Organic Growth

smillsy · Jul 12, 2015

Hi guys,

I have been managing a family friend's Instagram (they are a hair and beauty salon) for a while now. I managed to grow their followers by about 400%, but the follower count still isn't impressive (just under 2k). I'm looking to grow it to about 10k~ within a year. I've looked at bots and the like, which I tested on my personal account, but I was banned. I was using Instagress on normal/slow settings (max about 600 likes per 24 hours, 200 comments, etc.), but I'd like to see how far I can take it.

In terms of budget, I can only get away with $10 per month on services. Tiny, I know, but the owner's are still very cautious about social media and the value it has (despite already delivering them a few thousand dollars worth of clients using Facebook/Instagram). My current strategy is:

Post 1 picture per day (before and after shots, celebrity hair, colour inspirations etc.)
Every hour or so, like ~40 pictures in the #hair tag (I've also been using the local area tag)
Comment sporadically in the #hair tag
Follow 10 people per day/unfollow others

My question for you more seasoned experts is, what can I do better? I am extremely cautious of over following/unfollowing as this has got a personal account of mine banned. Do you guys know any software (preferably free) that I can use to monitor followers? I have been using Iconosquare to prepare monthly reports (to demonstrate growth).

I'd really love some insight into some more advanced strategies.

radis · Jul 12, 2015

The 200 comments a day is what probably got your account banned. I believe the limit is 100 a day. Read up on instagram limits and look into Followliker. It's a bot that cost money. 50-100 usd depending on how many accounts you want to run. Nothing worth having comes free in this world bro. Good luck!

imGrej · Jul 12, 2015

Doing 200 comments a day is madness, my account is over 4 years old and I would do 20 MAX if I were doing comments.

smillsy · Jul 12, 2015

Hi guys. 200 comments was a bit over (140) but I wasn't doing anywhere near that, so I know commenting isn't the reason I was banned. I have looked at follow liker, but I need to minimise costs, hence why I am doing it manually. I also don't want to run the risk of the businesses Instagram being banned. I was seeing if I'm missing anything in terms of engagement or other strategy.

InstagramDude · Jul 12, 2015

Do you have Skype or Kik?
I think I might got what you need.

AbeloHost · Jul 12, 2015

Tiny, I know, but the owner's are still very cautious about social media and the value it has (despite already delivering them a few thousand dollars worth of clients using Facebook/Instagram).

This sounds like they should pay you more but they aren't doing it because "they don't believe it has value". I would confront them if I were you. Either they're from the pre-Internet era or they take you for a fool.

Paper-Boy · Jul 12, 2015

@OP, if your goal is to get customers straight to the beauty salon then I would use FB ads. You have tons of targeting options and you can potentially get them for pennies for each click.

duceduc · Jul 12, 2015

Doing 200 comments a day is madness, my account is over 4 years old and I would do 20 MAX if I were doing comments.

Seems everyone is stirring away from commenting. Personally, I prefer commenting over follow method. I have been doing, in the past before the crack down, 400 comments a day per acc on FL. Now I can't get past 30 without this limit reach, will start in xx days message.

MB Ingram isn't really affected by the comment bans, however.Sso I use it to comment 400 a day.

I have looked at follow liker, but I need to minimise costs, hence why I am doing it manually.

Using a bot is the way to go. It cost some $$, but the investment and time to manually engage yourself is worth it. You just need to know your limit and not get in trouble.

iamthesuark · Jul 13, 2015

If you are very cautious there are several things you can do!

Either set up your own personal account, where you will test things out and see how it works

or

Gradually and slowly bring up the settings of the beauty/hair account, however don't make it too agressive!

avilux · Jul 13, 2015

I have never commented with FL or done likes. My accounts have been growing to xx,xxx and are just fine. I think commenting just isn't worth it

smillsy · Jul 13, 2015

This sounds like they should pay you more but they aren't doing it because "they don't believe it has value". I would confront them if I were you. Either they're from the pre-Internet era or they take you for a fool.

I get a decent flat fee per month for what I do, the trouble being I'm still studying and it was my first ever 'proposal' so It was essentially just testing the waters. I plan on re-negotiating when we hit some more follower milestones on Faceboook & Instagram.

OP, if your goal is to get customers straight to the beauty salon then I would use FB ads. You have tons of targeting options and you can potentially get them for pennies for each click.

Currently using Facebook as the main targeting method, Instagram is more for brand awareness and the general social media presence, as hair and beauty is obviously a very visual field.

Gradually and slowly bring up the settings of the beauty/hair account, however don't make it too agressive!

I have used Instagress on the business account in the past without trouble, however, I recently got a number of API resets within the space of a few weeks. This worries me, especially since on my personal account I got one API reset and then was instantly banned (and no, I don't do anything manually while the bot is running).

I have never commented with FL or done likes. My accounts have been growing to xx,xxx and are just fine. I think commenting just isn't worth it.

So you're just doing the unfollow/follow method? I heard the limit was 160 for follow/unfollow combined, would like to double check, though.

**Sorry for no quotes, I couldn't post a reply while using them for some reason.

JadMac · Jul 13, 2015

Make sure you use the hashtag tactic correctly, it is very effective, check this out: http://www.moneymod.com/how-to-make-money-on-instagram/

zimarin · Jul 13, 2015

1. try to scrape users who tag nearby location. I guess that hair and beauty salon clients should live, work or walk nearby. That tactics was quiet efficient for flower shop
2. scrape users from your competitors. Right now 80% of pics with hashtags are just advertisment or users who sipmly want more likes. But users (if real account) who follow your competitors they are already loyal to contant and ready to follow account from your niche. Make a list of your competitors' followers and follow/like/comment them.
It's better to use bot with more that 600 likes per day limits. I had an experience of follow/liking 2000+ accounts without ban (for 17 week account) then you can make 10k~ followers faster

prinse · Jul 13, 2015

duceduc said:
Seems everyone is stirring away from commenting. Personally, I prefer commenting over follow method. I have been doing, in the past before the crack down, 400 comments a day per acc on FL. Now I can't get past 30 without this limit reach, will start in xx days message.

MB Ingram isn't really affected by the comment bans, however.Sso I use it to comment 400 a day.

Using a bot is the way to go. It cost some $$, but the investment and time to manually engage yourself is worth it. You just need to know your limit and not get in trouble.

Hmm, so you're saying you do over 400 comments a day on MB Ingram?

avilux · Jul 13, 2015

smillsy said:
I have never commented with FL or done likes. My accounts have been growing to xx,xxx and are just fine. I think commenting just isn't worth it.

So you're just doing the unfollow/follow method? I heard the limit was 160 for follow/unfollow combined, would like to double check, though.

**Sorry for no quotes, I couldn't post a reply while using them for some reason.

I don't know the specifics but with new accounts I usually did 300-500 follows daily. Every 5 minutes it would cycle and spacing was 15-20 seconds or something like that. With my aged and larger accounts over 10,000 followers, I do as much as 1,500 follows w/ spacing of 10-12 seconds. Depending on the niche and stuff my accounts still grow by a few thousand every month.

That's all based from personal experience, so I'd recommend if you'd want to be safe doing half of what I did. 200 follows daily at first then maybe growing up to 600-800. I follow people who follow the bigger accounts in my niches.

duceduc · Jul 13, 2015

Hmm, so you're saying you do over 400 comments a day on MB Ingram?

Yes, with no @ comments.

prinse · Jul 14, 2015

duceduc said:
Yes, with no @ comments.

Cool, so it seems as if IG filters Follow Liker's comments...

Organic Growth

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