Miss Kyree Loves

How To Instagram Like A Total Legend. Tips & Tricks To Get You Nailing Your Account! 

It’s the most common question I hear: “how do you make a successful Instagram account?” Well I might not be completely famous on the gram like good ol’ Kim K, but I’ve turned my small creative passion for those little IG squares, into a thriving little business with over 130k followers. I started off about four years ago and it’s been endless hours of blood sweat and tears to get where I am now. I began just like anyone else, found my creative niche of styling products with flatlays and flourished from there. I was also a suggested Instagram user three years ago which helped boost my organic following and engagement.

Here’s my tips & tricks for making magic happen on your Instagram account.

1. PATIENCE

I can’t promise that you’ll become a huge success over night! Building an organic Instagram account, or any social platform, takes HARD WORK and plenty of patience. The very first thing you need to take away from this, is to be as patient as possible. It might frustrate you that other accounts are growing at a faster pace than yours, it might down right piss you off that someone’s photos is getting more attention than yours. But keep at it, don’t give up, if you’re passionate about taking photos and creating a stunning IG feed then that’s all that matters and success will follow. Eventually.

• Cute AF baby in a comfy AF king bed #NufSaid 😍😍😂•

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2. PUBLIC / PRIVATE

If you’re a private account, then anyone who’s not following you won’t see your images, AT ALL. You know those hash tags you put on your pics? Yeh well if you’re a private account then they won’t be seen by anyone new. If you want to build and expand your Instagram account, set your account to public so that you can be seen be a wider audience. The more people who can discover you allows for a greater opportunity to grow your following and increase engagement.

3. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

You need to figure out who it is that is following you, OR who it is that you want following you. There’s no point in posting a million baby pictures if your inetentions is to create an interiors feed. Once you figure out what niche you want to focus on ie; lifestyle, motherhood, food, arts, home etc then you can focus on creating beautiful and engaging content for that particular group of followers. If someone’s interested in your baby spam, or your interiors spam or your food porn, then they will be more encouraged to follow you. Don’t force people to follow you, don’t follow accounts expecting that they will follow back. Instagram should be a natural organic flow and people will follow back if they feel inspired. Don’t be disheartened and don’t UNFOLLOW someone if they aren’t following you.

• He wanted a baby as much as I did. At the time, together 11 years, we both craved that next step in our lives. Creating a tiny life mixed with both of our best bits. We dreamed up what baby would look like: my eyes, his hair, my smile, his dimples. He had to hide how not getting pregnant quickly made him sad, I was openly sad enough for the both of us. We forget how much the dads go through. We focus on our pain, our urning, our wants. They tend to get left behind even when fatherhood becomes a reality. Today we get to celebrate his first Father’s Day. The way ben looks at Alaska, the way he jumps out of bed to get her with a smile even after a sleepless night, the way he misses her when he’s in a different room. Even though compared to some journeys, we didn’t actually have to wait that long for our baby, that patience has made fatherhood one magical daddy unicorn for our sweet girl. Hope you love your harmonica, Sass sure thinks you’re funny #fathersday2017 •

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4. NATURAL VS CURATED

There’s an obvious divide on the gram about the perception of reality with lifestyle accounts. I personally believe IG has always been about beautiful imagery and creating a world where we can let loose with styling a sense of perfection. Creating a feed that flows and matches is an art that takes practice, skill and again, plenty of patience. There’s two types of accounts that people will be interested in: 1. The natural realistic hardly edited feeds and 2. The curated cleverly thought out styled feeds. There’s no right or wrong way to Instagram, every account has their own style and no one is forced to follow or like certain feeds. Some people prefer natural over curated and vise versa. Choose what style works for you and totally roll with it. Just remember, not everyone will like your style BUT DATS COOL Y’ALL. There’s millions of accounts to sift through, there is bound to be people who will love what you do.

5. QUALITY VS QUANTITY

Don’t over post, but you need to post regularly too. The new Instagram algorithm has forced us into a new way of viewing photos online. They pick and choose who we want to see, don’t even get me started on how shit this new way is, but it is what it is and we just have to move forward with it. As long as you post at least once a day you should be kept on the IG radar. If you vanish and stop engaging with others then it will be a harder routine to climb back onto when you next post. Engagement and posting regularly is key. If you have quality photos to post then your engagement on those will be genuine and help lift your IG status. If you’re posting shitty images that aren’t all that interesting then you will find your engagement will drop and so too will your visibility on people’s feeds.

6. TAKE A GOOD PIC

Taking quality photos is important and super easy. You don’t have to be a skilled photographer with a rediculously expensive camera (although that helps too). Take photos in good light, avoid taking them at night. Find a spot in your house where the sun beams through and use that as your base. Take photos against simple back drops, if you have a busy back ground with a busy outfit then you’ll get lost in the image. Stick to using similar colours, you don’t have to have the exact same colours in every image but add a splash of the similar or the colour in every second pic to make your over all feed consistant.

7. DO NOT COMPARE

Comparison Kills Creativity!!! SAY IT WITH ME!!!
Don’t compare your account to anyone else’s. Just do your own style, create a unique name, get creative with images and try not to copy other people’s posts. But most importantly don’t compare because everyone styles their images to some extent. It’s not always 100% reality. So if you’re drooling over your favourite instagrammers feed daily, crying in the corner wishing your life was exactly like theirs, STOP THAT NOW! It’s only social media, it’s not real life. You don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, if they are truly happy, if they argue with their partners or roll their eyes at their kids. Just because they APPEAR to have their shit together, they probs just like every other normal human and well, don’t!

8. GET SEEN

Tag, tag, tag! If you know where the product in the picture is from then TAG THE STORE! Not only does it help encourage engagement from brands, it helps get your account seen by people who didn’t know you existed. If stores repost your images that helps to get you out into the land of Insta! Use as many hashtags as possible in the comments of your image (up to 30 only), this also helps to get your account seen by new people. If it’s a picture of a baby you’re posting, then use relevant baby appropriate hashtags (#babyfashion #baby #babyspam). New people will discover you this way.

9. BE KIND

I see it time and time again, accounts publicly showing their anger towards other shops or accounts. Usually in the not so subtle form of cryptic memes or captions #eyeroll. Don’t do it guys. It makes you look silly and it’s not professional at all. Keep your feed clutter free from drama, keep rolling with the kind vibes and you’ll attract a wider  audience who will WANT to stick around.

• When Bae totes outshines ya 🦄🌸✨ @tutudumonde #Omigawddshesheaven •

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10. BE AUTHENTIC

One thing I can’t stress enough is just BE YOU! Don’t try to be anyone else. Don’t show off products you don’t believe in. Don’t try and write differently or photograph in a style you’re not comfortable with. The only way you’re going to grow an organic following is be being true to yourself, being solely authentic and being honest with everything you post. I often get approached to show case products that have nothing to do with what my feed is about. If one minute i’m posting about Alaska, nek min, i’m raving about some amazing hemorrhoid cream, then my following is going to see right through that and start choosing to disengage. I don’t want to show case something I don’t love, then my audience buys it, gets it home and realises it’s actually SHIT! They will stop trusting in me and ultimately my engagement and authenticity will be jeopardised.

11. IG STORIES

The little videos or images at the top of your feed- USE THEM! This will interact with a whole new audience that would usually NOT engage with your regular feed. Post videos on here as regularly as you feel inspired, show case behind the scenes, show case your bloopers and your proud moments. You can tag other businesses and followers in your stories and allows a different kind of organic exposure. Don’t be afraid to over spam on the IG Story function as they are deleted with in 12 hours. GO FOR GOLD!

12. ENGAGE

EXACTLY! Engaging is so important to gain organic exposure and helps keep your account visible. If you like it, PRESS LIKE. If the image resonates with you, COMMENT. Simples really. 

You want your following to fall in love with the REAL you, you want them to be inspired by the REAL you. So ensure you make smart decisions if you’re promoting products on your feed. 

If there’s any other tips you’d like to know about please leave them on my latestInstagram picture.

This post is in no way sponsored, all words & thoughts are completely my own. 

Don’t forget to stop by my Instagram page for more inspo, shits & giggles.

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