How to get noticed on Instagram

Pictures by : Kevin Adams @smada.k

Very often I get the questions: how did you grow your Instagram account till 16,5 k followers? How do you contact brands and how do you create a feed? When I was younger I would never thought I would be here right now. Doing something like this, was only a dream. In this blogpost I am going to explain a few things to you about Instagram and how to get noticed as a ‘blogger’ or ‘instagrammer’. I do not like the word influencer so you won’t see this back here.

The App

A little reminder: Instagram is a Social media application. The app was build to connect with each other by sharing photo’s or video’s. So, if you want to get noticed: be out there. Like and comment on other bloggers photo’s. Share thoughts, your daily activities and favorite songs on your insta stories. Try to be as open as possible: they need to get to know you ! In this way you are able to see Instagram growth in the long term. One of the best ways to grow on Instagram is by being super active on Instagram you will receive comments and likes back. Because of Instagram I met two of my best friends now. It is way more then just an app to share photo’s. See it a little bit as a ‘dating site’, your followers want to get to know you, but you also want (and need) to get to know them! Once you know which kind of people follow you, you can see which kind of pictures work for your community. The more and more people starting to follow you, the more time it takes to keep these relationships. This works just like a brand: if you want to sell a product, you need to have customers who know you exists! For me it took 1,5 years to get here, for other people it takes half a year and since the algorithm changed it can take maybe 5 years to gain 10 k followers. But this should never be your goal. Your only and most important goal is to build up relationships, very strong ones, with the followers you have! Brands find this more attracting these days, since so many people are buying followers. It is not about (okay, it is, but also not) the amount of likes or followers but about the quality of the relationship between you and your following.

How to start

Take your favorite outfit, grab your boyfriend by his arm and be sure that you have a phone with you. Choose a background outside and take the picture! Well this is how I started haha! Just do it, that is all I can say. Start posting pictures every day. When you post one, be sure that you thank the people who leave a comment by sending them a message, like there photo’s or react on there comment with: thank you so much dear (something like that). These people can be a follower in the future. And as I said: be super active. If you are willing to do that, you will grow your account eventually.

Step 2 is to find your own editing style. Collect pictures of other Instagrammers  in a save map and call it: inspo. Try out different apps to match the styles you like. Editing is my favorite part of Instagram, I can do this for hours. Since I am using Lightroom I noticed such a big quality difference in my photo’s, I can definitely recommend this program. The other apps that you need to have as an instagrammer/blogger are:
– VSCO
– Afterlight
– Facetune ( to make everything white and smooth)
– Snapseed
– UNUM with this app you can plan out your feed.

It took me a while before I found out which editing style I liked the most. And every season I change up my editing to match the colors of the season. This is all totally up to you ! Don’t expect that it is all going to be super great and beautiful when you start, try out some things and play with the tools of the apps.

How to get noticed by brands

This can be hard, especially in the beginning. Just as you have to build up relationships with your followers, you also have to build up relationships with brands. It took me some time to connect and build a partnership with brands. You have to think about their position: all they want is getting noticed by their target audience to provide more sales. So how did I started?  I posted everyday on Instagram and on my blog and I was very active with commenting on other bloggers pages. This is how brands noticed me and my style. Also, some times I had this kind of picture idea in my head of an outfit and location but I did not had the outfit yet. I send a lot of emails to brands with a collaboration idea. They love this! A great idea can be good for their branding position. This way I would get the outfit to make the picture and they had more marketing activities. Another way to get noticed by brands is to like and comment on their Instagram or blog page. It can be hard to find an email address who brings you in contact with the right person (PR or Marketing division). So this is a great solution to solve that problem.

There will be times when brands say NO. I have been there. This can have several reasons: maybe they already have a bunch of bloggers in their mailing list and they can not provide new ones with collaborations. Or your content does not match theirs! This is a very common one. ALWAYS choose brands who match your personal style and content ! I see so many instagrammers receive and promote clothing that they would never where in real life. Only for the pictures?! Also, do not hesitate to tell if you do not like their offer. Some times it just does not work for you. I had some brands in the past who asked about 10 pictures of one item. That was just way to much. Creating content takes a lot of time and some people do not know this yet. Tell them that this is to much for you, you are in charge.

What now?

So, your page is slowly growing, you worked with a few brands and your blog posts are going well. What is next? The most important thing is to keep going. Find out what works for your Instagram and do this a lot. Visit events to get to know other bloggers and share tips with each other.

If you still feel like you are not getting any traffic on Instagram, here are a few things you can do:

• Try to get one of your pictures reposted on a big Instagram page, like: fashiongoalz
• Message other bloggers and ask for a shout out on Instagram stories. This works so well!
• Take a look at your content: are there things you can improve? Is something missing?
• Learn how to edit your photo’s in your own way! Stand out!
• Share your Instagram photo’s and link on your other social media platforms
• Tell people about it! Be a little proud of yourself.
• Ask for some support of your friends. Maybe they can comment on your latest picture?
• When you work with brands, ask them if they can share your photo on their account!
• Push Push Push yourself : the only way to get noticed is to be active daily

I hope that these tips work for you ! Keep going lovelies!

Share your account down below so that I can take a look ! 

xo Esmée