How I Grew My Instagram Following to 20k in Under a Year (+ Monetized It)

Valerie Moore’s second run at growing an Instagram following was a roaring success – here’s how she did it.

For years, I struggled to grow my audience on Instagram. After 6 years of trying hard to build my fitness-focused account, I only had 2,300 followers to show for it.

While I do believe follower count is a vanity metric, I couldn’t help feeling frustrated and like a failure. Realizing I needed a change, I revamped my strategy based on my experience to grow a new Instagram account Not Bored in DC to over 20,000 followers in just 9 months while also getting paid to create content.

The secret? I have a crystal clear picture of my target audience, speaking clearly and speaking only to them, treating every piece of content as an experiment, and spending my energy doing things that prioritize long-term income.

In this article, I will walk you through exactly what helped me grow and how you can do the same.

Defining a target audience & monetization strategy

Success on social media requires planning beyond a posting schedule. Focusing on creating content for a well-defined audience is essential. Creating generalized content that may appeal to everyone ultimately appeals to no one.

Deciding which audience you want to target will impact your future monetization. For that reason, I think everyone should have a monetization strategy from the beginning.

When brands are looking for influencers and content creators to work with, they are looking for someone who knows how to speak effectively to a defined audience.

Identify content themes

When deciding to become an influencer, consider the kind of content you want to create, such as fashion, technology, or travel. As I was thinking through the content themes I wanted to discuss, I realized it would mean shifting into new content my existing fitness audience did not care about. I thought it best to start from scratch.

I brainstormed various topics I’d be interested in creating content, organized all of them into broad themes, such as “DC fitness,” “DC lifestyle,” “event highlights,” and “affordable adventures,” and saw that most of them were centered around Washington, DC. I used this to create my user personas.