(mellow music)
- How to grow on Instagram and get more real followers.
You know, Instagram is one
of the most powerful platforms right now
for building a personal brand and getting attention.
And it doesn't matter whether you're a photographer
or whether you're an influencer,
these tips are really gonna help you.
So you're gonna get real organic followers and reach.
Let's get into it.
Hey, everybody, this is Roberto Blake,
helping you create something awesome today.
Welcome back to the channel.
For those of you who are completely new here, welcome.
My name's Roberto Blake.
I'm a creative entrepreneur.
I'm a public speaker at events like VidCon and VidSummit.
And I have a social media coaching business,
Awesome Creator Academy.
And today I wanna talk about Instagram,
'cause Instagram is probably
my favorite platform besides YouTube.
I grew up with photography.
I have a very strong passion for it.
I own so many cameras, so many cameras.
It's so expensive, but it's actually really awesome.
You don't need a lot of money
to be successful with Instagram, true story.
Now I have about 14,000 followers on Instagram.
And what a lot of people don't realize
is that I pushed to get over 10,000 of that
in just, like, one year of real, solid effort on Instagram.
And I really could be working a lot harder at the platform,
but as many of you probably realize,
my focus lately has been YouTube.
But if you want to build your personal brand on Instagram,
then you need to really put time
and effort and focus into it.
You need quality images and videos.
And one of the first tips that I can give you
when it comes to those quality images and videos
is to have somebody help you with your photography.
What I typically do is I find a friend,
a family member, even a stranger.
I give them my camera with all the right settings
and with the perfect lens,
and ultimately I have them take those images of me.
It's produced some of the best shots
on my Instagram profile.
But that's not the only way for you
to build your personal brand and grow on Instagram.
While a lot of channels tell you tips about Instagram,
something they ignore a lot
is Instagram Stories and Instagram Live.
And Instagram Stories and Instagram Live
are one of the most powerful ways
for you to build and grow your personal brand on Instagram,
because the more that people engage and interact
with your Instagram Live and your Instagram Stories,
the more Instagram's algorithm
distributes their post in the feed.
So you're gonna get more likes and more comments that way.
The relationship with your audience
is the most important thing,
more than being able to take pretty pictures.
You need to understand that Instagram
is an emotion-driven platform.
It's the platform with the strongest emotional connection,
I think, out of any other platform.
And so I think that if you spend
more time replying to people
and also commenting on other people's Instagram,
what I've experienced is a couple of things.
Not only does that build more connection,
but it's an algorithmic advantage.
And I'm gonna do a whole video where I tell you,
you know, five core principles of the Instagram algorithm,
because in comparing it to the YouTube algorithm,
I found some very fascinating connections
that I think you guys can appreciate.
So you'll want to subscribe
if you want to get that video later.
You need to use as many aspects of Instagram
as you can to your advantage.
So doing a photo post in your grid,
that actually helps, but slides actually help, too,
in terms of, you know, those slides
where you have multiple photos
because it helps with time on page and time on post.
This is something that I'll talk about
in the algorithm video,
exposing the Instagram algorithm,
but this is something taken for granted.
I think that a lot of people feel that, like,
just getting the perfect photo by itself is enough,
but there are so many features in Instagram,
and if you actually use them,
and you use them to your advantage,
then you can grow.
And it's a great way to trigger engagement.
I think I get more comments on slide posts
and on Instagram videos than anything else.
And with Instagram, I would say that comments
are a much bigger priority for you than likes.
I know that likes are the thing
that everyone wants to use to validate themselves.
Oh, I don't have enough hearts.
But the comments are so powerful,
because it's people being very intentional on your page.
It's creating a connection.
And when you reply back, that only gets stronger.
So I prefer to do posts with comments in mine
as my trigger more than likes.
And if you go and you actually check me out
and you follow me on Instagram,
you'll actually see that compared
to a lot of much bigger profiles on Instagram,
that I get much better engagement
in terms of the amount of comments I get
in proportion to the amount of likes that I get.
And so that makes a really big difference,
because I don't think that,
as many of you might want to be skeptical about this,
I don't think that a lot of people block their audience.
I think that a lot of people don't get the engagement
because I don't think they keep the relationship
with their audience when they get big.
I've seen this in YouTube.
I've seen this in Instagram.
I've seen this in Twitter.
When people reach a certain threshold,
they just stop engaging with their audience.
Some of it is feeling overwhelmed.
Some of it is that because they got big, they got busy.
And so I'm not faulting anyone.
And there's no shade here.
I'm just pointing out that if anything
I'm defending these people in saying
that not everybody is faking it until they make it.
The problem is that some people made it
and then they forgot how they got there in the first place.
They forgot where they came from, as people like to say.
Now I am planning a video
that is all about hashtag strategy,
and there's actually a tool
that I think could help a couple of you with hashtags.
So I'll save that for another video.
What I will say about hashtag strategies
is that not overdoing it is important,
but you also need to think about hashtags
as a way to add context to a post
and to find an audience for a post.
It's not about gaming the system.
It's about who would benefit from or who would like this?
Who would think this is interesting, fascinating?
Who would dig it?
Who would want to engage with this?
And then thinking about the hashtags
that are most likely to be part of the topics
that they're interested in and aligning with that.
That's all you're trying to do is use hashtags
to find an audience for your posts to be distributed to.
That's where I think people get lost
when it comes to trying to game the Instagram algorithm.
Don't worry about it.
Really think about the fan.
Think about the viewer.
Think about the person that you want to engage with this.
Now when it comes to building
your personal brand in Instagram,
I think that the photos you take
should be telling a story or creating context on you.
I mean, if you're a photographer,
it's not just about your photos.
I think that, like, one of the things
I think that Peter McKinnon and Matti
and a lot of these other photographers do that's great
is they have each other to take photos of themselves
in the moment on location
and create the context of, you know,
them as a photographer.
So it's not just about showing their work,
it's showing that they're working.
And I think that that matters.
As an entrepreneur, it's important for me
to have photos of me speaking on stages.
That's very important.
And so the collaboration aspect of Instagram
is one of the most powerful things
you can do for your personal brand,
because collaboration is more
than appearing with people in photos.
It's awesome when I get to take photos with Gary V.
or Casey Neistat or Peter McKinnon
or my friends like Viper or Swoop or, you know,
anybody in the YouTube community, Sara Dietschy
But what is more important than those collaborations
and the value you get from a shared audience
is when you can collaborate creatively
to make something better than you could do by yourself.
I think a lot of people use collaborations
more as a "hey, I can get likes or views or followers"
instead of "I can get better work
"by collaborating with somebody."
There's so much great B-roll
that I've only been able to get of myself
because of friends like Red Romina
or Audrey Ember or somebody being willing
to, you know, take my camera off my hands
and shoot some beautiful slow-motion footage for me.
Collaborating recently with Metal For Breakfast,
he made a motivational video to, you know,
this song from Fort Minor, Remember the Name.
And I posted that to my Twitter and my Instagram,
and there was so much engagement, so much love
for the hard work he did capturing me in that video.
And it's awesome; it's dope.
And so collaboration is a very powerful thing
you can use in Instagram,
but you have to do it with the right intentions,
and that's really gonna get people's attention.
And more importantly, you can use it
to make better-quality work.
Some final thoughts on growing in Instagram
and building your personal brand.
Don't always think that it has to be
about perfect aesthetics.
Sometimes it's about the message,
and it's also about your style.
It's about the unique relationship
that you're gonna build with your followers
and how you are presenting yourself
and whether you can do that with consistency,
authority, and authenticity.
I think that those things matter more
than how good of a shot you're getting.
It's about storytelling, and it's about, you know,
what is your story, and why should it matter to people?
These are questions that I think
some of you might be afraid to ask,
but they are important.
And I think that's where I'm gonna end this video.
But I'm gonna ask you a question of the day.
What is your best tip for growing on Instagram
if you are building a following?
And if you aren't, and you have questions,
what are your questions about Instagram?
What would you like us to help you with
and answer for you in the comments section on this channel,
and I might make future videos of that.
So I'm gonna probably take your tips from the community
and combine them with my tips in future videos,
and I'm also going to try to answer
as many of your questions in the comments.
And I know this amazing community is gonna do the same.
Anyway, like this video if you like it.
Don't forget to subscribe.
Check out the other awesome stuff (mumbles) channel.
In fact, I have a video you should check out
on how to get your first 10,000 followers on Instagram.
I think that could help you.
As always you guys, thanks so very much for watching,
and don't forget, go out there
and create something awesome today.
In fact, I'm gonna go do that right now.
Take care.
(mellow music)