Instagram Challenge.

[farmerswifey]

So, I didn't know where to put this, but here seems a good a place as any.

Firstly this isn't about making money, this is about proving my other half wrong (which everyone knows, is worth far more than any kind of financial gain).

We were listening to Radio 4 yesterday (Woman's Hour to be precise) and they were interviewing a woman who was an Instagram Influencer with 250,000 followers (making approximately £30,000 a year). We're both rather in the dark when it comes to Instagram, but it seems the interviewee was an Instagram version of a Mummy blogger (of which I may have been a little scathing in the past - Sorry).

After a little discussion, my husband said: "I'll bet you can't get 1000 followers in six months". Now, if there is one thing I dislike more than Mummy blogs, it is people telling me what I can and can't do.
So here I am, having joined Instagram with a suitably twee username and absolutely no idea of what I'm supposed to be doing, all to prove my husband (who will have quite probably, long since forgotten) wrong.

So if anyone can help me as to how Instagram works, wants to join me in this challenge or just wants to cheer my long-suffering husband along, I shall post my progress, or lack thereof, here (If that's okay with the management).

 

[Jon]

Mummy bloggers @Chammy and @katykicker will probabably have some sound advice of how to get our instagram numbers up

 

[farmerswifey]

Mummy bloggers @Chammy and @katykicker will probabably have some sound advice of how to get our instagram numbers up

Yeah I'm sure I've endeared myself to them both by saying I'm not a fan of Mummy Blogs - Doh!

Is it too late to say I'm only scathing about particularly twee bloggers, certainly neither of yours

 

[Jon]

Yeah I'm sure I've endeared myself to them both by saying I'm not a fan of Mummy Blogs - Doh!

Is it too late to say I'm only scathing about particularly twee bloggers, certainly neither of yours

haha, they won't mind

 

[katykicker]

I don't mind AT ALL. I'm not your conventional Mummy Blogger as I am self-employed, don't hate my husband (or kid) and love my life Each to their own!

With regards to Instagram:

Research good hashtags to use. Look at similar images to what you want to post and look for good hashtags.
Once your post is live visit those hashtags, comment on the top 9 images, then like all the latest photos (20-30 should do it) and do this for each of your hashtags.

This should help you with gaining new followers. Also, follow back people whose accounts you enjoy too, and use an app like Followers+ (free on iOs) to track people who follow you then unfollow later (so you can unfollow back haha)

A blogger I know has 90k followers and is making 6 figures now. There is BIG money in Instagram.

I don't have that much time to dedicate so this is my own personal strategy:

Follow people I like.
Follow BACK people I like who follow me.
Visit accounts at least a few times a week from my following list to have a catch up.

Hope something here helps! I would say that just enjoying Instagram for a few minutes a few times a day, and liking other people's posts, and following people, should make it easy to get to 1,000 in 6 months.

 

[katykicker]

Also, if that woman has 250,000 followers and makes 30k a year she's not the best influencer. I make more than that and I have 16,000 followers combined.

 

[Topaz]

@farmerswifey you're not the only one in the dark when it comes to instagram. I can just about use it for entering competitions, but blog wise, I'm lost! I couldn't work out how to put on a link to individual blog posts, so I gave up.

 

[The Reverend]

Also, if that woman has 250,000 followers and makes 30k a year she's not the best influencer. I make more than that and I have 16,000 followers combined.

I wonder if some the of Influencers on instagram have to work much, much less though. They also tend to get higher quality free-bees and as such, their salary might be smaller. She also might be worried what the tax-man sees!

Personally I think Instagram took off for advertisers as they can sell it like TV...."Get your product infront of hundreds of thousand of people" where as in Blogging and such you can talk about engagement and conversions in a way Instagram stars can't. That scares advertisers as they realise that TV Advertising has gone the way of the dodo...

 

[farmerswifey]

I don't mind AT ALL. I'm not your conventional Mummy Blogger as I am self-employed, don't hate my husband (or kid) and love my life Each to their own!

Hope something here helps! I would say that just enjoying Instagram for a few minutes a few times a day, and liking other people's posts, and following people, should make it easy to get to 1,000 in 6 months.

Thank you so much @katykicker. That's brilliant! Do you think 1000 followers in 6 months is doable? If so, I'll be sure to keep reminding the husband and maybe up the ante to a week of washing-up or something

 

[farmerswifey]

Okay, second day and I've stumbled at the first hurdle. You can only post pictures from your phone??? Who knew? Will have to find a way around this or learn how to take much better pictures with my iPhone.

I do have 3 followers though - Only 997 more to go

 

[Jon]

Is that right? What stops you adding photos on your laptop

A popular (but hated) way of getting followers that people often talk about is to follow / not follow people on Instagram

 

[The Reverend]

Really quickly - buy them for $3 just google buy instagram followers.

 

[farmerswifey]

Really quickly - buy them for $3 just google buy instagram followers.

Alas, it was one of the rules when we got married - I'm not allowed to cheat You should know that being Vicar and all.

 

[The Reverend]

Alas, it was one of the rules when we got married - I'm not allowed to cheat You should know that being Vicar and all.

You can see me in the confessional booth afterwards if it will make you feel any better.
"Jesus he knows me and he knows I'm right....."

 

[farmerswifey]

Is that right? What stops you adding photos on your laptop

There is no camera on the desktop version of Instagram. Apparently, it is a mobile-first app that does not permit direct uploads over the Web. I think there are ways around it, an app that tricks your desktop into thinking it's a mobile or some such, but I'm not terribly technical.

You can see me in the confessional booth afterwards if it will make you feel any better.
"Jesus he knows me and he knows I'm right....."

Haha, sounds fun. I'll see you in there

 

[Stuart]

Yes, there is - do a search for RemixOS. It's a desktop Android - not an emulator, a full-blown OS that works well with Google Play (a major shortcoming of emulators) for installing mobile apps. You can put it on an 8GB USB stick and boot your PC/Laptop from it without disturbing your Windows/Linux/whatever installation. Just shut down, pull the USB stick and reboot when you're finished with it.
It's much easier than trying to get a sluggish emulator to work properly, and it's desktop optimised so the keyboard and mouse work as you'd expect.

I find it useful on occasion for pests that insist on Android or iOS only, seeing as my Android tablet bit the dust and my phones are all BlackBerry 10.

 

[Cas]

Good luck with getting a 1000 followers . What's your page name ?

 

[katykicker]

Drop your link here @farmerswifey x

 

[farmerswifey]

Finally, I managed to post my first picture (and a second and a third shortly after).

Thank you very much for the information @Stuart. Alas, I am about as technical as a wombat, so I've come up with a convoluted way of saving my pictures to a private album on Facebook, screenshotting them on the iPad and posting to Instagram from there. It works for now.

So as of day 3 of the challenge, I have currently have 9 followers (almost 1% of my goal) and one of my pictures was liked (or whatever the Instagram equivalent of liking is - hearts?) 11 times! I'm quite pleased with that.

If you would like to be in it from the beginning before I become a global Instagram sensation my link is: https://www.instagram.com/countrymumkins/?hl=en.

 

[Cas]

going on there now . will follow.... Done!