How We Organically Gained 20k Instagram Followers in 80 Days

We just recently reached 20k Instagram followers, and we did it in about 80 days. From what we’ve been told, that’s kinda fast. We’ve also been hearing this question a lot lately: “How have you grown your instagram account so quickly?” So instead of trying to answer it over and over in DM’s and comment replies, I thought it would be better to write a blog post.

Keep in mind that what follows is not a list of top secret tricks that require no work. They are simply concepts that we’ve applied to our Instagram strategy, and they do take time and effort.

Make Every Picture High Quality

This one seems like a no brainer, but it’s so important to remember that Instagram is all about the photo. So basically, we try to make every image look like it’s out of a magazine. Do we accomplish this all the time? No, because we’re not professional photographers.  But we’re constantly learning and improving our photography skills.

There are so many different principles that go into creating a beautiful photo: composition, lighting, etc. A few weeks ago, Henry wrote an article about how to take better interior photos for Instagram where he shares a few photography tips that we’ve learned so far on this Instagram journey. We try to apply these and more to every photo we post.

And if we think the photo is not good enough, we don’t post it. I think it’s better to skip a day of posting than to post a bad picture, which could potentially cause you to lose followers.

Provide Value in Your Captions

In every caption that I write, I try to say something helpful or useful. I know that many of our followers are building a house or remodeling. So I try to always share things that we’ve learned along the way. Not only will this help someone, but it also causes people to comment on your post, which increases engagement.  And as you’ve probably heard, the Instagram algorithm loves engagement. The more engagement a post gets shortly after posting, the more likely it is to be shown to more people. Also if you are providing useful tips with your beautiful pictures, people will be more likely to follow you.

Another thing that I’ve done is ask for our followers’ opinion on a project. This works because we sincerely want to hear other’s opinions, and people want to voice their thoughts. Check out the post below. You can see the engagement numbers. And the best part: after reading everybody’s thoughts on our porch ceiling, we decided to leave it as is, which made Henry very happy! This was one project he was not looking forward to.

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This morning @philip_or_flop reminded me about unfinished projects. Our porch ceilings were one of the last things that went up before moving in, and we didn’t have time to do anything to them. We ended up really liking the unfinished look, but now we’re thinking they might need something. Wondering if we should stain them dark to match the floor, or just a little darker to match the door and swing…or just leave them like they are. . . . #backporch #porchdecor #modernfarmhouse #whitefarmhouse #fixerupperstyle #porchswing #wooddoor #customhome #mybhg #mybhghome #exteriordesign #modernfarmhousestyle #southernliving #farmhouse #farmhousestyle #blackwindows

A post shared by Brooke (@plankandpillow) on Oct 20, 2018 at 10:20am PDT

Engage with Others in Your Niche

This is a big one, especially if you are just starting out. One of the first things I did after we created our account was find several larger accounts that I liked and that were in our niche. I consistently liked and commented on their posts, and continue to do so. I always make sure to leave a genuine comment, not just a heart eye or thumbs up emoji. For me this is easy because the accounts I follow are ones that I really enjoy and post content that I am interested in.

By consistently doing this, these account owners started to notice and many of them shared our account. And this means that many of their followers started following us.

These two awesome ladies below shared our account early on, which was such a big boost to our growth, but more importantly it allowed me to get to know them and so many other amazing people who share the same interests as me.

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A couple of weeks ago, I started seeing a new account commenting on my posts. As I usually do, I went to check her out as I love finding new accounts. I was absolutely blown away by what I found! @plankandpillow’s modern farmhouse is what my building dreams are made of! Scroll through for a quick tour of her home, pay very close attention to the last picture! Do you see what I see?!? Let’s see how many of you can figure out what I’m drawing your attention to the would specifically interest me!!!! . . . . #farmhousestyle #farmhouseporch #newconstruction #buildingafarmhouse #farmhouse #modernfarmhouse #whitefarmhouse #hgtv #designbuild #countrylivingmag #southernliving #farmhousebuild #bhghome #realhomesofinstagram #fixerupperstyle #farmhouseinspiration #whitehouseblackwindows #architecturaldesigns #joannagainesstyle #houseplans #americanfarmhouse #coastalfarmhouse #homeconstruction #farmhouseinspo #dreamhouse #farmhouselove #custombuild #housesofinstagram #jettsetstyle #metalroof

A post shared by Jett Set Farmhouse (@jettsetfarmhouse) on Aug 10, 2018 at 10:14am PDT

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How amazing is Brooke’s house @plankandpillow Our houses would most certainly be very good friends if they could talk to each other 😂 I love her style, it’s truly the essence of #modernfarmhouse Brooke has a newer account and I’m loving all of her squares and interacting with her, she’s super sweet💕 Swing by and say hello 👋 swipe over for a few of my faves 💕 . . . . #hgtv #howyouhome #fixerupper #mybhg #houzz #southernliving #bhg #neutraldecor #betterhomesandgardens #bhghome #farmhouse #myhousebeautiful #countrylivingmag #customhome #farmhousestyle #houseandhome #sodomino #interiordecorating #interiordetails #interiorstyling #interiorandhome #housebeautiful #inspire_me_home_decor #interiorforyou #homedesign #strangefarmstyle

A post shared by C H E R I R O S E 🌷 (@strangefarmhouse) on Aug 8, 2018 at 7:17am PDT

Stay Focused and Within Your Niche

This is a hard one for all of us! We all want to post those first birthday pictures, cute doggie faces, and beautiful children’s artwork, but we have to refrain and keep those things for our more personal accounts and stories. While all those things are great and maybe ok within reason, that’s not what our followers want to see.

The biggest thing to keep in mind, is that whatever your niche may be, stay focused and give your followers what they want to see. Ask yourself, “Why are they following me?” After answering this, stay laser focused on providing your followers with exactly that.

100% Organic

As I already mentioned, posting high quality content is so important, but it just as important to gain high quality followers. This means growing your account organically with followers that are interested in your content.

When we started our Instagram account, we decided that we were going to grow organically. That meant no tricks like follow/unfollow, no buying followers, nor following a bazillion people just to get them to follow us back. If your followers are gained using these tactics, your posts probably won’t get much engagement because they are not interested in your content. And if your posts don’t get engagement, your account won’t grow organically.

Learn from Past Posts

After we had a few posts under our belt, we started to see that certain photos did better than others. For instance, we noticed that outside pics of our house always did well. So now we make sure and post at least one outside shot every week.

This outside post for example reached over 117,000 accounts and gained us 633 new follows.

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We need some help! One of the things on our to-do list is to finally finish the area above the garage. We have been contemplating this since we moved in and need to make a decision🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️ We are thinking it could be used for one of three things: 1️⃣ An Apartment for Our Daughter 2️⃣ Rec/Game Room 3️⃣ Home Office I elaborate on each one of these in today’s blog post. If you want to know more about what we’re thinking and some preliminary budget items, link is in the bio. We would truly love to hear your opinion on which one we should do. So vote below with some feedback. We always love to hear what our followers have to say! xoxo xoxo . . . #modernfarmhouse #modernfarmhousestyle #modernfarmhousedecor #farmhouse #whitefarmhouse #garage #garagegoals #garagedoor #blackwindows #mybhg #hgtv #southernliving #farmhouselove #farmhouseinspo #farmhouseinspired #farmhouseinspiration #instahome #exteriordesign #exteriorlighting #exteriorstyle #buildersofig #curbappeal #housegoals #garagegoals #landscapedesign

A post shared by Brooke (@plankandpillow) on Oct 11, 2018 at 12:21pm PDT

Also, converting our Instagram account from Personal to Business allowed us to see some important insights that show us how posts are performing. If you haven’t done this already, you should.

Tag Big Brands

One thing we did from the beginning was tag the sources of items in our photos. For example, we have a rug in our kitchen from Joss & Main. Every time we post a picture of our kitchen and the rug can be seen, we tag them. The idea is to get their attention in hopes that they might share you. And this goes back to the first point. If the photo looks great, chances are they will. Which means, you will gain some of their followers.

Joss & Main has shared a few of our pics, and this one of our kitchen really blew up on their account. I believe it might be their most engaged post.

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This seriously stylish runner adds just the right touch of color in @plankandpillow’s kitchen! #jossfind

A post shared by Joss & Main (@jossandmain) on Sep 10, 2018 at 4:03pm PDT