I’ve been an Instagram content creator on and off for approximately 2 years now. I started with my original project, A Focused Heart. I lost my way during that time and conducted business in a way that I wasn’t proud of. It became something that I forced myself to do and my heart wasn’t in it anymore.
I wanted to write about the mistakes that I made during the A Focused Heart era and with my new project, Real Skin Diaries. I do want to premise this to say that I am happy with where I am now. There are still ups and downs, but I am proud of where I am and what I have created.
1. I participated in Follow Loops.
If you don’t know what a Follow Loop is, then you are lucky. If you do, I suggest staying away from them. Far far away. Forget I even told you that they existed. I’m only here to warn the people already involved! In all seriousness, follow loops are pages on Instagram where individuals or groups create events where all individuals signing up are “required” to follow others back.
As I’m writing this almost a year later, I can’t believe I even fell for this. At the time, I was so focused on increasing my follower count by any means necessary. Joining these loops meant that I was able to gain a following quickly. It does hurt your account though. The individuals who are following you are only doing so in order to satisfy a requirement and are not so obliged to stay following you after the event is over.
2. I recruited for Follow Loop Accounts.
AM I THE DRAMA? Yes, I definitely was the drama. After a couple months of participating in Follow Loops, I was tired of putting my account on jeopardy by following so many accounts in a small amount of time. I was convinced that the clear solution was joining as an admin for one of these groups so I wouldn’t be required to actually follow anyone.
I finally found a loop page that needed support and I joined it. Let me tell you, this was the hardest job I could ever do. Harder than actually creating content. Harder than actually focusing on my Instagram strategy.
In order to have a “ghost” spot, I was required to recruit so many people a day. I had to comment on so many accounts a day. In exchange, individuals would follow me, but I wasn’t required to follow back. Win-win am I right?
No, actually it was the worst. It took so much work. I put my account in jeopardy because I was acting spammy online. I also felt a little bit like a predator because I was searching hashtags for vulnerable women who were hoping to grow their own account knowing that I wasn’t helping their account in any way.
3. I participated in Like for Like Groups.
Not only did I fabricate almost my entire following, I also fabricated my like count. I was convinced that I needed at least 100 likes in order to rank in hashtags, so I had to reach that number by any means necessary. So yes, I definitely participated in Like for Like Groups.
It does show your content to a broader amount of accounts, but it doesn’t do anything for your content. I have a feeling that Instagram knows what we are doing. The system more than likely knows your behavior. It never pushed my account too much. I never really got further exposure. I just hurt myself in the process.
Also, it took such a long time to go through everyone’s account and like each and every post. Half the posts were things that I am not even interested in, but I still liked the post.
4. I participated in Hype Groups.
So it was basically a group of individuals that liked, saved, and commented on each other’s post in order to get the get the same thing in return. Every single post. It didn’t matter if I didn’t post that day or if I still had work to do for the Follow Groups. I had to comment on their post something insightful despite not even knowing what to say.
I couldn’t even just like a post because I felt bad. I spent so much of my time participating in the wrong things. I was acting less like an Instagram content creator and more like a super fan of a accounts who are also trying to create a facade.
5. I compared myself to other content creators.
Comparison is the thief of joy. It really is. In the realm of social media, comparison is going to happen. You may not even realize that you’re doing it at first, but it happens. You check out your friend’s like count. You compare your follower count. You check out their comments.
I mimicked their online behavior. They were participating in follow loops and like groups and still get paid partnerships, then why shouldn’t I participate in the same kind of behavior.
If they are taking shortcuts in growing their account, why shouldn’t I?
Here’s my why.
I didn’t feel good about myself. I’ve been interested in being a content creator my adult life. I’ve been watching Youtube for decades. I was finally getting PR like the Youtubers that I admired, but at what cost?
I didn’t have time to create my own content. Instead, I would just spend my days doing odd jobs for random people that have established themselves in the business in the same manner.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t persecute individuals who are doing this. They are only doing what they think are best for them. I’m just saying that taking myself out of that situation was the best thing I could do for my Instagram content creator journey.
