Transcript

0:00

So, Gregory, thanks for asking about whether we should follow people back on Instagram. Let me first just address that question. No. It's not. A requirement.

0:12

There is a little bit of a sense of, you know, I guess, reciprocity perhaps you might say or honor if someone does follow you back. But as you grow your audience, especially all of us here watching are gonna be growing our audiences. It is absolutely not expected that influence the more that's the more you're an influencer, the more this is true, would follow you back. Right? And and so it's okay to start practicing that now.

0:42

And even though it feels mean. Okay. That that that, you know, you you follow back with people you really want to follow back. Okay? It's it's really the the most authentic principle here.

0:56

And hopefully, the people that you are net caring with that you would love to have as a call leak 1 day collaborator, Maybe this might be true with clients and and workshop students or what whatever as well that you if you really genuinely like what you're seeing on their profile and want to see more of things like that, then you you follow you follow. Because the thing is as you start following, you're going to clutter up your own home screen on Instagram, for example. And so if you're cluttering up home screen with things you don't like, you're not gonna become much of a user. You don't be you you lose the opportunity of being a practitioner of this art of being a a good Instagram user so you know how to be an Instagram creator. Right?

1:43

It's like you're not a good user itself and know the etiquette, know the feel of it, and you're not a practitioner there, how can you be really good as a creator on Instagram because you you'll lose touch with the with the with the etiquette and all that. Anyway, so, yeah, that's my general rule. Is just follow back to people you wanna follow back and that's probably true of just about every colleague you're not caring with and maybe most clients, especially if it feels appropriate to to to to do so. Now there is Yeah. So so that's that.

2:14

But but in terms of, like, should you yeah. Let me let me actually stop this as one segment because I think that's helpful. The other thing I'll add to this is, there is little something about the number the the number of people you're following versus followers. Okay. It is true that people get more respect when they have more followers than people they're following.

2:41

Like, for example, if I'm following a thousand people and I have fifty people following me, That looks a little weird as I knew what it was. But if I'm if I have a 1000 followers and I'm following, like, 800 people or something like that, I think that's acceptable. It's even more of an honor if I'm only following a few people and the people that I'm following, they're like, oh my gosh. You know, I'm I'm one of the few people you're following. Few not necessarily meaning, like, literally a few dozen, but it could be a few 100.

3:09

People you find that's reasonable for for Instagram scrolling that you're following a few hundred people. A few thousand people will start to get, like, really, are you really following them? Are you doing it out of courtesy? Yeah. Are you doing it?

3:21

Which is fine too. You know, my my rule right now, which is I agree. I don't know. Maybe not. I follow back the people who comment on my posts.

3:33

And if they comment on my posts, I'll go there. I'll follow them. Because sometimes I'll like whatever it is that shows up. So I I to be honest, my Instagram home feed is definitely not curated because it's like a bunch of people I don't really know. And so but but the thing is the more you like people's post, the more Instagram algorithm will curate for you.

3:50

Only those what you see. Okay. So that's this as a segment. We'll talk in a different segment about the the other question you you mentioned.