5 tips for growing on Instagram as a creative

The first post on my account was on the 30th of October 2018, a picture of a plant in a pot. It has 36 likes and no comments. And why am I telling you this, because nobody woke up after one post and have 10K followers. It takes time and a lot of effort. By times it’s super annoying and I even stopped posting for weeks at a time in the beginning because it can be so energy draining. But I 100% choose Instagram as my marketing strategy, so that’s why I just kept going and educating myself and share my life as a potter online. 

And now? I love it, it’s not draining anymore (oke, just sometimes) and it actually gives me so much energy to connect with everyone on my platform. In this blogpost I am gonna share with you my top 5 tips to grow on Instagram. 

A little side note: it is not all about numbers here. Quality is always more important than quantity. But; more followers is more sales and that’s all I’m after. I don’t make ceramics to only put them on my shelves ;). 

I really feel like this is a big one and that’s why it’s number one. Everybody knows the feeling of feeling insecure when you’re starting something new. Maybe a new career path or hobby, or maybe you have a big message to share with the world. 

When I look back at the beginning of my career, I felt like that in general. I quite my job and started a pottery course and after just a few weeks I already felt that this was gonna be my new life. And even though I felt that, it was also very new and I was very insecure of everything. My studio AKA garden shed was not very pretty and also my skills were not good at all. I started posting about pottery and in the beginning it was just friends and family that saw my posts. And this is how you start people, just post the things that are important to you. Especially if you want to grow as an artist or any other thing that you want to share with the world. Instagram is a beautiful platform to show your work and yourself and connect with people around the world.  

After around a year of playing around with Instagram and slowly growing my following, I felt that I reached a plateau. All of my family and friends started following me and I just didn’t knew how to grow my following beyond that level. So I started looking around for people that knew more than me and that was a very fun search and it’s still something that I love to do. I had a photoshoot with a very lovely friend in that year and she helped me with my feed, I got a ton of tips and especially learned a lot about colors. After this meeting with her I wanted to learn more about Instagram and signed up for the ‘Insta retreat’ from Me and Orla and that was so good and really help me decide on my brand colors and overal aesthetics. I still love to do research about new features and I like to educate myself on everything that social media can offer me and my business. So I would suggest to start small; if you don’t really know what hashtags can do for you, start with that. Maybe you want to start posting Reels, go for it. But start small and choose one topic at the time. It can be quite overwhelming, so get familiar with one topic before diving into the next one. 

Isn’t that the case with everything? If you want to reach your goals, you have to be consistent. If you only go the the gym every other week, or do only one squat you won’t get the results you’re after. It’s the same with growing on Instagram, only 1 story a week of your cat isn’t gonna do the job. Choose your topic and do your thing, every day! Or at least a few days a week. You want people to be invested in your life and that will happen if you make them invested in your life: by showing your life. I have to say that it took me a while before I really got into that, you might think it’s easy by seeing me all the time on the gram. But that definitely wasn’t the case a few years back! I was awkward and never showed my face, but I knew that if I wanted to grow I had to take that next step. Consistency is the key here, it does’t even matter if your camera or phone is old. Just go!

I know, I know it’s scary as hell. But really, if you want to grow your following, step out of you damn comfort zone and show yourself on Instagram (or any other platform you’re using). It takes time before you’re confident and not awkward. But if you never practice, it will never get not awkward. Looking back at my first story where I show my face and talk in front of the camera I feel so proud of myself, because it was a HUGE step for me. I worked on myself and really stepped out of my comfort zone, but I reached my goal and I am super sure it helped me grow my following and my sales.  

Be yourself, make your own rules and have fun. When I just started out I felt so overwhelmed with all the ‘strategies’ out there; content planners, hashtag strategy’s, engagement, best posting times etc. I decided to not use them and only post when I felt the urge to post. Because I am not very creative if I have to make ‘content’ for an entire week in 1 hour, that’s just not my thing. And if it is your thing, go for it! But my point is; make your own rules. You don’t have to do what others do, make it fun and make it yours. That’s the most important thing! 

 

With love - Robin