10 Steps to Getting 10k Followers on Instagram

Are you having trouble growing your Instagram? Are you stuck and wondering what you are doing wrong? Are you getting super close to 10k followers, but can't seem to get there? 

In this blog I'm going to be covering why you're probably stuck and not growing your following right now, the 10 things you can be doing to grow that following. And also I'm going to talk a little bit about when numbers matter and when they don't.  

My name is Gwen lane and I help influencers grow their following and monetize online. 

Here are 10 Steps to Getting 10k followers (or 10k more!) on Instagram: 

1) Content 

Content matters. It's the most important part of growing your brand. And how often you are posting matters too. Are you posting on a regular basis? If not, then we already know where you are going wrong. 

How about the quality of your content? People underestimate quality because they think they have a decent phone, so the pics are fine,  but they aren't taking the time to make the pictures look great. You don't need a super expensive camera to make this happen, but you DO need to be mindful of what you are taking pictures of, editing them to make them look professional, and more. And if your phone camera isn't good, it may be time to upgrade. 

Sometimes I work with professional photographers because I do want higher quality of photos, especially if I am working on a brand partnership. If a brand is paying me, they expect professional pictures and I will invest to make that happen. 

2) Consistency

I see people posting whenever they want and they think that they're going to grow. Brands love consistency because they know that if you're consistent, it means you have a really good connection with your audience. It means you show up every day, you're on Instagram stories, you're sharing your personal stories and your feelings. And that means when they sponsor you and they want you to  recommend their brand, product or service to your audience, they're actually going to listen because you show up.

If you're only showing up once or twice a week then the connection between you and your audience is not going to be as strong as if you show up every day. So people always ask me, how much should you post? My recommendation is always once a day on the feed and at least a three part story on your Instagram story daily.  

3)  Aesthetic

Your aesthetic is something that brands look at. They are particular about the type of content that they want you to create for that product or for their brand. And so they tend to go with someone who has a better aesthetic rather than not. If you look at my Instagram, The LA Girl and Spark Society, you will see that I have a certain aesthetic for each one. I have a certain look and feel and whenever brands reach out to me,  they tell me that part of the reason why they chose to work with me or to reach out to me was because of my aesthetic. 

4) Instagram Stories

More and more people are watching Instagram stories now. In fact, we are seeing a trend that more people are watching stories than looking at the feed. And it's not surprising! Binge watching behavior is super common right now. Netflix, Hulu. It's just like that! On Instagram stories, you can watch one, then go right into the next, and keep binging until you get bored. 

Don't forget to hashtag your stories too! That's a great way for people to find you! 

5) Instagram Live

Live is becoming a really big thing right now. Some people that I know are doing shows on Instagram live just like they would a Facebook live show or some sort of weekly content. Figure out a way to factor Instagram live into your content. 

6) Mix Up Your Captions 

What I'm seeing right now is people having a mix of short and long captions. Quotes, call to actions. Some people are even micro blogging on their Instagram page instead of linking out to their website. So mix it up!

7) Collaboration

A lot of people are collaborating with other influencers to raise each other up! Think about it: if you have 1000 followers and someone else has 1000 followers and you did a photo shoot together or you did some sort of content piece together, then both of you can get in front of each other's audiences and you can possibly gain more followers through that.

I like to collaborate with other influencers. I regram them all the time. Try it! Reach out to another influencer and see if they want to create content together, or just feature them on your page. Everyone loves a #WCW or Feature Friday! 

8) Use Your DM's 

If you're not DMing on Instagram, you should be. This is a great way to get in touch with not just other influencers but with brands. Reach out to your peers for collaboration opportunities, and reach out to brands to see if they may be interested in partnering with you!

9) Don't Forget To Update the Link In Your Bio 

I always change the link in the bio to reflect whatever I am posting that day.  For example, if I have a blog post that I'm talking about in my posts, I tell them to click the link in my bio and I update that. I don't just keep the same exact thing all the time unless that's what I'm promoting at the time.  I like to keep it fresh and change it up every single day depending on what I'm talking about. So making sure you utilize that link in bio.

10) Targeted Engagement

How do you get people who are not following you yet to follow you? You're going to have to engage with people who are not following you yet! And when I say engage, I mean that you're liking, commenting and possibly following and DMing them. The only way someone will know that you engage with them is that if you take one of these actions, right? You get a notification when someone liked your photo or video, you get a notification when someone commented, you get a notification when someone followed you and you get a notification when someone DM's you, right?  I always suggest at least one to two hours a day if you are still trying to grow your following to 10k.

The last thing I want to talk about is when numbers matter and when they don't. To be clear: just because someone has a lot of followers, it doesn't mean they are actually monetizing that audience.  I have a lot of people that come to me with 40k, 60k, 100k followers and they have not monetized and it's because they never had a strategy. You need to have a solid foundation depending on what your goal is on Instagram. If your goal is to work with brands, then this is about creating your aesthetic and then connecting with that audience so that they're going to want to work with you.

Now you know the 10 Steps to Getting to 10k but it's not just going to happen over night. It is going to take time. Learning all of this can be overwhelming. That's why I decided that I wanted to coach people further and go deep into each and every one of these steps with my 10k Experience program. 

 The six week program is a deep dive into implementing all of these strategies, with a lot of personalized coaching that is not normally offered in classes like this. I'm limiting it to 30 people, so register before it fills up! You can click here to learn more. 

Hope to see you there!