Instagram is all about people organically UNfollowing you

new post equals losing 1000 followers

I lose around 1000 followers with every new post on Instagram (it’s the way life works - some of my followers become less interested in my content, and here I am, reminding them that they haven’t unsubscribed yet).

before I talked to Jon (Instagram’s ex-employee), the only way for me to grow was asking my Youtube followers to follow me on Instagram as well.

This way I was able to drive around 1000 subs per day (my Youtube channels have 5M+ followers), so my Instagram subscriber count was pretty much stable for the past few months (despite me posting regularly).

I sat down with Jon to talk about ways to grow organically on Instagram in 2021 and everything changed in less than a week after I started applying his tips.

In my recent stats you still see hundreds of people unfollowing me every day, but I finally started growing faster than I used to before, gaining around 1400 new followers daily:

This graphs might give you an insight on where these new followers are coming from:

Yes, reels are giving me great exposure to ‘cold’ audience! I post 5 times a week, mostly by using videos my team has created for my TikTok.

Here are key takeaways from our interview with Jon:

• Reels are a #1 instrument for organic growth on Instagram

• People are using strategies that they did in 2017-2016 and trying to get away with it in 2021 (hashtags, for example)

• The oldest formats are the most saturated (it’s really hard to get new followers from stories and posts)

• Instagram is looking at who is consuming the content and what other content they consumed in the past and trying to serve a relevant piece of content

• With Reels you get exposure to new audience (oh yes!)

• Timing really matters on Instagram (I’ve seen that firsthand - if I post when my audience is asleep, I get 20K likes. Compare this to 50K when my audience is awake)

• One of the most underrated strategies is using polls on stories (this way you get insights on what your audience is most interested in)

• Use four-way live to grow (haven’t tried that yet, but Jon says it’s one of the most underrated tools to grow)

• Don't post a reel with a watermark from another app