I'm not one for gatekeeping so I wanted to write a full post about how I have grown my Instagram since March/April when I started really putting in the effort with the app. I have had my Instagram for over a decade and had been stuck at just over 2,000 followers before I cleared out the dead accounts and went down to 1,400 in April and I had never seen any growth with it...until now.
Besides clearing out dead accounts when I started, I did also change my username from '@hannahheartss' to @hannahlisa.makeup, and do think it made a small difference as it tells you instantly who I am and what my content is. Almost immediately after I changed my username and started uploading daily I noticed I was gaining more followers.
My Numbers
I want to be as upfront as possible in this blog post. I had a Reels video go a little mad last month with over 740k views on it so, of course, that is going to have contributed heavily to the 1.3 million accounts reached. And technically my accounts reached (as of writing this blog post on the 30th of August) is down 10% on last month at around 640k accounts reached. But I actually find that to be fantastic as while I have had some great numbers on Reels videos this month, I haven't had another video with over 100k views just yet!
I started uploading Reels regularly in March and heavily tracked my stats from April. I write down my stats for every month in the notes app as you can only see the previous 90 days in your Instagram dashboard. In April 2022 I hit 1451 followers and 25.5k accounts reached and by July 2022 I hit 3785 followers and 673k accounts reached.
On the day I'm writing this blog post, I have 5420 followers and I'm starting to gain at least a thousand followers and more a month.
Reels, Reels, Reels.
I'll be honest, if you want to see growth on Instagram you need to be creating Reels. When I decided to give Reels a try I knew it was going to be something I needed to be doing consistently so I knew I couldn't be a perfectionist with my content. The videos I create typically take me minutes to film and edit. I try to keep it as simple as possible, I film all my videos on my iPhone and edit them in the Instagram app. If I do a sped-up video like my mid-week makeup bag restocks, I use cap cut to adjust the speed. But that is about it when it comes to editing.
On a side note, if you are planning to film on your iPhone, don't film in 4k as it crashes the Instagram app a lot, I film all of my videos in HD 60 and take my cover photo in portrait mode. I edit all of my cover photos in Lightroom with a preset so my feed looks consistent.
Make sure you have a creator account if you are into the numbers side of things, I personally love stats because numbers do not lie. In the last 90 days alone I have had two and a half million impressions on my account with one and half million accounts reached. 85% of the reached audience is the UK and 65.9% of my reached audience are between the ages of 25 and 34.
Be Consistent and Know When to Post
If you are wanting to grow your Instagram account, pick a schedule that works for you and try to stick to it. I have been pretty burned out from writing blog posts for a while now and I will never stop writing fully but I have switched over to posting daily on Instagram/Reels instead of on my blog.
Posting at the right times is key and what I did to find the best time to post was look at accounts/creators who post similar content and pick up on trends. I also try to pay attention to my Instagram analytics and 6pm is the most popular time for Instagram so I try to post between half 5 and 6:15pm every day.
Finding Content That Brings the Views
When you first start posting (and even now a couple of months in for me), I am constantly trying new things and seeing what works. And as soon as you find something that works, keep making that content! For me, my 'Makeup Bag Monday' videos are my most popular so I do it every Monday! I do ASMR-style videos restocking my makeup bag midweek and those do well. I recently started doing individual product videos with swatches and a few of those are doing well.
Again, see what similar creators are posting to get some ideas (obviously don't copy them). I have even noticed featuring certain brands will get more views, Dior is a massive hit on Instagram. I try to stay in my lane and create original content that is still similar enough to what is popular on Instagram.
Songs vs Trending Audios
I am a huge music lover, specifically Taylor Swift and soundtracks. So that is mainly what I stick with on my account. I personally don't like using trending audios as they don't really work for me and my account. Whenever a reel of mine has started to get a tonne of views, it's usually at least a week after posting so if I use something that is currently trending, it might not be trending in a week.
I love using songs I personally love, the video that went mad last month that I mentioned earlier with 740k+ views on it was with Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift. I love Lizzo and adored The Summer I Turned Pretty TV series soundtrack, so I used a lot of those songs on their release weeks and had some decent success with those videos later as those songs started to get popular. I may not be a Beyonce lover but I have used a couple of songs from her new album and all of the videos have 50k views or more.
When I film my videos, 95% of the time I have no idea what song I will use for it but every now and again, the song beat will match perfectly with the video and viewers love it. I posted a video recently with the video matching the beat to Taylor Swift's Message in a Bottle and it has 2.2k likes and 25k views (it also took me seconds to film)!
Likes, Comments, & Saves
I'm not someone who comments on a lot of content and because I create content similar to what I like to follow, my videos aren't the kind of content that will get a lot of comments and I haven't noticed that this affects me too much. However, the more saves you get on a post, the more views and interaction you will receive. Now I have noticed this, I will always save and like other creators' content. My best performing videos are the ones that received a lot of saves early on.
Video Length
I have played around with video lengths and I would recommend keeping your videos between six and 15 seconds. I occasionally post one that's longer and it does okay but 6-15 seconds seem to be the golden length. And within the first two seconds, you need something to hold the viewer's attention so they don't scroll past.
Hashtags & Tags
I have found that hashtags work best in a comment rather than the caption. I try not to use too many and switch them up daily and depending on the content and use more niche ones. In the caption, I try to use keywords (similar to SEO you would do for a blog post).
To tag brands, I'll always do this in the caption and as well as in the 'tag people' section right before you upload!
I hope you found this helpful and now the quest for two million accounts reached begins!
<3
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