Want to know how to gain more followers and likes on your Instagram? In this blog post I’ll be sharing how I went from being a loser to a winner on Instagram! Do note that these tips are my opinion and in no way do I claim to be an expert that has studied advertising, multimedia or anything like that. I’m just speaking out of experience and what I learnt in art school and love to share it with people that are as desperate as I used to be and willing to try out something different. The method I used has resulted in me getting over 6.600 followers in about 8 months and a couple of really nice friends over the internet! Oh, and yes, I do get many sales from people that find and follow me on Instagram. Yay! Click on pictures to enlarge.
Okay, here’s what I did wrong when I first started using Instagram.
Didn’t use any hashtags
Didn’t realise I had to photograph from a distance because Instagram crops all photos in squares
Not showing a specific style
Thinking Instagram has the same audience as Etsy
White background
This picture shows one of my first crappy photos with NO hashtags at all. I had been waiting 6 weeks for followers and likes after posting my first few photos with no hashtags at all. The 19 likes I got are the ones I got way later through other photos I did post with hashtags.
Originality Skip this when your work already is totally unique. What I discovered very soon after looking for fellow designers is that originality is one of the most important things on Instagram! There won’t be many people interested in your work if your work looks or is similar as other designers’ work. For example; you sell (like me) crocheted plushies, dolls, hats, or whatnot and want people to look at your photos and really like them. So much that they will think “wow, that’s a piece of art, great artist, never seen this before” and will start following you soon after. That’s one of your goals, right? To achieve this goal we must search for fellow designers on Instagram and see if they make the same plushies (or whatever you want to sell) as we do. I’m selling one Lalylala crochet doll which is a very popular crocheted doll on Etsy and Facebook and discover that over 21k people already posted pictures of their Lalylala doll on Instagram. Fantastic, lots of hits for that hashtag you say? Wrong! Although people might be able to find you on Instagram very easily, our item still looks quite similar to other people’s Lalylala doll… So why would people want to follow us instead of the original designer? This Lalylala doll didn't get me lots of likes either. They won’t if you won’t alter the pattern in such a significant way that it will stand out from the crowd. This way people would rather follow you than the other crocheters out there with the same old doll. This revelation came to me when I wasn’t happy with the amount of followers I gained. Neither did I receive any comments on my photos… What I did next was asking myself questions like “I’m an artist, I want to be noticed in the art world so why don’t I just design something myself?” and “Do I need to be dependent on other people’s work to be successful?”. Just sketch a few drawing of what you like and would like to make and it has to be unique or just something you came up with without copying from other designs. Try to make them. Don’t worry, it twill take practise to make something unique and be happy about the results.
Backgrounds Okay this one is as equally important as the other subjects I’m talking about. A background is not something you must think lightly of. Firstly, you have to realise that a background draws people in. It makes people look longer and faster to your photo if you choose the right background. Many people make (in my opinion) the mistake of using white backgrounds on Instagram. Instagram is NOT Etsy. It is a platform to entertain people and draw people to your profile and then remember you by your unique photos and items! White backgrounds got me the least likes!
What does a white background do? Pros: makes it look sterile on Etsy Cons: Doesn’t give a person any special mood or feeling, distances a person from the item Again, it’s Instagram we’re talking about! Everything is about giving your followers a warm feeling and draw them in. White backgrounds will make your, for example, jewellery look like all the others in stores and on the internet, nothing special to make it pop. Same goes for most other items. Instead decorate the background according to your theme. I sell crocheted art dolls, plushies and crochet patterns, I hate pink. What colour is the background of most of my items? Pink! Only because it accentuates the theme I’m going for, cuteness, fluffiness, happy and elegant. It works way better than my other photos that have no backgrounds to accentuate my dolls. If you are selling jewellery, try decorating the background with items related to the theme you are going with. For example: Are you trying to make witchy or Wicca or gothic related items? Show it off! Don’t overdo it but show it off to make your followers feel what you feel when you make your items and keep your photos consistent! Google for "cute Jewelry" and see how sellers use fitting backgrounds for their products to attract people. That's what we're aiming for.
Hashtags Hashtags, who hasn’t heard of them? They let people on Instagram find you when they look for certain photos on Instagram. Hashtags aren’t as difficult as you may think! I’ll keep this part as short as possible so here goes… To draw a lot of people in via your hashtags, which are actually your business cards on Instagram, you’ll have to research them first. Go find successful designers and see which ones they use for their photos, click on the hashtag and see if there are many people using it. You want the number to be as high as possible. Relevancy is even more important than just using any hashtag. Example for crocheters out there: use these hashtags #crochet #amigurumi You’ll be amazed by how many people don’t use #crochet as a hashtag. You can use up to 30 hashtags use ALL of them! (over 5 million people are using #crochet already) Although these hashtags are a great start, we’ll be needing a lot more! We need to be original and smart but don’t go using hashtags like #Ilovecrochetlalylala or #bohojewelleryweekendoff. Nobody will be looking fort hat, it’s just not something that will pop up in somebody’s mind except for yours because you are the one making boho jewellery on your weekend off… ;) Okay, so you’ll want to attract the largest amount of people you can with hashtags you can use over and over again. My secret is using foreign languages. I speak many but not all the languages that I use hashtags for. English is a small language compared to all the others together so try to find countries that are known for your niche. If you crochet that would be Turkey, Japan, Netherlands, Germany, France, England, China and Russia. Of course many other countries too but at least we have covered many of them! Mix some words too but only if you can find lots of people using them. Japanese: #amigurumi #あみぐるみ #kawaii #chibi #anime #kawaiiamigurumi English: #kawaiicrochet #crochet #cuteamigurumi #amigurumidoll #handmade #handmadedoll #cute #instacute #christmas #summer #happy #love #amigurumipattern #crochetpattern #artist #etsy #doll #art Chinese: #手編娃娃 German: #häkeln Turkish: #örgü Dutch: #haken These 30 hashtags are the ones that describe most of my photos and come up with a high number of people using them. Remember though, hashtags only draw people in. They don’t make people follow you. That’s the job of the photo, background, quality, etc. Investigate each hashtag and KNOW what they mean! Nothing more embarrassing than using a word you don’t know the meaning of. ;) Save your hashtags and keep them in a file on your phone so you can copy paste them every time you are about to post a photo.
Biography Edit your biography on Instagram by using the settings button. Tell people who you are, provide a link to your shop, Facebook or website. Keep it short but informative.
Posting on Instagram When posting on Instagram it’s wise to always keep your descriptions light and fun. Don’t go writing a huge story about your day or how you came to design your item. Keep it short enough and use smilies that fit your mood. :) What I always like to do is post something like: “Cinnamon is saying hi to you all. Have a nice day! <3 She’s available in my Etsy shop. Check my shop for crocheted dolls and crochet patterns! <3 www.crochetdrama.etsy.com My Facebook page: www.facebook.com/crochethappyplushie “ And then paste your relevant hashtags under in this part. Noticed I’m providing my followers with useful links every time? This way my followers will know about my shop immediately without asking for it or looking for my biography, because there are people that will ask you no matter what.
Common mistakes and questions Like for a like, right? Nope! Don’t do those type of games. I know some people on Instagram will get angry with you (from what I’ve heard) for not liking or following them back. Guess what, you don’t need to! Stay genuine and honest and only like back when you like! It does help when you go hit the heart button on photos if you have time for it though. Don’t like it if you don’t but you’ll have a slightly bigger chance of people liking and following you. I’m following so many people but got stuck on 200 followers. Don’t go following people with the expectations of them following you back. This way of attracting people can damage your Instagram account tremendously! You’d have 200 followers while you follow 400 other people. Talk about desperate and time consuming! Only follow fellow designers that inspire you or you are in contact with. They will help you out when you need them just like fellow crocheters contact me for help.
Personal or business related? So, what will interest my followers and get them to know me better? Upload a high quality picture of your pet! Pets do great, especially cats and other small animals. ^_^ Share pictures of work in progress with some tools around it that you use. Show your working space as well! Something that doesn’t do well is kids. If you design kids related items and your business Instagram is all about that, then yes, it will be a success but overall people just don’t care about your kids. It’d be too personal. You’re also most likely to receive less likes for your personal photos of yourself and pets but don’t worry, we’re working on an overall picture on Instagram so people will know a bit about you without being too annoying. If you like to show your family to the world, I suggest you just make your personal account where it won’t affect your business.
How often do I post photos? In the beginning I used to do it once or 3 times a day but discovered that may not always be effective. Not sure about this. What I am sure about though, is that after 3.000 followers you can easily slow down a bit by posting about 3-4 times a week so you can build up likes for your photos. After 3k followers people will already be familiar with your work and probably occasionally tag their friends in their comments. After 6k followers I just started sharing once every two weeks, partially because I’m too busy with Art school, and I’m still getting lots of likes and followers each day! About 10-60 followers a day and 10-30 likes a day, I think. I never counted them and wrote it down, maybe I should have? ^_^” Don’t get discouraged by slow days! Contests & promos I’ve heard of people on Instagram do promos and contests where they collaborate with others but personally I never have. Sorry, can’t tell you too much about that one although I would never send one of my items to a blogger or person on Instagram for free just to promote my stuff unless I just gift an item to them just because I admire them. Who knows if their followers will like a random item you sent? After all, they started following that person because of HIS or HER content, not yours. That’s my opinion that’s definitely not based on experience so decide for yourself. :) Inspirational photos Inspirational photos are a great way to show your followers and potential customer why they should buy your items but also to show them what goes well with that item you made! If it works, continue. Again, Instagram is not Etsy. You can share whatever you want on Instagram and as long as your followers like it and you gain more followers, why not? Example: I’m selling crocheted dolls and my followers love it when I put my dolls on a cabinet with other plushies in the background. Same goes for antiques. Selling vintage or antique items? Try sharing some pictures of rooms decorated in the same style of your items that you sell. It will give a great impression and people will be more likely to buy from you. Quality of photos The quality of your photos is very important. You can still have a Canon camera but your photos will come out like the ones I used to make ten years ago when I got my first phone with a 1mega pixel camera… Know your stuff, do research on how to improve the quality of your photos! Always take pictures in daylight or use daylight lamps to help you out to prevent your photos from looking grainy, crisp or yellow. Personally I love using my Windows Phone Nokia Lumia 930 with a 20mp camera. After that I sometimes edit a little bit in Photoshop on my laptop or use Adobe Photoshop Express on my phone. Love these programs! <3 To watermark or not to watermark? Personally I am all for watermarks. Whenever a person on Instagram shares my picture without asking for permission first I just let it slide because I will get tagged in the photo and the photo will have a watermark on it. Strangely enough they never share my pictures that don’t have a watermark on it. I suspect that’s because they would have to ask first. :) In art school I learnt to watermark as much and as often as I can, like real professional photographers. Just use a subtle watermark. It does work well and yes; I know a skilled person can rub it off in Photoshop but how many people do that? Not that many! The ones that do, often do a terrible job where everyone can see that that person is not the original photographer. Yay! Note that I’m often too much in a hurry to watermark all of my photos on Instagram. :)
Follow-Like ratio
What I noticed is that eventually, after about 8.000 followers, it can get easy to lose track of your goal. Keep your mind focused on satisfying the following you already have instead of only gaining more and more followers. You'll end up getting loads of followers but only 100-300 likes per photo. We want to get as many likes on our photos as possible! So, don't over promote your Instagram account. Instead, promote yourself to people and groups that are interested in your work/items/photos.
I really hope this long blog post (that I tried to keep as short as possible) will help you as much as it helped me when I knew nothing about Instagram. This blog has been written with lots of love so please don’t go too hard on me. I really suck at writing blogs and I tried really really hard to keep it “short”. Here you can see some of my photos on nstagram and how many likes I got so far.
Extra A few popular hashtags for some subjects. Vintage: #vintage #brocante #antique #paris #france #vintagefurniture #upcycle #vintagestyle #love #happy Research more hashtags if you need more. Stationary: #stationary #scrapbooking #kawaii (cute in Japanese, apply if you are going for a cute look) #stationaryaddict #love #happy #planneraddict I’m too tired to come up with more subjects and hashtags after writing this post for over 3 hours. Need a break here. :) Have a nice day everyone! My information Crochet Happy Plushie on Facebook.
crochethappyplushie on Instagram Etsy shop CrochetDrama Archie.co can help boost your Instagram for a little while. :) Try it out for free! Top hashtags for Instagram to help you look for strong hashtags that are relevent to your photos!