Friends, let’s talk about 3 valuable lessons I learned from Instagram Follow loops and gaining 2,354 followers.
Wait a minute, you did what, Abril? Yep, you read that right.
Before we get started, I would like to thank Innovatty for collaborating with Paris & June on this post. Below you will find more information regarding this innovative app company.
First, let’s talk about why Paris & June even exists because honestly, it ties in significantly with what we are about to uncover regarding Instagram follow-loops.
Paris & June exists to help you find purpose in each day so you can go out into the world and fearlessly go after the life you want. I want to help you find the good life, but first, you must find purpose and more specifically, daily purpose.
Real Purpose does not exist on Instagram though. You will not find it in perfectly prepped, beautiful pictures of happily married couples, smiling families or perfectly sculpted bodies of trainers and models.
In this day an age, when social media is a way of life, it is even more important to find real purpose so that those pretty pictures and stories don’t change who you are as a person.
With that said, let’s delve into Instagram follow-loops.
THE INSTAGRAM JUNGLE
How many of you ‘Insta comment podded’ yourself into a mental breakdown and ‘engaged’ your fingertips down to the bone? Mmhmm!
Raise your hand if you’re fed up with Instagram at this point? Me! Right here. Apparently, it doesn’t matter what trick you pull out of your hat nowadays, following, engaging with the Kardashian clan bloggers, liking the crazy shhtuff on the explore page because someone said it was a good idea, nothing seems to get you more followers and engagement. Heck, some Instagrammers have gone as far as losing their dignity, morals, and integrity, revealing everything but *cough, their mamma’s shame. We won’t mention any names here. You all know what I am talking about. Everyone wants a piece of the Instagram pie, and some are willing to go to extremes for it.
Look, I get it. You want big brands to work with you because that means more paypah! Yes, everyone wants a few extra zeros in their bank account. I get it. But most days feel like two steps zero steps forward, three steps back. Tirelessly running on a hamster wheel, trying to keep up with Instagram’s algorithm for more followers, more engagement, more hashtags. And all that for what? Truthfully, the way things are going in the social jungle is downright discouraging.
Because of all the social media craze, I decided to experiment with Instagram. Yep, I used my very own Insta account to gain followers through follow-loops and then study how those followers engaged with my posts.
Below are my findings.
WHAT ARE FOLLOW LOOPS
Follow loops consist of a group of participants who post a specified image with a predetermined caption, for the sole purpose of gaining followers. There is normally a set of rules assigned to the loop. For example, you must follow the admins of the loop before participating, or you must post at the exact time provided. Regardless of what the rules are, there is normally a set of rules assigned.
HOW FOLLOW LOOPS WORK
Follow for follows are precisely that. You follow someone and they follow back.
Follow loops are a bit different on Instagram. You post a photo on your Instagram, pre-assigned by the admins, who, as I mentioned above, you have to follow to participate. The picture posted by everyone in the loop is usually the same and only displayed for a specific period of time. Along with the photo, you post a predetermined caption and hashtag(s). Once the photo is posted, everyone must follow those who posted the picture and caption. Then you leave an assigned emoji in the comments of the photo to let them know you’ve followed.
HOW TO JOIN A LOOP
The way I joined the very first loop was through an invitation I received via an Instagram message. The additional follow loops were through Instapods (group message on Instagram), Telegram, or Whatsapp. A lot of the times, admins of the follow-loops will invite you to the groups or have them linked via their Instagram profile. In the chats, members of the group have conversations regarding the upcoming loop, what everyone should do during the loop and after the loop, who followed or unfollowed.
PARIS & JUNE METRICS
To compare my Instagram metrics, I use Innovatty’s Instrack app. I’ve had the Instrack app for years, and it always provides reliable data. For this experiment, I used the app to track followers and engagement. The app has a lot of other features which measure and analyze how your Instagram account is doing. I love all the elements, and the analysis tells me what my audience connects with the most.
Before starting this experiment I had 892 followers. After two weeks of scouting and participating in approximately 16ish follow loops, I gained a total of 2,354 followers. The time frame for this experiment was September 3rd through Septemeber 30th.
My accounts engagement only went up when I decided to join the engagement pods associated with the follow-loops. I joined the engagement pods for three days just to show a comparison.
3 Lessons I learned
Joining follow-loops sounds simple. You may be thinking ‘sure no harm can be done if I join a follow-loop.’ And to a certain extent, yes, I agree with you. Follow-loops are simple but can they not harm? See that’s where I think you are wrong. Below you will find the reason.
- Follow loops were an effective way to gain followers if followers are all you are after. Then sure, I would say follow-loops are an effective way to gain followers. But the real question you should be asking yourself is ‘how do I want my Instagram account to impact others?’ Sure I gained 2,354 followers, but none of them cared even to read the messages on my posts, which is my way of helping others see different perspectives. And I don’t want followers who don’t care. I want followers who are looking for inspiration to find purpose; which leads me to my next point.
- The followers from follow-loops don’t engage with content. It was as if I had ghost followers. Maybe three people from the follow loops engaged but other than that; it was silent. I was expecting perhaps half to participate, but to my amusement, only a handful liked new posts. It wasn’t until I joined the engagement pods related to the follow loops that I saw an increased engagement. See the photos above. I began the experiment beginning of September and joined the engagement pods in the middle of September, and that is when my engagement went up. Engagement pods are practically the concept of “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours;” so, if you don’t like any of the photos in the group than no-one will like yours.
- Follow-loops are time-consuming. And I really mean that. The actual act of joining is simple but staying up to date, following all the guidelines and actually following all the other participants proves the task of participating in a follow-loop extremely time-consuming. And because I was on a different time zone than most of the loops, sometimes I would wake up at midnight or weird hours of the night to post a loop. Then during the loop, I would spend hours on Instagram. Personally, I like being intentional with my time, and Instagram is the last place I want to spend my time on.
In the middle of my experiment, I found myself asking questions like “why do people do this? To get more followers so brands can notice them? Is that really what it narrows down to? Unfortunately, that is the case behind a lot of ‘influencers’ on Instagram. And I can see how some people can easily get pulled into Instagram follow-loops to acquire followers for all the wrong reasons.
OPPORTUNITY COST
When it comes to being intentional with your time on any social media platform, think back to economics class. The opportunity cost when engaging on Instagram is something else you could be working on like quality time with your babies, reading a book, creating new content. Whatever it may be, you’re giving up precious time.
And I am not saying I am perfect; we’ve all been there, sitting on the couch wasting an hour or two scrolling through photos because we’re bored. You get sucked in and then lost. It’s seriously a jungle. I think it is important to remember, Instagram is just a platform where we share photos and videos. That’s it. So we have to be truly intentional with our time and our purpose. We have to be strict about what we allow to impact our lives.
TAKEAWAYS
I am no longer part of the follow-loops mainly because I didn’t find them valuable in the sense that they didn’t provide the followers I was looking for or wanting as part of my circle. In the future, I do not intend to participate in other follow loops as the results may be the same. I do, however, promise to continue making meaningful connections with those who are looking to find purpose. I want followers who are going to contribute and help others along the way.
Followers are relevant because they are people you can impact with your message. The more significant the number of followers the more your word gets spread across. And yes, it’s nice to have a ton of followers and yes follow loops are an effective way of gaining followers on Instagram but how about focusing on acquiring the right followers. Focus on quality, not quantity or just a collection of people who are going to inflate your numbers.
Instagram is a great platform, and we are blessed to live in a day and age where we can participate and engage with others. But we have to focus on finding the right followers.
If we focus on finding people who want real change, then we will all have more meaningful engagement and conversations. And that’s how we will change social media for the better.
So, I turn it over to you. What is your intention on Instagram? What kind of followers do you want? Does it matter to you? Let me know if you agree or disagree in the comments below.
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Thank you so much for reading!
With love and gratitude,
Love this post. So true.