How to Grow Your Instagram Followers: Tips from The Clean Eating Couple

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Wondering how to grow your Instagram followers? Join us today for a behind the scenes exclusive interview with The Clean Eating Couple and learn how they grew their Instagram account from 0 to over 10K followers!

Hi everyone, it’s Holly from The Coconut Head’s Survival Guide…today I’m joining you at Michelle’s place to talk about how to grow your Instagram followers!

I’m very excited to be sharing my interview with Liz from The Clean Eating Couple.  Not only do they have an awesome blog about clean eating and healthy living, but they have over 10,000 Instagram followers.  You heard me… over TEN THOUSAND Instagram followers.  Liz is giving us a behind the scenes exclusive about their blog and Instagram success.

For those of our readers who are not familiar with your blog, please give us a brief description of what you write about and how you got started.

Hi Everyone! My name is Elizabeth Falcigno and I am the co-creator of The Clean Eating Couple. I’m also a fitness junkie, and health food enthusiast. After being fed up with feeling unhealthy, I started to hit the gym, and change my diet. I never looked back. I started my blog almost three years ago originally as an easy way to share my healthy recipes and workouts with my family and friends. The blog quickly grew into so much more.  We are so lucky to have thousands of followers from all over the world. My goal is to continue to grow our blog in hopes that my clean eating recipes, and fitness advice will help inspire others to make a change to a healthier lifestyle.

On to Instagram, since our readers want to know all about your success.  When did you join Instagram?  How did you start out?

We joined Instagram in November of 2013 on the same day that we started our blog. I had been using Instagram on my own personal account for about a year and I loved it! I was posting a lot of healthy food photos, and following many fitness and healthy food accounts for inspiration when I thought to myself ‘Hey… I could be one of those accounts!’ I thought that creating an Instagram for our blog would be a fun way to interact with the huge Health/Wellness community that is present on that platform… and so it began!

How did you grow such an impressive Instagram following – over 10,000 followers!

The two main things we did (and currently do) on Instagram are interact and keep it real! As I mentioned earlier, I’ve always loved Instagram. When I have free time – I always look up different hashtags, (such as #CleanEating or #HealthyRecipe) and just scroll through the photos. I like the ones that look appealing to me, comment on things I want to try, or ask questions. Typically when we interact with other people on Instagram, they follow us. I try to interact with new accounts for 10 minutes every day. I enjoy it – and it helps build our following. We also are very authentic in our posts – and I believe that people can see that. Yes – we do sponsored posts through networks like FitFluential or Linqia (to cover the costs associated with blogging), but they’re only for brands that we genuinely use. We receive a lot of offers for sponsored posts or free product from different brands – and if it isn’t something we would really use, we always decline. Everything on our blog – whether it be a product, a recipe, or a workout – is something that we genuinely eat, or do!

How many times a day do you post and what time? 

We usually post three times a day – typically in the morning, mid-afternoon and at night. However, it varies! Some days we have a lot to say, other days we don’t. If we have a blog post going up, or a sponsored post we obviously plan a post for this, but most days we see where the day takes us, and post accordingly.

Do you think the time of day matters for visibility?

I definitely think the time of day matters for visibility. I know personally from studying/working in Marketing that timing is key. You have to be in the right place at the right time to get in front of the people you want to target. Most people wake up, check their phones, THEN start their day, and do the same thing before bed. That’s part of the reason why we post in the morning and evening. A great way to monitor this is to use Iconosquare. This website analyzes your Instagram followers and develops reports on them. You can see when your followers are most active, where they are, what posts they engage with the most…etc. It is definitely helpful if you are struggling to see when you should post to get the best engagement.

[Tweet “Looking for more #Instagram followers? Try these tips to get noticed! #blogging”]

What types of posts do best for you?

Our food posts always do the best, especially healthy desserts. Let’s be honest- we all love to eat – and no one can resist a healthy sweet treat 😉

…and because we are all nosey… some personal questions…  There are so many health and fitness protocols out there.  What are the one or two pieces of advice you would give for someone who wants to do better with eating and getting into shape?

My main piece of advice – just do it. The longer you wait to eat healthy, or workout – the more you are missing out. There isn’t a reason to wait for another day, week, month or year to go by that you don’t try to make healthy choices. Every morning we are lucky enough to be given the chance to wake up and be the best version of ourselves. It is a shame to waste that!

You are both recent college grads… what are your plans for the future?

After 4 long years of hard work – we both graduated this past May. I graduated from Quinnipiac University with a B.S. in Marketing, and Tyler graduated from Western New England University with a B. S. in Management & Leadership. Tyler currently works as an IT Recruiter, and I am a Social Media Marketing Specialist. We plan on opening our own small business in the near future. We can’t tell you what just yet – but you’ll have to follow us to see where the journey takes us 🙂

Website: www.thecleaneatingcouple.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thecleaneatingcouple

Elizabeth (and Tyler too) thank you so much for taking the time to share your inspirational story and fantastic tips on how to grow your Instagram followers with A Dish of Daily Life and The Coconut Head’s Survival Guide.  Michelle and I wish you continued success!

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Holly Bertone, PMP is an author, blogger, and breast cancer survivor and advocate. She is the President and CEO of Pink Fortitude, LLC and Editor in Chief at the inspirational blog The Coconut Head’s Survival Guide. Holly holds a Masters Degree from Johns Hopkins University, a Bachelor’s Degree from Elizabethtown College, and is a Project Management Professional (PMP).

Holly is an Ambassador for the Tigerlily Foundation,was accepted into the National Cancer Survivor’s Day Speakers Bureau, and was named a 2014 Woman of the Year by the National Association of Professional Women.  She is passionate about reaching out to breast cancer survivors, and also volunteers for organizations supporting our military veterans. In her free time, she loves to garden, hit flea markets, antique stores and yard sales, and drink a cup of coffee on her back porch. Holly is married to a retired Green Beret, is a stepmother, and lives in Alexandria, VA.