I wanted to start tracking my journey to becoming an Instagram content creator. I want to include my wins and my losses in order to determine what has been working for me and what I need to improve upon.
I started my journey on June 10, 2021. I wanted to quit my previous account because I just wasn’t happy with it anymore. I previously used so-called hacks in order to gain a following quickly.
It really ended up backfiring because I ended up with really bad engagement. I wrote an entire blog post on my mistakes and things to look out for, if you wanted to learn from my mistakes.
8 months of being an Instagram content creator
I currently have 2,390 followers on @Realskindiaries. I’m proud of what I have accomplished in less than a year. I know that I could have gained a lot more but I didn’t join any loops this time around so I’m happy that I got this amount of support organically.
February 2022 was a great month of growth for me. I gained 513 followers in comparison to the month before that. I created 16 posts, 16 stories, and 16 reels. I didn’t plan to post the same amount but it just happened to be that way.
My best post actually reached 63K accounts with 5K likes. I was really surprised that I actually got that much engagement on that post. I was really happy that it happened though.
In case you were wondering, I used 19 hashtags on that posts. I posted it on a Friday. I wish I knew what time I posted it because I haven’t had a post with decent engagement since then. Actually, I have had relatively low engagement since then.
Moving Forward
Honestly, I have had a pretty tough time since that post. My posts haven’t had that much engagement. It hasn’t been hitting the explore page as much.
Today’s post hasn’t even been reaching non-followers. My post from yesterday and today hasn’t received much traction. Actually, none of my hashtags ranked. Typically, my posts rank on hashtags. It may not be for a long time nor do they rank on a higher scale, but they do rank.
I’m not exactly sure if there is another Instagram algorithm change brewing. You can never really tell when changes are coming to Instagram. You can only create the best content that you can and put in out to the universe.
It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt my heart sometimes when I don’t get the engagement that I think should correspond with my content, but one thing that I have decided to focus on is actually just creating good content and being happy with what I create.
I try to consistently engage with other accounts in the same niche as well as my followers. I’m trying to get better at posting on my stories.
Instagram Content Creator Paid Collaborations
So for the month of February, I had one paid collaboration. They reached out to me through email. It wasn’t actually a post requirement. I had to fill out this survey on my skincare routine with specifics. It was supposed to be posted on a website. I received $100 for that. I thought it was actually pretty cool, and it was a lot more work than I thought it would be but I enjoyed that collaboration.
I usually have a recurring collaboration with another brand. The contract states that I just create three photos for the brand, I didn’t even have to post on Instagram. Just shoot the content and send it over. I actually liked this set up. I thought that I lost this contract.
I didn’t get a response from the brand manager for weeks after following up a couple times. I wasn’t sure that they liked what I shot them, which I was devastated about because I thought that they did. But, I did receive an email yesterday that she was running late sending them out and that the contract was still on! I will include that for March though as I haven’t even received it yet.
Overall $100.
March Plans
I’m hoping to continue on this journey as an Instagram content creator. I would love to build my following to 3K in March, but we shall see how the algorithm with treat my account. I’m also hoping to have more paid collaborations instead of just PR for March.
