So I got this message in my dms the other day, and it reminded me that I needed to do a podcast episode on this topic because I know she can't be the only one. And you know who you are. Who has this question? I don't think it's being nosy. I think it's being curious. And here's the question, Emmy, why aren't you follow.
Anyone on Instagram, there's strategy behind that. There is a specific reason. And so in today's episode, I am gonna share with you exactly why I'm not following anyone. Zero, zilch, nobody. Not my best friend, not my business coach of over, you know, a couple years now, not any of my business partners, not anyone on my social retail team, not any prospects or potential leads.
For any of my businesses or brand collaborations, literally. Not even Kim Kardashian or Chloe Kardashian. No one. I am following zero people on Instagram and I'm gonna tell you why. All right, let's get into it.
Hey, hey. It's your girl, Emmy Cornwell, Instagram biz coach and social selling expert. Welcome to the Hey, hey, Emmy Show. This is a podcast where we talk about all things that will be helpful for you and your business. Everything from Instagram tips and tricks to health hacks to relationships, and definitely some Jesus.
Basically everything in between Proverbs 31. And Tupac. I am so excited to party with you in each and every episode because ain't no party like a Hey, hey Emmy party. Can I get Amen. All right, let's get into it sister. Okay. You ready for the juice? You ready for the tea? You ready for me to give you exactly why I am?
Following anyone on Instagram. Well, welcome to the show. Hey, hey, I am your host of the Hey, hey, Emmy Show podcast, Emmy Cornwell. Wow. I never thought that this was going to be a possibility. Honestly, this is something that I've been wanting to do for a long time. So if you've been following me, you've been connected with me, you've been listening to the show, you know that I have recently, well, August, I guess that's six months now.
Gosh, that has flown by. I'm in my third trimester of pregnancy, especially with the holidays. I know it's gonna just even fly by quicker. Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy. I'll never forget August 1st. Is when my account got disabled because of hackers, and I had put in a lot of blood, sweat, tears, time, hard work strategy, research connection, relationship building into that Instagram account, and it reached at oh, approximately 11,000 followers.
I do not have that account anymore. We have started fresh. We did not start fresh right away. I was waiting for God's wisdom and guidance and clarity in the direction he wanted me to go. And so it was around September, I don't know the day, but let's just say 30 days later that I decided to start a new account.
And that is where we are at today. We're. Almost to 300 followers, which is amazing. I'm so excited for every person who is following me because I know that I know that I know they're my ideal client side. Know anyone who's been following me lately because I have a lower count number. And so when you have a lower account number, there's nothing wrong with that.
You just have a little bit more control and awareness of the activity on your account when you're getting multiple followers a day with larger. , that's probably not the best issue of your time to remove followers, but I have been removing anyone who follows me. That is obviously a fake account, potential hacker and or not my ideal client, usually they're men, I can't pronounce their names.
They don't have English letters and they have zero posts. Okay. That's usually who it comes down to, that I definitely for sure can just like automatically remove. But when I had my old account, I did follow people. Now, if you are following more people than are following you, you're messing up your algorithm.
So you definitely don't want to do that. You're skewing the numbers. So say you have, let's just say a thousand followers, so awesome. You do not want to be following 2000 people. That's just weird. It looks like you're trying to do something else besides build genuine connection. And connection is what?
Ultimately to conversion. That's, that's what you want. You wanna connect with people, you're building relationship. So I, at one point, over the last couple years, right, I, I worked my way as a health coach to about 8,000, deleted 3000 of those people on purpose because they weren't my ideal client when I was switching from health coaching to business.
Worked it back up to 11,000, had a really highly engaged audience. A majority of those 11,000 were my ideal client because my messaging was nailed in. It was dialed in. I had a niche. I knew who I was talking to. I was adding value just like I am now. Um, I did that, by the way, without reels. This was all before reels and.
Gosh, it just, it was just a different . It's just a different time. So I'm excited that I know. I feel like I totally missed a part, and maybe this is pregnancy, so hopefully this flows and you're just tracking with me. But I wanted to give you a little bit of background of my history with the ins, with the app itself on Instagram.
To help you get into the psychology of why I've made this decision. Okay, so I had, I had a lot of followers at one point here. I'm back on track. I remember what I was gonna say, cuz remember this isn't scripted. At one point when I was really in the growth phase, like massively intentional and aggressive about growth, I was following like 6,000 people.
So if I had 8,000 that were following me, I was following about 6,000 people. I never got more like past that number larger. . But then what would happen is you would start to take some followers away and you could only really do a certain amount a day before the previous algorithm would acknowledge you as potential bot because you're doing too many activities in a short amount of time, which only a robot or a machine could do essentially, is what the theory is behind that.
So I was following a lot of people and about a year ago I interviewed with Sam on the Sam and Emmy show. We used to. Instagram Live Weekly. We interviewed a gal that I had found on Instagram, and the main reason I wanted to interview her, selfishly wanted to interview her was because she was following zero people.
I don't know how I came across her if it was from the Explorer pager. What? But I reached out to her and DM Turner and I was like, Hey, I'm so curious and I, I'm sure I can't be the only one. How come you're not following anyone? Right? Just. The, someone messaged me, you know, and asking about why I'm not following anyone.
It's, it's a conversation starter. , if you will, especially if you're in this line of work, like I'm in, I teach you how to use Instagram as a tool and resource so that you can use it for your personal brand. Increase your visibility in your bank account. Okay, so she pointed me to a reel cuz I'm sure she got sick of answering all these questions.
Rightfully so. Watched the reel and then I asked her to be on Sam Nemi show and she said yes. So we interviewed her and it was just fascinating. I just felt so much like I want that, I want what she has. I want to be able to open the app up and not see anyone's stuff. Cause when you open. Instagram app, it pops right to your feed.
Now you can see the story circles on the top. That's always the first place I go no matter what. No matter what my account was at. I love watching stories. That's how I consume on this app mostly. And but you still have like the feed. So imagine and you're following 30,000 people. That's a lot of scroll time.
You could potentially, Be doing and potentially be losing in regards to utilizing that time for income producing activities, right? You want to definitely consume more than you, or sorry, create more than you consume. So I looked at my account after that interview and I was like, how am I gonna do this?
Like, I can't just wipe it to zero. My account will get de. I'll get put in Instagram jail, which is what used to really happen more than actually getting disabled or reactive. The hackers were not as bad a few few years ago, so I slowly but surely was like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna get to at least under a thousand.
And I think at this point I was like between 2000 and 3000 cuz I had been doing that anyways cause I wasn't as aggressive in growth. At a certain point, once you hit a certain level, and for this it was 10 K, it's almost like a snowball effect. You start to gain more followers quicker than you did maybe in the middle.
I would say in regards to growth in Instagram, it's just, it's different now again than it was before, but generally speaking, it's really a lot easier to grow your account quicker at the beginning stages. And then in the middle, it's kinda like you hit a plateau, kinda like your health weight loss. And then, , the snowball happens, usually it, it did.
At least I don't, I don't necessarily personally know anymore. Right. I'm working my way back up, but it was at that 10,000 mark, so I wasn't aggressive, gross. So I wasn't intentionally following prospects and leads because I was okay spending my time doing other things. So I was like, slowly but surely, I'm gonna get down to under a thousand and it's like 30 to 50 actions that you can do.
In a really short time, but I would say with followers, you definitely don't wanna unfollow more than 30 people a day. And so that's what I did. I was like, oh my gosh, it's gonna take forever. I mean, what's 365 times 30? That's a year. Okay, let me just see. 365 times 30, that's 10,000. Okay, so what, 30 times maybe?
I just do 3000 divided by 30. That's a hundred days. It's still like a long, that's still a long time. Okay. Like I was, it wasn't gonna happen. But you know what happened for me, the hackers, they definitely did me a solid because when my account got hacked and I just started a new one, guess what? We all start at zero Baby guys, sister, girl.
We all start at zero followers and following zero people. And I made a pact that I was not gonna follow anyone because I followed people like my best friend, you know, if I followed my business coach. If I , if I followed other people in my social retail team, like how would I have drawn the line? Where would that have happened?
Like, I, I don't know. It's gonna be har really hard to say and decide, and I don't want anyone to feel like they were left out or qualified. Like it literally is just a zero to. I don't follow anyone . And so are there people that don't follow me back because of that? Yes, that is true. They wa I mean that, that's okay.
That's okay. Cuz here's, here's what I want you to know, okay? I want you to know that just because you're not following people does not mean. That you can't keep in contact and in conversation with them because conversation equals cash, right? So this is a tool for your business. Waking up with the freedom to not see a bunch of other people's stuff is gonna help you set those boundaries.
So you're not using it as a stress relief. You're not in the scroll hole, right? You are able to literally utilize this. As a tool for your business, and here is how you can connect best stories. First of all, first and foremost are the most organic way that you can get into someone's dms. I was working with a teammate on my social retail team, helping her with kind of some like sales scripts and DM sales conversations, which I love.
I love because it's a game. It's a convers, like you're just simply connecting people to the tools and resources they need in order to make a purchasing decision. That's it. You're not convincing anyone. You're not persuading anyone. You're literally helping them solve the problem that they've came to you about that they have and they're an adult and they get to make a decision if it's a best fit for.
So she was like, Hey, you know, I've been friending people. This is on Facebook, but the concept is still the same on Instagram. I've, you know, I've been making new connections. Sh I feel like I've been missing a a step. Should I be sending them a message? And I said, well, you can, you can definitely, there are theories out there that's that.
Say when you friend someone or you follow something, you should send them a message and be like, you know, introduce yourself or, Find a common ground somehow so that you can continue the conversation that and start building that relationship. I personally think there's better things that you could do with your time than utilize that strategy.
I would much rather you track that person, keep track and interact and engage with their content and with them liking their stuff, commenting on their stuff, and then going specifically into their stories. And you do this over a multiple. Period of time. Right? Like a couple days in a row. So it's not just like one and done and you respond and comment to their stories.
Cause yes, you know what happens when you do an emoji response that's very weak. I think you should, you can do that, that's great. But you can actually comment on someone's stories like, oh my gosh, so cute. Where did you get that dress? Or, wow, it looks like you guys had a great weekend or something like that.
You're going to get in where your, their dms, their messenger, which then just starts a whole. Process in regards to the algorithm, like if you're in messenger with someone, whether it's on Facebook or Instagram, the algorithms do see that you potentially know each other actually, and you have a real relationship.
So your content overall should get shown to them more, but you're gonna then organically start to build that relationship that doesn't feel sleazy, doesn't feel like there's a bait and switch, that you're just out with an agenda. It's so much more organic. So getting in Messenger, first and foremost, getting in the dms to have that connection happens through stories first.
And you don't have to be following anyone to see people's stories, but how Emmy, maybe you're asking this question, how then do I keep track of those people if I'm not following anyone, they're not gonna pop up on my like circles when I open the app. Here's how I'm still in relationship with people in a very strategic, genuine way because it's intentional.
I'm having intentional relationships is anyone that I am in messenger with, I can go to my dms, open it, and I can see if they have active stories, right? So if someone has maybe done an emoji response to me or responded to one of my polls or messaged me about something about, you know, Applying for my one-on-one private coaching program that's open right now, which, which that has happened.
I've had a lot of dms about that or maybe about the local college and whatever it is. I can then go see if they have active stories and then I go watch their stories cuz that's one how I enjoy consum consuming on, on the platform. But also it helps me get to know, those people can remember this is building relationship.
This is not a one-way street, it's a two-way street. So I'm getting to know them through. And then I can intentionally, again be in contact conversation with them through the dms. So I am still able to get to the end goal, which is conversations, right? Connection, conversations, cash connection, conversations, cash connection, conversations, cash.
Now, do I recommend this strategy? I don't even know if the strategy, this fact that I'm not following anyone, for everyone probably. I mean, I, I haven't recommended it to a client yet, , but what I want you to take away from this, besides getting the tea, is you do wanna be intentional about your time. You do wanna be intentional about your relationships, and you do wanna be intentional about how you're using the Instagram app.
Okay? If you love this episode, you know what to do, sister. You need to take a screenshot of. Podcast episode, share it to your Instagram stories. This is how we're gonna continue conversation. All right. I'm always pulling back the curtain for you. Tag me the, Hey, hey Emmy. And then tell me like what you thought about this episode.
I am really curious, have you thought about following less people? Are you confused about who you should follow, who you shouldn't follow? Tag me. Let's continue the conversation In the dms, it goes down in the dms. It still does in the best way possible. I love getting to know you, getting to know your why and why you do what you do in regards to business and who you help.
Speaking of help and business, literally I'm only taking three private clients in this winter session. You're working with me one-on-one privately in my two month coaching program. Okay. This is also probably not only the last time that you're gonna get the 2022 pricing, cuz pricing will increase next year in 2023.
Crazy that we're gonna be in 2023, but also it's probably most likely, if I'm being honest, the last time that you'll be able to work with me. Until after I give birth to my son. And I don't want you to wait. I don't want you to have six months go by and you'll be like, oh my gosh, where did that go? We're almost to 2024.
And I haven't hit my goals. I haven't made any money. I haven't grown any, any in on my app, on on Instagram or on my social media that actually helps my bank account grow. Cause you're not running any charity, sister. You're running a business and you absolutely 100% need a strategy. For your content and for your brand.
If you wanna stand out, gain more visibility and grow your bank account, so make sure you swipe up. I'm only taking three spots, three people. It is very exclusive and I cannot wait. Cannot wait to dive into your business and help you cash in on the ground. All right, I will chat with you on the next episode.