With competition so high and the desire to grow ones network, many photographers find themselves looking for any sort of way to grow their following. There are all sorts of "tips" and "tricks" that one can use, with everything from following thousands of people in hopes that a handful of them will follow you back to randomly liking and commenting on strangers photos. Some third party sites even allow you to purchase followers, though almost 100% of these followers are bots and not real people and will therefore never interact with your account. However, I will explain that these methods simply do not pay off in the long run.So here are the 3 reasons why allowing your Instagram account following to grow naturally is the best way to do it...by far!
1. You Want Interaction, Not Numbers - Do you want real people or computers looking at your photos?
If very few people are liking and commenting on your photos, then there is no reason to have a bunch of followers. It is pointless. While it may be sexy to have "100k" or some other bloated number under the "Followers" area on your Instagram profile, social media success comes down to how people interact with their followers and vice versa. There are many options of gaining "trash" followers (accounts that will never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, like, comment, or interact with your account in any way). I briefly touched on these earlier, and I stand by what I said. When you follow a bunch of people or like thousands of images or - *facepalm* - buy followers, you are going to get trash followers over 95% of the time. What is the point of having a social media site if no real people see your content?
2. You Don't Look Desperate or Fake - Keep You "Following" Number in Check
Let's say that you visit a random Instagram account and see that this person followers some 5,000 and has around 1,800 followers. What does that look like to you? Does that add credibility to their account or does it take away from it? It obviously takes away. But why? Because it makes the account look cheap, lazy and desperate. Even if the gap was closer, say, following 5,000 and has 4,000 followers if would still look bad. Heck, if you have 5,400 followers but have to follow 5,000 other people to get to that point that probably means that your content isn't very good or that your connections aren't that strong. That is exactly what others will be thinking too when they see bloated "following" numbers when compared to your "followers" number.
3. You and Your Content Look Credible - Have your Current Followers want to Keep Following you!
Above all, you need to remember that people are smart and seeing an account with 75 active followers with 150 total followers will always be more attractive than 20 active followers with 3,000 total followers! Remember: its not the size of your following that matters, its about what you do with it (yes, I just said that). When you start gaining followers (yes, it will be slow at first) make sure to interact with them and make them feel appreciated. Comment on their photos, respond to EVERY SINGLE comment that is left on any of your photos and make sure to push yourself to create excellent content. You may be surprised at how much value these interactions have, especially when compared to the dull reality that "trash" followers are worthless.
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So unless you simply want a bunch of trash followers to make yourself feel good by having a big "Followers" number, stay patient and honestly interact with others. Engage with other users and your account will blossom with followers that actually care about you and your content. After all, isn't that what you want?
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