Growing your Instagram following is the opening to many doors, you can start to reach out to brands, you’ll start seeing an increase in engagement and you’ll meet loads of new people. But there are a few things that no one really tells you about when you start to grow.
The list below does not apply to everyone, you may have experienced none or all of these things. Also, these things are not exclusive to accounts that are growing larger in following of course, but with more followers comes more of the below. There is a mix of both negative and positive things here depending on how you look at them. But I thought it would be an interesting list to make.
Your voice is now heard by a lot more people, which can be a blessing and a curse
Obviously, as you grow, your content is going to be more public and receive more engagement. Which is a good thing of course, otherwise why else grow? But this also means you are more susceptible to trolls, haters, people that don’t agree with you and will not be afraid of letting you know. It sounds easy to brush off stuff, but sometimes things stick with you. Sometimes I do think you need to have thick skin to be a creator online because people will throw a lot at you and it isn’t always nice.
Receiving weird direct messages
I know every account probably sees this, but the bigger your account, the more of these messages you will receive. I would class weird as anything from spam group chats for followers, people commenting on your looks in an inappropriate way, people trying to get way too personal who don’t even follow you and many more. These are quite easy to ignore and block, but it still creeps to receive some of these messages. In having a public account you are accepting that anyone can see your content, and sometimes it’s people who we may not want to be seeing it.
People will start to use you for your followers
I have experienced accounts who have literally just started following me, message me for a shout out for shout out on my story. With this kind of message, I feel a little sad because in this case, it is clear they are asking because of my following. It doesn’t feel genuine and it just feels a bit rude really. I personally reply to every private message I receive and I find replying to these ones very awkward. If I have chosen to shout out an account or a friend, that is my decision, but to ask feels like I’m just being used to gain a higher reach.
You need to look at your content with a new eye
The more you grow, the more influence you have. It’s very easy to just continue on as you were, but you need to bear in mind that you are now showing your content to a wider audience. You have to be a lot more mindful of what you’re posting out is okay to say if it is sending the right message. Of course, still be you and don’t change that much, but just be aware of the influence you have and how things could be taken that you say.
Brands are more likely to slide into your DM’s
I mentioned about getting weird DM’s, but you can also expect to see more brands approaching you. This can be really exciting if they’re a brand you really want to work with, but a lot of the time its brands that are clearly mass-messaging a lot of users. I seldom post non-fiction books on my feed and if I do it is still of a certain theme, but I get a lot of direct messages asking me to promote non-fiction books about topics that I have no interest in. I find it really valued when a brand/author reaches out having clearly looked at my feed and understood my taste, those are the promotions I want to work on.
You will get asked a lot for advice
I love this side of Instagram. I talk a lot online about content creation… as you can see from my blog. So I really like chatting with other users who are trying to find their footing and understand the platform. Knowing I can actually help and offer genuine advice makes me feel happy and I hope I’ve been able to offer useful advice when I’ve been asked. Be ready for an increase in questions when you start to grow!
Oh yes. Bookstagram is small in Romania, my country, so I don’t think we get to feel it at the same scale as you do, but even tiny accounts like mine can be exposed to the hateful eye and the never-ending hunt for followers.
Super good post, I wish I knew these when I had my first bookstagram account. It was in english, it was big-ish and i ended up closing it because of some of the things you mentioned above. The negativity was not good for me at the time.
I’ll try to remember this if I ever get anywhere on Instagram, which I think is truly doubtful for me.
Urg the weird messages are the worst! I have no idea how many creepy men I have had to block because they send me inappropriate and gross messages!