Having taken my Instagram from 1200 to 25,000 in 18 month, I am here to tell you that it is possible to grow your socials organically, without paying a dime for ads, boosts, or followers.

Social media can be a roller coaster. One post hits record numbers, and the next post tanks for no good reason whatsoever. It’s like the stock market: the age of social media is constantly changing and for that reason (plus many others), it’s important to be aware of what you are doing and how you are doing it. I’m here to lay our four simple, actionable items to help boost your growth: content, posting, interactions, and consistency.

Now before we start, it’s important to be honest about expectations. I like to compare social media growth advice to a diet: two people can do the exact same thing and have vastly different results. This is part of the reason why it’s taken me so long to pen this piece; I was hesitant to share advice that might not work for everyone. However, I realized that the reverse was also true. If I chose to share how I grew my platform, others might give my advice a try and it WOULD work. My bottom line is this: not every piece of advice is for everyone. This is simply the method I used to grow my own channel. I hope that it works for you, but if it doesn’t, don’t be discouraged! It takes time, and sometimes pivoting and trying alternate routes. The most important thing is this: don’t give up.

Very few know this (ok, maybe about 1200 know or remember!) that I began my instagram business journey doing human photography. In early 2018, I wanted to try my hand at taking photos of families, weddings, fresh 48 newborn sessions, and senior portraits. I did this for about two years, and while it was fun at times, I knew it wasn’t my passion. I had also owned a home bakery for the better part of seven years at this point, and loved taking photos of my cakes and baked goods. In January of 2020, I made a snap decision to flip my platform to food photography and try my hand at that. I had no idea how I was going to make money, I just knew I loved baking and photographing my desserts, and there had to be something there. I’ll pen another post at some point about actually making money at this gig (it can be quite lucrative if you find the right clients!), but for now, lets dig into the four points I focused on to grow my Instagram, beginning with content.

Content

I’ve laid out four pieces of advice that I’m going to focus on, but they aren’t all created equal. Content, posting, and interactions are about equal and all live under the umbrella of consistency. Let’s start with content.

Your content is essentially your portfolio. Now of course it’s good to have a website with additional content such as recipes, blogs, photos, etc, but for today, we are focusing these four pillars on specifically growing your Instagram.

Content is KEY. Content is what makes the scrollers stop in their tracks, tap on your photo, and love what they see enough to hit that follow button. So how do you create compelling, scroll-stopping content? Practice practice PRACTICE. And then practice some more. I honed my craft during the height of the 2020 pandemic, and when I didn’t want to waste resources that could becomes scarce, I practiced on my morning coffee. The cookies I baked for my family. The dinner I made. It was all about getting comfortable with lighting, props, editing, and a recognizable style that I was working toward. You can also take amazing online courses, some of which are free, and some of which cost money. I’ve watched several free Foodtography School Master Classes and have learned many pointers through those. They also have courses you can enroll in for a fee, and these can take your game to the next level. (My code HEATHER will get you 15% off almost everything on their site, including courses and presets!).

Posting

So now that you’ve got the content, lets chat about posting. How often is best, and at what time? Furthermore, should you post more than once a day? How about stores, reshares, reels, and all of the other offerings Instagram offers to get you connected?! It’s a lot, right? Let’s stick to the basics for now. Post on your feed, once a day. The timing is going to largely depend on your audience, and when they are most active online. My best posting times are between 9am-11am daily. You can find this information when you set your Instagram account up as a business, and have access to the insights. These will tell you who your primary demographic is, what countries your followers are mostly from, the best times to post each day, and so on. When I was getting started, I posted 2-3 times a day to up the quantity of content I had on my page, as I’d deleted all of the human photos from my previous business and was left with next to nothing. While helpful, posting multiple times a day is not essential. If you can manage once a day, then stick with that.

It’s also not essential to be “on” social media every day. I have an app called Planoly that allows me to schedule posts across the board on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. I choose the day + time and can add any hashtags, brand tags, location, and comments I want before scheduling. I took several days off last month when I had family in town and didn’t want to be bothered with being online when I didn’t want to be. I also take a regular Sabbath. I adore Planoly, and I’m saying this as a paying customer who is not affiliated with the brand at all. This app has also been a wonderful investment for planning my grid out. With the paid version, I can load as many photos into the app as I’d like, and move them around to see what I like best where. It’s so much fun, and helps take the guesswork out of posting.

Interactions

Now we get to the part where it’s more about what you do on OTHER people’s pages. I know that many give the advice that constant and frequent engagement is key, but I’d like to take a more pointed path. In the beginning, I searched out like-minded food photographers and brands that shared my aesthetic. This allowed me to connect quickly with many online, getting me my first paid gig at roughly 2500 followers (more on the paid part at another time). The bottom line is, people who share your style will most likely become organic contacts. This is true other other photographers, and brands alike.

I also made a point to tag and hashtag any brand I’d used in my photo, and had incredible success with brands reaching out because of this in 2020. Another good practice is tagging large re-post pages, like The Feed Feed, Food Art Blog, Food Blog Feed, and Food and Wine. These pages regularly repost their favorite photos, and it’s a great way to get your work in front of a larger audience. I tagged pages that featured plenty of light and bright photography, and this led me to multiple re-features plus paid work from brands who posted my photos as well.

Consistency

This final bullet point is the umbrella by which all my other advice is nestled under. Consistency is THE key throughout this entire venture. Remember when I said that growing a social site is a bit like riding the stock market? I meant it. Growth will ebb and flow at times, but a consistent presence will ultimately yield a positive outcome. Algorithms change frequently, and although this can be frustrating with questions looming on what facet to focus on in the moment (IGTV, Reels, Stories… there are a lot of options), consistently will keep you grounded through the changes. You can explore all the engagement tools instagram has to offer, and pick and choose which ones to try out (I personally love stories but haven’t tried IGTV… and I’m just now getting into Reels). Whatever you choose, BE CONSISTENT. Post regularly, engage like-minded folks, and wow with beautiful content.

That’s a Wrap

My final thoughts are this: give it time, and don’t give up! Just start. I flipped my page on a whim one day, knowing that what I was doing wasn’t making me happy. I wanted to shoot food. So I started to shoot food. I didn’t get to 25K followers overnight, and you most likely won’t either. It took time, and it took being faithful to my craft. Above all, I love what I do. I love creating recipes and taking food photos. If I didn’t love it, I’m absolutely certain that this would show through. Find something you love, and go for it. Work hard, be consistent, and show up every day. As Albert Einstein said, “Creativity is intelligent having fun.” So go out and HAVE FUN.

I’m always happy to chat shop, so shoot me a message if you have any questions!

XO,

Heather

PS- Those gorgeous Creamy Grapefruit Curd Mini Tarts featured in many of these photos are just a click away!