Instagram: Followers Vs Engagement?

How many of us have worried about the number of Instagram followers we have at least one point in our lives? I know I have. You see the numbers slowly trickle up (or in some cases skyrocket, thanks bots) only to have them plummet again a few days later. Suddenly that sense of achievement on a well-photographed flat-lay or outfit vanishes and you begin to wonder what exactly you’re doing wrong.

Everyone knows by now that the big bad of Instagram these days is the algorithm. It’s confusing as hell to understand, changes constantly and seems completely biased towards a select few. No matter what you try there never seems to be a way to ‘beat’ it, no matter how many handy and nifty guides you scroll through. Despite first creating my ‘gram way back in 2012 (I’m ancient I know) I’m still very much a novice and the numbers game that it’s become makes my head hurt even thinking about it. Between the debate of whether I should have a theme or not or quantity or quality (trick question, it’s always quality) it’s really easy to get caught up in everything.
I’ve been hovering around the 390 mark for a good chunk of time now and I’m never quite able to hit the 400 mark. It’s like I said. I post, I gain followers then lose them before I can screenshot the total to prove that I’ve achieved something. It was exhausting, to be honest, and it was a game I really didn’t want to start playing as it was falling into the pain in the ass that is ‘follow/unfollow’ and no ones got time for that. I was scrolling through Twitter when this tweet from Ell over at BossGirlBloggers @BGbloggers grabbed my attention.

Something suddenly clicked in my mind and I found myself thinking - one, she’s completely right; and two, why the hell haven’t I done this before? Honestly, I’ve never given my follower count a second thought, the ones that have stuck around. I just assumed they were there because they liked what I had to say; not to mention with my measly little follower list, I would be the last account for major spam and bots. Yeah, I was wrong. Following Ell’s advice, I looked through my followers and I’ve already had my eyes opened. Having removed more bots and spam than I believed was possible (I’ve still got a way to go) it’s really made me realize that while I was worried about numbers, I really wasn’t engaging with the people who do care what I have to say and who followed for the right reasons. After all, isn’t that why we started our blogs/instas? To connect with people and to get our voices out there? I know I’d much rather have 10 people following me who truly care about my content than 1000 who I could never interact and communicate with. Ell’s tweet is right. Spam is useless as a clear handbag (sorry it’s true, what’s the point?) Engagement is how we grow and create new friendships within the blogging community and I don’t know about anyone else but to me, I wouldn’t change the friends I’ve made via blogging for all the followers in the world.
So let’s try and ditch the need to have hundreds of followers and focus on upping our engagements instead; allowing it to be a true reflection of all our hard work and dedication. I know I will be and fingers crossed I’ll be reaching more people with good intentions soon enough.
Thanks for reading, Jade x