People who Follow-to-Unfollow on Instagram

JCrew Factory Sweater T-Shirt | Nordstrom White Skinny Jeans (Similar) | Suede Booties JCrew

My Top is from J.Crew Factory that I bought over the summer, I love their stuff! My pants are from Nordstrom. Unfortunately, J.Crew Factory does not carry this color Sweater Tee anymore but I provided links to similar items.

 I recently posted a blog about Gaining Followers called “Fashion Blogging for Beginners: Gaining INSTAGRAM Followers.” In that blog post I mentioned that I am was going to share how I began to gain followers and the different trends that come with the Art of Following on Instagram. I call it an art because there appears to be a deeper understanding in how to gain followers that only some have mastered. How do I get more followers? When I try to seek the answer to this question, I get the same answer every time; “it’s all about the quality of your content!” This may be true to an extent but is it really the only answer?

 Why do Fashion Bloggers want followers? Well, I try not to be hung up on how many followers I have but let’s face it, some bloggers do worry about the impact they make in other people’s lives. When you are trying to monetize our blogs where you basically become a salesperson and earn a living off of what you love. Big brand businesses view followers as more potential for sales. It is a marketing scheme! The more followers you have, the more collaboration opportunities you will get. Businesses not only pay attention to the number of followers you have, they also pay attention to your interaction and connection to them. They also recognize how good of an influencer you are. Well, as I’ve stated before, we look for followers to share our content with. We want followers so that we can have a voice in fashion. Some ladies I know simply fashion blog and expect nothing out of it, they just want to be a part of a community of fashion and share their ideas with others.

  I’ve seen a couple of my fellow fashionista IG friends @cleveland8284 and @justjuliesstyle ask questions on the topic of Following and Unfollowing in their Instagram Stories which inspired me to seek out the research for myself. Yesterday, I did an IG story asking the following questions:

1. Why do you follow people?
2. What makes you unfollow people?
3. What are your thoughts and perspective on people who follow to unfollow?

I had a few replies, Thank ladies! I am going to share my perspective along with some of the answers I got. But first I am going to go over the different ways to gain followers.

Different Ways to gain Followers:

  I’ve discovered various ways to gain followers. Some work and some don’t. In my last blog post, I mentioned Using Apps as a way to gain followers. I do not recommend using this method. If you are trying to get affiliated with businesses like Reward Style, they won’t accept you in their program if your followers are not deemed true.

  Networking is the best way to receive followers. This is one of the tactics I started to use at the beginning of this year and it works. It took me 7 months to hit 1K but with that, I gained true followers who enjoy my content. For me, networking only worked with other bloggers who are starting out like I was. I’ve tried networking with bloggers who have 100K followers, or even 8800 followers back when I was in the 100’s and they won’t give me the time of day! I don’t blame them though. Their lives have got to be super busy with all the sponsors they have and followers they are trying to reach out to. Following other fashion bloggers opened up the opportunity to have my Instagram exposed. I also gain collaborations within those 7 months.

  Giveaways are another tactic I recently started using to receive followers. I want to do a separate blog post about this one so I won’t go too deep into it. It is a fun, inviting way to gain followers, however, you end up losing half after the contest is over so it is not guaranteed but it is an opportunity to expose your content. The ones who really enjoy your content will stay.

Now for my Rant!!!

The Follow-to-Unfollow Tactic:

I am guilty of following people to gain exposure but I will not unfollow someone who decided to follow me back. I am also guilty to unfollow if they don’t ever follow me back. So I was astonished by this trend of fashion bloggers who initiate a follow to me, I will look at their content and I decide to follow them back and a few days later they unfollow me. What is that…..? Crazy! I completely understand what they are doing! They are rounding up followers, exposing their content but they really don’t want to see your content in their feed so they will unfollow you. They do this mostly to other fashionistas because let’s face it; that’s where the money is at. Most of their sales come from other fashion bloggers. These fashion bloggers are simply keeping their Following numbers low, and growing their Following numbers. You follow people because you want to see them in your feed because they have inspiring content. If a blogger has 100K and they request a follow from me, I ignore them now because of these other bloggers who are only trying to round up followers. It is sad because what if this big-time blogger is really into my content? To all these big-time bloggers who are using this tactic, NO ONE APPRECIATES IT! We all have apps like “Followers” that show us what you are doing. How can anyone really build a relationship with your followers if you do this sort of stuff? If we like your content we will follow, you shouldn’t have to follow us to gain exposure and then turn around and unfollow.

Why do we follow on IG:

Again thanks to the ladies who replied to my questions. @thetinyheart @missannagray @amdecosta @justjuliesstyle and @jenuinelife I really appreciate the feedback you gave! As they say “Two heads are better than one,” and putting our ideas together really helped this blog entry! I put a lot of myself into this post but I did use some of their ideas.

 Why do we follow? We follow because we like other fashionistas’ styles, ideas, outfits, and personalities. We follow because find them inspiring or we wish to network with them. We may enjoy watching what these other fashionistas do and aspire to be where they are one day. I have more than a few Fashion/Instagram Bloggers that I really look up to.

  Why do we Unfollow?  Basically, this happens when our feed becomes annoying with things we don’t wish to see. Why did we follow you in the first place? You must stick to a theme. If you have to, create two Instagram accounts and keep one for fashion and the other for your personal life. It is okay to post personal stuff on your feed, It allows your followers to get to know you but if you lose sight of your main focus, you might lose followers. Also, try not to post so much in a row. If you litter the feed with all your postings, people will get tired of seeing you on their feeds. Keep up with networking, some people follow and actually don’t expect a follow back but they do expect or appreciate the interaction. Other Fashion/Instagram Bloggers want their content to be noticed as well. We all are in it for the same reason; to share our great fashion sense! So spread the love as much as you can.

Until next time, Stay Fabulous!

-Brandi Kimberly

Shop my outfit here <3