Gal Guides and 5 Best Tips on Growing Your Instagram

Big News! Big News! My sister and I are launching something exciting and today’s post is dedicated to the launch and teaching you my 5 best tips on growing your instagram!

 

If you are hoping to start your own business, or questions about growing your e-commerce business, starting a blog or earn more money blogging, I have the site for you AND the platform for you to communicate any questions you have had about what I do or how I do it.  Today’s post is an essential read!!

 

 

 

I read a lot online about fashion, retailers, instagram, pinterest, busines etc.  I learn a TON just fishing around trying to figure stuff out myself and most instagram tips are pretty generic. Have a theme, pretty feed, great photography, be social and interact, post everyday.  The list goes on and on, and for most of you I’m sure you read them and react like me.  Yes, I already do that, yes, I already know that, and yes where’s the real info?  Well, with launching a new idea and I decided to share what I thought were the 5 best tips on growing your Instagram.

 

#1 Edit your photos and my favorite two apps for editing on the phone.

So we all know to have a theme for your feed, I’m a style blogger so I mostly show my style.  But I also edit all my photos to have consistent filters and coloring.  And I do try hard to map out a feed where I show my whole body, than a closer body shot, than an alternate shot, than maybe a bottom view shot and than back to my whole body.  Or I link similar color background/clothing together so it flows well.  All photos show my clothing but various views to make it interesting.  And if you didn’t know already, I use 99% Iphone 7 Photos for my feed and I edit all my photos on Afterlight. I know some use VSCO, but I find Afterlight so easy to use that anyone can learn it.  VSCO was hard for me to understand quickly but I still want to learn how to better use it (someday when I have more time :).  For any finishing touches I use Facetune. I cover marks behind a wall with a patch button, I smooth out any weird lines on my face.  You can do a ton on Facetune, some even try to make themselves skinnier (yes you can do that) but I’m afraid of that as I don’t want people to think I’m huge in person!

 

#2 Be social by interacting with a plan

Most articles I read were advising to be interactive with those with your similar interests.  Well, there are millions of instagram accounts now and it’s so hard to keep up.  Have a plan such as choosing 3 hashtags that are focused on your field and go through and goal to like and comment on 20-50 photos a day.  Or choose 20 accounts you love and interact with them everyday for two weeks.  Instagram wants you on there and the more you interact, the more you are consistent in commenting on certain photos of accounts, the more people will see your photos. In addition, those accounts where you leave likes and comments everyday are more willing to follow you back.  I don’t love the follow/unfollow tactic so I don’t recommend that. Keep on with your plan for at least a few weeks and re-evaluate how it did.  If choosing the hashtags work, change hashtags every few weeks and keep going but up it to 100 photos a day.  For your own feed (this tip is everywhere) use relevant hashtags on all your photos :). I’m not super specific here for this tip as the plan needs to be what works for your feed, your specified field and what your goal is.  To grow and sell something, to get them to your blog, to purely focus on your number of followers, to get more comments, etc.  Figure out the goal of your instagram and make a plan and be consistent with it.  Also respond to your comments and go to their feed to do the same everyday. If you are just starting or growing, this is key in interacting in the community!

 

#3 Use your instastories and live!

This tip goes along with being interactive.  Your followers will get to know you better and instagram rewards you for using another feature.  The best tip I got from my sister (which really works), upload stories every few hours. That way your followers who do love you will see you up top on their feed consistently and your number of views will remain solid rather than dipping when you load a lot all at once.  I followed her advice and I doubled my views and my stories now have more consistent views!! I do use instastories EVERYDAY as well.  Instagram Live is hard as I find it works best if someone shoots you or if you are doing something exciting, but I plan on doing more of this in the next month.

 

#4 Review your analytics and post accordingly

I do have a business account and track my day to day likes, interactions and what time to post.  Keep a good record and know your followers and see what type of photos they love.  If you don’t have a business account, make sure just to try different times and consistently post at times so you get a good guidance of what type of posts do well at what time.

 

For example go with 8:00am and 9:00pm (the times when most people are at home); post twice a day for over a week and see what the engagement is.  If 9:00pm is awesome and 8:00am not, try 1pm and keep the 9pm or try 10pm to see the difference.  Keeping track of this and consistent posting keeps your followers engaged and looking for your posts.

 

#5 Giveaways, Contest and Sharing

So I’ve done all three – loop giveaways do gain you a good amount of followers but you do lose them as well but you lose the ones that don’t love your content which is fine.  Remember, if you have a great account, a lot will remain following you.  Imaging/interaction/engaging is everything.  Contest by promoting or giving away a gift card on your own feed is a great way to get your followers to interact and attract others.  Ask them to tag a friend as an entry (but don’t have them tag too many as you don’t want to be considered spam) and have them type their favorite emoji works.  Sharing: I’ve done it where I’ve shared three other girls feeds on my instagram (split three way photo) as well as shared style bloggers I loved on my instastories and I tagged all of them.  They do the same. That way their followers come to you and vice versa.  Sharing is a great way to get followers that really do love what you are sharing as they came over to your feed.

 

I hope you found this post helpful.  My sister blogged about How to Start Your Own Fashion or Style Blog and it’s great read for those that haven’t started or just started!

 

Overall for this post, I didn’t insert too much detail and photos because . . .

 

This type of post is what I’d like to share more of each month AND what you’ll find are guides (with more detail, photos, and explanation) at our new site Gal Guides!!

 

It launches today AND my sister and I are so excited!!!!!  We wanted to create a site where it was the fashion gal guides to blogging, business and building an empire.  We launched two guides and an ultimate set (you receive everything) on how to make more income as a blogger.  How to get paid collaborations AND The top influencer networks that will pay you to post.  Tons of bonuses and we will goal to create new guides ever month.  Our tips and fashion news will come to you weekly if you sign up for our email list.

 

This is a labor of love and with the questions we’ve been receiving the past 5 years from all of you, we are finally launching something where we hope to address your key needs. It won’t cost hundreds of dollars for a guide and each one is easy to read and follow through on.  No extra material that is fluff but simple steps to earning more!

This set is currently a deal for our launch.  Check out the ultimate set and site here!! Let us know what you think. xoxo

 

Thank you for your continued support and love.