

Followers: 147
Following: 474
Likes today: 21
Comments today: 3

Thank you for reading!

C

Good luck on your journey

So how are you going to grow? Are you going to follow/unfollow or like and comment on different posts?

Good luck.

DesignCamp said:

So how are you going to grow? Are you going to follow/unfollow or like and comment on different posts?

Good luck.

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Hey, I am manually following accounts that I select from within the niche, and as mentioned above using Mass Planner to unfollow.

As people follow me, I look through them and find accounts with good content, and then I comment on a picture, and if the content is exceptional, I make a note of that follower because I will then repost their content if it is appropriate, which is great for engagement and future interactions.

Cheers

C

shtrudla said:

Good luck on your journey

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Thanks man, appreciated.

Good luck with your Journey. And thank you for info I am from same timezone so I will try your idea to post at morning.

But (on FB) I had best engagement at about 20:00. (Fashion stuff)

good luck bro ...continue updating us ok

Good luck man....

ToxicBlack said:

Good luck with your Journey. And thank you for info I am from same timezone so I will try your idea to post at morning.

But (on FB) I had best engagement at about 20:00. (Fashion stuff)

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Thanks, yes the engagement in the evening does not seem to be good, but the morning is really good!

Thank you, I have a tendency to stick at things, so hopefully this journey will be around for a while.

keep it up and good luck on your journey

Good luck on your journey

semahsedut said:

good luck bro ...continue updating us ok

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Yes, I will. I will post at least an update a day, unless other commitments are more pressing.

I want this journey to be newbie friendly, I am new to this forum and fairly new to IG so I will be posting basic tips from time to time that I have learnt, most people will probably know, but some may find useful. The first is below:

Tip:

Obviously selecting good quality photos to post in your feed is vitally important. When I have found a photo to post, I always alter it in some way before posting it by using one of the filters or settings in IG. Every photo I have posted so far already looks great, but I have always found a way to make it look that little bit better. People forget photos very quickly, and with a little touch up it can almost be a new photo.

C

Update:

A little update for today, I spent some time talking to some of my followers and searching their accounts for great photos for future use. I also followed some new accounts manually.

Todays stats are:

Followers: 161
Following: 516
Likes today: 43
Comments today: 1

Best of luck to you on this great journey.

LoftPower said:

Best of luck to you on this great journey.

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Thanks man.

A small technical update, I mentioned at the top of the thread that I will only use MP for unfollow, but I am changing this. So far my account is super engaged, I am posting some of the highest quality photos in my niche and always edit each photo to improve it from the original. I am getting a lot of likes and importantly comments on the quality of my account.

To this end I am going to do something a little different with MP. Rather than going for quick followings to grow the account, I am literally going to do the opposite and set it to only follow 20-40 people a day. This complements my manual work of following targeted accounts, and will "blend" well with keeping my follower/following number respectable.

I will have a stats update later today, posted my first picture this morning and the likes are flowing in already.

I think this style of growing an account around my "less is more" strategy seems to be working...of course time is the possible weak spot for some, but it is OK for me.

C

Good going mate, All the best!

CrazyeyeZ said:

Thanks man.

A small technical update, I mentioned at the top of the thread that I will only use MP for unfollow, but I am changing this. So far my account is super engaged, I am posting some of the highest quality photos in my niche and always edit each photo to improve it from the original. I am getting a lot of likes and importantly comments on the quality of my account.

To this end I am going to do something a little different with MP. Rather than going for quick followings to grow the account, I am literally going to do the opposite and set it to only follow 20-40 people a day. This complements my manual work of following targeted accounts, and will "blend" well with keeping my follower/following number respectable.

I will have a stats update later today, posted my first picture this morning and the likes are flowing in already.

I think this style of growing an account around my "less is more" strategy seems to be working...of course time is the possible weak spot for some, but it is OK for me.

C

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Looking forward to it. I hope you can maintain the high engagement.

Anish94 said:

Good going mate, All the best!

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Thanks mate, appreciated.