The strategy that got me to 100K Instagram followers

Do you know how people say that when you're not looking for love, that's when it will find you? That's pretty much what happened to my Instagram in 2023. I thought to myself, "If I can hit 50K followers by the end of the year, that would be great." Just for context, I started with around 35K followers at the beginning of 2023.

But once I stopped putting pressure on growing, that's when I saw the most growth. It all started with trying something a little different, and honestly, this one thing shifted my entire Instagram strategy. So, today, I want to walk you through this strategy and how it helped me reach 100K followers before the end of the year.

How one experiment introduced me to the best Instagram strategy EVER!

I started the year with plans to focus more energy on TikTok. I leaned into TikTok-style reels with a bit of an edge. I focused on creating high-quality TikToks, similar to YouTube videos but short-form. There was one specific video that I felt carried so much value, I thought I'd give it a shot and post this "TikTok style" video on Instagram. To my surprise, it performed really well. This is what I now refer to as "original reels."

For the longest time, Instagram was the place where people wanted to post trendy reels. Even now, most creators providing education on Instagram growth suggest short, 7 to 10-second reels with a call to action to “read the caption.” These do work, and we'll talk about both styles of reels in this episode. But with the experiment of posting this TikTok on Instagram, I found that these original reels can perform well too and have actually provided me with significant growth.

The difference between Trendy & Original Reels.

Now, just because I discovered this new strategy doesn’t mean that this is all I was ever going to do, and I was going to throw every other strategy I had out the window. Instead, I wanted to test out this new strategy and find the right balance between both original reels and trendy reels.

The Art of Original Reels First, let’s talk a little bit about original reels. Now, it’s not like I hadn't created in-depth, educational reels before. I just never had put as much energy into them as I am now. Instead of thinking of Instagram reels as a quick video that takes me five minutes, I decided that I would put just as much time and energy into this as I would a YouTube video.

Which really brings me to the YouTube-ification of Instagram reels. This is a strategy I have shared previously on this podcast.

Essentially, I create a reel just like I would create a YouTube video. This includes:

Writing a script or outline.
Filming the video vertically using my camera, versus my iPhone.
Filming additional B-roll if needed.
Uploading the video files into Premiere Pro, my preferred desktop editing software.
Using Premiere Pro to add captions, B-roll, graphics, copyright-free music, and any other elements or sound effects to make the video more engaging.
I can also pull an image from the video to use in a reel cover if needed.
Then I usually use AirDrop to get the video file on my phone so that I can post it directly on Instagram. Or I might upload the video to Notion so that when it comes time to post, I can download it there.

Creating the video in this way goes beyond just creating a talking head-style reel but instead creates a mini YouTube video that is super high-quality and high value, and I have seen so much success with these reels.

The Art of Trendy Reels Moving onto trendy style reels. These are the reels that more often go viral, normally using some sort of trending audio on Instagram. These are short and snappy and usually play on a loop, which is one of the reasons why you will find so much success with these reels.

Some trendy style reels will have a hook and a call to action leading the viewer to the caption. One thing I have noticed is that sometimes people don’t deliver their promise in the caption, which can do more harm than good. If you’re going to lead them to the caption for more details or to learn more, make sure to provide a lot of value there.

But you can also provide value within the reel itself. You can have a list appear on the screen. For example, one of my most successful reels was reporting my income, where I noted how much money I made each month of the year. I have done this in numerous styles, both quarterly reports, and also based on revenue stream.

All of the information is laid out in the reel itself, and the caption can be short and snappy. You can also provide tips within the reel, adding a few words or a short sentence for each tip or step.

I would say the main thing with trendy reels is that they are short and easy to digest.

How to find content ideas for your Reels

Before chatting about the balance of how many original reels versus trendy reels you should post and what other strategies will help you grow – part of the strategy and why I found success is coming up with the actual topics to post about. Just deciding to create original reels along with trendy reels isn’t enough.

I’m going to walk you through a straightforward method to finding ideas for an entire month of content. And before you start feeling overwhelmed, if you really focus and use a timer, you should be able to get this research done in an hour.

Step one: Indirectly ask your audience The first thing you should do, and I’m sure this is something you’ve already been doing, is review your metrics. You can do this directly through the Instagram app, or you can use external platforms like Dash Hudson or Later. But you'll want to dig into your analytics and find what is performing well for you versus what isn’t performing well for you. This could be a style of content or a topic that you posted about. So make a general list of content that has shown success in the past and content you probably should avoid since it wasn’t performing very well.

Step two: Directly ask your audience I’m sure your first thought is to post a story on Instagram with a question box, saying, “What content do you want me to post?” But that’s something I never recommend doing more than once or twice a year. But there are other ways you can directly ask your audience, without directly asking them.

The first recommendation still starts with stories, but instead of doing a simple question box, create a simple but engaging story – I recommend including a picture of yourself – and invite your audience to respond in a DM. This is almost guaranteed to help your following stories perform better. Once you do this, you can have the following few stories include polls with specific questions, so that you learn more about your audience's needs and wants without specifically asking them to come up with content ideas for you.

Beyond that, you can shoot a DM to your most active followers and just check in on them. Ask them how things are going, what their biggest struggles are, and have a conversation with them. This will build your relationship with them and help you figure out exactly what your audience needs from you.

Step three: Set a timer and scroll through Reels

Now there is another method you can do to come up with ideas, but I urge you to be careful. That is, scrolling. Make sure you set a time limit for yourself, maybe set a 10-minute timer on your phone, that way you don’t risk spending too much time on this.

There are really two different things you are looking for when scrolling: the little arrow next to the audio, which shows that it is starting to become trendy and getting a lot of uses. I wouldn’t get stuck in the trap of overanalyzing the audio to see exactly how many uses it has. If you like it and feel like you can create valuable content using it, just use it.

Also, you want to look out for styles of content that really speak to you. If it caught your attention, most likely, it will catch the attention of your audience as well. But be sure to only use content styles that you feel you could adapt into your own niche. Don’t use it if it doesn’t make sense.

As you come across reels that you like, save them to a collection, which is really just Instagram's version of a folder. You can create collections based on the pillars of content or even just something like “February content.”

Now that you have saved a handful of reels and also did previous research, it’s time to do a simple brain dump and just take all of these ideas and lay them out somewhere. I use Notion, but you can also use paper, a Google Doc, or any other project management software you prefer.

You can really do this for both types of reel formats. As you come up with ideas, you might find certain ones might be better as longer head-style, whereas some might be better off as trendy content.

Never forget about the importance of consistency (it is key after all!)

As I mentioned before, it goes beyond just the format of the reel; it also matters what you’re posting about. But even beyond that, you also have to post consistently.

But don’t worry, I am not going to tell you that you need to post multiple times per day every single day of the week. Not only is this not doable for most people, it’s also unnecessary.

My recommendation to you is posting three reels per week consistently. If you post three reels per week that you created with the intention to provide value and encourage engagement, there is no reason why you won’t start seeing growth.

It’s also all about balance. My rule of thumb is 70% original content and 30% trendy content. But don’t just stick to that because I recommended it. Test out different percentages on your own and for your audience. Because frankly, it’s going to be different for everyone. For me, this balance has provided me a lot of growth and established a strong community.

Keep active in stories

Speaking of establishing a strong community, it’s important to be active in your stories. I used to think I needed to be active every single day, 3 to 5 times per day, but lately, I have learned that this isn’t necessarily the case. I’ve actually found that I have more success if I focus on posting every other day. With this strategy, it seems my reach increases by letting my stories reset every day. This is a theory that has been going around a lot, and after testing it out, I would have to agree.

I already chatted a bit about stories and ways to increase your reach, but just to remind you, it’s important to have your initial story of the day direct your audience to DM you. This will set you up for success for the rest of your stories. Overall, it’s great to keep your audience engaged throughout your stories with various stickers, polls, question boxes, etc. But, it’s also okay to share part of your day with text only. Don’t feel overly pressured to only think strategically. Allow yourself some freedom to just be yourself and share your personality with your audience.

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If you follow this strategy and really lean into this balance of original and trendy reels, I have no doubt that you will find success on Instagram and find yourself growing quicker than you could’ve imagined. Just like it happened for me.