How to grow your social media following

  
I have always considered interaction with other users the crucial part of getting feedback and good following count. Holidays, where I could lay back and browse through my favourite tags on Instagram, because I actually had time to do this, were my most successful days. 

I strongly believe that once you create content that you are proud of, or you are improving gradually, the key is to get out there, in front of people who might be interested by it. 

How can they find you if you don't try? In a world where millions of people post their works on Instagram or update Twitter on daily basis, how can you be found? The good following numbers are not just numbers. Sure they can be used to pitch a brand you were always wanting to work with - and they might actually help. But they also mean more and more people enganging with you, commenting your work, letting you know what they love and what they don't.

Archie is the web app that I found recently. Just a little over a week ago, a friend at Peony's Project recommended it to us. A free three day trial began and at the end of it I already knew I wanted more. Are you curious what is it all about and why it got me so excited in the first place? Read on!

---- I n s t a g r a m-----

Last couple of weeks, once the school started I was balancing my Instagram follower count. During the days that I was not posting, I was usually losing a follower or two. It was getting frustrating. I knew there is a bunch of people out there that would enjoy my analog work, they just did not know I existed.

Archie is a web app that helps you interact with people in certain tags that you specify. For me those tags always include something photography related. I focus most on #filmphotography, but niche tags like #zenit or #fujifilm also help a lot to get to the more distant users. So we got the first step, we tell Archie exactly which tags we are interested in. Then we give him permission to like photos on our behalf. And this is it. Archie would go into our favourite tags a couple of times a day and like a few photographs. Not spammy at all. It doesn't write stupid comments like "check me out, like my photo." 

It just lets out this initial spark of liking a photograph you would perhaps normally like yourself if you had time to browse the tags every other hour. It gives you ability to connect with people you normally would not spot due to the time difference that you post in. That's another plus!

And this is how in a little more than a week I went from having 1260 to over 1500 followers on my Instagram. (My dream was always hitting 7k, so who knows, maybe in some time it will be all possible!) And what is more important, I got more people commenting and liking that I had ever before. So I think we can talk about a serious growth now.

As Archie is also able to interact with Twitter and now even Pinterest, it is seriously a great investment in developing a strong social media following. I never really focused on Twitter - but so far it helped me raise my following count with 100 new followers using tags like "photography" and "blogging".

Anna: Hey Kasia - what are the limitations of the free account? Looks great.

 - Free trial gives you ability to connect both, Twitter and Instagram account. You get all the basic account perks. 10 Tags per each service and in my case interaction happens each 45 minutes (multiple likes) or more frequently. Other than that I would say that it works like a regular account.

 Amani: I just signed up, put my tags and it keeps loading, wondering what else i need to do for it.

- If you approved Archie in your Instagram account (there should be a message that someone tried to log in and you need to click that it was you) you just wait for Archie to start interacting with others. Nothing else to do.

Sally: Someone mentioned that using external accounts / sites lead to bans on your Instagram account - have you seen any issues using this service?

- I have not experienced any issues, nor has friend, who recommened it to me. I run a quick check up and nobody really complained about it. As I understand it, Instagram banes people who try to get fake followers or use sevices of companies that make multiple fake accounts - Archie is about gaining real followers. I am not completely sure what is Instagram's approach towards it, I hope it will all go smoothly, as Archie's interaction is not aggresive or spammy.   

---- Is it worth trying? -----

Archie is a great concept that is yet to be completely known. It still has some minor issues like possibly liking spammer accounts that use the tags you specified. By the things  I have seen in the last days, when I would always wake up to at least few new people interested by my content, it just made my heart grow fonder of it. I really think you should all think about it and decide to try it for yourself, even if it's for the three days of trial only. If you decide to abandon it after this time, you a free to do it, but I know that once you experience the magic of Archie it won't be that easy to let it go.

So what do you say? 

Sign me up!

find me on Instagram @cadds