The Un-followers
Post, post, post. Set a schedule, stick to it. Post multiple times a day. Follow people that would like your content. Comment on their work. Direct message them. Build a community and you’ll build a following.
We hear people ramble this shit every day. They talk about the hustle, the grind, of building a following. If you do this, and that, and create; people will come. But after all that work, all that time, will they stay? Most importantly does this pissing game even matter?
I am going to preface this post with, I am not interested in being some hot shot influencer. I am here to build a genuine following of people that care about my work and the effort and time I put into it.
For the last few years I have been creating to the best of my ability.
I started with writing. I created a blog of sorts. I wrote about tech, things that interested me, even some more random pieces. I was really into it. I would write scoops, and hot takes, reviews and long form pieces. It felt good to get my thoughts out, and it felt great when people cared. For a writer, a great place to share their work is Twitter. Over about a year I shared on Twitter almost daily. Some days I had tons of posts if the news was hotter than normal. When I first shared to Twitter I didn’t have much engagement, but that slowly changed. I built a small following, about 600 followers. Nothing impressive, but hell 600 people that care was plenty for me. I would have loved to grow that more, but I started to change my medium of sharing.
I started to see a real need for video. I bought a decent camera and set out to make stuff. It was quite childish content, but it was a start. I eventually learned enough, the quality got better, and content became more compelling. The place that I was sharing this content was none other than YouTube. YouTube is great, a free platform to share your videos and films. Over the next year I grew a following of about 500 subscribers. I have tens of thousands of views, I really felt like people cared! Eventually I became bored, frustrated even, of the content I was shooting. I felt restricted artistically, and wanted to try other things. So I decided to branch out from tech and news, to sport, commercial, and wedding videography.
I, of course, uploaded this new much better content to YouTube. But I also uploaded clips, photos, and BTS (behind the scenes) to Instagram. I was a casual Instagrammer but quickly became someone who wanted to post real art there, something with substance. So I posted more curated content, groupings of photos, and longer form video. I went from posting occasionally to 1 daily post. I even post 3 photos back to back occasionally. I also utilized Instagram stories to convey a different kind of content. I use it for BTS, day of the life, and portrait video stories. Since I have started this Instagram journey, I have gone from a 300-ish follower count, to about 960. This jump has been great but things have suddenly stopped growing. My content has gotten exponentially better, my engagement with my community has not wandered and my goals have not changed. The schedule is the same, if not more aggressive at times. I am not talking about a slow down or a crawl, I mean an all out stop in overall followers. My daily followers range from 5–15, but my overall count hovers at 955–970.
The only thing I can think of is that: people have become so obsessed with the idea of being an influencer, that they follow you for a follow back, and then drop you like a bad habit. I know this is a common thing, I do. I see the allure of having a large following in comparison to following a lot of people, but it can be a messed up game. Now, I don’t think this can be the only reason for this freeze on my growth, there has to be other factors. I don’t know what these factors are, but damn, I’d love to know!
These un-followers are trying to hack the system, trying to move their way up, but all they are doing is looking like assholes. If you like someone’s content, like it ❤️. If you really like it, follow them. If you feel so compelled, comment or DM them! But, if you are looking to follow me, only hoping to gain a follower and drop me, expect nothing from me. I am not going to keep following you. If I notice, I might even write something negative on a post or two.
This may be a game to you, but to me this is a dream. I want to be a successful creator because I love doing it, not because it’s an easy way for brands to pay me for posts. Instagram is a venue to do this, and I will utilize it to the best of my ability, no shortcuts, no sleazy un-follows. If it takes me days, weeks, months, or years; I will build a following that is genuine.
If you would like to check out my work, and maybe give me a genuine follow, you can find my account here. 📸
All my work can be found at thorschroeder.com.
