LET'S GET A TON OF FOLLOWERS...

Recently an Instagram 'guru' I encountered started talking about how to gain a lot more followers.

Now on social media there are always 'technical' things to learn which can make your posts more visible and more attractive to each site's algorithm and that's great if that kind of thing floats your boat and gives you a bit of an uplift. However for me it's a false premise because the next day, week or month, all of that will change and you won't know.

Also if you are not particularly techie or that type of stuff bores you - how do you succeed on social media?

Nevertheless, I took on board what this guru was saying, just in case she knew something I didn't. It was worth paying some attention. So I've been watching and wondering if I should apply some of her techniques to my own Instagram feed which is in its infancy.

Now a few weeks later, I've realised it's all smoke and mirrors. Her technique is to stick a load of trending hashtags on every post, and those posts mostly have absolutely nothing to do with the subjects covered by those hashtags.

The upshot of that is that you do get an uplift in followers - many are bots and fake and almost all are irelevant to those people you want to reach and are not adding any value to your audience. It becomes all about quantity and nothing about quality. So when tomorrow you want to push your workshop on subject A - not one person is going to buy or even consider it as none of them are interested in subject A.

Social media can already feel like you are shouting into a void, but when your audience is growing dramatically and you are still getting no positive engagement - please just take a moment.

If you are doing this, or your provider is doing this then please think again. You are building an audience of little value to you and even worse you might be paying someone to do that for you.

One clue that this is the tactic is an increasing number of comments from people saying 'why are you using this hashtag?' or similar comments calling out that inauthenticity. Another is loads of messages trying to sell you stuff you don't want from people or companies you've never heard of. While you get these anyway, the number will ramp up significantly.

In my view organic growth is best and quality always over quantity. If you do need to build more quickly for a specific reason then this is the time to consider a paid ad campaign (not my specialist area) as when you are spending money the platforms will aid you with that and you will be seen as more attractive for the obvious reason that you are investing in the platform.

Social media is still growing. Facebook is still the biggest platform by quite some margin, with YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp in the top five. TikTok is the fastest growing platform in the UK (2024) but still lags behind.

In my experience one way we can all benefit, over time, is to use social media with good intent and positively and to turn up consistently and not get too hung up on the technical side of things. Being present and showing up even when some posts get little engagement will, over time, overcome all other factors.

And if your provider is very techie then they must keep moving with those changes and not making you look like someone who is simply gathering any old following using daily trending hashtags which don't align with your brand, product, service, personality or ethics. Frankly you end up looking like a bit of a prat.