How do people have so many instagram followers?

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  • I'm just curious! I post my cosplays exclusively on instagram. I've had my cosplay account for a little less than a year and have recently reached 400 followers. I'm really happy about that! It's awesome that that many people want to see what I'm doing! I post things like progress photos, selfies, and nicely edited photos taken with a nice camera at cons or just photoshoots that my friends and I do. I make all of my own cosplays and I put a lot of work into them. I'm no expert or anything but I think that what I do is pretty good, and based on the feedback from my followers, that seems to be correct.

    I'm not too concerned with popularity or anything but social networking is an interesting thing and it's cool too see what works and what doesn't.

    Lately it has seemed that my followers have capped off at 406. I used to gain followers fairly quickly but not anymore. I use plenty of hashtags so that my photos are seen by people who are interested in similar shows/games/etc. I actively respond to comments and questions, I comment on other people's photos, I follow other people, etc.

    I think that the content of my account is pretty high quality. My friends and I are art students and have photography and extensive photoshop experience so we know how to take a nice photo.

    But I notice that a lot of people with just instagram filtered selfies have over 1000 followers. In fact, the majority of the cosplayers on instagram seem to have over 1k. I'm just wondering why this is? I only use instagram.. but do they also use tumblr so people from there find them on instagram? Like are they followers from elsewhere? Are some people following those get-more-followers-accounts? I don't see why THAT many people would do that.

    Again, I'm really not too concerned about popularity, but I'm just wondering why I'm not seeming to gain any more followers even though I seem to have a good method of posting regularly, posting quality photos, etc.

    What do you think?

  • It's all about the hashtags, my friend. I used to work in social media, and we were advised to use as many hashtags as possible, even if they were only vaguely related. So for instance, if I wanted to get a large audience posting my Rikku cosplay (my profile pic), I'd put things like, #rikku #ffx2 #finalfantasy #ff #blondehair #braids #beads #cosplay #costume #crafting #videogames..... etc etc. The more you use, the bigger audience you will reach and if people like your photos they will check out your profile and potentially follow you.

  • Also sometimes depends on time of day that you are posting. It helps too if you comment and like other people's photos that you are interested in and that are related to the topics you present on your Instagram. And for sure, post photos of your costumes and such right after or during a convention that you are attending and use the hashtag and variants of the hashtag for that convention. You'll get followers pretty quick that way (eg. I posted a thing on Tumblr during Anime Milwaukee, using the #AMKE2015 tag in addition to others and I got 200+ notes on my post during the course of the weekend). Obviously you should only use pics of a costume you used at that convention (eg. I usually post before, during, and after the con using pics of me as Jack Sparrow and the convention hashtag on all my social media sites, different photos on each site too).

  • Included with the above answers, a lot of cosplayers so "Share 4 Share" when they're first starting their Instas. S4S is when you ask another user if they would share one of your photos and advertise your page on theirs for a certain amount of time and vice versa.

  • Sometimes crossing over platforms helps too. If you're on any other social media like Facebook and share an Instagram photo on there, any fans you have there might migrate over to your Instagram and follow you. Following other people might help too, but depending on who it is they might not follow back (I never expect them to).

  • Many people, who have many instagram followers, have those followers not because they are so good at drowning their posts in hashtags, but more because they are already well-known somewhere else. For example: If you have 1000 people who are already fans on your facebookpage/deviantart/tumblr/... and start an instagram account and advertise this, you will probably have 100+ followers within a couple of days, because they are mostly your old fans following you to the new platform.

    Hint: You may want to link your instagram here...might get you some followers from here ;)

  • ^ agreed. Cross-promotion works wonders. I usually have links to my other social media accounts present on any given account (eg. on FB I link to my Instagram, on Tumblr I often include links to my Facebook, Instagram is synced up with my Twitter etc).

  • I definitely agree with cross-promotion. I linked my Instagram up with my Facebook and had a ton of followers right off the bat. Or...not a ton but more than I should have for only posting one thing. I almost have 60 followers now and i started my blog at the end of January. Use hashtags, cross-promote and don't get too worried. A lot of those people have also been on there for awhile.

    I have a Tumblr with almost 1,500 followers and that's taken 3 1/2 years to build. Patience my friend~

  • It is a mystery. I have always thought that people send friend requests and click "likes" people they do not even know because of being lonely and in-confident. Loneliness and lack of confidence are probably one of the most essential reasons making people to where they create accounts in social networks. It is a good thing to make friends but all those "friends" are sort of unreal while people kind of go proud of having that many of them. Either way, it is a pleasure of communication. It gives a feeling of importance and being liked at least for some time. Besides, some people remain in a friendly relationships for years, which is awesome!

  • one of the sad answers is that people who are more conventionally attractive WILL rack up more followers. people who are less "pretty" have to work three times as hard to get the same amounts as a "pretty" person. it's the sad truth but that's just the world we live in.
    i don't know what you look like so this isn't pointed to you, but just a point that needs to be noted when it comes to social media.

  • I personally think that the best Instagram lure are the hashtags, lots of them, some of my cosplayer friends post a lot of them and someone who searches a common interest find them, get interested and follow them.

    Of course some of them carry the same followers they earned at Facebook, Deviantart and Twitter, now that's where I really wonder how did they get that many followers.

  • Cater to niche fetishes that don't involve nudity. Boom, instant fame of a very specific sort.

    Just think, any of you could be the internet queen/king of stepping on baked potatoes in bare feet. Or closeups of trimming split ends. Or popping zits. Or slapping raw meat.

    Do it, tag it, make it your own and watch the donations flow in. Humans are fun.

  • ^ yeah hey you're a shitty spam waiting to happen and you need to stop posting and get the fuck out of this nice place

  • I have much fewer followers than you on my Instagram I started in April, so you're not alone. I think being very active helps, it keeps you at the top of the "recent" list, and like others said add more and more hashtags. I started mine not to get "cosfamous" or anything, mostly I was just pissed I could never find pictures of my costumes after cons (despite getting tons of pictures taken). So I said "fuck it!" and started posting on Instagram. I just wanted to be a part of the Google search dialogue ;)

  • Some people are naturally charismatic or just have a certain appeal to other cosplayers. Along with being attractive doesn't hurt; its not fair but that's how it is. They also put a lot of effort forward towards getting lots of followers in a passive way.

    Some people just find a "rich vein" of people who they really appeal to and it's not something that can be explained logically.