My follow count does not define me. My follow count does not define me. My follow count does not define me.
No matter how many times to repeat that to yourself, we all want to see some growth on our social medias. You would be lying if you said you genuinely couldn’t care less whether your follow count went up, down or stayed the same. Growing follow counts reflects a lot of things- success, growth within yourself or growth within your blog. So why is insta grow so damn hard? And does it even exist further than the odd miracle you see cropping up from time to time.
First off, I want to apologise if this post is a bit of a word dump. To be perfectly honest this is a topic that I have been wanting to discuss for a while and have always struggled to find the right words, the right title and just…. the right way to go about it. I don’t ever want to offend anyone, but at the same time I want to give my real and honest opinion. That’s how we roll here at PetiteElliee.
So let me start with some growth examples and just have a little chat, shall we?
The first person I want to look at is The Sunday Chapter. If you do not know who Angela is then you have clearly been living under a rock because this girl has just BOOMED. After inventing the notion of story templates, her instagram has grown from a very comfortable 20 something thousands to over 400k within the space of a few weeks.
Wow.
And as happy and proud as I am of Angela ( I have been following her blog for a while so its really amazing to see the journey), I feel that a lot of people assume that this just happens. And happens easily. Now I am not knocking Angela but I am going to say it as it is- a fluke. Her story templates were never intended to cause her instagram to boom and she never envisioned what happened when she shared them. Its amazing and a lot of peoples aims, but I think it must be hard for the girl. I mean almost overnight she has amassed this audience who she doesn’t know, has never interacted with before and WOW that can be overwhelming.
So when looking at insta growth, Angela is in another ball park. Her story is amazing and inspiring, but not something that you can look at and expect to achieve by the end of the week.
But before you think I am being miss cynical over here and telling you that these cases are a one in a million, insta growth is not dead. There are so many amazing girls who I have seen achieve amazing things at a steady pace. Take Sophie Milner for example, another absolute BABE who has taken instagram by storm. Now Sophie did not have an overnight success story like Angela, but she has had a boom of followers over the past few weeks and months.
And you know what, I think it’s because she has cracked intsagram. Sophie KNOWS what her followers like, she knows what to post and when to post it and MY GOD DO I ADMIRE HER. Her knowledge and understanding of how her followers behave has caused a huge influx in engagement, followers and admirers in general. Her online presence and the way she can chat to you like you’re two old friends having a coffee is the ultimate ‘girl next door’, while her fashion sense and gorgeous London locations are something to aspire to.
Sophie has found the perfect middle ground for relatable and aspirational. Hats off to her.
I mean I have been blogging slash instagramming slash influencing since around 2014 now. I am so proud of my growth and so chuffed with how far I have come. I guess when it comes to growing numbers and stats, you can look at someone who has taken off and compare yourself. Its easy done. hell I will be the first person to put my hands up and admit to having a good old cry because why has she grown so much quicker?! Is what I’m posting just pure shit?
But all you need to do when you are having one of those moments is keep your chin up and remember that it’s not a race- we all grow at our own paces. And hey, some growth is better than no growth at all, right?
And although insta growth can seem LONG. It can seem like a hard task, especially when you’re starting out as a newbie. But trust me, if you put in the graft, show your passion and just ENJOY yourself- you too might be able to crack the code to insta success. (lol I am still trying)
Also all snaps taken by the lovely Pheobe who you all need to follow like ASAP