Secret Formula to get 10k followers on Instagram in one month as a Designer!
By: Chethan Kvs
Tags: Social Media, UI Design, Instagram, UX Design, Design

On 18th May 2019, I decided to take up a personal challenge of getting 10K followers on Instagram. The crazy part was that I wanted to hit that number within 1 month. Within a month? Why such a tough target?

One of the new trends on Instagram is the text-based content about design. These posts seem to be doing insanely well. After seeing these posts for a few days, I thought to myself “I can definitely do it much better than these guys… Anyday!”. I knew it would be super tough but I was a 100% sure that I could beat the Instagram algorithm. On the night of 16th June 2019 (28 days later), I finally hit the 10K follower count 🎉.

We’ve all heard of a concept called Design Sprint, but today allow me to introduce you to Instagram Sprint! 🤣

Myth Busters

“Wait a minute Chethan, this sounds too good to be true.”

Alright! Before you start making all sorts of assumptions, let me set the facts straight.

No money was spent on promotion. All my followers were organic. I posted a total of 23 posts over a period of 28 days. 1 post per day only! I spent 2 hours per weekday and 8-10 hours per weekend creating the posts. Every day was as normal as any other day. Travel, Office, Gym and enough sleep. Each post took me an average of 3–5 hours. I started with 850 followers on 18th May before the Instagram Sprint. So technically I got 9,150 followers over a period of 28 days. But I got around 650 followers in the next 2 days. It's still a big win 😝.

Disclaimer!

My secret formula isn't the only way to get 10K followers. This is what I believed in. This is what worked for me. This is my strategy. But feel free trust your gut and go another route. It’s a free world after all.

And yeah, this might be a big article because I have a lot of secrets to spill.

Also, all the stats I mention below are 100% true. Feel free to let me know if you want hard proof. I will send you a recorded video for your satisfaction 😂.

One last thing. Make sure you don't skip the last part. I have something that will motivate you and keep you high on your confidence meter.

So now that we’re on the same page, let me start spilling my secrets. Strap in your seat belts and let’s get started.

The 4 Ingredients

Value Consistency Strategy (The best part) Engagement (Maintain your followers)

“Oh no! Not another cliché article talking about the same old value and consistency 🤦🏼‍♂️.”

Fair enough. But before you stop reading or move onto another article, let me tell you why this isn’t your regular article.

I am going to break down the real meaning of what makes an Instagram post valuable by giving you real examples.

I am going to explain the real secret behind consistency and the right way to be consistent. Just posting every day isn't going to do the trick. There is much more to it.

I am going to explain how to think like a professional detective. What are the things that you should do and should not do?

And finally, a few cunning tricks to up your Instagram game.

So are you still here? Of course, you are.

Value

To be honest, the way I beat the Instagram algorithm is, by not actually beating the Instagram algorithm.

“Umm… What?”

Instead of giving more focus to things like hashtags, I gave more focus on providing real value. Without value, there is no success.

“Alright, so what makes an Instagram post valuable?”

Simple. The person reading the post should be able to make sense and understand at least 80% of the information in the post. He should also be able to immediately start applying that knowledge. Then that would be considered as a valuable post.

“Give me an example!”

Let’s say that you want to explain the steps of a design sprint or the laws of UX. For god’s sake, please don't do that 🙏🏼. If you go ahead mentioning all the steps or all the laws with a title and some supporting text, no one in the world will understand it. Don’t share high-level design knowledge. Instagram is NOT the platform to do that. Content has to be easily consumable.

Just because you have valuable information doesn’t mean that it's valuable for others. It becomes valuable only if it’s easily consumable.

I’m sure that it would get you of likes and comments, but you will hardly get any follows. Even if you do, it would definitely not help you get 10K follows in less than a month. People might not appreciate your effort. People might not recommend you to others. You will be perceived as ‘just’ another designer. You don’t want that to happen.

“What do I do instead?”

Well, there are 4 ways of making content valuable.

Go small

Always pick a niche topic. Something that is very small and specific. Dig deeper. For example, pick one of the steps of the design sprint or one of the laws of UX and stretch that out as much as you can. Drill down to the smallest concept. People find it super easy to consume that. That is exactly what I did.