How I gained 1000 followers in one month by posting Reels on Instagram
If you have followed me for a while, you know I am all about slow and steady growth - I truly believe that growing on Instagram and any social media platforms is all about building relationships one follower at a time. 🙌🏻 But… it is true that there are certain strategies that will help you scale faster than others.
You guessed it, Reels.
If you check out your explore page right now, you will see it’s flooding with Reels. Since they are fairly “new” to the platform, Instagram has prioritized Instagram Reels content and even made it front and center.
When I created my new content strategy for January, I knew it would be effective in theory - but now that I've seen the results in action, I can say confidently that it works. This strategy helped me gain over 1000 new followers in one month. Reels are absolutely essential to increasing your reach organically.
Where It Started vs How It’s Going
I first wanted to share a little bit about where I started vs how it’s going now. I started the year, January 1st, with 16,044 Instagram followers. Before implementing my new content strategy for January, my follower count wasn’t growing very quickly - in both November and December I only gained around 250 followers. I actually gained more than 1500 followers before the month of January ended. But, how?
Let’s Talk Analytics
Reach and Impressions. If you are unfamiliar with reach and impressions, let me explain. Reach is the total number of people who see your content. Impressions are the number of times your content is displayed, no matter if it was clicked or not. Think of reach as the number of unique people who see your content. Naturally, both reach and impressions will go up and down each day because it depends on what you might have posted that day … but what’s interesting when viewing my analytics is the number of times my reach went above 5000. Before January, my reach (which again, is unique viewers) only went over 5000 a few different times. But in January, we start to go over that line most days. The only dips we see in my analytics in January are on the weekends when I take a break from posting on social media.
Profile Interactions. Profile interactions tell a fascinating story. In both November and December, we were floating around 200 or fewer profile views, with the exception of one post in November. Then all of the sudden, in January, we are seeing over 500 profile views most days (with the exception of the same weekend dips we talked about earlier). This is a BIG deal. If you think about it, each time someone visits your profile, that’s an opportunity for someone to hit that follow button. Getting people to my profile so much in January definitely had a huge impact on the follower growth we saw. This is why I am promoting Reels as such an important growth strategy that you have to try out!
How to Make Reels That Help You Grow
It’s not just about making reels, it’s making reels that help you grow. There are three main factors I have noticed in making effective, strategic reels.
1. Following common trends.
Following trends, like challenges or trending audios, is essential if you want your videos to go viral or show up on the explore page. You don’t always have to mimic exactly what others are doing, but take it and put your own spin on it. Tip: a surprise ending can really boost engagement, shares, etc.
2. Providing quick wins.
Your time is limited, reels can be 15 or 30 seconds long, so you want to focus on small takeaways that people can implement today that are going to have a measurable difference in their life/business.
3. Use subtitles/text.
Not everyone has their audio on when on Instagram. You want the reels to be accessible to everyone and it’s just a format that works really well on reels, so make sure you’re using text as much as you can.
Here’s the thing. If you want to see this type of growth, you’re going to need to be really consistent and post every weekday, if not more. In January, I posted 5 reels a week for 4 weeks. I get my ideas by scrolling through TikTok or thinking of some of those “quick wins” that might benefit my audience. Once I have my list, I spend 3-4 hours recording all of them. I won’t lie, it’s exhausting - but it’s totally worth it. Once you’re done, you will have an entire month of content ready to go.