How I Increased Twitter and Instagram followers by 475% in one month

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Unlike my usual lifestyle posts, this post is written for fellow bloggers.  If you are not a blogger, thank you for following those of us that blog.  Your support means s0 much to us, and we couldn’t grow our blogs without you!

As a new blogger, there are so many things to focus on. Where do you start, who do you host with, picking a theme, setting up your blog, deciding what to write about, building a following, etc…..It is honestly overwhelming.  If you would like to see what I used to get started, you can check out my page of Blog Resources.

Getting Started

I started my first blog in 2012, and it did ok.  I had a couple pins on Pinterest that were successful, but I only used Facebook for social media.  My page had 25 likes and I’m pretty sure it was all friends and family. 🙂  I was hit or miss with posts and gave up on blogging after a couple years.

I launched this blog in August 2017 and am determined to be successful with it.  As I mentioned on my Blog Resource page, the blogging world has changed a lot in the past few years.  There are so many opportunities for bloggers if you are willing to put the time and work into your blog.

After launching my blog in August, I participated in the Start a Money Making Blog 10k Blog Traffic challenge. THIS LINK will take you to the courses page for It’s a Lovely Life.  The 5-day email crash course and the 10k Blog traffic challenges are free.  Registration for the 10k challenges opens near the first of each month, so click on the current month to learn more about it.

As part of the August challenge, we put our social media info into a spreadsheet and followed each other. For a new blog, this challenge gave me a starting base beyond just friends and family.  I started with brand new profiles for my blog on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, as well as a new Facebook page.  I ended August with 261 Instagram followers and 196 on Twitter.

How I increased Twitter and Instagram followers

For September, I made it my goal to double my followers.  I decided to focus on Instagram and Twitter first, and follow 100 people every day.  To start, I went to the bigger profiles of those in my niche that I was already following and began to follow their followers. There is a better chance people will follow you back since you know they are interested in that niche.  I also searched for hashtags that are used in that niche and followed those that used them. (UPDATE-Instagram now allows you to follow hashtags so follow the hashtags for your niche to see when others use them).

 

Following 100 people every day, I averaged 40 following me back on Instagram and 20 following me back on Twitter. I was a little discouraged by that percentage for Twitter, but I found out that is pretty normal. Just as an FYI-there are limits on both platforms.  If you try to follow too many people at once, they can put a hold on your account.  Twitter lets you follow up to 1000 people a day, but if you have a new account, it is better to focus on 100. I read on another blog that Twitter limits new accounts to following 2000 accounts at first. I personally didn’t have that happen to me when I only followed 100 a day.  (UPDATE-I did hit a limit of 5000 accounts at one time, so I went through and unfollowed those not following me).  Instagram limits everyone to following 7500 accounts and may stop you if you follow too many at once (more than 20/hour).

One other method that I tried was to participate in an open follow loop.  I see them often, and it seemed like a great idea at first to gain a bunch of followers.  I have no problem following someone if they are going to follow me, but some of the accounts that followed me were kind of creepy. If I didn’t follow them back right away, they got really pushy.  I was also amazed how many young kids were trying to gather followers from those loops. I found it better to just click on the likes of a post, and then go through that list and follow who I wanted to. I also found that most of those accounts are only interested in gathering followers, so they probably won’t interact with you after.

Focus on finding Quality Followers

That leads me to the topic of finding people who will actually follow you back.  As I went along, I became a little more specific about who I followed.  I want people who are actually going to like and comment on my posts, and hopefully click over to my blog to read it.  My readers would be moms that are looking for good recipes, need ideas for dealing with photos, appreciate tips for their homes, and like to see my Stitch fixes.  So I look for accounts that fit that profile.

Since I was looking for a follow back, I avoid accounts that have tens of thousands of followers and only follow 100.  I also avoid most private accounts since I know how I feel about privacy with my personal accounts.  Twitter doesn’t limit how many accounts you can follow, so I have no problem following a bigger account if I see that they follow thousands of people back. Another Twitter tip-check to see when they last sent a tweet.  If it has been months or years, then the account isn’t active and you don’t want to waste your time.

There are people out there that will follow you and then unfollow you as soon as you follow them.  Don’t be one of those people!  Again, DO NOT BE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE!!!! It doesn’t look good and it is not a good way to build followers.  There are apps out there that allow you to see who is following you back and who isn’t, but they are against Instagram’s terms of service. They can suspend your account for using them, which defeats the whole point of building followers.  If you click on following on Twitter, it tells you if they follow you back.  If someone doesn’t follow you right away, don’t immediately unfollow them.  Give it a week or so and try to interact.  If there is still no interest, then it is ok to unfollow.  Also, don’t unfollow a ton at once or both platforms will stop you.

Making adjustments

In order to keep track of how many I was following each day and how many followers I was gaining, I wrote down the numbers each night on a post-it.  It was exciting to see the increase from day to day.  I reached my goal of doubling Instagram in 8 days and Twitter in 14 days.  I made new goals and continued with my plan.

Twitter was still frustrating me with only gaining 20 followers a day so I decided to search on Pinterest for ways to increase followers.  The best tip I found was to change your profile picture to an actual photo.  I had been using my logo for my profile picture.  That one simple change on September 20 made a difference.  I only followed 70 people that day but I had 40 follow me back. I felt like I was finally getting somewhere!  For the last 10 days of September, I decided to increase my follows on Twitter to 200 a day.  Some days I only had 40 follow back, other days I had 80.

The last part of September, I found this pin about making your Instagram profile more interesting.  I followed the steps for Instagram and it made my profile look a lot better.  I also added a couple hashtags to my Twitter profile.

Increase Twitter and Instagram followers

Final numbers for my September goal:

-Started Instagram with 261, ended with  1231 (An increase of 472%!).

-Started Twitter with 196 and ended with 946 (An increase of 483%!).

It was a great month but a lot of work and time.  October will be focused on building my Facebook and Pinterest profiles.  Wish me luck!

Top tips Summary:

  1.  Follow top people in your niche and then follow their followers
  2. Search for relevant hashtags and follow those that use them
  3. Interact with those you follow-like their posts and comment
  4. Be aware of platform limits. Focus on following 50-100 a day.
  5. Look for profiles that fit the types of readers you want for your blog
  6. Don’t blindly follow accounts.  If you are looking for a follow back, avoid inactive accounts and big accounts with tens of thousands of followers that only follow a few hundred back.
  7. Avoid open follow loops unless you want anyone and everyone to follow you.
  8. Don’t immediately unfollow someone if they don’t follow you back or even if they do follow you.  It doesn’t look good and they probably won’t stick around long.  Give it a couple weeks and interact with those you follow.
  9. Make sure your profiles on both platforms have your photo and are complete with interesting info about you.
  10. Participate in the monthly Start a Money Making Blog 10k Blog Traffic challenge.

October Update

I planned to end with the tips, but the first week of October was amazing for all my accounts.  I participated in three Facebook groups last week that has contributed to this growth.

  1. In September, a group of bloggers in the Stitch Fix Facebook group organized a big giveaway and invited other bloggers to join.  We each contributed to a Stitch Fix gift card and then we were able to add 2 social media accounts to the raffle.  Readers got an entry for each account they visited or followed, so I put in my Facebook and Instagram accounts.  The contest ran from Oct.1-7. I gained about 30 followers a day on Facebook and 70 followers a day on Instagram.  I really focused on producing good content this week as well since I would love to have those new followers stick around after the contest ends.
  2. On October 1st, I joined a Facebook group for bloggers that focused on Twitter and Pinterest.  I participated in the follow threads for each platform and had about 100 follow me back that week.  I also joined an Instagram group and have easily tripled the likes on each Instagram post. I look forward to participating in the like and follow threads in those groups.
  3. The final group I participated with was the October 10k Blog Traffic Challenge.  The challenge is a great way to get started with social media as a new blogger.  I always participate in the social media directory and I got new followers in all four platforms from the challenge.

I ended September with: 200 Facebook followers, 1231 on Instagram,  946 on Twitter, and 165 on Pinterest.  Totals on October 7th after participating in these 3 groups: 386 on Facebook (increase of 186), 1693 on Instagram (increase of 462), 1206 on Twitter (increase of 260) and 277 on Pinterest (increase of 112).  Pretty awesome for one week!  I began each account with zero followers on August 9, so all of that growth has come in two months as a new blogger.

Although I have stopped actively following people (besides the follow threads mentioned above), the momentum from the last few weeks continues to help my account grow.  New followers are finding me every day and some of the accounts that didn’t follow me right away in September have started following me. What tips have you used to grow Twitter and Instagram?

Let’s connect on social media!

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Instagram

Twitter

Pinterest

 

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About Katie

I'm Katie. I enjoy collecting pretty paper, making beautiful cards, and preserving our memories with the Project Life App. I love sweets and flowers. I am the mom of four amazing kids.

Comments

  1. Thank you for the tips was just starting out and then I broke my leg
    My momentum had slowed a bit but nipping at the bit to get going again.

  2. Thank you for these tips! I am working to increase my followers on all social media platforms so this was very helpful!

  3. These were all great tips! Participating in shoutouts on instagram is also a great way to gain exposure and followers!

    ❤,
    love2designs.com

  4. Hey thanks for sharing this info. It’s very eye opening and I plan to implement some of these techniques for me and my blog.

  5. Thanks for the tips. It’s hard to know where to start. There are so many suggestions out there and people telling you what to do. I took your suggestion and joined the 10k challenge for this month and I’m so glad I did!

  6. Great tips, I already started doing some of those, like the 10K challenge, but I will try the other ones. Hopefully they work on me as well as on you.

  7. Thanks for the tips. I, too, find the follow/unfollow game annoying so I don’t follow back if someone follows me that has thousand of followers but only follows 300 people. The whole thing is such a ridiculous game. Loved your tips, though!

  8. Thank you so much for sharing these tips. I’m really struggling with increasing my followers so I’m definitely going to give some of these tips a try! Thanks again 🙂

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