TH E U LTIM ATE

INS TAGR A M
GROWTH & ENGAGEMENT
GUIDE

10 Organic Ways for Creatives & Entrepreneurs to

B E AT T H E A LG O R I T H M @ LO C A L _ M I L K
B E T H K I R BY.C O M
 O H H E Y,

DREAMER!
I’m so glad this powerhouse guide has landed in your hands! Because I hear you. You’re
frustrated with your growth (well, lack thereof!) and wondering how you’re EVER going to stand
out in the crowd. The all-mighty algorithm keeps changing, new features pop up everyday, and
you feel like you can’t win. The bizarre follow/unfollow game has you poised, phone in hand, to
throw it across the room. But you know that Instagram is one of the MOST powerful tools for your
brand. So you keep at it. You dodge competition, comparison, and the feeling that you’re not
enough. I feel you.

A bit about me, if you don’t already know: I’ve spent the past 5 years traveling all over the
world from Japan to Paris teaching Instagram, social media marketing, creative business, and
photography to students from every corner of the globe. And Instagram is my JAM.

In the six years since I started my business, I’ve grown an organic following of 780k+ on
Instagram! No paid followers. No bots. No follow/unfollow. No humble brag. Just fact.

It wasn’t an accident — it was strategy.

I’m sharing it with you because teaching others what I learned the hard way is my passion. It’s
what gets me up in the morning. Why do I care so much? Because I’ve been exactly where you
are right now. And I can help!

If you follow my advice and take these steps, you will see growth. I don’t believe in overnight
success. And I won’t lie to you or make unrealistic promises. Growth takes times, and this isn’t
a one-stop shop to get 10 million followers. Stay the course, be consistent, elevate your photo
@ LO C A L _ M I L K

game, implement my strategy, and you will see results. Period. If you don’t already have my other
free guide to the secret weapon apps & tools I use to manage my Instagram account, you can
grab it here! I’ll mention a few of those tools & apps in this guide, so I want to make sure you
have all the goodies!
B E T H K I R BY.C O M

XO,
Be th
 1
USE A REAL CAMERA!

Or hire someone who does. Most people teaching

GE T TH E GE A R
Instagram aren’t going to tell you this. And sure, you

DS LR RECOMME N DAT I O N S can have a slammin’ feed using iPhone only if you’re
(I’m a Canon girl!) an iphonography guru. But most of us aren’t. The truth
Canon 80D $ is, I take less than 1% of my photos with my phone,
Canon 6D $$ and, fact: most of the pro-instagrammers you see are
Canon Mark II $$$ doing the same.
Canon Mark III $$$$
Canon Mark IV $$$$$
It’s going to be much easier to get scroll stopping
images when you’re using a good camera. I prefer a
BU DG E T LE N S
DSLR, but there are great mirrorless cameras on the
RECOMME N DAT I O N S
market too! And don’t be intimidated by all the techie
35mm 2.0 Crop sensor camera words—a DSLR just means a digital camera with a
50mm 1.8 Full frame camera mirror in it so you can look through the viewfinder and

Don’t know which type you have?
Google it!
W H AT S I N MY BAG
C A ME R A Canon 5D Mark IV
LE N S ES 50mm 1.2
see exactly what you’re shooting—they’re what a lot
of influencers & photographers including myself are
using!
The down side is DSLR’s are BIG (that mirror takes up
a lot of space!), so if you prefer something smaller,
@ LO C A L _ M I L K

35mm 1.4 look for a mirrorless camera with a changeable

24-70mm 2.8 lens systems. If you’re buying a camera, just buy the
camera body! Buy a good lens separately. Because
the most important thing is to shoot with a nice lens
(not the lens that comes with the camera!)
B E T H K I R BY.C O M
 1
USE A REAL CAMERA!

But worry not! You don’t have to have a professional camera that
costs thousands, and if you follow the rest of the tips below, you’ll
see improvement!

If you are going to stick to iPhone check out my tips below.

I PH O N E PH OTO GR A PH Y TI PS

O N COMP OS I T I O N T H I N K FL AT E D I T LI K E A PRO

Keep the composition “Flat scenes” do better Edit, edit, edit! Use your
simple, symmetrical, with iPhone like flat lays, favorite iPhone editing app
and all lines straight. landscapes, buildings, (or grab the guide that
and cityscapes. reveals mine here).

Don’t want to shoot? All this giving you hives? Hire a photographer
or buy stock images at a place like Creative Market! If you want to
build a business using Instagram but photography isn’t ever going
to be your thing (maybe you’re a lawyer or a fitness guru!), don’t be
afraid to outsource! Your message is what matters. The photos are the @ LO C A L _ M I L K
hook.

PRO TI P
Use Dropbox to get your edited photos from your computer to your
phone in seconds if you’re shooting your own!
B E T H K I R BY.C O M
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EDIT LIKE A PRO!

On Instagram, content is king, and editing is what will bring your

visual content to life. Editing isn’t for fixing things you did wrong
when you took the photo (though it can), and it’s not for faking
reality—editing is the other half of the art of photography that will
give your feed personal style.
W H AT’S C A M E R A R AW?

I recommend getting a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud and

RAW images are just a file
using their Lightroom Classic CC on a computer (not cell phone) for
type, like JPEG. If you get a real
editing your photos when you can. It’s what I’ve used for six years,
camera, make sure you go in
and it’s what I use to this day. It’s a powerful, easy to use RAW and change the setting from
image editing program that can bring your photos to life and make JPEG to shoot RAW files because
them pop. they have a lot more information
and you can edit them without
destroying them! The same can’t
Not an editing pro? No worries! Grab a pack of my custom filters
be said about JPEGs!
for Lightroom (or get the bundle!), and use those to professionally
edit your photos in one click! Make sure to read the PDF that comes
with the filters for editing tips so you get the most out of them!
Editing is the number one thing that will set your photos apart and
give your feed visual depth.

Find your own style by experimenting, and you’re well on your way
@ LO C A L _ M I L K

to Insta-game strong! I never post a photo that hasn’t been edited

either in Lightroom or on my phone because editing is how you
get your consistent look and personal style! And as per tip one,
you can always outsource this if you need to! And if you REALLY
B E T H K I R BY.C O M

want to edit on your phone, you can find ALL my favorite on-the-go
editing apps in my IG Must-Have Apps & Tools Guide — because
sometimes you just gotta edit on the fly!
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KEEP IT CONSISTENT

Consistent looking & consistent timing. You should, ideally, be posting 1-3x a
day. I aim for one a day, and anything extra is a bonus. Use common sense—
post when your target audience is most likely to be awake and engaging with
their phone! Stay away from really early morning and the middle of the night!

In addition to consistent timing, keep the look consistent too. A consistent

looking feed is a visually pleasing feed. A pleasing feed is one that people dig
following! In order to achieve consistency, you can use presets (another word
for the Lightroom filters) or manually edit your photos to have similar tones. I
recommend choosing whether you want the temperature of your feed to be
“warm”, “neutral”, or “cool” and sticking to that. The light temperature of your
PICK A
feed shouldn’t vary. For instance, mine is slightly cool.
T E M P FO R
YO U R F E E D

You can also incorporate what we call a “color story” to make your grid even
WA R M
more consistent. This means you choose some brand colors for your feed and
NEUTR AL stick to those. For me, my brand colors are pink & grey, and I weave color
stories of green, blue, and copper through my feed to name a few. Sure, I make
CO O L exceptions sometimes for something like a red strawberry tart, but I make sure
to incorporate it using a “mini color story” where I have pops of red (maybe just
a few different photos of the same tart!) appear in a few images in the feed for
that block of 9-12 photos and then phase it out again. Consistent quality, color, @ LO C A L _ M I L K

editing, and light temperature is truly the key to a beautiful feed!

PRO TIP
Only take your photos in natural light during the day and make sure all indoor
B E T H K I R BY.C O M

lighting is off! Always. If you are shooting a cute café and can’t avoid a little
indoor light, desaturate their icky orange color when you edit with a brush tool!
 4
T ELL A S TO RY!

There are exceptions, but generally speaking I recommend people

avoid close up, detail shots. Instead of posting detail shots (save
those for stories & your blog!), post “establishing shots”, shots that tell
the whole story. Usually these are taken from a bit farther back.

Scrollers are going through their feeds fast! Detail shots don’t give
them any context and don’t tend to engage the viewer, because they
don’t know what the story is immediately.

When I’m choosing an Instagram, I’m choosing my best establishing

shot. The cover shot. The rockstar. Instagram is the place to put
your best visual foot forward because Instagram is about images,
not moments. Instagram Stories are about moments! But the feed
performs best with beautiful, consistent images that tell a story at a
glance.

Sometimes the best story you can tell your audience is about who
you are as a person. Don’t be afraid to show up in your feed. You
don’t need to be a model to post pictures of yourself and put a face
to the brand & business. Your real, beautiful self is enough! That said,
I do recommend they be real camera, edited photos taken in natural @ LO C A L _ M I L K

light! Save the fun BTS iPhone snaps for stories!

Most importantly, know your target audience. If they love close

ups of food—then post close ups of food! If they love close ups of
flowers—go for it! If they love fitness inspiration and go crazy for
B E T H K I R BY.C O M

cell phone pics of yourself at the gym, then do what works for you!
There’s an exception to every rule! But I 100% believe the higher the
quality of the photo, the better.
 5
GET ‘EM WITH THE GRID

Your grid is your hook. When someone new clicks your

name, the first thing they see is your grid and your profile. A
potential new follower is going to take one look at that grid
of photos and your profile, and if they like it, they might click
one of your photos. And then another. And then follow you!

But if they click over and don’t like the grid & profile they see,
they’re going to turn around and leave without following. Use
a grid planning app like Planoly to make sure your grid is
visually pleasing.

I recommend alternating angles (i.e. posting a flat lay

next to a landscape instead of next to another flat lay),
incorporating negative space, being mindful of your color
story, making sure all lines in your photos are straight (this is
a big one—you can fix crooked lines when you edit!), and
using symmetry to create a pleasing grid.

I like to give my grid a “checkerboard” pattern and alternate

my lighter, airier work with my darker, moodier work. This
way I can incorporate both styles and still have a pleasing
@ LO C A L _ M I L K

grid.

You can optimize your profile by having your logo or a good

headshot as your profile picture, a short blurb about what
B E T H K I R BY.C O M

your business or brand does for your clients & customers,

and a link in profile that goes where you want them to go be
that your shop, to join your email list, or to your blog.
 6
C R E AT E C O M M U N I T Y
WITH CAPTIONS

Use your captions as an opportunity to interact with your dream clients, customers, and
readers in a meaningful way. Make your captions about them, not just you! Instagram is a
place to socialize, not sell.

Tell stories that tell them about the person behind the business, stories about your own journey,
and give them useful tips & advice in your area of expertise.

To increase engagement on posts ask questions and include calls to action like “double tap if
you love peonies!” or “tag the strongest woman you know” or “click the link in profile to learn
more”, and, most importantly, get vulnerable and be real.

When we write about real things and get personal, we create community. We are all
struggling with something, and there’s no better way to connect than to get transparent about
what you struggle with. Perfection is overrated! Share from deep within you to connect deeply.

Before you share something hard: ask yourself who you’re doing it for. If you’re doing it to
comfort yourself, try reaching out to a friend or family member first. When you’re feeling better
share on social media if you feel called to, because your goal as a brand is to serve your
dream customers—not whine to them about your lousy day! And remember: you don’t have to
share anything your aren’t comfortable sharing.

In order to tell an engaging story, think of descriptive, 5-sense words. Don’t say it was a “lovely
picnic”, instead, ask yourself why it was a lovely picnic? And describe that! Look for words that @ LO C A L _ M I L K

describe touch, taste, smell, sight, sound, and emotions! Use specific words for things i.e. don’t
just say “bread” say “sourdough” or “pain au levain” or “buttermilk honey loaf”.

And remember...your image and caption don’t really have to relate! If you’re a travel blogger
& want to talk about an ugly restaurant, post a beautiful picture of the city it’s in, write about
B E T H K I R BY.C O M

the restaurant in the caption, and even include the restaurant behind the scenes in stories! Your
caption doesn’t have to be literal to the photo! It can be, but it doesn’t have to be.
 7
P U T T H E “ S O C I A L”
IN SOCIAL MEDIA

They don’t call it social media for nothin’! Once you’ve mastered your
visual style, leading with your best images, and have a good grid
going, it’s time to start interacting, building relationships, and following
strategically. Yep, strategically. G O B E YO N D
T H E FO L LOW

Who should you be following? I recommend following your peers, Don’t just follow, for
colleagues, brands & businesses you’d like to work for, and press. example, the magazine
you dream of being in!
See the assistant photo editor is going to a city you know well? Offer Follow the editor, the
to shoot them your favorite tips via DM or email. Be real, be helpful. editor’s assistant...find out
Don’t be spammy or try too hard to curry favor. I don’t believe in hustle. who gets their coffee and
I believe in creating great things and being a genuine, heart centered follow them! And then start
human. The rest will come. interacting genuinely.

So get out there and be sure to like, comment, and respond to comments
in a genuine way on a very regular basis! I do not believe in follow/
unfollow. We are here to create community and make a profit as a
business (cause a business that doesn’t make a profit is an expensive
hobby!)—and you aren’t getting real, loyal fans by follow/unfollow.
@ LO C A L _ M I L K

You get real industry connections, potential clients, happy customers, and
an engaged audience by getting out there and truly interacting with those
people from a place of genuine curiosity & service. Remember, rising
B E T H K I R BY.C O M

tides lift all ships.

 8
H A S H TAG S & LO C AT I O N
TAG S A R E YO U R F R I E N D
Yep, it’s time to start using hashtags and location tags if you aren’t
already! Hashtags and location tags are like the “search engine” of
Instagram. They are the way that people who don’t already follow H A S H TAG DO’S
you can see your work... and if we want to grow, we need people
Vary your tags by saving different hashtag
who don’t follow us to see us! Try strategically tagging locations that
clouds in the Planoly app. Then add to your
you know your readership is in or popular spots featured in your captions with the click of a button!

photos. Either way: always include a location tag!

Examples:
“Paris Travel 1”
“Paris Travel 2”
Now for hashtags! How can you know which hashtags to use? I
recommend using a mix of “high density” (over 1 million posts) and
Put your hashtags in your caption following
“low density” (20K-900K range) hashtags. If I had to choose, I’d
a form of page break like dots (Display
always choose low density because your photos have a higher Purposes does this automatically)!

chance of making the featured posts and of being seen! You get to use
30 hashtags per post—and I recommend using every single one! H A S H TAG DO N T’S

Use the same hashtags over and over.

You can even start your own hashtag and encourage your followers to This can flag your account, lower
your algorithm rank, or even get you
use it to increase reach like our #theartofslowliving, #livemoremagic, shadowbanned (your posts no longer
#eatmoremagic, and #localmilkfilter for people using our presets! appear in hashtags to people who don’t
follow you)!

Research other accounts in your niche & tribe and see what hashtags
Only use “high density” or “low density”
@ LO C A L _ M I L K
they’re using. Click on them! Explore them. See where your people hashtags. Use a mix of both. Remember,
are. Type a good hashtag for your niche into the search bar and look the lower the density, the higher the
chance your photo will be seen.
at the “related hashtags” and see if those might be a good fit too!

You can also use a hashtag generator like Display Purposes to give
B E T H K I R BY.C O M

you some ideas. I use a mix of Display Purpose suggestions and

hashtags I’ve found through research. For every topic I post about, I
have 3 different hashtag clouds.
 9
RISING TIDES LIFT ALL

One of the best ways to grow is to collaborate with peers, colleagues,

and press in your niche. Do you knit sweet baby bonnets? Team up with
a few people who also make awesome stuff for littles & mamas to do
a giveaway! Love to cook? Partner with a stylist and a photographer
to do a food shoot or event! Have a lot to say about plant based
cooking? Reach out to a podcast about vegan food to see if they’d like
to have you as a guest! Make beautiful table linens? See if some food &
entertaining influencers would be interested in sampling & sharing them!

Collaboration is an authentic, community centered way for everyone to

grow. Think of ways in which you can work with, help, and lift up others
and in turn they will lift you up! When we mutually share each other’s
work, we grow.

Contests, giveaways, events (both virtual & real life), guest posting,
take-overs, and interviews are all great ways to get organic growth. Your
giveaway can simply be a collaboration with your followers. Encourage
them to like, comment, and tag their friends to enter the giveaway—it can
be something simple like a cool coffee cup, freebie, or anything else you
go out and buy.
@ LO C A L _ M I L K

But remember, don’t put the cart before the horse. Level up your photos
& grid and then start reaching out when you have something to bring to
the Instagram table. When you first start reaching out, try reaching out to
people that are at a similar place in their business journey or just ahead
B E T H K I R BY.C O M

of you so that it’s a mutually beneficial situation. You can dream big and
reach out to people you admire too! You never know who might say yes!
Just make sure you don’t take a no (or silence) personally!
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U S E #A L LT H E T H I N G S
LI V E, S TO R I E S, H I G H LI G H TS & V I D EO

It can feel like a lot, but you’re going to get the most out of Instagram for
your business if you use it to its fullest potential.

I N S TAGR A M S TO RI E S I N S TAGR A M LIV E

Stories are a great way to connect, share your
work, and put your beautiful face out there.
There are differing opinions on stories, but I
personally love to see behind the scenes.
I don’t want to see a curated, perfect reality
when I click someone’s stories. I want to feel like
I’m hanging out with a real person, in real life.
There are tons of creative ways to use stories!
You can do recipes, tutorials, travel guides,
surveys, Q&A, even mini courses! You can use
your stories to drive your followers to your feed
to check out your latest post or to a link in your
profile for your latest blog post, opt-in,
or product.
Okay, going live is scary. I know. As someone
who lives in a messy mom bun, last night’s
smeared mascara, and a linen bathrobe while
a toddler crawls all over me...I’m not exactly
itching to go live myself! Promote your live
broadcast for a few days before it happens,
making sure to let your followers know the topic,
time (and time zone!), and date of your live!
Announce it a few times in both your feed and
your stories when you’ll be going live so people
can plan to be there and give the live session
a theme, like a mini-workshop, tutorial, a Q&A
session, a tour of your home or workspace, or
whatever you can dream up!
@ LO C A L _ M I L K

W H Y GO LIV E?

Increase engagement
Rank higher in the algorithm
Stay top of mind
B E T H K I R BY.C O M

Connect as a real human being.

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U S E #A L LT H E T H I N G S
LI V E, S TO R I E S, H I G H LI G H TS & V I D EO

V I D E O O N I N S TAGR A M

I N S TAGR A M H I GH LI GH T S Video is extremely powerful on Instagram.

For one, it registers views instead of likes as
Think of highlights as a place to outline your engagement, but more importantly high quality
“content strategy”, which is just a fancy way to video is more likely to be featured on the
say... explore page.

What topics does your brand post about? Consumption of video content is growing
astronomically—so get to creating! You can
For example, on my account @Local_Milk I create really lovely videos just using an iPhone!
post about Family, Travel, Food, Instagram, and
Business. This is because I sell travel guides,
cookbooks, and workshops about social media
& creative business! So the content strategy is
related to the business strategy, and that’s how I
choose my Story Highlight categories.

You can even create cute icons for your stories in

10 seconds using Canva—give my tutorial video
a quick watch to learn how! @ LO C A L _ M I L K
B E T H K I R BY.C O M
 O K AY !

N OW B R E AT H E .
Cause, yep, that was a lot of information—a mini Instagram Growth & Engagement Crash
Course! I wanted to give you as many tools as possible. Don’t be overwhelmed: you don’t have to
do this overnight.

Remember, it took me years to get to 780k! And even if you only have a cell phone at your
disposal, if you start implementing all my other tips and using the editing apps & other tools from
my Instagram Secret Weapons Guide: you will see growth!

If something isn’t working for you, don’t bang your head against the wall doing the same thing
over and over. Change something up. Look at the accounts in your niche you look up to and ask
yourself, what are they doing that’s working? What am I doing that isn’t?

The algorithm is simple really: it shows your post to a “sample audience” (about 10% of your
followers), and if that “sample audience” engages with the post through likes, comments, saves,
and shares then the algorithm will show it to more of your followers. If it continues to get high
engagement, it will appear top of feed for your followers—sometimes for days! The real “secret”
is to deeply know about and care about your audience: what do they like, what resonates with
them, and what, historically, have they engaged with?

Because no two audiences are the same. Some love cakes. Some love selfies. Some love babies.
Some love alpacas. True story. As a business, it’s your job to know your customers, client, and
audience and serve them the best you can. Remember: your instagram feed is about serving and
connecting with your dream client, customer, and audience. Not about “winning” by having the
most followers. Cause I hate to break it to you, you don’t get a dollar for every follower!
@ LO C A L _ M I L K

I know people with followings under 100k that have leveraged their Instagram accounts to build
email lists & six figure businesses. It doesn’t take 780k. It only take a tribe of deeply devoted fans
to make a business work. So don’t get caught up in the numbers game and in comparison. Get
caught up in knowing what your customer wants and making the best things you can for them!
B E T H K I R BY.C O M

XO,
Be th