Are your social media accounts stagnant? Are you working hard to post regularly without seeing a lot of growth? I was sitting in that boat with you a few months ago.
On May 23rd, I had 568 followers on Twitter and 443 on Instagram, numbers that had seen very little growth in the past year.
Fast forward 2 months, and I now have 2268 Twitter followers and 1210 Instagram followers. In case you don't want to do the math, that means that the number of my Twitter followers basically quadrupled and my Instagram followers tripled.
Want to know how I did it?
Let's start with Twitter.
I have a private list on Twitter called "Copy Followers." On that list, I have people and companies who are in my niche. Each week, I pick 1 or 2 people from the list and follow all of their followers. I start on Tuesday and work on it until Friday. Then, on Monday, I go through the people I'm following and unfollow anyone who didn't follow me back. I do that because I don't want the number of people I'm following to be bigger than the number of people following me.
To see who you're following who doesn't follow you back, you can either use an app or just log onto your Twitter account on a computer (instead of your smart device). On the computer, it shows you who's following you back and who's not.
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| Do you see where it says "Follows you" after the person's name? |
Engagement is key as well. I try to retweet a variety of people in my niche and often retweet them if they mention me in their tweet. I also regularly like posts and reply to others' tweets.
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| A peek at my Twitter analytics over the last 28 days. |
I use a similar method to grow my Instagram, but didn't start really using it until the last few weeks which is why my account there hasn't grown as much as Twitter.
From Tuesday through Friday, I follow the followers of a few people in my niche. On Monday, I unfollow everyone who hasn't followed me back.
There are apps available to see which of your followers aren't following you back. I use a free one called InstaFollow. Unfortunately, it only lets you unfollow 5 people each hour, and I think it has a weekly limit as well because after I've used it consistently for a few days, it won't let me unfollow anyone else for a while.
I was able to find a way around that though :) It's a little more work, but it's still pretty simple.
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| My Instagram account pulled up on my computer |
Pull up the InstaFollow app on your smart device and find the list of unfollowers. Next, open your Instagram account on a computer or a second device and click on "following."
Now just unfollow everyone who's on the list of unfollowers in the app.
I frequently comment on and like pictures from my Instagram feed as well as some from the "search" or discover page on Instagram so I'm reaching other people as well.
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How I tripled my Instagram and Twitter Followers and you can too!
How I tripled my Instagram and Twitter Followers and you can too!
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Another tool I really like for both Instagram and Twitter is CoPromote. I use the free version, and it's really paid off with increased retweets, regrams, followers, and engagement. You earn "reach" by retweeting or regramming someone else's post. The reach can be used to promote your own post. It's easy to use and definitely worth it! You can sign up for it here.
Another way to grow your social media account is something I have right here on my blog! You can join the Share the Love Social Media Linkup on Saturdays at 10 am. Each week, we linkup a different social media (Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook). Sign up for an email reminder each week so you don't miss it!
For those of you who'd like to track your followers each week, here's a free printable.
I hope you found some great tips for growing your Instagram and Twitter accounts! I'd love to hear how they work for you!
Thank you for these great tips. I signed up for co promote but I got confused. I will try it again!
ReplyDeleteLet me know if you need any help! I'd be more than happy to help you figure it out :)
DeleteGreat tips Hannah! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThank you...Thank you for this. I have been struggling with Twitter. I now know how to unfollow people who are not following me because of this amazing and helpful post. You are amazing dear. :)
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if there was an easier way to check my unfollows on Instagram. I have been search their following list for my name and if they have unfollowed me, I unfollow them. Sometimes, if I have followed someone on Twitter or Instagram and they haven't followed back, I make sure to engage with their content that relates to my niche, then I unfollow and follow again so they get a new notification. If they still don't follow after that, then I unfollow to keep my numbers even-ish. I also never follow someone who has thousands of followers but only follows a handful unless their content is personally informative or uplifting (unless they are a famous writer, artist, band, etc., then I understand that they might not follow back everyone). My instagram is gradually growing, but my twitter is up from 78 to 2100. Not as quickly as yours, but when I work it, I see big results.
ReplyDeleteGreat tips, thank you! You're more organized than I ever could be, but I can still use your tips on my own sporadic time. :)
ReplyDeleteI am at a standstill with Twitter. I apparently can't follow anyone or tweet until I have more followers. I reached my limit. I have been trying to unfollow, but it's taking forever, and I am not sure how far I have to go before I can start following again. So annoying. Any tips or tricks to speed things up?
ReplyDelete