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Growing your Instagram account, strategy and discussion

amp0193

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You may be right. I need to continually switch hashtags in each set. The problem I have with Instagram in general is that if you are running a niche business, then you are going to repeat the same hashtags, whether you mean to or not. I think it is inevitable. Hashtags are going to be seen as somewhat spammy regardless, aren't they?

How do you structure your hashtags?

I now just use 2-4 within the context of the comment. Like a normal instagram user would.
 
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Xeon

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4) If your business offers a brand rep program (it should) then put that in your bio as well and put a money emoji next to it. I have gotten multiple inquiries on it without doing anything except having it in my bio. This has opened our page up to thousands and thousands of potential followers and customers.

Could you give more details regarding the brand rep thing? This seems interesting and something that would definitely help me a lot.

Do you write something like "Interested to be our Brand Rep? DM us now!"
If so, how do you select who gets to be your brand rep? e.g. follower count? need to have DSLR camera etc.?
Also, do you give free products to those successful applicants?

Isn't a brand rep similar to a shoutout, in that the Brand rep will post your products on their IG?

When putting hashtags on your pictures, do NOT put them in the caption. It looks unprofessional, IMO. Post your picture and then post the hashtags in the comments below. I have 3 sets of 20-25 hashtags for my niche saved in my notes that I alternate through because Instagram will demote you if they think you are just spamming the same hashtags everyday.

I used to do that, then I read some articles saying it's less effective in terms of hashtag reach, so I stopped. Now I'm thinking of doing that again. There's 2 camps to this theory.

6) Ask your followers questions in the post. "Couldn't you see yourself saving 15 minutes a day with our product? Your time is precious!" Tell them to tag someone that NEEDS this product. Even if it doesn't work at first, engagement will go up eventually. I told people to tag people and asked questions to followers for about 30 straight days and nobody responded, but they did eventually and now they ALWAYS respond.

I've tried this before a few times but gave up after a while. It makes me look silly, because my posts would be like "Don't you find this cute? Tag a friend who you think will!" and similar, but there's always zero response lol
So, it took just 30 days for you to have followers start commenting?

The problem I have with Instagram in general is that if you are running a niche business, then you are going to repeat the same hashtags, whether you mean to or not. I think it is inevitable. Hashtags are going to be seen as somewhat spammy regardless, aren't they?

I get what you mean, my account is pretty niche and it's always the same hashtags.
Anyway, again, there's 2 camps to this. I've been reading this and some IG experts say it does, some say it doesn't. I say F*ck it and just do it.
I thought this was what got me shadowbanned, so I waited for some time and tried using 2 - 3 hashtags and it's still the same. If anything, IG's engagement has been down for a lot of people as the scene is getting oversaturated like email newsletters.

Also, regarding shadowban, again, some say it exists while others say it's just convoluted BS.
 

cwalto12

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Could you give more details regarding the brand rep thing? This seems interesting and something that would definitely help me a lot.

Do you write something like "Interested to be our Brand Rep? DM us now!"
If so, how do you select who gets to be your brand rep? e.g. follower count? need to have DSLR camera etc.?
Also, do you give free products to those successful applicants?

Isn't a brand rep similar to a shoutout, in that the Brand rep will post your products on their IG?



I used to do that, then I read some articles saying it's less effective in terms of hashtag reach, so I stopped. Now I'm thinking of doing that again. There's 2 camps to this theory.



I've tried this before a few times but gave up after a while. It makes me look silly, because my posts would be like "Don't you find this cute? Tag a friend who you think will!" and similar, but there's always zero response lol
So, it took just 30 days for you to have followers start commenting?



I get what you mean, my account is pretty niche and it's always the same hashtags.
Anyway, again, there's 2 camps to this. I've been reading this and some IG experts say it does, some say it doesn't. I say f*ck it and just do it.
I thought this was what got me shadowbanned, so I waited for some time and tried using 2 - 3 hashtags and it's still the same. If anything, IG's engagement has been down for a lot of people as the scene is getting oversaturated like email newsletters.

Also, regarding shadowban, again, some say it exists while others say it's just convoluted BS.

I put "Ask about earning 'money emoji' with us" in my bio. Basically the way it works is that they have to tag us in a post once a week and we give them a specific code that gets their followers 20% off their purchase. Then we give the rep 10% of the profit earned on the sale. We really accept anyone that wants to do it because we could potentially make money on anyone that even has a couple hundred followers. They USUALLY don't make a lot of money, but even $10 a month for posting a picture is a good deal IMO. We tell them that we would like the picture to relate to our niche. Or if they have ordered from us in the past, to post a picture with their item.

I have not given anyone free products yet, but it is something I've considered for the future. I haven't decided the criteria and number of followers for that. I think I'll just have to find the most successful rep that has the most conversions with their discount code and give it a shot.

It took about 30 days to get a response, yes. Maybe a little over. Yeah, I felt stupid doing it too. Still do sometimes haha, but it works for the most part so why not.

I have tried to put 3 or 4 hashtags in my post and maybe it was because I was just starting out, but I have gotten WAY more interactions and likes when I started using my sets of hashtags posted as the first comment. Like not even close. I think it is worth a shot til something happens to my account. I'm just going to keep switching them up.
 

PetePreneur

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Anybody know how to put those little circle story things in your profile BTW? I feel that this could be good as a permanent call to action? I've seen people with like 3/4 of these under their bio. Anybody know?

Cheers!
 
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cwalto12

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Anybody know how to put those little circle story things in your profile BTW? I feel that this could be good as a permanent call to action? I've seen people with like 3/4 of these under their bio. Anybody know?

Cheers!
Hit the bottom right button to view your profile page and it's called "story highlights". I believe you have to post an Instagram story first(click your icon on the home page next to all of the other stories) for that section to show up, and then when it expires you can save it forever under your bio.
 

PetePreneur

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Hit the bottom right button to view your profile page and it's called "story highlights". I believe you have to post an Instagram story first(click your icon on the home page next to all of the other stories) for that section to show up, and then when it expires you can save it forever under your bio.

Nice! Thanks!
 

Xeon

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One more thing to add. For those of us who have under 10k followers like myself, it's important to get the follower count to 10k or more asap.

Reason being, once you hit 10k, you'll have access to that Swipe Up feature in your Instagram Story which can take users to your website or product page from IG.

Attractive image in IG Story > seen by visitors > CTA Swipe Up > Your own website

And since IG Stories provide lots of additional bonus views to your posts, you can see where that all lead to.

Then, combine that with the Story Highlights circles mentioned above, and the IG profile page literally becomes like a mini website with multiple links to your site / product pages.
 
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I did some research and a cheap way to push your profile is to join dm groups because the performance of the first 60 minutes of your picture determines if it gets viral or not. Having some people with a good amount of followers themselves liking and commenting within that hour ranks it WAY higher.
In that matter we could make our own dm groups. However it only makes sense if it's in the same niche but I think it's no problem if it is a personal account like mine is (I first want a good amount of followers and late on make some money with affiliate marketing). So if there are any other people with personal accounts, you are free to dm me here and we could make a group to push each other.
 

PetePreneur

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Hashtags + Quality content + Paid shoutouts + Paid advertising.

Mostly through PAID advertising is how you grow. It's a pay to play space since Facebook bought it.

Yeah, I think the whole thing is going to be like Facebook soon, where nothing will get shown unless you advertise. I don't think it's as bad as Facebook YET, but it's certainly getting there.
 
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No money spent. I'm doing parody videos (putting athletes faces on movie characters heads) for the soccer niche--the largest sports market in the world. If its funny/relevent/engaging, big accounts like to post that kind of stuff if it doesn't offend anyone

Any advice on a novice on how to create videos? No video editing experience and it's not intuitive to me with the few I've downloaded. I'm using Windows 8. Unable to download Windows movie maker and not sure what to do next. Even the paid stuff looks to advanced for me.
 

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I have not given anyone free products yet, but it is something I've considered for the future. I haven't decided the criteria and number of followers for that. I think I'll just have to find the most successful rep that has the most conversions with their discount code and give it a shot.

I have two stores, one I could easily ship out products to people (cheap), one where the products are expensive and would cost about $50-100 each depending on the product...

I have been trying to do an "Ambassador's program" with the first site, without much success. Basically, I'm DMing random people with around 1k followers (tiny "normal people" accounts that likely haven't been reached out to by a brand before so they're more excited) but it hasn't been working. I've had 5 or 6 people make a post using our images that I give them.

What else would you try in this case? I love the idea, but I feel like I'm doing something wrong. This is what I've been sending them:

"Hey, I absolutely love your page! We're looking for people to help us grow our brand and would love to have you as one of our Ambassadors. Does that sound like something you'd be interested in?"

I also send this to influencers/other accounts that I can't tell what they are:

[Fire] BUSINESS RELATED [Fire] Love what you do! We are looking for a few people to work with long term on brand promotion. Let me know if this is something you'd be interested in [Moneybag]

What should I switch up??

Reason being, once you hit 10k, you'll have access to that Swipe Up feature in your Instagram Story which can take users to your website or product page from IG.

I did not know that. Thank you!! I am going to post a story video I paid for, then repost it with a swipe up once we hit 10k

Any advice on a novice on how to create videos? No video editing experience and it's not intuitive to me with the few I've downloaded. I'm using Windows 8. Unable to download Windows movie maker and not sure what to do next. Even the paid stuff looks to advanced for me.

I just hired an AWESOME dude off of Fiverr from Venezuela. He made a great video for $5. I tipped him $5 more and he was extatic (lots of money for people down there). Just check Fiverr. I was in the same boat as you last week but now I have 2 great videos and more on the way.
 

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Yeah, I think the whole thing is going to be like Facebook soon, where nothing will get shown unless you advertise. I don't think it's as bad as Facebook YET, but it's certainly getting there.

Are you having success with promoted IG posts?? Can you give a little insight on what you're doing if so? All of mine have failed terribly, I get much better engagement and sometimes even LINK IN BIO clicks by just using hashtags
 
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PetePreneur

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Are you having success with promoted IG posts?? Can you give a little insight on what you're doing if so? All of mine have failed terribly, I get much better engagement and sometimes even LINK IN BIO clicks by just using hashtags

I haven't tried any adverts yet. I'm just posting normally right now, but will probably try it at some point.
 

Xeon

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Are you having success with promoted IG posts?? Can you give a little insight on what you're doing if so? All of mine have failed terribly, I get much better engagement and sometimes even LINK IN BIO clicks by just using hashtags

I've tried the Promote function in IG several times, with disappointing results. And I've already targeted a specific niche. However, that being said, the content I'm promoting is reposted content from others, so that could be one reason why. I will try this on my own content/product soon.

What I did was spend $1 - $2 on the Promoted feature to test it out.

I feel IG Story currently gives better results than Promote, and it's free.
 

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I have two stores, one I could easily ship out products to people (cheap), one where the products are expensive and would cost about $50-100 each depending on the product...

I have been trying to do an "Ambassador's program" with the first site, without much success. Basically, I'm DMing random people with around 1k followers (tiny "normal people" accounts that likely haven't been reached out to by a brand before so they're more excited) but it hasn't been working. I've had 5 or 6 people make a post using our images that I give them.

What else would you try in this case? I love the idea, but I feel like I'm doing something wrong. This is what I've been sending them:

"Hey, I absolutely love your page! We're looking for people to help us grow our brand and would love to have you as one of our Ambassadors. Does that sound like something you'd be interested in?"

I also send this to influencers/other accounts that I can't tell what they are:

[Fire] BUSINESS RELATED [Fire] Love what you do! We are looking for a few people to work with long term on brand promotion. Let me know if this is something you'd be interested in [Moneybag]

What should I switch up??
I would just say: "I'll paypal you $5 for a 24 hour sponsored post if interested. Yes or no?" Keep it short. Don't talk about long term investment yet. Nobody wants to commit yet. Larger pages with 10k followers would probably take that offer btw
 
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Evil_Jester

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Any advice on a novice on how to create videos? No video editing experience and it's not intuitive to me with the few I've downloaded. I'm using Windows 8. Unable to download Windows movie maker and not sure what to do next. Even the paid stuff looks to advanced for me.
I'm actually doing tutorials for what I make on my page. I'll make a progress thread at the end of the month with links to my page. Video editing is complicated. It costs money for a good computer and to pay for the software. I wouldn't advise it if you are tight for cash
 

cwalto12

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I have two stores, one I could easily ship out products to people (cheap), one where the products are expensive and would cost about $50-100 each depending on the product...

I have been trying to do an "Ambassador's program" with the first site, without much success. Basically, I'm DMing random people with around 1k followers (tiny "normal people" accounts that likely haven't been reached out to by a brand before so they're more excited) but it hasn't been working. I've had 5 or 6 people make a post using our images that I give them.

What else would you try in this case? I love the idea, but I feel like I'm doing something wrong. This is what I've been sending them:

"Hey, I absolutely love your page! We're looking for people to help us grow our brand and would love to have you as one of our Ambassadors. Does that sound like something you'd be interested in?"

I also send this to influencers/other accounts that I can't tell what they are:

[Fire] BUSINESS RELATED [Fire] Love what you do! We are looking for a few people to work with long term on brand promotion. Let me know if this is something you'd be interested in [Moneybag]

What should I switch up??

I would change it to say what THEY are getting out of it. Why should they care about your brand?

I just have “ask us how to earn money with us” in my bio and two people reached out to me and promoted my instagram/website before my website even launched. If your niche is good enough, they’ll come. Say something like: “Hey! We love your page. (Ask question about one of their pics). We are paying Instagram users (money emoji), with content that we like, to help us promote our brand. All you have to do is post a picture similar to our content and tag us in it! Or you can order something you like and post a pic of that. We will give you a discount code and anyone that uses it at checkout gets you money! Easy as that. Money for posting a picture.”

Don’t use that word for word, but that’s similar to how I structure it.

Then go into whatever details you want to give, like percentage of a sale or whatever you want to give them.
 

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Hey! We love your page. (Ask question about one of their pics). We are paying Instagram users (money emoji), with content that we like, to help us promote our brand. All you have to do is post a picture similar to our content and tag us in it! Or you can order something you like and post a pic of that. We will give you a discount code and anyone that uses it at checkout gets you money! Easy as that. Money for posting a picture.

I'll try that for a few weeks and report back for y'all :) THANKS!

I just have “ask us how to earn money with us” in my bio and two people reached out to me and promoted my instagram/website before my website even launched.

I've been making tons of sales from "Shoutout posts" where I have an influencer post a sale for my product. Some of them won't post your link in their bio, so I just post it in my bio with a related caption. This has been working for sales, but I have to keep switching up my Bio and honestly it doesn't look good... Currently it is "HALF OFF SALE on XXXitemXXX for the next 12 hours!"

Do you suggest going with a solid bio and simply switching the link ONLY when I do shoutouts for different products??
 
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GravyBoat

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Also, is this the "Everliker" you guys are referring to?? I didn't know that you had to have 10k followers in order to use the Swipe Up feature on stories... Does anyone have any objections to using Everliker to get to 10k then shutting it off?? Normally I'm against bots but shit...
 

cwalto12

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I'll try that for a few weeks and report back for y'all :) THANKS!



I've been making tons of sales from "Shoutout posts" where I have an influencer post a sale for my product. Some of them won't post your link in their bio, so I just post it in my bio with a related caption. This has been working for sales, but I have to keep switching up my Bio and honestly it doesn't look good... Currently it is "HALF OFF SALE on XXXitemXXX for the next 12 hours!"

Do you suggest going with a solid bio and simply switching the link ONLY when I do shoutouts for different products??
I’d like to clarify that I’m NO expert on Instagram haha I’m just telling you what I use and what works for me vs what doesn’t.

As far as bio goes, check my post earlier in the thread about starting a hashtag with your brand name in it (or something similar and catchy) for people to tag you with. I also have my business email in there with some email emojis for pics and whatever else. My store link and “ask about earning money with us” are the other things on there.

I wouldn’t put 50% off sale or anything like that in my bio but that’s just my opinion.
 

GravyBoat

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I’d like to clarify that I’m NO expert on Instagram haha I’m just telling you what I use and what works for me vs what doesn’t.
That makes two of us haha :) Thanks for the help. I hadn't been posting daily either so I just stacked about 60 posts ready to go out the door so I can easily post them with a few seconds each day.
 
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Andy Black

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I just logged onto IG for the first time in over a year because of MJs thread where he’s posting on IG.

Seems I’ve got 0 posts. I don’t even know how to use it, or what to use it for. I don’t even remember creating an account tbh.

Haha. Talk about starting from ground zero.

Anyway... I thought I’d had a look at IG because I was going to create a thread in TFLF of my favourite quotes, and because I’m now curious about some other platform I’ve never used.

Seems I’ve fallen over at the first hurdle though - I’ve got 4G signal on my phone and everything seems to work fine, but IG is complaining there’s no connection. Does it do this a lot?


EDIT: I’ve got 80 followers? How did that happen when I’ve never posted anything? Is it somehow linked to my Facebook account?

Anyway, I might start a fresh new account and a progress thread in TFLF where I drop in my favourite quotes and see what happens on IG.
 

Xeon

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Also, is this the "Everliker" you guys are referring to?? I didn't know that you had to have 10k followers in order to use the Swipe Up feature on stories... Does anyone have any objections to using Everliker to get to 10k then shutting it off?? Normally I'm against bots but sh*t...

Not sure how much followers you've now, but I doubt Everliker can get you to 10K that fast. If you're not that far off from 10K, you might as well buy some followers to fill up that gap.

Seems I’ve fallen over at the first hurdle though - I’ve got 4G signal on my phone and everything seems to work fine, but IG is complaining there’s no connection. Does it do this a lot?

It's very normal. Some kind of quirk that IG has often.
Sometimes when you open the app, the feed doesn't refresh and/or when you click the Likes button to see the latest folks who Liked and Commented, it's still showing the old stuff from 30 mins - 1 hour ago. But it always fixes itself afterwards. More of an annoyance but it's all good.
Sometimes the app loses connection halfway.

Anyway, I might start a fresh new account and a progress thread in TFLF where I drop in my favourite quotes and see what happens on IG.

I could be wrong, but from my experience, IG doesn't take too kindly to posts with too much text and/or made up of text. Similar to that FB thing where they recommend only 20% of the post should be text, but IG seems a lot stricter than FB (after all IG is a very visual platform).

I did a few promoted ads on IG previously, and the ads with text in it had really ridiculously low reach to the point that IG sent an automated message saying ads with text will be affected in terms of reach.
Same seems to apply for IG non-ad posts.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE ON MY INSTAGRAM JOURNEY:

1) I bought 10 comments from RedSocial, where I instructed the commenters to tag a friend.
Very bad experience with these F*ckers. Took my money and never delivered anything till now. I suspect it might even be a scam. And they took 3 working days to reply to one simple email. Stay away from these folks.

2) I just tried the IG commenting pod on telegram (the Wolf Global one). I really like this one, because you only need to comment on the last 5 links, then you post your own IG link, and you get about 4 - 5 comments in return! Plus, you can repeat this multiple times per day to farm even more comments lol
The only thing to note is that you need to have at least 5 other links from other folks in the pod before you can post your link again (so that people don't spam).

Let's say you post your link in that pod and you get 4 comments in return. You then do this 5 times per day (3 - 5 mins each round).
That's about 20 comments per post. If you reply to those each of those 20 comments, that's 40 comments in your post! That looks more social and decent than 0 comments lol

I was thinking, if I have cash to burn, I can even hire a VA to do that 10 times a day.
That'll be like ~100 comments per post! Social proof galore.

Also, most of these folks on the pod have 10k+ followers, and many are cute chicks doing fashion and all that narcissistic selfies shit. If you're in the same niche, you can even partner with them / collab.

3) I also joined a niche-specific pod. This type of niche pods are a lot smaller, but they still give you comments. So, combined with 2) above, I currently average 25 - 40 comments per post, compared to less than 3 previously.

4) Gonna bump up Everliker to do 1400 likes per day. Currently 1200. Once Everliker is set to 1400, I believe I can nail 20 - 30 followers daily.

#socialproofbaby #10Kgoals #instadreams #instagame #instaiseverything
 
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Xeon

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Quick Update.

1) RedSocial has finally delivered my 10 comments after 5 days (website stated 3 days delivery).
I'm quite sure the accounts are probably fake, because the accounts were all created in Oct 2017, has less than 10 followers each, and each of their post has less than 3 Likes. What's interesting, is that each of them have 200 - 300 followers, and their followers seem real to me. However, at least they did put in some effort to make the accounts look real with photos of the same people (selfies etc.).

However, for the quality of their comments, they did deliver as per my requirements, which is to tag their friend's account and their comment text are all very specific to the post I made, so comments wise, it looks 100% real and sincere (you can't even tell unless you check their profile and analyse them, which your casual everyday IGers would not do).
I would say these guys are best used to mix in with the comments from the telegram pods to give you even more comment count. 30 telegram comments + 10 of these purchased comments.

2) Found another free telegram pod today: Free Instagram Engagement Groups | BoostUp Social
Join the Dx10 group and you trade 10 comments for 10 comments.
Nowadays, getting 40 - 60 comments per post is no longer a challenge.

3) I'm currently experimenting with this purchase of drip followers, whereby they send you 10 followers a day and you get approx +300 "followers" a month, instead of sending all to you at one shot, which is obviously too obvious.
 
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PetePreneur

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Quick Update.

1) RedSocial has finally delivered my 10 comments after 5 days (website stated 3 days delivery).
I'm quite sure the accounts are probably fake, because the accounts were all created in Oct 2017, has less than 10 followers each, and each of their post has less than 3 Likes. What's interesting, is that each of them have 200 - 300 followers, and their followers seem real to me. However, at least they did put in some effort to make the accounts look real with photos of the same people (selfies etc.).

However, for the quality of their comments, they did deliver as per my requirements, which is to tag their friend's account and their comment text are all very specific to the post I made, so comments wise, it looks 100% real and sincere (you can't even tell unless you check their profile and analyse them, which your casual everyday IGers would not do).
I would say these guys are best used to mix in with the comments from the telegram pods to give you even more comment count. 30 telegram comments + 10 of these purchased comments.

2) Found another free telegram pod today: Free Instagram Engagement Groups | BoostUp Social
Join the Dx10 group and you trade 10 comments for 10 comments.
Nowadays, getting 40 - 60 comments per post is no longer a challenge.

3) I'm currently experimenting with this purchase of drip followers, whereby they send you 10 followers a day and you get approx +300 "followers" a month, instead of sending all to you at one shot, which is obviously too obvious.

Is this extra engagement leading to growth though? Or are you using it to improve the social proof of your adverts?
 

Xeon

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Is this extra engagement leading to growth though? Or are you using it to improve the social proof of your adverts?

Not sure what you mean by growth, but my aim to build very strong social proof which I can then use as a base to market.
 

PetePreneur

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Not sure what you mean by growth, but my aim to build very strong social proof which I can then use as a base to market.

Ah right, fair enough then. I thought you were doing it to grow your following, but if it's about social proof to help sales on the advert/promoted post, then it seems like it might be worth it!
 
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yana nova

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Here's a fun way to get reposted by "thought leaders" who are active on other platforms such as Youtube, LinkedIn etc. but also have a notable Instagram account:

1. Go to their Youtube channel, latest LinkedIn posts or whatever.

2. Consume their latest content until you come upon something they say that's memorable, interesting and could be turned into a good quote. (1-3 sentences)

3. Take that quote, go to Canva or the app of your choice, and turn it into an instagram pic. Put some love into it, add a picture of them and make it look really nice.

4. Post on your Insta and tag the person.

5. They'll love it, as it's flattering to be quoted by other people. And it makes them appear more authorative.

6. Expect at least a like and a comment. Hope for a repost (= exposure to their followers, which COULD be great if they're your target audience)

Works best for "smaller" guys. Don't do this for Gary Vee or Arnold Schwarzenegger. Go for someone who's actually likely to see your post.

Thank you for this idea!
 

yana nova

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Let me give my two cents on growing Instagram as far as my experience allows me.

In general:
Think of a product first, create it and then start your Instagram, then start using bots like the free or paid version of Everlike or the free or paid version of Telegram L/C - you will find the links in reddit (I used Telegram once, but found it very time consuming. For this time I'd prefer to work and put some money on one day featuring the product for money on bigger accounts).
Your Instagram has to be different from all or at least most of the accounts out there to get a real engagement from honestly interested in your feed people. You have to give them something, to teach them, to make them think and come to your account for more.

I started with this:
motivational quotes and food pics- they work best to get attention. My products are in the fitness industry and I have three Instagram accounts. I build the one of them before my product was ready and at the beginning I was using media, that wasn't about my niche product. When my product was ready to be featured I had to change my feed, thus my followers. This is why I am telling you above to first build your product. Once your feed changes, some, many or most if not all of your followers won't be interested in it anymore, which will lead to Instagram thinking you are a bot (a lot of followers and not a lot of engagement), which leads to your posts not being shown in the feed of your followers.

Learn the platform:
Learn how the platform works and use all the features it offers. I read somewhere, that the more features you use from what Instagram is offering you, the better "the algorithm works for you", aka use hashtags, emojis (silly, but part of the platform), my stories, polls, highlights, live videos, reposting and mentioning bigger accounts and your followers, use filters in your stories.

Who are you? Think of a good, creative, memorable account name and build your bio, let people clearly know who you are, what you offer. The first row of your bio is going to be shown below your username, so make the best out of it, when people search you.

Put in there your email address and other contact form details. If you are going to sell, make sure people are comfortable with giving your their money.

Timing is of course very important- I read that if you don't post at a time, when your followers are awake and free to react, then your post won't get a high traction and won't be featured on the feed page of most of your followers, because Instagram "thinks" you may be a bot and the more followers you have and less reaction on your posts, the worse the algorithm is to your account.

Post every day- multiple times in a day if possible, but max 3 posts. You want your followers to not forget you. Besides every single time you can use all the hashtags possible = attraction!

Use all the hashtags possible and change them once in a while, but not always and not never. When you are small, use hashtags, which have less than 200k posts, so that you get a chance of being featured in "top posts" of this hashtag. The higher you are positioned in a hashtag, the better visibility. Start using a few hashtags with more posts- 500k or even over 1m, when your account grows. Don't always change your #s- create a small feed of you there to get noticed.

Create your own brand's hashtag and use it every single time. There is a new feature that provides you the opportunity to follow hashtags.

Use hashtags in your stories!

Create a group of friends in WhatsApp or wherever and ask them to like your newly posted media within 60min. This will increase the boost of your post, thus the visibility to your followers' feed page. This is mega important! Note it!!

When you (like many of the great accounts) start using a bot like Everliker, start with following/liking smaller accounts, this is great for numbers as they're more likely to follow back (as already mentioned). Choose an account with 10k followers and start following its followers. When you grow to 10k followers choose another account that has 40k followers and start following its followers and so on.

Soon you can start using bigger accounts for shout outs (paid) and smaller accounts for shout outs (as a favour of you posting a pic of theirs on your feed) as you could also tell the smaller account owners to post a pic from your feed on their Instagram and mention 10 or more followers of theirs to check out your feed, comment a ❤️ ❤️ if they like your feed/product or leave a ❤️ and write down their ideas to you, if they think you could work on bettering your feed/product).

Make your feed entertaining:
Use emojis, leave empty rows, write longer captions, make them funny and memorable.
Example is this pic below.
Would you memorise it by reading the captions
"Just the cactuses in my room- a memory from my ex girlfriend."
or...
"A live pic of me and my girlfriends chilling, periods synced and not shaving for a week."
or a caption like
"Aren't they beautiful"?
Make your content memorisable.

Who said you should use the standard way of uploading media in your stories?
Check out @jessedriftwood and his edited into a movie stories. Some people sell only from their stories, only from a content that lasts 24 hrs- something like Snapchat. For this your product and its presentation has to be very convincing. When you reach the 10k followers a new feature will enable you to direct people to your selling page- straight from your stories! How cool is that please!! And then you can highlight that story with the link and let it be visible for a few more days.

cactus-pot-cameron-highland-malaysia-–-december-plant-nurseries-one-famous-malaysian-48285699.jpg


Until then you shall work on bettering the quality of your feed and learning from the bigger accounts by just pretending to be their follower and tracking your own reactions to their feed. Be patient and know it takes more than a night, 3 months or 30 weeks to create a real following.

I know some of you may think my info isn't new at all, but if I see an account, which is promoting its feed and if the feed doesn't provide any valuable info to me, then I will pass on it as it would look like a spam.
I hope I helped some of you!
 
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