11 REASONS I HAVE 40K+ LOVING FOLLOWERS ON INSTAGRAM AND 10K+ ON TWITTER
f you’re trying to build presence on social media but don’t know how, you’re at the right place. Read on. Those of you with 100K followers could be nodding your head as you read.
I say “loving followers” in the title as I almost always receive kind and thoughtful replies, and there have only been 3 or 4 haters that I can recall during my years using SNS.
Lots of people wonder how ordinary people like us get Instafamous or have Twitter followers in the 5 or 6 digit figures and then are called “social influencers.” Having over 40K followers on Instagram and 10K followers on Twitter myself, I wondered why my account was getting so popular for a person who never had much interest in gaining followers. I think that was 90% of the reason I ended up with so many followers. I never really wanted followers.
That sounds ironic. I know.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I didn’t want people to follow me (because otherwise, why would I be posting contents to the public in the first place?), but I never really cared about the number of people that followed me or how many “likes” I had per post.
Instead, I pay attention to who follows me or likes my content and try to have conversations with all sorts of people while appreciating their contents. That’s what social media is here for in the first place, right?
When you add all sorts of “follow4follow” or “like4like” types of hashtags and lines to your posts, you might get some followers and likes but only from the people who want their content seen and couldn’t care any less about yours. Doing so also makes you seem desperate to get engagement. Posts with worthy contents will get likes without your adding all sorts of irrelevant hashtags and advertisements. Likewise, people will follow pages that they find meaningful, and the number of followers increase as you keep on posting.
Using hashtags is a great way that lets others discover you, but keep them relevant or you may be flagged as a spam account on top of the tactic being ineffective. And no, using #hashtag every few #words within your #main #content does #NOT make it #easier to #READ
You don’t want to be known as that annoying person who just obviously wants attention with unoriginal content. Make a page of contents that you’re really interested in. Find people with similar interests and simply enjoy the conversations as others chime in.
With that in mind, there are a few things I do on social media that may have made people follow me with a high retention rate. Here we go.
1. Choose the Right Platform
Different social media platforms have different vibes. If you are all about writing, trying to write an essay on Instagram would not work. Since Instagram’s main content is always the photo, having a high quality or unique photo is what grabs the attention of its users. A lot of Instagrammers barely even read the caption as they scroll through their timelines, so it wouldn’t be the best platform to express what you want to say if you have an argument. If you want to create a gallery of photos in which your followers can view a lot of your photos at once, then Instagram would be the right platform for you. Instagram would also work if you take a lot of selfies or food pictures and want to share the album with your friends and fans.
For people who focus on words, Twitter may be the place to go. While there are photography accounts including plenty of professional ones on Twitter, it may not be the right platform for you if you are just starting out and want your followers to see your gallery as a whole. Tweets get pushed down the moment you post another, so your followers will most likely only see a couple of your most current contents at most. Unlike on Instagram, Twitter is all about sharing or “Retweets” as Twitter calls it. If you want to spread information, there is no better social network platform than Twitter.
Facebook is used mainly to connect with real friends. Most Facebook users post their face photo for their profile picture and use their real first and last names. A lot of its users may not accept friend requests from strangers especially if there are no mutual friends. At least in my experience, it’s not really a place where random strangers of similar interests connect although there are exceptions. People may engage in a conversation on certain pages on Facebook and then decide to connect as friends. Certain accounts like news pages may have a live broadcast on Facebook, and the people who commented may send friend requests. These are not the main ways of using Facebook to most of us though, and it would be much easier to make new friends on Instagram or Twitter if that’s what you are looking for.
When trying a new social media platform for the first time, whatever that worked on one platform may not necessarily work for the other. Once getting used to the new platform, you will understand what your audience wants to see and what types of accounts get engagement on such platform.
2. Create a Profile to Show Who You Are
instagram.com/chara_stagram_
If you’re already a public figure, then not having a profile at all wouldn’t matter. Fans will find you by searching your name. If you’re not a celebrity, write a profile that might appeal to the types of audience you wish to connect with.
twitter.com/CharaoEnglish
Tell people what you do or what your interests are. Share some unique facts about you. While most people will only read your profile the first time they visit your page, if they don’t understand who you are, they might feel timid to establish a relationship with you. On one hand, having a face photo could be a good idea as we usually feel comfortable talking to people who we know how they look. That’s perhaps why we get curious of how faceless people look like at times. Even if you don’t have confidence in your looks, if you walk around in public without hiding your face everyday, I really can’t find the benefits as for that matter of doing otherwise online. (Now, as a believer that everyone is beautiful for who they are, I will tell you that you look gorgeous as you are right now if you lack self-confidence).
On the other hand, some people get concerned about privacy issues. I personally didn’t see too much of an issue, but I always keep my profile photos at an odd angle (like from the side) in case facial recognition advances and some stalkers find out my address by associating the photo to where my address is listed — which will most likely be a source for government issued ID with my face photo taken from the front. Is it realistically likely for something like that to happen? I wouldn’t think so. Everyone’s case is different though, so do the research and decide for yourself.
At the very least, have a unique photo or icon that allows others to associate you with.
3. Pick a Theme
Pick one or two main themes your page will be based on. For my Twitter, I chose English and photography while my Instagram is solely on photography. Once in a while, I’ll throw in something extra that I’ve found, but I try my best not to go all over the place.
If you have plenty of interests, that’s absolutely fantastic. I do too. But posting everything on your SNS can make your page messy, and it’ll be hard for your audience to tell what you’re page is about. Sticking to one or two topics can be difficult especially in the beginning when you don’t yet know what it is that your fellow SNS users want to see, but it’ll come to you as you get used to posting on your page.
4. Have Original Content
Make sure that your content is original to some extent. Picking up other people’s tweets from all over the place and rewriting them won’t do much except for plagiarizing their work in exchange for something subpar. You might as well just hit the share or retweet button and tell the original poster how wonderful their post was.
Getting inspired by someone else is one thing, but taking their contents to make it your own is another. You could be inspired by this blog article and decide to write your own article based on factors you thought built your SNS page, but it’s plagiarism if you decide to copy and paste a few sections from this article and a few lines from other articles. Restating what I wrote to make it your own is equally as bad.
It’s the same thing on SNS. Be inspired by what you see, but don’t just mimic viral posts.
You should also never upload any photos or videos that you don’t own. A simple footnote indicating the source would NOT clear copyright infringement, so if you’ve ever had thoughts on posting others’ media, make sure to read our article “Copyright 101 on Photos and Videos” to avoid legal troubles.
It’s not a problem if you don’t have enough knowledge or skills to create an informative or a professional page. Just share things out of life that you found pleasant which others may want to see as well until you get the gist, and consider it to be a lifestyle account for the time being.
5. Let Others Decide What to Like, Share, and Whom to Follow
People will follow you without your requesting to do so if they are interested in what you do. It’s usually just an annoyance to others if you’re constantly asking them to. Likewise, people will like and share posts that they find beneficial or pleasing. Telling others to like, share, and follow suggests that you’re lacking quality content. A “please share” from time to time to get the most important and urgent of the messages spread might be fine, but that’s definitely not the photo of a burger you had for lunch an hour ago or breaking news that you had a haircut. An exception we can see is on YouTube where it seems to be the tradition for even the most popular of its creators to say “please like and subscribe.”
6. Follow Others Because You’re Interested
A lot of people hate it when you “follow to unfollow.” I personally couldn’t care any less if someone did, but if they follow random accounts that they don’t have any interest in just to get a followback, it tells me that they don’t have sufficient content to attract people to their pages. Follow people because you’re purely interested and like what you see. Then, move onto…
7. Connect With People
Go talk with people because that’s what social networking is all about. If you want to get on social media just to keep yourself updated on what’s going on in the world or simply enjoy looking at other people’s contents, then that’s fine. You go do you. Still, there’s no need to shy away from wishing someone a happy birthday, congratulating someone’s memorable events, or sending words of encouragement though.
If you intend to connect with others on social media though, liking 50 posts on someone’s page expecting them to say hi to you might not work. Don’t be afraid to start up a conversation that’s related to the post.
Having conversations with many people is how I may have ended up with so many followers. It’s probably my personality in the real world as well. I would go visit a hotel that I stayed at a few years ago and front desk agents would often come to greet me with a hug and a huge smile. I would go to the local grocery store or a cafe and the employees will know me by name although I live in a decently big city. It’s no different on social media. Engage in conversations, and stay connected with those people. Try to find and remember something nice about them.
8. Talk About What You Like and Not What You Don’t
Sounds easy enough? Probably not so for a lot of you out there. It’s one of those things that are easily said than done, but honestly, who do you think is interested in listening to the endless list of things you hate? Celebrities you can’t stand, food that tasted horrible, rude people you saw on the train, annoying spouse… the list could go on forever, but with so much of the focus on negativity, it makes me wonder if the same people would go to Disneyland on a hot summer day just to focus on random strangers’ sweaty body odor or open up a trash can to find some rotten food to post on their Instagram. Yuck. Who does that? Yeah, I really don’t know why you’d want to do that anywhere outside of Disneyland either.
Addressing social problems may be one thing, but simply SHOUTING ALL THE THINGS YOU HATE IN ALL CAPS LIKE YOU’RE ANGRY ALL THE TIME WITH UGLY EMOJIS IS ANOTHER!!!!!!!!!! Get the picture? Yes, I agree that social awareness is important as is making a change. When was the last time you actually made some stranger stop their habits for good by yelling straight at their face though? Thought so. It really isn’t any different on social media. The people you’re trying to target will block you, mute you, or YELL BACK AT YOU IN CAPS.
How about inviting people to join you by sharing a few facts along with possible strategies, or show how you are making action for a cause. An educational conversation doesn’t mean yelling slurs and profanities at random strangers.
9. Respect What Others Like
Kevin “I love Disney!”
Thomas “You do? I don’t. It’s boring.”
Kevin “…..”
See where this conversation is going? Straight down to hell. Okay, it’s not that bad. Still, you’re killing the conversation by telling someone else that you don’t have any interest in what they are about to say. If the topic is not something that you absolutely can’t stand listening to, let them take the stage for a few seconds.
Having conversations on social media platform just to say you don’t like what others like, or even worse, finding posts just to mention you don’t like it isn’t going to do you or others any good. The same could probably be said outside the social media world as well.
By expressing negative feelings toward what someone likes, others who see your conversation may also step away when they could have had other common interests with you. If you’re not really interested in the subject, a simple “awesome,” “cool,” or “interesting” should close off the conversation without making others feel bad which leads us to…
10. What You Like Isn’t Necessarily What Others Like
When a person constantly replies with a very short response like “awesome,” “cool,” or “interesting,” they probably don’t share the same interest with you for that particular field. That’s okay. There are no two individuals that have the exact same interests. Finish up what you have to say, and introduce another topic that may interest your listener. That’s so much easier to do on social media where people of similar interests gather.
11. Questions Can Start Conversations, but Don’t Ask Too Much
Asking questions related to the post is a wonderful way to begin a conversation. It shows that you’re interested in the topics the person is talking about and can lead to meaningful discussions. You still need to draw a line between having a social conversation and using professionals as free resources.
This is something I try to be very careful with when having conversations on social media. When I am connected to so many professionals on social media (as all of you are too since most of us have some sort of an occupation), I would never ask questions that a person should usually charge to answer. There is a significant difference between being interested and taking advantage of the people you follow.
You could perhaps ask a professional photographer to see if they know the name of the flower they’ve posted because it’s really beautiful. When you start asking for the camera settings, techniques used to edit, and ask them to help you out with your own photography, then you’ve probably gone too far. Especially if that’s how you start off conversations all the time, people may feel pressured to answer your questions and would want to step away. When you want to ask a question, ask yourself if you’re solely trying to have a conversation and spend some time that will benefit both you and the other — or if you’re intention is to get some free advice. Respect others’ professions just as you should be respected for yours.
Notice what you’re camouflaging in the words you type. Your followers can tell whether you’re hiding requests within what you pretend to be for others, and likewise, at the times you make it seem as if you’re writing for your benefit when it was actually meant to benefit others.
To Sum It Up
You might gain followers quicker if you always aim to post contents that tend to go viral or are based on controversial issues. That strategy would work only if you care about the numbers, but a lot of those followers could be your haters. If a post naturally goes viral, then let it be so, but if you’re intentionally making contents that could cause controversy only for the purpose of grabbing attention, then prepare to see some replies you probably would never want to.
I mainly focus on who I connect with rather than how many I connect with. The number of followers happened to add up over the course of time just as the number of friends I have outside the social media world would add up as long as I keep on living. There’s no rush. There will always be someone that wants to chime in on what you have to say, and that’s how the network grows.
Every person will find different approaches when building their page on SNS platforms, but what’s mentioned in this article is what allowed me to connect with my followers after carefully reviewing my accounts. Have you made different approaches to increase your presence on social media? Let us know in the comments.
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