Hey you! If you clicked on this post then I assume you are wanting help with growing your Instagram audience in one way or another. I also assume this is not because you are trying to win a popularity contest, but because you know you have something to offer other people, whether that’s a product, or blog posts, or other meaningful content. No one should ever make you feel bad for wanting to grow. Growth is a GOOD thing and it is something I believe we should always strive for. I grew my business Instagram following to 10K in a little less than 3 years, but most of that growth happened in about 6 months, and I will tell you how.

First, you will notice I didn’t title this post “How to Grow Your Instagram Following,” because the numbers, to a certain extent, don’t really matter. It can definitely benefit your business to reach 10K for the swipe up feature in your stories, BUT if you don’t have genuine followers who enjoy your content and WILL swipe up, it doesn’t even matter. When presenting myself to a company for a collaboration, I always mention engagement because I believe that’s what any good company looks for – someone who interacts with their followers and has genuine, trusted relationships with them.

You’ll also notice I didn’t title this “How to Beat The Algorithm,” because it’s not about that either. I don’t pretend to understand the algorithm fully, but I do know that it shows users content that they like, engage with, search for, etc. In some ways it’s cool because what you’re seeing is usually what you’re interested it, but sometimes it can be frustrating. Bottom line, nothing is perfect, so you can choose to complain about it or make do with what you’ve got. Social media is still a wonderful platform and I’m thankful for it! Alright, I’m done preaching to you about that now. 😉

If I could only give you ONE piece of advice for growing engagement, it would be to BE engaging. But don’t worry, I’m going to unpack exactly what I mean by that and give you some tips! I don’t pretend to be an expert, but I want to share with you what has worked for me in the hopes that it can help you too!

I do want to point out, though, these tips require time. But if you’re committed to your business and passionate about what you do, it won’t be a problem. You can certainly set healthy boundaries for yourself, and you should. So we’ll talk about that too at the end.

Let’s go!

Read more