How to succeed on Instagram: tips from popular bloggers

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

About cheating, advertising and collaborations, the importance of useful content and finding your niche.

Popular bloggers write texts, take pictures, post on Instagram - and make good money on it. We spoke with famous influencers and asked them to tell how they managed to achieve success and get promoted on Instagram. It turned out as many as 18 tips - if you follow these recommendations, success is inevitable.

1. Just get started

How many good blogs never came into being - because their potential owners were afraid, did not find the time, always postponed the start … Believe me, there will never be a better moment to start blogging. Isn't that a reason to start right now?

It all started by accident for me. My husband and I lived in China. Once I posted not just a photo, as usual, but wrote something about our trip. I had 213 subscribers then. And one absolutely unfamiliar girl commented: “Ira, you write very cool! Let’s write more, because we are interested in everything”. It seems elementary - a couple of words from a stranger, but after that I began to write. First about my travels. It's important to start somewhere.

2. Find your niche

A blog in the style of a team hodgepodge is no longer relevant - you need to identify your strengths and focus on them.

It is important to soberly assess your capabilities: how interesting you will be to people as a blogger. Do you have topics on which you can write endlessly - after all, you need to somehow keep the interest of the audience.

3. Attract subscribers from other sites

You probably already have accounts on other social networks. Don't miss the chance to attract an audience from there. Many followers will gladly follow your Instagram account.

At first I had a YouTube channel. Then I created an Instagram profile - and all traffic went from YouTube to Instagram. So YouTube has become a tool for me to promote my Instagram account.

4. Make a plan of action

Improvisation is good, but a clear plan is even better. This will allow you to clearly see where you are on the path right now.

In my first month of focused blogging, I made a content plan for exactly one month. Every three days, according to the plan, I laid out two videos: an old one from stock, and a new one. Before that, there were 100 likes, and those from friends - and now the number of likes began to exceed several thousand. There were 5-10 thousand subscribers, and by the end of the month, according to the plan, there should have been 100 thousand. And it worked. This kind of growth is cool and very motivating.

5. Take care of an attractive picture

Instagram was and remains primarily a visual social network. And no matter what they say about the annoying slickness of pictures, profiles with their own style will naturally attract more subscribers.

Style is formed from what we see and what surrounds us, who or what we are inspired by: it can be people, music, photographs, painting - anything.

Initially, my trick was a combination of pink and blue shades. For a long time, such a fame was entrenched in me: oh, something pink - this is Seryozha Sukhov. Then I changed the format, and I got a new feature - a red scarf. I came to my style in an absolutely natural way: there was no brainstorming, sleepless nights when I tried to come up with a subject for photography. Everything happened completely by accident.

6. Don't forget to write

If beautiful photographs can attract the viewer, then interesting texts will help keep them - and this is much more important.

Can't write? It's OK! Just get started and you will get better and better every time.

Good writing is essential if you want to become a popular blogger. Instagram now has an abundance of gorgeous photos, and it is quite difficult to make it more ideal than it already is. In addition, people are oversaturated with pictures and look not only at the images, but also at the content. It is interesting, easy, useful or humor to formulate thoughts - this is the basis of the basics.

Any person who will try to formulate their thoughts into text will be able to learn this and reach certain heights. My example proves this: I am the person who hated reading and writing, and now I have one of the most read blogs on Instagram. Just don't be shy. Remember, the easier you construct your sentences, the more truth there is. And the more humor you bring in, the better the texts read. In general, everyone has a chance.

7. Share your personal life

People are always eager to peek into a keyhole or behind the scenes - which is why talk shows are still so popular today. Share your daily life with followers, live in Stories every moment - and people will quickly develop the habit of visiting your page regularly. But listen to yourself: do not do what goes against your inner convictions.

Everyone decides for himself what to show and what not. For example, from the very beginning I decided that I was not ready to show my spouse - and I do not show it. There are bloggers who do not show children (for some it is connected with religion or other moments), and this is also their right. Do such self-restraints affect subscriber popularity? Rather yes. I even myself sometimes think: “If I could make such a photo with the whole family, it would get so many likes”. But bloggers also have a personal life. And without too much frankness, you can find your zest.

8. Do what no one else did

To be one step ahead of the rest, you need to do what no one else does. It works in any business, and Instagram too.

It may seem that all the niches are occupied and everything has already been invented, but this is absolutely not the case, especially in the Russian-speaking segment. For example, we still don't have full-fledged fashion influencers. It would seem that this is such an obvious niche, but it is not occupied.

And those bloggers who have had their own chips for a long time also continue to look for something new, come up with concepts. This can be done endlessly.

9. Be helpful

You won't surprise anyone with beautiful pictures and vanilla quotes: people crave not only spectacles, but also bread. In a word, useful content is to be.

It doesn't matter who you are - a designer, a dancer, a director or a mother on maternity leave, it is so interesting to talk about your occupation that you, an ordinary person, already have a hundred thousandth audience on the Internet. Yes, there are a bunch of accounts that are created purely for entertainment, like "funny" vidos from weiners on Instagram, but I do not consider this a blog: rather, purely entertainment.

10. Make it funny

And immediately a spoiler: if you don't have a sense of humor, then it's better not to try, it will look pathetic. But if there is, then it's definitely worth a try. It will be funny stories or vines - you decide.

11. Avoid cheating subscribers

We understand: it is psychologically easier to engage in a blog, the number of subscribers to which has already exceeded several thousand. But do not get carried away, because inanimate subscribers are a dead weight, which, if the measure is not followed, will pull the account to the bottom.

It is absolutely not normal to increase subscribers. If only because it can be verified. And most importantly: the winding up subscribers are dead subscribers. Instagram will delete these accounts sooner or later. Yes, this is done to receive advertising projects. But the brand will still see the effectiveness of such advertising and understand that the stated audience does not correspond to reality.

However, honesty is honesty, and no one canceled psychology: a person is more likely to subscribe to a large blog that has already managed to attract thousands, if not millions of subscribers.

Honestly, I myself did not wind up subscribers. But I know examples when bloggers on bots have risen to a certain level. They began to be taken seriously, they got into a "get-together" (they were invited because they did not know that the accounts were of poor quality), and then they grew on real subscribers. Quite successful.

12. Buy ads

A blog without ads is like a car without fuel: won't go far. People need to know about the existence of your blog - and in this they need help. Select the right influencers and submit an ad request. But of course, after your account is filled with beautiful and interesting posts, and the number of followers reaches at least 1,000.

However, be careful: it is quite easy to waste money when promoting a blog.

You should not contact small bloggers whose PR costs 300 rubles: this means that a small number of subscribers will come from them. You also need to contact only those bloggers who are similar or close to your blog topic.

13. Experiment with promotion tools

Try to participate in SFS (abbreviation for shout out for shout out, literally - “voice for vote”, mutual PR): if you get noticed, this is a good chance to get an interested audience. And having already gained a sufficient number of subscribers, you can organize SFS yourself.

I got my 200 thousand subscribers on SFS. This is the main tool that I have used to promote my account for a very long time. I had good involvement with this competition: not like other bloggers who have tried the same.

It is also now popular to participate in a giveaway (competition with a prize drawing) as sponsors and organizers. But keep in mind that many of the newly arrived followers will unsubscribe when the competition is over. So you shouldn't place your main bet on this item.

I am against active participation in the giveaway: a lot of bots come. Better few subscribers, but high-quality, live ones.

Remember: there are many promotion tools, and what hasn't worked for someone else can help you a lot in promotion.

14. Make friends with bloggers

Collaborations are what keeps modern Instagram together. Look for friends with the same interests! Offer mutual PR, a joint outing for pictures - whatever. The exchange of audiences has not prevented anyone yet.

A modern successful blogger is not just a person who spends most of the day on the Web. If you want to be successful, you need to get out of your comfort zone - communicate, meet and, despite Instagram, live real life with real people.

15. Make friends with brands

Use all possible ways to connect with brands and start collaborating with them: after all, account monetization is part of your plans, right?

Do not hesitate to write to brands yourself, having adequately evaluated your profile before. Register on various platforms where bloggers and brands find each other.

16. Take care of emergency exits

You shouldn't rely only on Instagram: for example, accounts are often blocked, anything happens. So that such a situation does not catch you by surprise, it is worthwhile to think in advance about backup options for self-realization and monetization.

We're a guest on Instagram, and anything can change. Indeed, in the case of Telegram, everyone also could not believe that someone would interfere with him. Yes, it exists now, but a large audience left it when the difficulties with access began. I constantly think that something could happen - they will delete the account, for example. Or they will impose sanctions against Russia. You have to do something that has nothing to do with Instagram - which is what I actually do.

17. Analyze

Creativity is good, and intelligent creativity is even better. Track which of your actions generate the greatest response and which go unnoticed. There is nothing wrong with asking your audience how they see your account. A good blog is a competent symbiosis of the blogger's self-expression and the interests of subscribers.

When I just started blogging (it was not yet a personal account, but the Mama Club community on Instagram), I set goals for subscribers. I wrote down directly: this week, 1,050 people came, this week - 500. Let's see what I did this week, why is there such a difference? Purposefulness is a good quality. Not only within the framework of Instagram: you need to set goals for yourself and go towards them.

18. Never Stop

Continuing is more difficult than starting: you need to constantly seek and find strength, time, motivation, money. But don't forget: while you are standing still, others keep walking.

When I became a millionaire, there were very few such large bloggers: 3-4 people, including me. It seemed - to go nuts, so cool, I'm out of reach! But at some point, I stopped being so active, and other bloggers appeared who grew at a click. For example, Nastya Ivleeva - she overtook everyone and took off into space. Every time you think: no, it is unlikely that someone else will appear. But such a person appears - and becomes number one.

There is no limit to perfection, and improving your blog should not be a one-off action at the start of the journey, but an ongoing practice if you want to succeed.

The most important thing is to improve and not stop. Even if you have taken a course, that does not mean that you are now a guru. You need to constantly practice, learn something new.