5 things you don’t need to do to get your first 1,000 Instagram followers
Yes! @launcheasylife is a baby account but… My other account, @mindbodyfertilityreset is nearly at 20k… grown with blood, sweat and tears.
Here are 5 things we didn’t do (and aren’t doing to grow this account and will never tell you to do either) because they’re either shady, a giant waste of time… or just don’t work for health and wellness service providers.
SENDING SKETCHY OUTREACH COLD DM’S
My marketing strategy is less ‘chase people and tries to force them into my sales funnel’ and more ‘attract people by being fabulous’. I’d rather invest my time into producing great content that has people reaching out to me, than sending 100 direct messages with thinly veiled and off-putting leading questions to busy people. My reputation is my everything.
FOLLOW/UNFOLLOW, BUYING FOLLOWERS OR ENGAGEMENT PODS
These are strategies that are likely to flag your account as a bot or an unauthentic user and could have your account shut down.Â
Follow people because you’re genuinely interested in what they have to sayÂ
Engage with accounts because you’re a good community member
Grow your account by earning street cred. Followers don’t pay bills. Customers do.
BOOSTING POSTS
There’s nothing wrong with trying this, but in my experience, it just doesn’t work well.
Good content earns engagement and results.
A better strategy is to build your account organically (yes, it’s hard to learn what works and what doesn’t – but it’s 10x more effective) and then, when you have content that has taken off, you have the option to leverage that content (either by uploading the creative or using the post ID) in Facebook Ads Manager and you’ll get way better results (and more strategic) and better reporting/audience options.
TAGGING A BUNCH OF COMPETITORS/COLLEAGUES IN THE HOPE THEY’LL BOOST SUCCESS
To me, this has always felt like cheating on an exam and my rule is that if you tag me unless it’s directly related to me, I’ll go out of my way to not engage with the post. I’ve even gone so far before as to specifically untag myself.
I’ve only tagged other people if I’m literally referring to them in the post. For example, I once did a post that was about accounts that can help with male infertility and tagged the accounts people in my audience could follow.
VOICEOVER COMEDY REELS
I love relatable content but I’ve tried voiceover comedy reels and my audience just doesn’t love them. Also, I find they take away from credibility.
Instead, try:
- Reels with you talking to the camera and establishing your credibility/showcasing you know your stuff
- Twitter-style reels that validate someone’s experience
- Reels that are short but have a list of insights/tips that people would want to share (using just footage of you going about your business – e.g. record yourself talking on Zoom to a client, meditating, walking along the beach etc)
LINKS + WORK WITH ME
- Free Case Study – How we got 1500 launch-ready email subscribers in 3 weeks
- Get a 30 Day Free Trial of Kartra – our Course, Email and Funnel Software
- Swipe our Manychat Setup (and our Instagram Story to Subscribers Sequences + more)
- Want to launch an online course? Jump on the waitlist here.
- Work with me in the Well Conceived Mastermind
- 1:1 Coaching
FOLLOW
- Daily tips on growing your audience, impact and revenue (without sacrificing your life): @robynbirkin Â
