One of the industries that has been most radically changed by Instagram is also the least talked about one: the modeling industry.
Three years ago, models had almost no power. They were largely at the mercy of modeling agencies — Instagram changed that.
With some careful social strategy, models can now grow significant followings overnight, giving them huge leverage and turning the power dynamics of the industry upside down.
Take @AlexisRen, for example: A 60-second video posted by her accrued over 6.3 million views. Models like Ren are growing huge followings with millions of views and followers every day. These audiences have allowed models to independently make money, eliminating the previous dependency on modelling agencies.
How do models grow these viral followings?
At Runway Media, we turn models into Instagram influencers — equipping them with strategies and techniques to achieve viral growth. These growth methods range from technical tips to thwart Instagram’s algorithm, to psychological tricks to develop follower engagement.
There are several unique strategies we employ to make this happen. Here are three of them that anyone can use to become an influencer:
1. Fake questions
Having your posts shown first in your followers’ feeds is very important. Instagram’s algorithm decides what posts to show you based on your relationships with the accounts you follow (among other factors, too). Check out Buffer’s blog for an in-depth breakdown of how the algorithm works. If you recently engaged with an account, you’re more likely to see a post from that account vs. an account that you haven’t engaged with.
Relationships are ranked in the algorithm according to a hierarchy. For instance, only liking the posts of an account shows a low-level relationship. However, if you frequently comment on the account, it indicates a deeper, richer relationship — meaning you’ll be shown that account’s posts more frequently and higher up in your feed. The strongest relationship indicators come from saving posts and sending direct messages (DMs).
In light of this, we train our models to frequently ask easy, quick to answer questions in their Instagram Stories. An example of this might be: “What shall I have for lunch?,” “what’s your favorite emoji?” or “what song do you recommend?” These simple questions, often requiring only one word replies, have generated thousands of…
