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Exact blueprint on How to get from 0 – 10k+ followers on Instagram
Here is a simple 8-step process on how to get from 0 – 10k+ followers on Instagram.
Before we start, let’s get several things straight:
- By 10k followers I mean 10k people that actually care who you are & what you do. Not just 10k random people following you.
- This won’t happen overnight and takes a lot of work.
- But if you do the work, it will be worth it 1000%
So let’s get started with the 8-step process:
1. Gain Clarity
This is what you need to know:
- What’s the ultimate goal of the account? (ex. brand deals, sell a product, etc.)
- What 2-3 topics do you want to be known for (ex. lifestyle, business expert, tennis enthusiast)
- Type of content you like and want to produce (reels, tweets, etc.)
2. Market Research
- Find 5 – 10 people in your niche that are crushing it
- Study their content & find what people resonate with
- Create a list of 10 – 20 topics that are proven to go “viral” or “resonate” with your target audience
- Find a way to add a unique spin to it
3. Content Creation Phase 1
- Create your first round of content.
- Don’t try to “go viral”.
- Try to 1) Provide value 2) Bring out your personality.
- Authenticity is what makes good content GREAT.
- Treat creating content like a child’s game. Have fun, get creative, and try out different things.
- This 1st phase is to find your “flow”. The goal is to publish daily for at least 30 days.
- Track the performance of each post to find what is working best FOR YOU
4. Content Creation Phase 2
At this point, you posted at least 30x on your Instagram account.
Take 1-2 hours to analyze the following:
- Which posts did the best?
- Why did they do better than others?
- What’s the commonality between the best-performing videos?
- What format/topics stand out?
- After answering the above ask friends for feedback.
Use this “data” to create a second batch of content. Make minor changes where needed and try to implement the feedback friends/peers gave you. Start to sprinkle in some content that shows your personal story + indirectly shows you are qualified.
95% of the time, people see traction after that 2nd 30-day period, if not much sooner. The biggest trick to growing legit followers is to just post content every day and engage with others. It’s the unsexy playbook Gary Vee has proposed for years, and it holds true until today.
Think of it like investing in stocks. With each video, you might reach 5, 10, or 100 new people. Some will follow you and existing followers turn into fans. The more “fans” you stack, the more your reach will be over time. Given your content is good and provides value.
Over time, you have this compounding wave of raving fans that will lead you to go “viral” or just experience explosive growth. But none of that happens if you’re not posting daily for 30 – 60 days without expecting crazy results.
5. “Shares”
This is a little growth hack that holds true on all social media platforms. Find people in your niche with a similar or bigger audience than you. When you post, get them to share it with their story. Doing so will drastically increase the reach & likelihood of growing your own social media account.
If you want to level up your growth, you pay people in your space to share the content for you. WARNING: This only works if your content is HIGH QUALITY. Usually only recommend doing this when you have some well-performing content already.
6. Ads
It’s no secret that IG wants you to “pay to play”. Using Ads as a method to grow is super effective & can be as cheap as $0.1 – $0.3 per follower. If you have a product to sell it’s well worth it.
If you spend $1,000. grow 1000 followers, and make 3 sales for a $3k offer, that’s a 9x ROI. And that’s assuming shitty conversions. This just shows that this whole “grow organically” is not the only way. In the end, we’re all here to make the $$$.
7. Content Creation Phase 3
Content Phase 1 & 2 helped you gain experience & get some “bad reps” out of your system.
Now it’s time you start to be more strategic:
- What hooks perform?
- What controversial takes in my field could I make?
- What topics can I double down on?
Content creation is a skill, and after 60+ content pieces, it’s key to planning your videos/tweets/captions properly. If you have the capacity, you want to increase the posting volume to 2x per day. Doubling your reach and exposure helps accelerate growth.
8. Collaborations
When you grow your initial audience ( 3k – 5k followers) you can start reaching out to other creators and pitch them the idea to collaborate with you on posts.
Again, you want to cross-pollinate your audiences, helping you reach new people.
Final Thoughts
This is the entire process I am going through right now to skyrocket my account past that 10k+ follower benchmark.
Ultimately, comes down to you creating GOOD content, which happens by doing A LOT of it. And once you get some traction, you double down using “promos” / “shares”.
Instagram isn’t an intimidating monster it is set out to be. For your content to hit, you just need to study the space you enter and see what works, and replicate it in your own way & by adding your unique touch.
I hope this added some value to you.