3 common Instagram growth mistakes

With so much information flooding the internet on Instagram hacks to grow your following, it can be hard to tell which advice is credible. 

I will tell you right here and right now most of these hacks are fake news. True organic and meaningful growth takes time and a commitment to nurturing the relationships your current audience. 

Growth for growth's sake will not translate to sales. Your audience needs to trust you and be invested.

To help guide you in the right direction, I want you to be fully aware of the three most common growth mistakes I see on Instagram.  

Follow/UnFollow

You may have seen this before and become annoyed by the situation or have done this yourself belief it would help you get closer to the 10k most of us wished we had. Follow/unfollow is when someone mass follows other accounts to be followed back only to turn around and unfollow after a couple of days.  

Loop Giveaways

Y'all have probably seen me post about this fake growth hack before, but it needs to be said again. Don't fall into this trap! A Loop Giveaway is a contest that offers a big prize or prize(s) but require you to follow multiple accounts (generally 15+ Instagram creators/influencers/businesses) in order to enter. ⁣

The sister to this strategy that I see time and time again are the "help fellow small businesses" follow loops I see in direct messages. Unless these people feel connected to you in some way, even those new followers will drift away by unfollowing or simply not engaging with your content. 

Buying Followers

While buying followers is easy, it is against Instagram's Community Guidelines and terribly detrimental to your account. Even if the company you find claims they'll get you "real" followers, the truth is they aren't always real. Regardless, having fake followers destroys your credibility. 

Why these are horrible strategies

Beware!! None of them actually work as a long-term growth strategy. Each lack genuine engagement and interest.

You want followers that are actually interested in the value you have to offer. The last thing you need are passive followers that don't engage with your content. In fact, the more unengaged followers you have, the lower your reach will become. 

But the worst part of all about these type of "hacks" is that, while you may gain your "swipe up" from having thousands of followers, it won't matter. These new found followers aren't your tribe. They aren't invested. And, most importantly, they won't translate to more sales.