Why We Love Instagram (And You Should, Too!)

Instagram has really captured Charlie’s imagination. I let him use my app initially to see what Tim Peake was up to. Then he started checking out NASA and then just seeing what my followers were posting. I am quite happy for him to like things and if he wants to leave a comment I just ask that he ends it with “Charlie age 8“.  Lately he started asking me lots of questions about the content. Why do so many people like this photograph of nail polish? How has this person got 1,000 followers? It’s quite interesting to see how a child of 8 views visual content.  On route to swimming classes this week he asked “Why don’t we (see how he is owning Instagram! Like my hard work is a joint effort!) have 1,000 followers?”.  Now that is the £Million question! Why don’t I? Firstly I used it as a chance to do some simple maths. We calculated how many people we needed to reach 1,000 (51 at the time if you are interested) and set a target of reaching 1,000 by the end of February which would mean we needed 1-2 people a day to follow us.

instagram tips

But how are we going to get 51 people to follow us on Instagram?

After a deadly silence, Megan pitched in. “We need to write some persuasive writing.”

Me : “A blog post”

Charlie : “Yes a blog post that would make people follow us on Instagram!”

Me : “But what would we write??”

Megan : “A list of reasons, like about how cool we are?!”

Me : “Can you think of an example?”

Charlie : “1. Because our mummy is the best!”

Dear Readers,

Here are 7 reasons (we tried to think of 10 but that was a bit too difficult!) why you should follow our mummy and us on Instagram.

  1. Because our Mummy is the best.
  2. We have a cat called George. He is cute. People like cats.
  3. When you like one of our photographs Charlie checks yours and likes some of them too.
  4. Olive likes playdoh and playdoh is fun.
  5. Mummy only posts happy pictures and that will make you happy.
  6. Megan likes rabbit, rabbits are cute. Our rabbit is called Daisy.
  7. Charlie is good at maths.

Thank you

Love Charlie and Megan (and Olive too!) 

Although these 7 reasons are from the mouth of babes and probably won’t help us hit that magic 1000 followers but how they reached these points is important.  I asked them to consider :

    • What photographs they like looking at
    • And why?

This is why they have mentioned cats and rabbits the kind of photographs they like.  We also talked about how the photographs made them feel, happy, sad, excited all things we as small businesses and bloggers should consider when growing and developing our own Instagram following. Give yourself time now to write a list of 7 points  (unless of course unlike my 3 you can think of 10!), use these points to plan your growth. Having said that for some people like Charlie, Megan and Olive, Instagram is about having fun and enjoying learning and looking at the world around them, their friends and being excited by people liking and commenting on their photographs.  And what makes them happy makes me happy.

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* UPDATE * We reached 1000 Instagram Followers in early February 2016! Thank you lovely, lovely people!

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12 Comments

  1. Christian
    February 2, 2016 / 6:51 pm

    That #1 reason convinced me.

    Love how you are not only introducing your kids to social media, but doing it in a way that allows them to explore it appropriately and ask questions.
    Christian recently posted..Your Why Makes Your Purpose PowerfulMy Profile

    • February 2, 2016 / 7:48 pm

      Thank you! Hopefully when they are older and have their own social media accounts they can talk to me easily about any issues. Thanks for reading x

  2. Katy
    February 2, 2016 / 7:09 pm

    Well it made me follow you x

  3. Briony
    February 2, 2016 / 8:58 pm

    Love this! They are properly adorable. x

    • February 3, 2016 / 9:11 am

      Thank you! You wouldn’t have said that 20 minutes ago when I’m screaming like a banshee to get ready for school!

  4. February 4, 2016 / 8:39 am

    I love their reasoning – I have to admit that although I have grown my following organically, recently I have come across so many threads for commenting / liking etc pics and accounts on Instagram that I have become a bit disillusioned with it. I suppose it’s like all other social media though and you get this all over
    Kara recently posted..#Win a Trunki containing £25 worth of children’s products with Petit BateauMy Profile

  5. August 16, 2016 / 9:55 pm

    I am a little bit addicted to Instagram at the moment! It probably wouldn’t be a good idea for me to share my feed with the children, since I follow a few adult authors and Gothic photography accounts that could prove either a little bit risque, or a little bit scary for young eyes 😉 That said, I do sometimes show the children photos and videos that I know they would enjoy (and I am now following you)

    https://spookymrsgreen.com/2013/09/06/getting-back-to-work-bizitalk/

    • August 17, 2016 / 10:36 am

      Hehe great point. I don’t follow anything I think may upset my son. Having said that he does get annoyed by nail polish pictures getting 400+ likes when his pictures get 30!!

      • August 18, 2016 / 9:24 am

        I agree with him! I mean, I love pretty nails, but come on, what about all the fantastic nature photos that often get overlooked on IG? 😉