How to grow from ZERO: the first five things I would do with a brand new Instagram account
“But, Katie. You already have a following, what if I am starting from ZERO?”
It's not easy to gain more followers on Instagram, especially with a new account. It’s all about finding the right Instagram strategy for you - the strategy you use differs a lot depending on where your starting. Today, I want to share the first five things I would do with a brand new Instagram account. If you’re starting from scratch, keep on reading.
1. Get SUPER clear on what you’re offering.
The first thing I would do if starting a new Instagram account would be to narrow down the direction I want to take this account and get super clear on what I’m offering. What is my purpose as an IG account? What I’m going to offer? And who are the people I am trying to offer that to? It’s deeper than finding a niche, it’s more about what you have to offer. I truly believe everyone on this planet has something to share. You just have to figure out what it is and how it can be relevant in someone else’s life. Once you get clear on your offer, I recommend breaking that down into 3-5 pillars. This will provide you multiple themes that you can evenly rotate through your content each week. This will also help keep your Instagram consistent, which brings me to my next tip.
2. You’ve heard it before, consistency.
In the beginning, it might feel like you’re posting for nobody (which is probably not true, even if there is only one person viewing your content - that’s ONE person you can educate, entertain, or inspire), but either way, you need to get in the routine of posting as if you had a 100k followers. Think about your ideal situation where you had this huge audience, how often would you want to be posting for them? Start posting that often now. Because that is how you’re going to attract all of those people to start following you. You can’t expect people to start following an empty account with only a few posts, you have to start building a portfolio of valuable content, that way when people come to your profile and scroll through your feed - they will hit that follow button.
Building up a library is not only great for attracting potential followers, but also for experimenting with different types of content. This will provide you more data to look at - so you can determine what posts performed well, what received more likes, shares, comments, etc. This will also help you plan for future content … but you can’t really depend on Instagram insights until you build at least a few months of posts to review and analyze. I would also recommend being consistent with your branding, voice and, values. This doesn’t just mean your colors or aesthetic - which can be important - but also what do you stand for? What are you against? What feelings do you want to invoke? How you want followers to view you? You get the idea. Once you develop your branding - be consistent. Listen to the full podcast episode to get my tips on how to stay consistent.
3. Create content on an evergreen platform.
Though your end goal might be to grow on Instagram, sometimes you can do that quicker by using the support of a different platform. Just like the name indicates, evergreen content stays useful season to season, year to year with little or no need for upkeep. It can be referenced long after it was originally published, and even then, it still provides value. Though reels are making it easier to create viral content on Instagram, overall - the platform doesn’t really have a ton of built-in discoverability. Most people getting on Instagram are scrolling through their homepage, not really seeking out new people to follow. Where on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Podcasts, or Blogging - people are going out to find specific content related to their interest or what they might want to learn. All of these platforms are built on discoverability and could help drive traffic to your Instagram. And - as I mentioned, these platforms can bring you traffic long after it was originally published.
4. Engagement!
This is incredibly essential to your growth on Instagram. Because really, what Instagram growth and community building are all about - is building relationships. There are two sides to engagement.
First, you need to tend to your existing audience. If you get up to 5, 10, 100 followers - make sure you’re engaging with them consistently. It’s all about building friendships and community with the people that took time out of their day to follow your account, interact with your posts, or are reaching out to you over DM.
The second part would be doing outreach. There are 1 billion people using Instagram each month and your job is to sift through those 1 billion people and find the ideal audience that you determined earlier. Interact with them. Find them using hashtags, visit their profiles, like, and comment on their last few posts - but make sure it’s genuine responses.
5. Patience and experimenting.
Building a true, high engaging audience takes time and a lot of patience. Though there are some strategies you can try that can help you gain followers at a faster pace, like posting reels daily - the one true, ongoing strategy takes TIME. I have been on Instagram since it first started and just now reached 20k - this has taken me a lot of time, effort, and patience.
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At the end of the day - It’s all about building genuine, authentic relationships with your followers and real talk - if you feel like you’re too good or too busy to interact with people and you’re just in it for the follower count, it’s not going to happen for you. These are real people, who deserve your respect and attention. Be patient, provide value, and genuinely care about the people who are following you and giving you their time. Check out the full podcast episode for more details and tips!