Exploding your Instagram following as a designer [Full Guide]

 

In the last 10 months, I grew my design Instagram account from 0 followers to over 300,000.

This all happened without running a single ad or buying any paid posts.

It was all the result of purely organic growth, and using a specific framework that absolutely anyone can follow, regardless of your skill level or creative niche.

So as a thankyou for supporting what I do, i’m going to share with you the exact step-by-step framework I used to explode my Instagram following!

Before we get started, if you want to learn even more about growing an audience as a designer and launching your design business, click here to check out my full e-book “The Designer Blueprint”.

Step 1: Market research 

There’s no use in just uploading content and just hoping for the best - you need to take a look at what’s already working for other people.

Actionable step: Go onto Instagram and make a list of 5 - 7 creators that have high-performing content within your sub-niche.

The idea here is to analyse what is already working for other creators, in order to add our own creative character and personality to an already successful content strategy.

Here are some questions you should be asking when studying your list of creators:

 

• ✅ How often does this person post?

• ✅ Are they focusing on high-quality, carefully curated posts, or do they lean towards a more frequent, casual approach?

• ✅ Do they show their face or just their art/designs?

• ✅ What are they including in their post descriptions? (hashtags / questions for the audience etc.)

• ✅ Do they post a lot of reels or mainly just standard posts?

• ✅ What topics do they talk about? (fonts, Photoshop techniques, etc.)

• ✅ How are their videos edited? (screen recordings / camera footage etc.)

 

 

Step 2: The formula

At this point you may be asking: “should I be posting reels and short form videos, or just standard posts and carousels?”

And the answer is … both.

Reels

For building your audience, short form content is king. The algorithm (at least at the moment) favors reels, often featuring them prominently on the Explore page.

This provides a golden opportunity for your content to be discovered by a wider audience.

On top of that, you can easily re-post reels to other social media sites such as TikTok and Youtube Shorts.

Let me give you an example. The very first reel I posted on my account (to about 800 followers) got over 200,000 views and bumped my follower count to about 4,000 in a few days.

There is no question about it, reels are crucial for reaching new users that haven’t discovered your content yet.

Standard posts / carousels

That said, do not underestimate the power of standard posts and carousels.

Firstly, standard posts seem to be pushed out more effectively to your current audience, making them an incredible method for re-engaging the people who already support your work.

Also, as designers it’s vital that we are showcasing our work in the most effective way possible. And when it comes to showcasing intricate details of your graphic designs, nothing beats a standard image post.

This format allows your audience to fully appreciate the detailed nuances of your work, making it ideal for highlighting complex illustrations, typography, or any design that demands a closer look.

I’ve also noticed that standard posts seem to have a longer “shelf life”. They seem to attract engagement and interest over a longer period of time, providing a more enduring impact to your audience.

My content schedule

For me, the best balance that I have found for initial Instagram growth is:

• ✅ 4-5 pieces of content a week total

• ✅ 1 standard post and 3-4 reels a week

• ✅ 1-2 stories a day

Regarding the time of day that you post, I don’t think it’s as important as people claim. I’ve posted at many different times of the day and have never noticed a substantial difference. 

For me I post at 2pm UK time, which has worked really well for me (but again, I don’t believe it’s overly important.

Step 3: Your first 10,000 followers

Now it’s time to dive into the practical details of gaining your first 10,000 followers on Instagram. 

Regarding the content schedule, refer to the formula I mentioned above.

(Make sure you are also implementing the essential components of creating a viral reel covered in the full ebook).

Now it’s time to utilise account engagement and my personal outreach strategy. 

This is the exact method I used to gain my first 1000 followers within my first month.

This method does require a fair amount of work. However, it’s a strategy that you only need to utilise for the first couple of months of account growth. For example, this strategy was gaining me around 20-25 new followers a day at first, but eventually the algorithm picked up my account and from that point onwards I didn’t need to do any account outreach at all.

Here’s the exact outreach framework I used:

 

1. Commit to 15 minutes of outreach 3-5 times spread throughout the day.

 

2. Find lists of target accounts:

✅Refer to your list of 7-10 content creators from the market research stage.

✅ Go onto their most recent posts (posts within the last 24 hours are ideal).

✅ Click into the list of account that have liked that post.

You now have access to a list of accounts that are interested in your sub-niche, are are also recently active and have engaged with recent posts within the sub-niche. 

This is essentially a list of your perfect target audience.

 

3. Next, engage with these accounts:

✅ Skip any accounts that are private.

✅ For public accounts, like 1-2 recent posts (but don’t follow any of these accounts).

✅ If it’s an account posting design work, leave some genuine feedback on their design. No copy and pasting, no fire emojis. Stick to authentic, personalised comments to build real connections.

Many of these profiles will be intrigued enough to check out your account. And if you’re already posting high quality reels and posts, they might even follow you as well.

Thanks for reading this mini-guide to growing on Instagram!

➡️ If you want to learn more about growing an audience and making money from your design work, you can check out the full e-book “The Designer Blueprint”.

➡️ If you’re struggling to build a following online and want to work with me 1-to-1 to explode your audience as a designer or creative, email me at george@waveindex.com. I can help.