Friend,
Social media can be a blessing or a curse. The best practice is to use it the right way. If you want to grow your traffic, there are a few ways that I’ve tried that may also help you.
This is the entry of my results to the Instagram Traffic Challenge. I will share with you what tactics I used to grow, what worked for me, and what didn’t work.
Below is my starting point on March 1, 2018:
Based on my experience, here is what I’ve experienced.
FOLLOW YOUR FOLLOWERS
- Following my followers back was mostly successful when I had a similar number of followers. For instance, more followers would follow me back when I had 1500 followers and was following 1510; not many followers would follow me back if I had 1500 followers and was following 2000 (I hope that makes sense). What got me the most followers, was when I would follow followers that were local and had more mutual followers. I basically followed followers of people that I personally knew.
BE SOCIAL
- This was not the biggest gain, but it did work. I must add that this was the best way to socially connect and gain a few followers that actually wanted to get to know me more. As far as gaining a ton of followers, this was not the best tactic. But it did allow me to gain a deeper connection and further engage with my followers.
CONTENT IS KEY
- Creating content that was authentic and specific to my niche, was an absolute game changer. I can definitely say that content is the sole tactic in a good following. Not only being mindful of what I posted, but the quality of the pictures I posted made a big difference. One thing I did, was to look at my insights on my posts, and whichever types of pictures had the least interaction, I deleted and was mindful of the content my followers weren’t too crazy about. Pictures that were grainy, over-filtered, or had nothing to do with my actual theme seemed to get the least attention. I found that pictures that were bright, vivid in color, and had closer angles got the most attention. I will be sure to make a blog entry on how I shoot and edit my photos. I also found that people were very drawn to my captions. I had to be mindful on being strategic with the photos and the captions.
POST WITH A THEME
- I am still trying to working on my theme, but so far I’ve found that when people sort of know what to expect from you, it helps with engagement. I’ve tried color themes, and also typical themes such as hair, graffiti, and food.
DON’T PERPETRATE
- Being true to yourself definitely works. The moment you post something that has nothing to do with what your page is about, your follower count goes down. Period. Be true to yourself, but don’t always talk about cats when the theme of your page is about beauty.
CONSISTENCY IS KING
- I noticed that when I went periods of time without posting or being social, I lost more followers than I lost with any other tactic. Be consistent. It’s okay to take breaks for your sanity, but return when necessary and be consistent.
- JOIN OR CREATE A POD GROUP. I had a few people ask if I would do this…. but I didn’t want my page to feel spammy so I didn’t try this. Sorry. Since I personally have not tried this, do your research to see if it’s worth it for you.
- Hashtags. Hashtags got me quite a bit of followers, but what it helped with the most was likes on my photos. I found that using the RIGHT hashtags and placing them as the first comment RIGHT AFTER I posted a photo (vs posting hashtags in the actual caption) was more beneficial.
Those are the tips and tricks I’ve learned. My challenge goal was 1,500 followers by April 1st by using these tips, and I achieved and surpassed it.
Overall, I met my goal!!!! I am so excited to implement new challenges and get to the next level. I hope this inspired you to implement these tips and tricks!! If you’d like to join me in my next challenge, comment below or shoot me an email at vibingwithlisa@gmail.com and we can collaborate in this challenge together! Ready, set, grow!!!
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”