Instagram Growth Plan + (Free) App List!

Categories Blogging Tips, , , , , 48 Comments on Instagram Growth Plan + (Free) App List!

If you ask any blogger what social media they focus on the most, you’re probably going to get one of three answers:

  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

If you ask me, you’re going to get a bottomless well of despair and desolation . . . and a big fat “I have no fucking idea – I don’t know how to use social media!”.

Hello beautiful people. One of my personal goals for 2018 is to be a better blogger and that usually means having more of a social presence. Which is fine, if you aren’t like me and you don’t find social media painful. Cue this post.

So I’m guessing I’m not the only person who doesn’t quite have the “knack” for social? Right? Someone agree with me please. That being said, unfortunately this modern world of ours doesn’t care whether I have a knack for social media or not, which means I need to tackle my social media issues.

Now, I am not one to shy away from a challenge – or a possible blog post idea. Which means that not only am I going to attempt to improve my social medias, I’m going to do it with research, plans and . . . I’m going to be taking you guys with me.

As you can probably tell from the title, today’s social media we’re going to be tackling is Instagram.

Step #1 – Look at Instagram accounts that inspire you, make a list of your faves!

Why are we doing this? Well, to identify what you like in an Instagram account – so you can recreate it! Here are some of my favourite Instagram accounts. (They’re also small accounts so feel free to follow them!)

         

As you can see, I tend to favour a feed; I like cohesive colour schemes, kind of quirky stuff. For you, you may like completely different accounts. Some people like humour, some like makeup, some want accounts with loads of scenery . . . it’s all about your personal taste!

Step 2 – Take a look at the sort of images you like and could (realistically) recreate

For this, I turned to Pinterest! Here’s the thing: you can love those Insta feeds of those models that are constantly in bikinis and lounging on beaches, but to be fair . . . most of them live in Australia. If you live in the UK, unless you only want to repost other people’s photos and post for like a week out of the year, that sort of feed isn’t going to possible for you.

So make sure you pick images you can consistently create!

(Simultaneously try not to cry over how pretty all the Pinterest girls are.)

For me, I could pretty easily create outfit photos (thank you tripods and blogging friends!), floral photos (thank you to my ever-growing obsession with flowers), images with crystals (thank you my own shopping addiction) and various pretty things. For you, maybe you’ll take product photos, food pics, or share quotes, or images from your sketchbook.

Step 3 – Decide on the kind of feed you want

Of course, this doesn’t limit you to only posting images fitting to this theme – but having a theme can help you create a uniform look for your instagram and helps you out when deciding what content to post. Once you’ve decided on a feed, my favourite app to use for photo editing is VSCO – there are so many filters and they’re geared towards themes, so there are warm tones, cold ones, filters aimed at white feeds etc.

Step 4 – Plan Your Feed

I love the free app Preview for this; you can drag in images (and edit them in app!), view them next to your current Instagram photos and even hide photos you’ve already published to see if your feed looks better without them. Plus, you can fill in your captions on the app too – so if you bulk upload some images and set aside an hour to write up a bunch of captions, your feed can all be done in advance!

Step #5 – Start following people & interacting!

Personally, I think this is the easiest part! Start finding people within your niche, follow and interact with them! Instagram tends to grow somewhat organically (although admittedly slowly) once you start up and you’ll start being recommended to people related to the people you follow/that follow you, so it’s all about getting your content sorted then starting to follow and interact with other people.

Apparently. How the fuck would I know? I’m not an Instagram guru.

Step #6 – Upload somewhat regularly, write long (ish) captions and use hashtags!

These are tips I credit to the awesome Maria; her Instagram is amazing and she has like great growth.

 

See? This girl knows her shit! (In fact, I would whole-heartedly love to read a post about her tips on Instagram . . . Hint, hint.)

Something I’ve taken to doing recently is actually writing out captions in my notes as I think of them, so I always have something to add to my photos. That said, I’m really still trying to figure out hashtags . . . I’ll get there one day!

Okay, kids – that’s my Instagram plan of action. I hope some of you found it useful; make sure you follow me on Insta as well as here. *Casually inserts strategically positioned Instagram widget*

❤️

A post shared by Mia (@miajosiex) on

And with that let us end this post! Do you guys have an Instagram strategy or are you just naturally good at ‘gramming? Have you used any of the apps I mentioned? What sort of accounts do you like? Let me know your thoughts down below!

Peace,

Instagram // Twitter // Bloglovin’ // Youtube

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Published by crystalsandcurls

I'm going through a bit of an existential crisis right now, I'll tell you about myself when I figure out if I'm real or not.

48 thoughts on “Instagram Growth Plan + (Free) App List!”

  1. How about taking some shots at the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.
    My household used to refer to them as like the aristocracy only without the money.
    Here we have a place called Moe. We call it Moccasins On Everyone.

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      1. Am thinking of opening an Instagram account. Need a context though.
        The Bard just shut his down. The costume and props making business is slow.

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Love love love this. I used to be so active on social media and now all of my accounts are like they are in a deep sleep. I do try to post sporadically but I’ve just gotten out of the routine. So these were some great tips that I will definitely be taking advantage of, as I feel like all of my social media needs a serious reboot! xx

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  5. Latergram is great! It is a lot like Preview. While I don’t post from there, I use it as a layout for seeing what would look best. I too, struggle from social media pressures and recently went private…lol at my life. But, either way I​’m so indecisive so I have not set a specific theme. I may make a blog specifically for this account and keep my private accout to myself. Anyways, enough blabbering. As always, I loved reading your post! Blessings! Xoxo

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  12. Support all of this. I have a whole note on my phone just for insta captions because all of my captions are stupid or bad puns, but you’re definitely killing the instagram game at the moment xx

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  18. Curating your feed is easy, they said.
    Just pick the same filter in VSCO, they said.
    Post regularly, they said.

    Do you know I’ve had Instagram since it’s inception (I was luckily living in California at the time) and I am still struggling to get it “right.” I did grow my former boutique’s following organically to a mighty 3.5K, but boy, was it tough.

    Now that Instagram is suffocating feeds and forcing us to have to pay to play, I’m really uninspired with it. Ever since you gave me that Pinterest hack, I’ve been taking my talents there, instead. I really love Twitter (although I don’t advertise it on my blog—it’s uncensored, haha).

    *waits patiently for the next social media phenomenon*

    Dom
    http://www.DivaNamedDom.com

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  19. There’s this app called Later. As per their ad on facebook, People are trying to hack the algorithm of Insta by having a group and sharing your latest photo to them, let them like, comment and whatever for it to be visible.

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  20. Thanks for this! We have become pretty serious about growing my Insta in the last 2 months. I have gone from 250 to 900 Followers in that time frame. It is not easy! Content is #1, use your 30 Hashtags, reach out to curated accounts for features and shoutouts. I have promoted 2 of my best photos, which generated new followers . Make sure you have a business account so you can see your stats. What is your insta name?

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