The next AMA date is Thursday 12th December at 12-1pm GMT. The link to register will be shared at the beginning of December.
If you’d like to join me for these AMA sessions and get access to the other benefits being a TOO MUCH INSTAGRAM member gives you, upgrade your subscription today.
⏳Time stamps
Have a scroll down the list to see if anything grabs your fancy, or watch the whole video. Paid subscribers, let me know in the comments if you have any follow up questions.
⏳ 00.01 Intro and welcoming members who are attending live
⏳ 03.01 question from Zofia: ‘I’ve been thinking about doing a series of reels along the theme of ‘100 days of little things I love about my job’ similar to what Clare Seal is doing in her Instagram content. My aim would be to draw people in who are interested in the behind the scenes of the hospital and of being a doctor and also to have something positive because a lot of my posts are skewed towards talking about the more challenging or difficult things.’
⏳11.05 second question from Zofia: ‘I’ve noticed that almost all of my new followers come from the community aspect of Instagram and my interactions with people in the comments of other posts. SOme of these are really rewarding new connections but even my best performing reels or carousels will only get one or two new followers. And more often than not, none. Am I doing something wrong or is this par for the course?’
⏳17.07 question from anon: ‘When I started out a year ago, I had around 100 followers. Now I have around 600 followers who are highly engaged. I post a range of reels and carousels, 2-3 per week, and plenty of stories. I get a lot of DMs that I engage with. My growth has been slow but steady. My first manuscript is out on submission and my agent is concerned about my lack of platform. I wonder if there’s any way to help growth along without losing work-life balance or engaging in click-baity posts.’
Something I forgot to mention in my answer to this question is that Instagram recently said that the accounts that see the quickest growth are sharing 10 Reels per month. That’s not to say you have to do this, but it is a benchmark to show how a growth objective affects the balance of the kind of content you create and share.
A post you might be interested in reading to accompany my answer to this question is this one about the different ‘modes’ you can apply to your use of Instagram:
In my answer to this question, I also refer to an Instagram account called viralvideo.club who posts analyses of what make videos go viral. His account is aimed at content creators so try not to get too wrapped up in the technical aspects of what he talks about, nor too attached to the idea of ‘going viral’ (as that way madness lies!), but there may be some tips and ideas that he shares that you can apply to your own videos to improve their performance.
⏳36.05 question from Elaine: ‘Can you help settle an argument between me and my husband? I have recently closed my podcast Instagram account and will now promote via my own account for two reasons: 1. it was getting too hard to run two accounts, 2. the podcast account had fewer followers and little engagement, and people contacted my via my account. However, my husband doesn’t agree and thinks we should have somewhere people can tag us. I’m not going to open another account, but is there anything I can do on my own account to help promote the podcast or make podcast content more engaging? Podcasting about TV and film is a major part of who I am and I talk about it in my writing.’
⏳47.30 question from Alison: ‘When is the ideal day and time to hold an Instagram Live session?’
⏳50.56 question from Carrie: ‘Is it important to curate your grid so that it looks nice?’
In my answer to Carrie’s question I refer to ‘something’ I have written. After searching fruitlessly for it in my Substack archive for several minutes, I realised that I was thinking about a video I made last year! [aside: it’s interesting for me to watch this video back as I think how I talk to camera has changed, and improved, I think] I’ve made a note to either write or record something more detailed at some point soon as I think it’s a really important point and can be a barrier to showing up:
⏳55.18 question from Alison: ‘Do I need more posts on my grid that feature my book so that when people land on my account they can see I have a book out?’
⏳61.33 we end with a comparison of how many pages of notes everyone has made!!
If you’d like to watch my answers to these questions then you can upgrade your subscription to become a member of TOO MUCH INSTAGRAM by clicking the button below
TMI members, I hope you enjoyed the chat and found it useful - let me know in the comments if you have any thoughts, or if you’d like to ask a follow-up question ❤️
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