Building an Audience on Instagram

[max99x]

Been playing about with building an audience on Instagram,

I've managed to go from 0 followers on a brand new account to close to 500 in 5 days, at this rate with a bit of natural growth I believe I'll hit close to 5,000 followers in 30 days, over a year that would be 60k followers but I'd expect close to 100k.

Currently average photos I post i'll get between 40-60 likes and few comments.

How i've done it so far:

• Post awesome photos
• Hashtags - Using relevant hashtags and lots of them
• Follow relevant users - Follow them, like 3 of their photos
• Unfollow those that don't follow you back after a few days (not yet automated this)
• Comment and interact with users
• Not used any automated tools (instagram is known to ban users who use many of these e.g Autolike, Autocomments etc)

The account is generic and i'll only be pushing my business related to it at a later date.

Any of you lot tried or have big instagram accounts? Any tips?

 

[Murray]

What's the quality of the followers?

Is it genuine people, or is it like on twitter when you tweet about SEO or something similar then get a lot of spammy bots follow and tweet you.

 

[max99x]

What's the quality of the followers?

Is it genuine people, or is it like on twitter when you tweet about SEO or something similar then get a lot of spammy bots follow and tweet you.

Obviously some followers are spammy but lot seem genuine, most spambots don't seem to follow me much more like a photo or comment "follow 4 1000's free follows" etc. Generally building a decent number of followers who enjoy drinks (which is the area i'm building for)

 

[ChrisMM]

The thing I hate about Instagram is, it's bloody hard to get your users off there and onto a website. I mean sure, you've got the clickable url in your main profile. But in regards to dropping links on individual photo pages (links aren't clickable or even copy/pastable on the web app) it's almost futile.

I think it would be worthwhile if you were growing the account dare I say "organically", where your followers are users/visitors of the site and want to interact with you on social media - repeat customers etc.

But if you're just going for sheer mass of numbers, I fear you'll need a shit ton before you see any kind of clickthru's to urls - and then you've got the issues of posting unrelated business links on a general account. Which will slam any potential CTR down even further.

I'd say either:

1. Build the account slow and naturally with a relevant audience to your business
2. Automate it, use proxies and build 10s/100s of accounts with mass followers.

 

[ian]

I've never really bothered with Instagram, even for those individuals/companies I follow on twitter and youtube, but it does seem that Instagram is starting to grab the imagination of the web more than Twitter and from what I understand, you can tag and comment on photos in very much the same way?

How to monetise it though, or build a credible business from it I do not know, surely it can only ever be classed as a bolt-on?

 

[max99x]

Think you need to realise that it's not the type of place to post photo after photo of your product hoping someone will like it enough to buy it, if it's highly targeted, knowing that majority of your followers all love the general area then selling to it is much more effective.

e.g If you sell protein shakes, build a huge following around fitness, then when you post a photo of maybe you newest protein shake with an exclusive discount the interaction should be decent.

Don't think of it as an advertisement platform like Adwords, think of it as a community you can build around your brand/area

 

[ian]

I can't get beyond the comments. Has society become so lazy that the ability to spell or string a sentence together has been totally lost?

 

[max99x]

I can't get beyond the comments. Has society become so lazy that the ability to spell or string a sentence together has been totally lost?

??

 

[ian]

Don't think of it as an advertisement platform like Adwords, think of it as a community you can build around your brand/area

Agreed about its position in the big scheme of things, but at what point does it become over-saturated? Having a main website, then all those spin off sites is hard for any small business to manage; even I struggle tbh!

Off topic a little there Max, sorry about that.

 

[ian]

??

Don't you find many of the comments to pictures for want of a better word, retarded? Maybe it is specific channels.

Example from a car related page "yeah and u definitely didn't even understand ma comment -_- ... i mean the huyra is okey .. but if someone let me pick on a huyra or a zonda.. definitely ima take the monster fastest soundest car ever made... ->ZONDA<- ... just calm down man ... is my opinion .... don't treat to seems smart cuz u obviously are a fool ... peace"

 

[max99x]

arr yes, obviously lots of comments aren't great english! but depends on the area you're targeting, age range, demographics etc

The area I target is a mix of comments depending on what I post/what hashtags etc. e.g If I #carlsberg then I may get worse written English than if I target #Dalwhinnie (whisky)

 

[ian]

Very true, ignore me, I'm in bad mood, rotten day dealing with idiot corporations and zero sleep!

 

[scottmccloud]

I think Instagram's use really depends on what you are promoting/selling. It's fantastic for anything to do with food and drink. One of my clients works with a lot of the top London restaurants, and they (and their chefs) live on Instagram and Twitter.

I suspect it's a fantastic way of driving customers to their restaurants, everyone seems to be taking pictures of their food these days and using hastags like #foodporn and #foodie. A good picture speaks a thousand words.

If however you're selling semi-synthetic industrial lubricant, you're hanging about in the wrong place.

 

[accelerator]

You need to work out the niches that work on Instagram.

Then work out the niches that relate well to your business.

Then create those niche Instagram accounts.

Each ac needs to be niche to attract someone to follow you.

 

[BeachLife]

You need to work out the niches that work on Instagram.

Then work out the niches that relate well to your business.

Then create those niche Instagram accounts.

Each ac needs to be niche to attract someone to follow you.

Could you give us an example of where you have done this successfully?

 

[BeachLife]

I've managed to go from 0 followers on a brand new account to close to 500 in 5 days

How many photos did you post in the 5 days?

 

[max99x]

How many photos did you post in the 5 days?

10 ish per day, gaps of say 2 hours at the minimum

 

[BeachLife]

10 ish per day, gaps of say 2 hours at the minimum

Interesting, thanks. Do you struggle to come up with 10 photos relating to drink each day?

 

[donton]

We've found Instagram to be effective in the female beauty/fashion/accessories niche. Customers like to show off the designs they create with the products we sell - a lot of purchases are purely based on "I like XXXXXXX product I saw on Instagram, must buy!!!!"

We get less traffic from Instagram compared to Facebook, but the conversion rate from Instagram tends to be a lot higher than other social media referrals.

We're lucky to be in a niche where it works for us, there are a lot of businesses I can think of that it wouldn't work particularly well for.

 

[max99x]

Interesting, thanks. Do you struggle to come up with 10 photos relating to drink each day?

Nope, simply reuse ones off instagram... Yes not probably tight to do but everyone does it, if it's obvious it's taken by a user and they haven't simply reposted it I will credit them