Hello friends! I just recently posted a project on my Instagram (like, really recently!) and I was blown away by the response it received!
I've been posting on Instagram for about a year & a half now, and most of my posts were boring pictures of our day-to-life (like houseplants, our kitchen, etc.) so if they got likes it all, they were few & far between. I was such a newb, I wasn't thinking of using hashtags yet (or tagging relevant friends).
After viewing and liking many other similar posts, I started to see a pattern - they used a variety of hashtags; not just 2 or 3. We're talking 9-12 hashtags, and though some see it as spammy and annoying, it seems to be how to get more eyes on something a lot faster!
And it's not just using lots of tags - it's using the most relevant ones. When I began this Kawaii365 daily project, I often only used the tag #Kawaii365 (you're welcome to use it for your own cute ideas as well, as long as it relates back to this project). The only issue was, I basically created it, so it wasn't widely known and people didn't click it really. It took me about 4 months to realize that little hiccup, and so I slowly started incorporating the more popular #Kawaii and also ones relevant to what I may be making at the time: #Kawaiifashion and #Kawaiifood are good ones.
And then I took it a step further. I asked myself: What other tags are relevant to the Kawaii culture? (which is huge online. I hope you're listening if you're in this community yourself). So I began an internet search - sites like Twitter, Instagram and even facebook (and others) had included tags like #Cute #charming #Harajuku and even character ones like #Sanrio #HelloKitty and the like. That means for months, I was missing an entire audience out there. So I had to get on it - I had to begin using more relevant tags, and more than 3 at a time.
So are you wondering about the recent project? It's February 18's Kawaii365 project, which (if you haven't already guessed) was another one inspired by Noah Scalin's 'Unstuck' book, specifically the Roll the Dice project - I got stuck with purple, bright & right. So for 'purple' I used a purple fabric marker for the eyes and mouth, and for bright I used a white piece of candy, and for right, well, you know the rest. You're very smart :)
And now for the part where I was blown away! So I posted it as I usually do, only this time I branched out a little with the tags, including words like #face and #funny which I don't normally do. And I think it was using more tags (which are still relevant to this image) was what caused the sudden surge of likes and follows, all in just a couple of minutes! I couldn't believe my eyes, so I ran to show my husband in the other room. I even got a spammer comment (2x), and they usually only target the popular posts :)
Now for the other part of [potentially] going viral. Something else I always did as a newb, was that I'd only share to Instagram, even though there is an option to sync it up with other social media, such as Twitter and Facebook. I only had a small handful of followers, and I thought sharing to just them made a difference - it didn't really. Then I synced up and began sharing to other SM sites, and because the hashtags were still included, they worked the same way there too. More eyes on the projects when relevant tags were used, and popular ones people search for anyways. I am telling you all of this because I want very much for you to succeed as a Kawaii fashion or beauty guru, toy creator, artist, writer, or singer!
And it doesn't stop there. Remember earlier here when I mentioned that you can tag relevant friends too? You can! Now don't overdo it, we're not spammers. We respect our friends and their reputations - however if you have networks (like other kawaii fashion gurus) in your list of people you follow, tag them and their followers will find you! Then you can start building a wider network ^_^
Now go and have your most kawaii-some time on the internet!
No comments:
Post a Comment